Typical Sales Metrics…for sales managers who have never sold before.

Tags

effectiveness, leadership, performance management, sales cycles, sales effectiveness

Never been a sales person but now you find yourself managing a group of sales people?

Whether you’re the CEO of a midsized company or a senior manager who has been assigned the task, you’re going to get a lot of well-meaning suggestions on how to manage.  Press hard on results!  Inspect what you expect!  Always move out the bottom 20% of performers!  If you don’t show a willingness to move out non-perfomers then you’ll never gain their respect!  Expect a lot and you’ll get a lot.

Well I will offer up a suggestion also, based on decades of managing hundreds of sales people.  Here are a few thoughts for you to consider before I offer up some management metrics;

1. Sales people are people.
2. Sales people are one of the only employee groups that have to fill up their own in basket.
3. Sales people are one of the few employee groups that have to fight through 5 failures to get one success.
4. Sales people are one of the few employee groups where 30 to 100% of their compensation is entirely dependent upon their skill, will and tenacity to persevere on a daily basis.
5. Sales people are the only people who actually go out every day with the sole focus of building your top line revenue.

If you’re going to be a successful sales leader then you should expect a lot.  But you won’t get a lot unless you give a lot…of yourself.

Okay so here’s the metrics I promised.  You should first identify the sales process (cycle) because all sales metrics spin-off the sales cycle;

1. Suspects – a list of prospects who are likely to be qualified for your products or services.  Most companies buy lists of prospects.  Most people call them “leads”, but that’s a misnomer.  Leads are qualified prospects who have indicated an interest in knowing more about your product or service.  If your database of suspects have not responded to your marketing efforts then they are suspects. 
2. Prospects – These are suspects who have been qualified.  Generally qualifying prospects has to do with financial ability, a potential fit as a target and is likely to have latent or blatant need for your product or service.
3. First Presentation – A first meeting between your sales people and a prospect.  There is an exchange of information, your sales person is trying to qualify the prospect and uncover those latent or blatent needs.  The prospect is trying to decide if further discussions warrant any further investment of time.
4. Needs Analysis – The sales person has found out enough about the prospect to see a good business fit and the prospect sees enough potential benefit to investigate the opportunity in more detail.  This stage of the sales cycle is all about investigation.  The results of that investigation will populate a proposal which is usually presented in the form of a proposal.
5. Formal Presentation – Your sales person has worked through contacts, influencers, gatekeepers and key influencers to get decision makers into a formal discussion of the needs analysis findings.  The sales person uses this meeting to shape a discussion around the business fit of a business relationship.
6. Decision Pending – This is where great sales people separate themselves from good sales people.  A good sales person has done an excellent job in the formal presentation and awaits the answer.  A great sales person has developed their contacts over the previous five stages to turn-key influencers into coaches.  They artfully work those relationships so they have enlisted several “internal sales people” who are selling the product/service even when the sales person is not there.
7. Negotiation – Usually at this stage the prospect is trying to shape the offering to further fit their needs around price, performance and image.
8. Program Approved (Implementation) – At this stage a good sales person will hand off implementation to an account manager or service group.  A great sales person will stay intimately involved until they are sure the new client gets precisely what they wanted, and that their employer gets all of the potential revenue & account penetration possible.

Okay…so where’s the metrics?

The metics that define the effectiveness of the sales person are the success ratio’s (conversion or close ratio) from First Presentation (step 3) to Implementation (step 8).  For business to business sales people the overall close ratio is usually around 16%.  In other words for every 6 new prospects that a sales person meets with will become a new client.  And here’s your AHA moment.  If you have a sales person who is falling dramatically below expectation you have a choice to make.  You can fire them and hire another sales person.  I will warn you that you only have a 1 in 3 chance that your new sales person will be better than the one you just fired.  Your other option is to peel this onion back another layer and find out why that sales person is failing.  If you’re willing to invest that time your odds of improving results are greater than 1 in 3!

Here are some pretty dependable step by step close ratios;

• 80% of prospects who receive an effective first presentation ( Step 3 ) will want to understand the potential benefit ( Step 4 )
• 65% of prospects who participate in a needs analysis ( Step 4 ) will be willing to coordinate a Formal Presentation ( Step 5 )
• 85% of prospects who participate in a Formal Presentation ( Step 5 ) will make a decision ( Step 6 )
• 60% of prospects that make a decision ( Step 6 ) will want to negotiate ( Step 7 )
• 60% of prospects that negotiate ( Step 7 ) will eventually implement ( Step 8 )
• 16% of prospects that will receive a First Presentation ( Step 3 ) will eventually become a client ( Step 8 )

If you’re willing to peel back one more layer you can set up a sales excellence template.  Let’s say you need for sales people to deliver 16 new average sized clients every year.  You can now take that goal and run it backwards through your sales cycle and create a template.  On an annual basis your sales people should have a sales pipeline that looks like this;

• 100 First Presentations
• 80 Needs Analysis
• 52 Formal Presentations
• 44 Decisions Pending
• 26 Negotiations
• 16 Implementations

 

So now you know all the metrics you need to know.  But what are you going to do with that underperforming sales person?

If you compare an individual’s sales pipeline to the sales excellence template you can easily identify exactly where that struggling contributor is failing.  For instance you may find that sales rep. A is failing miserably.  But on further examination you see that they are extraordinarily good in the latter stages and extraordinarily weak in the early stages of the cycle.  Conclusion?  Improving this sales person’s ability to set appointments and make compelling first presentations may turn them into a sales star!  In other words…why start from scratch and take on all the risks of a new hire until you know if you can help struggling performers catch up?

Next steps?  Meet with your sales team.  Get them to validate your sales excellence template and step by step close ratios.  Then run your meetings based on these metrics.  Strugglers will begin to see where their pain is and ask for help.  If you are willing to help them…they will always return the favor ten fold.

Sales Managers! Sorry to be the one to tell you, but you’re not perfect.

Tags

business, Cultures, leadership, leadership traits, management, sales effectiveness, sales excellence, sales people, sales training, self improvement

Do you consider yourself to be an excellent sales manager?  I imagine you do, it’s difficult to imagine that any manager would continue to perform any task in a way that wasn’t working well.

But if you’re ever lucky enough to experience a formal upward feedback process fasten your seatbelt because you’re going to get some shocking results.

In my first sales manager roll I was ready to become that perfect manager.  I tried my hardest to be fair, treat everyone similarly, give clear direction and begin to build a high performance culture.  When I got my first feedback I got a lot of compliments, great scores compared to my peers…but I also read some shocking comments and saw that I had a lot of room for improvement! 

Let me share some of the shock.  “Greg plays favorites”, “he doesn’t make it clear what is expected of me” and “he doesn’t give me the freedom to do my job.”

How is this possible?  Me?  But my overall scores were some of the best in a very large company!  How could I still get these kinds of comments?  Since my upward feedback came from direct reports and from another level down I began to investigate.  But first a little secret.  If you want to know more about what you are doing that will drive people’s impression of your leadership you’re going to have to share some of the information about your feedback.  In other words, you’re going to have to admit that you’re not perfect, but you care enough to want to change.  Once I decided that I was willing to do whatever it took to become a better leader the rest became a little easier.

So I began to call a few of my direct reports.  I shared with them where I was doing well but also shared my lowest scores.  And even though those lowest scores were not a disaster they were still my lowest scores and they needed improvement.  I shared a few of the comments made and asked them what I was doing that was damaging my credibility as a leader.  Once you’ve opened that door get ready for some very interesting information.  I remember asking one of my direct reports, (still a close friend today) what I was doing that would cause people to believe I played favorites.  Bob told me that when he held meetings that people would comment “Greg called me about that subject last week and he said…”  Well after several weeks of hearing this one sales rep nearly broke down and blurted out “Greg never calls me about anything”.  That was really interesting!  I thought it was a very good trait to always be reaching out and getting information about what was going on in the field, but was totally unaware that the way I did it was making some people feel left out.  You can say they’re too sensitive, but what I learned was that my intentions are irrelevant!  People will form opinions about your actions, not your intentions.  Bob gave me another example; he told me that some people commented that I always sat by the same people at meetings or team meals and this may be leading people to believe I had favorites.  From my perspective I was flying around the country nearly every week, sometimes visiting four cities…that’s four meetings, four half days of joint calls and four team dinners.  I was sometimes exhausted and probably did look for a seat near people I knew.  But if you put yourself in a sales reps shoes and think that Greg has come to town four or five times and always sits by the same people you’re probably feeling very left out.  Both of these were pretty easy to fix.  I continued to make calls to reps to get their input, but I kept a roster by the phone and put checks by people I called so that I wasn’t calling the same people all the time.  And I continued to fly around the country attending meetings, making joint sales calls and going to team dinners.  I just made one little change, I looked for a seat next to someone I didn’t know very well.  You know what?  Very small changes, very big changes in my leadership credibility.

So what’s the learning?  For me it was that I do not own my leadership credibility.  My credibility as a leader is owned by the members of my team and they will give me credibility when I earn it, not just because I want it.

So I think that you probably are a good manager…at least in your mind anyway.  Are you brave enough to find out if you’re as good as you think you are?  If you have the courage to open yourself up, then you have the potential to move from a good manager to a great leader.

Sales Team Effectiveness Assessments

Tags

coaching, effectiveness, Interviewing, leadership, performance, performance management, sales excellence, sales management

“I need your opinion of my sales organization overall with a development plan…oh yeah…I need it next week.”

I have heard this before…and it spells trouble.  Four out of five times it means trouble for me.  Can I assess a sales organization in a week?  Yes, but your satisfaction with the output will be in doubt…and that’s how I can get into trouble.

I always work from a copyrighted formula;

Sales Results = (Sales Skill + Sales Will) X (Execution + Leadership)

Each of these variables has 8 drivers.

Sales Skills (primarily B2B)

1. Prospecting Skills
2. Presenting Skills
3. Probing Skills
4. Listening Skills
5. Closing Skills
6. Pipeline Management Skills
7. Product Knowledge
8. Industry Awareness

Sales Will

1. Recruitment Process
2. High Performance Focus
3. Target Compensation @ Plan
4. Peer Recognition
5. Family & Friend Recognition
6. Tactical Sales Plans Aligned with Strategy
7. Incentive Plan Clarity
8. Effective Field Coaching

Execution

1. Goal Clarity
2. Tactical Prescription
3. Performance Metrics
4. Defined Performance Management Process
5. Joint Call Activity Levels
6. Readiness Assessment
7. Coaching & Counseling
8. Culture

Leadership

1. Strategy Development
2. Strategy Communication
3. Tactical Definition & Measurement
4. Readiness Planning
5. Sales Participation
6. Performance Management Process Execution
7. Leadership Style
8. Recognition & Communication

These are the 32 drivers of sales results.  Based on your industry and sales channels they will vary somewhat.

You start the assessment process with the understanding that there is a limit to the organizations resources and ability to execute change.  With this in mind, the key is to find the largest gaps and then to formulate a “do-able” organizational development plan that will begin to close those gaps.

I begin my assessments by examining the drivers at a high level, identifying the major gaps and then drilling down.  This saves me time and saves my clients significant money.  Once the four to six gaps are identified I review and discuss them with the assessment sponsors to find those gaps where the solutions can be bundled into a singular development initiative.  Again, this approach is designed to save money, time and ensure execution.

Why bother with an assessment?  It saves time, money and ensures sales growth.  Why spend money on negotiation training if your issues stem from a lack of field coaching?  Why waste time perfecting a lead generation program when your individual contributors are handicapped in their search for client pain?  Why would you continue to give up margins just because your sales pipeline is anemic?  Why continue to throw good money into an incentive plan when your recruiting process keeps bringing in candidates with low skill and low sales will?

Great organizations have a common approach to problem solving.  Assess, plan and execute. 

If you want to grow sales, you’re best approach is to start at the beginning.

When Sales Promotions Don’t Work Out

Tags

coaching, effectiveness, leadership traits, management, performance, sales effectiveness, sales management, sales people, sales training

So often you hear of sales people failing to make the grade after being promoted.  Why is this?  Are sales people simply not cut out for more senior positions?  Are the skills that make a sales rep. shine no longer valid as the promotions come?

Over the years I have witnessed sales people struggle mightily after promotions.  Usually they don’t fail, but they are not able to make the same outstanding contributions as a manager as they did as a sole contributor.  To understand this you should first think through how the roles change from sales rep. to field sales manager, to regional Director/VP.

