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Availability ≠ Authority
In general, for your solution to get funded in today’s challenging economy, you MUST have one or more powerful, credible champions who are willing to personally vouch for your solution. They can’t just be interested…they have to be committed. When the financial or operational executive questions the expense, your champion(s) must be willing to sometimes literally stand in the line of fire. If not, “do nothing” will win after you have spent lots of time in an account, utilized a lot of other sales-related resources and thought that you had a lot of momentum.
If the value isn’t quantified, it isn’t valuable
While ROI (return on investment) alone isn’t enough to get a project funded – it sure is better than not having one. The mistake many of our client sponsors make is that they fail to quantify the value of the proposed investment. Oh, they’ll identify the “categories” of value – improve turnaround time, reduce complexity, better serve our customers, etc. – but without a stake in the ground on actual targeted value (or pain) associated with the proposed initiative, in the mind of the CFO this becomes a “nice to have,” not a “must have.”
Should You Have a Territory Management Plan?
It’s likely obvious which approach I advocate – the proactive approach! In essence, if you’ll take the time and effort to develop a plan or a road map for how you will: Maximize your business with your current accounts, Focus your time on the right “new” accounts – and the likely solutions that would most benefit them, And allocate your time on your calendar to achieve these results. The absence of a territory management plan is purely reactive – and it doesn’t work well for most.