Accredit - Making sales people more effective

It's just a conversation

2011-06-12T18:17:00.004+01:00

How did you get on with the task I set you last time - you know go 24 hours without complaining about anything - it's really, really hard isn't it? That said trying it makes you realise how immature we can all be when we complain about traffic jams, colleagues, clients, bosses etc. It is time we all grew up.

This week I am going to hold back on the next part of the ADMIRe model which is about being an Interdependent Team player.

Instead I want to focus briefly on some work I have been doing with a major client recently. This large IT company has embarked on a really fantastic program which they are calling their Sales Academy. Basically over 100 new sales people have already joined and more are on their way

We have been working with the Academy guys on sales skills and helping them gain a Sales Accreditation so that they can get out and see real clients and begin to payback the IT company for the chance to work as a Sales professional in a really exciting market

One of the things that confuses me is why people often turn natural speech patterns and behaviour into something quite unnatural when in front of a client - I guess it could be put down to good old fashioned nerves

Lets be clear guys - a sales call should be a "natural conversation" between two business people. Both wanting the now cliched (but still true) win/win.

Yet when faced with the scenario of talking to a "client" in a sales simulation we use for accreditation some sales people turn their conversation into a mixed, garbled series of monologues rather than a smooth, natural conversation of potentially mutual benefit

So a few simple tips to help you all whether you are running a real sales call or trying to pass an assessment at the end of your sales training:

1. Ensure from the start that your meeting is about your client's agenda
2. Listen, listen, listen to your client when they speak
3. Don't try to sell anything - just have a conversation about potential opportunities that may arise from your clients situation
4. Find out as much as you can about your client and her/his organisation that is useful to you moving forward with the opportunity
5. Embrace "Objections" - it is your client's way of getting you to sell

Follow those few tips and you will be on your way

Until next time - Good selling

Own up to being Grown up

2011-05-29T18:01:00.001+01:00

It never ceases to amaze me how much we all moan about our lot - me included.

I will now set you possibly one of the most difficult tasks you have ever been set - try going 24 hours without moaning or complaining about anything. Sounds easy but i tell you it is very, very difficult

This is possibly what appears to be the simplest of all actions to take yet when you try to achieve it is one of the hardest things to do.

I want you to spend 24 hours, yes just a single day where you do not complain about anything. That’s it. That’s the exercise. Spend a day not complaining about the journey to work, the weather, your football team’s result, last night’s TV, your colleagues, your job, your next sales call, your clients, in fact no complaining about anything whatsoever. No using "victim" language. No moaning. No nothing that is negative.

Instead use positive MATURE language that reflects your healthy view of what you can achieve. A positive outlook, a view of what obstacles are in your way and a grown up method for dealing with anything that hits you.

Two things will happen:
1. You will be amazed at how difficult it is
2. You will be amazed at how much you can get done when you focus on being MATURE about dealing with anything and everything

This blog is about the M in our ADMIRe model - Maturity

The key aspect of this element of the model is that we are all responsible for our own lives, our own thoughts – everything we do, we do to satisfy our own emotional needs. The ones we need satisfied at the time we make a decision to do something.

Blaming others, using “victim language” like – “it was not my fault”, “I have to”, “I was only following orders” is an excuse. It is an excuse for not being responsible for your own actions

A simple way to explain this is the “Event – Stimulus – Response” model. Something happens, it stimulates a thought in our minds and we respond or react.

Fact - we are responsible for our own emotions, nobody else. We choose how we respond to a situation based on our emotional needs at the time

These choices we make can be based on our own view of moral responsibility or duty. They are still our choices, based on our emotional needs at the time.

Whether your actions are “for good” reasons or whether they are poor (for example blaming someone else for the situation and doing nothing about it) they are still your actions based on your choice of satisfying your emotional needs.

So we all have the choice to do what we do. Nobody can make you feel guilty or responsible. There is no such thing as sacrifice

You make decisions based on your present emotional needs. You always have. You always will.

Neither is there any value in you being a “victim”. Make a point of not complaining ever about the choices you make and actions you take – it’s up to you.

The good news is that, rather like a vintage claret or cognac, our emotional MATURITY gets better with age. What matters is that you use your experiences to shape how you respond to situations – remember it is not necessarily what happens to you that it is important, it is how you respond to what happens to you that counts.

The great news therefore is that MATURITY enables us to have control over our thoughts and therefore our outcomes

Use this part of the ADMIRe model to focus on how you approach your sales calls. Own up to being Grown up about your own success. A healthy pipeline and great sales results will be the outcome. When you hit a difficult time make sure you do not blame anyone or anything for the circumstances and outcomes.

If you act with MATURITY in a grown up fashion then you are more likely to overcome your difficulties and get back on to the road to success. Dont' forget to LEAP over any obstacles

Next time we will look at the "I" in the ADMIRe model - that is for Interdependence or teamwork.

Speak soon and Good Selling

LEAPing Obstacles

2011-05-16T14:51:00.003+01:00

Where have you been I hear you say across the virtual world. Back in February I was talking about the ADMIRE model and had just got to talk about D for Desire and setting goals when suddenly I disappeared, as did Mark, my Co-Director in Accredit.

Well, no excuses, we have not performed our blogging tasks for almost 3 months and have left you hanging on like a weekly cliffhanger at Saturday morning cinema (ask your Dad/Mum)

Last time we said we would introduce you to how you could overcome obstacles by using our LEAP model (do you get it? - you can LEAP obstacles!)

Ironic isn't it, I am just about to tell you how to LEAP obstacles and I let the little obstacle of being very busy with Clients get in the way (you know who you are and thank you so much for your business and kind words of feedback for us)

So what is LEAPing obstacles to do with being successful at selling? Well, whilst we are busy setting our goals and planning our work we often hit a metaphorical brick wall. Something that is in our way. Something that stops us from progressing. Some apparently insurmountable problem that is so daunting that it makes us think that our plan must be rubbish and our goal unattainable because this immovable object is in our way.

Good news folks - we can LEAP obstacles put in our way

Here's how

LIST issues, problems, hurdles that get in your way - for example lack of information, changing timescales, lack of money, lack of resource, lack of knowledge and skills, lack of customers to talk to.

EXTRACT those things that are insignificant or that you can do nothing about - for example client changes timescales for her own business reasons, you lose a team member to another project, your sales budget is cut by 20%. Accept it if you can do nothing about it or it is meaningless. Move on.

ACTION those things that you can do something about - do more research, find replacement resource, get more for less with the budget/time you have available, learn more about your client's problems and her business

PROGRESS towards your goal with activity everyday until you have achieved it

Successful salespeople have many attributes. One is that they are not victims. They do not complain when something goes awry or when circumstances outside of their influence or control change. They get on with what they can influence, affect and action and they make progress on their plans and goals every single day until they achieve what they set out to do.

Being focused, having a positive attitude and having positive thoughts leads to positive actions, results and outcomes.

You too can LEAP over your obstacles if you focus on your goals and believe in yourself.

Next time we are going to talk about how being "Grown Up" is vital to your success

Thank you for your attention - apologies once again for being "off the air" for so long

You have to want to succeed

2011-02-20T18:02:00.000Z

Last we introduced the ADMIRE model and how the first element attitude determines our approach to selling.

The second element of the ADMIRE model is DESIRE. This is about having purpose, about having targets to achieve, goals, objectives, call them what you will.

Can you, if asked, explain to someone succinctly what your key goals are for the next month, the next year? If you can then well done – you are in a tiny minority of people who have thoroughly thought through and planned goals. Less than 5% of sales people have written down goals that are regularly updated to reflect the latest achievement.

What are your personal earning goals for this year, next year?

Having the “right”ATTITUDE and combining this positive way of thinking with a set of written down, achievable goals that you strongly DESIRE is a very, very powerful combination.

We have already talked about habits in previous blog posts. Over 95% of what we do is habitual – managed and controlled by your subconscious without you thinking about it. Think about it – you walk, talk, eat, drive, without thinking too much about it. You have programmed your mind and body to work together to make these every day things just happen. Yet to achieve these everyday things we are using less than 10% of the capacity of our brain.

Just think of what you could achieve if you used some of that untapped potential in the 90% of your brain you hardly use, if at all.

Here’s a conundrum for you. Why do you have to really concentrate to do some things yet others, just as complex, you can do literally with your eyes closed.

Try this; close your eyes, now clap your hands together very quickly. Easy and nimble, eh?

Yeah, that is because you can do this through your subconscious, you don’t have to think about it, you just know how to do it. Now use your conscious mind to do something quite dextrous, I don’t know, how about writing the alphabet with your “wrong" hand. You have to focus more, you have to take your time – it is much harder. Your subconscious mind can do the clapping bit thousands of times faster than your conscious mind can write the alphabet with your non-writing hand.

Now here is a really great thing – your subconscious mind cannot tell the difference between a real and a desired event that is really vividly imagined. Now I don’t know about you but I reckon we could use that to help us develop and achieve our goals.

Lets make it simple. Write down your goals in a really, vividly imagined, positive format.Have a look at the table below, We have based it on something non-work based that we want to achieve this year

Goal Setting Table

Start date and Title of Specific Goal

Date and description
Be specific & define timeframe

Date and description
Make it measurable and have a timeframe

Planned Completion Date

EXAMPLE – I am working on achieving a 16 handicap at my Golf Club. Beginning 01/09/10

I have booked 6 lessons, I play at least one round each week

I am committed to practicing every weekend during the winter at the range and on the golf course

It is June 1st 2011. I am a 16 handicap golfer, playing every week at my golf club. I am regularly congratulated on my game. I am happy, very happy

NOTE:-
Review progress regularly. Adjust as necessary, habitually review every Saturday morning
You have to believe they are really achievable and worthwhile
Acknowledge wins as you go and reward your self, e.g. moving from 20 handicap to 19

So what does this all mean? Well in terms of achieving something you really want to do it gives you a structure, it gives you a set of achievable but stretching goals. It launches you forward towards a time in the future, one you have already vividly imagined, one where you are happy and have accomplished what you set out to achieve.

Now you could say "what about if I encounter problems on the way?" Well, guess what? That is the subject of next week's blog. It will be entitled "How to LEAP over obstacles" where I will show you a simple model for overcoming all of those nasty conscious and sub conscious thoughts and attitudes that mentally get in the way of achieving something worthwhile

We have identified a number of techniques that you can use to help you plan your goals and use your DESIRE. We will share some of these thoughts on our LinkedIn group Selling - Keeping it simple and effective which you can access if you click here

If you do not ADMIRE yourself who else will?

2011-02-06T21:35:00.004Z

Last week we talked about the fact that "you own the solution to all your problems". So what did we really mean by that?

Over and over, when we have assessed sales people we have noticed that many lack self confidence, even those who are fairly successful.

To understand how you can overcome your lack of self confidence, we have created a model that will help you. It is called the ADMIRE model

Over the next few weeks we will reveal all.

This week the focus is on "A" the first letter of the model. A in this instance stands for ATTITUDE.

The “right” positive mental attitude is the primary reason why some people appear to be more successful than those whose mental starting point is one of a half empty glass.

Earl Nightingale said that Attitude is the single most important word in our language. It is the starting point for every action we take. Attitude drives the way we think. People that think positively, with a can do attitude, are more likely to succeed.

The Quality of your Thinking determines the Quality of your Life

You may not be what you think you are but what you think, you are

“There is nothing either good or bad but only thinking makes it so”

Shakespeare

So if thinking is so key to our success then it follows that “better” thinking will lead to better results and outcomes.

Stephen Covey said that everything is created twice – first in the mind then as an action. If you have “good, positive thinking” then you will be more likely to have good, positive outcomes.

Being positive about yourself, your life, your work, your goals is not easy for everyone. You may need to join your own personal “mental gymnasium”. Just as you have to work your body to improve your physical health, so you have to work at being mentally strong – both in terms of how you exercise your mind and what mental diet you follow.

The great guru of positive thinking was Earl Nightingale. Look him up on You Tube. Simple to understand, easy on the ear, he describes the “Strangest Secret” which is that “we become what we think about most of the time”. If we believe we can do something we are more likely to achieve it than if we start negatively with a belief that it is beyond us. Optimism and pessimism have a very powerful effect on our success, our results, our outcomes, our lives.

Emotional Intelligence is key here. It does not matter from which social or educational background you are. What we are talking about here is that positive attitudes are absolutely vital to our emotional wellbeing and our success irrespective of where we come from.

We have identified a number of techniques that you can use to boost your self esteem, whilst avoiding becoming "boorish" about your success. We will share some of these thoughts on our LinkedIn group Selling - Keeping it simple and effective which you can access if you click here.., and would like to hear how you ensure you think positively about what you can achieve.

Next week we will look at the D of DESIRE!

We look forward to hearing from you

You own the solution to all your problems!

2011-01-30T21:59:00.001Z

Did you realise that the biggest thing that holds you back is your self belief that you can achieve virtually anything you set your sights on. Before you all groan and think to yourself, not the same "self improvement" message, we are not talking about self confidence, we are talking about taking control of what you want to achieve, and owning the steps to that success.

Over the next few weeks we are going to examine how we take ownership, what that means in terms of the individual and their managers, and some techniques that can help you set achievable objectives and then own the success of achieving those objectives. Or to put it another way - help you earn more!

Why should I own my own success?
We have frequently stated that sales people should create their own business plans, not solely rely on the targets and objectives set by others. The most successful sales people are those who know what they want to achieve, have a measurable definition of that as a set of objectives and goals, and can articulate the steps they have to take to attain them.

The challenge of any sales person working for someone other than themselves is that they have the safety net provided by the company - whether it is the initial guarantee, or a high basic, or even the "house accounts". These all contribute to sales people letting the company define their destiny, when success does not arrive it is not their fault, they did not own the success in the first place.

This is not as rare as you might think. How many sales people who can live off their basic, fail to achieve target?- their is no consequence of failure, they do not have an objective that they need to achieve - THEY DO NOT OWN THEIR OWN SUCCESS

Look at the alternative, an "entrepreneurial" sales person. They have to own their own success, no sales means no money. But they don't just want to own "enough" they want to earn more than that. They want a new car, a bigger house, a luxury holiday, a more successful business, happy clients etc. Ask them what they want and they can clearly articulate it. Once they know what they want they then achieve it, "they become driven to succeed"

That's all well and good, but shouldn't my manager be trying to make me more successful?
If you are thinking to yourself "the reason I work for a company is that I like the support the company gives me", I have some bad news for you, as a sweeping generalisation those in the "sales effectiveness" world agree SALES MANAGEMENT IS FAILING.

Not enough coaching takes place, in fact currently sales managers, understandably, are so focussed on keeping their own jobs and managing their managers they are spending even less time, if that was possible, on helping their people succeed. How often have you heard your manager say, I haven't got time to do the 1-2-1 as I have been asked to produce a new forecast/report?

Now is the time to take control of your own destiny!
If you look around you, you will see many sales people earning more money than ever before (perhaps not as much as bankers though!). They are achieving this because now, in “difficult times” is the time when good sales people achieve their greatest success, when selling is truly the difference between winning and losing a deal. What do these people have in common? The answer is that they have taken control of their own destiny.

We are going to provide you with the techniques to do the same:

Learn how to overcome the barriers to success
Take control of your own objectives and achieve more
Turn your manager into a coach to help you
Build your own plan to achieve success

We want to hear from you along the way so we have created a LinkedIn group where we can share our thoughts and experiences, but not sell! You can find the group by going to LinkedIn and searching for the group Selling - Keeping it simple and effective or click here

Our initial question to everyone is what are the top 3 barriers to your success.

How do you ensure your Sales Assessment programme is successful and provides ROI?

2010-12-09T10:37:00.000Z

In our last two blogs we have outlined our view on Sales Competency models and how you identify whether your sales people have the skills necessary for you to be successful.

This week we are focusing on how you can ensure measurable Return on Investment (ROI) from a Sales Assessment programme and how you actually assemble and communicate a programme that will ensure success for the Sales Management team and the sales people too.

The first point is to decide beforehand what you are going to do with your competency assessment results once you have them. This is vital because by beginning with the end in mind, it provides you with a platform for planning the rollout of the programme, how it is communicated and "sold" internally and helps you to focus on what you can do to improve your sales team once you have assessed them.

Putting your sales team through a series of competency assessments, both online and face to face sales simulations is potentially a stressful time for the sales team. Think about it - you are really saying to the team "we want to know if you can really do the job we are paying you for".

The first thing to do once you have decided on the format and structure of your sales assessment programme is to communicate it clearly to the sales team. Outline the purpose, clarify the objective and state simply how the programme will run and what will happen, when it will take place and most importantly what happens after the competency assessments have been completed - both for those that pass the assessment and those (maybe even more importantly) that do not. The single worst thing you can do is run the programme and then not have a development programme (or exit strategy) for those that do not live up to expectations.

A sales assessment programme, using competency models and quizzes to understand skills and knowledge it exactly that. it is a programme to assess current skills and knowledge. It will not tell you how your people actually perform in front of customers. In the same way that psychometric testing is about understanding personality types and characteristic traits a competency model will not per se improve selling in your business

What will improve performance is, having assessed the team and identified development needs, then working together the sales management team and the sales people work on adopting behaviours that improve performance until they become habits.

Our top ten tips for improving sales performance post a competency assessment programme are:-

Clearly communicate from the start why you are running the programme, what it involves and how the results will be used to improve selling behaviours
When rolling out the programme ensure all managers brief their teams on it's importance and encourage participation
Make it relevant to the sales people - both in terms of content of online quizzes and in terms of sales simulations
Provide feedback and coaching to all participants immediately after any face to face sales simulations
Use competency models that provide an output that you can use to improve selling - for example if you want to improve close rates then test closing capability in the sales simulation
Ensure Sales Managers are bought in and that they take on the responsibility for coaching and development of the team on an ongoing basis
Test regularly - not once every 5 years. Competency based assessments should be deployed every time a new portfolio item is launched or when there is a perceived dip in sales performance
Use the results of the programme to improve sales performance not as a big stick or threat of dismissal
If you need to run training courses as a result of gaps found in sales capability then re-assess skills and knowledge as part of the training course
Always remember the customer is the most important aspect of your sales process. Involve your customers by finding out what they think of your sales team's performance and build in their views into your competency testing

As ever we are really interested in your views and comments so please tell us what you think of competency models and give us your stories around what has and has not worked for you.

So how do I identify if my people are any good?

2010-11-09T18:26:00.004Z

Having defined your sales competency model, as explained last week, our focus now shifts to how you measure people against the target competencies.

Measurement of knowledge is easy - "test them"
Without putting too fine a point on it, the easiest way to to understand your people's knowledge is to test them. Simple quizzes are an ideal way to identify what people know - here are three things to consider:

Ensure the quiz is relevant to the sales person - Don't expect them to know something that does not help them with making sales, keep it relevant
Ensure that the answers are to be found in content they have access to - don't set people up to fail
Keep it simple, avoid complex questions, instead ask questions on the types of things a customer, colleague or manager might ask.

Specific skills - Let's do a self assessment

On the face of it, self assessment is ideal for understanding what people think their sales skills are, but remember we are addressing specific skills that are better suited to "test" that have clear right and wrong answers.

What can we test?

Numeracy skills
Literacy skills
Verbal reasoning and communication skills

So what about the rest?

You can self assess on the remaining skills - for example "When preparing for a meeting which of the following do you normally do......". Self assessment for people you do not know is an ideal solution, used as part of the recruitment process it helps identify the candidates potential capabilities.

However, we do have reservations about solely relying on self-assessment when you know the people. Consider this:

How would you react if you knew you were being assessed - would you try and second guess the answer you think people want to hear?
If asked to rate yourself would you over exaggerate or downplay?
Would you try and beat the system?

If you answered yes to any of these you can see why we may have reservations about solely relying on self assessment. Our suggestion is that you should still undertake a self assessment programme, but follow it up with a manager's review where the managers have the opportunity to ask people to justify/clarify their answers. This can result in either downgrading or upgrading.

OK so I have tested skills and knowledge, what about attributes?

Use a specialist who will measure the attributes (often through a psychometric test) of individuals. But remember, do not just take the "standard" sales person attributes, include your organisational culture. Many large organisations recruit "rain makers" in the hope that they will bring in large deals. These people have all the attributes of a great sales person, but invariably they leave within a year having had little impact. Why does this happen? Because they do not fit in culturally - they want full autonomy, but culturally the company cannot deliver that!

You now have a picture of your people - map it against your target roles.

Remember your are assessing people against a competency model made up of Knowledge, Skills and Attributes, you should be able to map people against the target "skylines" for their roles.

But all you have found out is what your people are capable of, you do not know if they do it when under pressure - in front of a client.

Objectively assess your people doing their job

We are not suggesting anything radical here, if you were putting your people through a vocational NVQ you would expect to review people doing their job. Selling is the ultimate vocational job, success is in the doing not understanding the theory.

To effectively assess "the doing" part of selling consider the following:

Assessment must be consistent so create an assessment schema that everyone uses - build different schemas for the key parts of the sales cycle
Get managers to run the assessments - they need to understand what people actually do, only then will they take responsibility for coaching
Don't set people up to fail, initial assessments should be based on role play.
Use real customer scenarios for the role plays - this is practice before they see the customer
Be brave, if people are below the required standard don't let them near the client, you only get one chance to sell.

Should you use just one supplier?

We would always suggest you look at best of breed suppliers, but you ought to have a single assessment repository. Remember you are assessing people against a competency model, therefore you need to map the results against this model, link the results to a development plan and ongoing coaching.

We are clearly biased on this view, but we have just rolled out an assessment programme for a global organisation that has used three different sources for assessment content. The company created their own sales skills and product knowledge test, they used a third party for the attributes and we provided the assessment engine as well as the observational assessments. The result is that they have gathered a rounded view of their people, managers are being encouraged to coach their people based on the results and they are mandated to do regular observational assessments.

