Sales Salve

7 Sales Strategies To Transform CRM Management

If all of the traffic lights in the world were green at the same time, imagine the mess it would create.  Ultimately, there must be some sort of order, a balance of stop, go, fast and slow.  When trying to get somewhere, the last thing you want is a red light, but it is this very thing that brings order from chaos and ultimately brings you safely to your destination.

Top-notch salespeople are often a difficult bunch of people to manage; elite sales professionals can pose especially difficult challenges for their respective sales managers.  Top performers often are the ones that are moving the fastest, require little in the way of motivation and tend to neglect some of the necessary administrative details along the way.  One thing we have as sales managers, to help to manage the sales process, is a Customer Relationship Management system.  However, a CRM system is often perceived by sales people as a deterrent to speed and effectiveness rather than a tool to assist them in reaching their sales objectives and a means to help them create the level of income typical of top sales people.  For the best sales managers, in the best sales organizations, a strategic key to success is transforming the sales pipeline into a sales production line.  This may mean implementing some changes of mind, attitude and process, but in the end it will be well worth it.

Here are steps you can take right now that will morph the ho-hum activities of CRM maintenance into a fun, exciting and effective sales production process:

1. Establish Your Goals

Of course you will execute on company objectives, in selling the right mix of products and services.  But this step is more than that.  This step is a selling technique that the B2B sales elite use consistently.  Set your own goals – much more stretched than what your company expects of you.  Your team will be held to higher standards, much higher.  You will not just make your sales goals; you will smash them early and often.  You will test the limits of what your company’s compensation plan can pay.  You and your team, along with your families, will reap the rewards of a job extremely well done.  Your goal should be to rank consistently tops amongst your peers.  Now, you will have to leverage the power of your team to accomplish this, you may even have to do some selling yourself.  Whatever it takes.... to quote Bill Parcels, "Expect Nothing, Blame No One, Do Something.”  This step is very important, do not go to step 2 until this one is complete.

2. Establish Your Pipeline Design

You should absolutely use your company established parameters to determine the stages of the pipeline, but I want you to take it much further to supercharge your sales funnel.  Take these steps:

• Know the average yield for each stage in your sales process.  Then, determine the revenue required in each stage to surpass your goals.

• Spend some time examining your sales process.  Look for ways to improve the yields from one stage to the next.  Focus more attention on improving the lowest yielding stages.  A minor improvement there can yield big results at the bottom of your sales funnel.  In the example below, when the first two stages are improved by 10% each, the ultimate yield is doubled.

• Decide how much time a prospective piece of business should be allowed to remain in each stage of the pipeline.  For example, once a prospect has entered the Quote stage it means that you have proposed your solution.  Therefore, maybe you have determined that two weeks is sufficient for a company to decide to use your solution.  If they have not decided after two weeks, you find out why, place them into the appropriate stage, remove the barrier, propose your solution again and start the clock ticking.

• In order to get the right perspective on the prospects in your pipeline, read Exceed Your Sales Expectations.  Do not be afraid to get collaborative input from your team or other sales managers.

• Establish a meeting or communication format to implement this pipeline design, make sure it is understood by all as you start to gain a more granular understanding.

3. Establish the Ingredients

Do not permit junk, fillers or artificial preservatives in your pipeline.  If the data in the pipeline is not an accurate reflection of what is really going on in a territory, then remove or add the data as appropriate.  Get all of the garbage out; be ruthless on this step, because if the data in the pipeline is bad, it will be next to impossible to manage.  It is important that everyone confront the brutal facts.  If not, I assure you, that short of a stroke of luck, you will not achieve your goals.   

4. Establish Weekly One-on-One Meetings.

Make sure your team knows that this is not the Spanish Inquisition but rather the means whereby you will be helping them to take their career and income stream to the next level.  Whenever and wherever possible, speak to the members of your team daily to review opportunities, remove barriers and strategize.  This is the fun stuff!  You are not browbeating; you are inspiring and motivating your team.  They will love you for it.  You will find that the team members that have greatness inside of them will emerge, and the ones who are just going though the motions will begin to self-select out.

5. Establish an Understanding of Every Prospect

Here are some questions to help you get started:

• Why would this company want to do business with us?
• Why would we want to do business with them?
• What level of contact(s) are we calling on?
• Why has this company not bought already?
• What can we do to remove the barriers that are preventing progression between pipeline stages?

