105 Selling Days Left in 2023

A first time caller recently asked "Hey Lee, how are you calculating the number of selling days left in the year?"

I've got two answers.

First, the technical - I'm using "business days" (weekdays - US holidays) as a proxy for selling days. I acknowledge that regions other than the US will have different holidays, so you may want to calculate based on your local calendar.

Of course, most selling ends by late November or early December at the latest, with final contract work done by mid-December. That having been said, I do know of an eight figure deal that closed two minutes before a west coast company's fiscal year ended. 

Just imagine the CIO in his pajamas at 2:58 in the morning, sending his signed ULA renewal documents by fax machine, knowing that his price leverage would disappear in another two minutes, and that the sun would rise on the Connecticut shoreline in another few hours. But I digress...

Second, the functional - I'm using the "number of selling days" as an entry into the rhythm of business conversation.

If you're a key account director, your account is setting priorities and budgets for FY24 now. You need to be in conversations with your key stakeholders about their strategic initiatives and providing guidance on budgetary requirements. You should be planting seeds for next year's projects. You might be starting the process of helping them to identify how to spend excess budget at the end of the year (is that even still a thing?) You're probably planning your next QBR with the customer, and maybe a fall executive briefing.

If you're managing enterprise or commercial sales teams, many of their engagements need to be moving from discovery to solutioning and pilots (are pilots even still a thing?) so that you have sufficient runway for an FY23 close. Your reps need to be mapping out the contract and approval processes...it's late to discover quirks in a company's contract process Thanksgiving week...

If you're managing BDR/SDR teams, it's business as usual, with some slight tweaking to messaging...more guided discovery on projects that might be on track for an FY24 implementation (and a needed FY23 acquisition).

Good sales leadership understands and communicates this rhythm of business, shifting focus over the course of the year, and sales enablement shifts focus in tandem.

Oh, and SKO is in February, so you need to start planning soon. The site and date have already been selected. :)

One thing is true for all y'all...you've got opportunities in flight. You need greater visibility on their likelihood of closing and the additional actions needed to bring them to close.

By the way, if you don't currently conduct opportunity reviews, and want help in de-risking those opportunities, let me know!

Thanks!

 

 

 

Lee

Open for Business or Hoping for Business?

The leading indicators are encouraging – FedEx Corp recently reported higher shipping volumes and raised its earnings forecast. Oracle announced both higher top and bottom line results for its most recent quarter. Corporate IT buyers are once again starting to talk about strategic initiatives rather than cost cutting. Marketing organizations are spending left-over year-end dollars and sales organizations are once again hiring new sales people.

2010 is promising to be a challenging year even as the economy slowly improves. Few analysts are expecting a return to robust growth anytime soon; those organizations that wait for calm waters and steady winds in this market will find themselves left on the beach.

The winners in 2010 will continue to hone their market definition, development and selling processes. Market leaders are:

• Defining markets more narrowly
• Prioritizing opportunities more systematically
• Building deeper intelligence about individual organizations
• Targeting marketing and sales assets more precisely
• Analyzing the interim and final results more carefully

Measure What You Manage
The net effect of this work is two-fold. First, these organizations are finding higher ROI on their marketing and sales investments. While not all investments provide equal and high returns, the increased inspection of the process and results provides better and faster opportunities to modify and improve. Secondly, the organizations conducting this level of analysis and management are outdistancing their peers. Simply put, the right sales resource delivering the right sales conversation to the right prospect at the right time is vastly more compelling than a rep reading from a script or dragging a prospect through the corporate presentation.

As a buyer, which would you prefer – a sales person who talks about your purchase in the context of your use case or one who assumes that his or her product is right for you just because of your physical proximity?

We’ve all been there – we’ve been in both buying and selling situations in which everybody clicks and the process goes smoothly and quickly to the benefit of both parties. We’ve also suffered through situations in which it’s clear to almost everybody that the conversation is going nowhere.

Some marketing and sales executives have told me that they have chosen not to undertake this work because the underlying data is not available or that the process development and management appears difficult. They’re partially correct – the data is not easily available and the work is hard. This is what separates the leaders from everyone else. The leaders have chosen to take on this work and they are already enjoying the results.

Approximately a dozen technology companies have deeply invested in this work. Another couple of dozen are in some stage of investigation and implementation. These companies will be rewarded with higher top line revenue growth, profitability and customer satisfaction.

What Will be Different?
I’ll leave you with a challenge – what will you do to improve the efficacy of your marketing and sales activities in 2010? Do you still believe that what you did in 2008 and 2009 will work in 2010? What are you willing to do differently in 2010 to improve your results?

Thanks,

Lee

This Fourth Quarter

This fourth quarter is the most important of the decade.

Two weeks ago Ben Bernanke stated that the recession is probably over. Housing starts are up. The leaves are turning (at least in New England) and business people are starting to believe that the light at the end of the tunnel may be something other than an oncoming train.

We are all breathing a collective sigh of relief. It has been a difficult year...and for many, with the official unemployment rate scraping 10%, challenges remain.

Yet a sense of optimism is evident. And just as I predicted early in the year, budgets are now starting to open up. Mostly marketing and sales budgets, by the way. There hasn't been a general unleashing of capital investments or discretionary spending. That will come later, in mid-2010 and beyond. For now, the increased spending is coming from organizations that want to position themselves for success in 2010.

And that's why this quarter is the most important of the decade. The results of this quarter will drive discretionary investment decisions in 2010. If you want to have a good 2010, you must deliver the goods this quarter. Success in this quarter will help to ensure access to funding for the next quarter and the quarters beyond that. Mediocre or poor results this quarter will cause a significant rethink of sales and marketing strategy.

Many C-level executives and corporate boards are thinking: "Okay, you've had a year to figure out the current environment and to make the necessary mid-course corrections to ensure a reasonable result by the end of the year." Prove them wrong and your successor will be working on a very different action plan, one that involves wholesale shedding of divisions or organizations, cuts that go far deeper than the 5-20% layoffs we've seen already.

There hasn't been a single more important three month stretch this decade than perhaps the fourth quarter of 2001 for the travel industry. At the time I managed a business that built and sold technology services to road warriers. Road warriers were grounded on September 11th and my business went poof. The entire travel business was reshaped in that quarter and the airline industry is very different today as a result.

Your opportunity is to prove, in the next three months, that your business is both viable and thriving. With a focus on "co-creating" value with customers, you may have a chance. Customers today don't want to be sold to...they demand consultative sales people who work with them to boost profitability, reduce costs, increase shareholder value, make a difference in their world.

The critical success factors are simple and straightforward:

• Focus exclusively on the prospects and customers who value and need your specific value proposition, your differentiator.
• Narrow this focus to those who are committed to short term improvements in their business.
• Ensure that your sales people fully understand the business processes and challenges of the individual prospect, not the group in general.
• Commit to value-adding rather than transactional behaviors. You may think that hard selling will work in this market. It hasn't for years and it certainly won't now. You might "win" a few deals but you're destroying the relationships that bring long term profitability.

Focus on making a difference in your customer's world.

Thanks,

Lee