We can show you the assessment tool

You can see an example of observational assessments by going to our generic assessment tool - www.esquaredm.com Log-in with e-mail address trial@trial.com and password trial. If you would like a demonstration of the fully integrated assessment tool including knowledge test, skills assessment and attribute measurement contact us via e-mail (mark.savinson@sales-accredit.com or fred.nelson@sales-accredit.com) or call Mark on +44 7782 162300.

Next week we will look at what you need to do to ensure that your programme is successful and delivers a measurable return.

So what is an effective competency model?

2010-11-02T11:40:00.002Z

Firstly, thank you for the feedback we received, please do keep contacting us as it is important that the work Fred and I put into this does not only reflect our personal experiences.

So what is an effective sales competency model?
I have a simple definition for you - a description of what a high performing sales person does in order to sell to your customers. There is a key phrase in this definition - sell to your customers. The sales competency should not be generic, it must reflect what is required to sell to your customers. Whilst there are some standard components, key for an effective competency model is to reflect the buying style of your customers.

Let me give you an example: There is no point in creating a competency model that is assessing sales people against a complex, consultative sales approach, when your customer base is transactional and is looking for the easiest buying process - differentiation is in the ease of placing orders, offering simple up-sell and cross-sell opportunities and providing a consistent and timely order fulfilment.

The reason I emphasise the need to reflect your environment is that it is this that differentiates between a sales competency model and an effective competency model. I feel I should apologise for stating the obvious, but if you are investing time, effort and money in building a sales competency model, it must add value, provide a structure for coaching your people to be better and ultimately drive sales.

So what should the components of this competency model be?
The ultimate sales competency model should show direct links to your sales engagement model. It can be broken down into the following parts:

People attributes - We all know that there are specific attributes we look for in a successful sales person; resilience, challenging, self motivated, success focussed, etc. The mix of these attributes will vary between the roles within your sales organisation and the complexity of the sale. Please do not forget your organisation's culture, you should be looking for people who "fit" and as such there are certain attributes that you should be identifying that makes for a good fit. Remember, the occasional maverick sales person who achieves their number may be fine, but you cannot have a team of them.
Specific skills - This is not just the obvious sales skills, but should include areas such as numeracy, literacy and also some less obvious such as collaboration skills, speaking skills, and management skills
Knowledge - Clearly sales people need to know stuff - but what is that stuff?

Product knowledge - The key features and advantages of the portfolio
Market knowledge - What is driving customers, what problems do they face and how does the portfolio help them solve these problems?
Sales process knowledge - There are key processes that the sales person should know about, either linked to a specific sales methodology or to the way in which you operate.

The ability to do - If you just measure Knowledge, Skills and Attributes, you have successfully identified people who have the potential to be an effective sales person. However I would suggest you should go beyond potential and find out what they really do. Therefore we recommend that your competency model should include measurements of how the sales people actually behave. Think it as the difference between the driving theory test, the driving test and then actually driving. As a parent, like many others, the minute my sons passed their driving test I wanted to go on a long drive with them to see how they drove once they had passed the test. Of course it was different, but key was to ensure that the differences reflected the needs of driving in the local areas as opposed to the driving test route.

But whose Competency Model should you use?

There are a lot of external competency models that are based on extensive research of sales people in many continents and they are especially effective in identifying specific attributes of successful sales people along with benchmarking specific skills against a wide population of sales people.

These are very helpful as they provide a level of external validation of "what good may look like". But as I pointed out earlier, an effective competency model needs to be personalised to your environment and the requirements of your customers. A purely external model, whilst useful will not deliver the increase in sales that a tailored model will give you.

It is also worthwhile learning the lesson of many organisations who buy in a competency model without the support of sales management is that these all ultimately fail to deliver the desired results. Why? Because they do not reflect the sales management style that exists within the organisation. The result is that sales management undermine the competency model as they drive alternative behaviours.

So in answer to the question "whose competency model?" - Yours, a combination of external (off the shelf) and tailored to reflect your "uniqueness".

A request - Don't forget to link the competency model to coaching

Having a competency model does not improve sales performance in itself
Knowing what your people look like against the competency does not improve sales performance
To improve sales performance you have to get people to do what the sales competency is driving towards.

Too many people think that benchmarking against a competency model will automatically mean people improve. They won't!

The only way to get the return on your investment in defining the competency model is once you have benchmarked your people you have to be prepared to coach people to behave in the required manner. To make this easy you need to identify how you move people along the competency model as you are defining the model.

Before you run off scared that this means an expensive training programme, it does not. Your sales managers should be able to coach their people, you just have to provide the tools.

We want to hear from you

Please share your experiences of building a competency model. If you are a sales manager, a sales rep, or a sales director, we would like to understand what lessons you have learnt.

We do not want anything complicated, just the answer to 3 questions

What did you measure?
How did you measure it?
What did you do with the information?

As we are only talking to sales people we know you will want something in return.

We will put the names of all those who respond into a "virtual hat" and then provide them and up to 8 colleagues with a free assessment and coaching on their approach to selling.

Send us your responses now!

Either add a comment to the blog and share it with others, or send us your thoughtsdirectly by email to either mark.savinson@sales-accredit.com or fred.nelson@sales-accredit.com.

Next week we will look at how you how to measure people against the competency model

Competency models and assessment - Where do we start?

2010-10-18T06:53:00.000+01:00

We have been promising for a while that we would start to look at a subject dear to our hearts, competency and assessment. Rather than immediately going into one of our normal tirades over what people are doing wrong, we wanted to start with some definitions and to get some feedback, either via the blog or directly.

Let's start with what a competency model is and why we might need it?
Here are some definitions that Fred and I hear when we are talking to clients, we would be interested in your thoughts.

A definition of the attributes we want our sales people to have
A combination of the attributes and knowledge we expect our people to have to be successful as sales people
A set of attributes, knowledge and skills that we are looking for in our people
A definition of what a world class sales person looks like
A definition of what we expect our people to do in their role, what they need to know and how they need to behave to successfully fulfil their role
A set of people skills we can measure

The above are all definitions we have been given by both prospects and existing clients. Once we have heard what they think they are looking for in a competency model, we then ask them what they want to do with it?

Use it for recruitment
Use it to identify "high flyers"
Use it to identify "people in the wrong job"
Create a definition of what good looks like
To create a "world class" sales organisation
Because our competition is doing it

Of course it is really important to find out who the competency model is for, i.e. what are you going to do with the results?

For HR to benchmark people
For Learning & Development to see what training is required
For Learning & Development to validate the effectiveness of training
For the Sales Director to see what their team looks like
For the individual sales people to understand what they need to look like to be better at their job.

We would like to know what you would want from a competency model?

Rather than immediately tell you what we think, we would like to hear from you. How will a competency model help you? If you are a sales manager, a sales rep, or a sales director, we would like to understand what value you would like to gain from being assessed against a competency model.

We do not want anything complicated, just the answer to 3 questions

What would you like a competency model to tell you
How would you like to be measured against the model
What would you like to do with the information.

As we are only talking to sales people we know you will want something in return.

We will put the names of all those who respond into a "virtual hat" and then provide them and up to 8 colleagues with a free assessment and coaching on their approach to selling.

Send us your responses now!

Either add a comment to the blog and share it with others, or send us your thoughtsdirectly by email to either mark.savinson@sales-accredit.com or fred.nelson@sales-accredit.com.

Next week we will look at how you create an effective competency model

Why do people buy?

2010-10-03T18:15:00.000+01:00

Been a hectic couple of weeks so sorry there has been no blog from Mark or me since early September. At the end of our last blog, we promised to write a blog on Competency Models. Well that is going to have to wait at least one more week because this week we wanted to talk about some fundamentals of selling and buying.

Pretty simple question this week - "Why do people buy?"

There are a couple of threads at present on some of the LinkedIn groups about salespeople needing to understand their own business and that of their clients really well if they are to be successful. Of course we agree - if you do not understand your own business, your portfolio, your key metrics and if you do not find out that information about your clients then you will struggle to convince people to buy from you.

But let's go back to the very simple question of "Why do people buy?"

Our view is as simple as the question. People buy for their own reasons - it is that simple. People buy to be better off as a result of making the decision to buy something. In a B2B world it may seem that your customer buys your product to solve a problem and of course that is true - to an extent. What is certain is that the decision maker will have more than just logical, business reasons for buying from you. There will be all of the emotional reasons tied up in the decision too. These are "their own reasons".

So what are "their own reasons' and how do you get to understand them?

Well guess what - we are back to one of our favourite subjects - you get to understand "their own reasons' by asking great questions and really listening to the responses. By the way I saw a great line last week which read "Listening is not the same as Waiting to Talk".

So listening, really deeply listening will uncover "their own reasons".

So when a CFO says to you "I may buy from you if you can save me some money" that sounds like an obvious thing to say for a CFO doesn't it? But if you can get deeply into his/her personal needs for saving money (looking good in front of the boss, saving our business from disaster, not repeating that mistake I made last year, earning my bonus by saving the business £s, etc, etc) then you are truly getting to "their own reasons"

So bearing in mind all buying decisions are emotional and for the personal reasons of the buyer we want to remind you of some basics:

Always ask questions that get you closer to the real, emotional, personal reasons for wanting to solve a business problem
Talk about the benefits to the customer of buying your products.
Do not talk about your products.
Ensure that your client is emotionally better off by buying your product
Listen intently to uncover the real "hot button" emotional reason for wanting to solve a particular business problem that can be addressed through the benefits your product brings

As always we are interested in your views so please post a comment

Do you want to know more?

Either read our Helping business drive sales document or contact either Mark Savinson or Fred Nelson and let Accredit help you create and manage your solution assessments enabling you to ensure your sales organisation is maximising the opportunities your portfolio creates.

How do you handle your own environmental changes?

2010-09-06T12:22:00.010+01:00

We have talked about "the environment" quite a lot lately. But we are not concerned here specifically about greenhouse gases and CO2 emissions (we are really and generally but if you follow us regularly, which many of you do, you will know that we are actually talking about the corporate environment we all work within)

We have recently related to you some of the issues that our clients are having to handle at present. Whether it is how to define a winning go to market strategy for a new proposition or how to handle the fact that there is constant change and uncertainty in a large organisation.

What we are very conscious of, both as sales-people (where we are trying to sell to our customers) and advisors (where we are helping drive the effectiveness of the sales and marketing teams), is the impact a perceived negative environment has. Whether it is decision makers failing to make decisions (no point re-org coming soon) or managers seeing everything as an initiative (they are like buses, if I ignore this one, another will come along shortly), the environment is often used as an excuse for inaction. As I am sure you have noticed, here at Accredit our philosophy is all about the doing - turning new behaviours into habits. For this to happen, inactivity is not an option.

Suffice to say that s*** happens and we all have to deal with it, remain focused and get on with the job. It is within your own power, at what ever level in the organisation you are, to do the right thing. As Brian Tracy would say, you are the CEO of "Me corporation" if you want to make a difference, then you have to do something about it yourself.

So if any of are you are currently going through a period of uncertainty or of rapid change then here are a few tips that will hopefully help you focus on driving "Me corporation" forward.

Change is constant. It is a fact of life. Accept it and focus on your job
We would all like to be in control, but there are some forces greater than us (usually the spreadsheet departments). Focus on your areas of control, they are your sphere of influence. For all the external issues you need to decide if they are Important and/or Urgent and prioritise accordingly.
Don't just change for change sake, link the change to your personal goals. By doing this, you can ensure that the environment works in your favour
Align your personal goals to the corporate strategy, this means that your success is directly linked to the organisation's success. You cannot have a Win/Win for You/The company without you both being aligned to a set of common goals
Being in sales we always have goals - to hit our targets. Focus on those irrespective of what is going on around you. If every salesperson spends every day taking action to hit their target then the organisational environment will, as if by magic, sort itself if the numbers are achieved.
Convert your goals into a plan, objectives and actions. Is everything you are currently doing enabling you to achieve your targets (irrespective of what is happening around you environmentally)?
Are you hitting your sales call targets? The more people you see the more chance you have of qualifying in some good prospects.
Are you going in to see customers with a great interpretation of your organisation's key marketing messages? Are you making these relevant to your customer's situation? When we are in organisational turmoil and a lot of change the fundamentals of selling become even more important.

We regularly see cases of effective people who succeed "in spite of the environment". These mavericks are the high performers in dysfunctional organisations, but they are impossible to replicate. However, we can all become good performers in dysfunctional organisations by focussing on doing the right things and investing our time where we will maximise the return, talking to our customers. If we all did this, we can guarantee (and that is not a word we tend to use) that we would all sell more.

Do you want to know more?

Next week we will start to look at - "How to use competency models to improve performance.

Why would your channel sell your product if you cannot sell them the value?

2010-08-29T15:49:00.003+01:00

A regular discussion we are a party to is "our channel partners are not selling as much as we had hoped, or they had committed to". This quickly turns into a conversation about how the channel partner's sales teams cannot sell the products/solutions provided, usually because "they cannot do solution selling!"

Now if you have followed our previous blogs, you will know what our reaction to this is likely to be - Before you blame the sales team (resources), have a look at the message and environment.

The best way of illustrating this is to provide you with two examples we have recently encountered.

We will not sell your offering it does not pass the "Ronseal Test"
We have been working with a client who has a new solution targeted at the SME marketplace and their largest channel partner has been failing to sell it. The initial reaction was that the sales team were just not up to it, but further discussion uncovered the real issue - Perception was the solution did not meet the customer need.

Sales people will not discuss a solution they have no confidence in, and this clearly manifests itself in a channel partner. The sales people have a range of offerings to sell, from a number of suppliers. Why should they take a chance on solution they have no confidence in? Human nature will always drive us to focus on the easiest things. The things we are comfortable with.

Further examination of the situation identified the real problem. The solution was targeted at a particular customer type and if the sales team properly qualified their targets they would have discovered that when positioned to the right customers the proposed solution not only addressed their issues but importantly delivered significant value when compared to the competition.

Interestingly, when we spoke with our client's sales team about the solution they had a similar perception about its relevance, and they too were reticent to introduce it to customers.

What exactly are you asking me to sell?
Here is a second example of an organisation with what they believe is a class leading product that none of their partners is selling in any quantity. In order to understand why, we facilitated a workshop which included product marketing, senior channel managers and technical specialists. The objective was to agree the key propositions that would encourage the partners to sell more of the product.

The workshop ultimately stalled on a key discussion, could anyone define what the product really was and what business issues it actually addressed. Consensus was the product could do anything you wanted it to, but this was of course not helpful to the channel partners. Beyond this, every channel was different in how they wanted to engage and what they were looking for from the product.

There was universal agreement that in the words of Einstein “If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough”. The key action from the workshop was to find a way of explaining what problems the product solves and how this would be of benefit to the partner. There was recognition that this would probably result in a number of messages reflecting the differences in the partners. Linked with this there was also recognition of the need to move away from thinking "sell to" or "sell through" and to start thinking "sell with".

So what is our message to you?
Your channel is just an extension of your sales team, with the same issues of Message, Environment, Resources.

If your sales team cannot articulate the message, why should you expect your channel partners to do any better?
If your channel partner's environment is not aligned to selling your product/solution, why would you expect the sales team to sell it?
Are you making it easy for your partners to work with you? Remember they are not dedicated to just selling your products/solution, you are competing for mind-share constantly
Think "sell with", be part of the solution to selling more.

Do you want to know more?

We’re all doomed - the environment is killing us

2010-08-20T15:26:00.000+01:00

Relax, this is not another doom and gloom blog on global warming, but is of equal importance to all sales teams. Your managers, at all levels, might be facing environmental fatigue, they may have given up trying to make changes.

Environmental fatigue - Is it really that bad?
A manager when asked the question “why don’t you get your Sales Managers and General Managers in one room and get direct feedback from them?” replied, “If I do that as a Senior Manager I would have to make them a commitment that I would take their issues away and do something about them. I'm not able to make that sort of commitment....”

Another manager recently told us that they were under increasing pressure to run with sales cycles even though their bid analysis told them to "no bid" as they could not deliver the solution.

What is interesting about these examples is that the statements were made to our consultants when we were carrying out sales management assessments. In both cases the senior management of our clients’ asked us to assess managers as they felt there was a problem with the capabilities of sales management.

Remember the Emperor's new clothes?
The 2 examples given are classic cases of senior management creating an environment that is not supportive of sales managers, but then blaming poor performance on sales managers. As with the Emperor's new clothes they have not looked at themselves to see if they are part of the problem (and therefore the solution) and no-one feels empowered to tell them, in the words of the little boy “but he’s not wearing anything!”

Senior Management needs to look in the mirror and check that they are not part of the problem. However in order to do this they need to want to see the truth, unlike the Emperor who even when looking in the mirror saw what he wanted to see, a fine set of clothes.

It is only when senior management recognise the influence they have in acting as a barrier for the successful implementation of solutions they have signed off, that sales organisations will change their behaviours. Don’t just take our word for this, Channel Four has a successful programme that is built on exactly this premise - “Undercover Boss”.

A fish rots from the head
As this expression suggests, there is no point looking at the bottom of the chain of command and trying to change it if you have not made sure that the change is supportable from the top.

As we have said in the past, unless you create a supportive environment that will help drive your required behavioural change in sales management and selling styles, you are just throwing good money after bad.

All truly successful sales organisations have a sales culture and environment driven from the top.

So what should you look out for?
Here are 10 symptoms of an environment working against the sales organisation

When setting next year’s targets are the targets based on an economic analysis or just a desire/need for growth?
Do the targets align to the strategic requirements - i.e. can you hit target based on selling legacy product as opposed to the strategic focus?
If senior management meet clients, do they make promises and then fail to follow them through?
Are management closed to a business case of “give me more sales resource and I will exceed target”.
Are you regularly asked for updates to forecasts and reports beyond the pre-agreed frequency?
Are you scolded for forecasting below target - even if it is an accurate forecast?
Are you allowed to "no-bid" on opportunities with key accounts?
Is everyone looking to blame sales for a shortfall in revenue - including marketing, senior managers and anyone else with an opinion?
Does it always feel like no matter what you achieve it will never be enough?
Is short-termism the order of the day and all long term strategic planning goes out of the window?

If that is how it is in your sales organisation then don’t think you are alone. We witness this over and over. Rather than trying to understand what is really causing shortfalls in revenue targets it always becomes the fault of the sales force.

Our experience shows that the environment for the sales team is made up of myriad of elements that can be causing you to miss target.

Yes, sales capability and execution may be an issue. But issues such as the macro economy, the internal processes that either help or hinder effective selling, the strategic focus of the senior decision makers in the organisation and the current cultural “feel” of the organisation will all influence the performance of the sales team.

So what should you take away?
This is a cultural, managerial issue. If fairly senior people believe there is a problem but that they cannot influence or change anything then blaming the sales force is an easy option. A clear, long term, strategic focus with some structural stability and an open culture of clear and honest communication is, in our view, the only way to bring a semblance of belief into the sales force. This has to be aligned with an environment that enables the sales force to sell rather than it being an obstacle.

Do you want to know more?

Product quizzes - Do they help or hinder your sales team?

2010-08-13T12:38:00.001+01:00

Many of our clients ask us to help them run sales team assessment programmes that include a quiz on the teams understanding of their offering. We are regularly asked how best to write the questions for these quizzes, so we thought we would share our thoughts with everyone.

This blog item is designed to provide ideas as to how to approach the creation of a product/solution/proposition quiz that not only tests sales people knowledge but also helps drive effective sales engagement.

What is the objective of the quiz?
As with all objectives think about what is the measurable outcome of doing the test, how will this ensure your sales team can effectively position your offer, qualify an opportunity and drive it towards a successful outcome?

Too often the sole objective of the quiz is to test that the sales person has read (and maybe understood) the sales collateral. This usually results in the questions being more focussed on the content of the collateral than the value of the content itself and how you use it to drive the sale.

We would recommend that the objective of the quiz is “to ensure that the sales person understands what customer problems the offer is designed to address, the key features of the offer, what the advantages of these features are and how they address the customer need, how to qualify the opportunity, the value your solution offers the customer and how you differentiate versus the competition”

Who is your target audience?
If you take our recommendation that the quiz needs to be linked to the sales process, then you have to consider “can I have one quiz for all?” There may be specific levels of detail that you would expect specific roles to have, if this is the case make the quiz role specific.

Try to avoid asking questions that add no value to the role, this will only devalue the quiz in the eyes of the participants.

How should you structure your questions?
If you have a specific sales approach (uncover need, position offer against need, qualify offer addresses need, validate customer sees value in addressing need with your offer, negotiate to a close) then use these steps as the structure of your quiz. This will then help your sales people see the value in the content you are providing and ensure they can use the content at the right time in the sales cycle.

Any structure you use should be relevant to your stated objective. If you need to do a more technical quiz your structure could be around, existing environment, specific technology needs, what the customer must have in place, how to check solution will work, etc.

The golden rules for questions
Remember you are asking a sales person to invest their time in answering a set of questions, something they probably have no desire to do, therefore the questions must be seen to be adding value:

All questions should be relevant and add value to the sales process for the sales team
Avoid pure pieces of information. i.e. 87.3% of people think.....
Focus on the impact of the information contained in the collateral / training - “If the customer has the following need xxxx, which of the features address that need....”
Avoid ambiguity in the questions - do not have any answers which are answered “all of the above”
Group questions together around the key feature/advantage groupings that differentiate your people and your offer and link these to customer needs
Do not ask purely factual questions based on content somewhere in the collateral - answers should not be a test on “have you read the collateral”
Do not feel obliged to ask 20 questions just to have the target of 20 questions, if you can only find 18 relevant questions, only have 18!
Sales people get bored easily, keep the structure of the question simple. Also ensure the quiz does not last more than 20 minutes
You can base questions around a customer scenario, you could even add sound and animation to explain the situation.
If you do any form of ranking questions make it an even number - on self assessment people are most likely to go for the middle answer, so do not give them a middle option

What happens at the end of the quiz?
Have you thought about the payback to the sales rep for investing their time?

