Well, it’s been a while since I made an entry here, so I figured I should do a quick update on what’s been keeping me from posting… In short:

1. Working feverishly to meet a deadline for out latest customer (mission accomplished!).

2. Being a Dad and Husband (mission coming along nicely, step-by-step each day).

3. Whitetail Deer bow hunting season here in Wisconsin (mission in progressing).

So, things have been busy, but this is important so I wanted to return to it for any of you have been faithfully following and checking for updates (which up until today had been on hiatus for a while).

A few times a year I like to tie in my business pursuit with that of my hobbies,  so making a parallel with bow hunting deer seemed like a very natural parallel to make. With all the time I’ve been spending in a tree this bow hunting season when I’m not busy meeting deadlines and spending time with the family, I’ve actually had a lot of time to think about how the way I bow hunt is quite similar to the way we teach clients to pursue sales.  What follows is a summary of those thoughts.

In pursuing whitetails with a bow, most hunters that have been at it for a good number of seasons reach a certain maturity in setting objectives for their season, rather than approaching each hunt on a whim hoping for the best. Appropriate pre-season scouting must be done starting with looking for shed antlers at the end of the previous season. For those who aren’t familiar, whitetail bucks (males) drop their antlers late winter just prior to spring and begin to grew new ones.  Trails and deer bedding areas are also observed at this time, in the interest of getting to know what you should be after in the coming season, and where to look when the time comes. From there, the due diligence of planting food plots to help nurture the potential prospects (deer) local to your area, hanging stands, and brushing out clear shooting lanes are all part of the preparations that take place. Come August, when I’m not walleye fishing with my free time, I can usually be found with a pair of binoculars close by while cruising past the usual hot spots such as woods lines and field edges either by evening light or even after dark hoping to get a glimpse of any bucks that have taken residence near the ares where I hunt.

So as is easy to tell, so far the way I hunt is very similar to how most sales people approach seeking new business, and putting forth the effort in doing research and making preparations to put their best foot forward when they get an opportunity to get in front of a prospect… and this is a very common sense methodology that some if not all hunters and sales people alike achieve with a certain level of experience and seasoning. Up until this point however, all the work has been done simply allows you to play the game and hope the odds tip in your favor in some fashion. An even greater level of maturity is required to get to the next step:  SUCCESS.  Let’s face, all the effort you’ve put in up until this point is pretty much wasted time and resources if you can’t accomplish a win at the end of the game.

Much like our Zebra sales philosophy dictates, hunters that reach the next level of maturity use their past success to put together a game plan for winning in the future; even taking it to the point of identifying a specific buck or several bucks that we decide we are going to pursue that season, and not spreading ourselves to thin by deciding to settle for chasing whatever may happen to walk past. When you’re hunting and you’ve got deer running all over the place, it’s easy to forget the goals you have set for yourself and chase everything that’s moving in front of you. However, when the decision to take a deer is made, what follows can be a major disruption to the area where we are hunting due to all the activity and chaos that follows in the deer woods when a kill is made. This is not at all dissimilar to what follows when a deal is pursued to close, and all resources are focused and tied up on that prospect/new customer. If a decision is made to take the wrong deer or close the wrong deal, it may still seem like meat in the freezer, but you have greatly decreased your chances of having everything in place when the truly right opportunity comes along.

Alternatively, if you’ve identified the buck or bucks, and similarly the clients that are right for you to pursue at in this particular season (or quarter/fiscal year in business terms), draw upon where you’ve won or achieve success in the past, put together a plan based upon why your past successes occurred, and stir that in with a healthy serving of the pre-hunt/sale preparations discussed previously, only THEN have you really put yourself in the best possible position for success in the present future.

The best whitetail bow hunters seem to find success in taking a mature buck about 90% of the seasons they hunt… Huh, that sounds familiar… The best sales people close approximately 90% of all the prospects they pursue — I’m starting to see a trend here! It may seem to the casual observer that some are just luckier than others, but really it all comes down to utilizing the concrete, repeatable process for achieving success that I have just detailed above, and in the end luck has very little to do with it. In my opinion luck is just a convenient excuse to not take a closer look at ways that you can find self-improvement, better results, and greater success in the future. We all make the choice to either flounder in mediocrity, or to turn ourselves into winners and MAKE IT HAPPEN!

So when you’re walking into the jungle, woods, field, or swamp that is your sales world this season, don’t just cross your fingers and hope for a little venison in your freezer… put together a plan that will earn you more venison than you know what to do with, and a big trophy to go along with it!

As an interesting closing remark, the picture at the opening of this post is a picture of my quiver of arrows on my bow… Yes indeed, I even hunt in true Zebra style!  Well time to put the “Closed” sign in the window again today here at the office… mine actually reads, “Gone hunting… will return in time for fishing season.”  My wife loves that.

My 2006 trophy, and a large contributor to my venison supply that year!