Doctors have the Hippocratic Oath. It is an ethical framework on which they can fall back when they have doubts about the right course of action. I think it must be comforting to have some kind of guidelines to fall back to when the shit hits the fan.
As far as I’m aware there is no Hippocratic Oath for entrepreneurs. I think there should be. In business you are often forced to seek out the boundaries of ethic behavior. How much profit can you make before you feel like an extortionist? How many people can you email before it becomes spam? Just like doctors we are faced with difficult questions every day.
I’m not sure an entrepreneurial oath would have stopped the guys at Enron or Bernie Madoff. But things might have looked different if they would have had been exposed to some business ethics earlier in life.
Today I would like to make a start with an Entrepreneurial Code of Conduct. We might call it Schumpeter’s Oath, after Joseph Schumpeter, the economist credited with introducing the concept of the Entrepreneur. Or simply the Entrepreneurs Oath.
I don’t care much and I hope someone takes the whole thing, publishes it on a wiki and comes up with a better text. What I drafted here is just that, a draft. If you know the Hippocratic Oath you might recognize parts of it. I took one version and rewrote it to fit us entrepreneurs better.
Scott Sheaffer of ‘Sales Tips Blog‘ recently wrote a post about not always being the nice guy. In the past I have found myself falling into this rut and then being walked over by my clients. With time I realized that people respect someone with a backbone not a yes man.
Always Being Nice Is Not A Good Sales Strategy
by Scott R. Sheaffer
Always being the “nice” person and never creating any waves with your customers may not represent the best sales tips for your success.
Allow Me To Give You An Example From Hollywood
Freddie Prinze, Jr. is a well-known actor. Everyone likes him and he has stayed out of trouble. The same can be said for Nick Lachey, a well-known singer who used to be married to Jessica Simpson. He is also well liked and I’ve never seen him featured in a police mug shot.
I don’t always buy into what Seth Godin is telling me, which is true with this video… however I like how he looks at things differently and encourages creative thought.
My Dad worked over 30 years in high-rise construction and was telling me a story last week about a guy he hired years ago named Flop. Flop was in his 4th year apprenticeship and was looking for a new job. Flop should have known most of his trade however in the job interview with my Dad he was asked about what he learned in his previous employment, his answer was surprising. “I haven’t learned anything” he said “I’m a big guy so they use me to pack stuff”.
The reason my Dad hired Flop was that he knew what he didn’t know, he wasn’t arrogant, didn’t stretch the truth and wouldn’t be a liability on the job.
Flop turned out to be a great employee and learned what he needed to become a journeyman. After reaching independence my father fired him, telling him to find work elsewhere and after 4 months he could have his job back if he wanted it.
After a year of working on house construction Flop came back to work for my Dad who again asked what he learned. Flop answered “I know I hate house construction, it isn’t complicated or interesting” showing the intelligence beyond his name and size.
Flop had a successful career in high rise construction because of his honesty and the recognition of his potential by a manager.
Sales Professionals… do you know what you don’t know? Do you know how to close? Do you know how to complete a 1000 page RFQ?
In other posts I’ve talked about knowing your fears as they relate to sales, knowing what you don’t know will give you a similar advantage.
My sinuses are a problem for me and have been my whole life. I had surgery on them a few years back and it really helped me breathe and sleep better. I still have some trouble in the mornings and now use a Netty Pot for nasal irrigation. Having clear sinuses allows me to speak more clearly and project my voice better.
Here is a post from Kenrick Chatman of Live Life At Home that has some great insite for someone new to Professional Sales;
Sales is the foundation of a successful business. Like Red Motley once stated, “Nothing happens until a sale is made”. Currently, consumers and businesses are reluctant to spend. Likewise, it’s of utmost importance that sales professionals steer clear of these common sales blunders.
1. Not Prospecting Constantly: to consistently produce new business, a sales professional needs to maintain a pipeline primed with quality potential customers by using various prospecting techniques.
I don’t like Woody Allen or his films, I do like his quote “90% of success is just showing up” and how it resonates with every job I’ve ever been at.
Most sales reps can make 90% of quota by just showing up and going through the motions, to be better than 90% you have to be different, work harder and/or smarter.
Jill Myrick of Sales & The City recently wrote a great post about the one thing that gets her on track to success. For me the one thing that keeps me successful is appointment activity, I am able to be better at everything when I’m active.
There is no shortage of list that will give you the rules, etiquette or do’s and dont’s of e-mail… here is my short list of ‘When Sales People Shouldn’t Use E-Mail’.
Sarcasm – Sarcasm doesn’t work with e-mail at the best of times… with a client it will be a disaster.
Negative Reply – If you need to answer an e-mail with any negative connotation… like not being able to deliver what the client wanted, an important shipment will not make it on time, the pricing you agreed upon has increased or your meeting time needs to be moved… pick up the phone and talk to them.
Jokes – clients will send you jokes and NSFW pictures… it is not an invite to share what you find funny or sexy.
Sensitive Information – Don’t send an e-mail to a client you wouldn’t want your competition to read.
Hitting reply is too easy, calling a client to reply to their e-mail is often more effective, more personal and will help you gain the trust you are looking for.
Some people have the forethought to avoid mistakes, I’m not always one of those people… I like to charge ahead and make mistakes… learn from them and charge again. This attitude of jumping in with both feet can get me into trouble and not liked by everyone. I think it helps me be a better sales person… sales people need that drive.
When I screw up at work my manager is great, he allows me to understand why it went wrong and then ends the conversation with “put this one into the education file”… that simple statement from him lets me know I screwed up but it’s going to be okay and a long as I’ve learned from this everyone will be better for it.
I was traveling with my manager when I was still ‘new’ to the industry and we went into an appointment where we knew we were not one of the current suppliers. During the meeting we learned that there was little chance of becoming a supplier because of previous commitments. The meeting was professional and we walked out with an understanding if anything changed they would call us or we could call on them anytime.
I received the following positive points from the meeting;
I was able to meet another long standing business owner in a small industry
I developed a better understanding of their supplier commitments which would help me in other similar appointments
I could eliminate them from my list of prospects allowing me to focus on others
Being new in the position I could make mistakes and polish my approach before sitting with a Key Account
My manager stepped out of the meeting saying “well that was a waste of time” which shocked me, I was new to the industry and wanted to be my best in front of her… I knew what I gained from the meeting however I wondered if she was right.
Months later I received an e-mail from our VP that the commitments of that prospect and their affiliates have changed and we should approach them and maintain any relationship we have as there may be new opportunities coming.
My copy of How To Win A Pitch by Joey Asher has about 15 post-it notes sticking out of it at every possible angle… for me this is a clear sign of an effective how-to reference style business book. I enjoyed reading HTWAP and have used it a few times in the last month to give me a quick reminder before a big presentation.
I had some questions about how his book would help Sales Professionals, here are the answers;
What recommendations would you make for a sales rep who must pitch to a group they don’t know well?
The first rule is to do everything possible to learn as much as possible about the prospect before the presentation. It usually doesn’t take much to get some valuable information to improve the quality of your presentation. When you set the date for the presentation, just ask for the chance to speak to a few key players before the pitch. Even a few short telephone calls with a few key players can go a long way. My experience is that sellers underestimate their ability to gather good intelligence about a prospect. It’s time consuming. But it pays off.
Describe the different approach between a capabilities presentation and a solution presentation.
A solution presentation is where you start by identifying the challenges that your prospect faces. Then you lay out a solution to address those challenges. A good solution presentation feels like a piece of consulting work that the prospect would have been willing to pay for. These types of presentations are highly compelling and get the prospect excited.
A capabilities presentation is where you just detail all the services that your offer. The problem with capabilities presentations is that they feel generic and often don’t address the prospect’s needs. The best way to improve your capabilities presentations is to focus less on the services that you offer and more on the types of problems that you solve.
Chapter 3 is titled “How to Get the Goods: Keys to Identifying Hot Buttons” and in 19 pages you are able to simplify fundamental sales skills in an easy to understand format, what is your sales experience?
I’ve helped clients create and deliver presentations that have won billions of dollars in new business contracts. Just recently we helped a partnership of two construction firms win a chance to build a $350 million hospital. I’ve also been running my own company and selling its services for 10 years.
What is one of your biggest pitch blunders or mistakes and were you able to turn it into a positive?
Early on, I was invited to give a presentation on how to help a consulting firm give better presentations. I relied only on my immediate contact for information on the prospect’s needs. I didn’t probe to get the needs from the key decision-maker. When we showed up for the presentation, it was clear that we didn’t really have a strong sense of what this decision-maker needed for his team. The presentation was a disaster. In fact, the key decision-maker said to me, “I really don’t see what you bring to the table here.” Ouch!
I turned it into a positive in that I never made that mistake again. I always insist on gathering information about the client from multiple sources.
If an organization would like additional coaching how can they contact you?
In sales we are forever setting goals, I like Tim’s idea about defining your fears instead of setting a new goal. One of my fears in sales is that I will be seen as nothing more than a ’sales guy’ however in knowing this fear I have been able to start on a path towards opportunities that move beyond client management.
Watch the video and see what fears you can come up with, knowing is the first step.
I am golfing with clients tomorrow and I could only imagine what my Customer Service team thinks about that while they slave away at a desk… what they don’t know is the hours I put in at night to ‘get’ a day of golf with clients. I will spend 3-4 hours on a Sunday night finishing follow-up from last week and prepping my week ahead. When I get home from a day of golf I’ll have another late night answering for the day I missed and then prepping for a week on the road.
