Hi Friends, Here is your end-of-the-week insight into what I see going on in the business world,...
Hi Friends,
Here is your end-of-the-week insight into what I see going on in the business world, what I’m thinking about, and what I’m learning about. Forward anything that you feel inspired to share.
What I’m Hearing From Sales Leaders/Professionals
The average American attention span has fallen from 150 seconds in 2004 to 75 seconds in 2012 to 43 seconds in 2023. What does this mean to you as a seller? It means that your demos have to be punchier and need to be broken up with engagement.
Too often I am reviewing a demo and I see the seller just go into feature dump for what seems to be the length of a Christopher Nolan movie and then ask my most hated question, “Does that make sense?” A couple of things: 1. There are way better questions than “does that make sense,” (; 2. The likelihood that the AVERAGE buyer paid attention for the 7 straight minutes that you spoke is very low.
Thus, to take FULL advantage of the time a buyer has given you you must be punchier. That means bringing “the energy” and excitement to the demo. One quick way to get better is to record yourself and then ask a friend to listen and tell you what they remember and to comment on your energy. Yes, it can be tough to do this because you have done it so many times but Bruce Springsteen has been performing the same songs for over 30 years and he still brings it. Be the Boss of your demo (for the younger readers, Bruce’s nickname is “The boss”).
The second thing you have to do in a memorable demo is break it up with RELEVANT questions: How does this differ …? How does this align…? You said earlier that, how would this…? Etc. etc.
What Made Me Laugh
I don’t have any pets, but I do have a 13 year old son who, I assume, is on a mission to cause chaos with every step, or fake jump shot he takes. If you want to know what it’s like to live in my house, check it out this tweet:
This Week’s 40/20
For every 40 hours of work, I believe you should spend 20 (additional) hours mastering your craft. This is how I spent some of my 20 hours this week.
This week I learned about Norman Bel Geddes. For the 1939 World’s Fair, Mr. Geddes created, at the direction of General Motors, an art installation called “Futurama,” that depicted life in 1960.
The installation was HUGE! It was one-acre with 500,000 buildings, 1 million trees, and 50,000 cars. The idea was to show how connected America could be with cars and a standardized highway system. Today this is normal for us but in 1939 this was almost unimaginable.
He also predicted self-driving cars! I am sure many people told him these things (interconnected highway systems and self-driving cars) were never going to happen. Well who is laughing now? Not, Mr. Geddes, he died in 1958.
Potpourri for 800
In Jeopardy!, potpourri is a category that covers a variety of topics. For Fuentes Fridays, it’s a category where I may cover anything from someone interesting I met to my favorite new restaurant. Whether or not it's related to sales, my hope is that it will bring you value.
My son and I have been having an ongoing debate about which sport is the hardest to become the GOAT (Greatest Of All Time ) in. This has been a loosely defined debate with no real structure or parameters. Partially because we cannot seem to agree on the GOAT of any sport, e.g., he is a Lebron stan (Definition) and I, of course, know the real GOAT MJ.
Anyway, this week his position is that it is basketball because the majority of great basketball players are 6’6 or taller and that is such a small percentage of people (about 1% I think). My position was that it was boxing because you are constantly getting punched in the face.
Quote for My Son
Every day, I give my son a quote to help him learn and not repeat the same mistakes I made in my youth. This was my favorite from this past week:
The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus." - Bruce Lee
