B2B Sales Management: “which” time is it?
Or why you are a “timeline juggler”
Sounds strange isn't it? “Which time is it?” But as a BtoB Sales manager, you will have to juggle with different timelines. And they are not all yours. If you fail with one of them - if you drop one ball - your deal might not “land” properly. Meaning you might not be able to a/ sign it in the desired quarter, b/ deliver (implement) as planned, c/ recognize the revenue as expected (and the list goes on and on). Just keep in mind that everyone else's time constraint - be it from within your organization or from your customer’s one - will land on your lap at one point or another. And you will have to “deal” with it to close your deal. Call it Murphy’s law or not, it is just a fact. Do you know why? Because the essence of your job is to be at the center of the relationship between the two organizations. Any bad news would go through you, either as a transmitter / messenger or as a receptor.
Based on my experience, don't take for granted that time, as a “linear concept”, is universal. In some parts of the world it might, in others it is more, let say, “flexible”.
Interesting article if you want to know more
For Europeans, and Americans, when we think about time we think chronological order, linearity. In other words, we think of “Chronos”. But have you ever heard about “Kairos”? Kairos is not linear, not chronological. It is more about “it happens because it has to happen”. Maybe in regions where the moon calendar has a certain importance or role to play, the concept of “Kairos” is more in use. Just an idea.
Back to business.
As a Sales Manager, the biggest “time related pressure” you will feel is internal. Simply because of your targets (daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly). If you work for a listed company, turn on the heat. Those are Chronos related. You have to deliver based on a calendar.
On a deal, you don't work alone. You usually need support from different teams. Now you also have to take into consideration their timeline and constraints. If you talk about your Pre Sales, it might be a workload issue. Same with your legal and with your R&D teams. They may have scarce resources. With Production it might be a logistic or supply issue. Those constraints might impact your timeline.
Simple example. At the end of the financial year (usually December but it depends), everyone is trying to close everything. But it is also a festive season: some people are on leave. Less internal resources might be a synonym of prioritization. If you did not anticipate the situation, your deal might slip in Q1 of the next year simply because of lack of resources. This example is a predictable one. Some are more random (component shortage, delay in R&D, …). Maybe more Kairos related (think about Covid).
Sometimes, for some internal reasons (completely independent from what you do), you will be asked to move everything you are working on forward, trying to close everything as early as possible to support the company.
Remember: your job is to deliver, to solve problems. Especially the ones that are not directly yours.
All this is tricky. But wait. Because we did not address yet the most crucial part of the equation: the customer. His timeline is not yours. He has his own internal constraints. Therefore he doesn't care about your target and milestones: he already has enough on his own. He most probably has a procurement process to follow (including budget allocation, signatory process, …), with a certain number of internal stakeholders. Here too some Chronos related events might impact the project as well as some Kairos ones. And it will impact your timeline.
Your job is to make sense of all that, to anticipate as much as possible to deliver what and - as importantly - when you forecasted it (the committed date). Hence why you have to be a “timeline juggler”.
Is there any material that can help you on the topic? Yes I can see three.
First one: anticipate. The idea here is to have a 360 degrees view of your deal (contractual, logistics, legal, finance, payment terms,...) and, as early as possible, start working on the different aspects. Don't leave them at the end.
Second: plan for the worst (and therefore anticipate). If you identify what could go wrong you have a chance to circumvent the issue.
Third: ask questions. Be it within your own organization (to anticipate internal constraints) and/or within your customer’s one (to better understand his own timeline and constraints), the more questions around the deal itself you will ask, the better equipped you will be able to juggle. By asking questions you will also help the people working with you to anticipate potential issues.
Tick…Tock…Tick…Tock
