Sales “Venture Capital” Style
Posted by AndyM on January 26, 2010 under Business Growth | 
3 Comments to Read
Ever feel like a nuisance when you follow up with your prospects? It’s a frustrating place to be, isn’t it. You wish you had something new to say or some compelling reason for them to budge. When you don’t, it often leads to not making the call at all. If you don’t need the work, then it’s fine to leave the issue alone. If you need the business, then you are better off placing your (lame) call because there is always the chance that they fully intend to do business with you, they just need a reminder.
If you want to take your sales results to another level though, consider this notion. You’re not a sales person, you are a venture capitalist. I’m not suggesting that you impersonate a VC in the hopes that you can trick your prospect into talking with you. I mean you would benefit from taking on that philosophy.
A Closer Look
VCs (especially those involved with early-stage businesses) expect the majority of the companies they invest in to either fail completely or fall far short of expectations. Does this sound a little bit like your pipeline of business? If you expect MOST of your prospects to close, then you’ve got wishful thinking or an amazing close process that I need to learn about 
. Sales is based upon the assumption that only a fraction of the opportunities you pursue will succeed – just like the portfolio of companies that a VC selects.
O.k., so we’ve established one similarity between sales people and venture capitalists — each pursues an array of opportunities knowing full-well that only a fraction will result in “success.” Scratch below the surface and we immediately find an important difference between how VCs and sales people operate. VCs invest in the companies in their portfolio. Not just money, but time and resources as well. They join in the fight to make each company succeed. In the end, they have to be shrewd and cut their losses, invest more in the “winners,” etc. But along the way they are busy trying to help each company reach its goals.
How do you think they would do if all they did was call around to each company in their portfolio on a regular basis to ask “have you made us money yet, how is it going?” Pretty weak, right. So (as a sales person or business owner) how helpful are you when you call around to your active prospects and keep asking, “…have you made a decision yet? Have you talked with your boss or gotten approval from your CFO yet?” Pretty weak right.
So remember, I’m talking figuratively here. I’m not proposing that you have to invest hard money in your prospects. But how can you benefit from that perspective? What would a venture capitalist do? Well, he or she would treat the list of active opportunities as a rolling portfolio of “investments.” In each case he would determine what is needed to make them successful. So stop there. Note the *them*.
Here is where sales people can lose sight. Do you want business from your prospects? INVEST in them to help them realize the benefits you know they want. Can you introduce them to someone in your network to help them get further along in their project or important aspect of their business? Can you point out a resource for promoting their business that they may not be familiar with? Can you give them a taste of the service you provide with a focus on delivering tangible benefits?
Reciprocity is a powerful force. Sure giving your prospects a gift or treating them to box seats at the A’s game may be appropriate at times and make them feel indebted to you. But invest your energies into helping them reach their business goals and you will set yourself apart, and create more winners in your “portfolio” in the process!