Business golf is a nice perk… sometimes I think being done at 5:00 would be a pretty good perk as well.
Bert Decker of Decker Communications, Inc. wrote a recent post about Mehrabian’s 7%-38%-55% Rule, if you have the time you should read his post then read more about Bert Decker and Albert Mehrabian… add Decker’s blog to your RSS, you will be a better presenter for it.
More on Mehrabian here from Jeff at Wired Presentations and here by Judith E. Pearson, Ph.D
In a time when budgets are being cut and expense accounts looked at closer, you should be thinking about your expenses. Do you ever take your spouse out for dinner and claim you took out a client? Do you buy a round of beers with friends and laugh about how you ‘talked’ business when throwing down the company credit card?
I like to think to myself “would a free meal be worth the cost of my salary?” and no is the obvious answer… however expense account abuses happen in many professional sales positions.
I recently asked myself “What is the worst my manager could say about my expenses?” and the answer could be that I indulge in Starbucks too much (which I have a reason for) or maybe my choice of hotel is slightly over the company recommended amount. In either case they are minor abuses and would not require any action or repercussion.
Ask yourself “What is the worst my manager could say about my expenses?” and then see if you should be making some changes.
A few weeks ago I had posted Part 1 of an article by John Hertel titled ‘Why a Sales Process is Important’ for all three parts you can get the links here;
Former IBM President Thomas Watson was known for expanding his sales force when times were difficult and when his competition were cutting people and costs… when business was back, guess who had the advantage?
Why do approximately half of buyers view their sales contacts as business partners?
We asked buyers to identify the top three qualities they value most in salespeople. Table 1 shows the breakdowns by country. Only 31 percent of buyers cited “Relationship Building” as a top quality, while fewer picked “Business Advice” (8 percent) and “ROI Analysis” (4 percent), which helps indicate business impact.
Each of these three qualities is a critical component of business partnership. At the top for each country was “Product or Service Advice,” with 67 percent of all respondents citing it as a top quality. Overall, “Market Knowledge” and “Trust” rank second and third, but there are clear geographical differences. German buyers placed a high value on “Delivery Expediting” (47 percent) and a low value on “Trust” (15 percent). U.K. buyers placed a strong emphasis on “Pricing.”
With the many business ethics scandals particularly in North America over the past few years, perhaps it is no surprise that “Trust” scored so high in the U.S. and Canada.
To understand the area of trust in more detail, we asked buyers if they believe salespeople have their best interests at heart. Twenty percent of buyers in the survey believe that salespeople “definitely” have their best interests at heart. An additional 64 percent of buyers believe that salespeople “somewhat” have their best interests at heart.
Overall, these figures show that there is some hesitation about the degree of trust buyers feel towards salespeople. From a regional perspective, German buyers were the most positive, with 37 percent saying “definitely.” Australia and the U.K. were the least positive with only 15 percent and 13 percent saying “definitely” respectively.
Development Dimensions International, Inc. www.ddiworld.com
If you shop at Staples or any other office supply store an office chair is $100 to $400… what I want is the Aeron by Herman Miller and it’s $600-$1400.
Here is the story;
Herman Miller turned to designers Don Chadwick and Bill Stumpf to design a totally new kind of chair. Chadwick’s and Stumpf’s previous collaboration had produced the groundbreaking Equa chair.
The two designers began this development process with a clean slate, with no assumptions about form or material, but with some strong convictions about what a chair ought to do for a person.
Ergonomically, it ought to do more than just sit there. It should actively intercede for the health of the person who sits in it longer than she should.
Functionally, it ought to move and adjust as simply and naturally as possible. It should support a person in any position he cares to assume, at any task his office job serves up.
Anthropometrically, it ought to be more inclusive than its predecessors. It should do more than accommodate small or large people; it should really fit them.
Environmentally, it ought to be benign. It should be sparing of natural resources, durable and repairable, designed for disassembly and recycling.
Although it reveals its aesthetic heritage in lyrical shapes reminiscent of George Nelson designs, organic forms that recall the work of Charles Eames, and a spare, athletic aspect that brings to mind its designers’ Equa chair, the Aeron chair finally looks only like itself. Its unique form expresses its purpose and use and the material composition of its parts and the way they connect. The slightly transparent and reflective nature of its surfaces gives it an airy quality. It becomes a part of the person who uses it and the environment that surrounds it.
This is the first in a 3 part series with permission and originally posted by decostainc.com
Too often we are guilty of searching for a quick fix or a silver bullet to drive performance improvement. The reality is that quick fixes are much like fad diets whereas sustainable, profitable, high performance companies invest in a sales process, not just sales skills, then follow through with rigorous monitoring and execution of the process.
Successful organizations have everyone in the company focused on their customers; that includes production, finance, IT, logistics and all others who traditionally might not think of their role as Sales or Sales Support. Take your CIO or CFO out to meet a few key customers and see if they don’t change their approach to providing support tools to both your internal team and your customers.
Integrate the sales process across your organization. Make sure that everyone’s role adds value to your customers. It can be as subtle as the format of your invoices or as complex as utilizing a CRM system across all customer touch points.
Keep Your Sales Process Simple
A user friendly easily understood sales process is a key ingredient for maximum adoption. Maximize the tools that help your sales teams be successful, and minimize the time and effort required for them to provide data back to management.
We use a simple, somewhat linear approach that has six steps; we gave it an appropriately simple name… The 6 Step Selling Process. A key premise of this approach is a heavy investment at the front end to make the ‘close’ a natural next step that is welcomed by the customer.
The 6 Step Selling Process is principle based and can therefore apply equally well to Direct Sales, Retail, or Contact environments.
Also, the 6 Step Selling Process leverages existing and future investments by supporting your organizations standardized sales tools (e.g. CRM) and processes (e.g. order processing). Lastly, it includes and relies on a comprehensive coaching package to ensure adoption and consistency.
In this issue, we will have a summary look at the first two steps: Preparation and Approach.
Step 1- Preparation
The goal of preparation is to be “ready” to sell. Top achieving individuals and teams in every field – whether it’s sports, academics, or business – credit much of their success to great preparation.
Summary Tips
Train your sales and support teams on selling skills, your solutions, promotions, and sales tools
Segment your customers based on current and potential value; you can use a simple A, B, C, D
Build both a territory plan and key account plans
Be organized to maximize selling time
Be able to give your 30-second Value Proposition
Sample segmentation model for your customer base
‘A’ customers = top 20 per cent revenue generators and you have a large per cent of their total spend. Strategy: retain and grow
‘B’ customers = top 20 per cent revenue generators but you have a small per cent of their total spend. Strategy: acquisition (high growth opportunity)
‘C’ customers = lower 80 per cent revenue generators but you have a small share of their total spend. Strategy: acquisition (relatively high growth opportunity)
‘D’ customers = lower 80 per cent revenue generators and you have a large per cent of their total spend. Strategy: retain if can be done cost effectively; discontinue relationship if it cannot
Build a Territory Plan
Create a roadmap for achieving your targets for the period
Identify known (highly probable) revenues
Identify the size of the gap compared to your total targets
Develop specific plans and program ideas to close the gap with dates, & metrics
Identify the 5-10 clients by quarter that you will focus on to achieve greatest gains
Develop Strategic Account Plans
Focus on the clients that could have the greatest impact on your results
They are not necessarily your largest accounts today
Identify the top 3-5 actions you can take to maximize success with each account
Review the draft plan with the customer and build the final details based on his/her input
Manage the plan together through quarterly reviews
Articulate Your Value Proposition
Identify the key elements that differentiate you from your competition
Make sure it is customer-centric
Practice delivering a 30 second version
Be organized to maximize selling time
“Take 5” to plan your day before launching into it – concentrate on results
Book time and make proactive sales calls in the morning
Manage directions not minutes. Set priorities based on where you need to get to
Don’t just work smart; work smart on the right things
OHIO – only handle it once
Step 2 – Approach
The Approach step is all about making an immediate positive connection with your customer with the aim of advancing the conversation to the Discovery phase. This can take place in a variety of ways: greeting a customer as they enter a retail store, your call centre, or your website; calling out to a customer through telephone calls, emails, or viral programs.
Summary Tips
Communicate succinct and engaging messages to generate interest
Create Marketing programs that build on your unique Value Proposition
Seek out new sources of qualified leads through existing networks and non-traditional media
Prospecting Calls
Target the decision makers
Use referrals, research data, or related personal experience to create a warm call
Prepare a short, compelling message that will make the customer want to speak to you
Be prepared to reach voicemail – leave a brief message that creates interest, a sense of urgency, and will stand out among the other numerous voicemail messages they might receive that day.
Handling Inbound Calls (or visits)
Welcome each caller as if they are entering your office
View every caller as a prospect until YOU determine otherwise
Take control of the call by getting agreement to ask a few Discovery questions in order to help them
Add value on every call – exceed your customers’ expectations
Your tone, enthusiasm, confidence and pace is extremely important
Electronic Media Opportunities – In addition to the conventional approach to clients, which is typically done over the phone, there are also several new, exciting, and engaging ways to ‘approach’ clients using electronic media.