Sales Representatives – The core them of any sales position is making the sale.  While each industry commands different responsibilities and practices, the primary focus is common to all – to successfully complete the sales.  This includes;

• Making initial contact with prospects, qualifying prospects.
• Meeting with prospects to identify, understand and seek concurrence of prospect needs AND the implications of not addressing those needs.
• Maintaining continuous communication with prospects throughout their buying process, while building a coaching network.
• Continuing to pursue the sale in the face of rigorous resistance.
• Identifying & communicating the benefits of addressing the prospect’s needs to decision makers and key influencers.
• Closing the sale.

So along comes the first promotion…field sales manager.  So the refined skills that made the sales rep. a stand out are a good basis to work from but look how the job changes.

Field Sales Manager – The theme of this position is driving the team to sell.  The sales manager cannot personally ensure goal attainment, they must reach goals through the efforts of others.  The first level sales manager is a player coach.  The best usually invest about 30% of their time helping close the most valuable prospects, and then invest 70% of their efforts ensuring that the team results are maximized.  This job is very complex.  It is most natural for a newly promoted sales person to mismanage their time.  They may very well spend 70% of their time helping close business and only 30% of their time developing the team.  This will most often result in a sales plateau.  So in addition to the skills listed for sales rep the sales manager has additional skills required,

• Concern for Order – Like Stephen Covey documents in his 7 Habits book it is very easy for the manager to run from task to task trying to meet all due dates while investing what little time is left helping close business.  An effective manager will arrange their calendar to ensure they are spending time with all team members.  Maybe not equally the team results will drive more success than the manager’s personal sales contribution.
• Coaching and developing others – This is more difficult than it sounds.  Many of the skills that made them successful as a sales rep have moved from conscious efforts to subconscious habits.  It is a difficult transition to move from doing to helping others do.
• Creating & maintaining effective work teams.  This includes internal team members as well as collaborating with other symbiotic departments.

Okay, let’s say our candidate is an incredibly entrepreneurial and is able to make the transition from rep to sales manager.  What’s next?  Regional Director/VP.

Regional Director/VP – The core theme changes from driving a team to sell, to managing a larger organization.  The job has taken a turn towards analytical thinking, matching resources to potential, creating efficient infrastructures of materials and organizational resources to support the regional sales efforts.  The RVP does not create the sales strategy, but uses their skills to ensure execution of the plan.  The RVP must communicate upwards to clearly and honestly keep senior management appraised on forecasts, product and customer input.  Additionally the entire region looks to this person as the Company’s idea of how they define leadership.

• Analytical Thinking – The RVP must be able to rise above the level of any one particular customer or prospect.  They must look at the sales pipeline as an aggregate indication of the effectiveness of all teams.  They must be able to translate pipeline analytics into action plans including training, product/service redefinition and as a tool to coach & develop their sales managers.
• Using Business Expertise – By now the successful incumbent has accumulated enough industry, product and customer experience to understand not only what the sales pipeline looks like…but is able to anticipate what it should look like and is able to formulate tactical plans to guide the regional to sales plan attainment.
• Enabling the team – The incumbent is accountable to communicate to senior management exactly what is needed in order to make plan.  When sales teams face obstacles they rely on the RVP to identify & acquire resources to help them overcome these roadblocks.
• Training and developing people – The RVP must make themselves accountable not just to their direct report’s development, but for every member of the regional sales team.  Keeping up routine inspection of individual, team and regional pipelines can help the RVP see trends.

So why do people struggle as they move along this track?  Well, I’ve worked within some very large sales organizations and made it to top sales officer.  From my perspective the failure of people falls on the shoulders of their employer.  Field sales is one of the only departments where you sit miles away from your boss.  You do not get the daily coaching sessions.  The accidental conversations that take place in the hallways simply never occur in field sales.  To make matters worse I have not seen leadership training offered to newly promoted sales managers.  There are not training courses on how to interpret the sales pipeline.  How to create developmental action plans around the analytics of the pipeline.  We do a disservice to the organizations most valuable commodity…people.  Not only do we leave the newly promoted manager swinging in the wind…but we withhold excellent leadership from the sales people who depend upon their manager to help them succeed.

I know this is ending up in a rant…but if you want different results perhaps you need to do things differently.

What’s More Important? Sales Cycles or Buying Processes?

Tags

coaching, performance management, sales effectiveness, sales people, self improvement

Unformly CRM platforms focus on the user’s sales cycle.

No wonder so many sales pipelines can’t forecast sales with at least 90% certainty.  The sales cycle assumes that the sales person’s last task completed is a good indicator of where the customer is in their decision process.  Far too many sales people mislead themselves and produce a pipeline of prospects that is chock full of unqualified opportunities that may have already stalled out.

Think like a buyer…you’re somewhat interested in a new leading edge product, you think it may save your company some money but you need to collaborate with other department heads to ensure that the new service is good for all departments.  Meanwhile that pesky sales rep keeps calling wanting to know when you’re going to make a decision on the proposal they sent you.  What?  I’m not even sure I want any product, let alone if yours is the best.

Sales cycles are simply a list of sequential tasks that a sales person performs in order to move from introduction to close in an orderly fashion.  BUT please!  Align those tasks with the customer’s buying process!

Are You a Hard Helper or a Hard Closer?

Tags

coaching, effectiveness, performance management, sales effectiveness, sales people, sales training, selling

I think most of us have the same visual image of a hard closer.  A slick dresser, everything’s perfect including the shiny shoes.  They know more closing techniques than anyone else on the team.  You say your prospect has put off the decision for a week or two and they chime in “you should have used the take away close”, before you can finish your sentence.  There are some things to be admired about hard closers and they will get a few deals that only they could have gotten.  But does that mean that they are the master sales people?

Then we have the hard helper.  They understand & honor the prospect’s buying process.  They work hard to collaborate with multiple contacts within the prospect’s organization…to build consensus & identify obstacles.  They are continuously active and prospects love them!  You know who else loves them even though they will never meet them?  Shareholders!  Clients that are sold by a hard helper stay sold for a very long time.  The net present value of these clients is markedly higher than the average client.

So which one is better?  It’s an interesting question.  The top 2% of your reps are actually both hard helpers and hard closers.  But they’re a little different from the person alluding to in the first paragraph.  They close very hard but asking tough questions about the impact of doing nothing!  They keep reminding the prospect of the agreed upon needs & benefits and emit urgency on taking action!  The next 18% of your top performers are hard helpers but not hard closers.  They do an excellent closing job but may back off when they perceive the risk of a no. 

The next 30% of your reps might just be going through the motions.  They are performing tasks.  Make a call.  Make a presentation.  Generate a proposal.  Follow up on the proposal.  Ask for an order.  It’s okay I guess because they bring in enough business to warrant a congratulations.  So let’s call this group the “as expected performers.”  So the question is how do you turn as expected into above expectation.

I don’t really know the answer to that question without knowing your company & products.  But I can tell you that most often I have found the issues to be;

1. There has never been a core theme to sales training.  You can’t expect continuous improvement in sales effectivenss if you keep hiring the trainer de jour.
2. First level sales managers are smart, but they need help.  Give them an ounce of leadership training and watch the numbers soar.

I’d like to know your thoughts on this topic.  Please leave a comment!

What Is A Quality Sales Organization?

Tags

business, coaching, Cultures, Interviewing, leadership traits, sales effectiveness, sales management, sales people

When networking with other sales reps early in my career I began to see correlations between the various sales organizations and the type of sales people they attracted & retained.  It was very interesting to hear people describe their sales cultures, compensation plans, management’s leadership style and the employer’s focus on client satisfaction.  Over time I was promoted several levels, each new role required a relocation to another part of the country.  Through networking I continued to accumulate a diverse collection of perspectives from sales managers from a variety of industries.

My career journey led me to NYC leading a National Account group.  This was more of a business development role leading a team of 8 people and managing the relationships with a dozen accounts that generated $1.3 Billion in annual sales.  This was the capper to my experience as business development forces you to consider client satisfaction, a strong interaction with operations, client profitability and new sales.  I won’t bore you with the details but we did create a very interesting client service agreement.  Each quarter we contracted four goals with our clients.   Two goals came from the client and usually included one customer service goal and one goal that would help our contact attain their major job objectives.  We also then had one goal that the Account Director was able to set that would help them achieve greater account profitability and one sales goal (like an introduction to a sister division) that would be validated only after the two client goals were met.  This was a great tool that minimize attrition and creating a very positive climate for cross selling & account expansion.  After two years this portfolio grew to $3 Billion annually and we did not lose any clients.

My final career destination was to build a new sales organization within an existing Fortune 500 company.  I poured everything I learned into the culture of that sales organization and it paid off royally.  In four short years we moved from non-existant to an organization acquiring over 5,000 new clients annually, producing an incremental $180MM in sales with each new annual batch of clients.  The NPV of these clients was nearly double that of any other client portfolio.

So here is what I learned about sales cultures and what makes a “Quality Sales Culture”. 

There are three parties (constituencies) that are affected by the culture you build.

1. Clients – Your focus on making reasonable commitments and then driving over-delivery will payoff in a huge way.  The Net Present Value of your client base is driven by retention rates and gross profitability.  You can easily model the value of high customer satisfaction by raising your client retention rate by 5% and improving gross margins by 1%.  This is the value of ensuring that your culture demands a high customer satisfaction rate.  I dumbed down these numbers.  You can acheive much better benchmarks if drive customer satisfaction into your sales culture.  It will not only make them believers but their closing ratio’s will be dramatically better.
2. Shareholders – This is the easiest constituency to satisfy or dissatisfy.  If your Business Development Efforts focus on customer service delivery within a cross selling framework, and your sales efforts are highly disciplined around skill, will, execution and leaderhip it is nearly impossible to disappoint investors in your company.  I do believe that investors have now learned that mid term results trump short term returns.
3. Employees – Why bother?  Because clients and shareholders will never get the best possible outcomes if your employees are distracted.  Sales people and account managers should get all the direction & support they need to create healthy, profitable client relationships.  People who are distracted by poor leadership, non-existent training or poor customer service attitudes will never be able to deliver to their potential.

So what’s the conclusion?  Senior Leaders must balance their focus.  I know that in this economy the shareholder will get more attention than employees but in the end that’s a bad tasting medicine that we know is good for us.  But you still need to balance your focus reasonably.  Focus 80% on shareholders, 10% on clients and 10% on employees is a losing tactic.  When the economy begins to improve you will have a lot of issues to fix and you may miss out in that growth.

Assuming you have some employee goodwill on your asset sheet, in today’s economy I would recommend a focus of 45% on shareholders, 35% clients and 20% employees.  I think you can get through the next 18 months providing you keep the communication level high so employees know they’re valued but investments in them are on the back burner for the short term.

In the longer term my focus would be 40% shareholder, 30% clients and 30% employees.

If you are interested in more discussion on this topic please leave a comment with the specifics of your interest.

Sales Cultures, Is Yours Heart Healthy?

Tags

effectiveness, leadership, performance management, sales effectiveness, sales excellence, sales management, self improvement

I know you’ve heard someone say, “We have a high performance culture here at Amalgamated.  We have high expectations of all our people!”  So, if you’ve been a member of a larger national sales organization how often did the term “high performance culture” turn out to have any benefit for you as a person in the trenches?  Did the leadership team have high expectations of themselves on creating a sales culture that was not only good for shareholders, but also good for clients and employees?

Sorry for a little culture slamming, and I won’t mention any companies, but here’s the facts m’am.

“We have a high performance culture” usually means we are going to expect a lot from you.  Okay, fine.  But what can I expect from you in return?  Can I expect a vibrant lead generation program?  Can I expect to have a manager in my corner who will routinely carve time out of their schedule to help me succeed?  Instead of telling me that I’m not doing enough can you tell me how to do more?  Can I expect to have up-to-date sales collateral so my presentations help prospects visualize the benefits of our programs?  When I bust my hump to over deliver can I enjoy even better rewards next year or will I bask in the sunlight with dramatically increased goals coupled with dramatically lower commissions?  In other words, will you invest as much in me as I am being asked to invest in you?

First I would like to propose a definition of what an organizational culture is;  The quality that arises in a person by virtue of belonging to a group.  That person’s behavior begins to reflect what they have learned through training and observing others in that group.  With time, the members form agreement with what the group prizes as excellence.  So with my definition of culture let me disclose something else.  I am a huge believer in building a culture that benefits clients, stakeholders and employees equally.  I believe strongly that satisfied employees will deliver a superior service, which customers will be willing to pay for…and stakeholders like that outcome.

