I was really lucky coming out of college to get hired by Burroughs Corporation which was a leader in mainframe computing platforms and a Fortune 50 company (later Burroughs merged with Sperry to create Unisys). At the time most big companies had management training programs that took 50 new hires from around the country and trained them on technology, business, and the art of selling. They generally picked people that had good technical acumen but as I learned later what they were really looking for were extroverted people that had good people/listening skills which they could train on the market vs. hiring tech people and teaching them “softer” skills. I was fortunate enough to be one of those “Good Athlete” hires!
We spent a year in and out of the classroom setting and traveled to sites all over the country. I’ve often called it my MBA. I learned about technology, various vertical markets, the art and science of selling and even how to dress for success (with a trip to the Malvern PA mall with an instructor showing the class the best shoes to buy!) … but most of all I learned to SELL and CLOSE deals by working alongside some of the best professional sales guys I’ve ever met!
One life lesson I really took away was that evaluating and strategesing an opportunity is more art than science. Anyone can read a book on selling or travel with a sales guy on a single trip and say “I can do that”, however, I learned that selling is being able to quickly understand an organization, adopting the tone and tenor of your customer, and being able to read the tea leaves in how best to provide the information your customer/prospect needs to make a decision. It is a softer skill. Sure you need metrics and strong pipelines to be successful but each deal on its own requires finesse and takes on a life of its own.
Some of the lessons I learned early on in my career I still use today or think about when I’m working with customers, coaching my sales teams, or reviewing forecasts and pipelines. Oh … and I still make sure my shoes are polished and tie hits right at the belt buckle if I’m going to more formal meetings!
Lesson 1 — Art of Reading the Deal:
I was in my second or third year and was running a territory in New England selling to some of the largest banks and financial institutions. I’d made Presidents Club and was feeling pretty good about myself (yes, sales people are cocky!). I was assigned Liberty Mutual Insurance as a new account and quickly found a pretty big deal for PC’s and a network. Of course I forecast it and started spending a ton of time working with the customer.
Sitting adjacent to me was a chain smoking older sales guy in a completely different territory. He pulled me into a conference room and asked me a few very basic questions on the people at the account, drivers for the projects, and budget. After 3-5 minutes he gruffly said “walk away kid you’ll never win”. Well I hated him after that. What did he know, he hadn’t even met the account and weren’t we taught to keep fighting and figuring out how to close anyway?
Well guess what … I lost the deal after several months of effort and EVERYTHING Bob told me would happen … DID HAPPEN. Following that loss I learned how to take in the smallest details , listen better, and apply what I learned in past projects to the one I was currently on. I even learned to walkaway (although I hate that still!)
Now 15+ years later I find the I can now look at a sales situation and use the experiences I’ve had working with customers and think back to a similar situation and pull out the playbook. I’ve found that most situations have some theme to draw from regardless of market, product, or issue. Selling is selling … buying is buying!
It’s kind of like a movie — if you know its a romantic comedy you can usually figure out the general plot and with fairly good accuracy figure out the ending by reading the subtle twists that are generally standard for stories of that genre. Sure the names change and locations are different but if you’ve seen enough movies you know the story line and general plot twists.
Selling is just like that. If you know how to read people, listen, communicate, quarterback resources efficiently, negotiate, close, and support you can do it across products, markets, and industries. It becomes intuitive.
In selling — Listen, Be Nimble, Listen, Be Humble, Listen … AND TRUST YOUR INSTINCTS!
