Building the perfect sales machine
@davidgee888 wrote a fantastic article last year about his first 90 days as a CIO. I really enjoyed, and got me thinking about what the first 90 days means to a sales person.
Sales organizations traditionally track and measure revenues on a quarterly basis (90 days), which means that four times a year, we are faced with our version of a “first 90 days”.
So having done a few of these over the last twenty years, I thought I would share with you my thoughts on what a sales person should be doing more of during those “90 days”. Think of it as my recipe to build the perfect sales machine.
- Adopt the “furby” principle – big eyes, big ears and small mouth. Watch a lot, listen a lot and talk a little.
- Brand yourself. Who are you, what are you and what do you stand for. When someone says your name, what is it you want then to be thinking?
- Have an opinion and be ready to share it (just not shove it down people’s throat). I find people are more interested in understanding your opinion on trends and directions than technology bits and bytes.
- Ask lots of questions and seek the opinion of your clients, peers and colleagues.
- Listen to what people have to say. Not only will you learn something but you will get a better understanding of what the client wants.
- Remember it is all about the business and not IT. Make your linkages from the business back into IT (and not the other way round).
- Spend your time where it matters. Another way to put this is to become more customer-centric as opposed to who-I-work-for-today-centric. Trust me. It makes a difference.
If you are interested in reading David’s original article you can find it here. Well worth a look. http://www.cio.com.au/article/547624/my_first_90_days_cio/
