Pre-Dispositions, Markets and Sales

First. A little background. I received a call from someone I met through this blog. He's a local guy. He found my blog one day quite a few months back. We talked about networking events in our first conversation. A few months later we talked about another topic. A few months later (today) he calls me up again. 

In the last two calls we talked about how WhizSpark could fit into a specific market.  I blogged about how we were looking at different markets not too long ago which sparked our last two conversations.  Since things are now picking up on the sales front, we've started to figure out what works. That's not to say, of course, that other things won't work. But, in any startup's course of finding a place in the world, there's time to focus and execute. And there's time to explore business models and markets. Now, is the time to focus and execute. And suffice to say that the market he is interested in - is not any of the ones that we've tried pursuing.

That's my frame of mind.

So, we were about an hour into our two hour long conversation today. This isn't the first time we've talked for a long time. After an hour in, he asks for demo sites to be set up and for more material. I know why he wants this. It is so that he can go and sell this idea to potential clients.

Keep in mind that my frame of mind is this lately: I help people market their events. Specifically, my focus is on networking events and seminars for businesses as lead generation tools. If someone does seminars or wants to, I can help. These sales have been about a 2 week sales cycle once I get to the decision maker.

So, my sales hat says: get to the decision maker.

After a little instruction from Dave Kurlan, I've learned that demos, long proposals and documents don't make sales. They actually impede them. When I get in front of someone, I find out the problem.  I see if I have a match in my toolbox to solve that problem.  I communicate how I can solve it. I confirm that they think my solution solves that problem. I close. I've learned from Rick that contracts are for formalities: Legal stuff and to simply confirm we are on the same page.

So, I suggest that I should meet with him and the decision maker. And he pushes back gently. I push harder. I say something stupid: "We can talk until we are blue in the face. But, noone can sell my services as well as anyone else."

He then gets perturbed.

So, I apologize for my choice of words. I ask him why he's perturbed. And he tells me. He elaborates on how the money might flow. And who the players are. And how the relationships would work.

I can't really explain the whole thing and keep this story confidential. Nor is it that important. I got what I wanted out of the conversation: I wanted to know whether this guy was a player or if he was jerking my chain. And I wanted to know who the decision maker was.

It turns out that he is the decision maker. It turns out he's already built a few businesses and flipped them. It turns out that this could be a big deal for us.

So, what was my predisposition?  I assumed that this guy wasn't a player and that he was a big dreamer with a bunch of ideas. I know that this is a BIG generalization. But, often I've found that people that come to me with ideas as a result of reading my blog are usually looking for affirmation of the idea. Then, they move onto another idea in a few months before ever really make anything a commercial success. And if that is the case, then I just wasted two hours of my time today when I could've talked to 3 or 4 prospects about seminars.

We'll see whether this guy executes on this one. But, my predisposition did me some disservice. It caused me to be a bit short. When I should have asked questions like: How will the money flow? Have you ever done anything like this before? Are you financing this?, etc... I said something like "We can talk til we are blue in the face."

It worked out in the long run. I pissed him off. I apologized. I told him about my bias and predisposition. He explained how the deal could work and his long term vision. He understands what I can and can't do using WhizSpark and how we can test out some of his ideas for this market with little investment and with a quick turn-around. It could turn into something HUGE. It might go nowhere.

I guess the point is: It's hard to know when to give someone the benefit of the doubt. Whether someone can really pull something off. It's hard to know what opportunities should be ignored and which should be embraced. I've learned most recently to let cash flow rule. But, maybe big opportunities won't come from the markets already proven profitable?

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