Some of the viral seeding tactics can include;
Dynamic email newsletters
Blogs and Vlogs
Press releases
Video sites
While the Preparation and Approach stages may not have the same pizzazz as presenting to a customer and going for the close, they are the foundation pieces that will help you target the right customers with the right message, and securing their interest in moving to the next step of the selling process.
In the next issue we will explore the Discovery and Solution Design steps; where we uncover the business challenges, decision makers, and budgets and put it all together in a solution.
I often use Google Images to find the right graphics for my presentations, Google Labs has a new image search engine based on ‘similar images‘ and allows you to get what you’re looking for faster.
Parkinson’s Law: Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion
Read it again slower.
Now think about your work as a Sales Professional and how your time is being filled, think about how your work to complete a large tender will fill the time available not allowing you time for prospecting or filling your funnel.
If you are to set regular goals for calls or appointments don’t let a tender stop you, if they are both on your schedule work will expand to fill the time to complete both.
Professional sales is different than careers like accounting or production. Professional sales is full of risk, disappointment, failure and other unknown factors you don’t control. As sales professionals we need to push the envelope of what is a business norm and expect the unknown, here are some quotes on the subject to help you through the day;
“Risks, I like to say, always pay off. You learn what to do, or what not to do.” – Jonas Salk
“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” – T. S. Eliot
“Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm. ” – Sir Winston Churchill
Tim Ferriss is the author of The Four Hour Work Week, a how-to on working smarter not harder and changing your perception of ‘work’. Tim likes to look at things differently and here he talks about managing e-mail;
Six years ago I had a big week of appointments ahead of me and was packing for my flight when I forgot to pack a belt. I flew the night before and didn’t realize the belt was missing until the morning and didn’t have time to buy another before my appointments started.
Missing a belt is not a big concern… I did feel like a slob all day… but not a big deal. After buying a new belt later that day I made myself a travel checklist and have never forgotten a belt or any other travel necessity in 6 years.
If I asked you what you needed to prepare for a sales meeting you could tell me quite easily… like if I asked you what you needed to pack for a business trip.
With my new sales position I am in need of a pre/post meeting checklist and have been creating one this week, I’ll put it to use next week and modify it from there… hopefully I can have another six years of not missing anything on this checklist.
Here are what others have said about sales checklists;
There was a time in my career where I was intrigued by branding and found the book Brand Gap in a used book store. It was a random find that changed my view of a brand.
I was working with a colleague this week who is exceptionally smart and well spoken however she is not where she wants to be regarding presentation skills. She would like training… but doesn’t have enough time before a season of product launches.
I suggested she watch the many videos on Ted.com and look for presentation style, use of slides and general delivery. Here are a few of my favorites;
Malcolm Gladwell on Spaghetti Sauce
Emily Oster: What do we really know about the spread of AIDS?
Seth Godin: Sliced bread and other marketing delights
In business to business sales, you will encounter three kinds of people:
The vast majority, empowered to stall, to ask for more information, to delay, to send you after the broomstick of the wicked witch of the west.
A smaller population that can stall but also have the authority to say no.
A tiny portion of your meetings will be with people authorized to say yes (and some of these people are foolish enough to do the other two tasks, just for kicks).
You have no chance (zero) of moving someone from one category to another. The reason this system evolved is straightforward: the yes people are rare in a typical organization, because they have responsibility and power. So they are busy and need to be protected. The no people are easy to train at saying no, and they’re waiting to be promoted to yes people. And the stallers? They represent the dip, the barrier salespeople have to get through to show that they are serious.
This is true for all business to business selling, but I think it’s worthwhile to consider ad sales.
Seth is able to simplify another set of truths about sales and again offers a solution by getting through The Dip. Next time someone says ‘no’ to you, think to yourself “do they have the authority to say yes? Or are they a staller?”
If you have not read The Dip you should pick up a copy… it’s a short read and easy to re-read next time you’re in a dip.
Today’s blog entry is adapted from the new book by Joey Asher, How to Win a Pitch: The Five Fundamentals that Will Distinguish You from the Competition. To purchase the book click here.
I once met with the managing partner of a large law firm about what I was going to say to his firm about winning new business presentations. At one point, he looked at me and got very serious. “Please address one thing,” he said. “Address how to close a sale at the end of a pitch. We need closers.”
But the fact is that “closing” is overrated. Despite what many business developers think, no magic words can make someone hire you. If they’re persuaded that you have the best solution to their challenges, then they will hire you regardless of how you “close.”
There Are no Magic Words that Will Make a Prospect Buy
Nevertheless, many sales people and business developers see magic in the “close.” I met a real estate salesman who swore to me that he closed many sales with the following technique. He placed a contract in front of his prospect and then proceeded to roll a pen down the table toward the customer. The idea behind this technique is that the prospect picks up the rolling pen to keep it from falling into his lap. Somehow, this salesman swore to me, this compels the prospect to sign merely because he has the pen in his hand. “That’s called the ‘rolling pen close,’” he said, appearing quite serious. I almost burst out laughing.
The best “close” is simply to ask for a decision
These closing tricks are ridiculous. If you’ve done your job right, you don’t need a clever close.
A good new business presentation is the final stage of the courtship. In preparation for the pitch, good business developers conduct discovery and identify business challenges. During the pitch, you present a solution to the challenges. If you’re seeking the chance to represent a business in a bankruptcy, you should detail a plan for getting a good result for the client.With that in mind, the best way to close a deal in a presentation is to politely ask the prospect for a decision.
Here’s a good way to do it:
We’ve laid out a way for you to manage your challenges. We think it makes sense. Does it make sense to you? Your prospect usually will respond in one of two ways. Both are good. First, she could say, “Yeah. It makes a lot of sense to us as well.” Bingo! You’ve got a deal! Or, she could say, “Well, I don’t really think it will work.” This is good, too. If you haven’t made the sale, you may still have a chance. Try to tease out the objections. “Really? Can you tell me where we’ve gone wrong?” And then hope for a chance to respond.
The problem with non-committals
Of course, the prospect could say, “Well, it all looks very interesting. Let us mull things over and get back to you.” The “we’d-like-to-think-about-it” responses are usually bad. Non-committal indicates a weak relationship. If you’ve done your homework and built a solution based on an understanding of her business, then your prospect should know you well enough to be honest with what she thinks of your proposal.
If you’ve presented a clear solution well, you don’t need a clever close.
Here is an excerpt from an article by David Silverman of Harvard Business Publishing about writing better e-mail;
The number one thing that separates a memo, report, or PowerPoint from A Tale of Two Cities is a call to action. A novel is to be enjoyed. Business writing is intended to get the audience to do something: invest in a popcorn factory, fill out a kidney donor form, or flee the building in an orderly manner.
I love charts and graphs… pie, bar, line… all of them.
I am a visual learner and most comfortable presenting information visually. Reading bullet points is not what my (or any) audience wants, a chart allows me to talk about the subject and not just read bullet points. Charts and graphs can be over used and some are horribly complicated, make sure to keep the graph simple and talk about the detail.
Seth Godin has two great posts about making charts for your presentation here;
To be successful in professional sales you need a good foundation to build on, four key areas that can improve your chance of success are;
#1 – Appointments; The number of quality appointments is something you control, a mediocre sales person will do well with an industry leading number of good appointments and a polished sales person will do poorly with a low number of appointments.
#2 – The Sales Process; Every industry has a unique sales process, use the ‘best practices’ or ‘current thinking’ of your industry and any other activities that successful members of your sales team are practicing.
#4 – Your Product; Some products don’t allow you to be rewarded or challenged as a professional, make sure you are in an industry that has growth potential, large margins or high volume/price.
Let me know what your ‘Pillars’ of sales success are and leave a comment below…
When there were old-school parking meters in New York, quarters were precious.
One day, I’m walking down the street and a guy comes up to me and says, “Do you have a dollar for four quarters?” He held out his hand with four quarters in it.
Curious, I engaged with him. I took out a dollar bill and took the four quarters.
Then he turned to me and said, “can you spare a quarter?”
What a fascinating interaction.
First, he engaged me. A fair trade, one that perhaps even benefited me, not him.
Now, we have a relationship. Now, he knows I have a quarter (in my hand, even). So his next request is much more difficult to turn down. If he had just walked up to me and said, “can you spare a quarter,” he would have been invisible.
Too often, we close the sale before we even open it.
(republished from the Pharmaceutical Sales Manager Journal)
Key Account Management (KAM) is a phenomenon that has been gathering momentum in many industries for some time now and represents a way of ensuring that sales forces are used to gain optimal returns over a sustained period. Such models allow companies to build sustainable competitive advantages over rivals in a tight, focused manner, whilst erecting substantial barriers to entry against the competition.
Typical sales relationships in the old model tend to look rather like a Bow-tie arrangement (see Exhibit 1). This model leaves the sales relationship between company and customer weak and extremely vulnerable to competition. Typical of the old, Representative to GP or Hospital Representative to Consultant model, this approach is now in need of a drastic re-think. Because the only meaningful point of contact is between the Sales Representative and a handful of customers within the PCT, the entire relationship is vulnerable. If the Representative is poor then the relationship is doomed. If the Representative is good, then a competitor can poach him or her away, taking much of the goodwill and relationship away at the same time.
Additionally, the great premise of Customer Relationship Management, (CRM), also comes into play here. Vulnerability exists for companies because the majority of the knowledge that makes this singular customer relationship so special resides in the head of one employee. Many companies have spent small, and often not so small, fortunes on Knowledge Management (KM) and CRM software endeavouring to share this valuable knowledge more widely. The question is, good as CRM is, is it the best and only way to share knowledge of a PCT around the organisation?
