Deals, deals, deals .... the single thing we covet most. Deals are what we're omni-focused on. Deals are what managers and management are obsessed with. Ergo, the professional sales person is usually consumed with the back two thirds of the pipeline, that is, deals near 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 chief sales officer's 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, obsessed with looking good on earnings calls.
If you think about it, you'll realize how futile focus on this metric is, this infatuation with the back end of the sales funnel, because once a “deal” gets to this stage, it will generally manage itself across the goal line.
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 need be made in order to close the sale. This is not the problem, as the majority of professional selling organizations have dialled in this part of the process with almost surgical precision. The key to growth, and just as importantly replenishing accounts that for a fact they will lose through normal attrition, lays elsewhere. That elsewhere is at the front of the pipe, the first third, if you will.
If you buy into this theory, then growth is dependent on meeting new clients and uncovering new opportunities that can migrate to the last two thirds of the pipe, and well in advance of the typical measurement process.
If I've heard it once, I've heard it a thousand times from sales people and 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, tasks that 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 "administrivia" 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 support and enable 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 likely have around the final stages of the pipe?
- Do your sales people have an appropriate balance between accounts that consistently produce repeat or renewal business (this requires an Account Manager) and those 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 the problem. As I've said – ad nauseam – 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.
A fundamental weakness in most management's prospecting 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 a supportive environment that includes the disciplines and structure that lead 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, all at once, you’ll find for prospecting : )
Is there someone you know you think might like to receive this blog? Simple, just have them request to be added to our distribution list. [email protected]