Part 2 - Build the foundation

Let’s Review.

In my last post, I suggested that we needed to answer a couple of questions:

A.    How do sales happen?

B.    How long have you been doing the things that make sales happen?

For fun, we took question “A” in the negative – “How do sales not happen?”  In other words, “What are the things you are doing that don’t move you closer to increased sales?”

That was the easy part.

Now, let’s turn that around and do the work of constructing a framework and process for how sales do happen. 

Build the Foundation

You build leads and sales on the foundation of strategy and message.  (I know – so very profound!)

Let’s start with the fundamental need to understand and succinctly articulate the following:

Who are you? (“What do you want people to think of when they think of you?” and “What capabilities do you have or can you quickly acquire?”)

What do you do and how do you do it?

Why does it matter to an industry, company and/or persona? 

Your best strategy should be the corollary to these answers.  If you have answered these questions honestly, accurately and precisely, then the appropriate strategy should be pretty self-evident.

But these are deceptively difficult questions.  Deceptively.  Difficult.  Answering them will require thorough analysis and hard thinking - maybe even recognizing and embracing difficult conclusions.

You need to be clear on the answers.  Once you have identified and embraced the best strategy and message, you, now, have at least some basis for fixing your business development process and growing your sales.

Successful business development and selling is built on a sharp strategy and a focused message. 

I probably know what you’re thinking.  You’ve already been through this, probably with a costly consulting firm, and codified your message in your website and other collateral.  And it may just be spot-on.  I hope so.  But then, you probably wouldn’t be reading my blog :-)

Many software vendor websites read as though they could be about almost anything. 

The “About” page tends to be filled with adjectives and hyperbole.  If that’s your situation, then your digital visitors will not be aware of your “Who”, “What”, and “Why”.  Without that awareness, you can’t inform them.  Uninformed prospects can’t have an interest in how they might benefit from your offering, and they can, therefore, never be motivated to sign a contract.

Start by Doing an Experiment

So, here’s some things you can do right now. 

1.      Read the first paragraph or two of your “About” page as though you don’t know anything about your company and judge for yourself if it captures the job that needs to be done for which you and/or your product should be hired. Does this section make someone want to know more about how you do it?

2.     Here’s another suggestion.  Have someone who doesn’t know anything about your business read the first paragraph of your “About” page and explain it to you.

3.    You could even invite a couple of colleagues to this experiment.  Then, after your consenting guest participants have done their bit, see if you and your colleagues would describe what you do in ways similar to each other.  You may be surprised at the different perspectives.

4.    Think back on previous calls with analysts (e.g. Gartner, Forrester, etc.).

How many seconds did it take you to explain the “Who”, “What”, and “Why”?

(Rhetorical Question: Why didn’t you just read them the first paragraph on your “About” page?)

That’s right . . . how many seconds, as in, less than 30?

You would not be unusual if it took more than ten or fifteen minutes, but that may indicate that you have some work to do on your message, and, therefore, maybe your strategy, too.

I’ve heard “experienced” CMO’s spend 15 minutes trying to explain the who, what and why to an analyst, almost without taking a breath.

And guess what?  The longer you take, the worse it gets.

Your “elevator pitch” needs to be 30 seconds or less that leaves someone you just met in passing clear on who you are, what you do, and why it matters.  And it really shouldn’t be a “pitch” – just information that makes them accurately and amicably aware who you are, what you do and why it matters to someone.  And, hopefully, each interaction adds another node to your network.

The “Why” Is Crucial

You would be wise to assume that your strategy is not as sharp as it should be and that you message is not as clear as it could be. 

I can promise you that those assumptions are correct because the work of refining your strategy and message never ends.  It’s a continuous process, even if your business and the marketplace were static – which they are not, of course. 

With some concentrated effort, you can accelerate, or jump start that process, but, like an asymptote, it never really reaches the limit.

You really cannot skip the step of evolving your best answers to “Who?” “What?” and “Why?”.  Along with your strategy, everything else depends on it.

All the answers are fundamental, but the “Why?” is absolutely crucial, and actually, it needs to come first. The “Who” and “What” must support the “Why”.

You must sell something for which customers will pay because your offering and your company consistently deliver unquestionable and unique value.

If what you do doesn’t matter a lot to someone, then . . .  well, it’s time to just go get an ice cream cone, but let’s assume it does, and that you merely have to focus on doing it consistently well and articulating it clearly, but concisely.

Human beings are good at rationalizing and self-justification, so beware.

You need to really challenge your “Why”, i.e. Who cares and why? For this, you may want to draw on Clayton Christensen, Geoffrey More, Peter Drucker, Peter Thiel or others. Have you really worked through these questions?

Are you doing a job that has not been done or doing a job for someone that could not do it before, but would if they could (to borrow from Christensen and Raynor in The Innovator’s Dilemma)?

Are your customers Moore’s early adopters or are they more risk averse (Crossing the Chasm)? What do they really want or need to be done and in what circumstance (borrowing from Drucker’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship as well as Christensen and Raynor, again)?

Are you going from 0 to 1 or from 1 to n as Peter Thiel asks in his riveting read, Zero to One?

If you think you are going from 0 to 1, from where did this need arise? From incongruities with reality, a process with a missing link, a change in industry or market structure, a shift in demographics, a change in perception, or new knowledge (Drucker - Innovation and Entrepreneurship) ?

And that is just scratching the surface.

This is not going to be easy. The chances are that you have not thought about this from all angles and that corporate self-justification is well established, or as we say in sales, everyone is seeing through their “rose-colored glasses”.

Remember ~75% of all R&D investment fails (In The Innovator’s Solution, Christensen sites Dorothy Leonard’s Wellsprings of Knowledge) to result in a viable commercial product. How do you know you are the exception. Once you “know” (Consider how do you know that you know what you “know”.), how can you say that in a phrase that has immediate impact on your audience?

In the next post, we’ll talk about beginning and nurturing the progression of emotion that leads to a signed contract.