Rainmaker 17 – Breaking The Invisible Wall

Last month’s GMU Annual Startup Challenge Competition was the first I remember where I got to sit in the audience and watch…

I wasn’t presenting.

What I saw (and remembered) is an idea that because we are presenting, we have to respect that invisible wall that separates actors from the audience, the cast of Cheers from your living room, separates the presenters from THE BUYERS!

How would you present differently if you were trying to sell those very people sitting in the chairs in front of you? Pretend this is not a drill.

1. Leave something of value with the judges, audience, and even the other competitors (like our handouts) before the presentation.

2. Have business cards and special event coupons (implements of selling) at hand and give them to ‘interesting’ and ‘interested’ people.

3. Provide the judges with required material for the competition (of course), and before the event, give them a summary copy of the points you will make (or plan to), and any complex tables, figures, and charts.

4. Provide the audience with a single-sheet highlight of the principal benefits of the product/service from the user’s perspective along with instructions how to buy.

5. Make it easy for people to a) know who you are; b) know how to reach you, on some disappearing slide if you must, but how about on something they can take away?

The Goal: when you leave the stage you have given your pitch AND you have made it easy for people to know who you are and how to reach you to buy something.

What's your story?

Please join us at the Capital Technology Management Hub on December 11 at 6:30 for 300 seconds of Rainmaker 17 – Breaking The Invisible Wall, What we learned at last month’s GMU Annual Startup Challenge Competition at TeqCorner, followed by Joshua Green explaining Cleantech Open—The World’s Largest Cleantech Accelerator -Funding Green Technology...

Previous Rainmakers:

#16 - LinkedIn: Your Personal Publicist (10/9/12)

#15 - Dropping The Other Shoe (9/11/12)

#14 - The Myth of Full Capacity (5-26-12)

#13 - Making the Most of Your Opportunity? (3-27-12)

#12 - The Future is NOW - Makers (3-11-12)

#11 - What Have I Done For You Lately? (2-8-12)

#10 - Tune Your Work for the Internet (1-2-12)

# 9 - Your Internet Personality (12-24-11)

# 8 - Google + Your Personal Website (9-15-11)

# 7 - Mark Your Territory (8-22-11)

# 6 - Networking IS Business (5-25-11)

# 5 - Start With an Offer (4-27-11)

# 4 - Time, Talent, and Treasure (4-10-11)

# 3 - How to Sell Your Skills (3-1-11)

# 2 - The Name Tag (1-5-11)

# 1 - Gifts (11-5-10)

And, Introducing Rainmakers (11-3-10)

Rainmaker # 7 - Mark Your Territory

Animals mark their territory to help keep competitors away. I think it also helps to remind the hunted (prospects) they may be dinner someday.

In business we also mark our territory – by letting folks know who we are and what we offer.

How?

Tell them.

Show them.

Remind them.

Tell them on your website and blog about your capabilities and what you offer.

-No Website? No Blog? No Business!

Show them your results through recommendations and stories/articles from the client's point of view – how they benefited from your work.

- How do you get recommendations? Ask!

Remind them by always leaving something of value with them whenever you 'touch' them – which includes your contact information.

- Who you are, how to reach you, where to learn more (website/blog), and a bookmark for what you offer (tag line or catchphrase).

Mark your territory by being visible – even when out of sight - and findable, while familiarizing your prospects on your capabilities and results.

One final point: Never!!! go to a meeting naked – no business cards; no handout, no nametag. Marking territory is full time work.

Sales Lab’s Rainmaker series returns to the Capital Technology Management Hub, Tuesday, September 13^th with 300 seconds of MarkYour Territory. The featured CTMH speaker will be Professor Steve Gladis, author of The Agile Leader. Come join us!

The previous Rainmakers:

Rainmaker # 6 - Networking – Are you Being Served?

Rainmaker # 5 – Start With An Offer

Rainmaker #4 – Time, Talent, and Treasure

Rainmaker #3 – Process to Purchase

Rainmaker #2 – The Nametag

Rainmaker #1 - Gifts

Objectives and Outcomes

Frank Strickland gave a talk at CTMH this week that defined, clarified, and corrected one of the most common destructive organizational behaviors.

Picture this: You’re in a development meeting, or a sales meeting, or a deployment meeting, and a ranking member, often from outside the team, starts grinding for some unknowable information.

“When will you complete the module?”

“How many sales will you have by the end of the month?”

“How many people will be on the floor?”

There is an easy first answer...whatever the plan says. Where the meeting breaks apart is when the suit wants other proof, different proof. We spend an extra 70 minutes of a planned hour rotating in a tight circle.

Worse, if you figure every group meeting is an expensive opportunity to improve group performance, we’ve just lost that opportunity. A Sales Lab Status Meeting is designed to make everyone better at their job, every time, so a hijacked meeting puts the group back a week...at least.

As Frank explains it, the suits want to spend the time constructing a satisfying (for them) prediction of an outcome, the troops need to focus on completing their objectives.

There’s a common lack of validity in any prediction, so after the first prediction, there isn’t much value gained in the subsequent ones. It’s like chopping an onion in smaller pieces to get more onion.

Under pressure, management often finds out they don’t like their plan, but the last week of the month isn’t the time to stop and fix that.

Here’s Frank’s revelation: The outcome is achieved by executing the objectives. You don’t manage to the outcome. You manage to the objectives that gets you the outcome. Think of the guy who threw his back out steering his bowling ball as it went down the alley. Wrong model.

Outcomes are produced from achieving objectives.

If the suits want increase earnings per share, the troops better commence delighting their customers.

If the suits want more sales, the troops better commence their 20 meetings a month and two blog posts a week.

If the suits want deeper deployment, the troops better concentrate on better planning and improved safety.

Most of the hallucination about outcomes wastes the precious time available to improve achieving objectives. It’s the suits’ lack of confidence rising to the top.

Concentrate on achieving objectives.

Rainmaker #5 - Start With An Offer

Definition - A Rainmaker creates a significant amount of new business for a company.The Sales Lab Rainmaker Series is one rainmaker technique for technologists during the first 300 seconds (five minutes) of the monthly Capital Technology Management Hub Meeting. This is the handout for our May meeting.
 
Listening to a line of people introduce themselves with a name, a precious title, a company, a catchy slogan, like “We put an 'X' through Excellence!” I realized I just wanted the offer. 


What can you do for me? That is more important than anything else. 
 
When you decide to attend an event, your next thought should be, what can I bring? What can I offer? 
 
If you can't think of something, don't cancel. Resolve to attend twenty meetings every month, so the only option is to develop something to offer. Then you can go more easily, more often.


If the offer is more important than the name, title, company, and catchy slogan “Fred the Electrician, Let Us Remove Your Shorts,” why not go with the offer first? 


Or by itself? 
 
What is your offer? Commenting below will help us all get ready! It payz to advertize (here)!


Reserve your place for the next Capital Technology Management Hub Event, How To Implement Security In An Open World, May 10, http://opensourcesecurity.eventbrite.com

The previous Rainmakers:

Rainmaker # 4 Time, Talent, and Treasure

Rainmaker #3 Process to Purchase

Rainmaker # 2 The Nametag

Rainmaker #1 Gifts