I am Vermont Strong...and Sales

Posted by Jack Derby, Head Coach on Wed, Oct 03, 2012

fall clean up resized 600With the big Vermont “Cut Down Day” behind me last weekend and a refrigerator list of only 14 items to complete before the end of the month and the first of the November snows, the daunting tasks of getting ready for another Vermont winta’ seem to be relatively contained.   But then, this is Vermont, and just like my perfectly-planned schedules at the beginning of every month always look, well… “perfect”, shortly into the fall season or into every business quarter, there’s always reshuffles and “squeeze-me-ins”, and the only thing that I can really control is how many hours I can work.

Vermont right now is ablaze in its fall glory, so anyone looking to do the leaf peeper thing, this is the weekend, and it’s spectacular.  Last Saturday, even though we were up to our ears in tractor-hauling and chainsaw-cutting, there were a couple of times, as I was trucking brush around, that I just had to stop and take in the cascade of colors.  So, if you don’t go north to Vermont this weekend, you’re going to be left to taking the family to the roadside stand somewhere in the leafy suburbs to pick over a couple of sad looking pumpkins.  Don’t miss Vermont this weekend, and if you want to explore and enjoy Stratton, click HERE!

I am Vermont Strong resized 600Which brings me to the “I am Vermont Strong” marketing campaign.  Just one year ago,  Vermont was decimated by Hurricane Irene.  Streams and rivers rose 10 and 15 feet above normal cutting off most towns from all of the major state highways.  With fall tourism accounting for 25% of the state’s economy,  everyday Vermonters didn’t wait for FEMA to set up booths and hand out payment chits, and they didn’t wait for state engineers to show up to lecture them about regulations and building codes.  They gathered by the thousands to help neighbors who had lost their homes and literally showed up with shovels, wheelbarrows and backhoes to repair the roads.  No one worried about who was going to pay what or what the unions would say about overtime.  They just pitched in, worked around the clock and got it done. As a result, four weeks after what was a devestating disaster, Vermont was back in business, all of the roads were open and the fall tourist season of 2011 was saved.  

 And so, was born the “I am Vermont Strong” Campaign which has been logoed everywhere including replacing the front license plates of Vermont registered cars, but most importantly it represents the spirit, the attitude, the vitality and the pride of living in Vermont.  And that unique culture of self reliance has resulted in raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for the victims of the floods.  What started out as a viral Facebook campaign by Lyz Tomsuden and Eric Mallette, two native Vermonters with a strong message of hope and the simple intention of manufacturing good energies out of a bad situation has now become a rallying cry for representing the uniqueness of what it means to be a Vermonter.  

We're right now at the beginning of Q4.  Take a bit of time over this weekend to think through the messaging, the activities, the programs and the personal statements that you’re going to make to your salespeople regarding their performance over the next 55 or so workdays.  Think through what it is that you're going to say that is going to be both impactful and memorable-similar to...I am Vermont Strong-that will rally the team through the next three months.

  • Messaging

    Is your Q4 messaging to the salesforce crystal clear for this quarter?  Not just in performance metrics, but also in the company's value proposition that you want your salespeople to carry to your prospects and customers?

  • Focus

    There's lots of tension and positive pressure in every quarter and especially in Q4.  Given that, have you correctly focused everyone in your sales and marketing organization to two, maybe three at the most, segments where you want them to spend their time this quarter?  You can easily define the micro-targeted segments in terms of size, verticals, geography, product or price.  The question is "Have you?"  And the reason that you need to do this is that you only have 55 work days or so left in Q4, and in reality, you have just October and the first three weeks of November.

  • Spiffs

    There's a lot of disagreements about 4th quarter spiffs or spiffs in general, but I'm a big fan of those "extra" incentives that are laid out this week or at the latest next that focus on stretching everyone to go above and beyond their quota plan.  "Short", "simple", and "impactful" are the three words that I like to emphasize in the design of a spiff since if you've planned your business and margins correctly, then the margin on any revenue over plan should drop to the bottom line...other than the cost of your spiff. 

    Plus, well done spiffs create lots of positive buzz and fun, which you can also layer on top of your focused messaging for the quarter.  And the final plus is that spiff money can go either directly into the pockets of your salespeople, or they, as a a team, may make a decision to donate that bucket of spiff dollars to a local charity for Christmas. 

Welcome to the fall...and Good Selling!

Jack
Head Coach
Linked In and Sales

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Tags: sales productivity, sales coaching, Sales Optimization, sales, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales plan process, sales coach, sales management coach, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, sales planning, sales tools, selling, sales management training, selling skills, Sales quota, sales training, sales plans, sales jobs