DB Cooper Sales Strategy

I'm sure you have heard this too, they have new evidence in the DB Cooper case. If you don't know who that is you can read about him HERE. We'll all just wait for you….OK, now that we are all up to speed, do you sell like DB hijacks? Let me explain, a hijacker has a couple important things to do. He has to have a target to get the ransom from, a plan to get the ransom, and a plan to get away, and then execute all of them.

DB knew who to get the ransom from, had a plan to get the ransom, had a plan to get away, even executed all three, but the execution was weak on the last couple of items. So what did he do right? (Note, I'm not saying what he did was right J)

1. First he had the guts to make the attempt. You need this for every deal too.
   
2. He came up with a plan to get to the money person. You have to do this on every deal too. You can sell all day to the rank and file, but if they can't sign it doesn't matter.
   
3. He had a plan to get away with the money. You need to do this too, this is called a signed contract.
   

So DB messed on the execution, but where?

1. He had no idea how big a package of $200,000.00 was in $20.00 bills. Poor planning on the size of the deal, he had to make some choices in the middle of the deal he didn't expect. Don't let this happen to you. Think through deal size issues.
   
2. He wasn't able to identify that that the parachute was a training chute. He didn't have the knowledge he needed to see issues that would prohibit him from getting away with the money. They threw him a curve ball. Do you know your product and solution well enough to avoid taking the defective chute?
   
3. He jumped too soon. Even if his defective chute opened, he was in the big woods, hard to get out of there with 22 lbs. of money. Stay with the deal until it is to your advantage to bail out. I mean, he had the money, he just had to exit smoothly.
   

So what are our lessons? Don't be a hijacker for one. The others are basic sales. Find your prospect, do your research, present your offer, get the money, and don't end up on one of my blogs.