So where do you begin to build a sales culture that will help develop a sustainable world class sales organization?  Essentially there are four drivers;

• Sales Effectiveness – A bundle of skills that arm each sales person & account manager with the tools they need to effectively help prospects navigate through a buying process and end up with needs that are satisfied.  This isn’t just about holding people accountable to having & using these skills.  It’s really about hiring people with high potential and then provided them with the training they need.  This is much more than simply enrolling people in training.  This is field managers who are experts in all the skill areas, and providing them the training they need to be excellent coaches in the field.
• Reward & Recognition – There is a lot more to reward & recognition than a compensation plan & an annual outing.  The compensation plan should produce a target income at sales goal attainment.  Your peak performers should earn two or three times what your average performers earn.  Why?  Because sales people are great understudies and peak performers are the people you want them to imitate.  Management reports should be shared throughout the organization and include not just the top performers but also the strugglers.  The only people that should not make the standing report should be untenured sales people.  Additionally there are all kinds of recognition vehicles formed around peer recognition, Sr. Management recognition and yes, family and friend recognition.  For those recognized this affirms their contributions.  For those that did not make the grade it affirms what the organization values.
• Execution – Do all members of the team understand the sales strategy?  Good communication is the key and good communication is not solely reliant upon the message…good communication is driven by understanding.  Can people recite a summary of what the strategy is?  Do they understand the role they play in the execution of that strategy?  Has there been a set of metrics devised that will benchmark how well the organization is performing and how well each team member is doing?
• Field Leadership – The Rosetta Stone of the quality of yoursales culture is the company’s investment in first level field sales managers.  If you’re expecting for your army of revenue generators to win battles you’re going to have to invest in field support.  Do your field generals understand their priorities?  How should they be investing their time & energy?  Is it 50% making sales calls, 30% admin., 15% forecasting and 15% coaching & developing people?  If this is the reality of how people are spending their time your organization may never get any better than it is today.  I have one question for CEOs and top Sales Officers.  How many leadership training courses have you delivered to your field generals in the last 5 years?  Don’t hold them accountable for moving from a peak performing sales person to an excellent management leader.  That’s your job.

Is a heart healthy culture worth the investment?  Only if you want the best sales people in your industry to aspire to work for your company. 

The sales culture that develops in your organization cannot be controlled, but you can influence it dramatically.  Your culture will be known for a theme, for it’s character, for it’s composure, for it’s courage and yes…for it’s care for people.  You must deliver results, but how you go about delivering those results will define your culture.

“How’s It Going?”

Tags

business, performance management, sales effectiveness, sales management, sales people, self improvement, selling

Okay, so the big-big boss is in town and asks how it’s going.  I know it’s tempting to tell her how well your son is doing on the little league team…but fight off that temptation.  I’m only saying that your boss may be a nice woman, but let’s put business first and then brag about the home run later.

A good top sales boss wants to know five things;

1. Results – past quarter, last month?
2. Status – how do the future results look?
3. Focus – what are you concentrating on?
4. Needs – how can I help you succeed?
5. Other than 1-4, how’s it going?

So when you’re asked the question, have the answer ready.  Wait a minute.  When will I be asked the question?  How will I know when to have the answer prepared?

Well, let me go through the answer to the original question then you can decide.  Is this a question I should wait for the big boss to ask, or is this a question I should ask myself everyday?

Think of yourself as a manufacturing plant.  Raw material goes in the front door, workers convert the raw materials into components, assemble the components and poof, finished products roll out the back door.  Every plant has a general manager whose job it is to continuously make sure that raw materials arrive on time, that the plant is operating at capacity, and that the quality and quantity of the products rolling out the back door meet expectation.  In our profession the raw materials are prospects, the components are presentations & proposals, and the end products are contracts or sales.  Guess who the general manager is?

So whether you’re answering the question for yourself or the big boss doesn’t really matter, the answer should be the same.

Results – How many sales did you close last quarter?  Were they the right size?  Are you happy with those results?  Was last month better?

Status – This is really a question of sales pipeline.  Is your “real” pipeline bursting at the seams or is it chock full of “pipe dreams”?  How many prospects do you really have and where in the sales cycle do they reside?  How many are closeable in the next 30 days?  I hope your pipeline is healthy because this is going to become your commission check over the next several months.  If you have to admit to yourself that your pipeline is really shaky, then what are you going to do about it?

Focus – This is the “what are you going to do about it”.  You are the general manager of your sales territory.  If there’s a pending problem then your job it to fix it before it gets worse.  If your pipeline of prospects looks good on paper but you know that most of those prospects are on life support then it’s up to you to flush out the real prospects, and put the others on hold.  If your real pipeline is anemic you’re going to have to rightsize your hot prospect list and develop an action plan to bring it back into a healthy state.  If you’re not sure what that action plan should be then you’ll have to muster up the courage to ask for help. 

Needs – Okay your results have been acceptable but not to your expectation, you’ve gone through your pipeline and admitted that of those 50 prospects only 15 are healthy.  You’ve decided that you’re going to commit yourself to adding another 10prospects this month, while moving the 15 forward at least one step in the sales cycle.  Fantastic!  But now is not the time to be a hero.  Ask for help.  What is the one tool that would help ensure the success of your action plan?  Is it an improved presentation?  Is it better sales collatera material?  Lead generation?  The bigger question is, when I ask for help will I be considered a complainer?  I will tell you in no uncertain terms (as an experienced big-big), that if you have given me short concise answers to results, status and focus…I’m am going to listen very closely to what you need.  And when I get back to my office I’m going to make sure you get it.

So as a former big-big here is what I always was hoping for.  I arrive in town, sit down with the regional sales director, go over results.  Tonight we’re having a team dinner.  Since I haven’t met you before I sit down next to you at the table.  After letting everyone settle in the RSD gives me the big intro, then I give everyone my business overview and reaffirm the top 3 iniatives.  I answer a few questions then it’s time to place our orders.  While we’re waiting for our salads I introduce myself to you and ask how’s it going?  What are you going to say?  Here’s the worlds most perfect answer (please edit according to your territory).

“Thanks for asking Greg.  Last quarter was okay, last month was even better (you may want to add in a FEW numbers).  But I scrubbed my pipeline and I need to add no less than 10 more good prospects if I’m going to reach my goals…I’m willing to do all the hard work to get these prospects into my pipeline but I need a little help from you…”  WOW!  Someone this organized and such a good manager of their territory is going to remain on my radar screen for a long time.  And if someone like this tells me our lead generation program isn’t working, I’m going back to HQ and make sure it get’s fixed.

Now that we know each other…tell me about your family.

The Best Cold Call Script…Honest!

Tags

Sales, sales effectiveness, sales excellence, sales management, sales people, sales respresentatives, sales training, self improvement, selling

Before writing this script to suit your business please consider this;

 

No one likes making cold telephone calls (or in person) because a similar number of us don’t like receiving them either.  Why?  Because there are several perceived risks;

 

1. You are going to waste my time.
2. If I agree to see you, you’re going to leave a great big feature dump on my shiny desk.
3. You are going to ask for information that you haven’t earned the right to know.

 

So, what are the objectives of the cold call?

 

1. Minimize the risk in speaking with you (that’s why you only ask for 2 minutes)
2. Minimize the risk in setting up an appointment (only speak about benefits, never features, advantages or any other indication of a pitch)
3. Don’t ask questions.  If they agree to the appointment you may be able to get away with one or two questions but use care!  You just distinguished yourself from everyone else who will call.  Why take a chance on ruining that first impression.
4. The ONLY other objective of the cold call is to set an appointment.

 

Telephone Script – I would recommend not tampering with everything in bold type.

 

Hello Mr. Smith, this is Greg Deming with Sales Performance Advisors.  I’d like to take two minutes to tell you why I called then you can decide if we should talk more…are you okay with that?

 

Most of the sales leaders I speak with today tell me they are concerned with the same issues that I faced when I ran large national sales organizations:

 

1. They know that individual sales effectiveness varies dramatically, with only 59% of reps meeting or exceeding expectations.
2. Almost 40% of top sales officers say that coaching in the field needs improvement in terms of frequency and quality.
3. Finally, less than 50% of sales management executives felt their organization was able to consistently hire reps who were capable of succeeding.

 

Does this sound familiar?

 

Companies that I have worked with tell me they are confident that struggling contributors are easily identified and that field managers understand how to develop people to the next level of productivity.  Field managers tell me they are better equipped to hire the right people to begin with, and also better able to help people succeed.  They feel they are a part of a high performance organization.  Most importantly an effective solution turns field managers into leaders & world class trainers.

 

Are you interested in meeting?  It won’t cost you anything to discuss this further, and who knows?  It may be costing you not to.

 

The key for you to follow is keep it short, honor the prospects concerns, summarize the needs you are best able to address and also summarize the benefits that your customers (clients) enjoy.

Managing Sales Reps with “Attitude Problems”

Tags

coaching, effectiveness, leadership, management, performance management, sales management, sales training

Sometimes they simply have an opposing point of view.  Sometimes they are disrespectful of other team members.  Other times they simply refuse to do tasks commonly associated with what it takes to optimize sales results.  What’s their problem?  What’s your problem with them?

As a field sales manager you are accountable for delivering the optimal results possible with the assets assigned to you.  You are going to have a set number of sales resources.  Forget about the discomfort that you may feel from a rep with an attitude.  Stay focused on your job…optimal results!  First things first.  Are they making the goals? 

If not then you must take direct action by coaching and counseling.  You have to look at the territory as a resource and if the sales rep is not delivering that you’re not operating at full capacity.  You can afford an under-performing territory if you’re confident the numbers will improve.  You cannot afford to support an under-performing rep forever.  The next step is the most difficult one a sales manager has to perform…an autopsy of the sales pipeline.  Put on your stethoscope and begin to assess where in the sales cycle the problem resides.  Once you see where prospects, or lack of prospects, are clogging the pipeline you can next figure out what sales skills are lacking.  Most likely culprits?  Prospecting, presenting, probing or proposing are the most common ailments.  In this case the poor attitude is a symptom of a SKILL problem.  This is the most commonly overlooked solution because when we see a attitude problem we automatically begin inspecting the symptom instead of the illness.

If the rep consistently meets the goals but gives you or your team attitude problems then the plan of action is much more complex, but if left unaddressed it’s going to get worse.  High sales will is driven first by high sales skill.  But some people regress.  So I would recommend that you divorce yourself from the notion of “motivation”.  Motivation is what happens when there is a belief, held in expectation that something personally important will happend when a task is performed.  You need to go a little deeper.  Will is defined as the combination of desire, incentive, security and confidence.  When someone that used to have high sales will regresses, then one of those four drivers has reversed.  You need to figure out which driver has reversed then address the problem:

Desire – this is the closest to motivation.  It’s possible for people to lose the desire to perform tasks.  They simply feel that they have outgrown the need to perform the task, or that the they have already captured what was important to them and are now unwilling to perform certain tasks.  The most common example is prospecting.  Say the rep has a goal to make $100k per year.  Once they get to that level they stop performing a task they hate, like making old fashioned calls to set appointments. 

Incentive – there is a very strong link to incentive and desire, though incentive is a little more subtle.  Incentive can be a self imposed limit, such as a low income goal.  Incentive, as a driver of will, can regress quickly.  You see this all the time.  Outbound telephone calls disappear when the pipeline is full.  Then when the pipeline of prospects thins out people forget what got them there.  It becomes your job to remind them that the task of outbound calls is how they filled up their pipeline.  In other words, make sure they see the linkage between the task and their success.

Security – This is a tricky driver of sales will.  If you grew up in sales like I did then you know that security is fleeting.  You can feel a loss of security because of your own perceptions, or because of things going on around you that are outside of your control.  The most obvious are mergers or downsizings.  The less obvious are management changes or a change in the sales process.

Confidence – A change in confidence can come from within or from the outside world.  You can imagine what more senior sales reps felt when their company went from emailed weekly sales reports to an online CRM.  Confident people will speak out and ask for help.  Those that lose confidence will be afraid to ask for help, they don’t want to be discovered.  People are subject to a regression in confidence more today than ever before because the span of control for sales managers continue to get wider and wider.  The less communication there is, the more likely that a reps perceptions will cause damage to their confidence.

So, in the end, I hope that your view of attitude problems has been altered.  Your job as sales manager is to dig a little deeper and find out how you can help.  However, if the rep is the “bad apple” sooner or later they will ruin the rest of the team.  You may have to take action quickly.  Your team depends upon you to show composure and care for people.  Be the best coach and leader that your team ever had.  You’ll enjoy your job and over time you’ll create a team of winning professionals.

Hiring The Right Chief Sales Officer – C.S.O.

