(Second) First 100 Days Methods

The current American President crosses their '1st 100 days' timecheck.

Unescapable screenfuls assessing his performance, as is the custom these days at such signpost, follow.

One angle worthy of note, is that when we ascend to a new role ourselves, we have similar report cards to pass.

They tend to be tied to Sales periods. The most typical I've seen being The First Quarter. If you've not got yourself a plan for how you'll approach this 'probationary' 90 days, and then able to show a desired direction of travel, you'll likely be in a spot of bother.

I read of a central plank of this particular political scene-setting hundred days.

What insiders label their "flood the zone" strategy.

If you're going to act, act. Doing so across as many different flanks as possible.

By one measure of demonstration, apparently there's been around 140 'executive orders' issued. Synonymous terms are all over reporting. From 'bull-in-the-china-shop' approach to whirlwind legislating from the less approving to the rapid turnaround lens of the on-side business-minded.

We might have an equivalent in spreading ourselves wide, deep, high and low around our prospect. Specifically, in a blitz-selling mode.

We have the balance to tread between multiple touch-points and engagement when 'ready to buy', or at least 'open to contemplate'.

There's also the sweet spot crescendo of contacting that often seems to accompany the 'perfect' bid feel to consider.

With 1,361 days left in-post, there's a foundation to put in place. When moving into a loftier Sales or company in general role yourself, we might not have such assured duration ahead. Yet you're also going have to marry taking people with you and the often abrupt changes you must push through.

Then I learn of Jason Miller, who manages messaging, from the President's inner team. Different to a standard spin doctor. One onlooker frames him and his colleagues as more “enablers” compared to the “guardrails” of the first term. Rather than as four years ago then holding back, today they actively chase getting what's wanted.

This can be binary in organisations. Whether your own or a prospect's, it might well be worth mapping who sits in which camp. Approaching each cohort in the appropriately different manner required.

Finally, I spot with intrigue the sign-off at a journalist's interview's end the incumbent invariably deploys.

“Did you get what you needed?”

That feels a cracker.

A line we too could do well to use as our sales meetings conclude.