Some time ago, I read that March Madness costs companies billions of dollars—literally. People stop what they are doing to watch basketball, and they use up all of their company’s bandwidth watching streaming video on their computers.
Far be it from me to throw the first stone; I’d like to take off the entire month of July to watch the Tour de France. And, dare I say anything when the Ohio State Buckeyes are the top seed?
But, alas, we are salespeople, and we are working against the clock. So instead of spending far too much time watching the tournament (and setting up a bad Q2-2011), set up your own Dream Client March Madness.
Pick Your Top 64 Dream Clients
Sit down with your sales force automation and make a list of your top 64 (or 68) dream clients.
Make a list of the prospective clients who are championship-caliber and who deserve to be pursued because of how well you can serve them and by what it would mean to you and your company to win the opportunity to serve them.
Set Up Your Own Brackets
Maybe your brackets will be set up by geographical location. Or maybe it’s better to set up your brackets by the product or service that you offer. Whatever decision you make, set up some brackets.
Seed Your Dream Clients
For me, the best part of March Madness are the upsets. Some team looks unstoppable, and then, “Pow!” they get stopped by a team that no one expected to win. One of the lower seeded dream clients may just end up being the dream client of all dream clients.
Seed your dream clients. Put them in their brackets and rank them by some criteria. Use their suspected annual spending in your category.
Play the Tournament
Make the prospecting calls to schedule appointments with your top 64 dream clients. Straight down the list, play each of the games.
There’s no reason not to make this a team effort. If the bold, brash, prediction-making salespeople in your company want to talk the talk, have them write up their own card and play for something more than bragging rights.
Attached is a Dream Client March Madness template you can use. Let me know who wins your championship title.
Who says it’s all work and that we never have any fun here at The Sales Blog?
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