Exhibit 1 The Bow-Tie Relationship
Companies can differentiate themselves to key customers and shore up the potential weaknesses in their key customer relationships by moving from Bow-tie models to Diamond models of customer relationship (see Exhibit 2). In this relationship model, many personnel within the company interact with their designated opposite numbers in the PCT, overcoming many of the drawbacks of the traditional approach in that it requires the involvement of a number of different personnel and specialities interacting with the PCT in varied and meaningful ways.
Exhibit 2 The Diamond Relationship
This type of relationship Locks the PCT much more closely to the company. It does not stand or fall on the relationship between, perhaps only two, individuals and is extremely stable. It also elevates the job of Salesman to that of Key Account Manager, although many of the companies that have already gone down that route tend to use Senior Managers as Key Account Managers rather than salespeople, preferring to keep the salesperson as part of the team.
Whilst there are obvious advantages to this type of relationship, particularly as PCTs get ever larger and more complex, it is not without its difficulties. The Diamond model is a more complex beast than the Bow-tie; it is fraught with difficulties if communication within the company is not excellent.
The other mind-sets challenged by KAM are those of timescale and functional silos. KAM, done correctly, takes a long time to achieve and is most definitely not a quick-fix sales scheme. It is, rather, a longstanding, strategic commitment to embed the company with those customers that are most important to its long-term success. The simple selection of which accounts should be considered Key is fraught with difficulty and again, done correctly, is a far cry from a simple measurement of biggest or most vocal. There is also the functional fall-out from such a decision. Historically, sales departments have guarded very carefully their access to customers and their relationships with them.There have been countless arguments inside pharmaceutical companies between sales and marketing and sales and Medical over who owns a customer after a CRA visit or pre-launch initiative. KAM mandates such interactions and all involved have to regard this multipointed interaction as an integral part of the new modus operandi for the organisation.
The techniques of Key Account Management challenge sales managers who cling to the old detail-driven activity model. They will not satisfy those looking for the quick-fix or the initiative for Q3. However, these techniques are proven and they will help companies to build an enduring and sustainable competitive advantage with an increasingly important set of customers in a highly competitive and hostile environment. Only time will tell if the mega mergers can deliver the same promise.
(republished from the Pharmaceutical Sales Manager Journal)
What are the top 20% of representatives doing to make them so successful? What exactly makes a successful sales representative? It has often been considered to be sales skills, key messages, call rate, coverage and frequency. But what underlies these differences?
The Pareto Principle that 80% of business comes from 20% of customers is so often quoted that we have become blase about it. But its truth has repeatedly been demonstrated by research. For example, did you know that 20% of symptoms presented to a GP account for 80% of referrals to secondary care? And that 20% of patients generate 80% of a doctors work?
The Pareto Principle is also known as the Law of the Vital Few, and its this term that we should keep in mind. Every Sales Director knows that within the sales force, there are a vital few representatives who really drive sales. The key questions are:
How can we identify the vital few when recruiting a sales force?
Is it possible to turn the vital few into a vital many?
Finding the difference
Excellence in any field can be modelled and replicated. Modelling involves not only observing how individuals behave, but identifying their conscious and unconscious drivers, beliefs and working preferences. This enables us to identify the difference that makes the difference, so that it can be adopted by other staff and profiled for recruitment. In this way, we have helped one of our clients to deliver high-performing sales teams.
Shaw Results has worked with this client, a Contract Sales organisation, as a strategic partner since the company was formed in 2003. The client wanted to uncover exactly what it was that enabled a minority of the representatives in one of their dedicated teams to deliver 70% of sales, so that they could help the rest of the team to adopt these strategies. We decided to model the representatives at the top and in the middle of the companys sales league table. The usual parameters of success (call rate, frequency, etc) were measured, but the differences had no obvious cause. The representatives were all promoting a brand new pain product and were the only people selling it.
Modelling can be used to identify prevalent behaviours for particular customer groups with a particular drug, and therefore define the sales strategy. This modelling was specific to this company and the selling of this product. The criteria we modelled were:
1. Values and beliefs perception of the representatives role and the doctors role, career goals, work ethic, personal responsibilities and accountability, product belief and self-belief. 2. Language and Behaviour Profile (LAB) a profile of motivational and working traits based on original work by Roger Bailey. (See Words that Change Minds by Shelle Rose Charvet.) 3. Skills level of rapport; the sales process; product knowledge; business acumen (analysis, planning and awareness of call rates, sales and competitor activity).
First of all, it was found that when it came to the more tangible aspects of the job, there was little to choose between the two groups.
Selling processes and knowledge of product benefits were similar in both groups. Next, the drivers, motivators and beliefs were analysed for the two groups.
Values and beliefs
Beliefs differed markedly between the two groups in terms of what they felt they could achieve and the value of the product and their role. The top performers had an overwhelming ownership of and belief in the product. They were known to their customers as the X rep, they believed it was their duty to ensure that patients had the opportunity to receive X, and they had many anecdotes of successful treatment.
They also believed their goals were achievable. They had a strong work ethic and saw their role as important for themselves, the customers and the patients. They enjoyed their partnership with the customers, and believed it was right to keep going back. They believed neither doctors nor receptionists when they heard the word No. They talked about being invited to meetings and then telling friends and family about their success.
Although the average performers understood their goals, they felt these were not realisable on their patch. They thought the product was good, but they lacked the conviction and enthusiasm of the high performers. They accepted No, and didn’t want to upset anyone by going back too soon.
Language and behaviour profile (LAB)
There were distinct differences between the LABs of the two groups. The top performers had mixed patterns that helped them to organise themselves and adapt their language to the customer. In other words, they made their customers feel comfortable in the exchange.
Two key areas of motivational and working traits were identified. The first was motivational direction: whether we are driven towards a goal or away from a problem. For example, most pharma representatives are motivated towards the goal of high sales. However, most GPs are motivated to avoid disease, death and side effects. Differential diagnosis is an away from procedure. People who display such patterns are motivated and energised when they are somewhere they don’t want to be.
We noted that the average performers had strong toward patterns (goal-focused) whereas the top performers had mixed patterns (apart from one who had a strong away from pattern).
The latter were thus both goal-focused and able to match the doctors away from language: With this drug you wont have to worry about drug interactions or patients returning Another key point was that the average performers stuck to either an options or a procedures pattern. An options pattern means you like to choose how you work and feel stifled by set procedures. A procedures pattern means you prefer to follow a tried and tested procedure. The top performers had a mix of the two, meaning that they could match the doctors procedural language and had the discipline to follow a plan, but had the flexibility to work around problems.
Doctors tend to prefer procedures: they like to follow a logical argument in a product detail. An example of how to match this is to discuss the call logically: First we will discuss X and then Y and then Z, then we will discuss how this drug fits in with your current regimen.
Skills
Another significant difference was in the representatives emotional intelligence and curiosity. The top performers achieved what we call exquisite rapport within the call: a state close to camaraderie. They had a clear call purpose, a genuine curiosity about others and an empathy with the doctor. They were able to demonstrate emotional intelligence and natural conversation. They were invited back, and if the doctor had not prescribed he/she would apologize! The average performers had some skills, but lacked this curiosity and will to please.
(a) Product. The top performers had belief in the product and a logical, sequential selling technique. They used presuppositions in their language to gain access and to persuade. They said things like: How will you remember to prescribe X? and When you are prescribing X, it is important to remember
Notably, they didn’t criticise the competition, but rather asserted the superiority of their own product. The average performers also didn’t criticise the competition, but failed to assert their own products superiority.
(b) Business acumen. The top performers were aware of call rates, sales data and competitor activity, and devised their strategy based on targets and sales. They would ask successful people what they did and learn by example. They would always look for the best way. The average performers relied on maps and a sensible route. They did not know the exact numbers, and felt things were different on my patch.
The top performers saw planning as essential, had a written contingency plan and recorded outcomes post-call. The average performers had a plan in my head, rarely on paper.
Conclusion
Since this study, the Regional Business Managers have been taken through the research and their teams have been coached to use successful behaviours when selling. The client has also incorporated the full LAB process into its recruitment strategy. Recent data from the Pharmaceutical Field Company Perception, Motivation and Satisfaction Survey confirms the product belief that the managers have been working on with their teams. The results outstrip those of the industry!
Significantly, the client feels its average performers are improving their results by adopting these findings. The vital few becoming the vital many?
SUMMARY
A minority of pharma sales representatives show consistently higher sales than the rest of the field force.
In a study, the top representatives were found to be successful not just because of higher call rates or superior product knowledge.
Their success could be attributed to their belief, their flexibility and their interpersonal skills.
These factors can all be improved by appropriate training of managers and representatives.
When you are forwarding quotes, reports or other documents to your prospects or clients it would be best if they were in a PDF format. Using a PDF will allow anyone to open it and prevent tampering or potential errors. A quick way to make any Microsoft document into a PDF is to use CutePDF, the program will install itself as a printer and allow you to quickly output any document into a PDF.
I have added SalesJournal.com to the Blogroll, SalesJournal.com is a partner of Naviga Services.
