The Monday Revolution

Seize control of your business life

David Mansfield

• Publisher: Practical Inspiration Publishing
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781788601474
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Time Management

***BUSINESS BOOK AWARDS 2021 SHORTLISTED TITLE***

Does all the good stuffonly happen at weekends? Have Sunday evenings become depressing, as the workingdays ahead come into view? Has your week been reduced to pointless meetings, over-complicated tasks and disillusioned colleagues?

You're convincedthere's a better way of getting things done. But where to start? Well, thisbook has the answers. David Mansfield shows you how to reclaim your work week.

In a lifetime ofwork, David has encountered, tolerated, conquered and failed at most of thethings you've come to accept as the natural order. The business world is amessy place. Processes and systems that were meant to help result ininformation overload, and just staying on top of the day-to-day feels like somesort of result.

But there are solutions, and TheMonday Revolution has them. Every chapter contains stories, anecdotesand uncomplicated real-world advice on how you can Revolutionise your working life.

Simple, immediate, actionable examples show how directors, managers and business owners can get moredone, more quickly. David covers all the basics needed to fast track profitablegrowth. If you want to look back on your working week with satisfaction andeagerly anticipate the next, read this book. And start your own MondayRevolution, this week.

Chapter 10

A sales story or two

No sales, no business

I’m told some products sell themselves, but I’ve never had the good fortune to work with one of those companies. I think I’ve probably encountered every sort of sales challenge. And although every business is different, in truth there probably are less than a dozen hurdles to get over, whatever market they’re in. From identifying and connecting with the decision maker to a superior competitor selling their products at a loss to win market share. And every other pitfall in between, awaiting the intrepid deal closer!

A common negative among buyers is “there’s no budget”. It’s been cut, spent, diverted, reallocated or some such plausible reason that means your products will definitely not be on the purchase list. I learnt by experience (no sales and no commission) that what people say isn’t necessarily the end of the matter. In fact, rather than fearing the worst, I would relish the challenge of “no budget”.

Back in the nineties, an advertising space salesman from a TV company was in France watching Jaguar win the 24-hour Le Mans race. Although not a huge fan of the sport, as a guest he’d been grateful for the invitation. Much to his surprise, he found the whole event captivating and the experience stayed with him long after he returned to the UK.

A few months later he was in the offices of JWT, the Jaguar advertising agency, trying to win new business. After discussing the active campaigns, he enquired after their client, Jaguar, noting how they’d triumphed in France a few months before.

The JWT executive was less than interested.

“To be honest they don’t really do much advertising and certainly not on TV. Anyway, there’s no budget for consumer advertising; they’re really concentrating on their dealer network.”

The salesman tried his best, but the JWT guy was keen to get to lunch. A key part of the day for advertising people in those times.

Our salesman remembered the glory of the race. What a proud moment for Jaguar owners and the all-important dealer network. And then he came up with a compelling idea to generate money from the apparently non-existent budget.

As the advertising agency were likely to be less than helpful, he contacted the marketing director of Jaguar and tried to secure an appointment on the basis that he had a special idea. The director wanted a written approach before agreeing to meet, but our man explained that he needed just 30 minutes to demonstrate his game-changing idea. Part cynical, part intrigued, the marketing director fixed the meeting. He thought it would probably come to nothing but other than time there wasn’t much to lose.

When the advertising agency discovered their client was being directly approached, they were less than pleased. They made it clear again to the salesman that TV advertising was absolutely not on the agenda. There was no interest from their point of view. And anyway, as they’d already made clear, no budget. As their executive said:

“If you want to waste your time on a 200-mile round trip to Coventry, that’s your problem.”

The salesman wasn’t put off. He believed his idea was compelling and that presented in the right way, a budget would be found. Prior to the meeting he’d asked the guys in production to make a three-minute advertisement for Jaguar featuring footage from their 24-hour Le Mans winning race. The voiceover extolled the virtues of Jaguar, utilising the messages they were using in their current trade advertising. He created a mini version of the prime-time news show and placed the advertisement as the only one in the middle of the programme.

Armed with his video he waited for the marketing director to enter the meeting room. It was a cordial but business-like start. Clearly the director wanted to get to the point quickly, but the salesman wasn’t about to be rushed. They discussed Jaguar’s marketing plan, the key messages and the dealers’ need to feel supported.

The salesman set the scene. He said his idea worked at two levels. A high-impact one-off TV feature, which would be a much-talked-about event by Jaguar owners and potential buyers. It would be pre-marketed to the dealer network as a sign of great confidence and commitment, helping them sell more cars. This was unique, because no one company had ever had exclusivity for their own advertisement in the centre break of the flagship premier news programme.

Then he played the video. The director was non-committal: “Show me again.” The salesman played it a second time and waited. The director turned to him, stretched his arms out as if to embrace the screen and said: “This is Jaguar.”

The salesman and the director discussed budgets and timings. The director said there was no budget for the opportunity, but the idea was so strong that it couldn’t be passed by or risked being sold in some way to a competitor.

Not surprisingly, the agency quickly fell into line and the advertisement ran to great applause from customers, dealers and the media. The agency collected an industry award for “their” great idea and the media salesman had no trouble seeing their clients in the future! Studying what a company is trying to achieve is key. If you want to significantly improve your chances, understand their priorities. It’s about their needs, not about yours.

The Monday Revolution requires a positive mindset. This idea was a good one and in spite of detractors the salesman believed in it. As if it was his responsibility to sell Jaguar cars.

