I remember when “Sharp Dressed Man,” by ZZ Top was released in 1983. I was in high school, and all my friends starting talking about that “amazing new band.” Wasn’t their stuff “really good?” “Wow,” I remember people saying, “they’re an overnight success.” Of course ZZ Top wasn’t an overnight success. They’d been releasing albums since 1970, and many a music aficionado would say that their stuff in the 70s was their best ever.
Today, presenting a program on strategy to a group of CEOs, I got challenged about my company’s claim that we will enable companies to cut their sales cycle in half.
“What,” a participant asked, “is my magic bullet.” When I told him that there wasn’t one, he then asked how I could make such a claim then. Parenthetically, he had already announced a few minutes before that there is no such thing as a magic bullet.
So, how do you cut your sales cycle in half? It’s simple really – and it’s the focus of just about everything I’ve written on this blog. You focus, maniacally, on delivering that thing which you do better than anyone else in the world. You develop a compelling value proposition. You create value in your business development efforts, instead of merely communicating value. You make sure you align everything you do, and I mean everything, behind delivering your value proposition. Stop marketing to people who are not right for your offering. Be authentic. Make real promises and deliver on them. Finally, and probably most importantly, you stay with it.
Is it easy? No it’s not. It’s downright tough – one of the toughest (non-life threatening) things one can do; which is probably why so few do it. Even if you do everything that I recommend, there is still no guarantee of success. However, just because it’s not easy, does not mean that you can’t do it.
It takes time, it takes effort, it takes conviction. Who knows -- you may be an overnight success just like ZZ Top (ask them, they’ll tell you it was worth it).