My goal today is to briefly share two separate thoughts.

First, I would like to draw attention to a blog I have been reading for a few weeks now… www.FirstThingMonday.net is authored by Bruce Richardson, Chief Research Officer for AMR Research. Incidentally, Bruce was also kind enough to feature an interview with Zebra Jeff on November 18 entitled, “10 Questions with Sales Expert Jeffrey Koser.”

Item #2: When evaluating the strength of your current sales pipeline, are you asking yourself the truly tough questions of the prospects you are entering into it? The three most important questions to ask yourself of each prospect before you enter it into your pipeline are:

1. Will this prospect buy anything?

2. Will this prospect buy from me?

3. Will this prospect buy now?

If you can’t answer these three questions to the affirmative, then what you thought was a prospect to enter into your pipeline, may not be a prospect at all!

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According to Zebra Jeff, “It’s especially important, when times are tough, for sales managers and sale people to sell value – so that prospects clearly know what they can expect before they allow you through their door.”

To address this issue we offer a ten step sales process to sales managers to ensure their sales people stay focused and productive despite the economic uncertainty… The process is detailed in a recent press release authored by our very own Zebra Jeff featured here: “Ten Step Sales Process to Help Sell Above the Financial Noise.”

The press release features a lot of information to digest in one sitting, but if you break it down step by step, this is a very effective approach towards achieving sales success when the odds seem to be stacked against you.

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Yesterday afternoon Zebra Jeff and I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Joe, from The SalesRoundup Podcast. If you’re in sales and you haven’t heard of this before, you really owe it to yourself to check it out! Joe is a fantastically dynamic host with a TON of real world sales experience. In a nutshell, Jeff and I had an absolute blast doing this interview, and we are proud to now be associated with this fantastic program designed specifically for salespeople.

We’re not sure yet of the exact date when our interview will be airing, but we’ll make sure to post that information here as soon as it’s available. In the meantime, click here to check out all of the great content available at The SalesRound website.

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…instead, PURSUE EVERYTHING WITH THE ENTHUSIASM OF A LABRADOR!

Have you ever noticed how dogs, Labradors and other retrievers in particular, always do everything to 100% of their ability, with every ounce of passion and enthusiasm in their being? They give it their all until they have nothing left, and then it’s time to rest.

This is a metaphor I try to use every day in my own life, be it in business/sales, family activities, yard work, play, etc. In particular, here are a few of the advantages to pursuing sales with Labrador-like enthusiasm:

1. You always know your target, aka Zebra… When that tennis ball gets thrown, Labradors have a singular focus on fetching and retrieving it. They don’t let distractions get in the way. Pursue your Zebra relentlessly, and don’t stop to chase other targets. Your resources are limited, so make sure you’re using them as efficiently as possible to accomplish your goal.

2. Balance. Labradors play/work, eat, sleep, and repeat. It’s good to have a routine, and make sure it includes time to balance other activities in your life that are important to you (family, friends, hobbies), and leave your work at work. Take time to rest. If you form a balanced routine for yourself, you will find that you become more effective and efficient in every aspect in your life, your sales career included.

3. Most importantly, find a way to love what you do. It’s the only way to ever be truly successful. That’s where that “enthusiasm” part is critical. You can work as hard as you want to, “like a dog,” but if you’re not enjoying your self, there’s no real enthusiasm driving your efforts. If you can’t find a way to love the type of sales that you’re in, find a new niche or pursue a different career path altogether.

Thank you to my Chocolate Labrador Retriever, Winnie Connie Wonder (pictured above), for teaching me these important lessons, and inspiring this blog post.

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Just as the real power of the President comes from the people that vote him into office, the real power of your value messaging comes from the customers you have already helped to achieve that value.

One of the main concepts that we teach sales people in communicating their message of value to a prospect, is to utilize the success stories of their existing customers in their sales presentation. The advantage of this concept is that you become a messenger of your customers’ ideas and achieved value rather than a messenger and proponent of your own ideas and interpretations.

Can you feel the power in being able to confidently make the following statement to your prospect?

“Based on the value we’ve created by solving specific business issues for customers of similar size, in similar industries, we predict we will also be able to create this value for you.”

Of course the real power in that statement comes from being able to back it up with real data. The process for developing the data and tools you’ll need to make this statement to Power and support it is straightforward:

1. Conduct audits of the customer base to uncover the quantifiable value your solution has produced by solving the executive-level pain points.

2. Gather specific data about your prospect (if you haven’t already).

3. Use your research and knowledge of the value your solution has created in the past to predict the value you can created for the prospect.

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Well, election day has finally arrived, so one would expect that I’d probably seek to tie in my blog to the most current event of the day: McCain vs. Obama

However, for some reason this Tuesday, I’m still dwelling on the agony that resulted from the overtime loss in a different match up this past weekend: my Green Bay Packers vs. the still undefeated Tennessee Titans

Yes indeed, losing hurts… but nothing hurts more than a loss in overtime. My losing Green Bay Packers put forth the same amount of effort as did the victorious Tennessee Titans, but in the end they came away with no reward. The Packers must now put that loss behind them and turn their focus towards their division rival Minnesota Vikings this coming Sunday, but unfortunately, the Packers did not have a choice as to who they got to play this past Sunday, so they couldn’t simply make the determination that they wanted to invest their time, energy, and resources to winning elsewhere. The good news for you, is that in sales you DO have the freedom to make that choice! (There’s the tie in to election day – freedom to chose… I knew it was in me somewhere!)

Nothing hurts in sales more than finishing in second place, especially in “overtime.” At this point you have invested all of the same scarce resources available to you as your competition does in trying to win the deal, but if you finish in second, there is no reward for you at the end of the game.

The sales moral of the story: Learn and practice the discipline to pursue only prospects that are Zebras. If at any point you find that a prospect that you are pursuing is not your Zebra, make the tough decision to walk away and find a prospect that IS a Zebra. This discipline will serve you well in avoiding the even tougher agony and cost of defeat in overtime.

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