{"id":2020,"date":"2009-05-11T15:30:00","date_gmt":"2009-05-11T20:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2009\/05\/preparation-vs-execution\/"},"modified":"2009-05-11T15:25:26","modified_gmt":"2009-05-11T20:25:26","slug":"preparation-vs-execution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2009\/05\/preparation-vs-execution\/","title":{"rendered":"Preparation vs. Execution"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>SellingPower.com\u2019s article &#8211; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sellingpower.com\/html_newsletter\/article.asp?usr=SP9477331254&amp;NLid=1&amp;Layout_ID=888&amp;ARTid=3950&amp;nDate=May+4%2C+2009\" target=\"_blank\">Help for Your Pre-Call Prep<\/a> \u2013 makes a bold statement in the opening sentence:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>When you get right down to it, sales are won or lost on preparation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I would argue that sales are won or lost on execution.\u00a0 Give me a salesperson who executes flawlessly any day over one who prepares flawlessly.\u00a0 Again, the context is in terms of where deals are lost.\u00a0 Be that as it may, the article has an interesting statistic found in one of the later graphs.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>At a time when relatively few initial discussions with a client are progressing further into the sales cycle (40 percent of organizations say only 25 \u2013 50 percent of initial discussions progress to a presentation; 30 percent say 51\u2013 75 percent of discussions do so, according to CSO Insights), the issue of pre-call preparation deserves some attention. After all, it&#8217;s the quality of your preparation that largely determines whether or not the client agrees to a second meeting.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Ok, I take umbrage with the over-emphasis on pre-call prep.\u00a0 Salespeople who show up and throw up are the main reason suspects do not move into prospects.\u00a0 I thought this number was shocking \u2013 up to 50% of initial discussions progress to a presentation.\u00a0 This fact could be that salespeople are better qualifiers in lean economies.\u00a0 Perhaps they are qualifying suspects more thoroughly to eliminate the tirekickers from their pipeline.<\/p>\n<p>In other words, a lower number moving into the pipeline could be construed as better qualifying.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SellingPower.com\u2019s article &#8211; Help for Your Pre-Call Prep \u2013 makes a bold statement in the opening sentence: When you get right down to it, sales are won or lost on preparation. I would argue that sales are won or lost on execution.\u00a0 Give me a salesperson who executes flawlessly any day over one who prepares flawlessly.\u00a0 Again, the context is in terms of where deals are lost.\u00a0 Be that as it may, the article has an interesting statistic found in one of the later graphs. At a time when relatively few initial discussions with a client are progressing further into the sales cycle (40 percent of organizations say only 25&hellip; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2009\/05\/preparation-vs-execution\/\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"bgseo_title":"","bgseo_description":"","bgseo_robots_index":"","bgseo_robots_follow":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[9],"tags":[1322,184,267,1321,1320,211],"class_list":["post-2020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sales-techniques","tag-pre-call-sale","tag-qualifying","tag-sales-approach","tag-sales-preparation","tag-sales-qualfying","tag-sales-skill"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5Oho-wA","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":465,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2006\/11\/sales-time-wasters\/","url_meta":{"origin":2020,"position":0},"title":"Sales Time-Wasters","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"November 28, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Sales & Marketing Management has a short article about what holds back sales reps - Companies Hamper Their Sales Reps. Some of the findings from the study: * Salespeople spend just 8 percent of their time prospecting and qualifying new customers. Yet they spend 23 percent of their time dealing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sales Management&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Sales Management","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/sales-management\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2050,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2009\/06\/optimism-defined\/","url_meta":{"origin":2020,"position":1},"title":"Optimism Defined","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"June 11, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The epitome of optimism \u2013 a headline from abcnews.com: Has the Recession Finally Ended? I guess you could characterize this as \u201ctalking up\u201d the economy.\u00a0 Here is one paragraph from the article that made me laugh (emphasis mine): Today also brought some positive news from the much-battered retail sector. For\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Anecdotes&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Anecdotes","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/anecdotes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":136,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2006\/06\/2006-salary-report\/","url_meta":{"origin":2020,"position":2},"title":"2006 Salary Report","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"June 27, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"From S&MM Magazine (sorry, no link): The benefits of an improving economy trickled down to a lot of paychecks in 2006. The 2006 Survey of Exempt Compensation by Business and Legal Reports found 43 out of the 44 benchmarked-exempt positions saw salary increases averaging 3.9 percent. \"Respondents indicated that they\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Hiring&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Hiring","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":97,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2006\/06\/lost-sales-analysis\/","url_meta":{"origin":2020,"position":3},"title":"Lost Sales Analysis","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"June 12, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"We posted on this topic in our old blog (predates The Hire Sense) and it is worth bumping up to this version. Paul DiModica writes in BDM News about one of the best sales tools around, the Lost Sales Analysis. I will warn you that this article is quite theoretical\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sales Management&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Sales Management","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/sales-management\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1192,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/09\/when-leads-stall\/","url_meta":{"origin":2020,"position":4},"title":"When Leads Stall","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"September 19, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Selling Power\u00a0offers up an article that explores reasons for bloated pipelines.\u00a0 That never happens in sales, does it?\u00a0 The article - Warning: There\u20ac\u2122s a Gash In Your Pipeline - presents some excellent suggestions for why this happens and how to correct it. Robert Kear, SPI\u20ac\u2122s chief marketing officer, observes that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sales Management&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Sales Management","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/sales-management\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1761,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/10\/prep-vs-admin-time\/","url_meta":{"origin":2020,"position":5},"title":"Prep vs. Admin Time","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"October 23, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Oh does this Selling Power article hit close to home - In 2009, Increase Sales Prep Time.\u00a0 I have seen numerous companies place onerous admin tasks on their salespeople to the point where there is a real loss in revenue.\u00a0 Inefficiency is the main culprit, but department structure, sales tools\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sales Management&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Sales Management","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/sales-management\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2020"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2020\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2021,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2020\/revisions\/2021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- WP Super Cache is installed but broken. 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