A stream of consciousness entry

I'm posting from my Treo 650 on the ferry boat headed home. No laptop. How cool is that? Think of the things our grandkids will do. Hard to imagine, actually!

I often think of the comment by my former employer, Bill Gates: People overestimate how much change will occur in 2 years, and underestimate how much change will happen in 10.

Ask yourself, in case there is any doubt of this: Would you have predicted 10 years ago that people across the country in 2007 would make their primary living on eBay?

But I digress. What prompted this stream of consciousness entry? A longtime friend and associate -- a sharp lady with an entrepreneurship MBA -- contacted me for some coaching. She has a new job in her company: product marketing.

I ask, "what's the assignment?" The company, a B2B technology provider, has had a product offering for a few years. It brings in a half mil every year but has never been thought out or taken off. Salespeople don't know what to do with it.

What to do? Call in product marketing...

This is not the first time I have seen this dynamic! One of my then-prospective clients (also in the B2B technology space) share that they had created a product 5 years prior and the salesman had landed only 11 accounts without getting anywhere close to breakeven.

Thus the conclusion today of Travis' Law of Wayward Organizations:

"When sales fails (for an extended period) call in a marketer!"

I Object!

On this first day of the year, it is good to remember that we are all share the same profession.

• If you make your living from customers or clients who pay for your products or services, you are in sales...
• If you are a parent and want your child's room cleaned, you are in sales...
• If you see things differently than your boss (and want to do anything more positive than gossip) you are in sales...
• If you spend any time with non-profit organizations and want not to do all the work yourself, you are in sales...

A couple years ago, Selling Power magazine conducted a survey of about 1,000 salespeople. While not segmented by industry or other categorization, and not statistically representative, the results are helpful.

"The objection I encounter most frequently is..."

33% Need to think about it
20% Price is too high
21% Happy with current supplier
11% Don't have the budget 11%
4% Waiting for economy to pick up
6% Need to get approval
6% Considering other vendors

Here is the 60-Second Marketing lesson:

100% of the time, we haven't listened well enough to understand the current point of pain, and built a compelling case for the value of our proposed solution.

Live long and prosper [this year!]