As Christian business leaders, the values we use to run our businesses impact everything. Our values have the potential to define our company culture. They guide our decision-making and drive our performance.
In our modern world, technology’s rapid evolution has changed many business sectors and practices. Communication is instant, production is faster, and digital tools for marketing, campaigning, and networking are more advanced than ever.
Facing business struggles, setbacks, conflicts, and hard financial times is something that business leaders and CEOs expect to experience.
I enjoy unhurried conversations where joys, hopes, dreams, and fears bubble to the surface of our often too-busy lives. As a pastor and frequent speaker on faith, work, and economics, I not only really like a bold cup of coffee but enjoy catching up with congregational members at a favorite coffee shop.
As a business consultant and coach, some of the most powerful and transformational moments I've experienced have been the simple act of telling a business leader or executive team something that they already know. Reflecting on this made me ask why we so often know the right thing, but fail to do it.
Many business leaders right now are recognizing this brutal reality: their current sales and marketing methods are not built for these trying times.
The pressure is building for companies to get their sales back up, but it’s a real struggle.
Clients are putting projects, jobs, and events (and accounts payable) on hold indefinitely. Many consumers have lost their jobs or are worried they will soon. Social distancing requirements are continuing to create substantial barriers to the business’s normal flow everywhere from the retail floor to the manufacturing floor. Travel is still heavily restricted, and uncertainty abounds.
What are you going to say when the prospect asks, “Why should I buy from you?”
Oh, it is going to happen to you. You best be prepared for the question and you most definitely must be prepared for your answer.
Several years ago, when I was with the Zig Ziglar Corporation, the account executive, Margaret and I were conducting a phone call with a prospect in Atlanta. Margaret had interacted with the prospect a few times and I was asked to help close the training engagement.
Follow me on this one. I am going to make a comparison between you and the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California. The analogy is a good one to use in the sales profession. At the conclusion of this, I wish you would think about this comparison. Here are some facts about The Golden Gate Bridge. It was first opened to traffic on May 28, 1937. It is known as one of the "Seven Wonders of the Modern World." It was built to withstand a huge traffic load. The annual revenue generated by tolls on the bridge was $59,289,000 in fiscal year 2002! That's a lot of quarters.
The annual traffic in fiscal year 2012 was 40,694,792 vehicles. The monthly load on The Golden Gate Bridge is 3,391,233. That equates to a total of 111,493 vehicles each and every day for an entire year. WOW! This is truly an engineering marvel. The engineers who designed this structure were pretty smart.
OK. Now, here is the point. The Golden Gate Bridge was designed to handle the traffic load in a systematic way. In other words, if you were to put the annual load of 40 million vehicles on the bridge at the same time, it would collapse under the weight. The bridge was not designed to handle that type of load. If you were to put the entire monthly load of 3.9 million vehicles on the bridge at the same time, it would collapse under the weight. The bridge was not designed to handle that type of load. THE BRIDGE WAS DESIGNED TO HANDLE ONE DAY AT A TIME. So are we!
It is important - even vital - that we plan our sales year, our sales quarter, our sales month, and our sales day. By so doing, we have a better chance of achieving our sales goals. However, we have to handle our sales career one-day at a time. If not we will collapse under the weight.
