21st Century Sales

Today I met with Kevin.  Our paths crossed a few weeks ago at a business networking function. 

I routinely send a brief email note of follow-up to the people who offer me their business cards at these events.  I do this because, after all, the events are about meeting people and exploring business opportunities.  I figure if you don't go to the trouble to at least acknowledge the person, there's not much chance of ever doing business with them.  (Can't for the life of me understand why everyone doesn't do this, but that's a topic for another book!)  Anyway, of the 15-odd personal follow-up notes I spent all night sending off to the people I met at the function, Kevin was one of a handful to respond.  He was curious about this book project and wanted to discuss how he might contribute.

With no particular agenda in mind (very atypical for someone who doesn't do meetings without an agenda), I offered to buy Kevin a coffee and explore what he had in mind.

It turns out that Kevin is a part owner in a franchise.  Kevin has a clearly defined geographic area, a supportive franchise and a service that is refreshingly novel.  As far as franchises go, that's about as good as it gets.  Kevin's challenge, however, is that he's not achieving the sales numbers he and his partners had banked on when they invested in the franchise.  Could he somehow participate in the book as a case study?

Good question, Kevin!  The book-to-be should most certainly address the needs of franchise holders.  The book-to-be will help the subject matter expert (in this case, you) to apply a proven sales methodologies and leverage technology and globalization to achieve your sales goals.  However:

• after putting down the money for your franchise license, you have no money to hire human resources to help make cold calls
• you are already tracking your leads and calls using a decent browser-based CRM system ( www.vtiger.com )
• you appear to be following a decent sales methodology
• you appear to be contacting the right prospects and the appropriate decision-makers within those prospect companies
• your value proposition appears to be good, if not compelling
• you take this seriously and are working an honest 8-hour day

How might we come up with a case study of success that other people with franchises would identify with and benefit from?

My gut feel is that you and your partners need a "road-map".   By road-map, I mean clearly defined goals (see definition of S.M.A.R.T. in previous post) around where you want to be with your sales each quarter for the next 3 years.  I'd go a step farther and work those quarterly goals backwards into weekly sales goals by partner.  Then measure success on a weekly basis to determine if the goal is realistic.  Let's do a case study on how you come up with your "road-map", share it with the world and make that a chapter in the book.  Your homework:  5 business days to complete your road-map, get consensus with your business partners and adopt it.  Sound like a plan?

I also get the feeling that you are not a "closer".  You're a nice guy who loves people and wants to help your prospects be more successful.  However, I don't get the feeling you like to be pushy.  Brother Kevin, asking for someones business is not being pushy, it's a critical part of sales success.  Let's do some research on closing and come up with some hints and tips on closing that will help you and help the readers of the book-to-be.  Your homework:  Define "closing".  Come up with 25 practical hints and tips that will help you, and people like you, to be a better "closer".  Rank prioritize those hints and tips from most important to least important and tell me why.  Give me the  URLs and other references so we can give credit to where credit is due.  Would 5 days be enough time or will you need 6?