Are you getting a good ROT on your sales calls?
I recently had the pleasure of being a panellist at the Objective Management Group conference in Boston. At the event I spoke to 150 sales experts from all over the word.
The topic was on “Selling to Big Companies.” Thankfully, I was able to bring some insights based on SalesStar’s experience. We have successfully brought on clients such as Wastemanagement, Steel & Tube, Toll Logistics, Cannon, Bridon Cookes and GJ Gardner’s, just to name a few.
What I didn’t mention was when we chased big companies in the early days we spent weeks, months and even years trying to bring them on. What would happen was that after many meetings, the deal would not come to fruition! These opportunities did not provide a good ROT (Return On Time)!
I did however make sure that everyone in the audience knew that big companies are not our ideal target market, they are our secondary market. When they come to us and have a compelling need and there is urgency to resolve the problem, then yes we will absolutely dance with them, and we’re a pretty good dance partner.
But we don’t deliberately chase BIG Companies because of the complexity and long sales cycles. It really is a poor ROT.
Our core target market are Growth minded CEOs of Midsize companies, B2B with complex sales cycles, normally 6 – 20 salespeople.
Often the CEO is the founder, they own the problem (lack of sales, loosing market share, eroded margins, recruiting the wrong salespeople, an ineffective sales team) and they want to resolve it immediately!
Furthermore, midsize companies have a 6 week sales cycle. They are also profitable and we like working with them because we can make a big difference, and that is so dam rewarding. It is fair to say they give us a good ROT. Which brings cost of selling down and provides us with laser beam focus on qualifying and disqualify prospects.
Are you getting a good ROT from your sales calls? If not get clear on your ideal target market and stop wasting valuable time casting wide nets hoping you will land a whale!