If you are positioning the quiz as a test, you can have a pass/fail, but show them where they failed and what the impact of this will be to them - what they need to improve on to ensure they can sell successfully. As an alternative to a straight pass or fail you could have target scores for each section of the quiz and show the results against a target score. This could then be translated into a RAG result.

There should be some value to the sales rep when they see the results. Consider creating some words that explains why each section is important and how best to use the available content to help drive the sale

Point the user at content that could help them improve their knowledge

Have you thought about what happens if the sales rep falls below the required standard, do they re-sit the quiz, if so how quickly, is it the same set of questions, what happens if they fail again?

Success relies on effective communications
The quiz is likely to be part of an ongoing programme associated with the product/solution/proposition. Have you positioned its role?

Communication is key at the very least you need to:

Explain the objective of the quiz and the benefit to the sales rep
Position what you expect the sales rep to do

When the quiz starts / ends
How they should prepare
What happens if they do not do the quiz in the required time frame
Impact of pass/fail

Communicate with sales managers their role in the process - they will make or break the quiz as they are the people who will ensure their people take it seriously
Explain what happens after the quiz, what are you doing with the information, how will it affect the individual sales rep
Do not rely solely on broadcast information, include some personal communications. If you have a strict timetable, personal phone calls to the sales reps (or managers) encouraging laggards to complete the quiz are invaluable.

Do you want to know more?

Are you hiding behind e-mail and missing the chance to communicate?

2010-08-06T12:18:00.000+01:00

During the last week we have helped a client to solve a problem between them and one of their suppliers (not us!). The core of the problem being a lack of expectation management by the supplier and an assumption by the client that everyone would understand the nuances in their e-mails.

E-mail is a good tool for certain things but a poor “instant” communication tool
E-mail is great in certain circumstances, but e-mail is a poor tool for communicating when an issue needs discussion. The people who send the e-mail assume that the recipients actually read it, and beyond that understand what is trying to be communicated. The recipient skim reads it and takes it for what it is a quick way of sending a message, they take everything at face value, something which can lead to disaster.

Just discuss with your colleagues and friends how many issues have been caused by sending an e-mail that has not been thought through. Let's not forget the number of e-mails that have been replied all, forgetting that some of the information may not have been appropriate for all recipients to see.

E-mail is not a letter
If we all took the same time and effort to compose our e-mails as we do if we ever write a letter, then some, but not all of the problems would be reduced. At the very least there would be greater clarity in the message we are trying to deliver. People would spend more time composing their e-mails, clearly thinking about what they want to say and checking the e-mail before they send it. But then that wouldn't be e-mail and we wouldn't be able to use our Blackberries and iPhones.

So what is e-mail?
It is a quick means of sending an update, a request for information, a broadcast communications tool. It is not an effective one-to-one communications tool.

If you want an effective one-to-one communications tool, the killer app is talk to the person either face to face or on the phone or via an instant messaging application!

In fact if you are looking for a quick update mechanism you may find Instant Message or even Skype's messenger solution better than e-mail. At least you know if they are on-line, and can know if they received the message because you can ask for an immediate response.

So how can e-mail cause problems?
Let me take you back to the issue that I described at the start. The supplier had been carrying out a piece of work, fixed price to a deadline. As is always the case there had been scope creep and the supplier thought he was due additional money, so he sent an e-mail. The scope creep was also causing a delay to the project so the customer e-mailed a response to the suppliers e-mail not addressing the money issue, but focussing on the likely delay of the project. Anarchy ensued, the supplier thought the customer was trying to rip him off, "why won't he reply to my issue over money" and the customer was losing faith in the supplier, "this project is running late and I cannot accept any delay”. In both cases they were focussing on the personal issue and getting emotional over it.

The e-mails were part of the problem as both parties thought they had brought up a clear issue that needs to be addressed, and both parties had ignored the other’s issue.

So what fixed the problem?
A 30 minute meeting solved the problem, both parties met, articulated their issue, understood the others issue and came to an amicable agreement. They also recognised that this problem was in part caused by the use of e-mail as opposed to traditional voice communication, talking. 90% of the issues were due to poor communications between both parties and the associated lack of understanding.

It is a great example of Stephen R. Covey’s fifth habit of Highly Effective People - “Seek to understand first then to be understood”.

But what has this got to do with sales people?
How many sales people hide behind e-mail? When asked the question, "when did you last speak to the client?", the answer given is "I sent them an e-mail last week". When asked "what is the status of the opportunity?" how many people say "I am waiting for a response to my e-mail".

If we truly believe people buy from people, then why do so many sales people think that e-mail is a satisfactory means of communication. You need to speak to their customers.

What can be the impact of moving away from e-mail?
One of our major accounts is the EMEA division of a major PC hardware vendor, their people are spread all over Europe. There are lots of e-mails flying around, but if we need to sort anything out we have a very simple process.

We are all on Skype so we can see who is on-line
If we need to speak to the European Marketing Director we send a Skype message asking for a phone call, usually to agree the way forward
If the discussion is going to be complicated we have a quick call and agree a face-to-face meeting.
E-mail is used solely to validate the outcomes of calls/meetings, share updates with a wide audience and collaborate on key documents.

How can you use this message to improve your sales performance?
We have discussed how you plan you account activity in the past, and the topic of "customer facing time" has come up. We would suggest that you introduce the concept of "customer conversation time", allocate time in your day where you pick up the phone and speak to your accounts. You will be pleasantly surprised, not only will you reduce the likelihood of confusion, you will identify new opportunities just by speaking to people.

As an aim you should review whether it is appropriate to send an e-mail and whether you should use an alternative form of communication:

Do you need an immediate response from your communications? - If so call or Instant Message them
Do you need to validate that the recipient(s) have understood the key messages of your e-mail? If so call or arrange a conference call - you can ask them "have you understood this?"
Does your e-mail contain bad news? - Call them and personally deliver the news, it will be easier to manage expectations.
Do you want to get something off your chest? - write the e-mail and then delete it, you will feel better just by writing it down. If it is a serious issue speak to the person, don't hide behind the e-mail.

Do you want to know more?
Either read our Helping business drive sales document or contact either Mark Savinson orFred Nelsonand let Accredit help to enable your sales organisation to maximise the opportunities your portfolio creates.

I can't be asked to write a blog on motivation

2010-07-26T08:25:00.000+01:00

Motivation is a strange animal at the best of times. What makes us want to do something or not do something has been studied by behaviourial psychologists and business gurus for decades.

In selling the most important thing you can do is be in front of customers prospecting, asking questions, listening, finding out their problems and showing how your product can help them overcome their problem and provide them with some personal, emotional benefit.

So why do some salespeople complain when they are asked to spend more time with customers? I was recently working with a client whose senior management had set a target for customer facing time. This, in my view, was not a difficult target to achieve but it seemed to be causing a problem for the salespeople who saw it as arbitrary and burdensome. Fancy that a sales force complaining that having to be in front of customers was a problem for them!

To understand the motivation behind this I did some digging. What I uncovered was an emotional set of issues linked to performance management and a difficult set of targets that were stretching in a difficult trading period of economic hardship and uncertainty.

So what did I conclude?

Motivation is a personal thing that is based on your own internal needs aligned in selling normally to an external reward (e.g. earning a bonus)
Given it is personal it is dependent on the individual adapting a set of behaviours to his/her needs
You can have an organisational target that is sensible and based on organisational needs but if it is not recognised by the individual as relevant to him/her then it will create friction and uncertainty and may actually demotivate
When people feel under pressure even the easiest of targets seem impossible to achieve

Talking to the sales managers in this organisation provided me with the opportunity to try to understand what was really happening. The managers take on what was going on was very interesting - their teams felt micro managed, resources seemed stretched after a long period of down sizing and the difficult trading and economic conditions were making their targets even more difficult to achieve

So how can you personally remain motivated when organisationally you feel everything is difficult or even virtually impossible?

Keep the faith. Believe in your ability to remain focussed on what you have to achieve to win business and hit your number
Do first things first - the important stuff like visiting customers, prospecting meetings that have purpose and outcomes and qualifying good quality opportunities comes before any reporting, spreadsheet manipulation or email chain responses
Have a plan and stick to it, adjusting slightly as you go, not knee jerking and changing direction every time there is a slight hitch
Write down your objectives and work on them every day. Understand what makes progress towards your goal of hitting your number.

Being positive and having a set of goals will completely obliterate any issues you may have about target customer facing time. In fact you will find that your only concern will be fitting in all of the customer facing time!

So next time you are worried about being motivated to hit your customer facing time think:-

what actions am I taking to achieve my sales target?
how can I get in front of more decision making customers?
what coaching is my sales manager giving me to help keep me focussed and motivated?
have I reviewed my goals today and ensured I am focussed on achieving those?
what can I do to fit in more customer facing time?

Motivation in selling should be about doing everything you can to provide benefit to your customers. You can only "sell " benefit if you understand your customers needs. You can only understand your customer's needs if you ask them great questions, listen intently and get underneath their emotional demands. You can only get underneath their emotional demands by getting out and talking to them.

Selling activities should be focussed on 3 things -

1. preparing for customer meetings

2. meeting and presenting your ideas based on listening to your customer needs

3. following up to progress opportunities

Everything else is noise and fluff (before you cry foul, writing sales call reports is part of following up )

If you are not motivated enough to visit customers as often as you can then you are probably in the wrong job. Maybe you should do something else - I dunno how about becoming a hermit?

Do we want people who "can" or people who "do"

2010-07-16T06:03:00.004+01:00

This will be a short blog as both Fred and I should have been on holiday this week, the good news is that we have been very busy so holidays have been put on hold in order to focus on our clients. The even better news is that this has given me the opportunity to use my new iPad to write this blog. I have only had my iPad 2 weeks and I am just coming to the important decision, toy or useful business accessory. I will let you know in a few weeks.

During the last week we have had a number of conversations with companies on the subject of assessments. They can be neatly broken down into the following issue. What do we want to know, do we identify those people who have the attributes to be a sales person or those people who are selling well.

What is interesting is that the answer depends on who we are talking to. If the lead is HR then they start with the attribute question, "do we have people we can invest our training in who will become world class sales people?" If, on the other hand, we are speaking to the Sales Director, there is a far more pragmatic question, "are my people able to sell in the way I wish and if there are gaps how do I coach the people to improve?"

Attribute or approach
There is not necessarily a right answer, they are both useful. The key question is what are you trying to find out? Here at Accredit we believe that we come from the pragmatic end of the scale. If you have a sales team in place you need to find out what you must do to maximize their performance. This requires an assessment of how they are actually selling and then building a program to address the identified issues (which could of course be environmental or poor messaging). If on the other hand you are looking to overhaul your sales organization a review of their attributes is a valid exercise.

Avoid letting attribute over-ride the doing
Our experience shows that a well motivated team of people who are selling well will always outperform a team of people who have the attributes but are not motivated. Strong and clear leadership is of course essential. The pragmatic approach not only identifies how people sell, but it reveals the state of leadership, especially by showing what they focus on and why.

Warm bodies are still better than no bodies
The other issue we have come across of late is the fact that many of the organizations who are heavily focussing on attribute assessment are linking this to a re-evaluation of their sales organization, a polite way of saying have we got the right people and if not how do we "lose" them. What they often forget is that you still need people to talk to customers and an average sales person talking to 10 customers will always deliver more revenue than no sales person talking to those customers. Again pragmatism must rule, all assessments must be undertaken in association with the strategic objective of the company, the revenue target. It is not purely an HR issue, it is a sales issue.

What do we recommend?
Accredit is recognized for it's pragmatic approach to sales enablement, as such we will always start by focussing on the "can they do?" elements. However, when it comes to recruitment and also talent management we recognize the value of attributes. In fact we do partner with an assessment company who focus on this type of assessment. The difference is that we recommend this approach on a target audience as opposed to the whole sales community. It is also worth highlighting that if you are relying on self assessment for attributes, a key attribute of a successful sales person is confidence, therefore they will exaggerate their abilities!

Do you want to know more?

Either read our "Helping business drive sales" document or contact either Mark Savinson orFred Nelson and let Accredit help to enable your sales organisation to maximise the opportunities your portfolio creates.

Does everyone have an emotional link to doing a good job

2010-06-29T09:41:00.006+01:00

This week we were due to focus on Resources, however during the last week we have recognised an environmental trait that appears to be having a major impact on some of the sales organisations we are working with. The core of this issue is "is it better to have people who expect to be financially rewarded for doing the job, or to have those who have an emotional driver that makes them want to do a good job?"

On the face of it this may appear to be a stupid question as western society has built its commercial success around a reward culture. In fact everyone agrees that a key factor in creating successful sales enablement is a commission plan that drives activities in the right places. So why are we concerning ourselves with this emotional link?

Do you have a contractor led environment?
As a result of the recession many companies have drastically reduced headcount, which has left gaps in their capabilities, which they fill with contractors - people on short-term day rate contracts. This in itself is not an issue but it is for some creating an environment where success is "doing the job I am paid for" as opposed to creating an environment built around success for the company and colleagues. Just imagine what an Apple Store would be like if it was full of contractors who did not have a passion for Apple, it would be just like many other stores - soulless.

So how does this impact the sales environment?
In some cases the contractor mentality is increasing the stove pipe approach to sales enablement. Lots of standalone initiatives, each of which are built on good intentions, but unfortunately are all pulling in slightly different directions. Too often the contractors are put in a position where they are told what they are expected to do (think micro-management) and it is made clear "this is what you are paid to deliver". As such the contractor adds no value, which is frustrating for some and acceptable for others.

The net result is that this stove-pipe initiative approach encourages the sales community to ignore all the initiatives - "if you duck under this initiative don't worry because there will be another one coming along shortly".

How can you ensure you create a positive environment?
Clearly we are not saying "don't use contractors", that would be naive. Instead we recommend that at a management level you have to work even harder to ensure that everything is connected. You have to articulate the end objective and be clear how all the workstreams combine to achieve that objective. If you can do this you increase your chances of success.

Secondly, we suggest you review how you work with your contractors. Have you asked them for a fixed price for the work, focussing them on what you want them to achieve as opposed to "how many days will I be paid for?" If they can achieve your objective quicker, even if the price is fixed, that is clearly a success.

Thirdly, you have to get the contractors to collaborate. If you do not, they will compete for budget and not provide you with a joined up end-to-end solution. Instead you could end up with "world class" initiatives that overlap and confuse the sales community and therefore not achieving the overall strategic objective.

Who controls the answer?
It is important to remember that the sales messages, environment, tools and target sales behaviours are all part of a sales enablement process. They are not separate initiatives but part of a whole solution. They will only be successful if your customer, i.e. the sales team, use them and sell more!

Senior management must own the objectives, not the contractors (even if you out-task), as they are the people who should have the emotional link to solving the problem. But remember, if you are looking for contractors who add value then you need to find those who have an emotional driver to improving selling, (be careful they can be evangelical in their passion and highly opinionated). If you focus them on the end-objective they will be driven to make a difference, this will be reflected in their desire to use project pricing as opposed to day-rate.

If you would rather have bodies who do as they are told, that is fine. Remember that you have to have clarity as to what you want them to do and be prepared for things to take longer than anticipated, you are paying them by the day after all!

Let's return to the environment
As we stated at the beginning, there are two types of contractors; those who are paid to do a job and those who emotionally want to do a good job. We would suggest that when it comes to finding leaders of behavioural change you should always look for the latter. Organisationally if you can create this emotional tie then you will be even more successful, but do not think this removes the need for rewarding success. I am sure Apple pay their employees even though they are so passionate.

Be prepared to ask for help

If you feel our views on contracting in to solve key strategic issues are of interest we would love to hear your views. We can give you quick feedback just by placing a comment on this blog, or we can work with you to ensure you are best placed to start to drive the activities that will help you be successful.

Do you want to know more?

Either read our "Helping business drive sales" document or contact either Mark Savinson or Fred Nelson and let Accredit help to enable your sales organisation to maximise the opportunities your portfolio creates.

How can we ensure our sales people are capable of delivering?

2010-06-27T18:43:00.005+01:00

Firstly apologies for the delay in this blog, as we move into the holiday season we are having to update blogs via mobile broadband, in the quiet periods when our wives do not notice we are working. In fact part of this blog has been updated via an iPad.

We will keep the blogs short for the next 2 weeks, so please stay with us until normal service is resumed.

The trinity continued
The third element of our trinity of key components of sales success, after Messages and Environment (which we have covered over the past couple of weeks), is Resources.

By Resources we mean the sales people in our sales teams - whether they be inside sales reps on the desk or face to face account team members and specialist/technical sales people.

If we get the Messages "sales ready" and the internal Environment (processes and systems) right then neither is worth anything without a well trained, highly motivated, highly capable team of sales people. It goes without saying really doesn't it? That said we often see many examples where the sales people - the most important element of all - appear poorly trained, of low motivation and are rarely coached by their team leaders and sales managers.

Why is this? From what we have observed it is a combination of things which when mixed together do not necessarily support overall achievement of the corporate revenue and margin goals

We regularly see:-

Little or no relevant training on current and planned proposition portfolios
Too much focus on portfolio and not enough focus on customers.
Low levels of motivation
Little or no 1:1 coaching of individuals by their sales managers
Lack of clarity around what the focus of their activity should be.

The answer is not "send them on a training course"

Clearly a well trained sales force will be more effective than an untrained sales force. But our experience shows that just by training sales people in generic sales skills is no guarantee of success.

Training is very good at ensuring that sales people (and managers) have the requisite skills to be able to sell. It is important to remember that the training must focus on the appropriate skills for the market you are operating in. Over the last few years we have seen an obsession with the move towards solution or consultative selling, with an ever growing number of sales methodologies promising the golden bullet to selling. However, the focus on the methodology almost undermines the fundamental aspect of successful selling - addressing the needs of the customer! To-date we have never seen a tender document that includes the sales methodology that must be used, and I know of no customer who approaches a sales person and bases their decision to buy on whether they are using the latest "closing technique".

The most effective sales training is based on firstly identifying the most effective way of engaging with your clients. If you are in a transactional environment (where the customer comes with a defined requirement and is looking for someone to fulfil that requirement) then training must be focussed around customer service, speed of response and the ability to up-sell and cross-sell (do you want fries with that or would you like to go large). If on the other hand your clients are looking for you to solve a problem, then you need a consultative sales approach with a focus on uncovering need, addressing the need, proving the value of your proposed approach and negotiating to a close.

In both of the examples, the customer is at the centre of the sale. All selling is customer centric, and your training solution should be too. This is of course not a radical suggestion as, if you have read the previous blogs on the trinity of message, environment and resources, all of our comments can be summarised as "put the customer at the centre of all your thinking, they are the ones who buy!"

Moving from sales training to engagement enablement

We are not a lone voice here, we are currently working with a large mobile communications company and they have launched an up-skilling programme for their sales people. What is interesting is that the suppliers (they have gone for a consortium approach) they have selected are using a blended approach that uses e-learning to deliver the base level skills and then face-to-face sessions that are based on using the skills to engage with clients. For this approach they start with role play and then move onto to monitored live engagement.

What is different about this approach is that all the focus is on engaging with customers and selling something, and not the methodology itself. This enables the suppliers to directly link the programme to an ROI (business won), as opposed to relying on some form of "test" at the end to see what people have learnt.

This approach, in our opinion, is the ideal start point to training a sales team as it ticks the following boxes.

Focus is on doing the job and not a methodology
Everything is in the context of selling the portfolio
It is customer centric as it focusses on engagement (doing) and not theory
Results are measurable, it is tied to selling something
It can be linked to a sustainable approach
Sales managers can continue focussing on the doing

Suppliers alone cannot solve the problem

Training can only show people the most effective way of selling their portfolio. It is up to the organisation to ensure that best practice is used every day. This neatly takes us on to motivation and coaching which we will examine next week.

Be prepared to ask for help

If you feel our thoughts on any aspect of the "trinity" are of interest we would love to hear your views. We can give you quick feedback just by placing a comment on this blog, or we can work with you to ensure you are best placed to start to drive the activities that will help you be successful.

Do you want to know more?

Either read our "Helping business drive sales" document or contact either Mark Savinson or Fred Nelson and let Accredit help to enable your sales organisation to maximise the opportunities your portfolio creates.

How can we ensure our internal Environment enables our selling activities

2010-06-20T11:10:00.000+01:00

Over the last couple of weeks we have posted on what we at Accredit Ltd call the three key internal components of sales success - Message, Environment and Resources.

This week we will focus on Environment.

In essence what we are talking about here are the internal environmental issues that lead to sales success - Process, Motivation and Support/Culture. Is it easy for our sales force to sell and our customers to buy our products and solutions? Are our sales people motivated to sell our portfolio and is the culture supportive of great selling habits?

Is it easy to sell what we sell?

This is a key question because it addresses the needs of the seller and the buyer. What we mean by this is that if our internal processes are aligned to ensuring that selling and buying are "easy" then we are likely to sell more and have more satisfied customers. For example if you sell a fairly complex or technical solution you probably need your salespeople to have access to very competent, expert project managers or technical specialists that can support the sales guys through the selling process. If you make it hard for sales to get access to the technical guys then it makes it harder for them to sell and harder for customers to get their technical concerns addressed. If the order handling process is complex or fragmented then the same applies - difficulty for sales and customers instead of ease and smooth professionalism.