6. Remove Any Barriers

Repeat after me:
“I am here to remove barriers and chew bubble gum, and right now I'm all out of bubble gum.”

Get creative and get aggressive.  Find out what is preventing the sale and remove the obstruction.  Do not take ‘no’ for an answer, especially since they have made it though the other stages.

7. Get Out and Meet with Prospects and Customers

That’s right, have the chair surgically removed from your posterior and meet with as many potential and current clients as possible.  Use these visits to establish rapport, coach sales reps and see firsthand what is actually happening in the sales process.  When possible, stick with the opportunity throughout an entire sales cycle.  This will ensure that you avoid getting made fun of as a sales manager.

Exceed Your Sales Expectations

Have you ever had a sales manager tell you that they were unhappy with how long prospects were lingering in your sales pipeline?  If so, please forward this to them.

Look at any CRM system and you’ll find plenty of common elements.  Among them include fields for sales stage (with a default win probability), expected close date and expected revenue.  With these elements, management typically forecasts by discounting the expected revenue based on the win probability (per the sales stage) and organizing opportunities according to expected close date.  Thus management has an idea of what they can expect in terms of revenue over the next several months.  This is all very basic Sales 101 stuff, but is often the source of unmet expectations between sales managers and their sales force.

A main source of the divide between a sales forecast and the subsequent sales performance is that win probability is typically tied to the sales stage of the opportunity (e.g., if an opportunity is Identified, it has a 10% chance of closing, if they’re Contacted its 20%, Qualified 50% and Proposed 67%).  It is my experience that, when looking at pipeline from a macro perspective, the single best indicator for how long a lead will be in your pipeline and the likelihood with which it will survive to become a happy customer is the source of the lead.  Therefore, I suggest that you define the lead source at a very high level.  In my CRM, I have just three different lead sources.  They are:

• Seekers – these are prospects that seek you out
• Sought – these are prospects that you seek out
• Suggested – these are prospects that were referred to you

It is important to think of these categories when engaging with your prospects, forecasting your pipeline, and managing sales expectations.

The Seeker

On the surface, this prospect appears to be the best.  After all, they’re most like your mother in that they recognize just how special you are.  They have demonstrated admirable wisdom by successfully identifying you as someone who can potentially solve their particular problem.  Perhaps they looked you up through a web search, found you through social media or just somehow innately knew that you were ‘the (wo)man!’  More likely, they are using one of your competitors and have decided, for one reason or another, to contact you.  

Unless you represent the clear-cut industry leader, the notion of a prospect seeking you out should actually be cause for some concern.  It should raise a red flag for you when companies look to spontaneously replace their current vendor.  If they were a good customer, paid their bills on time and worked in partnership with their current vendor, why would they be looking elsewhere?  If they were indeed a good customer and the incumbent vendor were moderately competent, that vendor, its sales team and customer service staff would be bending over backwards to make sure their good customer was happy.

Case in point, I was once contacted by one of my competitors’ largest customers.  They called me in for a meeting and already had all of the information I would normally solicit waiting for me, accompanied with a list of one-sided, ridiculous demands.  Against my recommendation, our company met their demands for reduced pricing and extended billing cycles as well as some other one-sided concessions.  They quickly became my 4th largest customer from a revenue perspective.  Frankly, I looked like a hero for the quarter.  However, the stringent requirements of this customer caused me to have the lowest year over year growth of my sales career!  My prospecting time was diminished and time spent with profitable customers was cut.  I was not able to methodically sell and produce the “right” kind of business.

Eventually, the reasons why this company left its incumbent supplier became painfully obvious.  In an unprecedented move, I presented a business case for why our company should fire this customer and no longer do business with them.  We gave them 30 days to find a new vendor.  Despite the loss of this revenue, I was able to sell far past the deficit and ended up in the top 1% among all sales people globally for my company.  I still say that my best and most profitable "sale" that year was selling my company on the idea of cutting that customer loose.

The moral of the story: be very cautious when a prospect seeks you out.  Find out why they have sought you out.  Be very slow to give concessions.  Most importantly, establish a balanced, open communication system with them so that they view you as a respected partner and not a pawn.

The Sought

The Sought are the most challenging and have, by far, the lowest conversion rate.  However, these prospects are the key to success for the B2B sales elite.  If you want the highest quality leads, you have to seek and engage them for yourself.  No one knows more about your product’s strengths and potential for success than you.  No one knows more about the types of businesses that will have a painful problem that your company can solve.  No one is as invested in wanting to close the right kind of business then you are!  This is the prospect you are cold-calling, sending more information to and trying to get time with in order to engage the right buying influences.

