Who I Work With. Could It Be You?

I work with technology companies that offer great services and aspire to sell their services to the top of their target markets at the highest possible margins that represent the value they deliver to their clients. All in all, they offer high value to their clients and want to earn high margins for delivering that value.

So, for a start...

Are These Situations Familiar to You? Maybe Intimately Familiar?

"We're sick and tired of hiring more salespeople, condemning them to pounding pavements, dialling for dollars, knocking on doors and doggedly chasing well-pretending suspects for the next piece of business." According to McGraw Hill research the cost of a local face-to-face "cold" appointment costs around $370, and out of town appointments cost about $1,000. Take the number of your meetings per month. Multiply that number by $300, with a very generous 20% closing rate, take 80% of that number. This is how much these meetings are costing you.

"We have to scale down and compromise the value of our solutions to meet buyers' pricing points, yet still often get beaten up on price by low-balling cheapskates. And this curse ruins our brand and reputation." A few years ago a study by McKinsey found that 75% of solutions don't return a profit to sellers, and 50% of solutions don't deliver the value the buyers expected to receive in the first place. The problem in most cases was that through procurement processes controlled by cost-obsessed mid-level managers, every shred of unique value is stripped out of otherwise valuable solution. The sad part is that if you offer only 10% price drop to win the contract, you have to increase your total sales volume by 88% to make the same net profit.

"Far too many of our sales appointments and presentations end in 'Let me think about it' or 'Submit a proposal and I'll take a look'. And then several of our hottest prospects disappear 'Procurement Black Hole' or become our competitors' most profitable and most loyal clients." According to studies, 35-60% submitted proposals remain undecided upon and 20-35 are rejected, usually premature submission. The typical proposal takes over 50-80 person hours to prepare. When there is hesitation, it is most likely created by your salespeople and the process they use. The old-fashioned "presenting -> handling objections -> closing" spiel just doesn't work in complex technology sales. Solutions nowadays are far too complex for this manipulative "arm-twisting" approach. Take the number of proposals you submit in a year. Multiply that number by 50. Now calculate how much it costs you to prepare one proposal. Take 90% of this amount. That is wasted. Only 10% of this investment goes towards winning proposals.

"We've spent a fortune on our website. Best design; best technology, but haven't even broken even on it, let alone turning a profit. Visitors just show up, look around a bit and leave." Over 90% of all websites are merely nice ornaments, flashy, glitzy, glamorous, glorified brochures with no ability to generate sales leads and produce new sales. More often than not the problem is on the overemphasis of design and technology at the detriment of structure. and selling power. Many companies spend the king's ransom on design and technology, but fail to invest in writing engaging, compelling copy and promoting their websites. Many technology websites are fancy brochures, not business development powerhouses.

"Our sales, marketing and client service people seem to work more against each other than in support of each other. While they demand their pay increases, they keep falling short on bringing in their quota. So, they come in, get the free training and move on to our competitors, and work against us." According to recent survey by the Yankee Group, 93% of the companies' sales, marketing and client service folks work against each other. And in turn, this causes 43% annual attrition. And when business development people quit, their replacement cost is the equivalent of 2-4 times of their full annual compensation. This is how much you lose both in new opportunities and bringing the new folks up to speed on your business.

"We're on a constant feast and famine roller coaster. Sometimes we're so flooded with work that we have to hire new staff, and when the work is over we start starving, we have to lay them off. Then we get killed on severance payments and re-hiring costs, not to mention the bad reputation we create." According to BtoB: The Magazine for Marketing Strategists, an 11% reduction in lost sales leads, combined with an 1% improvement in lead-to-client conversion rate, increased annual gross profit by 136%. Are you pounding that calculator? Do you like what you see?

And apart from the above symptoms, it's important for me that my clients fall into...

My "Ideal Client" Profile

The Company

I usually fit into privately held technology companies that...