Are our sales people motivated to sell our portfolio?
This is not just about payplan and bonus which is, of course, vital to get right when designing a sales remuneration package for a particular campaign, product portfolio or annual sales plan. What is just as important as money in our view are the "softer" motivational issues such as are related to the "ease" of selling we discussed above. If we make it too hard, sales people will be turned off. All of us in sales want it to be as easy as possible to sell; if it is not and we can find another way of earning our bonus then we will be drawn to what is easy.

What is our support culture?

Another 'soft" motivator that is absolutely vital and is something we have blogged about many times over the past year is sales management - how are we managed, led, coached. Is it mostly stick and little carrot? Do we feel happy in what we are doing? Do we feel valued? Are we regularly coached? Are we helped in finding solutions to problems when we are struggling to find answers and to do our best?

Having an internal environment where sales people feel valued is vital, where they can rely on processes and systems to help make the sales "easy". Easy does not mean easy in terms of being allowed to give away discounts; it is more about how the processes enable the order handling, contract signing, service handling etc. to run effectively for both the internal stakeholders and of course your customers.

We asked a sales support team recently what one word describes your organisational culture at present - their answer was damning. "Dictatorial"

This is a very successful major corporate sales team with a history of achievement. The last 2 years have been difficult (just like it has for many companies and sales teams). Culturally when the going gets tough this organisation has fallen into the trap of what we call "blamestorming" - in other words let's point the finger and demand change and improvement in the way a dictator would. The language is typical of organisations in panic mode - "The sales force need more training on products, they are not selling enough, it must be a lack of training". "These sales guys are rubbish" is the sort of thing we have heard over the past few weeks.

As the saying goes "when the going gets tough, the tough get going". In our view that does not mean shouting and pointing fingers. A culturally mature, level headed sales organisation has a leadership focus on understanding why things are not going so well, recognising the issues, thinking through some potential solutions and then executing and measuring the most appropriate solutions. Being "dictatorial" and demanding instant change, more training, more reporting etc. does not solve anything.

Reviewing sales activity and understanding what is going on before leaping into "solutions" is the mature, culturally grown up way of moving forward.

Three things to think about
So our recommendation is whether times are good or bad regularly look at how your selling environment is working.

Make it easy to sell. Align processes and systems to enabling selling so that all internal resources and your customers can easily understand what is happening, what is on offer, what will happen next and when service will be delivered.
Make sure your sales force is motivated. Motivation is about money for sure but it is also about support systems, enabling the whole selling process to work smoothly and having systems that work for the sales teams.
Make your culture one of support and growth. In good times selling seems easy. When times are tough that is when we find out if our support systems for our people and our culture is strong enough to get us through.

An effective message and a sales-oriented environment are just the bedrock

If we get the basics right we remove the excuses, next we will examine the pointy end of the sales organisation; your people.

Be prepared to ask for help

If you are not happy with your approach to your Environment feel free to contact Accredit. We can give you quick feedback just by placing a comment on this blog, or we can work with you to ensure you are best placed to start drive the activities that will help you be successful.

Do you want to know more?

Either read our "Helping business drive sales" document or contact either Mark Savinson or Fred Nelson and let Accredit help enable your sales organisation to maximise the opportunities your product set creates.

How can I sell something if I don't know why someone would buy it?

2010-06-07T14:22:00.000+01:00

Last we we introduced the three internal issues we believe are the key to creating a successful sales team; Message, Environment and Resources. As promised we are going to look at each area in more detail and share some of our experiences of how these have been addressed by successful sales organisations.

The first area we are going to focus on is the Message, which we describe as "sales ready messages". These need to be explicit and to enable customers and sales people to understand them and act upon them. The message is in reality the "WIIFM" (What's in it for me) for all audiences.

We already have Messages, it's what marketing do
We need to be clear from the outset, the Messages we are talking about here are not the standard marketing collateral which are themselves very important. What we are talking about are the tactical and, most importantly practical, messages that sales people should be able to use to engage with a customer, identify if they have a need and quickly qualify whether they are likely to be a prospect. These messages are the sharp end of the sales engagement, a pre-requsite in any end-to-end sales enablement process.

This is not your typical "glossy" or brochure
The easiest way to understand the importance of the message is to give you an example.

A multi-national organisation has decided to run a focussed campaign on promoting their latest "state-of-the art" solution. They have an award winning website that contains a range of information on the product including in-depth technical briefings. The objective of the sales campaign is to get their largest channel partner to initially target their existing customer base to offer them a competitively priced upgrade, with a view to selling additional services and applications on the back of this.

On the face of it they have everything that the sales team need to be able to execute a successful campaign, literature, some slides on potential configurations, the standard corporate presentation, analyst white papers on the value of their solution. Who could ask for more?

Does this marketing literature enable sales people to engage?
When we received the literature we asked ourselves some fundamental questions, the ones that a sales person who needs help would ask.

Can you describe the customer problem we are addressing?
Why would a customer want to upgrade now?
What must the customer have in place to take advantage of the upgrade?
What is the best way of engaging with a customer?

Who is the target audience?
Do I need to meet or can we do it all over the phone?
What sales support do I get ?

How do I differentiate from other solutions?
Is it easy for the customer to buy and for me to sell?

Now on the face of it a good salesman should be able to answer these questions from all of the available literature. But you have to remember the reality of a sales person:

They are being asked to sell multiple products, why should they sell this one?
They have targets to hit, they will always take the path of least resistance
Not all sales people are prepared to invest time to translate the myriad of content into an effective message.
Those who do create their own message may be "off message", but if it works for them why should they care?

When we finished our initial audit of the existing content we discovered some gaps in the content, specifically there was an assumption that a specific technology would be available, it was not, as such all the literature promoted features and advantages that could not be delivered yet.

Interestingly when we spoke to the channel sales team they knew all of this, it was just the product marketing team who were unaware of this. Perhaps they had become too product centric in all their thinking and not customer centric.

So what did we all agree to do?

Create a story that both the sales team and the customer would understand - because we needed to start selling now and could not wait for technology to be available, we built a story that allowed sales to:

Identify specific customer types and map these to specific solutions
Link the solutions to a story that tells the customer what they will achieve in the short-term, medium term and long-term

Devise an engagement process that used an initial call to arrange a meeting whose objective is to review the customer's current solution, identify what needs to be done to meet the current and future needs and then propose a solution
To provide the sales team with specific content for the calls, meeting agenda and structure for the face-to-face meeting, 5-6 slides which can be used in the meeting.
Provide a briefing to all sales people explaining what we are doing, why we are doing it, what's in it for them, how we are helping them.

The customer is very happy with this approach as it allows them to go to market now with a clear engagement strategy which they can measure against. The channel partner is happy as they have clarity as to what they need to ask their sales people to do, and they have all the engagement material.

What can you, the reader, learn from this?

We have learnt a number of lessons over the last five years of putting these types of messages together and here are the top 3

You should not assume that your sales team will analyse the information marketing provide and turn it into "engagement ready" material. You may have a limited number of sales people who do this, but these are the self starters who are already over-achieving against target
You should not assume that marketing will provide this type of material unless you ask for it. Marketing focusses on the two key areas of, Product focussed information and Top level strategic, brand enhancing messages. They assume that sales will connect these to engagement activities. Sales need to ask for help
Think sales engagement when creating the message and keep it simple. Remember, as sales people we will always take the path of least resistance. If it is too complicated it will not be used.

The acid test is do you feel confident to engage with a prospect using the information provided, if not why do you think your sales people will? If you do feel confident then engage with a customer and test it.

Just because you have a good message does not mean sales will engage customers

As we said in last weeks post, having a good message alone will not guarantee success. Next week we will examine what we need to do to focus on getting the right "sales environment"

Be prepared to ask for help

If you are not happy with your approach to your Messages feel free to contact Accredit. We can give you quick feedback just by placing a comment on this blog, or we can work with you to ensure you are best placed to start drive the activities that will help you be successful.

Do you want to know more?

The key components of sales success

2010-05-31T21:12:00.000+01:00

Many commentators have a view on the question "What makes for a successful sales team?"

Here at Accredit, we believe sales success hinges on three key internal issues (assuming of course that you have something people want to buy and have access to the market you are aiming to serve)

Over the next few weeks we will be discussing our views on what these three key areas are. This week we will focus on introducing them and briefly outlining why we think they are important and essential to sales success.

We believe the 3 components to successful sales enablement are:

Message - do you have "sales ready messages" and are they explicit so that both customers and sales people understand them. Think about it as having a "WIIFM" for all audiences
Environment - This in our view is a combination of:

Process - is it easy for me to sell the product/solution and the customer to buy the product/solution?
Motivation - Will our sales people want to sell the product/solution? Typically this is a combination of incentives and sales management (carrot and stick)
Support/Culture - Do we know what good looks like and is there coaching support to get the sales people selling? - Again this is all about Sales Management and organisational appetite for improvement and success.

Resources - Are your sales people capable of delivering the messages and do they have the skills to turn opportunities into business? How will you know? Typically there are different internal resource skill and knowledge levels and therefore the capability and skill requirements differ depending on who sales people engage with and the sales process they use and of course their confidence and attitude towards their role and their own personal success drivers.

Because of the nature of sales people, if you do not get Message and Environment "right", it does not matter what you do with the Resources; you will fail. It's a bit like training someone to drive an F1 car so they can drive very quickly and then giving them a Smart Car and telling them to drive in the centre of London. They will not use the new skills because there is no relevance to what they actually have to do.

Sales Management is also key - Sales Management can make or break any sales enablement process. The sales guys need to be confident that their SM can coach them, support them, motivate them - indeed help them to be successful. It is about Leadership not just Management. Do you have SMs that can do this?

So what does this mean for us as sales people and sales managers?

We believe you should begin with your Messaging components, i.e. Collateral. This is on the basis that until you have the collateral finalised how do you know what you want the sales people to ask, understand, say etc?
Next come the Environmental components. You need to ensure that your sales people have the tools and processes to make it easy to sell (and for the customer to buy) and that you have defined what good looks like for the sales process and how you measure it.
The tools you need to use to ensure success at each stage of the sales cycle and how they are going to drive success are for example:

Opportunity management
Account Development
Sales Planning
Forecasting and Pipeline Management

Finally, and only when you have excellent Messages and the right Environment should you tackle the Resources element. By this we mean it is pointless training in new skills and knowledge unless the other elements are in place first. Often we are asked to train sales people and once we commence understanding what we are getting into we find the first two vital components are missing.
The starting point for the Resources element has to be in sales management. You not only need to train sales people you also need to include checks and balances to ensure sales people are continually assessed and coached in terms of actual performance. The ultimate measure of success for sales enablement is not completing a programme, but achieving the sales figures, this is an ongoing challenge, especially as your portfolio and therefore your solutions to customer problems evolve. Sales Managers are the driver to achieving this. They should properly manage the forecast by ensuring that the good behaviours you are training people in become everyday habits.
By including sales management you turn this from a sales engagement process (what are the steps I as a sales rep should take to engage with a client) into a sales enablement process - how can I ensure we successfully sell the product/solution and hit our numbers.

In summary, Accredit's three keys to successful sales teams are

Messages - Internal Collateral and External Collateral
Environment - Tools (should include order management processes, remember sales people will expect everything to work), Measures and Sales Management
Resources - Skills, Knowledge, Coaching for performance

Over the next few weeks we will explore these in more detail, commencing next week with Messages.

If you are about to commence a review of your sales team, or launch a new product now contact either Mark Savinson or Fred Nelson and let Accredit help enable your sales organisation to maximise the opportunities your product set creates.

Remember, we can give you quick feedback just by placing a comment on this blog, or we can work with you to ensure you are best placed to start drive the activities that will help you be successful.

Just because they asked for a proposal does not mean they will read it

2010-05-26T14:42:00.000+01:00

In the rush to try and get business have you ever been guilty of thinking that just because you have been asked to send a proposal you assume that the customer will read and understand the proposal before you next meet them? If you have, you are not alone, during the past month we have come across a number of instances where this has happened, including one which happened to us. There is some commonality in the situations we have come across, so we thought we would share them with you and the lessons learned.

A complicated situation rarely translates well to a written proposal
In all of the situations we have seen where the proposal has not been read, or in one case read but not understood, the common situation was that a complex solution to a complex problem was provided. In fact it is fair to stay that in all cases the customer had not been able to articulate the problem clearly, therefore there was no clear, explicit, detailed RFP to respond to.

When we spoke to the sales team and the potential customer we discovered that the customer was using the sales process as the means of understanding the issue and looking for a partner who might be able to help them solve their problem. In all cases they were looking for some form of "emotional favourite" or "trusted advisor" relationship and not an immediate solution.

So why did they ask for a written proposal?
The reality is that a written proposal is usually part of the customer's decision making process, it is a step towards a formal meeting usually with the client and probably others involved in the decision (e.g. procurement, finance or other departments with a vested interest). The reality is that it is more akin to a gatekeeping process that we all have to go through to get to the real issues and potentially the real solution. The written proposal is an integral part of the decision making process as it is often the first document and involvement that the wider decision making team have encountered.

So why didn't they read it?

Remember, that outside of the customer with the issue, the rest of the decision making group do not have a compelling problem that they themselves have to solve. Instead they are a check and balance to ensure the right supplier is chosen and the rules are being followed. The impact of this is that they do not necessarily understand the problem that the proposal is trying to address, let alone the impact of the proposed solution. It is therefore easier for them to decide that the supplier should fully explain the proposal as opposed to reading the written proposal and trying to decode it into language they understand.

As a sales person, you need to understand how influential your customer is, and more importantly how well they appreciate the decision making process of their company. If they understand, and can control the extended decision making group, they can ensure that everyone reads, or at least is aware of what problem they are trying to address and how they would like to achieve this.

What have these experiences taught us?

Here are 6 golden rules we would suggest you follow to ensure that the time you invest adds value to the sales process, and drives success.

Does the formal RFP match the informal discussion you have had to identify needs? If not you need to understand what has changed as you may be in danger of answering the wrong, or only part, of the questions on which final decisions will be made.
Make sure you understand the role of the written proposal in the decision making process. Is it a "check point" or the formal document that a decision is to be based upon?
Send a draft version of your proposal to your contact for confirmation that it addresses the issues.
Validate what your customer wants the formal presentation to address. Always ask if this has been agreed by the other members of the decision making group
Be prepared to run through the proposal in detail at the presentation, even if you were told that they would read it in advance. Just ask them the question!
Just because good sales practice tells you that you should get the customer to do the majority of the talking at a meeting, this does not always hold true. You need to confirm with your contact whether they want a "show and tell" or a discussion around the proposal.

So what were the outcomes?

In all the cases, including ours, the sales team had to go back to their customer to discuss the meeting. In the majority of cases they discovered that there was still confusion as none of the vendors had delivered the "one-stop-shop" solution the wider decision making group was hoping to see. In fact, there was recognition that the RFP and the associated brief for the presentation did not clearly articulate what they were hoping to hear.

To drive the process forward the sales teams went back to basics of "what are you trying to achieve?" By working closely with the customer they were able to to help them better articulate the problem to the wider decision making unit, and then appoint their preferred partner.

So what is our message to you?

The role of a sales team is to help your customer sponsor to have the confidence to make the right decision. Your sponsor may not know how to "work the system" - you need to help him/her. Your relationship, knowledge of the customer's processes and your overall selling skills are key to them getting to the "right" decision. Remember, the formal proposal is only a component of the whole decision making process. Knitting together all of the components is integral to your success.

Be prepared to ask for help

If you are not happy with your approach to dealing with formal proposals, or the final stages of the cycle please feel free to contact Accredit. We can give you quick feedback just by placing a comment on this blog, or we can work with you to ensure you are best placed to start drive the activities that will help you be successful.

Do you want to know more?

Either read our "Helping business drive sales" document or contact mark.savinson@sales-accredit.com and Mark can take you through more detail.

Harness the attitude - Just because you know how - doesn't mean you will

2010-05-17T18:33:00.000+01:00

Following on from last week's thoughts on doing not telling, this week we wanted to remind you that there is a barrier that needs to be overcome if you are going to get people to do something that they have not done before - how to overcome the fear of failure and uncertainty.

Self Confidence is an Attitude

Fear of failure is usually a symptom of a lack of confidence, although many sales managers like to think of it as "not having the right attitude". When working with sales managers on coaching programmes, one of the key areas we focus on is helping them deal with confidence issues within their teams and the individual team members.

If we lived in a text book environment, self confidence would purely be an "internalised" issue, i.e. how can we help the sales person to have the self-belief that results in confidence in the ability to do what is required of them to make the sale and achieve the number.

At a purely personal level, building self confidence is simply a process. There are some basic things you can do to boost self confidence.

Systematic Desensitisation - Or in english, overcome your fears gradually, or as many sales managers will tell you, "don't try and boil the ocean" or "eat an elephant whole".
Expect success - Everything is self-fullfilling - if you believe you will fail, you will.
Imagine success - visualisation is one of the most powerful tools to ensure success, just watch athletes before they run.
Manage your risks - Have you ever noticed how most American management books start with a list of "failures" and how the author learnt from them. The most successful people are those who take risks - "nothing ventured nothing gained"
You do not have to be perfect - No one expects you to be good at everything, just good enough at the things you should be good at to do your job well
Know your limitations, identify your fears then try and overcome them, the only way to overcome them is to address them head on
If you don't believe in yourself, why should anyone else - Re-affirm what you are good at, say it out loud, and then over time add to your capability list

All of these sound perfectly sensible, so you have to ask why are there still so many people who lack confidence? Unfortunately the answer does not just lie with the individual, too often it's their working environment that creates the fear.

What does a confident work environment look like?

Your working environment must support and encourage your people if you want your people to overcome their fear and have a confident, success-led attitude.

An action oriented environment - Does your work environment support action oriented people? Do you let them focus on doing the important things that will generate success and not force them to deal with the urgent action requirements of their managers? Do you know what success looks like, or do you only measure activity?
Do you let people face their fear? - Do you have a supportive, coaching culture that allows people to identify their fears and then support them to address them? Or do you have a competitive environment with a JDI attitude, "failures never prosper"
Do you allow people to fail and then learn from the mistake? - Does your culture allow people to fail and then learn? Without the opportunity to fail no-one will ever attempt anything new.
Is there time to prepare? - We all know the old adage, "Fail to prepare, prepare to fail", but do you encourage preparation. How many managers prepare before a 1-2-1, are they setting the right example?
The right attitude comes in steps - There is no magic bullet, instead a successful attitude is the result of taking a number of steps. The reality is that many of us only know we have arrived at the right place attitudinally once we have got there and we look back. Courage comes after the event, you have to attempt something before you can overcome the fear. You can only truly achieve success in a supportive environment that recognises JDI does not mean success. It is a cultural thing that grows organically. It is not a methodology, more a recognised, habitual way of doing things.
Can you try new things? - Confident people like to try new things and to keep learning, in doing so they progress. This is not just about having a personal development plan, this is more about supporting continuous development. The individual is in charge of their future, they are not spoon fed. The system, the culture supports those that are willing to try something new

A positive attitude is dependent on a positive environment

Both Fred and I regularly come across sales teams who are not achieving their potential, unfortunately the reason for their failure to achieve does not lie with their manager, but lies with the environment. There is an expression "the fish rots from the head" which best explains what is happening. Senior management are not encouraging the right environment and they pass the pressures down the organisation. In these cases the only sales people who have the "right attitude" are the mavericks who operate outside the organisation. The majority of sales people will keep their heads down and not "rock the boat".

So what is our message to you?

Success comes from people who have the right attitude, you can only achieve this by creating the right environment that supports people overcoming their inherent fear of change, driven by good coaching that helps people think positive and try new things. Remember if you are thinking of recruiting someone new, you can hire based on attitude as you can train the skills.

Be prepared to ask for help

If you are not happy with your approach to coaching or how you create a positive environment feel free to contact Accredit. We can give you quick feedback just by placing a comment on this blog, or we can work with you to ensure you are best placed to start drive the activities that will help you be successful.

Do you want to know more?

Either read our "Helping business drive sales" document or contact mark.savinson@sales-accredit.com and Mark can take you through more detail.

It's all about doing, not telling

2010-05-10T10:57:00.000+01:00

In the past week both Fred and I have had similar experiences, but with different clients, we have come across the gap between management telling the sales teams what they would like them to do, and sales actually doing it.

Now before you invest time in reading our experiences, let me explain what we are trying to say. It's not the methodology that generates results, it's activities (hopefully using the methodology) that deliver success.

So what has caused us to remind everyone of this?

Coaching is not about methodology, it is about creating a successful sales team
Accredit have been working with sales management in a number of large IT companies, the objective is to get sales managers to effectively coach their people to spend more time understanding their customers' needs as opposed to fulfilling orders.

The challenge Accredit has identified, and is addressing, is the gap between senior management focusing on "coaching methodologies" (e.g. GROW, CLEAR, OSKAR, etc.) and sales managers applying coaching techniques when they work with their teams. It has quickly become apparent that whilst most of the sales managers could describe the methodology, few of them have translated this into effective coaching behaviours.

Let me give you an example, one of the sales managers, who has been identified as a high flyer, intellectually understood how to coach, but their behaviours with their team did not reflect the methodology. They spent too much time telling, not enough time listening and getting their people to identify their own solutions to issues. Because they were so bright they went straight to telling their sales reps what they were doing wrong and what they should be doing instead. Their team were intimidated by their manager and created a behaviour of telling the manager what they wanted to hear, which was not necessarily the truth.

