Speaking Whale

Whales listen for a special language when they buy- Whales buy money, they buy time and they buy risk. For a whale, it doesn't matter what you sell to them, they will translate it into these 3 ideas-

However, we have a bad habit of selling what we think that whales want to hear- Quality, Service, Capacity, Innovation, On Time Delivery, Guarantees.... the list is a long one. But the fact is that these are not the reasons that whales buy- in their minds they are speaking an entirely different language.

When you use these words you are asking the whale to translate what you believe is valuable to what they believe is valuable- For example, for a whale,

• Quality means Time - production lines not going down because of faulty parts, customer service calls not received because products work and so on
• Quality also means money - repeat purchases, reduced waste in production and so on
  
• Quality means Risk - or really risk management - fewer product returns, investment confidence and so on

The more complex your offering, the more difficult it is for a whale to hear the three things it needs to hear to understand and purchase. Our job as whale hunters is to talk to a whale in its own language. We have to do the translation of value based upon what result is produced by what we deliver. The results that a whale cares about are Time, Money and Risk. For us that means doing the translation real-time when we are presenting the benefits of what we sell- Every benefit needs to be accompanied with an impact statement that translates to Time, Money or Risk in the whale's business.

Simple exercise- Pick a marketing piece or Power Point that you are using currently to interest a whale. Read through it and circle every feature/benefit that your company is highlighting for the whale. Draw a line from that circle to the clear statement you are making about Time, Money or Risk. If you can't connect the circles, neither can the whale.

If you are interested in learning more about how to Speak Whale, attend our workshop on July 24th, Building the Unstoppable Harpoon - register on our website, www.thewhalehunters.com.

Whale Hunters Love Nasty Weather

I have been getting a lot of questions on the road lately about how The Whale Hunters’ clients are doing under these economic conditions- So, I asked a few of them- and their responses were very positive. Whale hunters like nasty weather because of what it does to their competitors. The big competitor’s reactions to tough economic times seems to create lots of opportunities- here is what they do:
• Hunker down – Freeze hiring, travel budgets and capital expenditures. Push out product release dates and new version releases. All of this says to customers that they are going to receive less for the same money.

• Cut back – Reduce hours of service, cut headcount, close facilities. This tells customers that the long-term viability of their provider is at risk.

• Re-organize – Change leadership, move key contacts around, shuffle work loads so that the whale’s support team is now burdened with more responsibility and can spend less time on its account.

All of these approaches scare whales and create opportunities for smaller companies to hunt. What to do?

1. Focus your scouts on the competitors – Using your scouting resources, look at your biggest competitors and determine if they are doing any of the things described earlier. Using that information, go back through your Whale Chart of prospects who are in Baja, and see which ones are using those competitors.

2. Have Harpooners re-contact all vulnerable whales – A call to the key contact in the whale that says; “We have been hearing about some dramatic changes in service levels for companies like yours because of cutbacks, changes in policy and reorganizations in some of the major providers. If you are experiencing this or anticipating this, maybe now is a good time for us to re-connect.”

3. Surgical strikes – Just as big competitors are scared, so are whales. Entire program shifts may be outside of what is possible at this time. Focus on pieces of business that you can move quickly and relatively independently from the larger contract. The market pressure will continue to move work to you once you have established yourself as a strong alternative.

To win in whale hunting, you need to do the opposite of your competitors- don’t hunker down, HUNT!