coaching

Finding the Right Fit in Sales

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I won’t sell a product or service if I don’t believe in it or in the company behind it. But that is only part of the picture. Not all products or services fit everybody, but most fit somebody. Qualification matters, and qualifying accurately and quickly helps you earn more money. Whether you are a seller or leading a sales team, understanding the best-fit use cases can help you build your ICP and a repeatable sales motion, allowing you to:

  • Find and prospect the best candidate companies.
  • Demonstrate benefits for a credible and relevant use case.
  • Find a sponsor who benefits from your offering.
  • Accelerate the deal velocity – even in a large enterprise business.
  • Close large deals faster – and more of them!

When I started selling at my last company, I was told that the typical deal size was $75K-$80K, with a 9-12 month sales cycle at a midsize company. I sold a Kubernetes Fleet Management platform, and I quickly found that most midsize companies lacked the containerization needs Kubernetes provides. Most also needed to gain the skills required for fairly complex solutions, which can take months. So, a great solution for some may not be the solution for all.

Large Enterprise companies had the need and the expertise to support Kubernetes, which started my profile development exercise. Large companies with a corporate-standard containerization product were less likely candidates, with a much longer sales cycle. Financial Services companies require strong end-to-end security and cannot afford breaches (reputationally and actual costs). Therefore, they had larger budgets and immediate needs, so they became a primary focus.

While looking at these companies’ environments, it became clear to me that with the right targeting, an initial deal could easily be in the $500K-$1 million range. And, if you successfully delivered what you promised, there could be several more significant follow-on deals. The icing on the cake is that by selling those companies what they need, solving significant problems or concerns, and treating them like the valued customers they are, they would reward you with loyalty and long-term business. That became my focus, and my assumptions proved to be accurate.

Finding the right fit for your product or service takes analysis, investigation, testing, and time. Getting this right creates the perfect opportunity for ongoing success and to scale results across the entire team. It also provides credibility when customers are willing to speak with prospects and sing your praises. Success breeds success.

This entry was posted in Business Ownership and Management, Career, leadership, Marketing, Selling and tagged , , , , , , , , , , .

Why do you want to teach?

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In the past, I wrote about how I like to read, experiment, and learn as much as possible about as many things as possible. My goal isn’t to be the Jack of all trades and Master of none. Rather, I view knowledge and experience as pieces I can use to build a mosaic of something interesting and/or worthwhile.

Years ago, when I first started programming, my manager had me work with the top performers in the group. Being inquisitive and always wanting to improve led me to ask many questions to understand why things were done the way they were. One Analyst I worked with was extremely sensitive, and after fielding a few questions, he told me, “Programming is like art. Two people will interpret things differently, but you’ll end up with two similar pictures, and both do the job. So, quit messing with my picture.”

At first, I was somewhat offended, but then I realized that much of what he stated was true. That led me to incorporate better methods and approaches into what I did, making them my own so I could continually improve. From that perspective, learning really is somewhat of an art form.

What makes teaching worthwhile to me is helping people improve in ways that are their own rather than teaching them how to do things in one specific “right” way. One analogy is that you teach people to navigate rather than provide them with the route. Also, to be a good teacher, you need a solid grasp of the topic, be willing and able to relate to students, and want to help them learn. It’s rewarding on a couple of different levels.

Your ability to teach well starts with understanding the topic, but that is the foundation. Applying seemingly abstract concepts to concrete problems is a very helpful skill. In medicine, they have the concept of “See one, Do one, Teach one.” It is a great way to codify knowledge and develop desired skills.

Being open to other approaches that might seem strange at first, but then you see the brilliance in the solution, is also helpful. Often, a student would mention how they handled a problem, which sounded bizarre at first, but digging deeper into their approach led to understanding something pretty amazing.

Amazing teachers are out there, and I’ve met several of them. Those people are worth their weight in gold – especially when teaching children. They have their own kind of “magic” that can inspire people and provide the confidence and desire to do and learn more than they ever dreamed was possible.

Teaching is about helping others and not trying to be the smartest person in the room. And remember, not everyone wants to learn and/or improve, so don’t take that personally. Just do your best to help the people who want to grow and improve. Mentoring is another good way to do this. You will be surprised at the positive impact one person can have by doing this.

