from the SellBetter website:
The automakers are not the only ones who get a jump start on the upcoming year, by the time you will be reading this it will be mid November, leaving about six selling weeks in 2009, a year few will be sad to see go; take out Thanksgiving (USA), and the seasonal holidays, and you are looking at about five weeks of productive time. It is around the time of year that people begin to focus on closing the year on target by trying to “make those deals now”. There is no denying that there needs to be a focus on trying to do as much as you can (without discounting or cheating) to salvage a year or to bring in revenue NOW. The challenge is to do it in a way that does not adversely impact other aspects of your on going success.
It is an old familiar challenge, we are all familiar with the “You can pay me now or pay me later” syndrome. The reality is that if you have a sales cycle longer than five weeks, most of your prospecting as of now will likely be a 2010 revenue. Look at it differently if you ease up on your prospecting now to “close”, you are going to pay for it in 2010. You need to redouble your efforts right across the board to ensure no let down January 2nd, because I’ll bet you any amount you’ll have a new Target January 1st, and it may just be higher than your number was for 2009.
So what can you do?
First thing, step back for a few minutes, and take inventory of the landscape, then plan, review and act. First things first, “weed your pipeline”, look at what you have in your pipeline now, are the prospects really engaged or are you just hoping? What is the litmus test for engagement? What action are they taking to make the deal happen? What concrete evidence, not words, but concrete skin are they putting in the mix to make the deal happen by December 31? If you do not have clear and honest answers to these questions, then do these prospects merit your time NOW? If they do not, don’t scrap them, but place them in proper priority, if they are waiting, looking but not acting, come back to them. It is one thing to lob a call or an e-mail to stay in Touch, but time and effort needs to go to those engaged on the playing field, not those scrambling on the sidelines.
Once you have reviewed the plan, the most important focus is to plan out your time. We have spoken in the past about the need to allocate your time and manage your activity. Well this is that much more important now, as the year end pressure builds, so should you discipline and resolve to do the right things in the right proportion. One of those has to be continuous prospecting. Mostly for on going sales in 2010, and the occasional blue bird now. Yes you need to be realistic and find the right balance between key activities, but once you find that balance write it down, put it in your calendar, and make it your purpose your mission. You would not go on a long journey without a map, and that is the fully completed calendar. Once on the trip you would not take different roads or directions than the ones planed and leading to your destination, do the same for your sales. Don’t get drawn into things that cause you to abandon your success plan. You wouldn’t take a call from your manager during a client meeting, you wouldn’t go for a coffee with a buddy when you are supposed to be meeting a prospect, and you should not be distracted from your other activities either.
It is not always easy to avoid distraction at the office, so remove yourself. Do your prospecting from home, or lock yourself in a board room. Do the same for writing proposals, research, what ever you have committed to getting done. You take a similar thought process to what you do when. There are a number of things that can be done in ON time, and some in OFF time. These will vary from company to company, but the distinction is simple. ON time is time that is best spent doing things directly tied to moving deals forward, what has traditionally been called face time; OFF time is for those important tasks that have to be in order to successfully sell, but where you have choice or latitude as to when to do them, as long as you understand that the question is not whether they do them, but when. For example, in some companies orders can be entered in a simple straight forward fashion, so it makes sense to do that late in the day, after hours or before you start your day in the morning. At other companies, for legitimate and specific reasons, order entry can be complex and involve other people so you will have to do it during the day.
The key is to know in advance why and when, and then do it, don’t rationalise, don’t rethink it, don’t share war stories, have your plan and execute it. Imagine if Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen spent time rethinking or rationalizing their plays. Success is in the balance of planning, executing then reviewing. Plan, allocate the time needed and manage your activities and execute.
The added bonus is that once you embrace this simple approach, it works in the last five weeks of the year, the first five weeks of the year and the 11th five weeks of the year.
Tibor Shanto , Principal with Renbor Sales Solutions Inc., and find out how he has helped dozens of organization with execution - - from filling their pipeline with real prospects - - to driving real revenue.
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