I love this topic and I love William’s advise! So true and ironically I just left a meeting where I was discussing this exact strategy with my new potential client regarding putting together a marketing plan. Short term/long term then put together a plan so that you always have a gage of what you should be doing at any given moment is key. It’s easy to focus on the goal but without a plan you most likely will forget about a million elements that can change the outcome. Thanks for another great article Will!!

Notes from the Field: Manipulating a 7-year old, and Selling to a Plan

I often find myself listening to others (when they’re pitching me for a job) expound on their myriad abilities, strengths and things “they’ll bring to the party.”  It always makes me think about what I am good at, and what I can bring to a situation, offer others, or contribute to society.  Without a doubt, I can confidently say that I am very good at manipulating 7-year old children.

I say this because they most easily respond to Sales 101 – find out what someone wants to hear, and tell it to them.  For instance:

Her: “Is this broccoli?”

Me: “Do you like broccoli?”

Her: “No”

Me: “It’s not broccoli.”

My first job out of college was selling advertising space in the magazine industry; my sales manager at the time was famous for this tactic; if someone asked if a certain element of the advertising program could be used for, say, in-store promotions, he would ask “do you WANT to use it for in-store promotions?”  If they did, guess what?  It was PERFECT for that; if not, “our experience showed that it was not successful in that endeavor.  What do you want to use it for?”

I’m bringing this up not to encourage any of us to be dishonest in what we do; rather, to turn this concept around and instead of blindly selling (or designing, or marketing, or any of the disciplines that we all practice) without a goal in sight, determine what the goal is FIRST and then create a plan to reach it.  This strategy is commonly called “bottoms up” and in this day and age, in this economy, there is nothing more valuable.  In this month’s Entrepreneur magazine, there is an interview with a VC talking about the kinds of companies he likes to invest in – he demonstrates with two kinds of business plans:

1.“The market for X product is $10 billion; we expect to have 5% of it in three years

2. “Our production facilities can make 100 units of product X per day; thus we plan to sell Y per year”

Guess which one he likes best?

Bottoms-up planning is what I demand of our salespeople each season; each rep has a quota for a time period which can be broken down by account, category, season, or individual sku.  I encourage all salespeople to ask themselves what do I need to sell this account, this season, this month, this salescall, in order to reach my goal?  To reach our (my and my account’s) goal?  Doing this requires planning, thought and consideration of all variables – often hard to do when we’re running as fast as we all do, but without it  we are literally flying blind.

It always amazes me when I see a salesguy (heaven forbid that it’s one of ours!) walk into an account, lay out the line, and wait to see where the chips fall.  First off, that ain’t selling – that’s showing – and a trained (or even untrained) monkey can do that.  More importantly, in that scenario we are again relying on emotion (from us or our buyers) and as we all know emotion has no place in the buying or selling of anything. 

When I mow my lawn, I don’t simply let the lawn mower go where it wants to – I guide it precisely where it needs to go.  And by doing this, I get the outcome I want, and the lawn is happier for the doing (to all you non-mowers out there – grass needs/wants to be cut; it creates healthier grass.  A little suburban-dad-weekend-warrior tip for you).  Entering into a sales call with a clear cut plan gives you the outcome you want, and makes the customer happier because he or she knows you have given some thought to what you are doing, not just flying blind.

For a brief time I lived in Baltimore and covered the mid-Atlantic, selling overpriced, ugly European shoes to an unsuspecting public.  I had a meeting with a (now defunct) account (no, I had nothing to do with them becoming defunct, thank you!) in which I presented the line, culled back the shoes that I did not want to sell, and then presented the buyer with his orders – already filled out, with skus, colors and sizes – ready for his signature.  He turned to his wife (they were a team) and said, “well, that takes balls, but it also shows he is invested in what he is selling us.”  That was an important lesson in the power of plans.

Am I saying he signed the orders as they were written?  Of course not; he made some changes here and there, and I lost some pairs (fear not, you sales dogs, I sandbagged a bit and padded them in anticipation of some back and forth!) but the majority stood firm.  Why?  Because it made sense, each shoe represented a part of a greater plan for our business together, and (more importantly in the eyes of MY BOSS) helped fulfill my various quotas and goals.

Bottoms up planning is even more important in the creative end of our business – shoes need to be designed with the end-consumer in mind; that goes for style, sizing, price point, color, material, everything.  Obviously, the more fashion-forward/taste making brands are looking to create customers more than cater to them; they will take a more top-down approach (or even from the side!).  But, for the majority of brands out there, a start from the bottom will ultimately lead to better results.  I would suspect the same can be said for any of the other areas of our business (creative or not).

In a time where spending is down, confidence is weak, and we all have to struggle harder than ever to get our shoes on people’s feet, the basics of business are more applicable than ever.  The game will not be won with a hail mary pass that might or might not be caught in the end zone; it will be one with systematic first downs, inch by inch, until we finally reach the end zone.  And each buyer/consumer interaction represents a potential first down. By making sure we know what each play is before the quarterback calls the snap, we can be assured of success.   Whew – that’s a lot of sports metaphors for me (and I hope I got them all right; I’m NOT a sports guy).

And regarding my interaction with my seven year old?  It is indeed broccoli.  Every time.