I find it somewhat bizarre that I find myself writing, once again, on what is a totally predictable reality; that if you’re in sales, you’re about to lose your best client.
The other morning, I had a conversation with a potential new client. The guy on the other end of the phone was a very seasoned and senior sales leader. While we discussed a variety of topics, I was saddened but not surprised when he shared the story of how one of his top sales representatives had just lost a major account.
This wasn’t any account, but an account that represented a very substantial portion of this person’s annual target. The rep was concerned, and so he should have been. This loss meant that his job was on the line. He was given six months to find and replace the lost revenue. I’ve no idea if the company’s expectation was that he had to replace all the lost revenue, but clearly this fellow had to quickly shift gears from an account manager, to a hunter.
They say that there are two things in life that are for sure, death and taxes. I would argue that in fact there are three, at least if you’re a sales professional in the B2B space. They are: death, taxes, and that you will lose your best or biggest account one day. I’ve seen this happen so many times over the years, and it’s happened to me.
The problem is that this doesn’t have to be a problem, although it becomes a problem, and often a huge problem way too often.
In my program, First Approach ®, during the first day I spend with participants, I ask the group to settle on a dollar amount that they agree would represent a “good” first deal with a new client. Let’s say that number was $20,000. I then ask the group to agree on how much time they think would typically elapse from the first time they meet this client to the point where the deal is actually done.
In the B2B space, lead times are generally long, sometimes stretching over months, and years. Let’s assume the group settled on a time frame of one year from the first hello, to the deal closing.
Next, I draw a horizontal line across a flip chart. At the left end of the line, I record that day’s date. At the right end, I add the date that will be one year away.
Then, I look around the room and pick one person; let’s say it’s “Sally”. I tell Sally that I know, unequivocally, how many deals she will close on the date at the right side of the line, the date that is one year away, and I tell her I know what the dollar amount of those deals will be as well.
Sally is perplexed. The whole room is perplexed; how can the guy at the front of the room possibly know that? I then pick another person, and make the same claim. Oh boy, the consternation is growing. How can the facilitator possibly know this?
Then the guessing game starts. Is it because I know of a lead that the manager hasn’t disclosed yet? Is it because the date one year away is somehow significant to purchasing habits?
You would be surprised how often groups of intelligent, experienced, and professional sales people are left totally flummoxed by this riddle, and you would be equally surprised how few actually figure it out.
As riddles go, this one isn’t going to win any contests. Of course, the number of deals is zero. It has to be zero. Why? Because they’re in a workshop with me that day, which obviously means they’re not meeting any new clients that day, and if they’re not meeting new clients that day, then they can’t have any deals worth twenty grand in a year’s time.
They will be caught flat footed in a year’s time, because there is simply no getting around it; finding new business, business that will be dearly needed when that best client wishes you adios, needs to be discovered well before that client shows you the door.
Followers of this blog will recognize that I have written about this subject before, albeit not exactly as above.
Sales organizations and sales people are results centric. For the love of whomever, stop!!! Results are uncontrollable, out of reach, and often impossible to predict.
Did the person who was your primary contact and champion at your biggest client just get let go? Was the company that was your biggest account bought by their competitor and have their own preferred vendors…? I think you get the point. There is just no way you can control these events.
On the other hand, how one prepares for the inevitable is completely within almost anyone’s grasp. Worried about the back end of your pipe? Stop worrying, because there is sod all you can do about it once that end of the pipe becomes the problem. Worried that you don’t have enough possible business at the mid pipe phase? The cure isn’t to whack those potential clients over the head with some bogus closing proposition. The solution is to go find more potential clients, and you’ll never find more potential clients without kissing a bunch of frogs along the way.
You want peace, you want security? You want to be “all good” when the otherwise dreaded email comes from your best customer? Then start preparing for it. Recognize that by the time a situation becomes a situation, it’s too late. Recognize and embrace the idea that if you want security, if you want predictability and safety, there is only one solution. Recognize that the only solution is to stay ahead of the inevitable, to be ready for when that big blind corner presents itself ahead in the road you’ve been driving down, the curve that you have no way of knowing what awaits on the other side, that it won’t matter.
Conclusion? You can spend an inordinate amount of time focusing on what you’ve just lost, or you can spend that same time making sure that it will never really matter all that much in the future.
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