Tag: sales

Losing control

FabrizioLeave a comment

When you lose control, your instinct tells you to control whatever it is left. The problem is, often what is left does not need your control.

If your relationship is going downhill, you strengthen your grip on your kids. Do this, don’t do that, come here, go there. Of course, they don’t need any of that.

If your team is failing to meet their goals, you double down on your team members. This is wrong, we should try that, why is this happening. Of course, they don’t need any of that.

If your creativity has hit a plateau, you focus more and more on the small details. Let’s refine the tone, let’s make it perfect. Of course, the details are – in most cases – meaningless.

It’d be great if you could just let go of control in the first place, so as to not risk to lose it at any point. It would save a lot of trouble.

Outreach

FabrizioLeave a comment

I was checking your profile today, I was impressed.

I noticed that we both work in marketing.

I think it’d be great to be connected here.

I am sure none of the people who have reached out using this opening would be connecting to someone using the same. Yet, when we are on the selling side, when we have something we care about that we want to share, when we are confident that our solution will really be the best option, or even when we just have to send out 1,000 message per day, we forget the basics.

A good place to start from when crafting a cold message is: what is an opening that would make me want to know more?

If you look at your sequences and are honest with yourself, it will be the opportunity for you to change approach. And perhaps increase your key metrics.

Decisions

FabrizioLeave a comment

One problem with business decisions – not always the most important, but certainly the bulk of them – is that they evaporate as soon as those making them leave the room where they were made.

Another problem with business decisions – perhaps a consequence of the first problem – is that they are not given enough time to prove right or wrong.

A third problem with business decisions – a sub-product of our lazy brain – is that the ones that stick actually tend to stick forever.

Keep track of what is decided, give it time to bear fruit, and be flexible enough to revisit it periodically. You can make this more effective if you manage to build different networks in the company – at team level, but also cross-functional – that make decisions and are held accountable for it.

As long as only one person, or the same group of persons, calls the shots, you will always have problem number one, problem number two, problem number three simultaneously.

Keep things simple

FabrizioLeave a comment

If the information can be shared in a Slack message, calling a meeting to discuss it will not make it more important.

If the product feature can be described in three words, writing four paragraphs to go through the ins-and-outs will not make it easier to sell it.

If the team is performing poorly, trying to shift the focus to a different subject, or goal, or KPI will not help them improve.

Keep things simple.

Fictitious

FabrizioLeave a comment

Anchor your thoughts, feelings, opinions to facts. For as much as it is possible to do so.

If you think that your team is on the right track, anchor that thought to some solid evidence.

If you feel that things could be better, anchor that feeling to some solid evidence.

If you believe that version A is better than version B, anchor that feeling to some solid evidence.

Numbers, money, events, external input. Go there to find confirmation, and go there often and repeatedly.

If you don’t, you live and act in a fictitious world.