Speaker 1: 0:00

The Surviving Outside Sales podcast, hosted by Mike O'Kelley, presented by Sales Builder Academy. The goal is to survive and thrive all phases of outside sales, whether you're getting in, dominating or getting out. Surviving Outside Sales I'm your host, mike O'Kelley, q4. Let's get into it, let's talk about it. All right, if I were going back out in the field today, this is what I would do, if I was plucked by company and put back into the field day one, almost mid-November here in Q4. All right, number one I've mentioned it before. Something that used to be called the PPF method has been rebranded to the P3 method. P3, past, present, potential. The potential is the future state, the P3 method. Really, quickly, what I would find out is where has this territory or this business been in the past, where is it today and where is it going in the future? Okay, and you're never going to be able to move into the future, you're never going to be able to hit the goals that you want and get the desired outcome if you don't know where you've come from and where you are today.

Speaker 1: 1:30

Status report. So where is this business? How many clients do you have? Where is the money coming from? What type of products, services do you have Add-ons? Rank your products. Where are the products One, two, three, four? Do you have Add-ons? Rank your products. Where are the products One, two, three, four, five? What's the easiest product to sell? What's the easiest product to move? What's the hardest product to move?

Speaker 1: 1:53

Okay, if right now it's almost mid-November, I've got six weeks and you can even do this. If you're not new, you can basically just kind of pretend you're new, you can dump out your bag and you can kind of refresh your fourth quarter. If it's not in the trajectory or it's not excuse me, it's not heading the way you want it to go, you can get that uh uh trajectory reset. And that's the beautiful part about sales is that every single day you get another opportunity to change the outcomes. All right, so find out where this territory has been. Has it struggled? Is there growth? What type of growth can there be? What are you taking over? Are there any leads in the pipeline or are you starting over from scratch?

Speaker 1: 2:44

What is your ideal client profile? Okay, your ICP, your ideal client profile. Who are you going to be after? Do you know those people? Are you coming from the same industry? Are you coming from a new industry? Are any of your former clients that you used to have. Can they use your new product or service? If so, those are the first people I'm calling and reaching out to this week. You probably I probably would have already reached out to them during training, but let's just say, for instance, day one boom, I just got hired. Today's my first day.

Speaker 1: 3:16

I am reaching out to all of my clients who have a need for this. As a reminder, I used to be in the medical sales world and a lot of that time was spent in dermatology. Those are my first conversations I'm having. Hey, I've just got this. What are your thoughts? Is this something you can use? Great, let's set up a meeting. That's the first thing I'm doing. I'm either texting them, I'm giving a phone call, I'm shooting an email, I'm shooting a video and I'm sending it to them. I have this product. I'm shooting a video and I'm sending it to them. I have this product.

Speaker 1: 3:44

Again, if you are not utilizing technology in your sales process, you're going to be left behind. It's very antiquated, all right. So figuring out the P3 method, where you've come from or where this business has come from, where it sits today, and then, what are your goals for Q4? Do you have a quota already? Now? If you're new to the field, you you probably going to have a very low quota. But where's your quota? I'd mentioned in one of the previous episodes put that at 125%. Put it at 125% and push yourself, push yourself. So if you fall short of your goal, you've still hit the company's goal. But if your goal and the company's goal is the same, I think you're going to fall short. I'm not saying you will, but I think you'll fall short, because I think what's going to happen is, if you are, if your goal is aligned, I don't think you're going to push yourself.

Speaker 1: 4:42

And it's a mental thing People don't realize. Sales is a mental thing. You're tired at the end of the day. Suck it up. Make another call. You don't feel like responding to that email at 845 at night. Suck it up, send the email. Your buyer is sending you that message. They're available. Don't wait till the next day. Don't get all excited. Do it right then. Do not wait for another day to process a sale. Do not wait for another month to process a sale. You have no idea what's going to happen. Stay aggressive.

Speaker 1: 5:15

So I would reach out to all of my existing clients and see if this is something that they have a need. I would reach out to all the current clients and I'd speak to all the current clients or customers this week. So any of the any of the book of business that I'm bringing over, I'm focusing on them. Any of the current customers that I don't know of that I've never met before, I'm talking to them this week and then I'm using the P3 method. Okay, the P3 method past, present, potential states All right. Have you used this product before? What do you think about the product? What did you try before?

Speaker 1: 5:54

You're asking a lot of questions. You're a detective. Some of the calls are going to be detective. Some of the calls are going to be sales calls. Okay, the first week, maybe the first two weeks, depending upon how large your territory is you're going to have to be a detective. Okay, past, present, future states. You're going to be once you get to the future.