• ...are engaged in "premium" B2B selling


• ...operate as a super-agile, flexible and innovative "sales commando", as opposed to top-heavy and over-bureaucratic behemoths riddled with politics, organisational sloth and countless hidden agendas


• ...use brain based business development of skilfully attracting buyers and letting them qualify/disqualify themselves through skilful diagnosis, as opposed to brawn-based business development of chasing hunting hounding and pounding prospects and subjecting them to manipulative sales tortures typical of peddlers


• ...play to win by growing profits, as opposed to paying not to lose by reducing operating costs


• ...value substance over style, results over image, pragmatism over executive ego, fortune over fame, money over medals, profits over portfolios, rewards over awards, cash over cachet and greenbacks over gimmicks


• ...rely on results-accountable direct response marketing for all or nearly all of their revenue, as opposed to wasting their money on image marketing and building army sized sales forces to engage in cold prospecting grunt work and old-fashioned peddling


• ...understand that incremental increases in response rates and average sale mean big leaps in growth and bottom-line profits, thus in personal income, as opposed to building larger sales legions in order to chase more prospects who try to run and hide from these dreaded peddlers


• ...realise that the effectiveness of their marketing strategy, including their sales copy is the single most critical variable for producing impressive profit margins, as opposed to the traditional "branding elements" like Flash animation on the company's website or the CEO's portrait on the corporate brochure


• ...are smart enough to treat the source of this expertise, as a knowledge worker, with the appropriate trust and respect - both personally and financially, as opposed to as a manual labourer dispensing "working hours" for competitive(ly low) hourly wages

The Buyer

I do my best work with buyers who...

• ...focus on progress not on effort, on achieving specific improvements not number of hours, methodologies or poundage of deliverables

• ...are more concerned about the value they receive through the project than the investment to actually do the project. They first look at the potential return and then decide about the budget to achieve it

• ...are "high-level" enough to operate interruption-free and are able to carry a conversation without answering phone calls, pagers or emails. They have enough positional power, self-esteem and ethical backbone to resist requests for instant response when discussing important matters

• ...demonstrate good leadership by taming their egos. They don't keep others waiting. They are disciplined, make commitments and are willing to be held accountable to them. They take and respond to calls and emails in a timely manner. They don't try to impress others by name-dropping or bragging about their wealth

• ...understand their companies' strategies and what roles they play in achieving those strategies. They know their priorities and are on track to executing them. And when the shit hits the fan, they're smart enough to ask for help

• ...accept accountability that comes with their positions and careers. They don't complain about the mysterious "THEY": "THEY don't let me do this" or "THEY block this initiative"

• ...get things done without bitching and moaning. They are people of action not excuses. They have enough self-esteem to be morally and ethically unpopular if that's necessary to advance the cause of the greater good. They confront and resolve issues constructively while treating people with respect holding them up to ever higher standards

• ...are open minded and the accept the duality of the world and their organisations. They admit when they are wrong and someone else is right. Although they hold the chain of command but don't yank it unnecessarily or for personal advancement or to prove their power

• ...have clearly defined markets and refuse business prostitution: "We do anything for anyone for money."

• ...channel their thoughts towards their companies' services, clients, relationships and delivering great value, and don't get bogged down with trivia like what brand of photocopier to buy or where to buy cheap toilet paper from

• ...have some overarching reasons for being business, which is more than merely making money. They try to make a difference, and want to do well by doing good

...And Buy Into The Kind Of Transparent And Transformational Relationship I'm Seeking In My Work

This comparison describes the typical transactional relationship I despise and the kind of transformational relationship that brings out the best in all the people who are involved in the project. If you're more on the transactional side, then I'm not for you. As Bob Dylan used to sing, "It ain't me, babe. It ain't me you're lookin' for, babe." But if you're more on the transformational side, then we may have a connection.

In a way, in my client work, I've adopted Joe Gold's, the founder of Gold's Gym, management philosophy...

"To keep it simple you run your gym like you run your house. Keep it clean and in good running order. No jerks allowed, members pay on time and if they give you any crap, throw them out. There's peace where there's order."

Yes, I lose about 20% of the revenue I could get, but I don't mind doing that if the prize is working only with nice people.

Now that you know what kind of people and businesses I can help the best, please review how I work.

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