February, 2024 When “Good Enough” is Not Good Enough Have you ever uttered the phrase “good enough”? Maybe you were pulling weeds from your lawn and felt what you had done was “good enough”. Or maybe you decided to straighten up the garage and after three hours you thought, “that’s enough”. Chances are what you had done made enough of a difference to appease your mind (or your significant other). In sales, however, “good enough” often leaves us short of our intended goal. We know that we almost always have some measured level of success when we reach a certain number of meetings per week. But when Thursday rolls along and we are shy of the targeted level we think to ourselves, no one is going to agree to a meeting with one day’s notice. Or we target 50 cold call dials a day and come up a little shy for the week so that by Friday we need to make 120 dials just to meet our target. We understand the magnitude of the effort needed and so we allow ourselves the comfort of falling short. Allowing ourselves the luxury of falling short is a recipe for failure. I was in the gym the other day and saw a tee shirt that read, “If you think training is hard, tell me how you feel about losing”. That is a message that resonates. No one likes or intends to fail. But what other outcome can we expect when we knowingly allow our “training” to come up short? We can all recall instances when we pushed ourselves to make one more dial on a Friday evening and struck sales gold. What a great feeling we got from persevering. Remember that feeling the next time you think we’re at “good enough”. Of the many salespeople I actively coach, the phenomenon that we are beginning to see is that more prospects are answering their phones. Maybe they are nervous of impending layoffs. Maybe they just want to hear what we are seeing in the marketplace. Whatever the reason, those few additional dials might drive our next deal. What’s Enough? I get this question all the time. “How many submits should my recruiters be making each day/week? And how many meetings is the right number for my salespeople to be making”? My answer is almost always “I don’t know”. The truth is that activity needs to be determined individually, by results achieved. If you want to see a placement per week by either sales or recruiting, track their weekly activities. How many calls did they make; how many people did they speak with; how many job orders did they bring in; how many interviews, submits and ultimately, placements did they have? Once you have this data in hand, calculating activity needed is simple. Don’t rely on some overall average of activities across the industry. On Tuesday, Feb 13th, join me as I will co-host a TechServe webinar to discuss this topic. February, 2024 “Just Another Way to Differentiate” According to SIA, there are over 19,000 staffing companies active today, with some 10,000 that have an IT component to them. To our buyers, we all look the same. Therefore, in a sea of looka-likes, it is imperative that we truly find ways to make our organizations stand out amongst the thousands of competitors scrambling to find new business. In previous newsletters, we have looked at some interesting and unique ways to achieve this goal. o o o o Helping clients understand hidden costs and providing ways to identify and remove them. Providing a narrative that helps to drive a heightened sense of urgency. Tracking and highlighting performance statistics as a way to set us apart. Using “scorecard results” from other clients to replace underperforming competitors. All great discussion points as our sales teams constantly pursue the best “differentiator” to gain the attention of a high value prospect. But that’s not enough. In any organization, everyone sells. And one of the most critical ways to set your organization apart is to show you care. As an owner or CEO, it is incumbent upon you, as the company’s leader, to drive home the value and importance that each client represents. Sending an annual Holiday greeting or occasional newsletter pales in comparison to getting F2F with clients. This can and should be done without salespeople accompanying the effort. Setting meetings with managers, Directors, VP’s and above to discuss what we do best; what we do that is bothersome; and what they would do differently if they were running our companies; shows that we care and how valuable they are to our success. Then, implementing recommended changes and sharing those with clients will absolutely set us apart from the masses. Harvyst Consulting Partners Sales, Recruiting, Management, & Executive Coaching Office: 850.842.2145 Mobile: 404.863.2265 rcarlson@harvystconsulting.com Harvyst Notes Managing Teams Is 2024 off to the start that you had hoped for or expected? While it’s only February, we can still feel the general pulse of the new year. We don’t want to overreact, or course correct too early, as we need to give our newly formed strategies a chance to take root. Already, however, there is a sense of change coming. We have heard of, and even witnessed, some unexpected layoffs. Articles are surfacing regarding ” Maintaining Morale During Cutbacks” and “Utilizing Older Workers vs. New Grads” (reply to this email if you would like copies of either), and these articles seem to suggest that clients are preparing to weather an anticipated storm. This can have a contagious impact that infects our sales teams’ efforts and provides a “crutch” that supports less than desired results. There is always a tendency to take a “wait and see” approach as the year is just underway. But like flying a plane across country, if our navigation is only slightly off course in the beginning, it gets magnified as time passes. If not quickly corrected, our original destination of Atlanta, GA might cause us to end up in Miami. Keeping our efforts on track early is the key to reaching our desired destination. Do you sense this might be happening in your organization? The TechServe Sales & Recruiting Coaching Program is designed to help. Call or email for more information.