Speaker 1: 6:21

So asking these clients hey, you're a customer already, and then you're asking a bunch of questions, thinking to yourself can they do more? In my experience, a lot of times your top clients can do more. They just need to know different areas to expand and to grow and, trust me, they're looking for that. As a business owner, I'm always looking to expand and grow and utilize new tools that are going to help with are. If you're selling to business owners, you have got to focus on the future state and it doesn't matter if you think they're tapped out. Continue to act as if they're not, because you don't know if they are, you're just making an assumption. So if I were a reminder, if I was thrust back out in the field P3 method for the business, p3 method for existing clients, p3 method for the clients that I'm bringing over that have not utilized this product or service before, and then structuring a plan where I am using every waking moment of the day to make my presence felt in that territory, I'm sending out an introductory video sales letter. If you don't have the capacity to do a video sales letter, there's tons of softwares out there. I use BombBomb, but there's tons out there. They're not that expensive per month and, as I've said this before, if you're a sales professional, get over paying for your own software if it's going to help you hit your goal. Just because your company is providing you X, y and Z doesn't mean you can't provide for yourself A, b and C.

Speaker 1: 8:12

The email system. Video sales letter. Send out an introductory video sales letter. Hey, my name is Mike. I am the brand new sales professional with blah blah, blah. I really look forward to seeing you. I'll be in. I'll be in your area next week. Would love to know if I can. Um, would love to stop by and introduce myself. That's it. You're not selling them anything, just say, just make a statement of fact. But that is kind of the shot across the bow, that is, letting people know you exist, you are in the universe. Okay, and I see all these, I see all this advice out there, people saying don't do it. Um, oh, you know, they're just going to send you to spam. That's BS. I'm telling you right now. It is BS. And just so you're aware, you're never going to sell everyone. Okay, so you might get a couple of people like, oh, no, thanks, we don't see salespeople, we don't do any solicitations. Okay, great, just cross them off the list for now.

Speaker 1: 9:08

Remember, q4 is a sprint. It is not a marathon, it is a sprint. You want to focus your attentions on closing deals? This is not a hey. I want to start building relationships for 2025 with every single person in my territory. No, you're never going to hit your quota that way, especially if you're behind the eight ball. Right now, you need to focus your attention on anywhere from 30 to 60 accounts that you can. You can hit your quota close the end of the year strong If, for some reason, you have extra time and there's proximity. Yes, it's always great to to try to build some prospects for 2025, but right now is not the time to do prospect building and if I went back out in the field in mid-November, I would not be prospecting. Okay, I'd be trying to close deals and I want to get that.

Speaker 1: 10:05

Low hanging fruit people where there's an immediate need for the product or service, based on all the factors that they have told me. Again, it comes down to the same habits, processes and systems. When I talk to anybody, I ask them a bunch of questions. That's part of the discovery. I ask a bunch of questions and I'm a detective. I'm trying to paint a picture in my mind, as I'm writing notes in my mind, of how I can best utilize what I can provide for them to get them to where they want to go, and that's all I'm focusing on.

Speaker 1: 10:38

I'm not worried about anything else. And guess what If they are. If I don't have what they need or the timing isn't right, put them on the back burner and let them know hey, it sounds like my product or service might not be perfect for you. Um, I'd like to reserve the right to to um discuss this in Q1 of next year. Is that fair? They're probably going to say, yeah, you just let them, you let them off the hook. And they're going to say, yeah, now I know that there's some belief in the sales world that you've just given them an out. You're never going to see them again. There are some sales that are marathons and there's some that are sprints, but Q4 is a sprint. You have to realize that Q4 is a sprint. So, good luck, keep reaching out to me.

Speaker 1: 11:26

I've been doing new episodes for about a week and I've had a lot of people reach out to me. I had a client call this morning, a prospect call this morning. Somebody wanted help this morning, a prospect call this morning, somebody wanted help. So I this is fantastic. This is what I, what I absolutely love to do, and I love hearing from sales professionals who are in the thick of it, who really want to take their game to the next level.

Speaker 1: 11:47

As a reminder. If you want to do that, please reach out to me, email me at Mike at surviving outside salescom. Mike at surviving outsidecom, or DM me on LinkedIn. I'm making tons of changes to my website right now mikeokellycom. So if you see any of the courses, if you see anything on there, there's going to be some changes made in the next week or so. So right now, if you have any inquiries, you can either reach out to me on LinkedIn or mikeatsurvivingoutsidesalescom. I'd love to have a conversation with you and see if that I could help you get to where you want to go and live the life that you want to in this glorious game we call sales. Hope everybody has a great day and we'll see you next time. Surviving outside sales. Cheers.