You Have Planned, but Are You Prepared?

History has long confirmed that success is created by proper planning. Imagine a commercial pilot without a flight plan, a builder without blueprints, a coach without a game plan, or a sales entrepreneur without a business plan. Successful sales entrepreneurs plan their work and work their plan. They know the pitfalls of aimless activity, guesswork, or relying on occasional luck.

Whats the difference between planning and preparing? I offer you Websters definitions as well as my own. Websters suggests that planning is: 1) to formulate a way to achieve or do. Preparing is: 1) to produce by combining elements or ingredients; 2) to make or get ready for some purpose. I augment Websters definitions by suggesting that planning is doing the necessary things to arrive at the appointment ready to do business. Planning includes making the initial appointment, doing your precall homework, knowing your product, developing a sales call objective, and packing your briefcase with the appropriate tools, samples, and order forms. As Websters says, Formulate a way to achieve. Preparation is being in a state of readiness once you arrive. Good preparation ensures that you are ready to perform guided by a sales call objective. Thus, by our definition, planning is stuff we do prior to the call and preparation is being ready to perform at the call. Customer feedback consistently tells us that sales representatives may have indeed planned, but they are seldom prepared. Once sales representatives have secured an appointment and confirmed the address, they rejoice in a false sense of accomplishment. At best their precall planning is weak and their preparation is nonexistent.

But dont be too quick to view planning and preparation as a laborious exercise. At first glance it may appear to be extra work, but compare it to the consequences of not planning and preparing. The consequences come in the form of longer sales cycles, repeat sales calls, and aimless activity. Good planning does not increase your workload but instead helps you to work more effectively and productively with less physical effort. You may end up with fewer appointments throughout the week, but the time spent planning and preparing will be rewarded with higher close ratios.

Successful entrepreneurial selling demands both planning and preparation. Remember, your Sequential Model allows no missing pieces.

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What We Need to Know

The more information we gather prior to the call the better we can plan and prepare for the call. Your product or service may very well help the customers world move forward, but initially the customer sees you as an intrusion, an interruption. It is even worse if you arrive unprepared and ill-equipped. However, by being prepared and ready to advance the sale, your customer will be flattered by your interest and will begin to relax the barriers and perhaps even entertain your ideas. Advanced planning allows you to differentiate yourself. I am not suggesting that at the planning stage you learn intimate details about your potential customer, but rather that you acquire a conversational understanding of his or her business. Specific details come later. You need to familiarize yourself with the macro-issues of the business. Planning is knowing the following pieces of information.

type of business what it does location(s) head office branch offices distribution channels markets

number of employees how long in business

its competition private or public company current vendor-how long political landscape hiring or firing organizational chart decision process decision maker

Im sure there are several other issues, but this list certainly guides you in the right direction. Use this as your precall checklist. Customers no longer have the time nor the patience to educate sales representatives.

I have personally experienced the plight of no planning. With hesitation, I share my story. A few years ago I was trying to get an appointment to see Mr. Ray, VP of sales with a large Calgary company. I was selling sales training. Mr. Ray was the decision maker (bag of money) and it took weeks to finally connect with him. My persistence paid off with a 7 AM appointment. I arrived at 6:50 AM planned and prepared, or so I thought. Ten minutes into the call, Mr. Ray looked me straight in the eye and asked, So, what can you tell me about my company? I responded with my usual, Thats why Im here, to learn more about your operation and your specific sales training requirements. Mr. Ray then said, Thats nice, but what can you tell me about my company? With terrifying speed, I realized my dilemma. I put down my pen and responded with a deafening, Nothing. Busted! I didnt know a darn thing about his company, didnt even know what they did. What the heck, wasnt it easier to just jump in the car and show up to another sales appointment? Mr. Ray wasnt finished. He knew I was selling sales training so he pondered for a moment (Im sure it was 20 minutes!) and then asked: Sales training, eh? Can you teach my representatives to show up unprepared? I thought I was going to die. Im not sure what color my face turned, but it was either red, white, or blue. It was 7:15 in the morning and I was experiencing the call from hell. Needless to say, I was utterly embarrassed. Oh, the joys of professional selling. If this situation hasnt happened to you, consider yourself fortunate. The customer hasnt tested you.

This has never happened to me again and it never will. That experience proved to be one of my most valuable lessons of entrepreneurial selling; the value of planning. All I needed to satisfy Mr. Rays question was this: Your company is in the business of data management and has been since 1977. Your head office is in Houston and your Canadian office is in Calgary with approximately 40 employees. Im sure Mr. Ray would have been satisfied with my conversational knowledge of his business and the call would have proceeded. I would have earned the right to continue.

By the way, after about 30 minutes with me doing the backstroke in Mr. Rays office, he finally agreed to evaluate our seminars by attending himself. We eventually did business.

I want to make it clear at this stage that we are not out to identify our customers specific needs and requirements or identify how we can help them out. We cant possibly learn their specific needs until we meet them face-to-face and conduct a needs analysis by asking a series of probes. Annual reports and company brochures do not reveal customer needs. Only customers themselves can reveal their specific