A longtime friend of mine and sales professional started his career selling securities. There was a lot of phone work involved, it was mostly phone selling and he worked the phones as good as or better than anyone. I originally heard the term “Power Hour” from him. The concept is that everyone in your organization stops what they are doing at the same time and make sales phone calls.
I introduced this concept to my marquee client recently and the results were impressive.
The sales team consists of six Sales Engineers, a Marketing Manager and a Sales Administrator. These groups of sales professionals are young and ambitious. The company hit and exceeded all sales milestones and goals in 2012. So, what does a sales consultant (me) do? Of course, I asked them to do more.
The target of Power Hour were old customers who we haven’t heard form in a while and “Old No’s”. Old no’s are lost deals that purchased from a competitor.
Of course it’s easy to identify old customers who have not been in contact. A very good friend of mine (you know who you are) talks about milking the cow you own (brilliant). By calling and checking in you can see how they are doing and ask if there are any opportunities brewing. It’s an easy call to make and resulted in some new projects to get involved with.
Old no’s are a little bit harder to call. There is some strategic planning required. When you call, there is a chance, a probability, that the vendor of choice has not delivered on promises and the customer might be open to cancelling the project and working with you. The may or may not call you if unhappy, but if you call them it can trigger a dialog and an opening to get the sale back. This tactic works once in a while, but it has worked for me and will work for you if you give it a try.
Again, the results of power hour for my client were excellent. The first Power Hour resulted in the booking of a $174,000 job. By doing this exercise as a team, it made it easier for everyone. It also was fun. So much fun that they have decided to do two power hours per week.
Do you need some business? If so, call old no’s and old customers. You be pleasantly surprised by what you will uncover.
– Dave Bilbrey – Master Salesman, Sales Consultant
