Deals, deals, deals …. the single thing we covet the most. Deals are what we’re omni-focused on. Deals are what managers and management are obsessed with. Because of this, the professional sales person is usually focused on the back two thirds of the pipeline, that is deals close to closing, or deals about to close.
Most organizations I have worked with – and there have been many over the years – are fixated with the back end of the pipe.
Sales people, managers, and VP’s of sales are subjected to constant scrutiny with respect to “how will the period close” or “what business is imminent”. Rarely, have I ever encountered a company where the emphasis is on what the sales pipeline looks like six or twelve months out. This condition is particularly prevalent in public sector companies, companies who are religiously beholden to “the street” and meeting short term financial obligations to investors.
If you think about it, you’ll realize how futile this metric is, this infatuation with the back end of the sales funnel is because, you have little control over it.
All too often, sales professionals will argue the opposite. “I have more control because I can adjust a condition”, or “I can satisfy a cost issue”, etc. Of course, that is all true, but it is a function in the selling process that will always present itself just before the final buying decision is made.
To that end, a sales organization will usually have a firm grasp of what their closing effectiveness is with final stage opportunities. They will also typically understand what adjustments or concessions they have to make from their opening position to make the sale. This isn’t the problem, since the majority of professional selling organizations have dialled in this process to almost surgical precision. The key to growth, and just as importantly replenishing the accounts that for a fact you’ll lose through normal attrition, lays elsewhere.
The opportunity for real growth exists elsewhere. That elsewhere is at the front of the pipe, the first third if you will.
Regular readers of this blog will notice that “pipeline” is a frequent topic, but it is the specific context of the pipeline and its relationship to growth that goes ignored so often.
If you buy into this theory, growth is dependant on meeting new clients and uncovering new opportunities that will migrate to the last two thirds of the pipe, and well in advance.
If I’ve heard it once, I’ve heard it a thousand times, from sales people and their managers. “I’m too busy” … busy with a problem sale, a problem customer, paper work, meetings, emails etc., etc. Not to diminish the demand these tasks require, but it is counter intuitive to growth, because by definition, these road blocks become the single biggest barrier to growth, which must come from prospecting for the future.
If you’re a sales person, try asking yourself if you really don’t have the time, or you would rather focus on other things. Things that are less frustrating and offer higher immediate reward?
If you’re in management, try asking yourself some of these following questions:
- Is your sales team in fact too busy with “adminisrtivia” etc. that is interfering with their ability to prospect?
- How much emphasis and import do you place on the process yourself?
- Are you thinking far enough down the road?
- Do you recognize the impact today’s actions will have on future growth?
- Do you have systems in place that supports and enables your sales team to truly excel at prospecting?
- Do you measure it, or impose the same kind of oversight and rigor to prospecting that you have around the final stages of the pipe line?
- Do your sales people have an appropriate balance between accounts that consistently produce repeat or renewal business (this requires an Account Manager) and those that they have to develop into sources of net new business (this requires a Sales Person)?
If, as a manager, your answer to more than a few of these questions is no, then you’re probably your own worst enemy. As I’ve said – ad nausea – in the past, prospecting will never be a self-imposed/self disciplined part of most sales people’s workday. It isn’t fun, it offers little immediate reward and given a choice, most sales people will steer a wide berth around it.
Another fundamental weakness in management’s strategy and expectations is to expect otherwise.
It is the role of management to have the “big picture” in mind. It is management’s responsibility to set the course and road map for growth rather than the sales person’s. It is the manager’s role to provide an effective environment that includes the disciplines and structure that leads to action.
If you’re a sales person and you don’t have time because you are overwhelmed reacting to current business, try asking your sales manager to reduce your territory so it has less repeat business. You’ll be surprised how much time you will all at once find for prospecting.