To address this, we asked the manager to do two things:

Watch the sales reps in a customer meeting (without interfering), score the meeting using Accredit's assessment tool and then discuss how the meeting went. The objective is to get the sales manager to understand how the sales rep behaves in a meeting, as opposed to how they say they behave.
Run a 1-2-1 coaching session using the results of the assessment. The sales rep is asked to explain why they took the approach they did and to identify what they would do differently. The sales manager's role in this session is to facilitate the sales rep to help them identify what they did well and what they could improve on, they must then define their own objective, focusing on making it measurable and having a timeframe for when it must be done. The sales rep has to own the problem, and then own the solution.

During this coaching session, Accredit's assessor, along with the sales manager's manager assesses the 1-2-1 and scores it on Accredit's tool. At the end of the session, the Accredit assessors and the manager coach the sales manager.

What has been the impact? The best way to explain is to let two sales managers tell you:

"It seems obvious, but it can be easy to speed up the process by telling the team what to do, I now recognise this is not necessarily the way to get the best results. Going through the coaching process allows the individual to buy into the activity and and deliver against action plans."

"I will ensure that I allow the team to make their own suggestions by asking one question and then waiting from answers I will also ensure that I encourage active listening"

In both of these cases the managers understood the methodology, but had not translated this into their behaviours.

Good methodology without activity achieves zero success.
The second example is a piece of work we are doing for a marketing team within a hardware vendor. We have worked with them to create some specific sales messages which can be used by their own sales people as well as their channel. The objective of these messages is to identify opportunities for a specific product set, qualify the opportunities in/out quickly and focus sales resources where they will have the greatest success.

At the start of the project identified that key to success was getting the sales teams to buy into focussing their most limited resource, time, on the campaigns. To do this we had to ensure that all the messages were in-line with the rest of their sales activities, simple to execute and most importantly helped the teams to achieve their sales objectives.

Now we have a very effective approach to creating sales friendly messages which, when aligned to effective sales behaviours, help our clients grow their pipelines and generate revenue. However success is dependent on activity from the sales team, the messages do not generate the revenue, it is the sales team who achieve it. To achieve this success what do we have to ensure.

There is an expression, "the fish rots from the head" which is a useful analogy when it comes to successful sales campaigns. If management does not actively drive sales execution, then the campaign will fail. It does not matter how good the message, or methodology, if it is not followed through it will fail.

Success is therefore reliant on senior sales managers owning a number associated with the campaign and passing this number down to the sales team. They have to have skin in the game, if not management will focus sales resources on other areas and your campaign will fail, regardless of how good the campaign is.
The campaign must be simple to execute, from a sales perspective. A key sales behaviour is the desire to take the path of least resistance, i.e. the easiest way of achieving the number. Sales people are not academics; they are practical people who just want to know what they have to do. Any campaign must therefore focus on simple steps which will achieve results, be clear what you want people to do, how it will help them earn £££ and measure the outcomes. Remember the acronym KISS (Keep it simple, stupid)
Align everything to the strategic plan. A campaign will fail if it does not support the overall focus. When everyone is focussed on selling notebooks, a campaign to sell servers will fail, regardless of how good the message is.
Measure progress, specifically activity (number of calls, number of meetings, number of quotes) and the pipeline. These will tell you what is actually happening. If the activity is not there you will have to go back to the managers to drive the activity, if they will not then they have not bought into the campaign!

Do we always achieve success? Well as we are so proud of our approach, I would like to say yes, but unfortunately the answer is occasionally no. Whilst marketing will always praise our work, we have been involved in projects that when we review them were never going to succeed, why, because the activity was never going to be undertaken to deliver the results. Focus was on the telling a good story, not delivering the story to as many people as possible.

So what is our message to you?

If you want to achieve anything, it will only succeed if people actually do it. Yes, you need to tell them what to do, but that is only the start. The real work is ensuring they do it and this is where you need to put the majority of your focus. Stop thinking about the how and start to focus on the doing.

Be prepared to ask for help

If you are not happy with your approach to coaching or how you create your sales messages feel free to contact Accredit. We can give you quick feedback just by placing a comment on this blog, or we can work with you to ensure you are best placed to start drive the activities that will help you be successful.

Do you want to know more?

Either read our "Helping business drive sales" document or contact mark.savinson@sales-accredit.com and Mark can take you through more detail.

UK Election - lessons sales people can learn

2010-05-05T20:33:00.000+01:00

As we get towards the end of the election campaign, we thought it might be interesting to see if we could draw any comparisons with how the UK parties have run their campaigns and the basics of selling.

Getting the message right
As with any sales message, there are 2 things that will drive success, content and delivery. As sales people our aim is to have a message that links to the needs of the customer, and is delivered in a manner that ensures the customer has confidence in our ability to deliver. For many of us, a key issue is to get the balance right between selling ourselves (personal credibility) and selling our organisations.

So what has this got to do with the election campaign?

Messaging

All of the main political parties started off in broadcast mode, telling us what they were going to do for us. As the campaign has progressed they have moved from telling to re-acting to the issues raised by the electorate.
The niche parties have been able to have more targeted messages which meet the needs of their target audiences.

Delivery

The debates highlighted the value of effective delivery, often to the exclusion of relevant content. I was personally fascinated how many times the party leaders said "I", a clear sign that they had been coached to create some emotional link with the audience and the viewer (just remember how Nick Clegg repeatedly used the name of the questioner and said "I will answer your question")
Clearly the debates put all the focus on the individual leaders and their ability to communicate, however as the campaign has progressed, focus is moving away from the individual and parties are attacking parties and their ability to deliver.

So how do these link to sales.

From a messaging perspective, the more targeted you are in terms of your audience, the easier it is to connect. Niche specialist suppliers always find it easier to connect, at a message level, than the larger generalist. However the generalist can build credibility by focussing on the wider picture.
From a delivery perspective, the emotional link is key, if your customer can connect with you they are more likely to listen to you. But there needs to be depth to the message, or your competition can use your lack of depth as a major competitive selling point.

Getting the organisation right

It is easy for any of us to work out who has the tightest organisational control during this election, and just like any sales organisation, political parties must create an environment that makes it easy to gain votes.

In the last few days inconsistent messages have been delivered by some of the parties, and instead of focussing the electorate on all the positive messages they have, commentators have focussed on the inconsistencies, e.g. to tactical vote or not.

Just think how your customers would feel if they received mixed messages from your organisation, e.g. outsource versus insource, or full service versus "value brand". The organisation plays a large role in ensuring that we as sales people are able to do our job, and if the organisation is not truly sales focussed it can easily become the barrier to success.

Let's not forget the people
It has been interesting to see how the parties have brought out their experts to focus on key areas, or to deliver specific messages. All the parties recognise the need to use a range of people with specific skills to drive their message home.

One of the interesting aspects of the post TV debate period is how focus has moved to the depth of capability within the competing parties. Some of the parties have been focussing on "look beyond the style of the leader and focus on the substance", and this is being countered by the parties bringing out more people, where possible.

So how does this relate to sales, a successful sales campaign requires a team, led by the sales person, but with experts being brought in as required. The experts bring credibility and the perception of depth of capability. Furthermore a good team matches individuals to decision makers within the customer. This peering ensures that specific messages can be delivered to targeted audiences by specialists

So what are the lessons we can learn?

Selling is not about telling, it is about listening and addressing the identified issues
Effective delivery of the message requires an emotional link with the customer
Ensure you have a clear and consistent message, and that everyone uses it.
To be credible as an organisation, sales people must learn how to use their colleagues throughout the sales process.

Whatever the outcome of the election tomorrow, valuable sales lessons can be learnt. Think how much money the parties spend on crafting messages and coaching the leaders. Learn from what they do, identify what works and then use similar techniques.

Attitude can make or break you

2010-04-25T12:06:00.004+01:00

Last week I was working with a sales team that has a stretching new business target for 2010/2011 and is just setting out on the new fiscal with vigour and high levels of motivation. Well that is what I expected. What I saw and heard was, surprisingly, different to my expectation.

I listened while a sales specialist complained to his sales manager that he was faced with a portfolio "not fit for purpose" and that it would therefore be nigh on impossible for him to do his number. So here we are in the first month of the year and this guy is already making excuses!

At Accredit we believe strongly in being positive about everything we attempt to achieve with our clients and hence our business. We are all personally responsible for our own thoughts and beliefs and of course the actions that flow from those thoughts and beliefs. We have spent the last couple of years working hard to keep growing our capability and our client base through a difficult period for us all.

So why do some people struggle so much with getting their attitude "right"? Maybe some of us just find it too easy to put hard work into the "too hard" tray on our mental desktops. I'm no psychologist so I don't profess to understand all of the issues underneath a negative approach to the challenges ahead.

Over the past couple of weeks Mark and I have given you our views on how to approach the planning period of a new sales year. We hope you found these last two posts on planning useful and helpful. Planning and a positive attitude go hand in hand. Believing you can achieve a great deal over the coming year is about having a great attitude and having a great sales plan.

As for my friend I met last week who had such a negative attitude towards his new sales year I would say one or two things:-

Selling is essentially simple - addressing your customers needs, issues and problems with products, solutions and answers that help your customers grow their business through improved productivity, lower costs, increased revenues or whatever added value you can help them with.
Having a portfolio fit for purpose is about working with your customers and your internal partners in product lines, finance, order handling, marketing etc to create something that people want to buy. It is not about moaning that it is "not fit for purpose" and therefore finding excuses before you have even got off your backside at the start of the financial year.
If you think you can or if you think you can't either way you are likely to be right.
Selling is surprise, surprise a team effort. You may want to be "top salesperson" and that is a great thing to strive for but you cannot do it without your customers, your sales manager and your other internal partners such as product managers. If you need help from them - tell them. Tell them what your customers want and work with your internal partners to do that, profitably for your business (remember them - the ones that pay your salary and bonus)
Don't be a fault finder. You can't change anything until you change yourself. So get that Positive Mental Attitude moving and you will be absolutely amazed at what you can achieve

If you want to know more about our ADMIRE model for improving your sales habits then why not drop us a line at fred.nelson@sales-accredit.com or call me Fred Nelson on 07850 779084

Good selling!

By the way I wrote this blog whilst watching the end of the London Marathon on TV. Some of the stories of the "everyday people" running for charity and overcoming personal tragedy are absolutely heart wrenching. What a fantastic attitude some people have!

I hope my sales friend from this week was watching.

Understanding what you need to do to improve your selling capability

2010-04-20T08:21:00.003+01:00

Over the past months you will have read how here at Accredit we believe that selling is fairly simple when it is properly executed. Having understood your customer's needs, problems and issues it is about providing a solution that adds value - in other words what your customer gains from buying from you provides them with benefit way beyond the cost of the solution or product.

At the moment we are talking to a couple of large corporates about potentially running their Sales Academies for them. There is an interesting contrast between the two. One is pretty clear about what they want to achieve and how they want it done (although their procurement process leaves a little to be desired). The other is less clear about what they want mainly because they are going through a huge portfolio change that involves, in their minds, a complete set of training courses, delivered as cheaply as possible via online modules and tests.

So what has this got to do with understanding what you need to do to improve your selling capability? Well, everything actually. Unless you as a business are clear about what problems you are trying to solve, about how you need your sales force to act and behave then how can you possibly know what your customers might want? The two - your customers and your sales capability - have to be thought about as an entity. They are your market and your contact with your market.

There is of course a third element - your offering, your portfolio and whether your customers want to buy your products (and whether your sales people are capable of selling them).

So these three elements are intrinsically linked when thinking about "improving" your sales force. Do you have:-

The portfolio capability to address your customer's needs
A clear understanding of what problems your customers want solved for them
A salesforce that regularly contacts their customer base with a view to understanding their problems and how they might solve them with a value proposition based on your portfolio

Of course there are the additional issues of your marketing and whether it helps your sales people and your customers understand how you add value and there is the key issue of the environment you work in - is it easy for customers to buy from you and is it easy for your sales people to sell within the environment you operate as a business (is your pricing process clear, do you have an order placement and fulfilment process that is painless etc?)

So before you commence on your own road towards a sales academy or any other training for your sales people, ensure you have everything else in place or at least planned to coincide with a freshly developed set of sales people

Developing your sales people has to go hand in hand with developing other aspects of your business. So if you are thinking of building a sales academy or even some less grand such as a small suite of training and development programs ensure that everything else is joined up too.

That way, when your sales people are well educated and raring to go you will have everything else in place to be successful whether that be your market messaging, your portfolio, your order handling processes, your pricing, your fulfilment etc.

Improving your selling capability is not just about sales training. It is about a collection of resources which, when optimised, will deliver increased sales and margin

Planning - I don't need to do it!!!!

2010-04-12T10:32:00.008+01:00

Last week we talked about the importance of account planning now that the new fiscal has commenced. Key issues we mentioned were understanding your client's priorities for this year, how much money do they have to spend, how are they likely to spend it, what is the Decision Making process, who makes the decisions etc.

In Stephen Covey terms we were about things that are Important but not Urgent. Planning is exactly that. It is about structuring what activities you are going to undertake, about what relationships you are going to have to build to get to the Decision Makers and it is about looking for new opportunities within your account base.

Most of your revenue will come from a few of your key accounts - good old 80:20 always works. But how are you going to change that? How are you going to grow your revenue and your personal earning capability unless you plan to extend your activity into those accounts that you have rarely or never touched, unless you have a plan? Where are you going to find time to plan when you are so busy with your existing clients?

The answer of course is by spending less time on unimportant activities (be they urgent or non urgent in Covey parlance). But how are you going to identify how you grow your revenue even if you can find the time? The answer of course is to have some structure and discipline towards what you have to achieve this year, build a plan. Without structure and discipline you will just keep meandering and doing "stuff" and maybe if you are lucky you may achieve your number for 2010/11.

Let me illustrate my point with an anecdote. Just 2 weeks ago I was working with a client on a coaching for Sales Managers program. One of the activities we undertake is to observe the Sales Manager having a 1:1 session with their team members. So having explained to the individual sales person my role (and basically to ignore me) the Sales Manager kicked off the 1:1.

All was going quite well for a few minutes until it came to the part where the Sales Manager was talking to his team member about this year's plan. Both of them talked about great stuff like setting SMART objectives, improving product knowledge in areas where it was lacking and what goals should be set when suddenly the sales person launched into a tirade of concerns about being micro managed and why couldn't he just be left alone until the end of the year so he could get on with his job without people on his back all the time - "doesn't anyone trust me?" was the gist of his outburst.

What was really happening of course was that the sales person was so busy doing unimportant stuff (both urgent and non urgent) that he dreaded the thought of having a plan and having someone "check up on him" on a regular basis. This guy was prepared to go into the year, with the biggest new business target he had ever taken on (everyone in the team needed to find new business of £1.2m in 2010/11) yet he thought he could do it carrying on doing the same stuff he had always done without any structure, plan or review between now and March 2011!

When questioned by the Sales Manager it turned out this guy had only met with 25% of his customer base. He knew virtually nothing about three quarters of his customers and was complaining about micro management and the number of sales calls he was expected to make (in this case just 8 per week were asked for yet he saw this as arbitrary and excessive)

So what is all this to do with Planning? The answer is everything. You have to Plan the Work and then Work the Plan. Think about which accounts you could grow.

What do you know about these untapped accounts?
Which products could you sell into these accounts?
What are the business development opportunities in your client base?
Which accounts can you grow, which ones will you have to start from scratch?
What is your contact strategy?
How many new clients will you have to contact to generate sufficient leads to create a pipeline that will provide you enough revenue to hit your number?
What is your conversion ratio of Opportunities to Closed deals.
What is your weekly call plan going to have to look like?
How many prospects do you need to qualifying in/out each week? What number of closed deals do you need by 30th June to know you are on track?

You get the idea don't you? Build a simple spreadsheet with all of your accounts key information. If you have one - extract the data from your company's CRM system and build the contact plan, calling plan, in fact all aspects of the plan from that. Then work that plan and check progress each week - first in your own mind then share this with your sales manager.

Every week look at what worked, what did not, what you need to do differently if you are falling short, what you can do more of when you are successful.

Don't forget to include all the things you do not know about your target accounts in your plan

What might other members of the Account team or service team know about the target clients
Do some landscaping - find out what your targets spend with your competitors
Find out how they buy, who makes the decisions, call the procurement department - create a "buying decisions" chart for each new client - the who, the how and the key decision making criteria of each prospect

All of this is about good planning and none of it is about micro management or lack of trust

Unless you have a plan you are going to have to be very lucky to achieve your target; especially if that target is bigger than ever before and therefore involves you in going beyond your comfort zone.

Planning in sales is as important as it is in any other discipline - it provides structure and focus and enables you check progress. It is the bedrock of a good sales year. Fail to plan and Plan to Fail as the old cliche goes.

Isn't it annoying how these old cliches are also truisms?

Be prepared to ask for help

If you are not happy with your account plans feel free to contact Accredit. We can give you quick feedback just by placing a comment on this blog, or we can work with you to ensure you are best placed to start the financial year in an effective manner.

Do you want to know more?

Either read our "Helping business drive sales" document, download the "Personal Business Plan" or contact fred.nelson@sales-accredit.com and Fred can take you through more detail.

It's the buyer who decides when to buy, not the salesman

2010-04-08T14:03:00.002+01:00

We regularly have the opportunity to review our clients account plans and regardless of the sales methodology being used we are constantly amazed at the poor quality of the information. This post is not about how to prepare a full account plan, but there is one aspect we want to focus on as we start a new financial year and that is client buying patterns.

Your clients are starting a new financial year just like you
Let's keep this simple, now is the time of the year when your clients identify the following:

Their key priorities
How much money they have to spend
How they have prioritised that spending
What their sign off limits are
How budgets are released, quarterly, half-yearly or "zero budgeting"

Your sales teams need to find this out and write it down in their account plans. This will help them prioritise their activities; to put it bluntly they should be focussing where the budget is, this may not be with the people they usually deal with.

Do you know your client's buying patterns?

Do your sales people know how and when budgets are released and also when they may be put on hold. We have a client who does not finalise their budgets until the 2nd month of a new financial year, and more than this they have historically stopped signing up for new projects mid-way through the third quarter. This means we have to have closed the year's number in six months!

Let's not pretend the above is unique, it happens everywhere, just look back at the buying patterns of your customers, I am sure you will find similar patterns.

But how do I find out this information?
If your account plans do not have this information, you must go out and discover this. The obvious way to do this is to ask your contacts within the account. This is an important action, and sales managers should not let the "urgent" tactical activities get in the way of this important strategic activity at the start of the year.

If your existing contacts do not know, then you have already identified you have too narrow a contact strategy and you need to engage either at a higher level, where the budgets sit, or engage with Finance and Procurement to get a better picture.

It's not just about the budgets

Remember, there are rules for how the money is spent, make sure you understand them as this will help you understand how quickly an order can be placed.

Is there a discretionary spend limit - can you operate under the radar and still get an order?
Is there a "sign-of" process, does this involve some form of committee, if so who is on it and how often does it meet?
Can you use an operational expenditure based solution to overcome limits in capital expenditure? Will the decision remain with the operational manager?

Account Plans are not just for the "big boys"

I am sure you have spent time defining your sales targets, regardless of how large your business is. The account plan will tell you how you are going to get the money out of your target accounts. Without a plan you are either relying on the fact that your sales people will do the right thing, or maybe you are hoping to be lucky.

It does not matter how large your company is - you can create simple account plans, that align with your desired revenue targets against the customer's needs and approach to spending. You may discover very quickly that you have over estimated or under estimated the potential in that account.

Be prepared to ask for help

Do you want to know more?

Either read our "Helping business drive sales" document, download the "Personal Business Plan" or contact mark.savinson@sales-accredit.com and Mark can take you through more detail.

Target, aim, shoot, not shoot, aim, target

2010-03-29T08:43:00.000+01:00

Last week we looked at the key components of setting targets, this week we are looking beyond the physical number in the target and more towards how you plan to achieve the target.

There are two key aspects we are going to cover:

The organisational roadmap for sales success
The personal tactics to achieve success

Success is not all about the sales people, failure is not all their fault either.

At its simplest your sales target is an expression of what good likes, in a monetary sense. Too often organisations then use the monetary value as the sole measure of success or failure without looking at the root causes and therefore what can be done to turn failure into success.

The concept of "target, aim, shoot" is all about having an objective (your target), individual tactics within that objective (what you aim at) and execution (shooting). Most people who solely measure the financial results, focus on the execution (did sales achieve its number) without considering whether they were aiming at the right targets.

We regularly encounter sales teams, who, when there is an issue, treat performance management as "fire and hire". We contend that they need to look broader.

Assuming the targets make sense, then organisations need to look at the three components of a successful sales team

The message - Marketing works very hard to create a compelling message, or value proposition that they believe will sell. All sales have to do is to tell everyone that message, go out and pitch it. But is this the best way?:

Do you have a "sales ready message" - What is the customer's problem? What questions should sales ask? How does our offer address problems? How are we better than the competition?
Are your sales people inventing their own messages?
When did you last listen to how your messages are delivered to prospects and customers?

The environment - Are you sales friendly, or do you inadvertently raise barriers to sales, are your sales people always inventing excuses and arguing that things need to be changed?

Sales people will always take the path of least resistance, is that path the one you want them to take?
Are you measuring the things that will drive the behaviours that will ensure you achieve target?
Is it easy to order and deliver your solution, if you allow "tailored solutions" how easy is it to create, price and deliver a solution?

Resources - Remember sales people are there to sell, sales managers are there to manage and your Sales Director directs.

Do you have a plan that the Sales Director can build a strategy against?
Do the Managers know what they have to deliver and what tactics need to be employed?
Are your Sales People equipped to deliver against the tactics?

