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.

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, Inc. 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://sellingtozebrasblog.com/.

Respectfully,
Jeffrey A. Koser
Founder and CEO
Selling to Zebras, Inc.

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!