Reading my 2 year old son's favourite story to him for the third time the other night - We're Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen - I was suddenly hit by a realisation that, whilst the story can be seen as an innocent tale for children, there is also a hidden sales coaching session in there as well.

It tells the story of a family going for a walk and the obstacles they have to deal with in order to find a bear.

The story starts off by saying, "We're going on a bear hunt, we're going to catch a big one. We're not scared, what a lovely day".

This can be read as "We're going to get a new customer, we're going to land a huge deal. We're not frightened by the thought, because we're prepared and feeling positive".

As the family proceed on their walk, they are faced with different obstacles:

Grass, long wavy grass.
A River, a deep cold river.
Mud, thick oozy mud.
A Forest, a big dark forest.
A Snowstorm, a swirling whirling snowstorm.
A Cave, a narrow gloomy cave.

As each obstacle is reached, the same conclusion is drawn, "we can't go over it. We can't go under it.Oh No! We've got to go through it!"

These can be translated as the sales stages needed to be passed in order to get to the point a decision is going to be made:

Prospecting, long tedious prospecting.
A Call, a difficult cold call.
A Gatekeeper, a hard tough gatekeeper.
A Presentation, a big powerful presentation.
A Proposal, a lengthy detailed proposal.
A Negotiation, a narrow costcutting negotiation.

Again, the same conclusion can be drawn "We can't get out of it, we've got to put ourselves through it!"

After overcoming these obstacles the family, having made their way through the cave, finally come up against the bear. They qualify that it is, indeed, a bear "One shiny wet nose. Two big furry ears. Two big goggly eyes. IT'S A BEAR!!!" and make the decision to swiftly undo all their hard work by quickly returning the way they came, running into the house and upstairs. Then, to be doubly sure the bear can't find them, run back downstairs and lock the door before returning upstairs and into the bedroom, where they hide under the covers.

This is the point where most organisations also fall down. They let their sales people go through all the motions of lead generation, qualifying the lead, holding the meetings, getting the proposal and negotiations in place, only to let the potential business slip through their fingers not by, as in the story, running back and locking the door, but merely by either not following up on the negotiations to close the deal or, worse still, by closing the deal and then never keeping in contact with their newly acquired customer to find out how they are getting on, or whether they need any additional assistance in using the product sold.

With a CRM solution in place your company, you should not only be able to market and sell to potential customers, but also be able give visibility across your entire organisation to allow your customer service department, for example, up to date information as to what has been sold to who, when and automatically raise customer care calls at scheduled intervals.

If you do not already have this technology available in your organisation, then why not contact us to allow us to start our bear hunt with you?