From navigaservices.com;
Naviga is a national sales recruitment and marketing recruitment firm. As professional sales recruiters, not only do we specialize in executive sales recruitment, we also provide recruitment services for business to business Direct Sales, Channel/Partnership Management, Business Development, and Account Management positions at all levels and for all industries.
Seth Godin recently wrote about how in a sprint you don’t think of the ground or your knees or how tired you are… you just run. Seth goes on to talk about how in creative work you sometimes need to sprint to get the job done.
I see outside sales as a series of sprints, I can go from 6 hour days working at home in my pajamas… to being in a different city for a week working 6AM to midnight.
I can only keep up that pace for 4-5 days then I need 3-5 days to book more appointments and complete my follow-up from the previous week.
I have just added HuntingBigSales.com to the Blogroll, here is an excerpt from a post in December;
Let me help with three resolutions for 2009—different resolutions than I would have written in 2008 and hopefully different than what I will write for 2010.
1. Up Your Digital Touch – Your Rolodex life-expectancy is going to drop from its traditional 21 months to about 7 months in 2009. That means your contact-database is deteriorating at an accelerating rate. Get on and start inviting at an aggressive rate—people change jobs, cities and spouses. Make sure to follow them; it gives you a way to stay in touch through all of the changes.
2. Keep Your Clients Closer – Your best accounts are being stalked, hunted, poached—you get the idea—like never before. Even if you have long-relationships and strong contracts, clients are looking for every opportunity to free themselves of commitments. Nothing is to be taken for granted. Spend more time with your current clients, or they will change in unpleasant ways.
3.3 Taps and Out – Change your prospecting approach to a “3 Taps and Out” strategy. The economy is changing at such a fast rate that your prospecting model needs to be just as fast. Reach out to your top prospects 3 times. If you don’t get any traction, leave them alone for 60-90 days and then go back. It’s very possible that their worlds will have changed and the opportunity door will be open.
What are some resolutions you think hunters should make for 2009?
I am currently reading Outliers (please don’t call it outliners) and if you have read The Tipping Point and enjoyed it then you must read Outliers. I didn’t want to post a book review however I did want to talk about a chapter regarding the ‘10,000 hour rule’ and how it might relate to Professional Sales people.
Gladwell looks for why some people are successful where others are not and he comes across a common theme of the most successful people having 10,000 hours or more of training. For sales people I see this as a difference between the person who truly puts in 4 hours a day of actual ’selling’ and a rep who is “in sales” and may be more of a glorified CSR. If you were in-front of clients talking business, discounts, prices and closing deals for four hours of your day you would reach the 10,000 hour mark in about 10 years.
I find myself in-front of or talking to clients for about 3 hours on average… if I want to be an Outlier I may want to increase my total time to 4 or 5 hours by booking one more appointment or a few more calls each day.
Mike and I have coincidentally both taken on new jobs in the past 6 months and so the blog has taken a backseat while we both try to figure out a new industry, clients, acronyms, selling strategies, office politics and everything else that comes with a new job. For me, I like to express my thoughts visually and I created this diagram to relate Proficiency versus the Workload of a new Sales Job. (I’m sure this would be similar for most new jobs)
In sales Proficiency encompasses product knowledge, knowing your clients, new sales strategies and being as effective as possible in those areas, the sales person Workload would represent making the calls, travelling the territory, maintaining a client database, sales reports, business plans and daily customer contact.
In a perfect world your workload would only increase as your proficiency did… however we don’t live in a perfect world and it would seem to be taking a few steps back from a Utopia recently. For every new Professional Sales Person there is a period of time when your Workload is greater than your Proficiency and everything you do is more complicated than it should be. With this divide a new sales rep will have to work more hours and be outside of a comfort zone in front of clients sooner then they would like. Trial by fire is often the training method of a sales person… if you are starting a new sales position or thinking of a change get ready to be out of your comfort zone for a few months, but don’t worry… once you get some experience you will get back the idea of “working smart”.
Wow, it’s been a while since either of us blogged, but it’s good to be back. We have taken a bit of a hiatus because Sean and I have both taken on new roles in the last few months.
I want to discuss tools that can help sales professionals be more efficient. In the past I have used a CRM and some have been great and others not as good. I am looking forward to using salesforce.com, which my current company is going to be using in the next few months. I heard some good things about it and I will be sure to blog about it once we get started with it.
For now, I have been organizing myself using an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of some of my calls and it gives me something to look back on to see where I have left off with customers, it will be great to have them stored in one central location.
The tool that excites me the most is http://timedriver.timetrade.com/. I recently discovered this tool and thought if you have a small territory and a great relationship with your clients then you can use this tool quite effectively.
I plan on using this tool as I plan my travels out east. I am in the process of establishing good relationships with some of these clients. Most of them are very easy going, I am looking forward to letting a few of them know, that I am going to be in town for a certain week and I can just email them and let them book their own appointments with me. I love that this is going to automatically populate into my calendar.
The price of this tool is a mere $39/year (I believe). What a steal!! I will also keep you posted on this as I start to use it. Check out the video on this link…I think you too will be impressed. http://timedriver.timetrade.com/learnMore.php
(republished from the Pharmaceutical Sales Manager Journal)
Oh no, not another article about coaching! I hear you cry. Yes and this one is different. It has just as much to do with sales as it has to do with coaching. If you want to grow your sales, then read on.
As a leading supplier of performance coaching solutions to our industry, we are repeatedly asked such questions as:
What difference does coaching make to actual sales performance in the field?
What is the ideal span of control for a sales manager?
Can we benchmark our coaching capability?
How can we establish a coaching culture?
We can now answer these questions with a very high level of certainty. Extensive research has established the correlation between representatives sales performance and sales manager coaching performance. The research from the Centre for Management and Organisational Effectiveness (CMOE) and the Sales Executive Council (SEC) is based on the analysis of over 2,500 sales professionals and 500 sales managers. What can we learn from it and more importantly, what do we need to do as a result?
There are many findings from research into pharmaceutical sales coaching. This article focuses on a few key questions:
What is the impact of coaching?
Who should we coach?
How much time should we dedicate to coaching our people?
How good do our sales people think we are at coaching?
How can we create a world-class coaching culture?
Why coach?
The level of sales performance is strongly correlated with the level of coaching a representative receives. A low level of coaching support in the SEC study was defined as <2 hours per month, an average level as 23 hours per month and a high level as >3 hours per month. As Figure 1 shows, the amount of coaching a representative receives has a direct influence on the level of sales performance. Coaching also has a direct bearing on the levels of representative engagement and retention.
Many studies have also shown that effective coaching increases the level of discretionary effort given by individuals.
The research also clearly shows a differential sales performance from the representative depending on the coaching skills of the manager. The average sales performance of representatives whose managers had the lowest coaching capability was 83%, compared to 102% for representatives whose managers had the highest coaching capability.
Coaching is also the key to maximising the value of sales training effort such as skills workshops. Without on-the-job reinforcement, representatives lose most of what they learned on a workshop. But if you combine training and post-program coaching, the productivity impact rises fourfold. The research shows that training plus coaching led to an 88% increase in productivity, whereas training alone led to a 23% increase.
As the training manager of a large pharmaceutical company, I had a memorable personal experience of the power of this principle. Early one morning, I was writing a message to the sales managers about the transfer of learning and asking them to follow up some sales training we had conducted with field visits. As I was writing, it dawned on me that I was not personally setting a good example. One of my direct reports, a field trainer, had recently attended an Insights Discovery development workshop.
This workshop helps people adapt their style and language so they can connect more powerfully and influence more people. I had not spoken to him in the days following the workshop, so I immediately picked up the phone.
Luckily, I caught him before hed met the representative he was working with for the day. We talked through what hed learned on the programme and how he could use this during his field visit. He was working with someone he found it quite difficult to relate to one of his more challenging assignments. It only took a short while for him to work out an action plan for the day. He called me at the end of the day and said triumphantly that hed had the best ever coaching day with this representative! Hed helped the representative to make some real breakthroughs in terms of sales skills. It was a great reminder for me that a 10-minute coaching session after a training event can make a huge difference: in this case, it set up a chain reaction that ended with better sales for our product.
Who should we coach?
Conventional wisdom suggests that coaching should focus on the stars. In practice, managers normally try to spread coaching time equitably across the team. However, the research indicates that coaching time should be focused predominantly on core performers.
The SEC study looked at the relative impact of effective coaching on low performers, core performers and high performers.
Overwhelmingly, it showed that coaching offers greater leverage when targeted preferentially at core performers those who show ability but have unrealised potential.
Effective coaching achieves only marginal sales improvement for the stars, but it does have a significant positive impact on the retention of star performers.
How much time should we spend?
Most pharma companies task their representatives and account managers to make 68 contacts per year with their target customers. Much less than this and we do not achieve incremental sales. A significantly higher frequency results in diminishing returns on the time spent with the customer.
This principle applies equally to your coaching effort with representatives. As Figure 1 shows, coaching effectiveness improves dramatically as more time is spent on coaching up to a level of 35 hours per representative per month. After this point, additional time has minimal impact on effectiveness. But how much coaching happens in reality? Figure 2 shows that fewer than 30% of representatives (green segments) are receiving the optimal amount of coaching time from their managers, while nearly 50% (red segments) receive less than 3 hours of coaching per month.
An interesting related finding concerns the span of control. When considering opportunities to free up time for managers to coach, leaders often look to reduce the span of control.