This entry was posted in Career, Life, Uncategorized and tagged , , , , , , , , , .

Diamonds or just Shiny Rocks?

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During a candid review years ago, my boss at the time (the company’s CEO) made a surprising comment. During an executive meeting, he called a break and invited me to get a coffee with him. He said, “Good ideas can be like diamonds – drop them occasionally, and they have a lot of value. But sprinkle them everywhere you go, and they just become a bunch of shiny rocks.” This wasn’t the kind of feedback I expected, but it turned out to be both insightful and valuable.

For a long time, I have held the belief that there are four types of people at any company: 1) People who want to make things better; 2) People who are interested in improvement but only in a supporting role; 3) People who are mainly interested in themselves (they can do great things, but often at the expense of others); and 4) People that are just there and don’t care much about anything.  This opinion is based on working and consulting at many companies over a few decades.

A recent Gallup Poll stated Worldwide only 13% of Employees are “engaged at work” (the rest are “not engaged” or “actively disengaged”).  If true, this is a sad reflection of employees and work environments. Since it is a worldwide survey, it may be highly skewed by region or industry and, therefore, not indicative of what is typical across the board. Those results didn’t completely align with my thinking, but they were interesting nonetheless.

So, back to the story…

Before working at this company, I ran my own business for nearly a decade and consulted for 15 years, working with large corporations and startups. I am used to taking the best practices learned from other companies and engagements and incorporating them into our business practices to improve and foster growth. Efficiency was the key to growth and profitability.

I take a systemic view of business and see the importance of optimizing all components of “the business machine” to work harmoniously. Improvements in one area ultimately positively impact other areas of the business. From my naive perspective, I thought I was helping everyone by helping those with “easily solved problems.”

My perspective lacked one important thing. These were not easy problems to the other business leaders. They were struggling and asking for help. By providing an answer off the cuff, it made them look and feel bad in front of the rest of the team.

I learned that while trying to be helpful, I was insensitive to the fact that my “friendly suggestions based on past success” stepped on other people’s toes, creating frustration for those I intended to help. Providing simple solutions to their problems reflected poorly on my peers.

Suggestions and examples that were intended to be helpful had the opposite effect. Just as bad, it was probably just as frustrating for me to be ignored as it was for others to have me infringe on their part of the business. The resulting friction was very noticeable to my boss, which led to our unscheduled coffee break.

Those ideas (“diamonds”) may have been considered had I been an external consultant. But as part of the leadership team, I came across as someone only interested in myself (leaving “shiny rocks” lying around for people to ignore or possibly trip over).

Perception is reality, and my attempts to help were hurting me. Luckily, I received this honest and helpful feedback early in this position and was able to turn those perceptions around.

What are the morals of this story?

First, engaged people have the greatest potential to make a difference. Part of being a business leader is making sure you have the best possible team and creating an environment that challenges, motivates, and fosters growth and accountability. 

Disengaged employees or people who are unwilling or unable to work with/collaborate with others may not be your best choices, regardless of their talent. They could actually be detrimental to the overall team dynamics. Understanding what drives someone from one category to another is a great first step in being sensitive while still staying effective.

Second, doing what you believe to be the right thing isn’t necessarily the best or right way to approach something. Being sensitive to the big picture and testing whether your input is being viewed as constructive was a big lesson for me. If you have good ideas but are ineffective, consider that your execution could be flawed. Self-awareness is very important.

Third, use your own examples as stories to help others understand potential solutions to problems in a non-threatening way. Let them connect the story to their own problems and find their own solutions. This helps them become more effective and allows them to save face. It is not a competition. And, if someone else has good ideas, help support them through collaboration. In the end, it should be more about effectiveness, growth, and achieving business goals than about who gets the credit.

While this seems like common sense now, my background and personal biases blinded me to that perspective.

My biggest lesson learned was about adaptation. There are many ways to be effective and make a difference. Focus on understanding the situation and its dynamics to employ the best techniques, which is ultimately critical to the team or organization’s success.

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