What are the elements of a good sales plan?

Of course the questions that are seemingly the most simple always have the most complex of answers. Here are the most basic elements that Zebra Jeff and I strongly feel are most critical to a good sales plan, stated as briefly as we possibly could.

1. Start with perfect prospects – Zebras where you have provided unique quantifiable value in the past. Be sure, as part of the Zebra creation process that you speak with Power in your existing customers to find out the Power-level issues your solutions solves for them and the resulting value created
2. Research each prospect to find evidence they have the same business issues
3. Contact Power and confirm they have the issues you solve and a desire to solve them
4. Schedule your first appointment with Power. Position the value you would create by solving these same issues. Value claims must be backed by actual customer success that is repeatable.
5. Ask Power to partner with you. Partnering involves identification of process owners they would trust to verify your value claim.
6. Verify your value claim with Power’s people and co-author a presentation back to Power.
7. Present back to Power including a proposal that includes EVERYTHING needed to virtually guarantee you they will achieve the desired results. This proposal should be robust so you can look Power in the eye and know you have everything you need to insure they will be successful.
8. Close the business and immediately schedule a “force success” meeting.
9. Conduct a “force success” meeting every ninety days to ensure the project is on target to fulfill the promises Power made that got the project approved.

Closing business in these uncertain economic times...

As this is certainly a hot topic on the mind of every sales person out there today, I thought the best way to address this topic was to post a copy of the letter that Selling to Zebras, LLC is currently sending to CEO's at prospect companies that we are targeting. Zebra Jeff and I wrote the letter together quite recently, and I think it this letter shares several important strategies for success when times are tough.

An important preface to this letter; the definition of Economic Value Added, aka EVA:

EVA is the dollar amount of benefit after removing all costs including the cost of their personnel to run your solution and the cost of capital used to purchase your solution. Most importantly, EVA allows a prospect to assess the value your project creates over and above the value created by any other way that they might choose to spend those same dollars.

And without further ado, here is our current prospect targeting letter:

Dear CEO,

These are tough economic times. Our book might help. Please enjoy the enclosed copy of Selling to Zebras, HOW to CLOSE 90% of the BUSINESS YOU PURSUE FASTER, MORE EASILY, and MORE PROFITABLY.

Account targeting isn’t unique, but our approach is. It’s simple so people will use it. We start with a Zebra – the perfect prospect, and then evaluate all prospects against perfection.

Your sales team is competing for business in a market driven by fear and noise from the current financial crisis. Competition will come from like companies, and from every other alternative use of your prospects available capital. One possible way for your sales team to get past the fear and the difficult economic environment is to create a business case driven by the Economic Value Add (EVA) your solutions create. EVA is probably the most prolific value claim any company can present.

Zebras and EVA create a powerful combination. Would you like to know more? Please read out book and visit our website at www.sellingtozebras.com and our sales blog at http://sellingtozebras.blogspot.com/.

Respectfully,

Jeffrey A. Koser

Founder and CEO

Selling to Zebras, LLC

My name is Power, and I approve this message...

According to a little background research I did on the phrase at Wikipedia, "I approve this message" is spoken by candidates for federal office in order to comply with the so-called "Stand by Your Ad" provision of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) enacted in 2002.'

By now you may be asking, "Where is this all going, and how does it apply to sales?" Well, 'tis the season for election after all, but no, I'm not going to get into politics here on the blog (or in any other public place for that matter). I'm also not going to try to further link sales to politics, because as sales people we often have a hard enough time trying to get people to like us as it is.

The sales tie-ins to the politically influenced title of this blog are two-fold:
1. When you get to Power, you must have a message to communicate that is directly meaningful to that individual. A message "Approved" by Power.
2. It is critical that you find a way to establish credibility and some form of sponsorship at the Power level before committing further resources dedicated to engaging that prospect at the operational level (working under Power).

Since we already covered the topic of authoring a message that is meaningful to Power in our blog on September 22, today I want to focus briefly on the later of these two worthy sales-topic candidates.

If Power agrees that you have a compelling value message, but delegates a person or team working under him/her to continue working with you, this is good because it indicates the deal has Power-level sponsorship, but it is also critical to make sure you keep Power involved in the process for the following reasons:

1. This is the only real way to make absolutely sure you are in a good position to win the prospect's business
2. Failing to stay involved with Power leaves you vulnerable to being outflanked by a competitor
3. Avoid the biggest competitor at all: APATHY... the deal moving into non-decision mode.
4. It assures that your resources are only committed to working a buying cycle on a deal where you actually have a shot at winning.

