We were driving through the city and my young son noticed the “Free Shrimp Tomorrow” and paused — “Dad, what will the sign say tomorrow?”
I said, “The same.”
My son thought for a minute — “So, there’s no free shrimp.”
Yep, that’s life: no free shrimp.
But this has an important lesson for us: the promise of tomorrow is always there and can be a distraction. We think it will always be there … therein lies the trap. A focus on today prevents us from getting to tomorrow. Successful sales people are highly responsive. we are busy working on prospects that are active — But that often keeps us busy and we never get to the activities that are needed for developing a pipeline.
You have to make time to build pipeline: to work on the things that aren’t ready now but might be later. This is about the prospect’s timing as well as time management by the rep. In many reps thinking, the odds of winning a new prospect are much worse than the “sure things” you are working on now so they work everyday on today… that you’ll get to the other leads later: the Free Shrimp Tomorrow syndrome.
So, periodically, you need to look at the leads that are in your possession and start to assess their potential:
- First, i would try to sort out leads who could never buy: size, complexity, incompatibilities — identify early so they don’t clog your pipeline. Some reps hold on to everything — and you can see leads that reps have worked for years with no progress. Get real.
- Second, be honest about the time frame of a prospect. I used this rule to work my pipeline: A good sales person knows when a customer could buy, a great one can move it forward. (The first part is important for this discussion; the second part is more about forecasting.)
I would look at my deals and project their estimated close date based on the customer’s process, taking into account demos, tests, purchasing, legal review etc. Many reps get tripped up and focus on winning the presentation without understanding the entire process and timeline — when there is much work to do. Not knowing the timeline leads to “slipped deals”.
A rep of mine asked for a discount to incent customer to buy in September. I asked her if she had run this by her sponsor: “if i could get you a discount could you do the deal?” She hadn’t.
I put a call in and learned that even with a discount it wouldn’t happen as it required board approval — next one in November…
This is what i call: Spilling your candy in the lobby. She would have offered a discount that wouldn’t help us — but the customer would say: “we have to use the discounted pricing even thought it wasn’t in September because this is what we submitted to the board.” (Not to mention that she was unaware of the board approval requirement).
BONUS TIP: I always check on approval levels early in the cycle — helps with planning. Many reps operate linearly — one step after the other other. I attribute some of my success (especially on larger deals) by working on concurrent tasks. the goal was to shorten the sales cycle.. At some point, if i felt we have made progress, I’d suggest, “Based on how things are proceeding, is now a good time to submit our legal agreements so you can review?” This is a bit of a trial close. No matter what the answer, you “”win” — in the sense that your buyer will either give it a green light or raise reasons for not (in which case you can work on this now rather than being surprised at the end of the process).
I had a large deal — it was stalled — my sponsor said it was stuck in purchasing…so i headed down to the 5th floor to introduce myself (BTW: I didn’t ask my prospect for permission — I just headed down. in that sense, I was a bit aggressive.) what I learned was fascinating:
- my sponsor didn’t know the internal process for approvals — as they had not made an enterprise purchase before.
- through some questions about how he worked, I learned that the purchasing agent’s priority was working deals where he could save the company money… and his bonus was based on the “savings”. My deal was low on his list as it required extra work to present to the board.
- I asked what was the dollar cut off for board approval — and calculated we were only 5% higher. So, wait it out for board approval or eliminate the risk and take 5% less?
- I suggested to the purchasing rep that if I could get the deal under the limit could we do it this quarter (always ask for something for any concession you make): he said if it was under that amount, that the CIO could approve. I asked him if he had everything he needed from me, was everything ready to go except for the approval.
- Now, when it comes to selling “high”, you have to have the right approach and subject matter that is appropriate for their consideration. I called the CIO, brought him up to speed that his team and mine (notice i build up my team as important as his) had identified the benefits and I learned there was a board approval required. He confirmed and he too mentioned the additional work and exposure. I then presented my “solution” — in return for a deal this quarter (so important to set up the bargain this way where the “give” is upfront) i could discount just over 5%. He said if that was true, he’d sign the paperwork when purchasing brings it up.
The goal for considering these timing issues is so that you can more accurately project when deals should be closed. Id put these deals on a virtual WhiteBoard that my tech rep and inside rep could see and wed use that to discuss what each of us had to do. This allowed us to work on big and small deals for each quarter.
The objective of this is to balance your time..
But what about leads that aren’t ready? you put in a folder, or put a call back reminder on your calendar. More shrimp for tomorrow. .. that you don’t get to. its sort of like catching a fish that isnt legal — you throw it back and hope it comes back when it is ready.
What are the odds of catching the same fish twice?
However you get leads, they will fall into one of two categories: In talking with a lead, you’ll identify some that wont ever buy — so you mark with notes as No Opportunity…and you’ll identify some that could benefit from your products/services but cant move now — for example, a contract. So you’ve talked with them, understand the fit and timing — now what?
I call these Future Prospects – and this is a major way to build pipeline for the future.
Since you qualified them, presumably they now know more about you. You should keep in touch: not “are you ready now?” but some special messaging that keeps your brand and value prop in front of them so that you have multiple touches. don’t send the same brochure and don’t use the same messaging you use to develop suspects. Focus on information the Future Prospect my find helpful and that helps drive awareness and urgency to act: share success stories about customers like them who have succeeded, ROI, reasons to migrate etc. Focus on benefits for your customers.
If you have a CRM or contact manager, tag these records as Future Prospects and then communicate regularly with info on how you have helped other customers succeed.
Size doesn’t matter — everyone wants a Jumbo Shrimp but selling to only big customers is deceiving: they need attention, require your time – but maybe they are buying all they can. Your pipeline building should include customer accounts that could buy more: share of wallet. Maybe they use a long time supplier but you are a back up, or maybe they are building a new product line and will grow – but now are using just a little of your product – but could they buy more? What is your share of their wallet? You need to know because it is most likely easier to build up an existing client than to win a new one . but if you look at sales numbers, you might go Bah. Peppers & Rogers called this Most Growable.
Retain your customers of course, but they advocated firing customers who cost you money (Below Zero)…I was never a fan of firing — but set pricing accordingly and your lower end will self selct out. Many businesses and reps look at the immediate order — not the potential.
So, in conclusion, keep the future in your current plans. Understanding timing gives you flexibility. You’ll have plenty of shrimp any day you want.
A blog by Paul Petersen 
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