It's Not Luck - Eliyahu M. Goldratt [80]
“Even better.”
“Here is a nice twist,” Don continues to surprise me. “Knowing that closing a deal is a sensitive step, we decided not to take any risks. Pete composed a list of obstacles that usually stand in the way of the buyer before he can sign the order. We simply present this list to the buyer.”
“Wait a minute,” I can’t believe my ears. “You are giving the buyer excuses why he shouldn’t buy? Are you trying to convince the buyer that he cannot sign the deal?”
“So it seems,” he laughs. “But Alex, don’t forget. At this stage the buyer knows that our offer is his dream. There is no fear that he will walk away.”
“I see,” I get it. “A role reversal. If you take the position of raising the obstacles, he must now take the position that they can be overcome. That’s gutsy.”
“Not really. What happened in reality is that the buyers played down some obstacles and discussed with our salespeople how to overcome the others. And you know the results. Whenever it was a small deal it was signed on the spot. In other cases, when we discussed business with buyers of large accounts, they asked us to prepare a quote for more business than we expected. It’s looking good. Pete’s problem now is how to slow down. The shop needs time to digest this tidal wave.”
“Super job, Don. Really super job. You have done much more than I expected. We will need this blueprint for Bob and Stacey, once they figure out their own breakthrough marketing solutions.”
Don leans back in his chair, rightfully proud of what he has accomplished.
“Don, as a reward, go home now and pack.”
He stands up and stretches. “Unpack, you mean.”
“No, pack. We are flying to Bob’s.”
“Alex, I was away for two weeks. I have plans for tonight.”
“No problem. You can stay here, and take tomorrow off. I’m going to Bob’s to examine the solution they’ve come up with. I just thought you would want to be part of it.”
“Wouldn’t miss it for the world.” He heads for the door muttering, “With this schedule, no wonder I’m a bachelor.”
23
I had asked Bob to hold the number of participants to a minimum, to invite only the people who actively participated in building the marketing solution. I expected about a dozen. He brought Susan Lomark, his VP of sales, and Jeff Dillman, his VP of operations. I know Jeff quite well, he was instrumental in building our approach to distribution. A very capable person. Susan, I know much less. I never worked closely with her, but Bob thinks the world of her, so she must be good.
“What about the others?” I ask Bob as we help ourselves to coffee and donuts.
“There are no others.” Responding to my raised eyebrow, he adds, “Alex, since it got out that we are up for sale, this place is swarming with rumors. And rumors don’t make it easy to operate. Before we know that we have a solid marketing plan, approved by you, I’m not going to leak it out. I don’t need any more disturbances.”
“I understand. Shall we start?”
Bob signals Susan to present. “We followed your tree,” she says, and goes to the flip-chart.
“Did you believe that it would work?” I ask out of curiosity.
“I can’t say that we believed in it. It made sense, but frankly, who would believe that it’s possible to systematically develop a marketing breakthrough?”
“But it worked?”
“We think so,” Bob answers for her. “Otherwise we wouldn’t have called you here.”
“We’ll know that it works when sales start to roll in,” Susan says. “Until then it’s only a neat idea.”
“I like this approach. Carry on.”
She flips the first page. “Here we listed some of the market UDEs that we used as a starting point.”
“We elected to choose the shops as our market, not the end consumers,” Bob interjects.
“Why?” I ask.
“We followed your guidelines,” he answers. “You want fast results, so we concentrated on the link that we have direct contact with.”
“Besides,” Susan adds, “to bring whatever new message to the consumers would necessitate increasing our advertising budget.”
“Which we assumed you would have a hard time approving,” Bob completes her argument.