Not necessarily a good place or a bad place, The Grape Zone is an opportunistic standstill. For leaders in business, it’s either choose to settle for business relationships exactly where they are OR take action to ultimately drive better results in sales across the board.
But first, let us discuss the origin of this area we call The Grape Zone. In the movie “The Karate Kid” (the original version, not the new one with Will Smith’s son although I’ve heard this is a decent remake), the following dialogue unfolds between Daniel and Mr. Miyagi after Daniel has gotten his butt kicked a few times at school and Mr. Miyagi is willing to begin Daniel’s training in the art of karate.
Mr. Miyagi: Now, ready to learn Karate?
Daniel: I guess so.
Mr. Miyagi: Daniel-san, must talk. Man walk on road. Walk left side – safe. Walk right side – safe. Walk down middle – sooner or later, get squished just like grape. Same here. You karate do “yes,” or karate do “no.” You karate do “guess so,” squish just like grape. Understand?
Daniel: Yeah, I understand.
Mr. Miyagi: Now, ready?
Daniel: Yeah, I’m ready.
Depending on your market, your product, your service or your technology, there might be several steps to the process of enrolling a new or even an existing client. And yes, there is a Grape Zone between each step in the process, and often a big one right before the papers get inked. Confidently be aware though that you can always get through any Grape Zone.
If you find that most of your opportunities are in The Grape Zone in one way or another, then chances are that you’re not asking them to go to the next step in the process, whatever that is. And if you don’t ask, they can’t say yes. If you don’t ask them for the sale or to take the next step in the sales process, or if you don’t let them know that no is okay, you will be “squished like grape.”
In order to make this topic very clear, let me use entreQuest as an example.
We spent a fair amount of time early on beating our heads against the wall with prospective clients that just didn’t get us. They were name-brand companies that we wanted to work with, and wanted to work with us – or at least wanted the results that other companies were getting from the relationship. We looked at these opportunities and thought they would be reference-able accounts with name recognition or cache, so we pursued the leads – after all we’re a sales growth firm, we know what to do with leads.
The result?
Well, we landed a decent amount of business, but, in several cases, we accepted clients we shouldn’t have. We were then contractually obligated to work with companies whose cultures were drastically different from our own, and it was a nightmare. Since then, whenever we meet a prospect whose company’s culture is drastically different from ours, we tell them, “No, thank you.”
“No, thank you” mitigates the risk of the nightmare client happening. To make sure we aren’t saying no to good companies, we have developed a screening system that helps us assess which companies we can consult for successfully, and which we cannot. We call it “E.P.I.C.”
E.P.I.C. companies, as a matter of corporate culture, are those that:
Embrace Change
Progressive leadership
Innovative in their fields
Culturally driven (they care about their culture)
It’s what works for us at entreQuest and it can be what works for other businesses. With a few modifications to fit your unique business model of course.
See you next week,
Joe