Rant #5 – They TOLD ME they had great connections
It’s now 6 months later and we have no meetings scheduled. I have to admit I love this one because it can happen across the board. It can be your $225k hire, the retired military leader, the retired Agency head, the “commercial expert” or the newbie, etc. You’re paying for action not cards in a rolodex. How many former executives do you know that actually handled the sales process? Not too many – so why would you expect them to do it for you? You hired them for one reason and one reason only – to make introductions for you and now in order to see your investment flourish you need to pair them with someone who can communicate the opportunity and move the opportunity forward.
It can also happen with your in-house Business Development person, anyone can say they know people and how many CRM’s are filled with names and numbers that represent a person they met once at an event 5 years ago? Again Business Development is about connections, strategy and execution. You’re looking for someone who can figure out the puzzle, methodically go about meeting and meeting with your desired prospects, communicate in the most effective way the value that prospect would receive in working with you and moving that prospect along the pipeline IF they are the right fit. The last thing you want is someone trying to cram a square peg into a round hole. You want right fit clients and you need the person who is willing to walk away from a deal if in the short or long run they know it’s not going to work. The frustration and potential damage to your reputation just isn’t worth a few months of revenue.
Let’s be honest, sales is a crap shoot. There really is no way to tell if someone you interview really has strong connections or not (unless of course you’ve seen this person in action over a long period of time). There’s also no way you can identify their strategic capabilities or their desire to execute. What does work is communication and accountability. This in no way implies you should be a micro-manager however there does need to be a standard for how information is delivered to you and vice versa.