The big challenge with these prospects is that they are extremely difficult to accurately forecast in your sales pipeline.  A symphony of sales activity must take place, rapport built, relationships established, knowledge exchanged and persuasion gently applied.   After first contact, the entire sales process must be executed with flawless precision.  Keep in mind that at any time this prospect may shut you down, after all, they did not seek you out.  Unlike the The Seekers and The Suggested, The Sought have no initial reason to engage with you.

Often The Sought will tell you that they are happy with their current supplier.  To that, my response has always been, “If you are happy with them, wait until you get a load of me!”  Of course I’m kidding, but seriously, the fact that they are happy with their current supplier is some of the best news you can hear.  It may have more to do with them being a perfect customer than their supplier making them happy.  Your job is to get to the right person or people with the right message at the right time.

The Suggested

These are relatively rare in B2B sales.  When you can get them, they can be fantastic.  Though not always an easy sale, they represent the opportunity to work from a position of mutual, professional respect.  Unfortunately this is something that is that is not common enough in the beginning of the sales cycle.  The main challenge with The Suggested is that they are often not properly qualified.

I recommend that you do everything possible to introduce as many of these prospects into your sales pipeline.  Sources can include your own marketing department, current clients, social media and your oldest and dearest friends.  The B2B sales elite treats all prospects with the utmost in professionalism, however, it is even more important to go the extra mile with these prospects.  Remember, with these prospects, your actions are not only a reflection on you but on the person that referred you.  By going the extra mile, you are turning a favor your referral source did for you into a favor you have now done for them.  Initially, they did you a favor by referring you customer.  If you do your job well, you will have done the person who referred you the business a favor by making them look very smart for recommending such an outstanding company and sales professional.  Lastly, make sure you report back the results to your referral source and, if possible, reciprocate by providing them with leads as well (email me and I’d be glad to share some ideas on how best to do this).

Realizing that there are salient differences between the types of prospects is one of the first steps in understanding a sales pipeline.  In reviewing potential sales opportunities, as a sales manager, ‘how did they get here?’ should be one of your first questions.  This will help to manage actions and exceed expectations.

Sales Is A Numbers Game - But No One Wants To Be A Number

To a large extent, sales is a numbers game.  Few sales professionals would argue that point.  You have to throw a lot of tomatoes against the wall to get some to stick.

These days, however, despite pouring on the numbers, many sales people are still struggling for sales.  Often times a sales manager will ask a sales person to show greater numbers.  It seems logical enough - by increasing the sheer volume of cold-calls, sales presentations, and proposals, they hope to better the odds of finding, qualifying and closing more deals.  It is a serious event when a sales person makes the all-important phone call.  The problem is that many times, under the pressure of it all and due to a bit of laziness, sales people forget what is on the other side.  On the other side, is a person first, and a potential revenue number or opportunity second.

Prospects know that they are a number; they can feel it.  Some even hire gatekeepers (a person too) in an attempt to keep the onslaught of sales forces at bay.  If a prospect feels like they are just a random number in your call cycle, I guarantee that, short of you selling life rafts as their place is flooding, you will be rejected.

Buyers who know they are a number get turned and ticked off!  The implication is that more sales people experience more rejection.  Consequently, more people don’t get the help they need from sales people who have real solutions to real problems.  So how do we, as sales professionals, overcome this?

1.    Realize that you are in sales, not marketing.  

Marketers say, ”It slices, it dices, it chops, it grates!”  A sales professional would say, “What are you doing today?  Are you slicing or dicing?  Slicing?  That is interesting, how are you slicing?  How do your competitors slice?  How do your customers perceive your slicing?  Do you have any problems effectively slicing for your customers?  Do you see yourself chopping in the future or are you looking into any other cutting markets?”                

You Get the idea:
Marketing is about getting the masses of prospects to take a look at you; sales is about you, taking a massive look at your prospect.

2.    Prove that they were not a one-call stand.

Sometimes sales people treat buyers like a lottery ticket – we hold out hope for immediate gratification but as soon as it is determined to be a loser, the ticket is summarily discarded and then off to the gas station to buy a new ticket for the next drawing.  Like so many ill-fated quick picks, they’ll then sit somewhere on a list or scratch pad never to be checked again.

