Every day, depending on customers, quotas, and students, I spend a bit of time reading daily blogs from both McKinsey and Gartner on the revolutionary changes in the practice of the science of sales.  I've been preaching, experimenting, practicing and teaching these processes and tools at MIT and at Tufts for more than a decade, and all of that has been pre-AI.  

Yesterday afternoon, between sales calls, I clicked to a short McKinsey post that was pushed to me titled "How Generative AI Could Reshape B2B Sales", and it started with the headline of...

Sales stands on the brink of a profound transformation. The fundamental role of the seller may not change, but the power of gen AI ensures that the art of selling will look very different in the future.

My students and I have been actively using AI for the last two years, but as I read that blog, which from an academic standpoint was "interesting", it didn't give me anything that I could use to hammer down sales in the next 62 days. I filed it away in my growing library just outside my office of physical stacks of "interesting" articles this year, and then decided to replace "interesting" with "necessary" which led me to go back to Old School tactics that I...and maybe you...can do something with on Monday. 

Old school is to count the Available Selling Days left in the year, which by my count is 62...unless of course, you think that you're going to be productive in the days before and after Thanksgiving or any day after 
December 20th. Even if you're thinking that you might have those days, your prospects do not, so, let's just use "Jack Math" says we have 60 days left in this year to sell and end above quota.  

Increase your Windshield Time by 50%

Faced with a 90-minute commute most days into Boston or Tufts, I am a huge supporter of online work, and although I like to believe that I can be very productive making calls from the car, the reality is that there's not too many customers for me to talk with at 5:00 AM or 6:00 PM.  On the other hand, at this time of year, when I can arrange a F2F meeting, that's what I push. I have an online calendar on every email that is open to customers and students, and right now I block out large sections of time for customer travel.  

If you're a manager-an RM, a VP or a CEO, this is the perfect time to travel with your AEs and AMs for classic, old-school account reviews and teaching sessions. One of our very successful CEOs spends 75% of her time on the street with customers during this time of year! 

The 80%/20% Rule Still works in B2B

We've been at this for a long time. We love data which we've been collecting and reading about for decades, and the data from most B2B markets clearly states that approximately 80% of annual revenue comes from 20% of our customers. There's a bit of Jack Math in those numbers, but in general, the 80/20 Rule rules.

The core of your 60-day plan then is to spend your time with that small number of Key Accounts

• You can certainly visit every key account in the next 30-45 days.
• A superb time to review the year and work on or close any open opportunities.
• No better a time than F2F to ask: "What does it take to close this?"
• Since every business is currently working on their 2025 plans, ask about that plan.
• As a trusted advisor, ask if you/your company can help with their 2025 planning.
• You know them; they trust you: simply ask for more business to close this year!
• One of my very successful CEO's, always asks: "What added value can we provide?"

30-60-90 Plans

We're fingers-in-the-dirt planning guys, so we require written 30 days plans from every salesperson whether they're a BDR, an AE or AM, an RM or a VP.  It's an easy-to-complete templated format stored in the CRM that outlines big block activities by week over the next 30 days. In fact, personally I always push for 60 and even 90-day plans, but just earlier this week, I got pushback from a VP telling me:  "my guys don't have the time to do all of this planning".   Ok, so no 90-day plans, but if a salesperson-to whom I am paying a lot of money-cannot take 45-60 minutes once a week to update their plan every Sunday for the next 30 days, I already know that that person simply can't be productive.   

Have a great day selling today!!!

working on your 2025 Sales plan!

For a few ideas on your own sales planning for 2025, click here for our "Writing the Winning Sales Plan, outlining ideas on structure, sales models, process funnels, productivity tools and how to recruit, hire and onboard the best. 

Give me a call and let's discuss having us facilitate your 2025 planning process. 

I drive a ton of miles and there's nothing like a quick call as I challenge the end of day commute out of Boston to talk about your current thinking for this quarter with a few specific ideas. 

www.derbymanagement.com  
Derby Entrepreneurship Center@Tufts.