How to Sell Your Mafia Offer - Part 10

Who should we target with our offer? and How should we roll it out?

STEP 3

Your marketing and sales core team generates a list of prospects for your mafia offer roll out:

• Mapping current prospective clients (existing, past, new) creating a wide list of prospects belonging to the preferred market sectors.
• Defining prospects for test launch (representative clients salespeople can approach as soon as possible); Prospects which are already in the pipe line and that are quite suitable for the offer; Existing clients with substantial business yet to be gained suitable for the offer; New prospects which are best suitable for the offer and have a short internal decision time.
• Defining prospects to become key accounts. Based on Returns: Barriers assessment, the company should focus its sales efforts on winning a big share of their business.
• Giving high priority to reduce the risk of losing key accounts.
• Warning: if a client is responsible for a high share of the Company business – do not increase its share.

If you follow the 3 Steps outlined, you now have a good list of prospects for both near term and longer term development.

In this 10 Part series we covered how to sell your mafia offer. How to present it, to whom to present it, how to get in to present it, who to target with your offer and what to watch out for along the way. The first step, however, is to create YOUR mafia offer. Mafia Offers were first introduced in Theory of Constraints by Eliyahu M Goldratt's It's Not Luck and you get some idea of how to create one. However if you need more guidance, you may want to consider a Mafia Offer Boot Camp!

Here's to Maximizing YOUR Profits!
Dr Lisa Lang
(c)Copyright 2007, Dr Lisa, Inc. All rights reserved.

NEW We have developed a REMOTE (on-line) Mafia Offer Boot Camp. Click here for an informational video and a FREE Preview of Session 1: http://www.MafiaOfferBootCamp.com/

Next GROUP Mafia Offer Boot Camp in the US is January 30, 31, February 1, 2008 in Denver. Sign up today, registration is limited to 5 companies. $10,000 per company.

How to Sell Your Mafia Offer - Part 9

We started this discussion about how people are more interested in avoiding (or reducing) pain than they are in increasing pleasure. We discussed how to present a Mafia Offer (based on Goldratt's Theory of Constraints) consistent with that desire.

Because mafia offers are business deals we also discussed how to get in to the right level to make your offer. See Executive Access Boot Camp below.

The next questions likely are: Who should we target with our offer? and How should we roll it out?

Here are some guidelines:

STEP 1

•Examine the different market sectors you serve, evaluating the extent which your mafia offer solves solves a significant problem for each market sector. What are the consequences of not solving that problem for each market?
•Examine 3 (prospective) clients per market sector (less than 3 may risk looking at extreme case, more are not needed).
•Based on the above identify the preferred market sector(s) to leverage YOUR offer.

STEP 2

Having looked at where the problem (that you solve) is the greatest, now let’s look at other considerations:

• Is there a market(s) that yeilds higher Throughput than others?
  Past experience can point to the type of clients/market-sectors/product-types that yield better Throughput. A particular client may yield less Throughput initially but would enable you to win good future business (penetrating a client, establishing reputation, gaining experience, steady annual income).
• Is there a market(s) that are more quickly accessed or has shorter sales cycles than others? Some big organization clients have decision processes which prolong significantly the sales cycle. To win the business of some types of clients/market-sectors/product-types, you may need to invest in qualification. In some regions/market sectors, you have much less sales infrastructure than in others.
• Is there a market(s) that are bigger than others?

Based on your answers to these questions, your marketing and sales core team should evaluate returns and barriers to create a proper sales plan - a plan that aims at increasing business in the short and medium horizon while preparing the ground for bigger sales in the future.

... stay tuned for STEP 3 in Part 10

NEW We have developed a REMOTE (on-line) Mafia Offer Boot Camp. Click here for an informational video and a FREE Preview of Session 1: http://www.MafiaOfferBootCamp.com

Next GROUP Mafia Offer Boot Camp in the US is January 30, 31, February 1, 2008 in Denver. Sign up today, registration is limited to 5 companies. $10,000 per company.

Next GROUP Executive Access Boot Camp is February 28, 29, March 1, 2008 in Denver.

$1,875 per person for all 3 days.

Here's to Maximizing YOUR Profits!

Dr Lisa Lang

(c)Copyright 2007, Dr Lisa, Inc. All rights reserved.

How to Sell Your Mafia Offer - Part 8

I ended Part 7 by asking -- Do people make decisions alone or in groups? If you had the experience I described in Part 6 where you do get in, but then have to come back and make the presentation multiple times until all the key people have seen it and can agree to go forward? Then you probably agree that your prospects make decisions in groups. And the larger the company, then the more true this seems to be.

