When talking about sales, I often find myself talking about the dating process or how to get a job. While this can be amusing and often times embarrassing, they have their similarities. With this in mind, I thought it would be a fun to list some “tongue-in-cheek” pointers that you will hopefully enjoy. Note that dating is traditionally gender biased, whereas selling isn’t.
You Have to Work to Get Results
Dating: sitting at home watching TV and going to the movies alone is not likely to help you find a partner.
Sales: Investors won’t come to you if don’t make an effort. Passively reporting to all the databases is a good start, but being proactive is always a good idea. There are many ways to engage an investor, but using a combination of different channels is the best recipe for success.
The Cold Call Versus the Pick-Up Line
Dating: Men are usually expected to initiate, but women are the ones who have to be receptive to the opening.
Sales: If you are selling, then you need an entry point and a way to break the ice. How do you do that? The best sales people I have met are relaxed, confident, and comfortable. The worst are nervous and prescriptive (with liberal use of pickup lines). If the client comes to you, they usually do so casually and hope you will find ways to convince them that their intuition was right.
Another thing to note is that introductions and the use of your social network are the easiest and give better probabilities. But, like trying to ‘pick up’ someone you fancy, cold calls are often more rewarding and the motivation is clear for both parties. Cold calls are tough, but you are the one who initiates the sales process and the investor bases the relationship very clearly on what your motivations are and on the product you are introducing. Often, there is no other way to widen your sales pipeline without mastering these hard yards.
Pick-Up Lines (part II)
Dating: One of my recent time wasters was to look up ‘pick-up lines’ on the web. The thing about pick-up lines is that they are insincere, stupid and often condescending. Most people want to be engaged and treated with respect. The irony is that most successful ‘pick-ups’ are when the encounter is casual and fun as opposed to predatory.
Sales: I think we would all agree that “hard selling” and “picking someone up” are usually negative and manipulative practices. The best sales people I have ever met never ‘sell’ anything. They explain what they do and manage the sales process based on what the investor tells them. If the investor likes it, they proceed. Since they have a lot to do, many investors will expect the fund to help them manage the process.
The First Date
Dating: This is the romantic interview where you must show off your best 20%. Most people understand that perfection doesn’t exist. The first date is there in order highlight your best attributes and engage the girl/guy. The only reason that you have a first date is to see if you might get a second one, since first dates are mostly about fact finding.
Sales: Fund distribution involves lots of first dates. A great salesperson is a master at trying to get a second date. This is the point at which you know the investor will seriously entertain an allocation. The tragedy of many fund sales meetings is that the sales person takes up about 80% of the conversation; sometimes by necessity, other times by ignorance. The real challenge is to engage the investor in a way that puts the focus on them and how the fund could enhance the portfolio. This means empathising with the investor. Listen to them and try to understand the motivation behind their questions.
Online Dating and Presentations
Dating: If you have ever tried online dating, the profiles are farcical. Just for fun, look at the profiles of the girls and guys. Girls enjoy long walks (why is this?) and guys are always “easy going.” There is also an overwhelming amount of, “I like to go out with friends, but also very happy at home watching the TV, sharing a bottle of wine;” all of which is very boring and uninspiring. Few profiles are actually memorable (As an aside, I have always wanted to see a profile with the title: “I want to ruin your life and make you miserable in the process).
Sales: Initial presentations are similar to online dating. Sometimes too long and not punchy enough, or include lots of buzz words, etc. The only reason that you have a presentation (profile) is to get that first date. It must look pretty and communicate impeccably well. Performance (similar to photos) can be deceiving, but can also be a big part of the reason why you have that first meeting.
Conferences and Bars
Dating: I have very rarely come across a married couple who met in a bar, although I’m sure it has happened. I know lots of people who have met at the library, at university, online, through friends, via introductions, in an elevator, speed dating, dating services, and sometimes through work. Meeting in bars usually leads to short-term romances or one night stands.
Sales: Some of the conferences I have been to have had pathetic investor to fund ratios. It is really annoying when the fund manager pays top dollar to attend and meet investors, to find only a handful of investors there, and even those are largely made up of the speakers. The poor investor, after finishing the session, then gets hounded by half a dozen funds trying to exchange business cards and arrange a meeting. This is degrading to both the sales person (who has to justify the price of the conference) and the investor (who probably feels like they are the only person of the opposite sex at a dance). Everyone leaves frustrated and feeling robbed of something.
