Success is not the same for everyone, how do you define it?

I overheard this between a sales manager and one of our coaches.

"My team aren't motivated to put in the effort to achieve their goals"

"What do you mean by their goals"

"You know, their targets"

"What makes you think these are their goals"

The manager had fallen into the trap of assuming things about his team (don't assume as it will make an ass of u and me). The incorrect assumption is that sales people are driven and know what they want. Whilst this is true of the best sales people, the majority just come into work to do as they are told.

Visualise the rewards of success
Anyone, in any area of life, who is successful, can clearly articulate what they are driving towards. They know what success looks like and how to get there. Key to their success is they have a plan - a personal business plan - and they use this to drive the actions and activities. They are therefore not only able to visualise what success looks like but they can explain how they are going to get there.

How can you use a Personal Business Plan
If you were investing in something with a view to generating a return, you would expect to see a business plan which defines what success looks like (targets), how this will be achieved (activities) and what support they require (investment). You use this plan to decide if you can justify the investment, and if you do not believe in the plan you make suggestions as to what could be done to improve the likelihood of success.

As both individuals and managers we should be able to do the same.

• As an individual - I should be able to build my own plan for the coming year covering:
• What I want to achieve - Earning, promotion, etc.
• What I need to do to achieve it 
• A sales plan for the next 12 months - aligned to my revenue targets. This should include my own personal KPIs that I can use to track success
• An achievements plan - what must I do to achieve my promotion/skills targets
• What investment do I need
• What support do I need from my manager/organisation
• As a manager - I should review the individual plans and align them against my plan. I can then make the decision "is the plan worth investing in?"
• Are the target achievements in line with my organisation targets
• Do I believe the plans.
• Can I provide the investment

So where should we start
As part of the planning process for next year we should ask everyone in our teams to build their own personal business plans (even if we have not finalised the sales targets). This way we will hear from everyone what their aspirations are and how they intend to achieve them.

If you want to see an example personal business plan please contact me (mark.savinson@sales-accredit.com)

Next week we will look at how we review the personal business plan.

To find out more about how Accredit can help you and your sales teams contact me (mark.savinson@sales-accredit.com) or visit our website (www.sales-accredit.com)

Is your qualification ruthlessness enough to close-out the qtr

This has been a busy week, especially as it is the last month of the quarter for many of our clients. I have therefore decided not to discuss personal business plans, as originally planned.  but instead to highlight a situation we are seeing amongst many of our clients - chasing badly qualified opportunities and trying to close them by giving away margin.

Let me explain, too many businesses appear have forgotten that it is not the sales person who closes the deal, it is the customer who decides they are ready to close. The sales person can only position the customer for a close, address all issues that may block the close and then ask the customer if they are ready to close. When the customer is ready to close they will close, it could happen quickly, or it could take time. The main influence a sales person has on driving to a speedy close is addressing the issues that the client must overcome to allow them to close.

So why is this of interest as we come to the end of the quarter? The issue we are seeing is that because the opportunities are poorly qualified sales people are treating all opportunities equally. They are investing the same amount of time in opportunities that cannot close this month as they are in those that could close this month. They are offering discounts where it is not necessary, either by entering price negotiation with someone who was already happy to buy, or by setting expectations of a price discount for those who will buy next quarter.

So what are we recommending:

1. Qualifying all opportunities into, "will buy this month" or "will buy later".
2. Understanding what issues need to be overcome to get the "buy this month" to be able to buy this month:
• Provide attractive offers that the sales rep can use to trade as part of the final negotiation. These are not discounts but value add offers
• Ensure that operational issues are addressed in time so that we can take the order and book the revenue. If it takes 10 days to complete the process of setting up a new account, doing the credit check, signing Terms and Conditions and shipping, then any deals after 20th December will not happen this year! - Qualify them as a "will buy later"
• Get operations on-side, how can you speed up the time from receipt of order to booking the revenue.
3. Anyone who is "will buy later", manage your time so that you do not limit your ability to focus "on will buy now". Do not ignore them but manage them
4. Sales management should agree the negotiation limits and stick to them. Remember that before you negotiate you should have sold the value. If all you do is reduce the price you have not sold the value.

This all common sense, but in the rush to hit the quarter we often rush around rather than thinking.

Finally, please avoid the trap of robbing Peter to pay Paul. Sometime it is better to miss this quarter to build next quarter and maintain margin. If you are giving margin away now it is usually impossible to claw it back later, so do so with your eyes open.

Good luck if you are closing out the quarter.