Lessons from the Gridiron —Farquharson/Tedsco

Ah, September—when summer cools into brisk fall 
 and America's favorite pastime heats up. Yes, it's football season! As native New Englanders, we're hard at work practicing our best Tom Brady and Randy Moss impersonations.

You might be asking, "Football? Isn't this column supposed to be about print revenue growth in a turbulent economy?" Sure, but good football teams and good printing businesses have a lot in common. Take a knee and listen to this pep talk from Coaches Ted and Farq on some smart ideas that drive success on the field and in clients' offices. Otherwise, drop to the ground and give us 20! Now!

Plug the Gaps

Good linebackers anticipate the offense's next move by properly covering the field. Prioritization goes to direction of play and plugging the gaps. Decisions are quickly made and you have to live with the consequences. Let an interception opportunity slip through your hands and it hurts at both the individual and team level. Wait a second, are we talking about football or business? Kind of works for both, right?

Like a defense has to quickly determine run or pass, sales and marketing resource decisions need to be swiftly made in response to current business opportunities. What's so hard about that? In the complex world of sales opportunities, "no" doesn't always mean "no," and "yes" doesn't always mean "yes."

Consider this statement, " 'Yes, we're happy with our current suppliers, and no, we don't need you now.' " What does this mean? Sure, it's possible you should pull the turf from your helmet and run to the sidelines. Or it may, just may, mean you've found a solid print buyer who represents a future opportunity when a current vendor relationship becomes strained. As seasoned print sales pros know, this is when, not if!

Just because the quarterback looks left, do you run left? Maybe yes, maybe no. Like a good d-back, cut through the deception and clutter and focus on plugging the gaps. Don't let your sales and marketing efforts be a porous sieve allowing leads and opportunities to slip through your defense. Avoid the blocker, identify the guy with the ball and position yourself to make the tackle!

Let's hear it from the master.

"You can play hard. You can play aggressive. You can give 120 percent, but if one guy is out of position then someone's running through the line of scrimmage and he's going to gain a bunch of yards."
—Coach Bill Belichick, New England Patriots

Create a foolproof system that lets you efficiently move companies and key business influencers through the suspect-prospect-customer funnel. A rule-of-thumb for the printing industry is that it takes 250 suspects to generate three repeat customers, one of which has the potential to become a top-10 account. Train all team members with customer interaction responsibilities to identify and track anything that smells like an opportunity. Don't be scared, but you need to put a lot of "customer candidates" (i.e., suspects) into the pipeline.

New Englanders know Flutie-esque Hail Marys may win you a monster game once in a blue moon, but it's blocking, tackling and positioning that make the difference every Sunday. This may sound like a duh moment, but position yourself for success by following up on all estimates, inquiries and networking connections with a steady stream of "light touches," brand reminders, phone calls and personalized communications. If Coaches Ted and Farq are asked for an opinion, we'll always choose frequency over one-time comprehensiveness.

Once you've created this system and trained your customer teams to work within it, they'll start to think ahead, plug the sieve and generate a consistent stream of opportunities.

Do Your Homework

New Englanders are a magnanimous bunch. We give credit where credit is due. Part of what makes Pey...Peyton…Peyton Manning (phew, that was hard to say!) so successful is that he spends countless hours watching game tape. Each week, he does what it takes to fully understand his opponent. As we Patriots fans know all too well, Manning never takes the field even slightly ignorant of his opponent's historical defensive tactics and strategy.

Should sales and marketing activities be approached any differently? Hello?

Before a suspect becomes a prospect, you need to know more than a couple of names and current print volume. Do they fall in your company's production sweet spot? Are they long-term business fits? If Peyton Manning were a print sales rep, imagine how much information he'd mine before setting foot in a prospect's office.

Football teams, printers and organizations not led by Gates or Buffett, face resource challenges. Stressed out sales teams barely have enough time to work all qualified prospects, much less unqualified suspects. Yet, we need to appropriately influence buyers at companies no matter where they fall in the suspect-prospect—customer funnel.

This is where marketing can act as your advance scout team, lending the sales folks a helping hand. Will marketing sell print jobs? Unlikely. But marketing can efficiently identify suspects and effectively prime the pump, driving future revenue success. Compared to the cost of direct sales, marketing activities work at the top of the suspect-prospect-customer funnel for pennies on the sales dollar.

Task your lead marketer—hopefully you have one—with starting a Prospect Nurture Program (PNP) where business influencers at companies that matter to you receive useful information on a preplanned basis. Once these influencers associate your brand with useful information, problem-solving tips and technical expertise, you'll start to win all valuable top-of-mind positioning.

As you settle into your La-Z-Boy recliner on Sunday to watch your favorite team on the gridiron, consider this: Success in both business and football depend on execution at every level, from owner to coach to quarterback to water-boy. You need both an excellent game plan and fundamental skills to get to the playoffs in position to win the big one. And, if you happen to have a cooler of beer with you, feel free to invite over coaches Ted and Farq for some truly unforgettable color commentary. PI

—Bill Farquharson, T.J. Tedesco

About the Authors
Bill Farquharson is the president of Aspire For (www.AspireFor.com). His Sales Challenge can help drive your sales momentum. Contact him at (781) 934-7036 or e-mail bill@aspirefor.com. T.J. Tedesco is team leader of Grow Sales, a 14-year-old marketing and PR services company. He is author of "Playbook for Selling Success in the Graphic Arts Industry" and five other books. Contact Tedesco at (301) 294-9900 or e-mail tj@growsales.com.