Tags

leadership, leadership traits, management, performance management, sales effectiveness, sales excellence

Have an opening for your head of sales?  This role is tricky!  Why?  Because very few functional heads need analytical thinking skills balanced with lateral thinking skills.  Because very few leadership positions will have such a rapid, and long lasting impact on your company’s revenue.  Because your company’s credibility with your existing customer base will be dramatically affected, based on the impact that this person has with your account managers.  Because your peak performers will judge the culture of your company based on their impression of your hiring decision.  Because your struggling reps will either improve or hide out, based upon their perception of this person’s leadership style.  Because the other members of your senior leadership team will either focus on their own functional role or pay too much attention to sales effectiveness based on this person’s credibility.  If you’re still with me read on because I’m going to share some competency information with you and suggest some guidelines for your consideration.

But first let’s agree that this year and 2010 are going to be a challenge.  What is obvious is the changes in the economy.  What is less obvious is the changes that will take place with buyer preferences, attitudes and buying processes.  Your sales organization will have to adapt to these changes rapidly.  Here are a few of the changes that will need to be addressed:

• Lead generation programs will have to be addressed
• Sales rep access to information and collateral will need to improve
• Sales and Marketing will have to better aligned, this must be non-negotiable
• Sales processes must be revised
• Sales team communication must be improved
• Buying process analysis must be rapid yet thorough
• Field sales structures must be revisited
• Channel strategies reviewed
• Sales tools must be reviewed, reworked and sales reps retrained
• Sales compensation plans will need to be revised

Okay, I admit you’re not going to get to all of these…but if you do none of them you may be up the creek.  So which ones are critically important?  Your new CSO will need to rapidly assess the organization and differentiate between important and critical.  How can you ensure that your candidate will be effective in moving the organization in the right direction?  Getting nervous?  Good, that’s what I wanted.  But let’s simplify the process.  I propose a list of 8 competencies where you can focus your selection process.  Four are technical skills and four are leadership skills.

The core theme of the sales leader role is to create an environment where the needs of customers and clients permeate all endeavors.  The head of sales understands how the effectiveness of their organization drives shareholder, employee and client satisfaction.  They are able to spontaneously and fluently communicate strategies, while continuously using gap analysis to change course.  They apply limited resources where those investments will yield the greatest return for all constituencies. 

Technical Competencies

• Analytical Thinking – This skill is not solely used to decipher the sales pipeline.  Analytical thinking is also used to understand a situation by breaking it down into smaller pieces, or tracing the implications of a situation in a step by step way.  When the CRM pipeline is ineffective in producing reliable forecasts this person must be able to find the root cause and move to fix it.  Just yelling louder will not help.  They must be able to break down a complex task into manageable parts in a systematic way.
• Lateral Thinking – Frequently there are more than one cause of a problem and more than one solution to that problem.  Lateral thinking allows a person to juggle more than one root cause and several potential solutions and come up with a strategy that will employ more than one tactical plan.  If the lead generation program is not working there are probably several issues that need to be addressed.  Lateral thinking skills will help you avoid investing all your resources in a one path solution.
• Ensuring Implementation – Admit it…things don’t always go right.  Someone needs to monitor to ensure that strategies get implemented, that the work is actually getting done and done well.  They need to act decisively to fix problems when they occur.  One of the most overlooked practices is to communicate well with all relevant parties to ensure they understand their role in implementation.
• Collaboration with Others – If your sales head is truly a CSO then chances are they will serve on your senior management committee.  They will need to work with others in shaping their plans and understand how their decisions will impact other functions.  They need to communicate directly, interact effectively, honestly and persuasively.

Leadership Competencies

• Using Business Expertise – Not all aspects of managing sales output and velocity are tactical or short term.  The possession and use of professional expertise is critically important for anticipating what the sales results will look like in the future.  The incumbent will be most valuable if they can understand the economic and market conditions as a basis for action in a variety of organizational contexts.  This is where the arguments arise about the importance of company tenure, industry knowledge vs. functional knowledge.  In some cases breadth of knowledge is more important than depth of knowledge.
• Identifying with the Needs of Customers – There are several sources for customer need information.  Market research, upward feedback from the field and direct interaction are all critically important.  The organization cannot rely on one source for customer intelligence.  The CSO must continuously analyze situations from the customers perspective.  Without this talent the organizational view will become myopic.
• Coaching & Developing Others – The only way for the top sales officer to effectively lead to organization is for them to continuously gain credibility with their direct reports.  Having ultimate authority will have a short shelf life.  The leader should be adept at recognizing each team members unique strengths and development needs, address and resolve performance issuess directly and rapidly and help identify alternatives to overcome obstacles. 
• Leadership Credibility – The entire organization is customers of the CSO’s leadership.  Customers have been known to revolt.  The CSO must have a conscious knowledge of the skill and will of their direct reports, and have a purposeful use of various leadership styles they are willing to employ in order to get things done without harm to the company and organizational culture.  This is a difficult and hard to find skill set.  Knowing when to use directing, guiding, supporting or delegating leadership styles is as much an art as a science. 

First, my apologies for the length of this article.  Second this competency model is designed for most business to business sales organizations.  Your company/industry may need a slightly different set of competencies.  But do yourself a favor, for each competency you add, please take one of these off.  Trying to recruit around a competency model with more than 8 desired skills makes the process nearly impossible.

For larger companies – Hiring a top sales officer is a challenge that will have a dramatic impact on the health of your company for years, maybe even decades.  If this article has built up your confidence then I have done my job.  If it has lowered your confidence then don’t get discouraged, there is plenty of help available.  There are plenty of consultants and coaches that can help you through this process.  Once you open that door however you need to ferret through a lot of helpers to find someone who will be of help.  I would highly suggest finding someone who has actually had CSO experience. 

For medium sized companies – You may not be able to find or afford someone with a complete skill set.  Your current stable of talent may be strong but do you have the time for on the job learning?  If you cannot attract or afford a true CSO then I would suggest promoting from within and contracting with a past CSO war horse to help coach your candidate.  This approach should help your high potential candidate accelerate their learning dramtically.

For smaller companies – You will probably not need a true CSO.  I would recommend finding a great sales manager and have them report to the CEO or COO.  But don’t delegate leadership completely to the sales manager.  If you do not have adequate time to manage them perhaps you can find a coach to help them.  If your company is not large enough to warrant a sales manager I would recommend finding a sales management coach to help you run the sales group yourself.  Frequently the skills that made you successful as an entrepreneur will not be the best skills to employ running a group of sales people.

If you made it all the way through this article then you’ll probably make a great hire.  Precisely defining what you are looking for is half the battle in making the right selection.

Hiring The Right Sales Manager

Tags

coaching, Interviewing, management, performance, performance management, sales effectiveness, sales excellence, selling

The core theme of a sales manager’s role is to drive the team to sell.  Though they may be the best sales person on the team, if they spend 100% of their time helping close business then sales results will plateau when their selling capacity is reached, and you will find that other team members have not developed.  This “halter” is a problem that many companies face as they try to migrate to the next level of growth.  As usual the best approach to solving a problem is to anticipate it, and solve it before it emerges.  So this article will focus on finding a sales manager who can grow beyond your needs today.

Driving the team to sell is a three legged stool.  Being effective at all three is important and requires a different set of competencies.  You may not get all the competencies you’re hoping for, but you must have confidence that given support, the candidate you select has the will to learn the skills.  The components are :

1.  Selling to large Accounts – When larger prospects are identified it is crucial that the sales manager become actively involved in selling process.  Whether or not they take the lead role depends upon the skill and will of the sales representative.  Regardless, the sales manager must feel accountable for ensuring that this enterprise opportunity succesfully navigates through their buying process.  The manager must, at all costs, ensure that there is a complete understanding and consideration of customer requirements before making decisions and taking action.

• Identifying the Needs of Prospects – The sales representative must gather timely, direct information about customer requirements.  If the sales person identifies the opportunity early enough in their buying process they can influence and shape those requirements.  If they enter the sales cycle later in the prospect’s buying process they will be forced to conform to whatever requirements are already defined.
• Entrepreneurial Drive – Tenacity is the most important ingredient in any complex sale.  If the sales rep’s will begins to fade over time, the manager must insert themselves into the process.  To be of high value to the sales representatives your manger should demonstrate that they compete against a self defined standard of excellence.  They tirelessly purse a goal until it is successfully attained.
• Meeting & Exceeding Customer Expectations – Retaining clients is equally important as acquiring clients.  The first step in client retention is to make realistic short & long term commitments, maintain contact and then to exceed expectations by ensuring delivery of promised service.  Your sales manager must understand that brand equity is built one transaction at a time.

2.  Managing the Team – No matter the tenure of your sales representatives, their skill and will to do sales tasks will change over time.  Your manager must create an atmosphere in which sales people are completely comfortable asking for help.  At the same time they must be able to rapidly determine developmental gaps that are becoming unrecognized sales obstacles.

• Coaching & Developing Others – It is unfortunately true that 45% of managers hire sales reps that are not likely to succeed.  This problem is exacerbated by the fact that 56% of managers do not conduct routine win/loss reviews and 36% of managers do not effectively identify which sales reps need coaching.*  If you are not equipped to help the manager succeed then get them the help they need.
• Creating & Maintaining Effective Work Teams – The manager must create an atmoshphere where individuals can work together as a team in pursuit of a common mission.  The behaviors you’re looking for are; encouraging multiple points of views, harnessing the necessary resources to help team members succeed, establishing a positive climate (see article on “Why Leaders Get Followers”) and nuturing a commitment to the mission.
• Directing the Team – Your manager must ensure that the team completes tasks and delivers targets.  There are times when coaching & good relationships are not enough.  The manager must be more direct and take action if necessary, without inflicting damage to the team environment.  Behaviors to look for are; aligning people behind a strategy even when decisions are unpopular, using authority productively to achieve results and setting expectations clearly while communicating the boundaries that exist.  In short, the manager must be adept at managing performance.

3.  Managing the Territory – whether the assigned territory is national or market specific, you will depend upon the sales manager to optimize results.  In order to effectively manage the situation the manager must be motivated to reduce uncertainty and stay focused on those intiatives that will yield the greatest return.

• Concern for Order – Reducing uncertainty requires an insistence on timely, accurate information.    You would see this drive expressed in such ways as; monitoring & checking information (CRM), insisting on clarity of commitments (conducting win/loss reviews), setting up and maintaining systems of information.
• Analytical Thinking – This may be an optional skill for your consideration.  If the sales manager will be your “Top Sales Officer” (CSO) then I would strongly recommend you look for this competency.  If the sales manager will report to an RVP, who reports to your CSO then this is a nice-to-have skill.  I freely admit that it is difficult to find analytical thinking skills in a pool of sales management candidates.  You are more likely to see good lateral thinking skills.  But in this rapidly changing economy, where buyer preferences are changing at incredible velocities then this analytical thinking skill is very important!

The sales manager role requires broad and deep knowledge of selling, account relationship management and leadership.  One would expect that the candidate would have accumulated the knowledge they need for selling & account relationship management.  The company has a responsibility to provide the new manager with orientation & training around leadership.  Unfortunately most companies do not provide a shred of training on sales leadership.

 

 

* Statistics from CSO Insights “Sales Performance Optimization” 2009 Survey Results and Analytics

The One Best Sales Rep Interview Question!

Tags

assessment, Interview, Interviewing, leadership traits, questions, Sales, sales effectiveness, sales excellence, sales interview, sales interview questions, sales management, sales people, selling

Use the process carefully…choose you final question with care!

Interview questions fall into four categories;

1. Functional Skills – Those “know how” skills that are necessary to perform tasks that are routine.  There are valuable questions here that can expose the candidates education, and training.  Some deeper questions can help you uncover the interviewee’s perception of their role, and understanding of sales process.  This is a particularly important field of questions for small to medium sized companies that may not offer in-house training.
2. Product knowledge – Just how important is product knowledge?  Does a communication sales rep need to know what reports a call center system is capable of generating?  Does a cabinet sales person have to know how a compound joint is fastened?  The depth and breadth of product knowledge required is really driven by how your customers make buying decisions.
3. Industry knowledge – Is it necessary for your sales people to understand your industry, and your customer’s industry?
4. Leadership skills – This is the most overlooked line of interview questions, yet this competency is the primary driver of the sales person’s success.  Just because a sales rep does not have direct reports does not mean they do not need leadership skills.  Self leadership is the fuel that drives the sales person to utilize all those functional skills.  These are the “soft” skills that are more difficult to train.  Entrepreneurial drive, impact & influence, self-confidence, effective communication and identifying the needs of the prospect come to mind.

