Business Mastery

I have written in the past about Andy Miller, an extremely well respected sales training and sales execution authority.

This time I will tell you about the need to coordinate between the sales cycle and the buying cycle.

The sales cycle is a common term and is controlled in the main by the sales rep. The rep is the one determining the various steps in the selling process. The rep is the one driving the pipeline.

Andy has convinced me that the failure to recognize and match the buying and selling cycles is a major determination in blown deals.

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Stephen R. Covey, creator of Seven Habits, recently developed a new Formula for Life and shared it with me. It is a nifty set of ideas and I thought I would share it with you.

It revolves around his concept of the whole person—body, heart, mind and spirit.

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I have spent considerable time with Andy Miller and his sales concepts—reading, listening and visiting. Andy is extremely well known in high level selling circles as an expert in the area of consultative selling.

He has many provocative ideas about the buying cycle, the psychology of taking action, selling beliefs and others.

Today we are going to look at the three components of every sales call/cycle—present, qualify and close. And, most importantly, what is the most effective order.

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I had the recent chance to spend time with Marshall Thurber, one of Bucky Fuller‘s students. Marshall is a is a successful attorney, real estate developer, editor, businessman, educator, scholar, inventor, negotiator, author, visionary and public speaker. I saw a little of this diversity of skill when he talked to us. Marshall owns a firm called The Positive Deviant Network.

Not exactly a mainstream thinker, but of course, that’s the point—his focus is on the outliers.

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When I was a fresh recruit at IBM in the 1960′s everyone had a sign on their desks that said “THINK“. The idea was to instill the practice of engaging your brain prior to speaking. Like most great and valuable slogans—simple but not easy.

Another simple but not easy concept was developed about a century ago by Vilfredo Pareto and refined several decades later by Joseph M. Juran. This principle is commonly referred to as the Pareto Principle or the 80-20 rule.

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