Prove to your prospects that they are not a number and that you are not a taker.  The best way to prove this is to be there.  Prove that you are there to partner with them and not just there to cash in and move on.  This approach requires multiple touches - not just a cold call.  A cold call is just a starting point.  Follow up with additional communications such as another call, a proactive online sales presentation or a letter or post card.  If your prospects are close by, frequent events where they will be and seek them out with some useful information to share.  The purpose of these activities should not be aimed at an immediate sale but to demonstrate that you are looking to make a career-long sales connection. 

3.    Learn the real numbers on which the game is based.

The number that should be the priority is the number of times you touch, visit or follow-up with a prospect.   We run into more and more sales people who are looking to blast off a sales message to a large email list.  This simply does NOT work.  The thought is, to put a message into an email and assume some people will read and possibly buy.  The communications you have with your prospects need to be customized and personalized.  Does this take extra time?  You bet it does but the sales elite understand that the extra mile is part of the path they take everyday.

The numbers game that should be played is the ten-touch rule.  Do everything possible to have ten interactions with a prospect.  The number may vary but, for the most part, I have seen ten as a great rule of thumb.

So you just made a cold call, ok that’s one.  What will you do next?

Three Things Every Sales Force Needs to Know

Recently I had a conversation with a very good friend of mine who is a director level sales executive for a global Fortune 100 organization.  We have been known to mix it up, dig into big issues, analyze and solve them.  Once we finished our expert analysis of all the offseason roster moves made by the NY Jets, we directed our conversation to our second love - sales.  As our conversation progressed, I learned that his sales organization was struggling mightily.  By the end of our conversation, we had identified three root causes of their problems.

Many of the problems could be traced systemically back to basic causes, all rooted in a lack of understanding of three very important things:

1. Company Direction

While the focus du jour of the company emphasizes the acquisition of new business, all signals seem to indicate that the de facto focus is still on cultivating business from existing customers.  The sales force is receiving mixed messages.

There is little doubt that without a clearly conceived and communicated vision, organizations perish.  It is the responsibility of sales executives and sales managers to disseminate a message clearly, simply and powerfully.  As long as the right individuals are hired, given a proper vision and realize an unwavering commitment from leadership to achieve these goals, sales success becomes highly attainable.

2. Product, Services and Differentiation

This lack of understanding goes deeper to include why this product is priced the way it is.  The lack of understanding of cost structure, coupled with not understanding how to de-commoditize the product, is causing a serious disconnect between sales reps, prospects and the company.  Every company should employ the tactic of training its salespeople to understand its pricing strategy.

When I was growing up, my family had a little Italian deli in upstate New York.  The keys to being solvent were obvious.  Whatever we charged for a sandwich had better be more than the sum of the costs that went into making it (bread, cold cuts, electricity, wrapping paper, etc.).  Frankly, I am amazed at how many people in sales today have no idea of what goes into making, maintaining and marketing their product or service.  To these people, sales is just a game that is played by hanging on long enough, doing the compulsories, and manipulating the numbers and activities into creating a situation of positive earnings for themselves.  This thought brings us to our third cause.

3. Basic Priorities Every Salesperson Should Observe

There are three basic priorities that salespeople must understand and keep in a specific order in order to ensure the symbiotic health of all involved.  If these basic priorities are observed in any order other than the prescribed order you put all three risk.  However, when these priorities are embraced and observed in the prescribed order, it is a recipe for success for all those involved. 

The priorities in the exact order in which they need to be followed are the health of your:

1) Company

2) Customer

3) Paycheck

A healthy company is best suited to take care of their customers, offer the best products and services, and compensate its sales people.  An essential element of a healthy company is having healthy customers.   A healthy customer is loyal, especially when they can attribute some of their wellbeing to your business relationship.  Top sales earnings are a natural byproduct of getting the first two priorities straight.

So we've diagnosed the issues.  We need a strong vision, clearly communicated to a well-aligned sales force that has a deep understanding of their offering.  Now it's time to administer the treatment.  Here's a question for you all, how do you recommend administering this treatment?

6 Types of Sales Reps that Sales Managers Should Avoid

When hiring a salesperson, organizations often place a heavy emphasis on things such as personality tests, education, and other outward qualifications to determine which salespeople will be the most effective for their organization.  Each of these things has their place in the evaluation process but over the years I have seen some salespeople that measure well by these barometers yet would not be a salesperson I would ever have working for me.  These "salespeople" fit into several different profiles.  Here are six types of salespeople that will never work for me:

1) The Camper

In basketball, when a player is guilty of a three-second violation in the key, they are said to be ‘Camping in the Key.'  In sales, this is the sales reps who just hangs around in a sales territory long enough because they know a lucky bounce will eventually come their way.  When it does, they reap the benefit of business that they win by default because they happen to be in the right place at the right time. This person, who refuses to put their heart and soul into their job will never work for me.