Fewer representatives should, on the face of it, mean more time for coaching. But in fact there is no impact on coaching effectiveness unless the span of control is exceptionally high (>14 representatives). Poor coaches will be equally poor with large or small spans of control. Similarly, great coaches figure out how to make coaching happen to maximum effect with the time they have. The research shows how star managers prioritise their time compared to core performers.
How good are we as coaches?
We recently ran an 8 Skill Coaching Skills development programme for 180 sales managers within an organisation across Europe. We provided electronic voting pads and asked the audience: How do you rate your coaching skills compared to others in your organisation excellent, above average, average, below average or poor? There are no prizes for guessing that considerably over 50% thought their skills were above average or excellent. From our experience in judging the sales manager coaching role-plays for the Pf Awards, we know that there are some inspirational and talented sales coaches out there. We also know that there are others who are less accomplished. We have worked with managers/leaders across many industry sectors throughout Europe and America, and the story is always the same: they can articulate very well what coaching is all about, but this is no measure of their actual ability.
The only truly effective way to assess and benchmark an individuals or organisations coaching capability is to do two things: observe coaching interactions (in real life or in role-play) and gain 180 feedback. Without either of these, you are just guessing and probably losing sales.
Most sales organisations have a selling skills model that helps to define a language and agree standards for sales capability. In the same way, it is essential for sales managers to have a coaching model and language to describe excellent coaching behaviours. There are many coaching skills models, including GROW. Another and more powerful one is the 8 Skill Coaching Model.
Creating a world-class coaching culture
This is easier to achieve than you may realise. The SEC road map for achieving a world-class coaching culture applies to all organisations, regardless of size. The 17 elements of the map fall under 4 umbrella headings: 1. Sales coaching culture
2. Sales coaching talent management
3. Sales coaching process
4. Sales coaching metrics and rewards.
By benchmarking your organisation against the 17 parameters, you can identify and prioritise the key areas to develop, then formulate a plan to address them.
Coaching is definitely an art, and it impacts on your sales performance. Paying scant attention to your organisations coaching capability is playing into the hands of your competitors. The good news is that solutions are easily available.
SUMMARY
A serious investment in improved coaching skills can improve sales results dramatically in most organisations.
Focusing coaching resource on core performers, with the stars being coached for retention, will yield the greatest returns.
The optimal amount of time for coaching is 35 hours per month. However, quality of coaching is more important than quantity.
It is vital for an organisation to have a sales coaching model. Within that framework, a world-class coaching culture can be created.
When I go through my expenses at the end of the month I am shocked each time I see how many Starbucks receipts I have. To a penny pinching boss they may seem like an extravagance that is abused… I see it differently.
Cost – Breakfast in my hotel would be $12-30 on average and added to the hotel bill no one would care or make note… a muffin and a coffee at Starbucks is $5-7
Downtime – WiFi is free at many Starbucks (sometimes with a registered card) which allows me to get some work done in-between calls
Pre-Call – I like to call ahead of my appointment to be sure they are ready for me… what better to call with “I’m on my way and wondered if I could pick up anyone a Coffee at Starbucks?”
Great gifts – Corporate SWAG is old and tired… I get a great reaction coming into a clients office with a Starbucks gift bag… it can be filled for under $50
If you need to keep tabs on your competitors Google Alerts will allow you to setup specific search terms and e-mail them to you. Your search terms can be specific for Blogs, Web, News or Comprehensive across the internet and set daily, weekly or as it happens.
Here is a search of “GE Healthcare Radiology” in news… sure you could do this yourself when you are researching a competitor however like RSS, Google Alerts will send you the information when it happens.
Let’s start out by discussing what falls under retail sales. I would say any point of sale where the customer is walking in for a short time and then leaving is considered retail sales. This is a tough environment to sell in, regardless of whether the sale is $200 (pants or a shirt) or $2000 (a decent watch) or $50,000 (a decent car). I don’t think any of those environments differ from one another. You have to be the one minute closer that the author of Sean’s last post was talking about. You only have your customers there for one minute. If you don’t get them interested in something they will be gone and not buy from you and go on to the next store. Can you get someone interested in something? More often than not, they are in your retail branch because they are interested in something or they would not have walked in, so there you have your first advantage. From there, I would say you still need to use some of the same skills a sales professional would use to find out the needs and wants of this individual and sell according to those needs.
Professional outside sales is not that different, I want to know the needs of my customer and sell to those needs. Sometimes however, my customers are not interested in my product or aren’t looking to buy at this time (this differs from retail, because they wouldn’t be shopping if they had no interest, we are not talking about the browsers). If they are not ready to buy or are not interested, I will go back another time. This is probably the biggest difference, I can go back to my customers anytime, unlike, at the retail level. By going back, I want to understand the business of my customer and help them (through my products and service) to increase their business and be more successful.
I always look at my sales carreer as a marathon. I am never trying to get as many sales in one month (or the quick sale) at the expense of pressuring my clients. I do have numbers and quotas to meet and I use those guidelines to sell, but not to pressure.
The One Minute Closer by James W. Pickens has to be one of the worst sales books I have ever read. A better title might have been “Selling insurance in the 1950’s”
The book constantly refers to ‘master closers’ from fifty-seven countries and how this book will reveal secrets that have never been told. Scientific studies are sited and quotes are rampant throughout every chapter… the ‘master closers’ are never identified and there is not one footnote or any sources mentioned.
Here are some excerpts from the book;
The Expensive Pen Close – To help and solidify the deal, the master closer will hand his personal pen to the customer…
The “What would Jesus do?” close – This close is designed to get sales by overcoming nearly any excuse a churchgoing customer might come up with. Reader, this close is not sacrilegious…
The “I’ll be back” close – …it will make any customer who says, “I’ll be back,” look and sound foolish.
When reading the closing techniques I could only think of high pressure furniture sales or something that had ’slimeball’ associated with it.
Maybe it was just me… here is a review by Robert Morris on Amazon.com, Robert goes on forever about how great the book is and he gives it five stars! Then I check Robers profile on Amazon and it looks like he’s never read a book he didn’t like… it’s like he’s paid by the publishers to write glowing tripe about a book and give it five stars. Robert has reviewed 1778 books and the reviews all look the same!
The Sales Wars blog also did a review of the book;
Pickens focuses on point of sale interactions – cars, furniture, tangible and durable goods as opposed to a technology or services sell. For these situations, the “close” is a emotional reading of the buyer…
The Sales Wars has it right about the emotion of a POS interaction… however I don’t like the techniques as they give all sale people a bad name. The Sales Wars went on;
…thought a little about what a “close” actually means today – in this economy, with sophisticated corporate customers, with complex systems and approaches to situations. I came back to conversations that I’ve had with colleagues over the past few years – no sale is ever closed…
I couldn’t agree more… this book is not relevant for anyone in Professional Outside Sales.
What is closing a sale? Is it a skill? I would have to say it’s quite a difficult skill. You have to be prepared to recognize the buying signals and when your client is ready to buy, you also have to be prepared to ask for the order.
Taking that one step further, you should be closing something every meeting you have with your clients in an effort to get you one step closer (closssser, not clozer) to your end result and that’s making the sale.
Keep that in mind next time you are meeting with any clients.
If you can respect the end user and the challenges they face you will be better equipped to relate with your clients needs.
Selling copiers you need to know how production uses it, why accounting have their own and why the receptionist wears gloves when changing the toner. If you are selling fork lifts you need to see the warehouse and witness the warehouse staff under pressure… not just when you visit.
Know the end user and you will be more relevant when the purchase request comes to someone above them.
In one of my last posts, I talked about my sales manager being a cheerleader. I did have a chance to travel with her again and we had a meeting at the beginning of our day at the office to discuss what direction we were going to take. I decided to take the advice of one of the comments and just flat out ask her for feedback on sales calls that we do. She did say that at the beginning she tried to offer me some advice and I shut her down and didn’t really want to hear it. I guess that’s why she has never really given me any feedback since then. I did apologize for this and probably did it unconsciously because I don’t even remember this situation.
Sometimes we have to take a step back and realize maybe we did something to prevent others from giving us some advice or criticism.
On the flip side, I would rather have someone who is very positive and encouraging than someone who is always negative and telling me how wrongly I am doing things.
Sean seems to have quite a few posts with respect to this topic. I thought maybe I should add in my two cents.
I think it’s very important to spend money on customers and your territory. I find that money comes back and some when you take the time and the effort. It might be buying all the staff in an office lunch or taking someone out to dinner. Either one is a great way to have a meeting.
Today I went golfing with a client and managed to work out the fine points of a deal that had started 2 months ago and I got very positive buying signals from my client. I believe this should close by Friday. Now I know golf seems very 1980’s and 90’s, but it’s still a great way to spend 4-5 hours with a client in an environment that is very enjoyable. How can $100-$200 not be worth that?
There are a lot of companies that don’t give a big expense account, or an expense account at all and I believe it’s because many sales people abuse this. My advice to all would be to not abuse this privilege as it’s a great way to do business and is a great ice breaker when meeting clients especially for the first time.
Do ’single servings’ of sales advice (like this blog) help you with your sales career? Can you learn and retain quality information in such small amounts?
I would like to think the answer is yes… if you were to look for advice regarding a specific sales situation like ‘Are tradeshows good for your sales?‘ you can learn about a specific topic you are interested in and take action. If you are looking for continuous sales training you could subscribe to a few Sales Blogs via RSS staying sharp on a regular basis.
