Wombat Selling

Two things in particular drew me to the book:

1. It was displayed prominently in my local bookstore, meaning someone thought it was worthwhile, if only the Business Books Buyer

2. Because the title is so different from the usual self-important titles you get in the sales and marketing sections.

I found the book fairly hard to read, however, because of all the jargon that the author has devised – NewSell, OldSell, DYSH, Wombats, UNCHECKTOCHECK, to name but a few.

But once I got past that, I felt that the book had something important to contribute. The central theme is simply this...

As salespeople we can’t push or force people to buy, as it’s their decision not ours. What we can do is to make contacts with our prospect that ask them whether they want to buy, what Gleeson calls "check' (as in chess).

He believes that making as many quality check moves (or contacts) as possible should be the focus of our sales activities – – as this is the activity in the sales process that we do control.

Recruitment

This resonated with my experience as a recruitment consultant many years ago, a commission-only sales position! The recruitment company I worked for focussed all of us on sales activities such as the number of:

• marketing ‘phone calls
• sales visits
• interviews we had with candidates
• interviews of our short-listed candidates by our clients.

Their philosophy was very similar to Gleeson's. Do enough of these activities and the number of placements (candidates getting jobs) would take care of itself.

Indeed, they had developed target numbers that showed for:

• every X ‘phone calls you should get one sales meeting,
• every X candidate interviews you should be able to select one candidate for the shortlist for client interview, etc..

I still vividly remember the weekly one–page performance report that we filled in containing these numbers, and how focussed it kept me on the number of “check moves” I was making that week.

What “Media” Do You Use To Make A Check Move?

There are really only four media by which you make the contact with a potential customer:

1. Telephone
2. E-mail
3. Post
4. Meeting.

Gleeson attributes a point value to each of these methods, depending on how powerful they are relative to the others. E-mail and post get one point, phone calls get two points and meetings get three points.

Gleeson himself shies away from saying you should set a target number of points to achieve each day or week. To me, however, this is important and adds to the "game element" of it, so I'd recommend that you do. As to what that target should be, that's really up to you.

Let's look at some of the typical check moves.

Telephone

• Get more information regarding a customer’s needs
• Give them some information
• Say hello and see how they are
• Ask for a referral
• Extend an invitation
• Update on progress

E-mail or Post

• Follow up a live presentation
• Send a proposal
• Ask for referrals
• Send a gift
• Confirm details of an appointment
• Send a newsletter (music to my ears!)
• Introduce a new service
• Send a thank you card / letter
• Inform them of a time-limited offer

Meeting

• Make a presentation
• Provide or drop-off Information
• Introduce yourself
• Take them to lunch
• Ask for a referral
• Keep in touch
• Drop off a thank you gift
• Test the progress of your discussions and set a completion date for them.

Results Will Come

Whilst it’s not possible to summarise the whole book in just a few hundred words, the essence is that by maintaining your focus on the check moves (sales activities) that you do control, and doing enough of them every day, that the results you’re seeking (more sales) will inevitably follow.

And he quotes some impressive results for companies that’ he’s worked with that have done just that.

One example is the ANZ Trustees. He showed the trustees this system as a way of marketing their V2 Cash Common Fund. As a result, in one 12 month period they increased their selling intermediaries four fold from 38 to 161, and increased the deposits into the fund from $7m to $70m.

Conclusion

This book, when stripped of the jargon, is a timely reminder to us all that frequent good quality contacts to our target market (including existing customers, prospects, suppliers, referrers, friends, family and networking contacts) will help us to increase sales and profits.