2) The Babysitter

This is the sales rep that doesn't think that he should be responsible to go out and find new business.  They feel that leads should be handed to them - qualified and ready to buy.  At the expense of selling, they focus on the implementation and management of the account.  This babysitter is not welcome to watch my family (my coworkers and customers).

3) The Robot

This is a sales rep that does the same thing every day.  They come to work at the same time, take lunch at the same time, and go home at the same time. Their methods of prospecting never change, nor does their sales pitch or anything else for that matter.  Of all of the sales reps that I would not hire, the robot is probably the best all-around salesperson due to the fact that they maintain a highly disciplined regimen.  However, this still will not cut.  The robot lacks creativity and desire to examine and improve their current processes; therefore I'm pulling the plug.

4) The Windbag

This is the sales rep that has no idea when it is time to stop talking.  I run into salespeople all the time who have been selling for many years and still have no internal "shuttheheckupometer."  The windbag, despite many signs from the customer that it is time to end the sales presentation, just never seems to get it and always thinks they have to say one more thing.  The windbag puts customers to sleep, puts me to sleep and frankly has no business giving sales presentations, so I'm deflating them.

5) The Ghost

This is a sales rep that may have good numbers but never participates as a team member.  They are a ghost because you never see them.  They are not interested in collaborating with their peers or sharing knowledge of best practices.  The ghost causes hard feelings among their teammates because it seems that ghosts work by their own set of rules.  If you're going to work for me, you've got want to be part of a team.  If you're a ghost, you know who I'm gonna call.

6) The Sloth

While I am certainly not advocating (or practicing) any age discrimination, it is important to understand the pros and cons that each generation of worker tends to bring.  Compared to other generations, sales people in Gen Y are generally very bright, highly educated and excellent with technology.  However, there is a subset of them that I refer to as the Sloth.  The Sloth tends to come to the workplace with a very different ethic than us old-timers.  We have taught these sloths to eat when they are hungry, sleep when they are tired and work only when they are inspired (or feel like it).  They do not identify with their profession as part of who they are; it is just another thing that they do (and doing it is not real high on their list of priorities).  I'd let these people cut my grass, wash my car or build a sand castle for me.  However, a person with a bunch of education, and no work ethic will never work for me in sales.  Let the sloth sleep on their own time, not mine.

Each of these types of potential sales candidates may have some excellent attributes that we'd like all of our sales reps to have: the Camper knows how to be in the right place at the right time, the Babysitter tends to be excellent at taking care of existing clients, the Robot is highly disciplined, the Windbag is articulate, the Ghost requires little supervision and the Sloth is bright and highly educated.  However, these types of salespeople tend to be one-dimensional.  Sales is one of the most challenging and dynamic professions one can pursue.  It requires special people to do the job and as sales managers we need to be very careful in who we invite to join our teams.  There are other types of sales reps that I would not want to work for me but, for now, this will suffice.

Please share some of your best practices for identifying and avoiding them.

Sales Stars: Defenders Of The Galaxy

Have you ever wondered how two companies can offer a similar service but one is good and the other is bad.  I believe that often the cause of the bad service offering is rooted in the culture of the leadership of that organization.  Typically there is a culture of arrogance that starts with the leadership but permeates throughout the organization.  These companies become complacent and aloofly feel that their offer is great (as is), and refuse to listen to feedback from prospects.  Please realize that I am not referring to customer feedback.  If they are already customers, most companies (even arrogant ones) will listen or even seek customer feedback.  The feedback I am referring to is from prospects; those who have recently bought and those who did not.  The insight into what about your offer is compelling, and what is not, lies within this group.  Possessing this buyer knowledge is invaluable to any organization looking to grow and evolve their offer into one that buyers cannot refuse.  Where can you obtain this precious information?

This information comes from Sales Stars.

