B2B 16: time, decisions, consequences and sales (or … festina lente and B2B sales)

b2b stuff 2

Note from Bruce:

I was recently asked by an interesting B2B company to write some blog posts and new business direct mail thoughts. They were interesting because <a> they wanted to focus on a smarter, more intelligent, level of thinking in their communication <b> they truly had an ‘edge’ to them in terms of attitude, and <c> they were interested in taking on specific objections they hear day in and day out in a candid fashion. It was fun for me and I generated maybe 20 draft thoughts for them in less than 3 days. The following shares my favorites <in rough draft form and the name of the company removed>.

 

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If there was ever a Latin phrase which encapsulated B2B sales and sales development it would be festina lente <make haste slowly or patiently>.

 

 

Think about it.

Successful sales engineering is all about the combination of patience and timely haste. Unfortunately, sales forces are infamous for their lack of patience. Their skill is the efficient close and not the patient hunt.

 

In addition, the successful sales engineering patience has to be overlaid with a decision making efficiency. Once again, sales forces are infamous for their sense of urgency and, as US President Dwight D. Eisenhower supposedly once said:

 

 

‘The most urgent decisions are rarely the most important ones’.

 

 

 

Maybe the most important part of festina lente in B2B sales engineering is deciphering the urgent from the non-urgent and the important from the unimportant. Misreading any of these things may create haste on sales part at the wrong time and waste energy & focus and, at its worst, cost a sale.

 

 

Patient sales engineering modeling at its most simplest is grounded in the The Eisenhower Matrix. While Stephen Covey is often credited with the decision making matrix it was actually Dwight Eisenhower, considered a master of time management, who developed the matrix.

 

 

eisenhower matrix telaffects

 

 

With over two decades of B2B sales engineering experience and 1000’s of lead generation expertise we at Company X have found that distinguishing between what is important and what is urgent when in sales is infinitely difficult.

 

 

Sales forces, with good intentions to make a sale, often focus too strongly on the ‘urgent and important’ field, on the things they feel have to be dealt with immediately to either not lose the sale or to make the sale.

 

 

Here is the unfortunate truth for a sales force.

 

B2B sales is all about having the ability to do everything as and when it needs to be done. This means that not reading what is important and misreading the ‘when’ with decision makers and not getting things done promptly have consequences.

 

 

This means that if the situation is misread a sales person is far too often forced to make decisions based on limited or ambiguous information.

On the other hand, when done well, when implemented in an effective Engineering Model, decision making and consequences is actually a patient methodical process.

At the beginning of the process, when the finer details have yet to be clarified, there is a need to be bolder in our decision-making – particularly because these early decisions have the most far-reaching consequences. And toward the end of the buying process as the decision maker nears a real decision, and when we know more and have fewer doubts about what to say & do, there are less fundamental things to decide.

 

This is called the Consequences Model created by the Danish organization theorists Kristian Kreiner and Søren Christensen.

 

 

decisions eisenhower more knowledge less consequences teaffects

 

 

Philosophically this means the most important question in a B2B sales engineering process is how we can bridge the chasm between doubt and decision.

 

Sales forces and sales people tend to do this by ‘feel’ or ‘gut.’

 

Company X does this through patiently providing stimulus and assessing cues and responding to those cues.

 

The Company X Methodology clearly reflects the extent of the consequences of decisions as they relate to the extent of knowledge. Time and time again over 1000’s of lead generation programs Company X has patiently gathered knowledge and made the right decisions with regard to the right messages to the right people and the consequences have been consistent sales meeting acquisition and ultimately sales success.

 

<insert a factoid of success here>

 

Festina lente. Make haste patiently. The Company X Methodology motto.

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Written by Bruce