There’s no one question that can ensure you make the best hiring decision.  However, your hiring process should be organized enough so that you ensure that all four categories of interviewing focus are covered in the process.  If the last interviewer is asking the same line of questions that the first person asked are you really making the best use of the process?  Think of the interviewing process as a funnel where 100 candidates begin the process and 96 are eliminated.  So perhaps the first step is a 10 minute screening interview where the candidate’s industry knowledge is explored.  The next step may be a 30 minute interview focusing on product knowledge and some fundamental sales skills.  A traditional one hour interview is required to dive deeper into functional skills.  These interviews should always be conducted by a field sales manager.  If the field of candidates is still large I would advise that another field manager conduct a second interview drilling down further into functional skills.

So if your interviewing process is working correctly you now have reduced the number of candidates from 100 down to 4.  And now there is time to change your focus from product, industry and functional knowledge to self leadership skills.  To this point you have narrowed the field to those candidates that are capable of doing the job.  Focusing the final interview on self leadership will help you make the best selection not on capability to succeed, but on the likelihood of that success.  Which is the one candidate that is most likely to succeed and become a peak performer?

Having interviewed thousands of sales candidates, hiring hundreds and seeing those people succeed I would offer this advice.  The one leadership competency that seems to always differentiate average performers & peak performers is entrepreneurial drive.  The only way to determine if a candidate possesses this leadership competency is to ask a situational question, and to listen closely for the behaviors that exemplify this competency.

So what is my favorite all time final interview question?  “Tell me about a time when you were driven to acheive a goal, you faced substantial resistence, and had little internal support.”  This one question should take 30 to 45 minutes to discuss.  And now for the hard part.  You must listen for the candidate’s behaviors.  You must guard against directing them towards an answer, and you can only give them credit for what they did.  Too often “we” slips into the conversation.  No credit for “we” in this interview.  So what behaviors are you listening for?

• The candidate set their own objectives (probably higher than expected), and competed against a self defined standard of excellence.
• Tirelessly pursued attainment of that goal, perhaps for years.
• Showed tenacity by persisting, taking numerous, sustained actions over time in the face of obstacles.
• Identifies the resources needed to attain the goal, and then takes entrepreneurial action to obtain those resources.
• Never gave up.

In the end you’re looking for that special person with the attitude of Gene Kranz…remember him?  Ed Harris played Gene Kranz in the movie “Apollo 13.”  Gene’s most remembered quote was “failure is not an option.”  I believe that in every great sales person there’s a common theme.

What’s That Prospect Thinking?

Tags

coaching, performance, sales cycles, sales effectiveness, sales management, sales people, sales respresentatives, sales training, self improvement, selling

At some point in your the sales cycle your prospect has decided they have a need, hopefully because of your world class probing skills.  As you try to help them move from need, through analysis and finally decision time…just what are they thinking?

At a conscious, or subconscious level buyers are always trying to get comfortable with the balance of performance, image and price (PIP).  Think of these three drivers as concepts that are perceived differently by each of us.  Also understand that perceptions change over time.  In our current economy we must all recognize that the relationship between these three drivers will be changing dramatically.  Marketing must understand these shifts and adapt products and messages that will be appealing.  Sales will have to rework sales presentations, ask new questions and think more about the answers they are hearing.

So what are these three concepts and how should I deal with them?

• Performance – for consumers this concept is going to change dramatically.  Think about the most expensive purchase a consumer makes…a home.  Bigger is better is a dead concept.  Consumers will not sacrafice long commutes to work in trade for a McMansion.  Certainly families form, expand and contract so actual space needs will change.  But the concept, bigger is better is gone.  For business buyers there will be a similar shift.  Product/service claims will all be tracked.  Proof will be examined.  Investments that will not deliver a return for years will not be purchased.  If you thought companies were short sighted before, you haven’t seen anything yet!
• Image –  this concept is alive and well.  Right?  Image is alive and well but constantly changing.  For consumers the image is more about what something means to me.  For the homebuyer they may want a smaller home closer to work, but they will still want that home packed with what is important to them and their lifestyle.  Some images may become anti-conspicuous.  Is the Prius the new BMW?  If you don’t think companies will change their views on image I have one question for you.  Would you apply for a job selling corporate aircraft today?
• Price – despite the tone of this posting I do not believe that price will come before all other drivers, but price must make sense.  Consumers may be ready and willing to buy, but are wary about their ability to buy.  Staying with the home purchase example there is pent up demand for quality newer homes, but the fear of the unknown continues to keep these buyers on the sidelines.  Hyundai has done an excellent job in addressing this fear with their recent Assurance Plus program.   For businesses there will be a categorical shift.  If your product is directly related to their product/service core offering then your value proposition will get traction.  If you cannot prove this direct correlation, price will become more important to the buyer.

So the buying process is the same, more difficult certainly.  The shift will be in the buyer’s perceptions and balancing of performance, image and price is going to change dramatically for the next several years.  Consumer preferences will shift and so will business buyer’s.  If your sales presentation was about performance & image and you dismissed pricing as an issue, you are going to have a very difficult time in the coming months. 

Archimedes said “Give me a place to stand and I will move the earth.”  I have always loved that quote, but for the time being the earth is shifting and so should your sales approach.

The Single Biggest Impact On Sales This Year!

Tags

coaching, effectiveness, leadership, management, performance, performance management, sales effectiveness, sales management, sales training

As a CEO or top sales officer you may be the cause of sub-optimal sales results.  How?

Field Sales Leaders generally have multiple accountabilities, each one competing for their time;

• Revenue – overall production, margins, pipeline and making joint sales calls.
• Predictability – forecast, CRM adoption and usage.
• Cost of Sales – time utilization, resource application, pursuit costs.
• Sales Development – quota attainment, turnover ratio, ramp up time, coaching, training and general development of team members.

Unfortunately the Time Management Matrix in Stephen Covey’s book, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” comes back to haunt us again.  In case your misplaced your copy, the third habit is putting first things first.  My overall take was that we are always reponding to those items that have a due date (urgency, but little importance). and in doing so we steal time from more important tasks simply because there is no due date associated with them.  Guess which of the tasks above does not have a time frame urgency attached to it?  Give up? 

If you guessed coaching, training and general development of team members you would be right.  So if the top sales officer of any company want’s to know the one thing that will have the single biggest impact on sales THIS YEAR it would be to free up time, and demand that time to be invested in assessing, coaching and developing all team members.  Okay, so you’ll get around to it next quarter, right?

In the movie “12 O’Clock High” (1940) General Frank Savage (Gregory Peck) is assigned to a poorly performing bomber squadron.  The group was demotivated, and their current leader mired himself in administrative duties when he wasn’t busy commiserating with his group.  The first thing Savage did was to get out of the office and fly lead in the missions.  He didn’t do this to become a member of the team, or to show what a good pilot he was.  He did this to find out where the team’s gaps were and then lead them back into high performance.

General Frank Savage (in his first address to the squardron)  : “There will be a briefing for a practice mission at 1100 this morning. That’s right, practice. I’ve been sent here to take over what has come to be known as a hard luck group. Well, I don’t believe in hard luck. So we’re going to find out what the trouble is”.

So, Chief Sales Officers, if you want what ever the optimal results are for this year think about this option.  Clear out the in-baskets of your field managers and insist they invest no less than 50% of their time assessing, coaching and training their sales people.  It is more important this year than ever before.  Do it this week.  No!  Do it today!

Effective One-On-One Sales Coaching Sessions

Tags

coaching, effectiveness, leadership, leadership traits, management, sales management, sales people, self improvement

Recently I have read posts on this subject on a several popular blogs.  My most recent “snooping around” session revealed on one of those blogs that an “effective One-On-One coaching session should be planned six months ahead of time”.  My curiousity ended, as did my snooping session.  If you are holding your coaching session every six months you should be fired as a sales manager!  You sales people are customers of your leadership, and they need service from you more often than every six months. 

There are four types of coaching sessions:

1. Behavioral – something has come to your attention that must/should be shared.  Though we think of these sessions as addressing negative behaviors you should use them to recognize positive behaviors also.
2. Discovery – As a manager you have uncovered a developmental issues that should be addressed.  This is the first session of a field training program that should end with a bi-lateral contract between you and the sales person.
3. Follow Up – These are frequent mini-sessions to check up, and exchange feedback.
4. Bottoms Up – If you are a great leader this should happen often.  Instead of you discovering a developmental issue one of your team members seeks out your help.  Why?  Because you are trustworthy and they know you are there to serve them.

First a note about tone.  Attitude is everything.  If this is a behavior coaching session do not send mixed messages.  If a negative behavior issue is serious enough to warrant exploration and coaching, don’t mince in other topics.  The outcome of behavioral coaching sessions are usually uni-lateral next step contracts.  If you have discovered a specific sales skill that needs improvement you do want to recognize those other skill areas that are best in class.  If this session is a follow up you should summarize previous discussions, recognize progress and discuss next steps.  The key to follow up coaching sessions is that this is a bi-lateral agreement to next steps. 

Coaching sessions should be orderly.  You should control some parts of the discussion and you should let your team member control others.  However, this is not a free flowing, never ending conversation.  You may end up being friends with some of you sales people but remember, friendship is the outcome of effective leadership, leadership is never the outcome of friendship.

The coaching session outline;

1. Warm Up – I guess you could just hit them over the head, but why?  This is a team member.  The only reason to minimize this part of the discussion is if you have uncovered a negative behavioral issue that if not addressed could result in the termination of this team member.  Initiating a serious conversation with frivolous small talk is disingenuous.
2. Orientation – If this is the first coaching session to reveal something you have discovered, particularly if the team members overall contributions are satisfactory, this part of the discussion is crucial.  For instance, if you are concerned with this team members prospecting skills you should discuss what lead to this discovery.  “Jim, thanks for your first quarter results.  It helped show the others that the goals are achievable even with this difficult economy.  But I was exploring our CRM system and think I discovered something.  I noticed that you not only made your goals, but had the highest proposal to contract closing ratio!  In fact, you also had one of the highest closing ratios in moving prospects from the needs analysis to the proposal, congratulations!  But that led me to think, are you motivated to dramatically increase your earnings?  Because if you are I think I discovered something that is holding you back…”  Now the stage is nearly set for you to focus the conversation.
3. Focus – This is the meat of the conversation and two-thirds of your time should be spent here.  But step back a little.  Dust off those sales skills from your past life.  If you sold like I did, you’re best sales pitches were not about what you told a prospect right?  First you need to sell the need.  Continuing our conversation with Jim…”Since you have world class skills at the end of the sales cycle, I did a little arithmetic.  You may already know this but if you were able to put 3 more prospects into your pipeline every quarter your earnings would increase by 10%!”  My best sales presentations came about because of the questions I asked!  You need to use your open ended probes, your directional probes and confirming probes.  You need to find out if the lack of prospecting is a skill gap, or a will gap (see seperate articles on each subject on blog).  If Jim agrees he has a need to increase the number of prospects in his pipeline, you’re halfway home!  You now have to come to agreement on how to satisfy that need.
4. Contract – Every coaching session should end with a contract.  Simply put this is the agreement going forward, which defines each person’s action plan and roles.  In my Sales Excellence Process there is a form which defines each person’s commitment.  The contract (unilateral or bilateral) should be driven by what you determined to be the cause of the problem.  If the issue is skill then you as the leader will have an obligation to the sales person to deliver the training.  If the issue is one of will to do the task then the sales person will have more obligations to the contract while your role will be inspecting what you expect.

Coaching sessions are the most important duty of a sales manager.  How you go about delivering a coaching session will define your leadership.  Get your mind right!  Are you there to help, or are you there to catch someone doing something wrong?  Remember “Cool Hand Luke”?

Boss: Sorry, Luke. I’m just doing my job. You gotta appreciate that.

Luke: Nah – calling it your job don’t make it right, Boss.

Downsizing The Sales Organization – Ensuring The Best Possible Outcome

Tags

assessment, downsizing, management, performance, performance management, sales effectiveness, sales management

I was truly hoping that I would not have to write this article, but the reality is that the majority of CEO’s will need to include the sales organization in staffing reduction initiatives.  Is it really possible that your company will decide to eliminate sales or account manager jobs when client acquisition & retention is so important?  The answer to that is yes, and the higher the salary base (fixed compensation) of those positions, the more quickly that directive will arrive.  One last comment before we dive deeper.  Many companies will not be profitable in this economy.  Companies do not go out of business because they’re unprofitable, they go out of business because they run out of money.  Your job has always been to maximize the money coming into your company.  For the next several quarters, your job will also be to minimize the money leaving your company.

