1. “G
ive me six hours to chop down a tree
and I will spend the first four sharp-
ening the axe.” — Abraham Lincoln.
I could not agree more. When attempting to go
after larger prospects, your success will all be in
the preparation.
So how do you “sharpen the axe” to take
down the big opportunities? There are only two
things that a sales rep can do to increase the
net-new portion of his (or her) sales: (1) Increase
the number of net-new deals; and (2) Increase
the sizes of those net-new deals.
Part of the preparation comes from finding prospects that
are available to pursue. Most dealerships have their sales reps
look at their territories and identify 250 prospective, net-new
companies to go after. Inside those 250 prospects, the rep
should identify his top one, five, 10 and 25 prospects to pursue.
All too often the rep identifies those top accounts, but does not
attach a different strategy to gaining brand awareness, trust
and an audience with key players at those large accounts.
The “down-the-street” business strategy, which works with
smaller opportunities, is a different approach. That approach
is often comprised of foot canvassing, phone calls, voicemails
and emails, and social media prospecting. However, larger
prospective accounts, by their nature, demand a different
strategy. They require in-depth research before approaching
them. To gain meetings with the largest prospects, you, the
sale rep, must take steps to do things differently. There are
several pieces of data that need to be collected.
Step One — Identify the account’s key players. You should
specifically identify key executives like the CFO, CTO, COO,
CSO (chief security officer), vice president of networking and
infrastructure, and vice president of global technology. Mid-
level titles include: director of IT, director of security, man-
ager of global networks, vice president of technology infra-
structure, head of IT, director of knowledge management and
IT professionals.
Many of these professionals will be on LinkedIn. One tip is
to look to the right-hand side of your prospect’s profile page
where you will see people who have viewed your prospect on
LinkedIn. This will often give you a list of other executives at
the prospect’s company that provides additional names for
you to add to your prospecting list. In addition, using lead da-
tabases like Hoovers and Sales Genie (which have free trials a
sales rep can sign up for to gain approximately
100 free leads) are another way to find key C-
level players inside large prospects.
Step Two — Make sure your LinkedIn page
has a smart, professional headline. Use some-
thing smarter than “account executive.” For
example, try changing your headline to: “Lev-
eraging business technology infrastructures to
increase profits and operational efficiencies” or
“Creating cost-effective customized technol-
ogy infrastructure solutions to increase profit.”
If you are going after a prospect, there is a
good chance he may look you up on LinkedIn. The first thing
he will see after your name is your professional headline. In-
dicating what you do for clients in your headline is effective.
Step Three — Use social media. Sign up to follow the pro-
spective company’s tweets and blog and create a Google Alert
for the company so you know what is happening within that
company on the Internet in real time.
Iftheprospect’scompanyisapubliccompany,lookupitsan-
nual reports and 10k filings (the difference between an annual
report and 10k filings is that the annual report is the glossy
version with pictures). Pay attention to the prospect’s risk
factors, as well as any strategic initiatives that are discussed
around its technology infrastructure inside the reports.
Step Four — Using LinkedIn, connect with as many people
as possible inside your prospective account prior to approach-
ing the real decision maker. When you do finally go after your
decision maker, he will see that you have many first-level con-
nections inside his company.
All of this preparation creates the platform for success and
the time will be well spent. Getting into these large opportu-
nities can take time — even years. The most successful sales
executives in technology create a book of business with large
companies. These companies are going to hire someone; it can
be you if you are professionally prepared and persistent. n
Kate Kingston is founder and president of Kingston Training
Group (KTG). With more than 17 years of
success in making appointments with
decision makers, she is a recognized authority
on lead generation, cold calling and new
business development. Kingston can be reached
at kkingston@kingstontraining.com.
Visit www.kingstrontraining.com.
‘Sharpening the Axe’
Preparation creates the platform for success
by: Kate Kingston, Kingston Training Group
SELLING SOLUTIONS
28 | ­www.officetechnologymag.com | July 2015