Greg's Right FIT #556–This week: Shout outs, Forecasts, Silence

Quick notes to help you find new business in less time with less effort. . . sometime next week.

In this issue: 

• Some Shout Outs
• Being Human
• Random Stuff
• Back In The Day

Some Shout Outs

• Shout out to the tiny old ladies I carefully drove past today. Each one going safely under the speed limit. Each one barely able to see above the dashboard. And each one in older cars I imagine travel less than 2500 miles a year.
• Shout out to the Varied Industries Tent exhibitors at the Farm Progress Show in Boone, Iowa. It was ninety degrees and the dew point was solidly in the "Oppressive" category for most of the day. Outside. The inside of the VIT is best described as "soggy." Yet those startups were pitching their hearts out.
• Shout out to the teenagers at the same farm trade show. They wore their club tees proudly, clustered giggled their way awkwardly through miles of exhibits, and when one of their group leaders asked, "Do you want to stay or are you done?" answered in unison, "Done."
• Shout out to whoever suggested I put tomato gazpacho in a glass. I wasn't a fan, but this summer I'm doing my best to catch up. Smooth or chunky, dark or light, breaded or not, I'm a fan. My blender is running hot and my daily veg intake is through the roof. Apologies to those Veggie Tale characters.

Being Human – What are the odds?

Sales pipelines and sales forecasting are a sore spot with most managers. When the team is above quota we don't dig in too deep, but when we're scrambling at the end of a month or quarter, everything is scrutinized. There are a number of new softwares on the market that promise to analyze calls, look at the "velocity" of communication in the CRM, and track intent to give you hyper accurate forecasts.

Another way is for the manager to score deals with their reps through regular questioning. I recommend using the same set of questions with every deal. Especially if you're working in a complex sale with multiple decision makers, customized solutions, and high dollars.

These are some of my tried and true questions:

• Do we have a complete list of all the issues?
  • Do all the people involved agree on the list of issues?
  • Have they all been asked if the list is complete? 
  • Do they agree on the most important issues?
• If it's a problem we're solving:
  • How do they know it's a problem?
  • Did they put a number to how much this costs them? (time, money, other)
  • How will they know we're successful?
• If it's a result we're helping them achieve:
  • Who or what is affected in their biz right now w/o solution?
  • How does this solution fit in the prospect org's big picture?
  • What has stopped them from adopting a solution like this in the past?
  • What will stop this from working in the future?
• Resources
  • When do they want to get started?
  • How will labor be split between them and us?
  • Is the budget enough to make meaningful progress?
• Decision
  • What are the steps their org will take to make a decision?
  • What decision is made in each step?
  • When is that decision made?
  • Who makes the decision?
    • What criteria will that decision maker use?
    • How will they decide between competing solutions?
• Solution viability
  • Who wins if this goes through?
  • Who loses if this goes through? (or, who wins if it doesn't happen?)
  • How will the champion personally handle internal objections?

I don't sit and ask all the questions at once for every deal. That would take forever. I keep them all in mind and as my reps work their deals, I ask one or two. By sticking to the same questions, I get to listen to how reps answer. I use their answers to revise the forecast I send up the chain. Their answers also let me know where we can press for faster commitments if needed.

I'm guessing a software might be able to do this but then what would I do?

Random Stuff

It's Labor Day weekend in the USA. School is starting and while it's not officially fall, it's getting there. Football season is starting too.

It reminds me of this story I told a couple of years ago: https://www.chamberspivot.com/gregs-right-fit-366/#random-stuff

I left out some of the details from that Labor Day weekend.

The Sunday I met up with friends for the game we wandered from bar to bar making fun of Kansas City Chiefs fans and enjoying each others company. Few of my friends were married at the time. I'm not sure they were even dating anyone. I, on the other hand, was fully into parenthood. Completely out of practice with bar hopping. Between that and the altitude, I had a pretty good attitude going into the game. A good mood that elevated when the Broncos destroyed the Chiefs. I was euphoric. This meant continuing the party.

When we moved away, downtown Denver was just being reborn. A new baseball stadium was built and hundreds of new restaurants and bars sprung up in the area. My friends took me to most of them that night. One by one my original group dropped off, replaced by new friends out for the evening. It was old home week on a Sunday night. At some point, I tapped out. Or the bars closed. I don't remember. I do remember having a long drive in the morning. Kids that age get up bright eyed and bushy tailed, regardless of what time their dad stumbles in.

I found a quiet spot in the parking lot and dialed up my bride. It's good to hear her voice. I give her a rough idea of where I am but this was pre-GPS on our phones. I tell her I can see the baseball stadium, the football stadium, and the name of the brand new bar I left, but she has to figure the rest out by herself.

By the time our little white Nissan Sentra rounded into the parking lot it was empty except for me. I was happy to see her. It kind of tickled me that she was with my old man and they got to look for me together. I may have been the only one happy about that.

The thirty minute ride back to the parents house was quiet. Very quiet. Rivaled only by the silent treatment on the trip back to Omaha. The first words she said to me were when we passed Lincoln. Seven hours later.

Years later someone said, "he got his toe stuck in the fun wheel," and I think it's the perfect way to describe that Sunday night in 1997. The Broncos won the Super Bowl that season. It may have been because of my toe. Hard to say.

I hope your weekend is fun. Just not too much fun.

Back in the Day

What I was thinking about last year, five years ago, and ten years ago.

• Last Year: Right FIT #505 – I got stuck in the Random Stuff section. Wilson the dog (gone), my Aunt Ce, (gone) and baby Charlie. (here)
• Five Years Ago: Right FIT #296 – Advice I gave during a sales training this week jumps out: the best business development people have nothing to sell. They are totally client focused, then try to match solutions accordingly. Get curious.
• Ten Years Ago: Right FIT #34 – Customer perceptions are their realities sticks out from a decade ago. That and remembering how nice the Pizza Huts were in Shanghai. Not only that, but we popped into a Howard Johnson's and it was an extreme luxury hotel! The same chain we used to get fried clams at after midnight in their attached diners. I learned a lot that trip.