I suppose this is why investors don’t really want to go to these things and are usually very selective with events. No one likes to get hounded and investors are no exception. Most of us want to be treated with dignity and not feel like we’re being sold ‘Time Shares.’ I think this is why the investor ‘speed dating’ format has become more popular.
You Will Not Succeed in Finding a Good Partner if You Do Not Value Yourself
Dating: People with low self-esteem often lower their standards or don’t even bother having anyat all.
As Ferris Bueller once said (if you haven’t seen Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, I highly recommend it):
“Cameron has never been in love – at least, nobody’s ever been in love with him. If things don’t change for him, he’s gonna marry the first girl he ‘scores’, and she’s gonna treat him ‘poorly’, because she will have given him what he has built up in his mind as the end-all, be-all of human existence. She won’t respect him, ’cause you can’t respect somebody who kisses your ‘butt’. It just doesn’t work.”
Sales: Like relationships, building a business is a two way street- if the buyer perceives value in what the seller offers and the economics are in line with the proposition, a deal can be done. The product has a cost and you need to cover those costs and make a profit- otherwise there is no deal and no reason for you to be in business. If you value your fund and think it is worth the fees, then go out and sell it. If you don’t, then you need to find a way to get the fund out of whatever funk it is in. Yes, you are here to do business and you can negotiate. However, if people don’t recognise your value, either you are communicating it wrong or your potential partner isn’t on the same wave length.
Money vs. Personality
Dating: Sometimes meeting the opposite sex has less to do with personality and more to do with their success and how much is in their bank account. I have often found that most people prefer healthy, straightforward relationships with a person who is well-rounded and has high potential. However, there will always be the gold diggers.
Sales: Big, successful funds usually win the beauty parade. There are many reasons for this and there is nothing wrong with rewarding success. On the flip side, investors are as different as the many funds out there in the market. There is an investor for every fund. Many investors that we know will not invest if they haven’t met the fund manager and if they have met, the manager may fail because of character flaws: the manager wasn’t polite or transparent, etc. Investors, especially when it comes to smaller funds, will not invest if the manager doesn’t appeal for whatever reason.
When to Open the “Kimono”
Dating: Most of us have things that we need to disclose i.e. our skeletons. If you wait too long you will lose trust, reveal them too soon and you might scare them away. There is an art to when and how skeletons should be communicated so that your partner is able to weigh the good points with the bad.
Sales: It is pretty much the same here. We have never met a fund that was perfect in every way. However, a certain amount of transparency is always appreciated and probably better sooner rather than later. There is nothing more frustrating for an investor than finding out ‘deal-breakers’ late in the process.
Winning Small Battles Usually Makes for Winning wars
Dating: There is a hierarchy to intimacy. If a sign of progress doesn’t occur within a certain amount of time- like a kiss, then you might be relegated to the ‘friend’ category. There are protocols; each level of seriousness in a relationship is a milestone.
Sales: Very rarely will you ever have an investor ask for the forms to sign after the first meeting. There is a goal for each part of the process. Trying to sell a fund without managing the next step is most likely a failure. Investors usually won’t chase you; they want to see how dedicated you are. They don’t share your timeline and have lots of other options.
Sometimes, You Just Have to Ask. Sometimes, You Know What to Do
Dating: If a potential partner is open to your advances then you will get signals. If you try to force anything the consequences could be devastating. If you don’t know, why not simply ask? It can be very exciting and it shows respect.
Sales: If you do your job and follow up then building a business becomes easier. However, I have been in a few investor meetings where I was simply lost. I think we’ve all had scenarios where the investor asked for a lot of things, or where we had several follow-ups but still didn’t really know where we were in the sales process. There is never any harm in asking about the status of the process, as long as this is done with style and empathy.
Conclusion
All healthy relationships have to start somewhere. People who build the successful businesses and relationships are engaging, self aware, and empathetic. Strong relationships are not built by manipulation or insincerity. There is a lot of hard work involved and understanding your client and their needs is crucial.
