CEO Sales Unboxed #004 Right Message, Right Person, Right Time: 3 of 3

1) Football

Go Niners!

(Dave L. - I heard you screaming at the t.v. three states away. Hope you recover enough to do it again in two weeks!)

2) The Concept: Right Message, Right Person, Right Time: 3 of 3

Recap: Right Message = problems your future customers should be paying attention to. Right Person = Motivated + Power to Make Change Happen

When it comes to Right Time, there are only two options: Either It's the right time now or you make it the right time.

How do you know if it's the right time now?

Identify the key context that occurs before your client is ready to buy.

Think about your solution as a step in the chain between where your customer is and where they want to be. Look for the prior steps in that chain.

A B2C example is someone who just purchased a home is potentially a candidate for goods and services related to moving into a new home in a new neighborhood like solar, new windows and a new childcare provider.

A B2B example is using LinkedIn Sales Navigator, you could find businesses that are adding headcount which is a good proxy for revenue growth. Growing companies need all types of goods and services to be successful like HR, legal and IT.

There are many tactics to implement this strategy involving suppliers, channel partners, etc.

Explore the possibliities.

If it's not the right time now, how do you make it the right time?

 Simple.

Help someone do their job better by tactfully bringing to their attention a threat that they should be paying attention to that they aren't.

Two Examples:

Instead of selling records storage cost control to CFO's sell record retention policy compliance and liability damages & risk reduction to the General Counsel.

 Zuora used this strategy to sell their SaaS subscription billing platform. A low-friction customer payment experience is a critical advantage for SaaS companies. If it's hard-to-pay, customers go somewhere else. Companies that are easy to buy from win. If they're hard to buy from, they lose.

Either of these points made to the right people created room on their calendars to solve problems and do business.

This is how you make it the right time.

2.1) Start Doing This

2.1.1) Identify the clues for when your customers and prospective customers will be ready to hear from you.

2.1.2) Identify the key 2-3 things that could make it the right time for your customers and prospective customers to hear from you.

2.2) Stop Doing This

Stop hoping it's the right time and blindly reaching out to prospects. (Make it the right time!)

3) Resources & Your Questions

What topics do you think we should unpack here?

What questions do you want answered? Share them and we'll answer them in future issues. 

Office hours are coming soon. Until then, if you have questions about how to apply this concept, send me a email or let's schedule a quick call.

4) Parting Thought

"When you're struggling, make a decision faster." Tyler Garns, Marketing Strategy School

Tyler shared this gem during our marketing school and surf camp offsite in Nicaragua this week. Unfortunately, thanks to Boeing's technical problems I had to attend remotely but that's a story for another day.

How many of us have wasted hours, weeks or years grappling with a problem when we would have been better off crisply defining the problem, deciding and acting?

I have.

Keep deciding. Keep acting. Keep moving forward.

Enjoy the journey!

Steve