I subscribe to a bunch of Sales Blogs of which I read 3 regularly and respect their opinions or advice, the rest I skim and see what sticks.
I recently attended a presentation by one of our doctors and he used this wireless mouse that I also own, he then flipped it over and showed me many more controls on the underside including a laser pointer (I don’t own this one, but soon will). It reminded me about how important it is for a presenter (person) to be moving around, engaging his/her audience and not fixed on the computer or the slides.
There are so many skills to presenting that one doesn’t even realize. What makes a good presenter? What makes one presentation boring and another making you want to hear more? We could spend days on this in fact, here is just one of many companies that does this. Presenting With Ease
Here is one tip that I learned…begin your presentation with a stat or an anecdote that is going to relate to your topic.
In the past I have put up my first slide as a big 75% and then discussed a stat that related to my topic and then introduced myself and the idea being presented. I found this got the audience from the beginning very involved in the presentation.
I have finally realized the type of manager I work for. She is a cheerleader. I am not saying that in any kind of sexist way, I would say the same for a male manager that exhibited the same qualities, but I would have a male cheerleader up there (not that there is anything wrong with male cheerleaders, if you are into that sort of thing).
What do I mean by this? My manager has joined me on many sales calls and not once has she given me feedback on how she thought the call went or on some of the things I spoke to the client about. There was one specific time when I remember saying something really dumb and she didn’t even bring that up. Now…there are some good qualities to such a manager.
1. You never feel like you did anything wrong.
2. You always feel positive and pumped, because she’s always telling you positive things.
3. That’s all I can think of.
I am not thrilled of this management style, in fact, I think it’s her job to be more of a critique towards my work and I would welcome the feedback. I want to improve and I feel I can learn from her, but I never get any constructive criticism, so how can I learn.
The best was my recent example (this is what tipped me off).
Me: I think I am going to apply for that promotion they are posting, what do you think?
Manager: I think that’s a great idea, I think everyone on our team should apply for the position.
Jott is voice to text service that makes staying organized and in touch easy. Jott allows you to easily and safely send emails and text messages and set reminders. I’ve been using Jott mostly to make notes when I’m driving, the voice recognition has been good and the service is free to try.
Web services like Jott are a must for any Outside Sales Professional looking for a tech advantage.
I still love my Jawbone headset but the honeymoon is over. I’ve found the battery life is too short and they do not have a car charger and the stores I visited didn’t sell additional chargers that I can take on the road. I have a separate charger for my phone and laptop for traveling and I couldn’t believe they didn’t sell the charger as an accessory.
On the Jawbone website it does state that they are coming with a car charger…better late than never!?!
Like many Professional Outside Sales people, driving and talking are two big parts of my job. I like to use my time in the car to connect with clients and reply to emails with a personal phone call.
I recently bought a Jawbone headset and I love it. The fit and comfort are good, it feels odd by touching your face (this is necessary) at first, however like most new things you get used to it quickly. The sound quality in the speaker is not the best, it may be optimized for speech and so you get more treble then bass… but I’m not sure. The key for me is my voice sounds great, I don’t get anyone asking me if I’m driving or using a headset… to them it sounds like I’m holding my Blackberry to my ear.
A salesman who lost his magic touch when he discovered his wife in bed with his coworker must now struggle to keep from losing his job to the hot shot sales rep who’s been hired to replace him. Paul Wells used to be a good salesman, that is, until he walked in on his wife and coworker in bed together. These days Paul can’t even summon the motivation to make an enthusiastic sales pitch, and his career is on the line. The higher-ups have even brought in a smooth talking sales rep named Dagny Green to step in as Paul’s replacement. Now, in order to hold on to his job, Paul must outsell Dagny and show that he still has what it takes to call himself a salesman. Trouble is, it’s kind of hard to focus on proving your worth and regaining your self-respect once you’ve fallen in love with the competition.
If you asked the question “What is the best CRM?” it would be easy to come up with a list of the top 10 CRM services and then sort them by strengths to define a choice for your company… sales training is not that simple.
When it comes to sales training there are a few big names like Dale Carnegie or Spin Selling from Huthwaite… however there are thousands of other choices and knowing what is going to be right for you or your business is difficult to determine.
Allbusiness.com is full of sales and business articles, try their search engine for more specific topics. Here are some quick links to see if Allbusiness.com can help you.
I’ve been looking to buy a used Volvo XC70 and had an interesting experience negotiating. On my second visit my sales person was busy with another client so waited patiently on a chair in the showroom when another sales person came in after showing my XC70 to another couple… the couple was getting ready to leave when the sales person in desperation started a casual negotiation right there… where I could hear.
The list price was $35,800 and the sales person threw out $30K real quick… they countered with $25K to which the sales person realized they were not ready and told them it was too low.
Now fast forward to my negotiation, the sales person knows I’m interested… I’ve been there 3 times to see it and he starts with $35,300… when he asked about the number I told him I was insulted… we didn’t leave on bad terms however, he gave me an out of ‘it hasn’t been run through service yet, let’s see what service finds and maybe we can move on that number” and I was good with that… I had another car to look at.
I got a few things from this experience
When the prospect shows less effort, sales people will drop the price quicker and lower
You never know who is listening
If you insult your prospect with a high price you better have a reason or some way to recover
UPDATE
I bought the car and knowing the $30K number helped in the negotiation, I also asked about the other rep throwing out numbers in the parking lot. My sales guy told me it was a technique used by some of the reps and promoted by the manager, if someone looks like they are walking you can say something like “what if you could get it for half price?” with the intention that if they say ‘yes’ then you know they are interested and if they say ‘no’ to half price then they should be walking. The half price is suggested in jest and is followed up quickly with, I can’t get you half price but if your interested I can see what I can get you.
For $30K to be thrown around like that my guy suggested they rep and manager would work the client to get something like $32k or $33K… what ever would work.
My workout schedule has been altered by Monday Night Football… my reading will be reduced by new seasons of Entourage and Dexter… I don’t see myself suddenly going to the gym during work hours however I have to make a choice with the extra hours that I have. Do I look for balance in my life or a bigger commission check?
If I choose balance I’ll have time to read, take my son to hockey and watch football on Monday nights. A balance of work and life will be more rewarding and less stressful, it will allow me to handle stressful situations at work.
If I go for the bigger commission check I’ll have to make some sacrifices with my entertainment and work a few hours in the evening now and then. It will add some stress to my life… however it’s amazing how much stress a mortgage, bills and a small commission check can cause.
I may have found my WOW Point with a $180 toaster. I don’t know how much toaster normally are… I would guess $25. I don’t really care for a normal toaster… (my current toaster is 6 years old and burns everything) I had seen this Breville toaster in a magazine then in an electronics store while browsing… and I had to have it… toast is important to me.
Price is not always about being low… do you sell something seven times the norm… if so you just need to find your prospects’ WOW Point and maybe they’ll buy your $180 toaster.
It looks like I’m not the only one, here is another blogger who has the same affinity for toast.
Ok, ok, Sean has been asking me long enough to publish a Wow point blog. Earlier I discussed that every buying decision that takes place whether by you or someone else has a process to it.
For you to buy something there has to be enough perceived value in your decision and this gets you to a YES point, the point at which you will say yes to this purchase. The WOW point is a point further along the spectrum.
value value value value
I———————————I———————I——————-I
WORTHLESS YES WOW PERFECT
Essentially our WOW point is the point where that sales person has added more value to our purchase. You always hear about value add, this is the reason we want to add value beyond any competitor. This will get that person to come back to you time and time again, they will refer colleagues, family and friends to you. If you can create this wow experience for your customers then you will see an increase in your business no matter what it is.
Keep in mind…adding value doesn’t mean giving or throwing things into the deal or discounting the price. It can be something as little as a good and open channel of communication between you and the purchaser. You want to give your clients a differentiating experience, so it’s important for you to find a way to do that. Good luck, try it out and let me know how it goes.
If we are talking about sales movies, I have to give credit to Boiler Room, Sean. I am not sure if you have seen this one or not, but the cast is great, and it’s actually a pretty heart felt movie about sales and duping the elderly. A must see in my book!! ABC, Always Be Closing! That being said…there hasn’t really been much since then. I guess you can kind of consider The Pursuit of Happyness to be a sales oriented movie, but it’s more about his successes and how he turned nothing into something through hard work and perseverance.
I would like to see a more recent sales movie, Hollywood is due!
Is something that doesn’t make sales people look bad out of the question?
Making a mistake in a presentation or a pitch is like touching a pimple on your face, to you it seems huge but to others it’s not noticeable… unless you excessively pick at it.
The same rule applies in a presentation, if you make a small error… correct it or ignore it and then move on… the more you focus on the mistake the more the prospect will notice.
I had never seen Glengarry Glen Ross until tonight, the cast is legendary with perfect performances by all and the one-liners are brilliant. It wasn’t the ’sales’ movie that I expected… but is anything that gets hyped this much ever what you expect?
I love this shot of the ‘Glengarry Leads’ on salmon colored card stock with a gold string and bow…
I recently sat in on a sales training which was very similar to previous sales trainings where they discussed selling to client’s needs. This is nothing new and especially nothing new to anyone in sales.