So what does all of this mean organisationally? If your target requires growth via acquisition, then you need to look at each of the components and check that they are supportive of your strategy

Are your messages acquisition or retention messages?
Does your environment allow you to make the decisions you need to win new business - How prepared are you to buy market share from your competitors?
Can you grow the market?
Are your resources ready for and capable of acquisition selling? - If you have made sales people redundant based on their achievement against target, have you lost many of your acquisition sales people and have you too many retention account managers?

Can your people show you their roadmap to success?

In previous postings we have discussed the concept of a personal business plan (click here to download a copy), and a key component of that was the sales plan. Without a clearly articulated plan, sales people are relying on luck to achieve their goals. This plan is not just "I will achieve £xx this year", instead it is a breakdown of the tactics that will be undertaken to ensure success:

Sales activities:

Sales funnel - Number of Suspects, Prospects, Ratios of forecast to actuals
Key activities - Number of calls, meetings, quotes, etc.

Financial breakdown - Revenue, margin, etc
Business Mix

You should expect all sales people to have a plan, which you can track against throughout the year. If you do not believe the plan, challenge them and get your managers to coach them to be successful.

Where possible, do not give your people the plan, give them the Target, best practice around Aiming, but let them decide how they Shoot. Review how much they have shot on a regular basis and help them to adjust if necessary by looking at the external and internal environments.

Be prepared to ask for help

If you are not happy with your roadmap, whether you have the right resource mix, or how to ensure your people have effective personal plans, feel free to contact Accredit. We can give you quick feedback just by placing a comment on this blog, or we can work with you to ensure you are best placed to start the financial year in an effective manner.

Next week the client's perspective of their new year

We will examine how you have to take into account how your clients behave when building your plans.

Do you want to know more?

Either read our "Helping business drive sales" document, download the "Personal Business Plan" or contact mark.savinson@sales-accredit.com and Mark can take you through more detail.

If you don't reach for the sky you will not get off the ground

2010-03-24T06:52:00.002Z

Many of our clients are starting to tell us of their sales targets for the next financial year, and the good news is that they are all predicting growth. However, what is interesting is the approaches they have used to defining the targets, so we thought we would share some of the key approaches with you.

Targets are self fulfilling
The first lesson of setting targets is that they are self-fulfilling. Experience shows that if you set a low growth target you will only achieve low growth, if you set high growth you are more likely to achieve high growth. This is due to the fact that sales teams moderate their behaviour around their targets as opposed to having a sense of responsibility to their employer and always trying to achieve the maximum revenue.

How often have you heard a sales person say "I have achieved my target in that area so I do not have to worry about it now".

Product mix is key
Targets drive behaviour in a sales team, if you need to sell a range of solutions then these must be separated out in the targets. Remember sales people always take the path of least resistance and if they can achieve a pure revenue target by focusing in one area they will.

There are many cases of businesses struggling to sell new offerings, or to move into new markets, this is invariably due to the sales team not focussing sufficiently. This can only be overcome by having specific targets which will drive the focus.

Retain, Acquire, or Develop
Targets are not just a number, they are a definition of how you expect your revenue to achieved. Are you looking to grow by selling more to your existing customers, or are you going to grow by acquiring new customers and retaining your existing ones.

But do you have the right sales team?
We have many customers who have decided that having spent the last 18 months defending revenue now is the time to focus on winning new customers. However, during the last 18 months these same businesses have reduce the size of their sales forces and in many cases culled their "new business" sales people who were not achieving target. They are now left them with account managers who successfully protected business in their existing accounts. So who is going to acquire new customers?

Yes, but how much will I earn?
Sales people are not sophisticated people, the reason we are in sales is that we like to earn more money than everyone else, which is how it should be. If you want to drive my behaviours, impact my wallet.

We are not looking to create complex commission plans, but if you want a specific mix of business then it needs to be reflected in the commission plan. The most successful plans limit my ability achieve OTE (On Target Earnings) by stating that I have to sell a specific mix of products, I cannot achieve OTE just by hitting revenue targets by selling one product. If sales people want to earn more than OTE then again this can only be achieved by over achieving in the target areas, it is these that drive the commission accelerators.

Margin or Revenue?
Clearly it is margin that businesses need to be successful, and if there is any chance that your sales team could sell loss making revenue and still achieve OTE then you have to consider moving to margin based targets (or change your sales management).

Margin based targets only work if it is easy to calculate margin. If calculating the margin becomes too much of an overhead to the sales team it will fall into the "too hard" category and become a disincentive to selling.

On a personal basis I am a fan of margin based targets as this ensures that we only sell profitable business, however there are times when we make a strategic decision to by market share and then we have to pay sales people on revenue.

Communicate the targets early
It is easy to fall into the trap of trying to create a complex set of targets and then tinkering around the edges before you announce them. Please remember that without targets being communicated the sales force will sit back and wait. Do not create a vacuum as in a vacuum nothing happens.

We have a client who regularly announces their targets in the second month of the financial year, they constantly appeared to be surprised that in the first month sales are low!

Next week building a roadmap for a successful year
We will examine how you have to define a clear roadmap for your sales and marketing organisation to ensure you have a successful 2011.

Do you want to know more?

Either read our "Helping business drive sales" document or contact mark.savinson@sales-accredit.com and Mark can take you through more detail.

Let the madness begin - April is just around the corner - sell, sell, sell

2010-03-15T16:10:00.000Z

As we come to the end of another "interesting" financial year, most of our clients have that glazed look in their eyes associated with trying to end the year in style.

We thought it would be useful over the next 4 weeks to examine the important things we should all be focussing on:

Winning the winnable business
Setting the right targets for next year
Building the roadmap for a successful year
The client's perspective of their new year

Winning the winnable business

The big challenge for all of us sales people is to remain focussed as our managers and directors keep asking "how are you doing?", "have you closed xxx yet?" As an aide memoire we thought we would give you our top tips to closing out the year.

Vigorously qualify the client

Do you have a winning offer?
Is it really compelling enough for them to say "yes please"?
Do they need to make a decision now?
Can you meet their delivery timescales?

Vigorously qualify your processes

Can take the order in the timeframe (Ts&Cs, set up as client, etc.)
Understand what decisions you can make and what you need to refer to a higher authority
How quickly can you get a decision from your higher authority?

Can you financially engineer?

Does your customer need to buy quickly (use up 2009/10 budget)?
Can you take an order without completing all the paper work?
Can they buy now pay later (order in this year, cash in next year)?
Do you understand your internal revenue recognition process?

Do you want the order now - How desperate are you?

Are you the only one who wants to bring the order forward?
Can the customer use this as a negotiating point against you?

Forecast accurately

Good forecasting keeps you in control of the sales cycle
Good forecasting forces you to continually qualify your opportunities

Focus on the important not just what you (or your manager) perceives as urgent

It is important that you qualify to identify what is winnable in this financial period
It is important to agree with your manager your negotiation limits and how to deal with anything outside of this
It is important to keep your forecast accurate
It is important to take the order "properly" so it can be delivered
It is not important to urgently update your manager every hour - let them review the forecast (which you have kept up-to-date)
It is not important to urgently chase delivery every day on the status of the order. It only becomes urgent if there is a problem (did you properly qualify?)

Don't get desperate - you will only run around wasting energy. Focus on what you can win
Don't hope for a bluebird - They do come along occasionally, but you cannot base your forecast on them

Be patient - You cannot force a client to buy

It does not matter how desperate you or your manager is to win business, the client is the one who places the order.

Be patient and do the right things and if they are ready they will buy. If not, but the need is there, they will buy later.

The financial year is just the end of one week and the beginning of the next

We are not underplaying the importance of the financial year for our bonuses, the tax man, The City, etc. But ultimately it is only the end of one day. There is still business to be won the next day.

Don't fall into the trap of ignoring business to be won in April, or you will start your new year immediately behind target.

Next Week - Setting the right targets for next year

We will examine how effective target settings will drive the right behaviours and help you achieve the highest level of sales possible.

Do you want to know more?

Either read our "Helping business drive sales" document or contact mark.savinson@sales-accredit.com and Mark can take you through more detail.

So who owns the responsibility of development - The debate continues

2010-03-08T14:10:00.000Z

Last week I highlighted a debate that is taking place on LinkedIn about the role of sales trainers, sales training, coaching and who ultimately owns responsibility for developing the team.

This week the debate has progressed and a number of themes have started to appear:

Sales management - should they coach?
Sales people - should they own their own development?
Selling - is it a profession?

Sales Management - should they coach?

The discussion has highlighted a number of key issues:

Do we have the right sales managers and do they know what to do?
The contributors of the debate are clear

"A good manager provides direction, council and encourages staff development."
"A large percentage of the sales leaders we work with don't have the required skills (and in some cases, traits) to coach, train, develop, manage, and lead their teams. The unfortunate ones either don't know it or know it and don't look for outside help. That's why the average tenure among sales leaders is less than 2 years."

Who does the coaching? -

"Everyone benefits from outside professional programs -- if they are good."
"Personally I am very passionate about training at all levels, including research, content and delivery. That said, demands on delivering all the arms of sales strategy can often mean you have to hand it over to your divisional heads. If nothing else than to contribute to their personal development too. "
"External suppliers set the ground rules, managers have to own the delivery and behavioural change"

Clearly there is a view that sales managers, as a generalisation, lack the skills to coach and they need external help. But there is also a growing viewpoint that coaching is a fundamental part of sales management and that they should ultimately own the role of head coach, even if they delegate specific activities.

Sales People - should they own their own development?

This has already drawn out some interesting views:

"When you look at sales as a profession, and compare that to being a surgeon, lawyer, pilot, realtor, electrician, dentist, civil engineer, and most other professions, you quickly realize that every other one has oversight, requirements, governance, or a government agency or professional standard for continuing education."
"We do not know what the appropriate skill set for sales is, how can we expect the rep to know?"
"I agree that the rep has primary responsibility for their own development. I've always had a significant library available of both sales books, CDs, etc. AND information about my customers' business. This includes general business and marketing topics as well."
"I firmly believe that every rep's review must have an education accessment and plan component."

Our experience, based on recent discussions, is that more organisations are looking for sales reps to truly own their own development. The organisation will provide a range of resources, but it is up to the sales rep to use them and prove the progress they have made. Success is no longer a certificate of attendance on a course.

Selling - Is it a Profession?

There is a clear theme coming out from a number of parties about the need to make selling a profession and have its own "professional body".

"If the company, employers and/or trainers cannot agree (or prove) what it is that makes a successful sales professional, then perhaps we will do better to try and establish a critical mass of opinion/proof via an independent body. "

There are already two "professional bodies" making a claim for the sales profession, the ISMM and IPS (Part of the CIM). Currently neither of these has made any real progress and there are other bodies trying to be set-up, e.g "The Association of Sales Professionals", but these may have the issue of being associated with a particular view point of the founder.

Do you want a professional body?

We would like to hear your views, is the answer a professional body that oversees continual professional development, that provides a recognised certification that crosses organisations and provides structure for coaching and personal development?

We are speaking to many organisations who are defining their own development structures and "certification"; should we be saying to them, "join with us to work with a professional body", or do you really care?

Please give us your view, either comment on this blog or e-mail mark.savinson@sales-accredit.com.

Help us move the debate away from training providers and towards the sales community itself.

We look forward to hearing your views.

Struggling with your sales team? - Call for a sales trainer - OR MAYBE NOT

2010-02-28T21:38:00.001Z

There has been an interesting debate on LinkedIn about the value of sales trainers. It started with a simple question "Have you seen anything genuinely new from a sales trainer recently or is training now simply a commodity differentiated purely on price and service level?" Of itself the question seemed fair enough, but the debate that followed provided a fascinating insight into the world of sales trainers.

Who entered the debate?
I think it would be fair to say that 80% of the respondents (including Fred & I) were from the "industry", with the remaining 20% being, as they said themselves, "successful sales people". Unfortunately there was limited involvement from sales managers or directors.

What did they say?
There were clearly two camps:

I am a great sales trainer, I have a fantastic sales methodology, I can make you a better sales person.
Selling is about understanding customer needs, a refresh doesn't hurt, but the sales team and sales managers need to take greater responsibility for "selling well".

Now for those of you who regularly read the postings in this blog you will know that Fred and I fall into the second camp. In fact what concerned us most was the number of people who claimed that they had a unique approach to enhancing the sales process. This of course begged the question "if it was that good how come they are still doing sales training themselves?"

Interestingly the majority of sales people who participated in the discussion fell into the second camp. They were commenting on their belief that their success was due to doing the simple things well and then focussing on activity and good performance.

Why am I highlighting this discussion?

As we start to move out of recession focus will be slowly returning to the effectiveness of the sales team, and the internal discussion will start about how much sales training to purchase. Organisations need to ask the fundamental. "what are we trying to achieve?", "what does an effective sales organisation look like for us? and what is the best way to create it?"

To put it another way can I suggest you answer the following questions:

Does your sales team need training or better focus on doing the "right" activity regularly
Does your sales management process involve regularly working on a 1:1 basis with each sales person asking them how they can improve, checking if they need help, working with them to qualify out opportunities you have no chance of winning, supporting them in "being better sales people"
Do you need training or improvements in managing and leading?
Do your sales processes enable your people to be at their best most of the time?
Is it training you need or something else? For example Marketing and Sales working together on identifying winning propositions as we come out of recession

Remember - whether it is a recession or a boom time, selling is selling. It involves dedicated sales people working with their customers on understanding their needs and providing solutions to those needs

So let's go back to the question "Have you seen anything genuinely new from a sales trainer recently or is training now simply a commodity differentiated purely on price and service level?" Before you answer - think about whether you need training in sales techniques or whether you need to review your own performance and processes before spending anything on more training courses (unless of course you have new people to train or new products to sell)

Is there a right answer?
We are not saying don't train, that would be naive. We can always learn new things, and refresh on the basics. But training of itself is not the answer, the application of learning is the answer. The learning can be provided by sales trainers, internal coaches or even books. The application of that knowledge can only be driven by your sales managers. And remember that continuous use of a new behaviour ultimately becomes a habit, and effective sales teams are consistently shown to be made up of people with good sales habits.

Do you want to know more about what we do?

Either read our "Helping business drive sales" document or contact mark.savinson@sales-accredit.com and Mark can give you more detail.

We need your feedback - moving to sound and pictures from words

2010-02-22T21:22:00.000Z

This is not our usual post, although we are giving you some information we really do need your feedback.

We have a range of content on all aspects of selling and coaching and we are considering making it available as 5-10 minute podcasts. Our issue is we do not know if this will interest people.

So we have decided to test the concept. Below is a video (we are not claiming that it is the best possible quality as we used our own camera and recording capabilities) please watch it and give us your feedback.

The topic is "Success is planned it does not just happen! and take just over 8 minutes. It will explain the concept of Urgent versus Important in a way that relates to sales people and will help you understand why you must take greater control of your sales activities.

We need your feedback

Is the duration, too long, too short, about right
Is the approach usable
Is the size and quality acceptable
Is there any valuable in the filmed components or could we do it all as a voice over

Please send your comments to mark.savinson@sales-accredit.com

As a sign of appreciation we will make you an offer
We will randomly draw the name of one of you who has provided us with feedback and provide our assessment tool to you free for 90 days, along with our coaching content.

Do you want to know more about what we do?

Either read our "Helping business drive sales" document or contact mark.savinson@sales-accredit.com and mark can take you through more detail.

I know you want to engage at CxO level, but who do you really engage with?

2010-02-14T20:14:00.001Z

We regularly hear Sales and Marketing Directors proudly telling us that their sales strategy is "to engage at CxO level with business led messages". However, the reality rarely matches the strategy.

How can you spot who sales actually engage with?
It's very simple, ask the sales people who they met with in the last month. Look at the account plan and see who their contacts are. Review what is being sold in terms of value add beyond the standard product.

In an ideal world you should be able to ask sales managers for the contact strategy for their team's key accounts. It would be nice to know who are their sponsors, supporters, enemies, stoppers. It would be even more useful to see how senior the sponsors and supporters are - how close they are to the decision makers and decision making process.

What drives the engagement level?
The engagement level, and by extension the "comfort zone" of the sales team is driven by a number of external factors.

Commission structure - Can a sales person achieve target by selling "product" and therefore not engaging at a business level?
The offer - Is it applicable for a C-level engagement? There are many very successful companies who quite happily sell product that meets a specific "technical" need that is bought by people solely interested in the "technical" need
The message - Is marketing producing a meesage that resonates at a technical level or the business level?
Sales Management - do sales managers believe they are selling a commodity, a technical solution or a business solution?

To be successful a good campaign needs to be aligned to the real behaviours of the sales teams

A successful sales engagement campaign in support of a marketing campaign, requires pragmatism from both. A marketing campaign alone will not alter sales behaviours, no matter how appealing the offer to the client. It's aim is to entice customers to buy - to enable sales to sell more you have to do something else. You need to ensure that your sales engagement strategy is achievable by:

Understanding your contact database - ensure that the people you are targeting are aligned to your existing contact levels
Align your message to the targets - to be clear if your sales team are currently operating at a "technical level" give them technical messages
If you want a multi-level contact strategy tell sales exactly how to approach it - sales people always take the path of least resistance, you need to tell them exactly what you want to them to do and measure against it
Make it easy - provide sales with the messages, processes and target objectives for them to use and deliver against.

Are you telling me campaigns cannot be used to change the contact strategy of sales teams?

Based on our experience, this is the case. A marketing led campaign to drive the contact base into C-level individuals looks good on paper, but rarely works. Sales have to change their behaviours first.

We have successfully moved a sales team up towards C-level engagement, but it takes time and has to be achieved by getting the sales team to want to engage at that level and then habitually engage at that level.

Marketing campaigns follow the contact strategy of sales teams; they very rarely lead.

Don't despair though because you can achieve your desired C-level contact strategy.

Your campaign engagement process can provide the background to engaging at C-level, but it needs to be a step-by-step process, and used as part of a behavioural change programme for sales.

You told me you would provide a sales engagement process?

The sales engagement process we use does not change by contact level, it is a very straightforward approach. Here is a standard approach we use to help organisations acquire new customers:

Create a message that contains a trigger that will cause the recipient to have the emotional response of "ah, so there is a potential alternative to my existing supplier"
Follow up that message with a call to encourage the contact to have a meeting. The objective of the meeting is to "understand your challenges, priorities and focus, and see whether we can provide you a better solution than your current supplier"
Have a face-to-face meeting that is 80% prospect speaking and 20% sales rep speaking. The prospect will provide you with all the triggers you need if you ask the right questions. The outcome of the meeting is typically to identify 2 focus areas and come back with a potential solution
Measure and track all activity, plus capture the information gathered in the face-to-face meeting as this becomes your landscaping information for future campaigns.

Were you expecting something more complicated?

Remember our philosophy of selling being a simple process only made complicated by people who want to appear experts.

We have helped many organisation create targeted campaigns that sales can deliver against, and we have seen results, ask us and we can give you references. They have been used for both operational level engagement as well as C-level engagement. The process does not change; just the message and, of course, the ability and approach of the sales-person running the meeting.

C-level contacts are no different to any other level contacts. They want their problems solved, they want potential suppliers' sales people to listen to them and to provide potential solutions to their emotional and business needs.

Do you want to know more?

Either read our "Helping business drive sales" document or contact mark.savinson@sales-accredit.com and mark can take you through more detail.

A message to sales management - if you do not believe then neither will your team

2010-02-07T21:03:00.000Z

Last week I explained how important I believe it is for the messages to the market to be appropriate; the next step is to ensure the sales team understand them and can deliver them to their clients.

Don't just rely on training
The standard response to "how do I ensure my sales team will deliver the message?" is for marketing to arrange a training programme and then send everyone to it.

Let me clarify what I mean, I am not saying you shouldn't be training your sales team on your products and propositions - of course you should and we will look at how to maximise the effectiveness of this training next week. However, there is a fundamental issue to address before you start sending people on a training course; what "behaviours" are you expecting from the sales people and how will you ensure that they will regularly and habitually exhibit those behaviours?

How do you want the sales people to engage with the client?
One of the major issues we come across is that nobody has really thought through the client engagement strategy associated with the campaign. Let me illustrate what I mean with some examples:

Expecting the sales teams to follow up a generic "brochure" in the last month of the year - to marketing's surprise sales would rather focus on closing deals.
A campaign that uses an incentive to customers to turn up to a meeting, but does not tell sales what the outcome of the meeting should be - Sales give the incentive away to meet with their favourite customers, "think of it as a reward for your great business"
A comprehensive campaign to promote key messages to "C-level" contacts - to everyone's surprise few meetings are arranged to deliver the message, instead everything remains business as usual

In all these cases there are two main issues:

There is no clarity as to the sales objective of the campaign and by extension no definition of the activities required from the sales teams
Sales management has not bought into the campaign, so they have not taken ownership of the effective execution of the sales part of the campaign

How do we define the activities sales should complete in support of the campaign?

The start point is a very simple one, stop thinking about a marketing campaign and start thinking about the desired outcomes of the campaign (why are we doing it?) and work backwards.

Let me give you an example of one we are currently working on.

Campaign objective: To acquire new corporate accounts.

Campaign approach: To promote a new product (which is unique in the market) to act as a door opener

Marketing deliverable: An expensive Direct Mail piece, supported by an incentive to get the customer to have a meeting.

So we worked backwards from the objective.

What outcome do we want from the meeting? To understand what the "prospect" sees as their issues, confirm we can address them and identify an opportunity to prove ourselves.
How do we know we have achieved this? Ensure you have a simple data capture document that enables the sales rep to capture all of the appropriate information
How will we help the sales rep capture the information? Provide them with a proposed structure and agenda for the meeting
How will we ensure the "prospect" gives us the information? Tell them the objective of the meeting and ensure they are happy with it
How will we ensure the "prospect" knows about the objective of the meeting? Provide a structure for the telephone conversation selling the meeting.
How will we ensure that calls are made? Create full visibility of who the Direct Mailer was sent to, and when they were called
How will we ensure the right people are invited? Manage the data that is used to build the mailing list.

