I’ve had tomato pie from three different bakeries this past week, and while many of us look at a tomato pie and see crust and red sauce, the fact is, there are differences that make some better than others.  I have a local favorite from Corropolese Bakery close by in Norristown, and you may have a favorite as well. For me it’s the combination of the focaccia like crust and the sweet flavor of the gravy.  It got me thinking about what goes into a quality tomato pie. Pizza lovers around the globe will tell you that the quality of the ingredients is key. You need to start with the right flour to make the dough, and you need great tomatoes for the sauce. You will also be reminded that water, oven heat, air pressure and elevation play a role. After that, it’s critical to follow a process with the core ingredients.

At the end of the day, great inputs and a thoughtful process drive a solid output.  In fact, to be consistent year after year, you just need to continue to follow your process using the right components.

This is no different than selling where you need the right ingredients for a great product.  A finished product, the sale, requires a number of inputs along the continuum. Most people will tell you that it takes hard work and luck, and I have seen a number of different paths to winning in the past 25 years. It requires more than just hard work and luck; it requires a great recipe to follow from the start.

I’ve spent most of my life working in the legal industry with research solutions and data driven technology brought to market by LexisNexis. The legal industry would most certainly have struggled significantly without the data, information and insights that LexisNexis brought to the market more than 40 years ago. Although I chose not to practice law,  my law degree enabled me to transfer skills from practicing law to consulting with attorneys about their legal research needs. When I first started in sales, I leveraged my law school experience to build credibility with lawyers. The world of research was quickly shifting from paper-based research to online databases housed in the cloud. We were changing the legal research paradigm in the mid-90’s.  I had my law degree to rely on, but I needed a sales process to win since my charm and good looks weren’t enough. My territory was geographically diverse, and my market segments were equally as broad.  I needed to prioritize, focus on the right activities, target the right people, and follow through on activities and promises.  My first manager taught me sales discipline.  With her help, I had success and became the Rookie of the Year in 1996 for LexisNexis.

During my first year in sales I built a discipline that has enabled me to have repeatable success in any economic environment. There were no silver spoons in my past so I couldn’t bank my retirement on one year of success at Lexis.  As I started each new year with increased quota and a modified territory, I followed a logical process that helped me achieve success. It’s also important to practice continuous learning and I have been blessed with great sales and business mentors over the past 25 years who have helped me to enhance my discipline, picking up additional best practices along the way.

Over the course of my career, I’ve come to recognize that selling has forever changed in the legal industry, but it’s not unique to legal industry sales. The financial collapse in 2007, and resulting recession combined with the proliferation of information on the web have changed the perception of what buyers “must have”, and how they identify with whom they are going to do business for the “necessities.”  If you want repeatable success to build a career, here are some critical factors for you to build into your process:

KEY INPUTS (INGRIDIENTS FOR SELLING SUCCESS)

1. THE RIGHT ACTIVITIES

Every great professional starts with the end in mind. That end can be as basic as your quota, or much broader as in “how much money do I want to make”, or “where do I go after this role”.  In order to achieve your desired goal you must understand the basic elements that will help you get there. For simplicity let’s look at the idea of achieving quota.  Can you answer these questions?

• How much is an average deal worth?
• How many do I need to hit my target?
• What are the 10, 20, and 50 best organizations to target to make my number?
• What percentage of these targets can I win?
• Is my competition already an incumbent or is there “white space” for me?

Every great recipe includes great product. Once you define your objective you need work the ingredients and the process. As much as the world of inbound marketing has facilitated the creation of the warm lead, remember that complex B2B selling requires considerable effort after leads arrive.  In fact, inbound leads alone will never be enough for you to achieve your ends.  I am often reminding others to take off the entitlement hat, and get focused on additional activities related to lead generation (yes- cold calling is still important).  Here are some additional keys to success around the activities:

• Make the requisite number of calls per day (block your calendar if necessary).
• Schedule the requisite number of First Appointments and Demos.
• Follow up your warm inbound leads immediately .
• Have a plan for calling that incorporates number of attempts, when to leave a voicemail, and how you plan to include email or social media into your follow up.
• Be diligent about follow up through your funnel, and track your success metrics.

Track your success so that you understand how many touches it takes to get a meaningful appointment, as well as how many conversations get you to the opportunity stage.  These are some of the basics to building a repeatable activity process for winning.

2. THE RIGHT MESSAGES

Content marketing teams are driving omni-channel experiences for buyers as information flies over the web, email, social media and traditional analog media. This requires sales and marketing to have consistent messages as it’s a critical step to ensure that you are communicating effectively with your audience. The sheer quantity of information forces you to stand out from the noise to be heard.

Messaging and activity are symbiotic. Here are a few of my winning concepts:

• Sharpen your game and message. When you make contact ensure that you’ve got research to rely on. Don’t make price the differentiator.  Dig deeper and drive value by speaking to the prospect and their industry challenges.
• Don’t be generic. Refine the message to the persona with whom you are working. Understand the stakeholder’s role and speak to their functional needs.
• Pain hurts. Ensure that you drive home the notion that change is easier and more advantageous than doing nothing.  What is your prospect’s current state, and where would they like to go? Help them with the right message.

Note: You’ll have more people to convince along the way, so get the messaging right. Spend time with your marketing and product teams to refine the messaging, and test it. Then refine again if necessary.

3. THE RIGHT PEOPLE

In complex B2B sales, statistics suggest that we encounter more than 5 stakeholders in the decision making process. It’s critical that you identify them as you move through the sales funnel so that you have all of the appropriate buyers in alignment when it comes time to make the decision.  Whether you sell a product or a service there are more people in a buying process today, and convincing larger groups to move is a challenge. Some thoughts:

• Start at the highest level. The chief can push you down to the appropriate people if they see a need.
• If your product scales across an organization’s needs then look for other personas as well, and stay at the high level.
• Leverage your executive team. In many cases your leaders have existing networks to help to open doors. Get your leadership team involved early, and let them know how they can help you along the way.

These are the key ingredients, and you can build a process around these disciplines to achieve success.

Thanks for reading the blog. I hope you’ve enjoyed a few tips for success. In case you are hungry, and ready to try a tomato pie, see below for a home style Italian recipe.

Here is a recipe for homemade Philadelphia Tomato Pie- Italian Style

If you would rather buy a tomato pie, here are 3 of my favorites:

1. Corropolese Red Pie
2. The Sinatra
3. Grandma’s Special (It’s not a tomato pie, but it’s a Fabio special)