Two years ago Sitewire was facing flat sales and an abysmal close rate on new business development efforts. I shared our tale of woe with a dear friend of mine who recommended that Sitewire learn to Whale Hunt. She said that her company had implemented Whale Hunting and it had transformed their sales process and increased their win rate exponentially.
I thought what do we have to lose? So, Bret and I bought the book, Whale Hunting: How to Land Big Sales and Transform Your Company by Barbara Weaver Smith and Tom Searcy. We read the book and I think we both had the same reaction…this makes so much sense, why didn’t we think of this? We engaged Barbara Weaver Smith and she trained members of our team on the methodology. We learned that new business development was not about sending one lone salesperson out to harpoon a “whale,” or major national client, by themselves, but an effort that requires the involvement of many members of the team. We immediately made changes to our approach to pitching new business. We learned how to better qualify, target and penetrate large corporations.
Our sales presentations went from being average to outstanding almost immediately. With the help of the subject matter experts on the team, we were making better, more relevant offers to our prospective clients. The learning curve the first year was steep and it wasn’t easy. Getting everyone to understand their role in winning new business and to have them embrace the methodology required a major overhaul in culture and process. It took us a good year before we really hit our stride. We took our win rate to over 50% in the first year. We landed 10 whales in the first 12 months after adopting the methodology. It was a wild first year. But we came out the other side with a rock solid approach to growing our business exponentially.
This year has been a difficult one for most business owners and for Sitewire it hasn’t been easy. However, Sitewire has continued to grow our business, adding resources and thriving when others are losing ground or going out of business. I give much credit for our success to the fact that we embraced Whale Hunting and transformed our company.
I would like to invite local Arizona businesses to experience that same transformation. The Whale Hunters Phoenix Launch is September 10th at the National Bank of Arizona Conference center. I, along with other local and national speakers, will be sharing success stories with you and Barbara Weaver Smith will be there to introduce you to the Whale Hunting process. A follow up workshop, Whale Hunting Fundamentals Part I, is scheduled for September 29th at Sky Song Center. I sincerely hope you will join us.
