12th Century Stone Mason’s Guide to Selling Technology

It seems like once I get an idea in my head, it keeps revealing itself in several areas to the point that it solidifies my belief in the original idea.  So recently, I’ve been reading Ken Follett’s book, The Pillars of the Earth — amazing book if you haven’t read it. The main character, Tom, is a master builder, a very skilled stone mason who aspires to build a grand cathedral. He travels all over England during the 12th century looking for the opportunity to build a structure that will bring him pride and wealth.

Tom encounters two huge problems. First, he has a horrible spell of bad timing. Each new fiefdom that he visits is either at the final stages of building or rebuilding a castle or cathedral, or short on money for such an undertaking. The second challenge he has is competition. Although he holds his talents in high regard, there’s many other stone masons competing for the same jobs. Tom continues to travel the countryside throughout the winter fighting starvation (for him and his family) and eventually gets work with an Earl who has no intention of hiring a stone mason..Tom almost walks away rejected as the earl tells him he has no need for a stonemason (I suspect similar to the reaction we often get by asking if a prospect has any UC, IPT or infrastructure projects planned). Tom says, “I hope you’re not planning on doing battle anytime soon.” Immediately the Earl changes his attitude and perks up (he’s planning on overthrowing the current king through a revolt). The earl asks, very concerned, why Tom would say such a thing. Tom goes on to mention several different examples of shortcomings in the Earl’s defenses, and problems with the physical structure that make him vulnerable to attack. Immediately, Tom is hired because he understands the castle’s weaknesses and has specific ideas on how to fortify the structure. Yeah, I know..Sales 101 right? Nonetheless, a good reminder on how to approach opportunities. What is your prospect trying to do in the next year? While they may not plan on overthrowing a King, maybe they are planning on expanding into new markets, or launching a new product, consolidate an acquisition, or comply with new regulations…

I’ll spare you the details, but that job didn’t pan out for Tom as the Earl’s plans for rebellion were discovered before Tom could get to work on castle fortifications. But get this — he hears about a cathedral at Kingsbridge where the prior (the monastic leader) has just passed away. He makes it a priority to visit Kingsbridge because he knows there will be a new prior and that person will have their own plans of how to run the priory –ie. changes. The new prior, elected by his peers, doesn’t typically see himself as a caretaker. Rather, he has his own ideas of how he will expand the priory and leave his mark. This reminded me of a post from yours truly about using google alerts to find out when a new CIO or CFO is hired. Tom was right, the new prior did have big plans, and was disgusted at how his predecessor caused the priory to decline. As a result, Tom found a job by going to Kingsbridge at just the right time.

Tom used two basic sales strategies to find work — timing his approach with the arrival of a new C-Level (the prior), and understanding the customer well enough to ask the right questions– questions his competitors weren’t asking. Who would have thought Ken Follett knew so much about sales?