The following passage is from Atomic Habits, by James Clear (a book I highly recommend, if you haven't read it), on building new routines and the essence of habits as the compound interest of self-improvement on an individual level.
"๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ข๐ฏ ๐๐ฏ๐ต๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ช๐ฐ ๐๐ฑ๐ถ๐ณ๐ด, ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ด๐ต ๐ด๐ถ๐ค๐ค๐ฆ๐ด๐ด๐ง๐ถ๐ญ ๐ต๐ฆ๐ข๐ฎ๐ด ๐ช๐ฏ ๐๐๐ ๐ฉ๐ช๐ด๐ต๐ฐ๐ณ๐บ, ๐ฉ๐ข๐ท๐ฆ ๐ข ๐ฒ๐ถ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฆ ๐ง๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฎ ๐ด๐ฐ๐ค๐ช๐ข๐ญ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐๐ข๐ค๐ฐ๐ฃ ๐๐ช๐ช๐ด ๐ฉ๐ข๐ฏ๐จ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ช๐ณ ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ค๐ฌ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฎ: โ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ด๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ด ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ฑ, ๐ ๐จ๐ฐ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฌ ๐ข๐ต ๐ข ๐ด๐ต๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ค๐ถ๐ต๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ข๐ธ๐ข๐บ ๐ข๐ต ๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ค๐ฌ, ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฉ๐ข๐ฑ๐ด ๐ข ๐ฉ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ช๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ต ๐ข๐ด ๐ฎ๐ถ๐ค๐ฉ ๐ข๐ด ๐ข ๐ค๐ณ๐ข๐ค๐ฌ ๐ด๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ช๐ต. ๐ ๐ฆ๐ต ๐ข๐ต ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฉ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ง๐ช๐ณ๐ด๐ต ๐ฃ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ช๐ต ๐ธ๐ช๐ญ๐ญ ๐ด๐ฑ๐ญ๐ช๐ต ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ต๐ธ๐ฐ, ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ ๐ฌ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ช๐ต ๐ธ๐ข๐ด ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ต ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ญ๐ข๐ด๐ต ๐ฃ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ฅ๐ช๐ฅ ๐ช๐ตโ๐ฃ๐ถ๐ต ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ฉ๐ข๐ฅ ๐จ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฆ.โ"
I find many parallels to the science (or art?) of closing large business deals.
Most Megadeals (B2B) sales processes are very complex and involve a rich toolbox of both martech and salestech tactics from the selling side, used over long periods of time and aimed at a large number of stakeholders, both around, and directly involved in the deal, many of which are informal decision-makers and hard to map out correctly from the outside.
Since the focus usually is not on "getting clicks" but on building awareness (in the human brain), measuring attribution of impact is challenging.
When the deal goes through, was it the repeated exposure of ads in websites such as Forbes.com, Di.se, CNN.com etc that did it? Perhaps the retargeting in social media, the segments & names based targeting in Linkedin etc, the beeswarming (team-synchronized visits of linkedin profiles) or the ad on the digital billboard outside the soon to be client's office? What roles played the consistent posting and thought leadership in social media, and of course the sales meetings, calls and emails?
Well the answer is of course that all of these activities contributed to moving the client through the sales funnel and eventually closing the multimillion (or -Billion) dollar deal.
Certainly, you can and should measure the buying intent in various ways and adapt the messaging accordingly, depending on how the prospect moves in the sales funnel. However, the complex science of attribution of a large number of stakeholders over many months, often years, is not easily quantifiable. A great deal of patience and consistency is needed in this orchestration.
At Megadeals Advisory we find this intersection of art and science at play around the large deals particularly fascinating and rewarding to work with.
//Johan Hultman