So, as the top sales officer in your company you have a choice.  You can wait for the orders to come down and scramble to meet whatever deadline is imposed on you, or you can begin now to think through the best possible method & process and have a good plan ready.  Hopefully you are that strong, credible person described in “Why Leaders Get Followers”.  If I were you I would create a -10% solution, and a -25% solution.  But first a few questions.

1. Can you categorize your fixed compensation expenses?  You may want to consider the following;  A) Customer acquisition (sales),  B) Customer retention (account management), C) Operations (CRM, incentive admin etc.), D) Support (anyone in the field who does not have a quota or direct customer accountability).  You need to understand where the fixed compensation expenses reside.  Understanding these numbers will help you think more creatively. 
2. Are there any other expenses that can be annihilated before eliminating jobs?  Company Cars?  Rent?  Memberships?  Travel?
3. Are there any operations that are now out of alignment with your company strategy?  (i.e. inside sales group soliciting small businesses while your curremt strategy does not focus on small businesses)
4. Are there any creative solutions?  Would your organization be better off implementing a 10% reduction in salaries rather than a 10% reduction in workforce?  Careful, this may be more palatable but you will have adverse turnover if you do not manage this correctly.

If there is no other solution but to reduce the number of sales and account managers you have a challenge in front of you.  You can huddle with your field management team and come up with a list of jobs to eliminate, or you can create a process that will distill the best contributors from your group.  I would focus on the process and the more transparent, the better.  I am creating an in-depth process for publication, but for now I would suggest the following:

• Extract quarterly sales results from the prior 3 years.  You need to rank contributors by quartile and summarize.  Refrain from using performance evaluations if possible, they are often biased.
• If you have a good CRM program run a sales pipeline report.  But be careful, the pipeline can be chock full of dead prospects.  You can easily scrub the results by putting a time frame parameter.  For example run a report that only shows the pipeline of those prospects which have graduated in the sales cycle steps within the last 30 days.  This should show you the pipeline of each person with “active” sales progress.
• What are the three to five most important sales competencies?  You must identify the most important self leadership competencies, and define them in terms of the action steps are best practices.

Having led several large “right sizing” processes of sales organizations I hold a strong conviction that assessing sales people fairly is a three step process.  You must consider past, present and future contributions.  I know this sounds wacky, but it can be done.  In fact, when you perform the tasks bulleted above you are half way there.

1. Prepare an assessment of the previous 12 quarters for all sales people with more than one year of tenure.  You can best compare results by characterizing results in quartiles.  Obviously this exercise summarizes past contributions.
2. Each representative’s sales pipeline is the best indication of the contributions they will make in the near future (present).  Take care to sort and cut this data to eliminate “hope” from reality.  If your sales cycle is 6 months perhaps you should only count prospects who have moved cycle steps in the last 30 days.  If your CRM system is not robust enough for this excercise you’ll have to enlist the help of your field managers to manually scrub the pipeline.
3. Assessing the skill and will of each representative on each of the 3 to 5 competencies will tell you the likelihood of future contributions.  This step is the most overlooked in downsizing processes, and that is a fundamental flaw.  Your company, products and competitive environments are continuously changing!  You should identify the most important skills today and assess or interview to ensure those skills are in place.  Your sales people also change over time.  Yes, unfortunately a person may have all the skills necessary to be a peak performer but they may have lost the will to do the task.  For more information see the post “Sales Will”.

This economy will improve and believe it or not, you will be in a recruiting mode again.  In the meantime you are going to have to help your company get through the next several quarters.  How you go about this process is going to have a dramatic impact on the perceptions of your leadership, and the culture of your sales organization.  Do a poor job and you may survive, but when the economy improves your best performers may seek a better working environment.  Do the right thing, do it well and show your trustworthiness, compassion and support for everyone in your organization.

Why Leaders Get Followed – Pointers From 297 People Who Chose To Follow

Tags

business, effectiveness, leadership, leadership traits, management, sales excellence, sales management, self improvement

Does every manager lead, inspire and motivate their team to new heights?  Of course not, but some are remembered for years…even decades by members of their team.  People have told me they have fond, warm memories when I ask them to tell me about the best leader they ever worked for.  So instead of writing an article about the dynamics of leadership, I though it may be more useful to view leadership from the eyes of those that follow.

I wanted to know what people thought about the best leader they ever worked for.  I had asked the question numerous times in leadership training classes, but the people attending were speaking out amongst peers so I wasn’t sure they were speaking from the heart.  So I posed the question on LinkedIn, a business oriented social media site.  In LinkedIn there are groups where you can post a discussion/question and members of that group are free to comment.  I posted the question on two sales groups, a CFO group, two HR groups and a general executive group.  297 people responded, offering 495 words and 132 phrases.

The results were both confirming to some of what I have seen before, but at the same time I read words I had never hear in a classroom environment.  Words like “servant” were offered more than once.  I followed up with some people to ensure I understood their meaning as many comments came from around the world.

Visionary was the word most commonly mentioned 1st, and was the most common word offered overall.  Integrity and inspiration came in tied for 2nd.  I won’t bore you by listing all the words, but the longer I thought about them, the more clearly I saw what people thought differentiated this leader from all the others.  When I began to bundle these words under 5 traits it became clear what people value most from leaders vs. everyday managers.  The traits I identified were; technical competency, leadership competency, character, composure, and care for people. 

Competency/Functional – I was surprised that this trait was not more highly valued.  Comments from around the world with many submissions from the technology world still barely registered.  The two most commonly offered words, knowledgeable and competent, only appeared 9 times out of 495 words.

Competency/Leadership – This trait had double the offering of the next most valued trait (of course leadership was part of the question).  The most common submissions were visionary, inspirational, empowering and mentoring.  Of interest to me was that when I sent an email to thank people for commenting in the discussion they offered more information about these traits but rarely mentioned the leader.  I only note this because I found it very different from those who wrote back about character and care for people.

Character – This was the 2nd most commonly valued trait, and easily the most common word used was integrity.  Honesty, humility and trusting were all mentioned often but integrity was offered more often then the other 3 combined.  The tone of follow up discussions was interesting.  This trait was definately highly valued but again, they spoke more about the trait than the person.  My inference was that this trait was the entrance ticket, not the main attraction.

Care for people – This is the 3rd place trait but don’t dismiss this if you aspire to be someone’s best leader!  The words most commonly offered were; Trustworthy, caring, supporting and compassionate.  Now for the most interesting part…this is the trait that naturally evokes the most emotion.  I got unsolicited emails from several respondents thanking me for posing a question that reminded them of a particular person.  More than one told me how warm the memories were.  This was inspirational to me because it seemed that even though this was the third place trait in my survey it may be the trait that many good leaders do not have, or at least do not display.  Statistically this may be in third place, but those that experienced it absolutely loved it.

Composure – This is an interesting trait because people seem to appreciate behavior in a leader that is opposite to those that are following!  In a time of dramatic change, they speak of being calm under pressure.  When the environment is calm and sleepy, they appreciate passion over any overlooked principle.  The top two words were passionate and listens.

This was a very interesting excercise for me and I hope enlightening for you.  If you are inspired to become that one leader that someone will remember…maybe even decades after they worked for you then I would suggest you focus on the following.

Leadership competency – the most high valued trait.  Driven by perceptions of vision, inspiration and empowerment.

Character – the second most valued trait.  Warning!  If anyone spots ANY lack of integrity then move on.  Always do the right thing even when no one is watching.

Care for people – maybe 3rd place in people’s mind but 1st place in their heart.  Perception will be driven by your trustworthiness, compassion and support.

Composure – 4th place BUT a lack of composure will always ruin all the hard work you put in the other traits.  People appreciate calm under pressure and passion over principal.

Psssst… hire the quiet one…

Tags

Interviewing, management, performance, sales effectiveness, sales people, sales respresentatives, sales training

So which candidate is will you give the job offer?  The quiet one that answered all your questions very well, or that incredibly outgoing candidate that could barely stay seated?  Leaning towards the firecracker?  After all, who doesn’t prefer the smiley super enthusiastic candidate?  Besides everyone else on the interviewing team is going to have the same preference.  Right?

Don’t click that back button yet, let’s think this through.  Enthusiasm, defined by dictionary.com has an interesting definition for this word.  Enthusiasm is “a source or cause of great excitement or interest.”  So when someone shows a great deal of enthusiasm are they showing you a personality trait or are they revealing a very strong interest in the subject?  I’m all for great excitement as long as that emotion transfers to the prospect.  And just to throw a damper on this prospect… how long will that enthusiasm hold up under pressure?

However, if you want to be happy with this decision twelve months from now, you need to find out more about this enthusiasm, and I would beg you to consider “will” first.  Okay then, what is will?  One definition is “purpose or determination, often hearty or stubborn determination; willfulness: to have the will to succeed.”  Where does this will come from?  Strong will is a product of desire, incentive, security and confidence.  Interestingly security and confidence only come about once someone learns how to do a task well, and then repeats the act often enough for it to become second nature.

Just so you don’t think this is a semantics discussion let’s put the comparison to practical use.  Let’s say that you have decided that the four most important skills for this sales job are prospecting, presenting, probing and closing.

The enthusiastic candidate tells you he loves prospecting.  He can’t wait to learn more about your lead generation programs.  Your “composed” candidate tells you about her four favorite sources for generating target lists.  She tells you about her system of emails, sourcing for networking introductions, and finally about how she sets aside a full day each week to make old fashioned appointment setting phone calls.

Your enthusiastic candidate can’t wait to tell you how he likes assembling just the right team to make client presentations.  For weeks ahead of time he works internally to get the team excited about the prospect and the role they will each take in the meeting.  The other candidate makes it clear she has goals of making no less than three presentations each week to new prospects.  She works from a preset presentation format because she wants to ensure that she is able to focus on finding out current practices.  She reveals that if the prospect does less than half of the talking then she failed.

Your firecracker tells you how he likes finding out as much as possible about his prospects.  He can’t wait to learn of prospect needs so he can reveal how their company can satisfy those needs.  The other candidate tells you that she feels the questions she asks, and the timing of those questions are her secrets to success.  She talks about open ended questions, qualifying probes, directional probes, and using closed probes to confirm needs and trial close.

Finally, the more enthusiastic candidate tells you his closing ratio is the best in his current company.  He tells you he NEVER gives up, that his pipeline is filled with prospects who simply haven’t said yes yet!  The more reserved candidate tells you how she ensures she has enlisted a coach within the prospect company.  She tells you how important it is to ensure that her coach is highly credible with the decision maker.  Finally she tells you that if the final presentation with the decision maker has not occurred with four months she seeks out a new coach.

So it’s decision time.  Which candidate get’s the job?  High enthusiasm or high will?

Okay, I will make two admissions. 

First I have never been accused of being over exciteable.

Second, if it were my decision…I would keep interviewing until I found a very high skill, high will sales person with a good level of enthusiasm.  However, if these were my only two candidates, I would choose high will every time!

There May Be Some Unwanted Guests At Your Next Group Presentation!

Tags

management, performance, performance management, sales effectiveness, sales goals, sales management, sales training, selling

I know that you didn’t invite them…but someone did and you better figure out their role!

Hold on, don’t throw anything at your screen, because I didn’t invite them either, but let’s sit down and figure out what roles people play.  Remember the longer your sales cycle is the more people you’re going to meet.  And the more group discussions you have, the more strangers you’ll have to deal with. 

Let’s start out with, what I don’t mean by buyer roles.  First I don’t mean personality types…even though I love the names I’ve heard.  There was Seymour D’Tails, the analytical type that could never get enough details.  There was Penelope Pincher, the CFO that only cared about purchase price.  So even though it is helpful to understand social styles sales strategies (an old Xerox training program) I am really only writing about the role that people play in the buying process.

Let’s list the roles then talk about what you can expect from them, and how you should interact with them.  Okay, get your pens ready.  There are contacts, coaches, evaluators, key influencers, decision makers and…gatekeepers. 

Contacts – They can be almost anybody in the prospect company.  You will meet many of them over time, and sooner or later their role may change.   So what do all contacts have in common?

• They are to some degree knowledgeable about their company.
• They probably have credibility in some parts of the organization.
• They are able to provide some information.
• They are willing to meet with you.

Coaches – From all the contacts you meet you’re going to have to find a coach.  So what should you look for in addition to those listed under a contact?