Knowing that people make decisions in groups, why to we approach one prospect within our target company? In our 3 day Executive Access Boot Camp we discuss the psychology of this group decision making process and introduce a better way. We recommend approaching about 5 people depending on the specific situation. In addition to the ultimate prospect we also contact the next 2 levels up, 2 collegues, and 1 level below. We call each of these 4 people around the ultimate prospect leverage points. These are the people that, due to the psychology at play, will cause a meeting to occur. I can't possibly describe the whole 3 days, but you get the idea.

Here's what the Executive Access Boot Camp (EABC) has done for other companies that are closely held small businesses, midsized, and larger public or private organizations:

• Can reduce a companies time-to-a-deal by up to twenty-five percent
• Helps deliver faster assess to the senior executives of your key prospects
• Quicker determination of the prospect's interest in your offer
• Can increase annual revenues of five percent or more

You can read more about Executive Access at http://www.executiveaccessbootcamp.com/.

.... stay tuned for Part 9

Next GROUP Mafia Offer Boot Camp in the US is January 30, 31, February 1, 2008 in Denver.
Sign up today, registration is limited to 5 companies. $10,000 per company.

Next GROUP Executive Access Boot Camp is February 28, 29, March 1, 2008 in Denver.
$1,875 per person for all 3 days.

Here's to Maximizing YOUR Profits!
Dr Lisa Lang
(c)Copyright 2007, Dr Lisa, Inc. All rights reserved.

How to Sell Your Mafia Offer - Part 7

I will answer my own questions from Part 6 with the typical answers. Remember, that only those of you (30%) who are having trouble getting in will have similar (or any) answers.

So why is it so hard to get in, at the right level, to present your offer? What are the blockades you face?
Voicemail, caller ID, and assistants have made it easier to avoid contact. It seems that with all this technology it has gotten harder to get in.

What is the effect of all this? Longer sales cycles? Slower growth? Lower ROI on your sales/marketing investments?
Yes all of that, not to mention poor cash flow.

Do you have a solution to these challenges? Is there one? What do you do today -- what is your process to get in? Research -- letter -- call? What is the TOC solution?
We do the research -- letter -- call or just research -- call. Goldratt's Theory of Constraints doesn't really cover how to get in.

The assumption was that if you have a good, relevant market offer (mafia offer), then surely you can get it to present it. Right?

Who do you target -- what is the title of that person?
It depends on the particular client, but a common title is VP of Operations.

OK. So my next questions is -- Do people make decisions alone or in groups? What do you think? What's your experience?

.... stay tuned for Part 8

Next Mafia Offer Boot Camp in the US is January 30, 31, February 1, 2008 in Denver. Sign up today, registration is limited to 5 companies. $10,000 per company.

Next Executive Access Boot Camp is February 28, 29, March 1, 2008 in Denver. $1,875 per person for all 3 days.

Here's to Maximizing YOUR Profits!
Dr Lisa Lang
(c)Copyright 2007, Dr Lisa, Inc. All rights reserved.

How to Sell Your Mafia Offer - Part 6

Up to this point, let's say that 1) you have a great mafia offer based on Goldratt's Theory of Constraints ; and 2) you have a can't miss Solutions for Sales presentation. But in about 30% of the cases that is still not enough. Can you get in to make your presentation? And, can you get in at a high enough level for your business deal?

Have you ever had the experience where you established a relationship with the buyer or whoever your contact is and you get to the point where you get to make your presentation, but then you have to come back and do it again (and again) because the people in the room weren't the decision makers? Is there anything more frustrating when you have a market constraint?

So why is it so hard to get in, at the right level, to present your offer? What are the blockades you face?

What is the effect of all this? Longer sales cycles? Slower growth? Lower ROI on your sales/marketing investments?

Do you have a solution to these challenges? Is there one? What do you do today -- what is your process to get in? Research -- letter -- call? Who do you target -- what is the title of that person?

Think about your answers to these questions before I give you our solution -- the Executive Access Boot Camp.

... stay tuned for Part 7

Next Mafia Offer Boot Camp in the US is January 30, 31, February 1, 2008 in Denver. Sign up today, registration is limited to 5 companies. $10,000 per company.

Next Executive Access Boot Camp is February 28, 29, March 1, 2008 in Denver. $1,875 per person for all 3 days.

Here's to Maximizing YOUR Profits!
Dr Lisa Lang
(c)Copyright 2007, Dr Lisa, Inc. All rights reserved.