What I found most interesting was what the presenter used as one of his key points: every decision a buyer makes is on a scale from worthless to perfect. Very rarely do we get a perfect buying situation. For example: I want to buy a car. The perfect car for me would be a 2009 Supercharged Range Rover for $1000. Now this is an unlikely situation, so when buying a car I settled on a $30,000 used G35. For me that was, what the presenter called, my YES point.
The YES point is this point right here:
I————————–I————————-I
Worthless YES Perfect
How do we get to the YES point? Essentially, I am there when I have enough value from worthless to perfect. That is my YES point and the value is all according to my needs. The top 1% of businesses and sales people go beyond this YES point and create a WOW point which is between YES and Perfect. Stay tuned for the WOW point.
I have recently been asked by my manager for a report of my daily activities in an email format from my Blackberry. This is how it begun…my territory has been doing poorly (I am also in a very economically challenged area, in a territory that has not been worked) and my manager wanted to help me succeed.
Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the help, however, as a rep, reporting daily emails to your boss doesn’t really make you feel all that great. One of the greatest things about sales is that you can run your own business under the umbrella of a company. If my boss were to give me great feedback about my daily activities to help me turn things around then it would almost be a worthwhile exercise. I have received 2 replies to my emails in the last 20 or so emails. The comments written for each one of my activities were one liners that weren’t helpful at all. Am I overreacting? How can a manager really know if you are doing the necessary work to produce sales when you are an outside sales rep and there aren’t enough sales coming in? Maybe it’s something for her to protect my job to her bosses. I know I am doing the work and it’s going to take me some time to develop the necessary relationships and get the business from the clients I work with and maybe this is her way of knowing I am doing the work as well.
I am torn on this one. Should I be annoyed (daily) as I am?
My former manager had her first interview for my old sales position and liked the guy… he seemed perfect but it was her first interview… she couldn’t decide without seeing other candidates could she?
This question will have to wait… but it did remind me about learning an amazing sales tactic when buying my first house.
My wife (girlfriend at the time) and I were young and didn’t have a lot of money or high incomes however I knew buying a home at any age was a good investment. Our real-estate agent took us to see condos in the area and the price range we were looking. The first one was a shit hole, renters had badly damaged the walls and carpets… we were devastated and confused, we didn’t know what to expect at this price range but we didn’t think people lived like this. The second one was much better, a little smaller then we had envisioned but nice… we even talked about putting an offer in however our agent had plans for us.
The next condo was ‘the nice condo’… clean, larger, ground level with a small garden… we placed an offer and bought it that night.
Talking with our agent later I asked about the first two and why she even showed us the shit hole… she said it was part of the plan. She wanted us to know what was in the area for that price and that if she had showed us the last place first we wouldn’t have been as impressed with it.
I now see her situation as a professional sales person, had we not been happy with seeing ‘the nice condo’ we couldn’t have even looked at the other two. We would have quickly looked at a different area or prices we couldn’t afford dragging out the process. We may have had to ’settle’ for something else giving us less emotional value to the process. I am so happy we had a Professional Agent who made the best situation for us and her.
When you offer your products do you offer the best the client can afford the first time? Can you offer lesser products that would help them make a faster decision with more conviction when you get to the right one?
PS: My former manager did hire the guy, he was a good candidate and she knew it could take months to find someone better… and ‘better candidates’ don’t always become better employees.
For sales professionals, one of the most dreaded duties, is to make cold calls. I know it’s the one thing in sales I really dislike. My question to all of you is…is it effective?
Every time I cold call an office I try to leave with something. One of my managers once taught me that. You are probably not going to leave with a sale, you may not even leave with a follow up appointment. If you can’t get an appointment with your target audience, then you should at least try and leave yourself a reason to go back. In my opinion if you can leave with something and give yourself a reason to go back then you have done a good job.
I recently have travelled with my manager who insisted to the receptionist to take our cards back to the doctor because he would want to see us after the receptionist said the doctor would call us if he was interested in meeting with us. I understand her method was to get the doctor to see that we were there, however, the doctor ended up telling the receptionist himself that he was not interested in seeing us. Now, my question to you is was it a successful cold call? One can argue that I will not waste my time there anymore because he is clearly not interested, one can also argue that I do not feel comfortable going back into that office because of that particular call.
Chris Carlson recently posted his thoughts about what to bring into a meeting in response to going in with only a pen and pad of paper “In my opinion, there is not a one-size-fits-all in regards to this issue” stated Carlson.
I would have to agree that you should be ready for most situations knowing what to display and when. Every sales person should also understand that when you bring something for the prospect to look at… they will may do something you don’t want them to;
Samples – they may find something wrong with it before you have explained it
Brochures – they will read while you talk
Computer – the screen will never be at the correct angle so they’ll just nod to be nice
Know your prospect, be prepared and know when to present what.
Yes! is 50 short stories about how people are influenced and persuaded in different settings all with a scientific background. The reading is easy, interesting and I found it similar to Malcolm Gladwell’s ‘The Tipping Point’.
For Sales Professionals we need to know how to be more persuasive and less pushy.
When Niccolò Machiavelli wrote The Prince he was writing a treatise that ended up defining his career and later his namesake. Machiavellian is the term that social psychologists use to describe a person’s tendency to deceive and manipulate others for personal gain.
I saw this topic as one of Sean’s drafts and I thought I would steal this before he wrote about it. I have been faced with this decision in the past and it is a dilemma. On the one hand you have a clean part from your old job, but on the other…does it really matter?
Let’s look at what comes from quitting…the fact that you are leaving them and that’s about it. If you were to get fired then they are asking you to leave, but they are also giving you a package and you can also apply for employment insurance if needed.
My thought is this…if you know you are soon to be fired, I would start looking for another job and then wait for them to fire you, hopefully you have found a job by then.
Now to play devil’s advocate…the thing about a career in sales is you can be a hero or a goat at any given time. Every working moment is a chance to turn that career around.
There must be a reason you are about to be fired, and that can be changed. Why not, instead of concentrating on finding another job, concentrate on making this one a success. Meet with your manager and find out what needs to be implemented in your daily activities to make you successful, speak to colleagues that are having success.
In summary, don’t quit! Either work harder or get fired, both are of more benefit than quitting.
The Tipping Point was a phenomenal success and following the popularity of the topic brothers Chip and Dan Heath have written Made to Stick.
Made to Stick is more of a how-to reference and follow up to Tipping Point, it is a good read for business owners or marketing managers. It describes what makes an idea ’sticky’ and how to recognize such an idea in your business.
Made to Stick is a must have for your business library.
I eat out a lot, and I try to watch what I eat as best as I can… then there are those nights like tonight. The company was engaging the food was savory and the beer was flowing like Niagara on a Tuesday.
I eat out so much that it’s a struggle to find a place that is healthy or at least has options… my best bet is sushi. Raw fish with small amounts of rice is filling and full of Omega’s you need. If you ever need to find a good sushi place in a town you don’t know you should ask the Batista’s at Starbucks, check with a few of them and cross reference what you hear to make your decision.
Seth Godin has written a great short book called The Dip, it is about knowing when to quit. In sales it’s very important to know when to quit working a client or prospect and though The Dip is not written to the sales professional (it is more about start-ups) it will help you think of your clients in a different way.
The Dip will teach you when to quit a client and when to push through the difficult times and make the big sale.
Meeting one-on-one or you and a couple of prospects is easy… sharing your sales call with another sales rep is an art.
There are too many things that can go wrong with a joint sales call; the client can be bombarded with questions or information, the two of you may not be on the same page and frustrate each other… just imagine two artists painting one painting.
Even if you have a plan it sometimes is thrown out the window by one or both of the reps and your back to painting an ugly portrait.
There are many many reasons for a joint meeting; shared resources, technical expertise, sales training, intimidating client or collaboration with a vendor. The intention is good, the preparation should be excellent.
Some things you need to agree on before you enter the meeting;
Objectives – like any meeting you need objectives however in a joint meeting you need your objectives to be strong and agreed. When you are selling alone the objective can be many (demo, sale, higher meeting) and can change on the fly dependent on what you hear and see in their body language. In a joint meeting you don’t have the luxury to change objectives or shoot from the hip, you need 2 or 3 clear objectives that both of you agree on.
A quick roll play on objectives seems corny but can make a huge difference, to make it less corny and more likely you would try it use the ‘devils advocate‘ point of view to flush out possibilities.
The objective should also be centered around why this is a joint meeting, do you want to showcase a new vendor, ensure the client of technical expertise… you need to justify the shared sales call.
Defined Leader – Someone has to be the leader, they will open the meeting, interject if it’s going south, confirm any agreements and wrap up goals. There should be an agreement of what each person should ‘lead’ making sure the objectives are met with the rep in conversation with the prospect/client and not the two reps re-phrasing each others questions.
Goals- if an objective is ’showcase a new vendor’ then your goal could be demo a new product. Like the objectives you need them clear, agreed upon and left to the leader to wrap up.
Watch the clients body language, if they get defensive or agitated you are making an ugly portrait… slow down, don’t interrupt the leader and make agreements around the objectives and goals.
As Figure 1 shows, the amount of coaching a representative receives has a direct influence on the level of sales performance. Coaching also has a direct bearing on the levels of representative engagement and retention.
But how much coaching happens in reality? Figure 2 shows that fewer than 30% of representatives (green segments) are receiving the optimal amount of coaching time from their managers, while nearly 50% (red segments) receive less than 3 hours of coaching per month.