Remember, budgets are a management tool, usually set annually. For many they provide a barrier to flexible thinking. People hide behind “there’s no budget” but in truth there is always a budget for a great idea. Middlemen and gatekeepers are not always your friend. Upsetting them is unwise, but occasionally you need to go around them, or over them. Do this carefully. Identify the decision maker and present the reason for meeting as a compelling and unique event. Our salesman’s goal was to sell the marketing director advertising space. If he’d said that at the outset, the meeting would never have taken place.

The following is another example of overcoming a barrier to meeting; I was told this tale by a highly successful executive. His technique to securing high-level meetings was simple but required the confidence of upfront investment. He provided unique information as a means of reaching his target prospects.

It worked something like this. “We’ve just conducted a study on the market outlook for your sector and some of the results are rather surprising. Would you like to see the data?” This approach to relationship building is a classic way of getting in front of someone. If they ask for an email first, send them a teaser.

Information is a certain way of meeting buyers across all sectors. Conferences, seminars and networking events all rely on gathering customer prospects together, by providing something they don’t possess and isn’t easily available anywhere else. They need to know because their competitors might get ahead of them and in any case it could further their own knowledge and prospects.

I’ve worked for many professional service companies, such as accountants and lawyers. They are extremely good at running seminars attended by current clients (adds value to the relationship) and future prospects. These magnets work well by providing updates, new information or the organising company’s view on what new legislation, for example, might bring. What they’re generally pretty poor at is converting that short-term goodwill into a fee-paying client. But that’s covered in another chapter.

It may sound like a harsh observation, but people will only be interested in meeting you, in a business sense at least, if you can provide something of value that will help them. You might baulk at this but why else should they bother? In a busy time-constrained world, why waste your valuable executive paid-for time on a meeting that might go nowhere? After all, a key theme of The Monday Revolution is investing time wisely and that doesn’t just apply to you!

I recognise that there’s a convention that says meeting someone for a cup of coffee and chewing things over can be useful. Maybe. But if you want to generate sales and profits it’s a long-winded way of going about it. Personally, it’s become a reduced part of my strategy.

I’ve always positioned my commercial approaches to people I don’t know as one that respects their time. I wouldn’t contact them for a cosy chat. “I have something that should be of genuine interest. Give me a short meeting slot and I’ll show you the benefits.”

If you know your market, you’ll be very aware of any information shortfalls. And you can fill the gap by satisfying that need. Of course, you’re not there simply to provide free data. It’s a catalyst for reviewing their products, brands, reputation, image, whatever. And your product can provide the answers once you’ve probed, questioned and above all listened intelligently.

The result of these types of meetings will virtually always be positive if you’ve done your homework. You’re building a relationship and as a result the onus will be on you to fix a further discussion and provide some kind of proposal or plan. It may be a lengthy road to closing a deal but you’re on the way and will have made very important early steps.

As a basic principle, having something others need and don’t have is of great value. In my advisory company virtually all our work comes from personal recommendation. But in the early days we needed to convince people we didn’t know why they should be interested in meeting us.

In order to grow our company, we were out and about meeting people who we thought we could help. My business partners (more subtle than me!) used to squirm at some of my sales approaches at conferences, parties or other events.

“Hi, I’m David from The Drive Partnership, good to meet you, how’s your week going?”

After some small talk I’d engineer the conversation around to the sort of thing we do for our clients.

“What exactly does The Drive Partnership do?” they would ask.

The earlier opening conversation would have shaped my response. But typically, I’d say something like this:

“We work with companies helping them hit their growth targets more quickly than they can on their own. Basically, they just get there sooner after they’ve hired us.”

“Really, how do you do that?”

“Well, it depends on the organisation but often they just need more profitable clients. We help them achieve that aim, usually quite quickly. Would that interest you or are you OK in that department?”

At this point the person is usually interested enough to agree to a short meeting to hear more. No need for us to go into detail. Mission accomplished. A diary date is arranged, and a deal gets done. Our early clients are still with us years later. As one says:

“David is the most commercial person I know. He’s our business advisor and we don’t make any major decisions without consulting him.”

I’m honoured and flattered by that. Having a seat at the top table is a great responsibility and not without its challenges of course. It all started by being interested in his company at a drinks party a long time ago…

The Monday Revolution (you can start on Monday)

1. Information and ideas are gold if you have something that others will perceive as valuable.

2. Spend time looking at the company’s activity, profile and market. Work out what you could provide. This may just cost you time. Available public data highlighting trends could be all you need.

3. Make what you have unique. Even if it’s collated from the point above. It can be your insightful take on the data or creative idea.

4. Having secured a meeting, the aim is to uncover the client’s unsolved problems and carefully match your proposition. Always leave with agreed actions to follow up. Always.

5. If you’re networking, listen and say enough to agree a follow-up. Resist the temptation to hit the sales pitch button.

Chapter 11

Right message, right place, right time

Making the most of marketing money

We’ve moved on from the famous quote of “half my advertising budget is wasted but I don’t know which half”. In that the arrival of multi-digital channels has provided much higher levels of accountability of cause and effect.

Even so, measuring sales as a result of spending marketing money is tricky, but great if you can do it. But not everybody can. It remains a complex area and, in many respects, still requires better analysis to ensure money is spent in the right place, at the right time, with a compelling story or message.

And what happens when company budgets are tight and there’s a need to make savings? There are places to head for to unlock short-term profits or losses. And the marketing budget often holds the key. Why would this important line of expenditure offer itself up for a cut?

Well, you wouldn’t cut anything that you could readily ...