• You know this person is credible within her/his own department and probably beyond.
• This person will share information freely with you.
• Additionally like all good coaches they will give you direction.
• Your coach will double check your strategy if you share it.
• They win if you win, therefore they want you to win, and they will proactively position your case when you’re not there.  Why?  Because they see your product/service as the best business fit (and they might gain a little power)

Evaluators - These folks are tricky.  First we know they have some credibility and they have some organizational tie to the use of your products/services.  Why are they “tricky’?  Because they generally focus only on the present and get very concerned about the details & specifications of your product/service (and sales people like to focus on the future and benefits, not features).  When you’re dealing with evaluators you better be a product expert or bring one with you.  They are also tricky because an evaluator that has enough credibility with the decision maker can easily become a key influencer.  “Oh no…what’s that?”

 Key Influencer- These folks are a special breed, and they are the most difficult to recognize.  Key Influencers are the mac daddy of evaluators because of the credibility they have with the decision maker.  Key Influencers can be delegated the authority to make decisions.  So they are very difficult to spot because if that delegation of authority did not take place, these folks will still look like a duck, walk like a duck, quack like a duck but they’re not a duck.

Decision Makers - Sorry Anthony Parinello…I loved your book “Selling to VITO (Very Important Top Officer)” but decision makers are not always CXO’s.  They can be, but they don’t have to be.  Look, if each of the Fortune 1000 has 6 top officers then there’s only 6,000 decison makers for over 5,000,000 sales people to sell.  So how do we recognize a decision maker?

• They focus on the future (just like us!)
• They focus on the health of their company
• They ask why a lot more often than they ask what
• They can say no, even when everybody else says yes (just like a key influencer)
• And…they can say yes when everyone else says no (AHHH a key influencer cannot do this!)  This is all you really need to know.

So who’s left?  Oh yes…the famous gatekeeper.  Well there’s two kinds of gatekeepers.  First there’s the administrative type that’s the air traffic controller between you and the person you’re trying to call.  Let’s not talk about them because they’re just doing their job, and if you can’t find a way through or around them you should transfer out of sales.

Gatekeepers – Gatekeepers are usually graduates from the user role or the evaluator role.  Don’t think of them as the enemy…but think of them as the anti-coach.  Remember, a coach wins when you win?  Guess what?  A gatekeeper sees themselves as losing if you win.  Don’t let your fragile ego worry about why…just accept the fact.  So also accept the fact that while a coach will proactively support you when you’re not there…a gatekeeper will gladly point out your weak spots in your absence.  And it gets worse.  ALMOST EVERY GATEKEEPER IS A COMPETITOR’S COACH!  But that’s okay, if you chose your coach wisely they will have more credibility and will gladly slay the dragon.  Oh…and one more thing before you leave…sometimes gatekeepers smile at you during your meeting.

Well I’m almost to my self imposed 900 word limit so I think I’ve overdone this topic.  If you have an opposing point of view feel free to register that by clicking on the title of this article, and a comment box should appear.  In fact, leave a comment anyway it’s lonely here.

Field Sales Managers – Be the best

Tags

assessment, effectiveness, management, performance, performance management, sales effectiveness, sales management, sales respresentatives, sales training

When I run sales training programs I ask the question “Give me a phrase that describes the best leader you ever worked for”.  The answers might suprise you.  RARELY do people use a phrase that describes a technical competency.  What you hear most often are phrases that describe leadership competencies/traits.  People get pretty emotional when they think of the best leader they ever worked for…because they remember what that person did for them.  They talk about high expectations coupled with a coach that helped them get there.  They speak about a sales leader that continuously communicated with them and also listened to their input.  They remember someone who did make goals clear but also took the time to talk through step by step tactical plans that would help them meet their goals.  In essence they felt more like a customer than a “direct report”. 

And I think that if you, as a field sales manager, think of each of your team members as customers of your leadership then you just might be the person they remember when they’re asked about the best leader they ever worked for. 

So what practices can you integrate into your daily routines that will build your credibility as a great leader?  The following activities will help.    You’ve got to fight off the natural inclination to be “the master closer” and spend all your time going on the toughest sales calls.  You must invest time in group & individual settings to ensure that these activities are a continuous practice.

• Strategy Communication – It is your job to continuously inform your team of the key components of your companies strategy.  An effective way to deliver this information is to make Town Hall Meetings a part of your routine when you visit your various sales offices.  Start each of these meetings with a 10 to 15 minute overview of the company’s strategy.  This is not a session of accountability but of informing and ensuring understanding.
• Tactical Plans Communication – Don’t leave it to everyone’s imagination how they can best support the company’s strategy in their daily efforts.  Tell them how they can do their job differently from the way they did it in the past.  Define explicitly how you would approach their job if you were in their territory.
• When meeting with team members one on one recognize that you have a variety of leadership styles to choose from…think about it and use the style that best fits “your customer”.  You can choose a directing style specifically telling someone what to do, when to do it and how to follow up with you.  You could choose a guiding style that would have some directing but would blend in asking for input and coming to agreement on next steps.  You might decide that a supporting style is a better fit.  A supporting style is primarily asking the person how they plan on doing the task then supporting their plan (with some checking in on progress).  Your final option is that of delegating.  When you have a high skill, high will team member this is the leadership style they will appreciate.  For more information on leadership styles feel free to send me an email @ gregorydeming@gmail.com
• Development plans – EVERY member of your team deserves a development plan and the best development plans include a commitment from the team member and a commitment from you.  Just because a team member reliably meets all their goals does not mean they wouldn’t benefit from your help.  Also, development plans are not the paragraph that you include with annual performance appraisals.  If your team members are finding out about their inperfections once a year then you’re not doing your job.
• Sales Participation Level – Avoid extremes.  I have seen managers who, once promoted, don’t see their job as making joint sales calls.  This is a great way to lose your leadership credibility.  The other extreme is spending all your time attending critically important closing calls.  You may indeed be the “master closer” and your sales people may love having you with them.  But your team members will not develop to their potential if you’re not investing time coaching.  Choose a sales participation level, say 30-40% of your time, then continually assess if that’s the right level for your team.
• Coaching Level – Invest time with each team member.  The subjects you cover should include tactical planning, major prospect strategy, development planning.
• Performance Management – Today, peformance management is not about reacting to annual or quarterly sales results.  You must look at sales results, sales pipeline data and think through each team members skill levels.  Every step of the sales cycle requires a different skill set.  Be proactive!  Be a coach!  If your boss tells you one of your team members is a problem then you lose, and that team member loses.
• Recognition – This is a component of leadership that I have to continuously remind myself of because I personally did not need a lot of recognition.  The more goal oriented a person is the less they need continuous recognition.  However recognition serves two purposes.  Firstly it is very motivational whether the person needs it or not.  But just as importantly public recognition makes it clear to others what you appreciate.  If you don’t recognize anyone then it’s only fair that your team assumes you don’t appreciate anything.  Don’t overdo recognition but realize that this is an incredibly powerful tool.

As a field sales manager there are many issues that are outside of your control (budgets, incentive plan design, lead generation etc.).  You can provide upward feedback about those issues.  However, your team as customers of your leadership, depend upon you to become the best leader they ever worked for!

Sales Execution – It’s more than sales performance management.

Tags

assessment, management, performance, Sales, sales cycles, sales effectiveness, sales effectiveness consulting, sales people

Sales execution is all about clarity of strategy and then simply (though not easily) following through.  However the larger the sales organization the more complex execution becomes.  Execution is driven by several variables but in effect we are really talking about defining what we want and then managing performance.  It’s simple but hazy.  Think it’s simple?  Then Google sales performance and see what you get.  Pages upon pages of SFA, CRM, incentive software and a lot of consulting organizations to help you implement your new enterprise solution.  I am a huge fan of MIS and information/data but sales performance is not about software.  Performance Management is about assessing a sales person’s past, present and future contributions, identifying gaps and then coaching them towards continuous improvement!  Software plays a leading role but the core of this lies in HQ leadership, field sales manager attention and ultimately the culture that develops because of action taken.

Essentially there are eight drivers of performance management and each is important but I am placing them in order of occurance:

1. Goal Clarity – KISS.  The more goals you distribute and the more they are interwoven the harder it will be to determine what is expected and how to meet expectation.  All too frequently every product manager wants to ensure that their product is represented in the sales goals.  The strategy already calls for several variables; revenue, account size, new vs. current client expansion etc.  Integrating too many variables will make defining a tactical prescription for acheivement difficult.
2. Tactical perscription for acheivement.  To ensure goal attainmment you need to define how you expect the job to be performed.  This is the step most often omitted and is the most common cause of performance failure.  You must be able to translate the goal into a tactical plan.  How many accounts need to be acquired?  Average account size?  What should the sales pipeline look like?  Without tactical plans and detailed performance metrics you are leaving it to each sales representative to create their own plan of action.
3. Performance metrics.  If you have a simple set of goals then you should be able to reverse engineer them through your sales cycle closing ratio’s to define with precision what a typical sales pipeline should look like.  This is a CRITICAL step!  This benchmark is the tool that will allow field managers to identify gaps during battle and help people alter their approach.  If your metrics are poor then you will have to wait for outcomes before you know if your sales will hit target.  If your metrics are good you will always know where you are headed and will always have the ability to correct your course.
4. SFA, CRM—essentially any automation tool that allows you to see data about sales activity, progress and prospect information sorted in any way necessary.  Whether you have your own system or use one of the many available online doesn’t really matter.  What does matter is that sales management has the information they need identify gaps and help each member of their team with on the spot coaching.
5. Leadership Training and unified coaching approaches.  Most companies promote great sales people into field sales manager jobs.  Few companies provide any leadership training.  Great sales people can become great sales managers but they need a road map and every coach can use a coach.  Without training and coaching you are risking the loss of a great sales person and the eight to ten people they manage.
6. Joint call activity level.  We expect so much of field sales management; overall production, margins, pipelines, forecasting, CRM adoption, resource utilization (cost of sales), turnover ratio’s, training participation etc.  It’s easy to see how field sales management can fall into the trap of reacting versus leading and coaching.  Joint calls are a critical activity and HQ leadership should ensure that they communicate this as a priority initiative.
7. Performance Management Process.  World class sales organizations will find a routine method to regularly assess the performance of every contributor, team and regional units.  Essentially this is a process that will examine past contributions (previous quarterly results), current contributions (sales pipelines) and future results (skill levels).  Too many companies use annual performance evaluations.  Sales people are not like any other employee.  Annual performance evaluations are not good for the company and they are terrible feedback tools for sales people.
8. Sales Culture – All of the above drivers will be recognized by members of the sales organization as guideposts of how seriously Senior Management takes sales performance.  Over time this perception will define the culture of your sales organization.  A high performance culture recognizes that management has high expectations, well defined paths of execution, a culture of coaching and self improvement and a laser like focus on meeting/exceeding expectations.

Sales Will

Tags

assessment, business, effectiveness, performance, sales effectiveness, sales goals

Sales people armed with world class sales skills may still produce sub-optimal sales results.  To produce optimal results sales skills must be complimented with a strong sales “will”.  The will to succeed is far more than outward enthusiasm.  Enthusiasm is contageous and exciting to be around but by itself will not push the organization to the highest level of output.

Sales will, at an individual and organizational level is driven by four variables;

• Desire – the belief held in expectation that something important will happen if the task is successfully accomplished.
• Incentive – the individual or organization sees a benefit that is proportionately motivational to the the difficulty of the task.
• Security – Frequently the security that sales people want is delivered by credible field leadership.  They want to know that when they open themselved up for a challenge that there is a fair exchange of risk and reward and that their manager is there to help and support their quest.
• Confidence – First the sales person gains confidence in themselves as the learn, practice and execute critical sales tasks.  For instance, setting appointments with new prospects.  Only when one has learned a script correctly and made hundreds of outbound calls will they gain the confidence they need to do that task well.  However it is more than believing in yourself.  It is also a confidence that sales people are supported with the tools they need and that the sales resources are aligned with helping move the prospect forward in their buying process.

