September SalesNote - Whiteboard Logic

MXL SalesNote^TM

September 2013

In this Issue

Execution is Everything

MXL Speaks at Alchemist Accelerator

Rule #35 - Develop an Executive Whiteboard

Ken Venturi on Sales Success

Strategy is Great but Execution is Everything

At MXL we have a saying: "Strategy is great, but execution is everything." Now think about that. We all know companies with great products that have failed. It's often a breakdown at some level of execution: people and process.

In the sales world, it's still people (activity, applied skills and knowledge, messaging, management) and process (selling, engaging, growing, supporting, forecasting, managing, etc.)

Keeping it Simple

We've learned to focus on the keys to individual and corporate sales success:

1. What You Sell

Value...Differentiation...Positioning

2. Who Sells It

Channels...Activity...Mindsets

3. Who You Sell

Territory...Targets...Audience

4. How You Sell

Messaging...Execution...Strategy

5. How You Lead

Process...Forecast...Culture

Every company can use an audit or spine adjustment on any or all of the above. It's actually helpful, not painful. Enlightening, not shameful.

Evaluate who, what and how your sales team is doing what they do. After all, your strategy may be great, but execution is everything.

________________________________

New 2013 2nd Edition!

42 Rules to Increase Sales Effectiveness

by Michael Griego

Foreword by Mark Leslie Venture Capitalist and former Founder/CEO of Veritas Software

"This book rocks - I've got pages dog-eared and notes throughout!" - Enterprise VP of Sales

"42 gems that any entrepreneur can use to their company." - Start-up CEO

"An excellent, well-written guide that de-mystifies the process for repeatable sales success." - VP Business Development

Visit Our Sales Center

Quick Links

650-279-3467

see 2009 SalesNotes

see 2010 SalesNotes

see 2011 SalesNotes

see 2012 SalesNotes

see 2013 SalesNotes

Whiteboard Logic

It's fascinating helping more and more companies develop customer-facing whiteboards. This is pre-defined, visual sales storytelling that engages the customer and drives good sales discovery conversation.

The best teams do it; the best reps do it very well. When done right it's the ultimate application tool for driving "Consultative/Solution/Challenger/Provocative/ Insight" Selling best practices across a sales organization.

Done Right

A well-designed Whiteboard for a top-performing salesperson is like putting a Ferrari or a hot Tesla in the hands an experienced driver. They quickly and literally get up to speed and maximize the output of their high-performance machine. An average salesperson/driver may be tentative at first, driving cautiously and certainly not to its full potential. In fact, it might even be dangerous. In the sales context it may truly highlight the rep's limitations and inflexibility. But it is a teachable, behavioral skill.

A Beautiful Thing

After a strong and provocative point of view or statement of insight followed by an alignment of objectives from known information or previous discussions, a great Whiteboard conversation covers 3 key areas:

Current State - a description of things as they are, the reasons why they are as they are why they might stay where they are.
Problems with Current State - the costs, the loss, the challenges and misses associated with staying in the status quo.
Future State - a vision of a better way, the fix delivered by your product/service/solution as it addresses a broken world.

The magic is not in the drawing, it's in the logic flow. The flow is rich with opportunities to engage the customer with questions and drilldowns. Great salespeople own the logic and so are deft in any sales call situation.

A Whiteboard Without the Whiteboard

Top sales producers do this all the time. They speak in painted pictures and have the pre-set logic flow nailed down. They can go in and out, high and low, short and long in any sales conversation along the sales cycle. They're like a veteran musician who can play their instrument beautifully anywhere you put them. First master the mechanics, then flexibly apply the skills to optimized results.

Can you Whiteboard without a Whiteboard?

More...

Alchemist Accelerator features MXL Partners

Recently MXL Partners President and Founder, Michael Griego, was the featured guest lecturer for the current class of entrepreneurs at The Alchemist Accelerator.

The Alchemist Accelerator is an accelerator exclusively for startups whose revenue comes from enterprises. The accelerator focuses on enterprise customer development, sales (direct and online), market validation, and a structured path to fundraising.

Griego's lecture/workshop was titled "Building Blocks for Getting Your First Customers." After addressing key current enterprise sales challenges, he focused on 3 key foundational areas for early-stage customer acquisition:

Your Customer's Buying Process
Your Prioritized Sales Opportunities
Your Audience Specific Sales Message

In addition to offering professional sales training and consulting services for established high-growth enterprise sales firms, MXL offers a Revenue XLerator service for early-stage start-ups.

More...

Rule #35 - Develop an Executive Whiteboard

42 Rules to Increase Sales Effectiveness

(2nd Edition)

The sales rep was in the customer's office for their first meeting. The rep had skillfully probed and qualified the account with questions that gathered quite a bit of data and useful information about the account situation and where problems and issues existed. The rep offered up a provocative statement about the state of the
industry relative to new issues of compliance and security management control. Then he motioned to the whiteboard and asked, "May I use your whiteboard?"

The customer nodded and then further engaged with the rep over the next 20 minutes as the rep used the whiteboard as a powerful platform to describe the customer's and marketplace challenges with a helpful framework for considering solutions.

The meeting ended with the customer considering the rep of significant higher caliber than his predecessor and thinking to himself as he walked him to the door how helpful and enlightening this sales call had actually been.

More...

Ken Venturi on Sales Success

"I don't believe you have to be better than everybody else. I believe you have to be better than you ever thought you could be."

- Ken Venturi, former pro golfer and TV analyst