In case you have trouble spotting them,

Look Here,

They are consistently in the top half of your sales performance indication list for revenue production. They have the ability to give great sales presentations, the ability to sell when others aren't, and the ability to manage their time effectively. But one thing that often gets overlooked is that the very best salespeople in the world are also a kind of corporate Special Forces. They are Commandos in the war against mediocrity.  They are fierce competitors, always on guard against anything that would jeopardize the business that they have earned and most of all, the voice of the customer to their own organization.

Managing top performers is not always an easy task.  A balance needs to be struck between challenging them to be the best they can be and leaving them alone so they do not feel micromanaged.  Anyone who has managed, been managed by or is a top sales performer can attest to the many personality quirks that come along with elite performers.  However, a common thread among the best of the best is that they have little tolerance for anything that could tarnish their reputation.  To that end, when the company they represent drops the ball, they are the squeakiest wheel.  Any company would do well to listen attentively to their top performers and to adjust their operations accordingly.

The Upper Management Eclipse

It is common these days to see sales management executives concerned primarily with the appearance of their performance, instead of the efficacy of it.  Many times, these sales managers focus more on what will make them look good to their direct reports instead of focusing on how their company can do good for their most important investors - their customers.

Often times, organizations get stuck doing the same thing over and over again but in today's economic climate that just doesn't cut it.  Listen to your sales leaders - they have the direct knowledge of how your company is perceived by those who truly matter most.  If you want to know where to invest in your offering, if you want to know which initiatives to pursue, and if you want to know how you're really doing as a company, just ask your top sales performers.  Better than any crystal ball is the insight of those who's very living depends upon living up to their word.  When their word depends upon the performance of others, salespeople get understandably sensitive when other people don't live up to their end of the bargain.  In every salesperson's job description, right along with new business development goals, there should be a section that clearly appoints them and explicitly charges them with the task of holding their own organization accountable to deliver on its promises.

No one else has this depth of insight and clarity of vision into the things that make or break sales effectiveness.  No other department has this level of motivation to get and keep customers.  We all know that effective sales are the lifeblood of any organization.  Even if your salespeople are telling you things you don't want to hear, and even if you have some serious doubts about their motivation for doing so, try to glean some thread of truth from the things that they are saying.  It just might be that you will find that the words and thoughts of your sales stars are truly prophetic and might help you avoid fiscal catastrophe.  My recommendation is, if you currently do not have a forum to share brutally honest feedback, put it at the top of your to do list; you will thank me later.

Obviously, this type of 'voice of sales/voice of prospect' forum must not be allowed to supplant selling activity, but if you hire the right people, this will not be an issue.

Please share ideas for establishing an effective forum for sales input.

9 Ways to Avoid Getting Made Fun Of as a Sales Manager

Did you ever wonder how some executives get into the position that they are in?

Judging by their lack of interpersonal skills, arrogant attitude and weak sales game, they must have some damning pictures of the boss in Vegas.  Does this sound familiar?

Actually, many of you reading this may have thought this very thought, what is even more alarming is that some of you reading this could be the very subject of this blog, but have no clue.  We used to call my second sales manager Colonel Mustard - he thought it was due to his mustache but it was because he didn't have a clue.  The sales manager that is arrogant and basically worthless on a sales call, might be you and you don't know it.  For me, as a sales manager, the respect of my team is just as important as the good graces of those to whom I report.

Here are some ideas to help you not be the dorky sales manager everyone makes fun of.

1.    Make Sure You Can Fog a Mirror.

When you are on a sales call, you bring strength and experience.  You should bring energy and understanding.   You should bring the communication of a vision for the business relationship you are proposing.  Most of all you should know what you can commit to and be a master negotiator.  Bring value to a sales call or sales presentation in the form of energy and knowledge. Do not sit like a bump on a log. Conversely,

2.    Do Not Dominate the Sales Call.

When on a sales call, do not miss the opportunity to develop your team.  You must realize that when you are riding along with a rep on a sales call, that there are two basic starting points.  One is your top performers are going to be prepared to show you how well they are doing and be looking to gain your respect and trust by knocking it out of the park.  The second situation is when a rep is ill prepared, and runs the sales presentation haphazardly.  Yes, you are there to bring value, but the greatest value is the development of your sales people.  Recognizing the well prepared and coaching the ill prepared are more important than flashing your fancy sales techniques. Then,

3.    Make Sure You Are Prepared.

Ask for the agenda ahead of time, take a look into your CRM to check the activity on the account, potential revenue, level of contact you are meeting. Look at the company website, and competition, think of similar companies you may have dealt with previously.  Leverage technology like Inside View or Gist to learn more about your prospects.  Think ahead of time about which elegant negotiables you are be prepared to offer to advance the deal.  After a meeting,

