GIDDY UP!

I always consider myself to be a pretty fortunate person – I have a great family, can truly say I love my job, I enjoy this chaotic industry, and I enjoy learning. Yeah, I still like learning and am fascinated by the things people share with me and at times when they do not even realize they are being the teacher. Those who know me or have spent 10 minutes with me know that I can talk – good, bad or indifferent I sometimes don’t shut up, in my defense, when someone else is talking, I am intently listening to what is being said both verbally and non-verbally.

Earlier this week, I was speaking with one of my AE’s and as usual our conversation was a mix of chit chat about the world (how is Reid Sherwood doing – how is his recovery from back surgery going? You the man Reid), where we were each at, and feedback on appointments from the day. Then a sales nugget from the past leaped out at me and I was so pleased to listen to what had transpired.  Here is some background – in 2013 during a sales meeting, we had John Boyens from the Boyens Group come and give a one day presentation regarding Value Based Selling. I highly recommend John as he is very thought provoking and gave us practical direction on how to apply his philosophies within our world – not all consultants can do that. John made reference to the moonwalk and he got all Michael Jackson on us and literally moonwalked across and out of the room. Giggles and guffaws were exchanged as we wondered if that was it – was the course over, were we done, should we go to lunch? His point to us was this – when we land a sale / close a deal/ kill an RFP… we are so excited we moonwalk away and forget to ask one question which is, why did you buy from me? Well John, why on earth would I ask that and potentially kill my deal? The reality is in my humble opinion, sales folk do not ask this question based out of fear, but should ask every time in order to further hone personal skills, better understand your company / products sweet spot, and be prepared to repeat this all over again (lather, rinse, and repeat).

So, as we were chatting I get some great news – we just won a project that tipped the scale at 200K – I believe my words were “giddy up” and then my day was really made. “We got the deal and they are buying from us because…” A great discussion was had and a separate success story was woven in and I asked to share this with peers and other folks in the company because there were some great nuggets. The specifics are not important, but I would be a liar if I said the 200K was no biggie – that was a biggie. What was reinforced to me was the importance of further engagement with the buyer to insure you understand the specific winning criteria. Be calm and fight that urge to moonwalk out in celebration, so you can be prepared to do it all over again. By the way – John did not actually do the moonwalk – it was a funny mental picture though. Happy selling to all, may a moonwalk opportunity be in your near future – and if it is with an Optima solution – GIDDY UP!

About the Author

Dave Brown is the Vice President of Sales at Optima™.
He has been in the Trade Show industry since the early 90s.

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