“You Don’t Know JACK!”

Last month’s installment of Be Bold, Be Different, Be Memorable presented the surprising perspective that the primary sales characteristic of a successful HALO million dollar producer was – not charisma, not organization, not determination – but paranoia! A paranoia that drives them to always think, “I’m going to lose my client unless I work harder, work smarter, push myself…” In other words, complacency is our enemy and will lead to a false sense of confidence that you are getting all the business and the client is your property and all is well.

Nothing could be farther from the truth. NO CLIENT ever belongs to you, you are merely working with them for a finite period of time. Your job is to be sure that period of time is as long as possible, but eventually you WILL lose that account. Ah, paranoia, thy sting is fierce!

But what this startling and important perspective should lead to – and you should embrace – is that you must look at your top clients, at least once per year, LIKE YOU DON’T KNOW THEM AT ALL! Yes, like you don’t know JACK! Let this sales paranoia drive you to ask questions and obtain critical information that will uncover NEW opportunities within the account. Again, you may think you are getting all of the business, or most of it. You aren’t.

This month, let’s take a look at those critical questions you should be asking your clients EVERY SINGLE YEAR during this ongoing discovery phase.

• Who is their key competitor? Don’t assume you know, it may have changed!

• Who is your contact’s boss? What is his/her title? What is his/her responsibilities?

• How many buyers work with them? Who are they? What are their responsibilities?

• Ask for the names of and referrals to the VP of Sales, the VP of Marketing, the VP of Human Resources, the VP of Operations and Safety, the Executive Secretary to the CEO

• Who are your client’s customers?

• Do you have their company website link? You should.

• Do you have an alert for Google news on them? You should.

• Are you tracking their Stock Ticker? You should be.

• Are you connected to them on LinkedIn? Facebook? Twitter?

• Have you checked out what Wikipedia says about them?  You may find some surprising information there.

• Have you read posts in Glass Door about them? You can learn about shortcomings here and opportunities to help them improve.

• Are you tracking their Job Postings? These could be indicators of the need for an Employee Retention program? Or an opportunity to supply branded merch for job fairs.

• How many employees do they have? You should know this. And it changes every year. Are they growing? Shrinking? Why?

• Are they a Union Shop?

• What industry trade shows do they exhibit at? This can change DRAMATICALLY year to year, you need to know about this!

• Do they put on their own National Conference or Sales Meeting? You can help these be an immense success!

• How many locations do they have?

• Do they support a charity?

• Do they have a golf tournament?

• Do they have a Safety Program?

• Do they have a Uniform Program?

• Do they have an Awards and Recognition Program?

• Do they have a Wellness Program?

• Do they use calendars or dated merchandise?

• Do they have a need for a Name Badge program?

• Do they utilize Banners and Signage?

These are all important areas that can lead to MANY new opportunities for you to sell branded merchandise and the answers to most or all of these questions can change on a yearly basis. Keep yourself fully educated about your top client – you would be foolish not to.

Schedule these fact finding missions with your top accounts today. It is an incredibly valuable exercise that demonstrates to your main contacts that you are fully engaged, always looking for new ways to partner with them, to help them be successful, to help them deliver their messages.

As the top producers in our industry know:

Success is NOT an accident. Success is a CHOICE. Create positive work habits that will LEAD TO continued success.

I want to thank Tommy Lewis, HALO’s Vice President Of Program and Enterprise Account Sales for helping me compile this important list of large account questions. We council our AE’s to do this each and every year, year after year and then we analyze the results for opportunities and referrals. Positive work habits. These be those!

And this ‘Jack’ that you don’t know? You’ll get to know him. Have lunch with him. Meet his wife and kids. Invite him for Thanksgiving. Add him to the Will. And the next time someone dares to suggest that ‘You don’t know JACK!” you can say, “But I do! We vacation together! He saved my life! I landed a new employee retention program and a uniform program and launched a revived company store because I DO KNOW JACK!”

Then get Jack to introduce you to Phil for a shot at that Golf Tournament.