So all you have to do is support sales through every step and the campaign will work

Unfortunately it is not that straightforward. Not only must you have a good plan you must be able to execute it. Key to execution is sales management, if they do not drive execution it will never happen.

There is an old adage "a fish rots from the head" and it is very true about sales. If management does not believe in something, not only will they not drive it, but they will undermine it. We have all experienced a sales manager, or sales director, who has made a virtue of knowing better than anyone else. Do you recognise these examples?

"Ignore them, we will do it my way", or "What do marketing know, selling is a numbers game, the more calls, the more meetings, the more sales"

How do we get sales management on-side?

There are two steps (and they are both about selling!)

Involve them from the outset, they have to own the campaign alongside marketing
Make the campaign measurable and make sales management own the metrics.

Measure the number of meetings
The outcomes of the meetings (opportunity pipeline)
Ensure the client landscaping data is accurate and up to date and helps sales qualify opportunities - do we know enough about the key potential prospects in the target market?

Our experience is that it is only when you tie marketing and sales management to a common goal that you maximise the effectiveness of a campaign.

Keep following this blog, it will help you

It is our aim to continue to provide pragmatic and practical advice and solutions to the issues facing sales teams. We will always ensure that whatever we say you can use with your teams confident in the knowledge that we have already used the solutions in real life. We will continue to provide free tools and if you want access to more tools then you can always visit our website www.sales-accredit.com.

We need your input

We base all of our examples on the issues we are identifying in our clients, but we would like you to help us. Send us the issues you are facing and we will endeavour to address them in our future blogs.

And Finally

In the last blog of 2009 we discussed the personal business plan. We now have a worked examples, so if anyone would like a copy please drop me a line mark.savinson@sales-accredit.com

The next blog will look at how we design the sales engagement process.

A message to marketing from sales - We won't sell it if you make it too hard

2010-01-31T18:23:00.000Z

As I mentioned last week we have been working with the marketing team of an IT vendor to provide the sales teams with the key messages they will be using to introduce some specific offers.

On the face of it this is a straightforward activity; take the offer marketing want to promote, identify why someone would buy it, create the message the sales team need to deliver, show them how to deliver the message and finally work with them to deliver the message.

But the offer is wrong!
Unfortunately we hit a problem as soon as we started, the message would not work. It was not that the message in itself was wrong, but it was not consistent with what marketing had been telling the wider world and what they had been asking the sales people to tell existing customers.

Read your website and supporting material to check your current message
At its simplest the campaign was to target specific products at Large Enterprises, but the website proudly announced that "we have designed these products to meet the needs of the mid-market".

Sales made it clear that they would not even consider this campaign as they had been told the product was solely targeted at SMEs! There was no argument, the message was clear, "we will not do this!"

Beyond this we did a quick audit of the website and although the new products were mentioned, when you clicked for more information you were sent to a page all about the previous model. Fortunately sales did not spot this or we would have had even more issues.

Sales will not do anything that is too complex!
As a sales person I am happy to do anything that will help me over-achieve against my OTE, but I will always look for the path of least resistance. If I am not sure about the message, or think that the customer will only get confused, I will not use that message with the customer, whatever marketing may ask!

Are you sure you have not done the same?
I am happy to put my hand up and say that our messages are not always consistent, and I use the excuse of "our messages are evolving........". I know that this is due to the need to be agile, but we have delegated the responsibility of managing our website and we don't always update our web partner on the latest message.

How confident are you that your messages are consistent!

Customers do not like inconsistent messages, they will just ignore you!
The reality is that customers do not care why your messages are inconsistent, they will identify the reasons not to buy and reject you.

The sales team were 100% correct, we could not ask them to position the product to Large Enterprises, not only would it have been an ineffective campaign, it would have been damaging to the brand of the organisation.

The three steps to consistent messages

Before you build your campaign , check what messages you are currently delivering to your target market segments
Before you tell sales the new message, tell them how the message is changing and why
Before you launch the campaign ensure that all customer touchpoints are delivering the same message:

On-line media (website, PR, etc)
All above and below the line collateral
All customer facing people
All your channels

Keep following this blog, it will help you

We need your input

And Finally

In the last blog of 2009 we discussed the personal business plan. We now have a worked examples, so if anyone would like a copy please drop me a line mark.savinson@sales-accredit.com

The next blog will explain what we did next after we got sales back on side.

That was a good meeting - I think I'll do it again

2010-01-24T19:57:00.000Z

Well finally the snow has gone, and meetings are starting again. This means we are once again joining in regular reviews of meetings as our clients look to build their pipelines as the UK comes out of recession. As a result of this we had an experience that caused us to discuss our favourite subject of "planning your activities" as opposed to starting to discuss how you can take new offers to market.

The year ends in March, how are we going to hit target?
We have been working with an organisation whose financial year ends in March, so all the focus is on how can we close off deals. You would think this was a pretty straight forward activity:

qualify the prospects who are able to makes a decision before the end of March (assuming you know their buying process and key decision making criteria)
validate that your solution is a "good fit"
ensure the key DM criteria and your solution match as closely as possible so that a decision is made in your favour
check your solution beats the competition and work with your sponsor to win the business

So you would expect the sales team to have used the snow outbreak to re-qualify their pipeline and then start to have focussed meetings to win business. It would appear that for some sales teams this is not an effective exercise as it could ruin a "strong pipeline". Let me give you an example:

One salesman has just come back from a meeting, which he told us was "very good". We asked the obvious questions

Can we win the business before March?
What do we have to do to win the business?
What is the next step?

The response we got was, "They are very interested in our approach, especially if we could include some of the new features we have promised in version 8 (due in June 2010). I told them that these features give us a clear competitive edge and they agreed with me. I have promised them a demo of the new features (using our beta tool) and we are looking to arrange a meeting in February. I hope that when we next meet we will be able to finalise the proposal, which I am confident we will win"

That was a good meeting, wasn't it?

I think we have a case of "Don't ruin the fun of the discussion by asking for the business". The salesman involved comes from a technical background and their comfort zone is in designing potential solutions. They enjoy the intellectual challenge of the discussion, but struggle with the close. In many cases they think that their customer will think less of them if they ask for the order!

So what did we do?

We did not pick on this one sales person! We asked the whole sales team to give us an update on every opportunity in the pipeline, specifically ranking them by

Target close date
Value
When the next meeting is
Objective of meeting and how this will help us close the business

We then carried out a one-to-one on each sales rep's top 3 opportunities and we specifically looked at

Did they know the decision making process and did this match their target close date?
Could we bring the close date forward?
Are they meeting the contact soon enough and have they agreed a clear objective for the meeting and the desired next steps?

We re-cut the pipeline (in terms of the final quarter) and identified where there are gaps and then revisited the process for any deals that are likely to close next year to see if we could bring any of them forward.

How did this help our troubled salesman?

We asked the salesman to visualise one of his colleagues who in the words of the salesman, "has no shame he will make any offer to win the business". We collectively worked out a strategy to allow the customer to place an order this month by:

Identifying the key features they need us to deliver, and when they need them by
Agreeing a delivery schedule that would allow them to buy now, and receive "credits" if we fail to deliver the features to the agreed timetable.
Gaining commitment for a 24 month deal (not the 12 months that the salesman was originally offering)
Ensuring there was no price discount but rather a win/win price!

The salesman has had his meeting and positioned the offer, and the client is working through the paperwork as we speak!

So what can we all learn from this?

There are 2 key lessons here:

Not all sales people think their job is asking for the order - with the focus on "solution selling" and the desire for our people to be able to build a solution, we have recruited a number of people who see themselves as "solution architects" and not sales people. As Managers we have to spot them and ensure that they are focussed on closing business.
Have a plan and implement it - Don't expect your sales people to have a plan, check they have a plan and check they follow it.

What can you expect from this Blog over the coming year?

We need your input

And Finally

In the last blog of 2009 we discussed the personal business plan. We now have a worked examples, so if anyone would like a copy please drop me a line mark.savinson@sales-accredit.com

This week we are working with a key client on a reason to call campaign in support of some new products, I will share with you the lessons learnt on this project on next week's blog.

I couldn't sell anything - there was too much snow

2010-01-17T12:23:00.000Z

The last 2 weeks have been a "challenging" time for sales people here in the UK. Not only have we been dealing from the post Christmas and New Year hangover, but we have introduced a new syndrome - "snowitis" where the onset of snow has resulted in a complete halt in sales activities.

Now of course some of this snowitis is correctly diagnosed where the subject is living in a remote corner of the country and he/she can only normally interact with clients face to face. For those who fully suffer from snowitis (often diagnosed by their managers) it has been fully acceptable to engage in a little extra-curricular snow man building, sledging, or in certain extreme cases having to mind the children because local schools were suffering from the public sector variant of snowitis.

But for the rest of us, snowitis has just been an extreme form of "duvet-day". We have immediately accepted that just because we cannot get out of our local road, all forms of transport have ground to a halt "DO NOT TRAVEL UNLESS IT IS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY" shouts the BBC news. Even in those extreme cases where we cannot travel (or our customers cannot travel to their offices) then we have also decided that all forms of communications have been affected by the snow. Just like the "wrong types of leaves" impact our railway system, so then the wrong types of dampness and cold seems to impact our voice and data communication systems. Clearly there is no point in trying to call people as they will not be there, even though there are believed to be over 1.8 mobile phones per person in the UK!

My personal experience has been that a surprisingly large number of people have answered their phones during the last 2 weeks, and although I have had meetings cancelled, we did manage to carry on discussions over the phone ensuring that the next meeting will be further down the sales cycle. On a more depressing note I have had clients whose Inside Sales Reps, appear to have made limited contact with customers during this period, resulting in a 2 week delays of major outbound sales campaigns. The reason for this appears to be a combination of snowitis and a failure of systems so that those Inside Sales Reps who were willing to work from home had limited access to the systems they needed.

So how do we deal with Snowitis?

Attitude - Yes you can still work during snow!
Application - You have to believe that you are going to get through to someone
Perseverance - It will take longer than usual so persevere, use all the contact methods available and don't be put off.
Systems - The technology world has been promoting the value of flexible working, have you been willing to be flexible in your approach? Those who invested in solutions that allow home working were able to continue working - their ROI on the IT and Comms investment just went up!
Planning - Sales people who have a plan can execute it even during the snow!
Management - Managers have to manage even more so, do your people have a plan of activity, are they delivering against it?

What can we learn from the last 2 weeks

This outbreak of snowitis should help us identify those sales people who do not plan their time and activities, and those managers who fail to manage. We all have a duty of care to our employer (they are after all paying us) and so we should have made best use of the time available.

Look for those people who, even if they could not see clients, have made best use of the time. Those who have built a plan of activity for the coming quarter, or who have updated their account plans, and their contact strategies.

Look for those managers who have driven their teams as opposed to "going native".

Identify those people who have continued to sell, they are your potential stars for the coming year as they have the right attitude.

And finally, remember snowitis is an illness that only affects some. People with the right attitude and strong values don't seem to catch it - funny, they seem to be more successful too.

What can you expect from this Blog over the coming year

We need your input

And Finally

In the last blog of 2009 we discussed the personal business plan. We now have a worked examples, so if anyone would like a copy please drop me a line mark.savinson@sales-accredit.com

Next week will start to address the issue of launching a new offering to market and how to ensure the sales team are able to drive it into your customer base.

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

2009-12-15T16:42:00.002Z

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

2009-12-08T21:47:00.000Z

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:

Qualifying all opportunities into, "will buy this month" or "will buy later".
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.

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
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.

You will never achieve your numbers if your people are not motivated

2009-11-30T14:13:00.001Z

Here is the first in a series of items on how we drive towards closing the quarter. Rather than going straight into closing techniques, we thought it would be useful to start with the essential precondition - the motivation of your people.

Recently, when assessing a sales team, I was asked by their sales manager, "How can I get my people more motivated? As you have seen, they have the talent but do not seem to be out with customers prospecting, qualifying and closing as much as they ought."

Sell them the reason to be motivated - find the trigger
Motivation is emotionally based, linked to an attitude of mind that drives a desire to do or achieve something. Importantly, it is personal to the individual. You can't "make someone more motivated". What you can do however as a Sales Manager, is to create an atmosphere and culture which lends itself to your team having a desire to achieve. It is more of a 'pull' than a 'push'

Motivation is different for all of us; true motivation comes from within – it can’t be imposed. To sustain motivation, you can help team members tap into their own motivational triggers, encourage them to talk frequently about previous times in their career/life when they were highly motivated. Do they have a specific personal target; an exotic holiday, a new car, move house. Get them to visualise what they need to do to achieve that target, now link that to what you need them to do. "One of our colleagues wanted a flat abroad, he broke down what he would need in terms of additional monthly earning and kept a "holiday flat fund" which was always on his desk. Each month we discussed with him the state of the fund and he told us what he needed to sell to achieve his goal"

Help, through coaching, your team members to believe that they can be successful. Limiting beliefs can hold back even the most confident people from achieving success. Limiting beliefs are like having weeds growing in your garden; if you do not pull them out, they will take over your garden.

Provide effective and evidence based feedback on a regular basis to increase an individual’s self-confidence and motivation to taking the next steps to achieving success.

At 1:1 meetings and developmental coaching sessions get your team to set themselves goals (do not impose goals upon them). Get them to come up with their own ways of improving.

A good tip is to ask your team member, "on a scale of 1 to 10 how do you feel about your performance?" Assuming they score it at less than 10 then ask them what they would do to make it a 10.

Motivation comes from within but as Sales Managers we can help our team members to find it within themselves

Closing the quarter exercise

Get every member of your team to identify a personal goal, it must be tangible and progress towards success must be measurable.
Each team member should publicise what they are trying to achieve and at each sales meeting get them to tell everyone how they are doing against that target.
By sharing targets you get peer pressure, not around who is selling the most, but on who is achieving their personal targets - that will motivate people. They picked the target themselves and they cannot say it was imposed.

Try it and tell us how it works

Want to know more? Visit our website www.sales-accredit.com or contact me directly fred.nelson@sales-accredit.com

Next week we will look at how you can get your team to create personal business plans to achieve the quarter.

I can beat any price by 10% - That should guarantee the sale

2009-11-24T14:17:00.000Z

How often have you heard this conversation between sales and marketing "we are not price competitive that's why sales are down"- " but we offer so many more features than our competition, we add greater value, that's why we are slightly more expensive".

There is a constant battle between sales and marketing over price and the desire to sell value. So let's make one thing clear, it is marketing's role (product marketing in particular) to define the "go-to market price", it is the role of sales to sell the value and negotiate where required.

Marketing and Pricing

Pricing is clearly driven by market conditions, it's a reflection of the perceived value of your offering. Marketing must constantly review this and test the competitiveness of the offer. Depending on the market you operate in reviews should be monthly, bi-monthly or quarterly.

Price and value are linked in the mind of the customer. Buy cheap, buy twice is an oft heard saying but cheap may be just right in certain circumstances. That said, if your products are not the cheapest then you have to show how they add value. If you want sales to position the value of the offering then there has to be some real value in your customer's view (not just features) that justifies the price differentiation. It is usually marketing's role to identify these sometimes hidden values generically, but the job of sales to clearly articulate their value to the individual customer. Areas to focus on include:

Service levels
Ease of support / use
Brand "Emotional value"
Eco friendly
Quality (build, design, reliability)
Cost reduction for your customer by adopting your solutions
Increased productivity by using your solutions

Sales and Negotiation
So how do we go about ensuring we sell at the right price once we have demonstrated value and we have an interested customer who wants to negotiate? Well, the first thing to say is that selling is selling and negotiating is negotiating. What I mean is that price negotiation is something to do at the end of the sales process, to win the business after we have demonstrated value, gained real interest from the customer and believe that a final piece of strong negotiation, leading to a win/win, will seal the deal.

If you make price concessions early in the sales process you may end up having to negotiate a lower price later. Use your selling skills first to sell the value then negotiate as late as you can. Remember that your customer is likely to buy if your price (i.e. the cost to them) is lower than the cost of not solving their problem.

Finally some tips on price and Terms and Conditions negotiation:-

Knowledge is power - know your customer, do your research, ask questions, listen and understand the problem they want to solve.
Decide on a "walk away price" and "walk away terms and conditions" such as service guarantees
Plan your negotiation stance and evaluate your position and your customer's.
Understand each others bargaining areas - If you both understand each other's win/win position then you can negotiate
Set expectations and never agree to first offers (unless they achieve a win/win for both parties)
Never give concessions away - trade them. You will always have "tradables" that you can offer in exchange for price discount or additional after sales service. This win/win element is key as it demonstrates that both parties gain from the deal.

Finally, throughout the negotiation stage ensure that you always communicate clearly, avoiding ambiguity and enabling you and your customer to always understand what is and what is not on offer.

Commission plan drives negotiation focus
It is worth remembering that a key contributor to what a sales person is prepared to "give away" is their commission plan. Whilst recently assessing a sales team, we found a pattern in the areas they would aggressively discount, and those that they held their ground over. Upon further research we discovered that they were not paid on the area they heavily discounted, so they had know emotional interest in maintaining margin here. This resulted in a behaviour that instead of driving value, they were prepared to reduce price.

Want to know more? Visit our website www.sales-accredit.com or contact me directly mark.savinson@sales-accredit.com

Next week we will start to look at how we drive sales in the last month of the quarter.

Don't be shy, unlock the sale by finding the emotion

2009-11-16T14:38:00.001Z

Would selling be easier if buying decisions were based on pure logic? All you would have to do is to quantifiably prove that your product/solution functionally delivers the required features to achieve the desired business outcome. All sales would be done via a RFP and you would only need to discuss functionality and price.

Sadly, as the key component in the decision making process is a human being, subject to emotional responses, this will never happen. Let me give you some examples:

Dell are promoting their notebooks in a variety of colours. Why? - I met someone last week who wanted to buy his daughter a new notebook, he could buy a variety of models via his company, but his daughter did not like them she wanted pink
A salesman said with incredulity to me, the key reason the MD wanted to change the phone system was that he didn't like the phone on his desk, it was "old fashioned".
In the Sunday Times this week Jeremy Clarkson pointed out that if we were logical we would all by VW Golfs, why should we have small convertibles that mess up your hair, or 4x4's that get attacked by environmentalists, etc. - I am sure you get the picture.

All these are examples of how the emotional aspect of buying is frequently an important element in the decision making process; in the business environment as much as the consumer. The buyer is an individual after all. Just think about those throwaway comments you hear such as, "that's OK for consumers, but it's really design over function, our product is much more robust and is designed for a businessman". Apple already understand their customers are individuals who make buying decisions on grounds that are not always purely logical.

How should we use emotion in selling?

Emotions affect the decision making process in either a positive or negative manner, there is no middle ground.

Red emotional triggers - These are the negative emotions which will act as a barrier to the sale. These are often associated with

A fear that the decision will have a negative impact on the decision maker, "If I get this wrong I could lose my job..."
Having a previously bad experience, "why should I trust you to sort out out my business communications when you can't get my home phone working"
Have a personal preference for a different approach, "My way of doing this is best...."

Green emotional triggers - These are the positive emotions that will support your sales, they are often associated with positive outcomes

Personal reward - "by getting this right I can get the promotion I want"
Translate a red emotion into a green - "I know that this way is different to your approach but it will allow you to achieve more..."

A great way to identify the emotional status of the decision making is to listen for the words that identify the emotional status; these include:

Need, want, must have, achieve, now...
Concerned, worried, pressure, time pressure...
Phrases that start with "I"

Having heard these phrases, then standard selling kick in, ask questions to identify the real trigger behind the emotion, ask "why do you need it....", "why are you concerned....". Then you can address the issue and move forward (which could include qualifying yourself out).

How does marketing help?
Green emotions are all about the outcomes, so marketing should help sales articulate the outcome of their solutions (just the way consumer marketing tells you how you will look good, feel better, etc.), as opposed to the features of the product.

As an example, a supplier of office phone systems is no longer talking about how many extensions it supports and whether it has music on hold, instead they are focussing on improving efficiency of people, enhancing customer service, allowing flexible working.

People really do buy emotionally
That people buy from people is an over-used phrase, often by sales people who are trying to justify their existence. The reality is that it is the emotional aspect that drives the sale, and it is only during the sales conversation that the emotional triggers are identified. That is not to say that we cannot drive the emotions, you only have to look at someone like Apple to see how emotions can be used to drive a sale, just try and tell them that a standard notebook based on Microsoft Windows is a better technical solution!

Want to know more? Visit our website www.sales-accredit.com or contact me directly mark.savinson@sales-accredit.com

Next week we will look at pricing and negotiation.

Sales get the positive decision - what's that got to do with marketing

2009-11-09T12:43:00.003Z

I am sure you have come across this mindset before - "marketing finds the prospects, all sales has to do is to get them to buy from us." At the basic level this is the true essence of sales - "the ability to take someone who has expressed an interest in solving a problem, to agree to solve that problem using your product/solution".

There are a limited number of sales people who are naturally able to persuade the customer to make a positive decision, but for the rest of us we need to think about how we address the three key components of the decision making process.

Cost
Risk
Reward

Decision-making is a combination of a rational and emotional responses. If we understand the triggers to these responses we can position ourselves an our sales messages so that it's easier to make a decision in our favour. Another way of looking at this is that we have to overcome the customer's objections to buying from us. (So we are really talking about objection handling)

If you accept that a customer buys to solve a problem (real or emotional), the triggers to make a positive decision in your favour are focussed around:

Cost

This is not price, but the overall cost associated with using your product/solution. In some quarters this is known as Total Cost of Ownership. In an ideal world we would have a calculation that describes the overall cost of our offering and compares it to that of our competition. However, as many of us live in a commoditised world, at face value there may not be much of a difference between our offerings and those of the competition.

