Arrived here in Vermont late last night to discover everything was just wicked cold...and totally frozen...even though I had been watching the plow guys and shovelers on my Ring for the last two weeks. Right now, I'm in my downstairs office but not able to see out the window which is covered with 4 feet of snow. One has gotta' love living in Vermont, but then my family has been here in this valley for 7 generations, so every once in a while, I trick myself into thinking that I'm used to constant snow and temps below 0...but not really. My great grandfather, Horace, lived up the road a piece in Poultney and (according to my grandfather) talked about 9 months of winta', 1 of summa', 1 of mosquitos and 1 of damn poor sleddin'".
Question this AM before I go out to shovel out a viewing path so that I can at least see out the window:
How many definitions of "Cold" do you use?
Bitter cold: This is normal Boston biting cold.
Freezing: Simple definition of anything below 32.
Icy: Last week's frozen Boston cold when snow became rain became ice.
Chilly: Not sure that anyone really uses the word "chilly" in New England.
Arctic: Extreme Artic cold or on the top of Mt. Washington.
Wicked: Classic Boston verb, noun and adjective.
Maybe you have more definitions of cold you can share with us this morning, but, as usual, I'm going to spin this into my love of the Science of Sales and Marketing and ask you if you have clear definitions that you and your colleagues use in your definitions:
"Lead", "Qualified Lead", "MQL", "SQL", "SLA", "Demo", "Discovery", "Closed Deal" and other terms that define where your salespeople are in their pipeline?
Add to that question, do you have a Sales pipeline defined in steps, forecasted days per step and the use of specific sales tools for each step? If you don't, you're just out shoveling randomly against the next snowstorm and hoping that it will work out. If you do, you have architected a personalized process with specific words that are customized to mean the same thing with everyone in your company so that everyone can share in the movement of what it takes to move a marketing activity to salespeople to help them close a deal and then to customer success people insuring that that customer is always happy and buying more from you!
I've listened to hundreds of sales and marketing process terms over the years and drawn out thousands of sales funnels, and what I've taken away from that is that there are no universal definitions...nor should there be. What's critical is that within your own company, those definitions should be very specific so that everyone is exactly on the same page and is part of the same success.
If you don't think that that level of specificity is important, consider the specific language, the exacting processes and the very definitive use of terms the next time you're operated on when definitions and timing are life critical. For this wicked cold Vermont morning I will leave you with that thought and suggest that although your sales results for this quarter may not be as critical s your personal health, they are wicked important to your livelihood and the success of your company.
Enjoy your weekend! It's now all the way up to 18, but I need to get rid of this wall of snow in front of all the windows. It's like living in an ice cave!
Working on your 2025 Sales plans!
For a few ideas on how to customize your own sales planning for 2025, click here for our just updated, no-cost "Writing the Winning Sales Plan in 2025, outlining ideas on structure, sales models, process funnels, productivity tools and how to recruit, hire and onboard the best salespeople. A hands-on "how to" guide for real salespeople written by real sales managers with their fingers in the dirt.
Connect with me any time at jack@derbymanagement.com, and let's discuss your own sales process and terms.
