Growth Dynamics Get Down

Symptoms:

Sadie was pumped to have a meeting with the right decision makers on her new product. They quickly agreed to her lunch and learn invitation and even let her know how excited they were about her products. They used a competitor’s products, and this was her chance to get the sale. She gathered the standard slide deck, added a few slides comparing her product to the others in the marketplace and even went as far to include delivery information. She knew this was the lunch and learn to end all lunch and learns and it would be an easy close.

Yet, when the presentation wrapped up Sadie asked if there were any questions and no one had any. They kindly thanked her and out the door she went. Later she learned the company went with their existing vendor.

Symptoms:

Jerry was having a year that was slightly ahead of last year, but he was frustrated that he wasn't doing as well as he thought he could be or should be. Although he had taken some sales training and learned some unique words, phrases, and approach tactics, he felt like he was struggling to say and do the "right" things when it came to managing his activities and sales calls. He wondered what he needed to change so that his daily work became more natural, fun, and productive.

I am prepared for lots of pushback on this post, so please feel no hesitation in reacting positively or negatively to my thoughts on this topic.

Symptoms:

Have you ever been part of a sales call where there seemed to be little structure, where both parties seemed to be on different pages, where expectations were not met, and little was accomplished? Even worse, you expected something positive to occur but simply got a lukewarm response such as, "I need to think it over. Call me in a few days." Opportunities are squandered and the buyer seems to be in control.

Symptoms:

Matt is looking at his calendar and doing some planning, knowing that many things he does look too much like random acts of mindless behavior. Looking back on past months, he feels like he was scrambling and playing catch up all the time instead of having that feeling that he had some deliberate control of his actions. He wants to get back that feeling of being on a roll, where it's like running downhill instead of uphill all the time.

Here we are. Month six of this odd coronavirus time. At this point I think it is safe to say this "new" normal has become the normal. 

Symptoms:

Jake was putting in about 60 hours a week plus some time on the weekends but was still worried that his sales and management production was not nearly as high as it could be. The family did not see him as much anymore and his "To Do" list was constantly growing. Despite all his hard work, the only thing he could conclude was that he needed to do a better job of "time management".

Symptoms:

Dan left his latest meeting with a prospective account knowing he had to make some changes. The Buyer was willing to talk about many things, but not what Dan wanted to sell, which was being provided by another firm. The upcoming election came up several times too, but Dan did his best to push past all the uncertainties surrounding that topic. It seemed no matter how hard he pushed his features, benefits or competitive advantages he was not able to move this buyer to consider a particular product because of a strong competitor and an unpredictable economy.

There is one constant in life- change. 

Symptoms:

Jennifer had just returned from her ten-year high school class reunion where it seemed that many of her classmates had some fancy "professional" job. The question "so what are you doing now?" had become almost too painful to answer when she told her former classmates that she was in "sales". No one seemed to respect her role in business development as an account manager, with some even going so far as to say, "I thought you wanted to become an English teacher, what happened?" The truth was Jennifer had tried teaching for a few years, but soon realized that she would never be happy spending the rest of her working days confined to a classroom. Now Jennifer had to get herself pumped up to start a new week, but the negative head trash from her peers had her wishing she could go back to bed.