4.    Make Sure You Send a Follow-Up.

All sales managers should set the tone for pinpoint, heartfelt follow-up.  Use whatever means necessary; I'm partial to a personalized online sales communication, but no matter what you use, make sure you are delivering on your promises.  And for heaven's sake, if you make a promise, live up to it. If you do not, I promise you...you thought of as a jerk. Try hard to

5.    Never Disrespect or Belittle Your Reps,

no matter how they act, no matter how they stumble and whatever they say... do not disrespect or talk down to anyone - especially someone you manage and especially in front of a customer.  We have all seen this type of behavior, and can remember who committed this terrible act and when and where.  No one wants to do business with people like that. It's also good to

6.    Know What the Heck You're Talking About.

Just because you are the manager please do not regard your title as an excuse to get soft on sales skills.  As a leader, you should set the example of product mastery and artful negotiation.  Since you're reading this post, chances are you're among the leaders who seek opportunities sharpen your skills.  For the busy professionals, be sure to check out SalesAce where you can see excerpts from the best of many of the top sales blogs.

7.    Never Hide or Point Fingers

when things do not go as planned.  When things are going badly, do not shrink back and point fingers, instead stand up and take responsibility, then take corrective action to make sure there is not a repeat.  In Good to Great, Jim Collins describes this trait as the ‘mirror and the window'.  He explains that when true leaders have problems, they look in the mirror and take personal responsibility while the weaker ones look out the window and blame the problems on other people.

8.    Learn to Delegate;

get everyone involved in sales management.  Many managers think they exist to remove extraneous burdens from the sales team.  However, this often becomes an excuse for not digging into more important, uncomfortable matters. Delegate what you can and spread these activities evenly through the team.  This will help to develop your future leaders and free you to spot the "kick me" sign before someone hangs it on your back.  Now, the best for last,

9.    Give Your Team Credit When Credit is Due.

If you make sure your team shines, they will make sure you shine.  When someone has a great idea and executes on it, give them all of the credit and recognize them for it.  Never, never, pass someone else's idea off as your own.  The best of the best, are focused on simply getting things done.

Please share your Colonel Mustard stories with us.

4 Ways to Avoid the “Just Friends” Speech in Sales

As the recipient of my fair share of "just friends" speeches, I can tell you for a fact that they stink.  Similar to the hope of finding love in a relationship, is the expectation that a hiring manager has for a new sales representative.  With hopeful expectation, a manager asks you to begin a relationship with their product by applying the same passion you showed for getting the job in the first place to your daily selling activities.

Last night I received a call from a good friend of mine, who has always been a top sales performer.  Recently, he switched companies to sell a new product at a much higher rate of pay and more generous commission structure.

I'm getting appointments, he said, but I haven't had any luck closing anything so far.  I asked him "so tell me about this new product that you are selling."  He went on to tell me about the product and all of the benefits that his new company claims to provide.  However, I did not hear the same passion in his voice that I used to hear when he was representing the previous company.  So after listening to a features, advantages, and benefits monologue, I took a minute to ponder the spirit in which it was given.

And then I asked him some questions (and I recommend you ask them to yourself, I certainly have):

Do you like your product?

Do you believe in your product?

Do you love your product?

I will spare you all the details of his answers, but the salient point that came from this conversation, is that he kind of likes the new product, but doesn't really believe in it yet and he certainly does not love the product.

In today's economic climate, people who make decisions to purchase products need to have more than just information.  Buyers need to feel good that they are making the right decision to benefit their organization.  I won't even discuss the problem of not even liking your own product, because if you are in that position it is time to look for something else to sell.  But if you do like your product, it's time to take it to the next level.  Time to become someone that believes in, even loves, the product.  Believing in, and loving, your product will cause you more sales success, because your belief and passion are highly transferrable.  People may not remember your entire sales presentation, but they will remember the passion, or lack thereof.

Here are some ideas on how to stop being "just friends" with your product:

1. Become a student of your product

Pretend that you are a customer, and learn everything about your product from a customer point of view.  Learn how to use the product.  Call up your support team to experience your company's customer support, everything from signing up to paying an invoice.  Even try to reach yourself as a representative, see if you are delighted or frustrated.  Now, go embrace your company's sales training. But approach it as someone who's looking to become an expert, not just someone who is conversant.  Once you learn your product from the customer's perspective, and from the provider's perspective, you are now ready to take the next step.

