Today I will dive in and show you more detail on one of those $10,000/ hour tasks: the ability to “identify and sell to high-value customers and groups.” It is one of the most valuable uses of your time and can easily produce between 100 and 1,000 times a return on your time invested.
There’s a mystery you need to solve first before you can unlock 100x returns though.
First, let me tell you a quick story.
When I was a young boy my family went on a trip out West. As part of the trip we stopped at an inactive gold mine in Colorado. One of the available activities was to pan for gold “just like they used to in the old days.”
I can tell you that there was nothing more appealing to me at that point in my life than the prospect of climbing into a shallow creek, scooping up a pan full of dirt, and uncovering riches!
Unfortunately, I would come to find out that it wasn’t as easy as I had first hoped.
I tried my first pan expecting to find a shiny gold nugget. After sitting and sloshing around I reached down and you guessed it…nothing except sand and pebbles.
Undeterred I tried another.
Then another. Then another still. And then again once more. NOTHING.
Pan after pan of sand and pebbles and nothing else.
At this point I started to get a little discouraged.
Just then the proprietor of the establishment “happened” to mosey on by. His name was Jack, and boy did he look the part. I still remember him today – long grey beard, worn overalls, and dusty work boots.
Jack looks down at me and smiles. He asks if I’m having any luck.
I tell him all that’s happened and he nods his head understandingly. With a slight smirk asks if I’ve ever done this before?
I tell him no and he asks if I am open to some advice.
The visions of riches and splendor are starting to disappear from my mind’s eye so I tell him “OK” thinking I don’t have anything to lose at this point.
Now mind you up until now I hadn’t really put a lot thought into what I was doing. I had pretty much just walked to the closest part of the stream with the easiest access and sort of hoped for the best.
Jack proceeds to tell me about how gold actually gets in the stream in the first place. He tells me that the gold doesn’t first start in the stream, but up in the mountains. Over long periods of time the heavy spring rains erode the mountain and slowly wash the gold out of the ground and down into the stream by the force of the current. Once in the stream it is gradually moved further and further downstream by the flow of water (since gold is heavier than just about anything else in the stream). The gold moves downstream only if, and when, the current is strong enough. As soon as it dies down the gold settles out of the flow and into the lowest point in the riverbed. Usually this occurs in places where the water slows like near boulders or at bends in the stream.
So with that in mind he points me to large rock stuck in a bend upstream from where we were speaking. The bend followed after a section of strong rapids, and was tougher for me to get to. But I trekked over to get to work.
Wouldn’t you know it, but soon after I got there and had tried a couple of pans of dirt I struck gold! It was nothing earth shattering, just a very small nugget of yellow gold about the size of a BB. But it was mine! I was proud of my efforts even though it took longer and was more difficult than I first envisioned. We only had a few hours to stay at the mine and I left wondering to myself how much more I might have found if I had known what Jack did at the very beginning of my day?
Now back to you, and our mystery, and the question of the morning.
How do you know who is a “high-value customer and group” and who is not?
What differentiates the high-value, low-value, and no-value customers and where will you find them?
I’m sure you got the idea from my story that your customers are the gold nuggets and you are the prospector.
For our purposes, a high-value customer or group is one that has the absolute highest probability of purchasing our product with the least amount of time or money required to convert them.
Your task is to understand how a high value customer behaves just like I had to understand how the nugget behaves on its journey down the stream. Only then can we uncover the value with as little time and energy as possible.
A prospect must demonstrate they have gone through the quality “gates” necessary before they can be considered high-value and a worthy candidate for your time and energy.
So what are the necessary gates?
- Money. Do they have the money (or budget for enterprise clients)? Selling to someone that doesn’t have the money to pay for your product is a waste of your time. Even if they love everything about it and think you’re the best thing since sliced bread they’re not going to convert. Although their enthusiasm is great, you can’t use it to pay next week’s payroll. Target your sales to the prospects that have it not the ones that don’t.
- Urgency. Do they have an urgent need for your solution? There’s a spectrum of urgency that ranges from “gee that would be nice to have one day” to “I think I’m having a heart attack. Get me to a doctor NOW.” The former is borderline “prevention,” and the latter is most definitely a “cure.” The closer your prospect is to needing a cure (NOW!) the easier it will take you to convert them. Spend your time on the prospects that need a cure. Leave the ones that “maybe”, “under the right circumstances”, “if you squint hard enough and look way down the road might buy” to your competition.
- Authority. Can they say yes? Your prospect can have both the money and urgency required to buy your product, but if they aren’t the decision maker you’re wasting your time. (Ok, there’s some nuance here since sometimes you have to go through a gate keeper to get to a decision maker, but we’re talking about the highest and best use of your personal time.) Use every means available to find out if there’s someone else that should be present at the meeting. If so, then move heaven and earth to get them there or you’re wasting your energy.
- Conviction. Does your product force them to change their behavior or “image”? If your product does not seamlessly integrate into the way your client currently does business you’re going to face resistance. People are creatures of habit and anything that forces them to deviate from that habit is a tough sell. You must work to fit your product into the internal narrative running in your prospect’s head. What are their personal motivations and how do you fit in? Your solution must be easier to implement than his current solution or it’s just easier for him to just say no.
By means of a review and as your number one take-away: Sales is a process of disqualification. Every aspect of your sales organization must be designed to disqualify those prospects which don’t have the money, urgency, authority, or conviction to buy. Start the disqualification process with the very first interaction you have with a prospect. Only then should you personally attend to those that meet the grade.
Tips for application: How can you structure your sales organization to disqualify prospects as early in the process as possible? Think about the kinds of questions you might incorporate into your website’s submission form. What kinds of questions might you ask to screen someone over the phone someone after they first contact you? How should you structure your sales funnel so that you are only taking meetings with the hottest, most motivated prospects? Are these tire kickers or are they potential buyers that need you to fix an urgent problem for them NOW.
Your fellow prospector,
Steve