Work Smart!

At some point, we all have been told: “Don’t just work harder, work smarter.” Never mind smart-er, lets start with working smart.

Is this smart?

Picture this scenario: A Sunday morning in a very busy beach town in the middle of the summer, breakfast in a crowded bustling restaurant, everyone in the joint has on shorts, t-shirts, and flip-flops. We have four children with us for breakfast and two guys get squeezed into the table next to us. The place is really packed and their table is 18 inches, at most, from ours.

It takes about 10 seconds to determine that this is a sales call! One guy is the buyer and the other is the seller. Buyer has on a blue blazer and designer jeans that probably cost more than the blue blazer. Seller has a laptop bag with company name prominently displayed.

The sales pitch begins immediately, “We will create an American brand with a Chinese cost structure.”

Within ten minutes (the seller was speaking so loudly that we and many others were privy to the entire conversation) the industry, their strategy, their product alternatives, and most of their plan were very apparent. The seller’s company laptop bag had about fifteen prototype units that were proudly displayed on the table. (Now we know how the iPhone prototype likely got “lost!”)

My sales call report and debrief also reveals that the buyer told the seller on at least three different occasions: “I got it!”

ValueSelling Framework® hint – if your customer or prospect tells you “I got it!” you are probably telling them something they already know and may not be perceived as adding personal value to them. Further, the seller told the buyer “I just want to share my feelings with you” on at least four different times. Reading the buyer’s body language (I had on sunglasses….he couldn’t see me watching the “pitch”) that approach just didn’t fit and was completely ineffective. Was this salesperson serving his personal need to talk or the buyer’s need to be educated, evaluate or execute a decision?

One could argue they were working smart because of the following:

1. seller had access to Power – check



2. seller found a way to extend selling time and got an appointment on Sunday morning – check
   
   
3. seller had prepared and had a presentation – check (it was so big that it could not fit on their small table but that is a different issue)

In reality, this is a classic case of working harder but not smarter. Would the investors of the company think the executive was smart for sharing their plan in public? Would the employees who took the risk to join a start-up have confidence in their CEO who handles their trade secrets like water from a faucet?

Not smart.

Moving beyond their mistake, the lesson for us is:

• One way of working smart means you are aware of your surroundings: Airplanes, airline clubs, restaurants, and public bathrooms are not good places to conduct private, proprietary conversations. The blue-tooth hands-free technology has made it easy to multi-task and walk/talk etc. Just because it’s easy does not mean it’s smart.



• Last week in an airline club the gentleman sitting behind me was making a phone call and obviously reached a prospect's voicemail. Included in his message was his name, company name, product strengths and reasons to buy. He also stated the name and company name of the individual he was speaking with. The gentleman in the club was a key competitor of mine! Thank you for the unintended gift of knowledge and insight that he provided to me!



• Recentely a client shared the story of a vice-president sitting on an international flight making derogatory comments about his company and company stock price to his seat-mate. It so happens that a member of the company’s board of directors was sitting directly in front of him. This employee was not smart for at least two reasons: a) not knowing his board of directors and b) making those negative comments in an airplane setting. Once that flight landed in Los Angeles, the board member immediately called the CEO, the CEO called the group president and the employee was terminated.

We all see examples of what not to do every day – but with time constraints and the pressure to multi-task, we often do them anyway!

SUMMARY

All the easy business is gone. “Do whatever it takes” is our marching order and “make your numbers” is absolutely a mandatory outcome. Just because you have the world’s best “two-minute elevator pitch” does not mean you should deliver it to the executive you have been trying to see, when he is in an elevator with 12 other people. Always be prepared, work on your message constantly – tweaking where it makes sense. Know your customer’s business as well as your own, and pay attention to the surroundings you choose to conduct business.

It’s the smart thing to do.