How to make it happen
In the first meeting with Power, you position that the end result of your partnering process will be to present the "co-authored" results back to Power. These results are "co-authored," because your team has partnered with Power's team to verify the value that your solution would create. At the end of the buying cycle, the results gathered by partnering with those that Power trusts are coauthored and presented back to Power. As such, we've closed the loop on the buying cycle by starting with Power, and we ended at Power... the only place where a deal can actually be won.

Your sales target's name is Power... and they will DEFINITELY approve this message!

A perfect storm is rolling in...

With the dramatic increase in the financial volatility in the past couple of weeks, it appears that the culmination of the Cloud Summit last week could not have been scheduled at a more appropriate time. A good summary of the details, as well as a good quote from Zebra Jeff accompanied by particularly "Presidential" photo of Zebra Jeff (also at left), can be found here at the Collaboration 2.0 blog, authored by Oliver Marks.

On a related note, here are the results from our Cloud Computing survey:

1. Cloud computing will impact your sales model.
-Vast 12.5% -Significant 50% -Moderate 12.5% -Slight 0.0% -Zero 25%

2. Cloud computing necessitates that you articulate a predictive value proposition as a major component of your sales methodology.
-Agree 75% -Disagree 25%

3. In your opinion what are the compelling business reasons for companies to move to cloud-based solutions? (check all that apply)
-Costs less than comparable traditional or SaaS (software as a service) solutions 50% -Noninvasive implementation 75% -Reliability - works the first time, every time 37.5% -Allows you to sell your main product as well as your already proven expertise/methodology for selling those products 37.5%

Barnes & Nobel Events

Barnes & Noble - Tuesday, 10/22/08 - 7:00 PM

Jeff and Chad gave a 20 minute talk, Q&A, and signing.

Recent Book Signing Events

We want to thank Jennifer DeNicola, CRM, at Barnes and Noble
Brookfield Square for hosting a spectacular event with Jeff and
Chad on the evening of October 22nd.

There was a great group of people that stopped by to listen to
the authors and asked some very poignant questions. A good
time was had by all!

Thank you for stopping in and supporting Zebras.

We also want to thank Barnes and Noble – Bayshore Towne Center in Glendale, WI and West Towne Mall in Madison, WI for 2 memorable and successful events.

Special thanks to Community Relations Manager – Barb Johnson and Danielle from Bayshore Towne Center and Community Relations Manager – Jeanne Huie – West Towne Mall. Each respective CRM and staff were accommodating and welcoming. We had fun, met some great people and signed some books. Thanks for supporting Zebras!

You can purchase Selling to Zebras HOW TO CLOSE 90 % of the BUSINESS YOU PURSUE FASTER, MORE EASILY and MORE PROFITABLY at your favorite Barnes and Noble Bookstore.

Get your head INTO the clouds!

Yes, you read correctly! We interrupt this regularly scheduled blogging to bring you an important update regarding one of the latest trends in high-tech solution sales... Cloud computing! (click link to learn more)

Selling to Zebras, LLC has been invited to participate in this year's Cloud Summit Executive... Specifically, Zebra Jeff (aka Jeff Koser) is going to be a featured speaker!

As such, we are currently conducting a brief survey to gather some data from salespeople just like yourself, regarding your opinions on the impact that cloud computing will have on selling and sales methodologies.

Click here to take our brief 4-question survey, "Selling in the Cloud..."

It is my full intention to share the results of this survey, as well as highlights and helpful strategies from the Cloud Summit Executive here on the blog, so your participation will not only be appreciated, but also rewarded!

We look forward to exploring this latest critical direction in high-tech sales, explporing ways to adapt to and leverage the changes Cloud computring brings. We now return to your regularly scheduled blogging (next time)...

WORLD PEACE? Stop Selling What You Have. Start Selling What They Need! Start selling to ZEBRAS!

What is a Zebra? A Zebra is the perfect prospect. The prospect who needs what you sell, who could get measurable value, the prospect who has business problems that you solve!

I am very idealistic. Wouldn’t the world be a better place if sales people, all sales people, stopped doing activity for activity’s sake? After all, I am a sales person, and even I don’t like it when a sales person calls me and has no regard for my need, or lack thereof. When this happens don't we all find sales people to be annoying?

The statistics bear this out. Only 15% of the deals in most companies sales pipeline forecast turn into revenue as predicted. That means that 85% of the time, a sales person is wasting a prospects time. No wonder we find sales people to be annoying!

Figure out your Zebra! Waste less of your, and all your prospect’s time. You’re prospects will be happier; your sales manager will be happier because you’ll be more productive; your spouse will be happier because you’ll do it in less time and get home at night, and THE WORLD WILL BE A BETTER PLACE.

Idealistic YES! We are just doing our small part to promote WORLD PEACE!

Come join me at the Cloud Computing Summit in Mountain View, CA on October 14, 2008 and we will promote WORLD PEACE—oops I mean Zebra Selling!