However, if sales are to mitigate the perceived issues of cost in the decision making process they must know:

What are the implied costs with using our solution, e.g. Buying SKY HD will involve owning an HD television, Buying a Blue-ray disc requires a Blue-ray player, etc.
What are the associated costs with using your solution, e.g. Support costs associated with moving to Windows 7.0, training costs, hardware upgrades, etc.
Actual cost of using your solution. This is not just the purchase price but also the cost of implementation.
Cost of not doing anything. Whilst many customers might prefer not to change at all, they might not understand the impact and costs associated with remaining with the status quo, e.g. you will not be able to see the latest movies as they will only be released in HD, or Microsoft will drop support for Windows XP, etc.

Risk

If cost is a financial driver that can be measured, then risk is more of an emotional driver, "why should I risk my career on your solution when I could stick with the existing solution/supplier?"

To be able to deal with the emotional issue of risk you have had to identify these potential risks through effective questioning, which is of course the essence of objection handling - you need to understand the objection before you can overcome it.

The likely risk issues you are going to come across are

Financial risk - This is an extension of the cost discussion but focuses on the opportunity cost, "could I spend the money on something else....". This is a factual risk, i.e. if you know what else the money could be spent on you could address this.
Supplier risk - Are you a safe pair of hands - "why should I change from my existing supplier...." This is a factual risk; it is an extension of competitive positioning.
Personal risk - "As the decision maker how is this decision going to impact my reputation....". This is an emotional risk; you have to understand the decision makers's emotional triggers.

Reward

As a salesperson your aim is to accentuate the positive, i.e. show the decision maker the return they will achieve as a result of making the decision in your favour. "By using our product you will not only reduce your costs, but offer a higher customer service level which will result in more sales..."

If you do not align your proposed reward against the decision makers desired reward, you could instead be introducing risk, e.g. only offer to help them reduce head count if that is what they want to achieve, or you could make them think their job is at risk.

The likely reward types you will come across are:

Financial reward - It must be quantifiable, e.g. show the ROI.
Organisational reward - The solution will deliver competitive advantage, again needs to be quantifiable.
Personal reward - This is the emotional aspect of the sale, what will the individual gain as a result of the decision, kudos, reputation, keep their job, etc.

So it's simple. Sales align their offer against the Cost Risk Reward issues of the decision maker - Marketing can just sit back and watch

NO. As ever marketing have to provide the ammunition. The average sales person will need help in knowing what are the triggers to look for and the core of the response. This is where marketing MUST help.

All aspects of the costs associated with the offering are known
Potential risks and answers to these must be provided
Financial models must be provided to justify the financial rewards.

It's just objection handling. Sales identify the target and marketing provides the ammunition

There is no silver bullet to getting a positive decision. Sales have to position the decision maker so that they have answered all the objections that could impact a positive outcome. If the customer wants to solve the problem they will. The solution they choose is the one that best meets their issues. (Cost Risk Reward)

This is not complex. It is just the practice of selling and objection handling. Successful sales teams are those that realise that they have to have answers to these issues. Why not find out if your team can do this, accompany them on a call or review their proposals and ask yourself the question, is there a compelling reason why I would buy? If not then now is the time to coach your people.

Want to know more? Visit our website www.sales-accredit.com or contact me directly mark.savinson@sales-accredit.com

Next week we will look in more detail how sales has to be aware of the emotional components of decision making.

Believe me - we are much better than anyone else

2009-11-02T09:06:00.000Z

The unfortunate thing about selling is that in most instances there are other people who offer similar solutions to the ones we are offering. Therefore, just knowing the customer's issues will not guarantee a sale, we have to convince the buyer that our solution meets their needs better than similar solutions available in the competitive market.

How do we know we are different?

Differentiation takes many forms and marketing ought to be able to provide the following:

Unique Product Features - Product marketing ought to be able to generate a list of unique or differentiated features versus competitors and what issues they address.
Unique "Delivery" or "Service" Options - Beyond the product features marketing ought also to be able to identify the difference between your delivery options and your ongoing service or after sales options and those of your competitors. These differences can also be linked to the value a customer will derive from the options available from you.
Competitive positioning - Marketing should provide, by key competitor, an analysis of competitive offerings highlighting where you have strengths and weaknesses, and where there are therefore opportunities and threats.

So all sales has to do is to present a list of the differences!

It is marketing's role to ensure that sales understand the differentiators, but sales also have to know how and when to use this information, and this is where the problem often lies.

"our laptop is 6 ounces lighter and 1/2 inch thinner than the model you are looking at" is only a differentiator if the customer is concerned about lightweight and size!

Key to good competitive positioning is once again effective questioning, by fully understanding what is important to the customer, and of course what is not, an effective salesperson will identify which differentiator to use.

"you mentioned that your company had a strategic objective of being carbon neutral; were you aware that we are the only manufacturer to have achieved Carbon Trust's 5 star award for energy saving on all our devices...."

Do we need to know who we are up against?
Effective differentiation relies on relevance to our customer. There is no point telling a potential purchaser of a Mini, how much more fuel efficient it is versus a Hummer if the key competitor is a Fiat 500. So again key to effective differentiation is questioning "so who or what else are you considering.....?"

So it's simple - Marketing identify our strengths and sales works out when to tell the customer

YES! Effective competitive positioning is simple

Marketing has to

invest time and effort in identifying why customers might want our product (the issues customers want to address)
map these issues to the competitive offerings to identify our strengths and weaknesses and understand opportunities and threats
Clearly articulate our strengths and how they better address the issues than our competitors
Clearly identify our weaknesses and when we should qualify ourselves out or focus on a feature or advantage that we are better at.

Sales has to:

Understand what the customer really wants to achieve
Identify how to win against the competitors
Use the information provided by marketing to effectively position the offering
Qualify out where appropriate

This is not theory, more marketing departments are realising that they need to link their competitive information against customer issues and not only features. The clever organisations are "testing" their sales teams abilities to use this information effectively and win more business.

Want to know more? Visit our website www.sales-accredit.com or contact me directly mark.savinson@sales-accredit.com

Next week we will examine the issues around decision making and reducing the risks for the customer.

Go on Marketing - help us identify customer problems we can sell against

2009-10-25T18:00:00.001Z

Last week, courtesy of my discussion with Neil Rackham, I described the issues Sales & Marketing can create for themselves as a result of the assumptions over roles throughout the sales cycle.

The first area to address is what Neil Rackham described as "problem analysis tools". Selling, as we all know, starts with identifying a problem we can address with our "products/solutions". So who is responsible for identifying the "problem"? It's clearly both Sales and Marketing.

Marketing can be generic
Marketing clearly cannot know the specifics of an individual's (or their company's) needs, but they can identify the types of issues sales should be looking for that play to the strengths of their product. Here are some examples that help illustrate what I mean

Technical problems - Every product has been designed to do a job or address a specific problem (the issues the product features have been designed to address). Instead of listing the technical feature (what it is), marketing ought to provide sales with the "problem" the feature was designed to address. An example of this is:

Instead of describing the security features of a notebook - identify why security is required and the potential impact of having a notebook lost/stolen. It's the "so what?" rather than just the "what?" and is often the first stage of qualification.

Business problems - All businesses have to address issues around costs, sales, legislation, etc. These are ultimately the things that drive the final decision ( remember that the best technical solution will always struggle against an average solution that better addresses the business issues). Marketing can help the market and their salespeople to understand what business issues their product is best designed to address. Here is another example.

Find a business that has a high profile "environmental policy" then identify the green credentials of your product and how it helps your customer towards achieving carbon neutrality

Don't forget emotion -All consumer retailing is based on emotional selling - making you look/feel better, pricking your conscience to give to charity, etc. Marketing could be helping sales identify the emotional phrases that they can focus on.

These emotions can be identified via "objection handling" - listing the emotional words that are positive and negative. For example, Marketing can say in their collateral that "many of our customers find that the environmentally features of our products help to reduce the consumption of electricity". In this case reducing the use of carbon based fuels is an emotional as well as problem solving feature.

Sales must be specific

Sales have a simple role here "ask questions, listen to the answers and use this intelligence to identify the opportunity".

At the risk of upsetting some of our readers, too many sales people go into "pitch mode" using the generic slideware of Marketing. The role of Salespeople in problem identification is to uncover the unique problems of the prospect, Marketing can only give you the hints as to what you might hear.

So what does good look like?

Accredit has been working with a number of IT organistions to put into practice what we have been preaching here, and it works as follows:

Marketing builds a "customer viewpoint" for the sales team. This explains the issues customers could be facing and how this links to the features of the product/solution (moving from Feature to Advantage)
Marketing produces a "call/meeting guide" which lays out how best to have the initial engagement with the prospect (what questions to ask, what to listen out for and link to the offering. (click here to see an example)
Sales practices the call/meeting before doing it "live"

This is not just a theory - we know it works - If you want to know more why not register on our website as we are regularly adding new examples of call/meeting guides.

Next week we will look at how we build differentiation against our competitors.

Sales just speak to the client, it's Marketing who decides what they say

2009-10-19T11:13:00.002+01:00

I recently had a meeting with Neil Rackham (creator of SPIN Selling) and during our conversation we got onto the subject of why for all the focus on "solution selling, too many sales people focussed on features and did a pitch. We both agree that one of the major reasons for this was the internal failures between sales and marketing.

Neil then proceeded to give me one of the best descriptions of the challenge sales and marketing face. It was not a new approach, but the clarity which he gave the issues was impressive.

The key issue is one of expectations. The client clearly knows the steps they need to go through to make a decision, and the sales/marketing organisation knows what they need to supply to support the client make a decision. So where does it all go wrong?

The failure stems from a lack of clarity as to who owns delivery of the components. The most common outcome is that sales and marketing revert to type and we end up with:

Marketing producing literature that is inward focussed ("here are our features") and then tells the customer what the benefits are.
Sales scrambles around trying to work out why anyone would buy their solution and resorts to "pitching".

Next week we will look at some of the steps we can take to address this issue.

If you have any examples of the imbalance between sales and marketing (from either a sales, marketing or customer perspective) please share them by placing a comment.

"Look they are Listening!" - Update on Active Speaking

2009-10-11T13:53:00.002+01:00

Short entry this week (I am supposed to be on holiday, but my wife has gone shopping!)

So I am into my first week of "active speaking" and I wanted to give yo a quick update.

Active speaking in a meeting - I had a very important sales call for a client (my role was to ensure that the meeting achieved its objective, without taking it over!) The impact of active speaking, in my humble opinion was quite dramatic.

We learnt far more than we expected
The customer committed to a strategy that could open up 15% of their client base to our offer!
They confirmed their agreement that our sales strategy was correct.
They agreed to a half-day meeting in three weeks!

Active speaking with colleagues - I have started speaking quieter, but as most of my conversations this week have been over the phone, they keep saying speak up!
Active speaking with my family - Major success here, my 17 year old agreed to something! (more work, get some work experience, tidy his room). I only hope this continues.

So how have you been getting on? Please drop me a line mark.savinson@sales-accredit.com or comment on the blog.

Can we have your feedback - Please let us know what you think of this blog, is it useful, what would you like more of? All comments will be gratefully accepted (either add a comment or send me an e-mail mark.savinson@sales-accredit.com )

Next week we will start to look at the challenge of getting sales to support the needs of the marketing strategy, and vice versa.

Don't speak so loud if you want others to listen

2009-10-04T20:33:00.000+01:00

I was very fortunate to meet one of the most impressive characters I have ever met, Neil Rackham. Neil, as you may know, was the creator of SPIN selling and is recognised as one of the leading thinkers in what makes a sales person effective.

Rather than go in to detail of our discussion, I'll save this up for another time, I want to highlight one of Neil's most impressive traits, the volume of his voice. Neil is a very softly spoken individual and he forces you to listen to him, rather than hear him! I am sure that this is deliberate, as I found myself concentrating on what he was saying as opposed to thinking ahead and missing key parts of the conversation. Neil is implementing what I would call "active speaking".

Everyone talks about active listening as a key aspect of a successful sales call, but how many of us combine active listening with broadcast speaking (i.e. we go into pitching speak) where we talk at the client. I know that I am often accused of "telling people" or "using the force of my personality to get a point over". My meeting with Neil revealed an alternative approach - speak quietly and bring the listener gently into the discussion.

The active speaking behaviour is:

Speak at the volume you would normally use to calm somebody down.
You will find that you naturally slow down the speed of speaking (providing you with thinking time, and making it easy to listen to).
Encourage the listener to join you in the conversation.
If you want to draw something don't use a flip chart, use a piece of paper and get the person to join in.

The 21 day active speaking challenge
I have been set a challenge by my colleagues, and we are setting the same challenge to all the sales people we coach, the challenge is as follows:

For the next 21 days I should use active speaking in every meaningful conversation I have. This will cover 1-2-1's with colleagues, sales calls and coaching sessions.

Why 21 days? - This is the time it takes to turn a new behaviour into a habit. Research shows that if you repeat the behaviour throughout the 21 days (with the intention of accepting the behaviour), at the end of the period you will do it without thinking.

So I am setting the same challenge for you (and your teams). Introduce active speaking in your 1-2-1 sessions and customer discussions and post comments here to tell us how it is going.

There are no Advanced Selling Skills only the right behaviours

2009-09-25T13:08:00.004+01:00

One of the things I often get asked by sales leaders is

“How can I improve the selling skills of my people?”

To paraphrase the reply to “How do I get to the Albert Hall?” the answer is

“You have to practice”

Sales Directors talk about needing to have a sales team with Advanced Selling Skills what I would say is “no, you need sales people who regularly, every day, every sales call, practice ADVANCED SELLING BEHAVIOUR”

I recently attended an “Advanced Selling Skills” workshop. The content was good and so were the two guys delivering it. So what is wrong with that I hear you ask. Well nothing other than the skills trained in were not “advanced”; they were good, standard skills around asking good Questions to understand what is going on, Listening intently to evaluate, diagnose, comprehend etc, handling Objections and Negotiating.

All good stuff but......

I have a issue with this and it is nothing to do with the content or trainers - both were good. The problem is more for the Sales Director of the client buying the training. That problem is that none of this content is new, it is what his people should already be doing. The challenge is “what will change as a result of your people attending the training workshop”?

Their problem is the challenge of achieving target in a difficult market (but it exists in a buoyant market too) will only go away if as salespeople they not only understand “Advanced Selling Skills” but practice them every time they speak to a customer.

The other issue I have is with many people’s ATTITUDE. Fortunately for me mine is positive. Fool that I am, I really believe that working hard, developing new skills and applying them everyday in my work will move me forward psychologically and move my business forward fiscally.

What I witnessed in this training workshop was a poor attitude of everything being negative - “why do we need more training, our prices are not competitive, even if I could sell in these difficult times we can’t deliver” etc etc etc. Boring, boring, boring.

How about this as another way of looking at the world - “My sales director cares. He cares about his job, his company and his sales teams. He cares enough to spend money on my education even in these difficult times when it is really, really hard for my company to justify spending their money on my education. So I am going to take this opportunity by the scruff of the neck. I am going to go away from this workshop and practice these skills over and over until I get really good at selling such that my clients benefit from the great solutions my company offers, my company earns much needed revenue and I earn a great big, fat bonus”.

Attitudinally that sounds and feels a lot better

I feel better too having written this blog today. So everyone’s a winner

PS I just read the Rambler’s Association blog - it went on and on and on and on........

Why are so any managers busy doing nothing?

2009-09-18T16:49:00.002+01:00

Have you noticed how so many managers (and not just sales managers) seem to be incredibly busy, but actually achieving very little? If I were unkind I would say that there seems to be an outbreak of headless chickens in senior positions. So what is going on and what can we do about it?

Clearly the current economic climate has a part to play in this outbreak of headless chickens. There are a lot of people worried about their jobs and when this happens we all focus on trying to look indispensable. Look around you. How many of your colleagues are 100% focused on managing upwards? If your manager is deciding who stays and who goes it seems sensible to focus on them!

So why is this an issue?

From a sales effectiveness perspective we are unfortunately seeing the following symptoms:

Measuring the wrong things - Sales teams seem to be focussing ever more on activity - number of customer visits, number of calls, number of quotes sent out, size of pipeline, without having an equal focus on quality of activity. If you are seeing this in your organisation you need re-dress the balance.

Visiting customers who are not going to buy may achieve customer-facing time but will it bring success?
Ringing lots of people without an effective message or objective will only increase your phone bills.
Having a large pipeline, which is not properly qualified, only makes you feel better in the short term

Lack of focus - As a simple sales person I like to be told what I am selling and to whom, and then be left alone for a period of time to get on with it. However, currently organisations are constantly “re-focussing” whether it is to drive margins, clear stock, help a specific product line etc. There are clearly good reasons for this, but it does drive specific behaviours:

Clients will constantly be looking for the last minute offer, hence driving down your prices.
Sales move away from a “solution-led sale” (solving clients problems) towards a “product push sale”. This may actually result in less sales and confused customers.

Even less Sales Management - We constantly comment that Sales Managers need to focus more on coaching and managing the focus of their teams and not trying to be “super sales people”. But with human nature being what it is, as the numbers look less and less achievable, more and more sales managers think the answer is to get back out and sell themselves.

Beyond this, sales managers are under even more pressure from their managers, constantly being asked to update reports, join conference calls, review their people. Leaving very little time, even if they had the desire, to do coaching.

However all is not lost. If you look towards Stephen Covey and his 7 Habits of Highly Effective People - Habit 3: Put First Things First. The most important lesson is balancing those “Urgent” (reactive) activities with the “Important” (Strategic) activities. By focussing on the Important activities you will discover that the number of Urgent activities reduce as you are in control of your strategy. If you want to know more look at http://www.sales-accredit.com/docs/urgent-vs-important.pdf which is Accredit’s take on this

So why is this an opportunity
As many of the commentators are constantly pointing out, even in a recession some companies flourish. This is because they take advantage of the chaos to stand out from the crowd. This is where the opportunity lies.

Out sell your competitors
If your competitors internal sales engine is not functioning properly, then think what impact it has on prospects who want to solve a problem. The prospects do not care about sales peoples internal issues, they will buy from whoever addresses their need and makes it easy to buy. This could be you!

To take advantage of this opportunity you must ensure you are not making the same mistakes as your competitors:

Sort out your measurements - measure the right things and be accurate with your measurements
Have a clear focus - know your message, practice the delivery of the message, monitor the effective delivery of the message. Most important of all “Listen to your customers
Get your sales managers to manage. You know that 80% of your sales comes from 20% of your people. Make those 20% even better and drag the next 20% into that group, imagine what that will do to your sales.

Use your client internal management challenges as a trigger for a sale
The headless chicken syndrome is not just apparent in sales; it is prevalent across a wide variety of organisations. This is an opportunity as associated with the chaos will be frustrations, and these frustrations are the emotional triggers that lead to need, which lead to sales.

From a selling perspective we should understand our clients and prospects internal pressures and identify what are “Red” emotional hot buttons which will stop decisions and “Green” emotional hot buttons which will enable decision making. If you want to know more about this you can see/hear a 25 minute presentation at http://www.esquaredm.com/newcontentdemo.asp

Everything is fine, I am happy with what we do now, we do not need your help!

2009-09-11T13:54:00.000+01:00

Have you noticed how satisfied with their existing supplier/solution all your prospects have suddenly become?

"We are very happy with the system we currently use, there is no reason to look at an alternative"

"Yes we already do that ourselves, we do not need any outside help"

You have to ask yourself the questions, "Is everyone happy, or is this the first objection I have to overcome?".

Experience tells me that in most cases it is the latter, as a colleague said to me "when the house is burning down around you, you are going to focus on your survival and not how you could improve the kitchen". This, I suspect, is the root cause of the sudden outbreak of satisfaction - heads down, don't rock the boat, no-one is going to fail because they stick with the status quo, etc.

So how can we overcome these.

Don't take the objection personally - clearly no-one can provide the service/product/solution as well as you.
Use this objection as an opportunity to find out why they are happy, how does their current solution deliver such an outstanding return. Be interested, "I would really like to understand what it is about your supplier you like so much, we are not perfect and it will help me understand how we could improve...."
Remember, people like to talk about themselves and I guarantee that in telling you what they like they will also tell you what they dislike.
Be bold, if you suspect that they are using the "we are happy" as a means of putting you off - ask them how they have measured the "happiness", is it a financial measure, a service level measure, a subjective measurement. Again this give you the opportunity to be benchmarked against that measure.
Be humble, "If you feel you are as effective as you can be then I congratulate you, there is clearly nothing I can do to help.......but if you think there is still room for improvement...."
Don't be put off - as Thomas Edison put it "genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration". You should not give up at the first hurdle.

If you believe that every objection provides an opportunity to further the conversation, then any statement from the prospect that they are happy is purely an invitation to find out why. Don't miss out on this, ask them the question and let them talk. The worse that will happen is that the prospect will qualify themselves out, which is of course good as it will free up valuable sales time you might otherwise have wasted chasing an opportunity you could not win.

Start date and Title of Specific Goal	Date and description Be specific & define timeframe	Date and description Make it measurable and have a timeframe	Planned Completion Date
EXAMPLE – I am working on achieving a 16 handicap at my Golf Club. Beginning 01/09/10	I have booked 6 lessons, I play at least one round each week	I am committed to practicing every weekend during the winter at the range and on the golf course	It is June 1st 2011. I am a 16 handicap golfer, playing every week at my golf club. I am regularly congratulated on my game. I am happy, very happy