2. Become a student of your competition

In a respectful and forthright manner, immerse yourself in the knowledge and culture of your competition.  Identify those who you are competing against and gain a close understanding of what difference you can provide.  Know how they differ from each other, and from your product.  Be prepared to speak in the language of your customers as it relates to your competition, know what words are synonymous with your company's own vernacular.  Be prepared to speak always in a complimentary way to their capabilities.  Never, never, never bash your competition, instead use this approach: we agree that XYZ company is good at what they do, but let me show you what our company has to offer, and how we feel this can bring you a superior value.  Little else will turn a customer off faster than competition bashing.  Even if they begin to bash the competition, do not participate.  Instead, try to understand where their point of frustration is and offer your solution through consultative approach.

3. Become a student of your customer

In order to be a top performing sales executive, you must begin to think of the customer as YOUR customer.  Not a company to be sold, convinced or closed, but a customer that you personally take care of with an in-depth understanding of their goals, needs and challenges.  Become a student of their products, and their competition, just like you have become a student of yours.  This step will change your mentality, from thinking that they are an obligation, an entry into our CRM, or a name on a spreadsheet, they will now become a lifelong customer no matter which product you are representing.

4. Become the voice of your customer

Once you grasp your product, understand your competition and embrace your customer, it is time to gain the edge by developing a passion for the product you are selling as it relates to your customer.  Knowing that your product is the right fit for the customer, and the knowledge that you are going to be there for them no matter what, will instill a sense of confidence when you speak to a prospect.  You will know that, although they don't yet know you or your product, given the opportunity sometime in the future, they will be very happy and grateful for the day that they met you.  Holding yourself and your company accountable to provide the very best service to your customer will cause a bond with your most important benefactors.

Now put this all together and approach your selling activities with new vigor, realizing that you're not just going through the motions, but you are providing a superior value to help your customers remain competitive in the marketplace. What is more, they will get a lifelong friend out of the deal.  Transferring knowledge about a product is difficult, and if you are able to transfer it, inspiring a desired action can be even more daunting.  Infinitely more transferable is a feeling or belief. Once you believe in it, and actually feel good about what you're selling, you'll see dramatic increases in your close ratio.  You'll actually be shocked when someone doesn't buy your product, not surprised when they do.

So what's not to love?

Sales Training Tip: How to Handle Criticism

We salespeople love to hear kudos.  But what happens when someone tells us that we're not so great?  What happens when someone criticizes us? I can tell you from experience, that it does not feel good. 

I recently made a phone call to a very experienced sales expert. I used what I thought was my “A” material, however this person ripped apart my sales effort. This person did not see the effort I put in nor did they care that I am a genuinely nice guy. They perceived that I was wasting their time, and nothing I else I said mattered after that.

Dealing with Criticism is Never Easy

Great salespeople must learn how to handle criticism with emotional intelligence and have the ability to separate feelings from facts. All Sales trainers should train this and sales managers should manage this. I would love to say, that every critic is looking out for your best interest, but the fact is, that some people can be just downright mean. There are certain people who really love to tear other people apart. For many of us, the first reaction is to tell the critic to stick their criticism where the sun doesn't shine while others opt to crawl into a shell of shame, desperately seeking the courage to go on. So what should we do? 

Be Grateful and take it Seriously

The way to deal with criticism, regardless of intent, is to embrace the criticism as a way to get better. Who cares what someone's intentions are, it really doesn't matter! What does matter is that there's a possibility that they are seeing something that you don't. I say, embrace criticism and look for golden threads of truth that can help you improve your game. When someone takes the time to criticize you, thank them for their observation, make a serious note of it and take some time to do some soul-searching. 

I have often wondered while watching shows like American Idol, how people can seemingly have no idea that they really stink.  If you really care about someone, you must feel compelled to tell the truth, even if it hurts. You are not doing anyone any favors by not confronting the brutal facts.

My Approach

I am very grateful for the criticism that was given to me.  I needed to be reminded that I need to keep my game at a high level at all times. Most importantly I needed to be reminded that, the things I do matter and I only have one chance to make a good first impression. So there you have it, a word to the wise - embrace criticism and learn from it; strive to self evaluate and not compromise on standards so that rather than distracting your prospect with bad habits, you can use every encounter as a means to an end of reaching your goal.

Please check back at this blog for some tips on how to deliver suggestions for improvement.