To have high will all four drivers must be high.  So even if you hire a sales person with high will, your organization can detract or compliment a sales person’s sales will.  Sales Will, can be driven by the sales person’s perception of the following sales resources and programs;

1. Compensation Plans – The proportion of salary and variable compensation is important.  If you want peak performers to substantially out earn those who make smaller contributions you need to put more emphasis on variable compensation and less on salary.  Peak performers (the top 10%) should make double the total income of average performers and at least triple that of marginal contributors.  Compensation for struggling contributors should be minimal so that they are continuously motivated to improve.
2. Incentive Plan Design – Incentive plans are the “Holy Grail” of what you want from the sales people.  No matter what you say in town hall meeting or field memos, the sales people will figure out how to maximize their income through the incentive plan.  Plans should reflect a clear line of sight from the lowest level of sales position through the highest level of field manager.  Also the KISS principal holds true here.  Sales people are goal setters and you should make it easy for them to translate their personal goals into tactical sales plans.  Finally the incentive plan should be aligned with the sales strategy.  Too many times I have seen sales strategies that rely on increasing acquisition of Fortune 500 clients while the incentive plan is tilted towards selling more smaller accounts.
3. Peer Recognition – For the sales person being recognized this is a huge confidence builder.  For those that are not recognized this is managements chance to demonstrate an example of the the results & behaviors they are see at important.  Peer recognition takes place in a variety of ways; recognition at gatherings (especially national & regional meetings) but it can also take place through the generation of local, regional and national reports that are distributed company wide.
4. Family & Friend Recognition – This may be one of the most powerful tools to grow sales will.  Trips and other events allow winners to proclaim to others that they have achieved a high level of recognition.  Many companies sponsor recognition events designed to thank peak performers, sometimes with spouse attendance, for the contributions they made.  Some companies will have two “clubs” that sales people can earn.  Usually there is a “President’s Club” for the peak performers and then there can be a “100%” club for everyone who succeeded in delivering to a challenging quota.
5. Training – Until recently company sponsored training was held classroom style with all or most sales people required to attend.  The subject matter was broad and included lectures, discussions and role plays.  Today many very good training programs are available online.  It is very important that a combination of both are used.  When the field manager identifies a particular sales skill is needed they can require that sales person to take the appropriate sales training class.  However, the most important training activity is the interaction between the sales manager and the sales representative.
6. Coaching – Everyone needs a coach.  Coaches help spot small changes, they help players train and most of all they help players try new approaches that may produce dramatically better results.  First level field managers should be a coach first and a manager second.  Coaches also hold us accountable to lean relearn and practice those skills & tasks that make us optimally effective.
7. Sales Support – “We’re from HQ and we are here to help”…every heard that one before.  Sales support can help sales people succeed or they can make sales success harder than it should be.  This should be a primary concern for the top sales officer.  Every time a sales person perceives a sales support function as an attempt to catch them doing something wrong, the sales will dimishes.  Every time that same organization treats each sales person as “their customer” the will to do the sales job increases.
8. Reporting – Sales reports can build sales will or begin to erode desire and incentives.  Many of the companies I consult with view sales reports singularly as a management tool.  I try hard to get them to see publication of sales results can be used as an exceptional peer recognition tool.  Publishing national sales rankings from a variety of sorts can be very motivational for your peak performers…and also very motivational for strugglers, especially if you publish standings all the way down to last place.  On the opposite side imagine being a hard working sales person hidden away in a secondary market.  You keep your self organized and push hard to show your worth!  However, no one in a management position or headquarters ever sees the reports that showcase your results.  How long will you continue to push yourself?

Sales Skills

Tags

business, management, sales cycle, sales cycles, sales effectiveness, selling

There certain skills required for a sales person to help prospects successfully navigate through their purchasing process vary by industry and distribution channels.  For my purposes I will create a straw sales competency model for a company that sells products used commonly by other businesses and that the predominant distribution channel is direct.

The first four skills are critical skills that the sales person uses to gain access to decision makers & key influencers, to raise the prosects awareness of their needs, to probe for business fit and finally to help prospects make the purchasing decision.  The second four skills are those that are necessary for the sales person to become a knowledgeable resource, to effectively & efficiently manage their territory and prospect pipelines.

1. Prospecting – The ability of the sales person to recognize potentially valuable customer relationships.  To find avenues of introduction to coaches, key influencers or decision makers.  The effective sales person will utilize a variety of tools to generate leads including networking, on-line sources, company originated leads and good old fashioned “dialing for dollars”.  It is essential that every sales person have a two minute sales pitch and a telephone script that is committed to memory  (my opinion).  All skills are squarely aimed at identifying opportunity and gaining access.  This is the one skill that fills a pipeline.  No matter how talented a sales person is in other skill areas, a gap here will always put a governor on their utimate contributions.
2. Presenting – While prospecting is a sales person’s least favorite activity, most sales people feel they shine when it comes to presenting.  However presenting is so much more than standing in front of people and telling them everything you know.  Generally there are two types of presentations.  The first is an exploratory first discussion, usually with a coach or key influencer.  The intent of this meeting is to exchange information and to probe for a business fit.  I do suscribe to the ABC of selling (always be closing), it is most likely that the close on this call is to move to the next step of the sales cycle, usually a needs analysis.  The other type of meeting is a formal presentation (see #4).  This meeting is generally for a discussion of a proposal and to sell the business fit between the two companies.  This meeting may seem like a “love fest” when a talented sales person delivers a flawless presentation.  This presentation is complicated and many sales people are not as competent as they should be.  Topics, tones and delivery are critically important!  Senior level decision makers will buy more from people that sell business fit, and demonstrate a knowledge of the prospect’s company.  In other words they are more likely to buy because of the fit and what you know about them & their company than what you know about your own company and products.
3. Probing – The most consistently high performing sales people are not surprisingly the best at probing.  They probe for decision making process, players & roles, current practices, potential obstacles, uncovering gatekeepers and they are always seeking out the components of a superior business fit.  This is an area that cannot be over trained, or over practiced!
4. Proposing & Closing – There are several elements to the proposal presentation meeting.  Introduction, agenda, customer overview, your company overview, the business fit and next steps.  Depending upon your industry, company and products the amount of time invested in each element will vary.
5. Industry Knowledge – Sales people must be infinitely knowedgeable about their industry and should have a good understanding of the prospect’s industry.  The more the sales person understands about the prospects industry the more referrals and recommendations they will receive.
6. Product Knowledge – All sales people must know everything about their products.  The knowledge must go beyond the specifications of the product, the must know how the product is used!  Spending time with your customer service delivery group, your operations and within customer’s operations are all splendid investments that will yield great returns over time.  As important as product knowledge is, it is also important that this knowledge is shared sparingly.  Prospect are only interested in enough product knowledge to assure themselves that they are buying a product/service that will work for them.  Product knowledge should be crammed into a proposal, not a presentation.
7. Sales Pipeline Management – With the installation of CRM the importance of the sales pipeline management has become increasingly important because many companies use CRM to forecast sales.  Errors in prospect assessment can make forecasting at least inaccurate if not misleading.  In addition to correctly assessing prospect pipeline each sales person should be able to correctly identify the obstacles and tactical plans to move the prospect to the next cycle step.
8. Resource Management – Sales costs continuously move higher and it is the job of every sales person to judiciously apply the resources necessary to acquire new accounts.  Expense management is thought to be a task for sales managers but the sales representative can be the solely determine the necessity of utilizing some centralized resources such as the number of people attending prospect meetings, the utility of centralized prosposal development etc.  Great sales people will call in the cavalry to acquire new business.

This formula and a description of the drivers is copyrighted.  I am publishing this information with the understanding that readers are free to use the insights, provided they reference it correctly.

Are Sales Cycles A Thing of the Past?

Tags

effectiveness, performance, Sales, sales cycles, sales effectiveness, selling

I admit I have used a business to business sales cycle in every job and every consulting engagement for decades.  But now I realize that I have been wrong!  You see sales cycles are merely abbreviations for a series of sequential sales activities that a sales person uses to define where they are in their sales process.  That’s good, but doesn’t that ignore the prospect?

What’s more important is the definition of where the prospect is in their BUYING PROCESS.  Think about it…both consumers and companies go through a series of related steps from needs discovery through contracting.  Consumers usually hold this process at a subconscious level while companies dedicate substantial resources to ensure due diligence to their buying process.

A standard B2B sales cycle is usually some variation of the following;

1. Suspect
2. Prospect
3. First Presentation
4. Needs Analysis
5. Formal Presentation/Proposal
6. Negotiation
7. Contract

In contrast a simplified company buying process would usually include the following steps;

1. Needs Discovery
2. Situation Analysis
3. Desired Impact
4. Potential Solutions Survey
5. Identify Potential Providers
6. Request for Prosposal
7. Negotiation with Favored Provider
8. Contract

So it’s easy to see that sales people can easily misread where the prospect is in their buying process and can just as easily apply to wrong sales activity.  For instance; sales person A can be awaiting word on the proposal he/she submitted while the prospect is still trying to agree upon their desired state.  Clearly the sales person is accurately defining their sales cycle step by inputting step 5 (proposal submitted) into the CRM system as the last step completed, but it’s going to be a long wait for an answer that may never come.  And to make the situation worse, the sales manager will apply increasing pressure on the sales person to get a decision which will utimately erode the credibility of the sales person.

These “misreads” of sales pipelines are going to have negative impacts on sales forecasts, revenue projections, budgets and every other metric that sales leaders depend upon.

I am not suggesting that companies try to migrate their CRM sytems or training from sales cycles to buying processes but I am suggesting that field managers use their knowledge of a buying process to validate where the sales person tags their prospects.

If this makes sense to you as a sales leader I would recommend the following steps;

1. In the next gathering of your top performers lead a session to define the buying process of your typical new customers.  Try to keep the step descriptions simple and try to keep the number of steps under 10.
2. When you meet with customers you know well ask them to help you validate the buying process.
3. Begin to train your 1st level of field managers on the buying process and make them accountable to use it as a basis to validate whether prospects are accurately portrayed in your CRM system.

The benefits to understanding customer buying processes are many, but there are two main advantages.  First, your sales people will do a better job probing where prospects are in their process.  This will lead to better accuracy in the CRM system and more reliability in your sales forecasting.  Secondly your sales people will have improved credibility with buyers because they will be viewed as hard helpers instead of hard closers!  And do you want to know something?  Assuming equal skills, hard helpers will always outsell hard closers!

Attention Sales Leaders! – Sales Performance Management Made Easy

Tags

assessment, business, management, performance, Sales, sales cycle, sales cycles, sales effectiveness consulting, sales excellence, sales goals, sales people, sales respresentatives, sales training

I was often troubled that Stephen Covey was right!  As the head of sales I was continuously investing my time on urgent activities and had almost no time left for important activities with no due dates!  I ran from cross functional meetings to budget meetings, then to HR meetings.  I even managed to approve expense reports and return a few phone calls.  But at the end of every day I had no time left to focus on moving my organization to the next level. 

Though my sales organization was expanding each year I knew that ultimately our effectiveness and performance would be driven by continuous improvement in all areas.  There would never be a magical training program and even though I looked for the consultant to help me navigate I never found anyone with the breadth and depth of experience I needed.

So, being a graphical person, I began to draw out a development map.  I wanted to create a guide consisting of all the variables that influenced sales results because I knew that once they were laid out we could honestly assess where the we resided and where the view the largest gaps.  I wanted to take a balanced view of sales skills, culture, expectations, management, execution, leadership, training, rewards & recognition, metrics, CRM and everything else.  At first the list was daunting until I realized that everything you could think of fit into one of four buckets:

• Sales Skills
• Sales Will
• Execution
• Leadership

All thirty two of the variables I came up with fit neatly into the four buckets!  (Well, I cheated a little to make it balance out correctly).  But the point is, I have used this formula in several companies and used it to create incredible sales growth in a very few short years.  In one year I was able to help a company grow sales by nearly 300%.  I used this system to build a new sales organization within American Express that within four years was generating $1.3 Billion in incremental sales.  I again used this system to improve sales at an established insurance company by 110% in less than 3 years.

Now as a consultant I use this system to help sales management executives pinpoint develop gaps in their organizations and to create field ready tools to begin the process of continuous improvement.  The best attributes of these tools is that sales representatives get the attention and coaching they appreciate, field managers can easily spot and attend to those skill gaps that are block sales performance improvement and most of all everyone involved feels better about the organizational culture.  Because my career started as a territory sales representative and ended as SVP of sales I have a unique understanding of how everything can work to everyone’s benefit.

Though I am new to the blogging world it is my intent to create a discussion around each of the 32 variables.  My goal is to share a system that will bring all the knowledge that an experienced sales executive has from the subconscious to the conscious level.

Why would a sales performance consultant share their most valuable asset for free?  A very good friend (DS) has convinced me that sharing things of value is the best possible way of building a sustainable business.  After much deliberation (and reading) I believe her.

If you are an executive level sales leader interested in continually improving your organizations sales performance I will share everything with you and I only ask in return that you participate with your comments so that others will benefit from your ideas. 

If you are currently in the process of reorganizing or right sizing your group I would be happy to forward a spreadsheet of the sales performance drivers and variables to you by email.  This spreadsheet will help keep the discussions organized.

I am happy that this sales performance blog has gotten your attention.  I am committed to providing you with the resource you need to help your sales teams face their challenges in 2009.  CHEERS