2013 - Drive Revenue

Getting to Your New Year’s Resolution – What’s on your list?

The New Year is the time to take some time for reflection on change and resolutions for the upcoming year. The question is how do you come up with the resolution? Or do you reflect on the outcome you are looking to achieve? You should focus on resolutions from two perspectives; one, properly define the goal (what is it deep down?) and two, incorporate the specific steps you must accomplish to achieve the goals.

How to get to the resolution deep down

What is a New Year’s resolution? It’s something you commit to do to affect change to reach a goal. When setting goals, it’s important to get to the primary motivation. You do this by asking yourself what you are hoping to accomplish. For example, losing weight tops the list on many individual’s plans for the New Year. Ask yourself, what are you hoping to accomplish by losing weight? If the answer is better health then ask yourself what you’re hoping to accomplish with better health? It works. Ask yourself over and over until you get to the true motivator behind the goal. Understanding the motivation behind completion is paramount to achievement of your goal.

Goals fall into 3 buckets

We do the “getting to the goal” / “what are you hoping to accomplish” exercise with every client. It’s amazing how vast the goals seem in the beginning, but can always be narrowed down to two or three. If thinking of business goals, they can be narrowed into 3 buckets: increasing revenue, decreasing costs and mitigating risks. Personal goals, similarly, can be lumped into a few categories as well: personal improvement, personal achievement and increasing income.

Achieving goals over 70% of the time

Now that we’ve gotten to the motivation behind the goal, next month we will explore how to achieve those goals 70% of the time. We will cite the fascinating study that replaces the mythical 1953 Yale study on goal writing. Until then, get to the motivation behind your goals. What are you hoping to accomplish in 2014? We will see you in January.

December 17, 2013/by John Flannery

Ready – Fire – Aim: Why Profiling Works In Sales

General Information

Although the word “profiling” has a negative connotation in the world of police activity and airport security, according to Merriam Webster, profiling in sales is not only permissible, it is paramount to success: “Profiling – The act or process of targeting a person (or organization) on the basis of known traits, tendencies, characteristics or behaviors”.

A successful sales organization knows all about targeting customers; understanding who they are, what goals they are working toward, what industry wide challenges commonly prevent them from achieving their objectives, and what motivates them to buy. These “traits, tendencies, characteristics or behaviors” facilitate an understanding of how a company’s product or service aligns with the marketplace and provides a sustainable business model for success. In a business setting, targeting may work for marketing, but on the streets, reps need the specific criteria to go out there and win.

Identify the Criteria to Increase Success

Have you fine-tuned the profiling expertise of your sales department? It’s not hard to define your target audience at a high level, but have you taken a granular look at who the ideal buyers are in your market? Who are your reps calling on? Are they picking out prospects randomly from an organizational line up, or do they know whom they are trying to identify? Have you profiled the roles of those who can actually make or influence a buying decision in your industry or market? Do you have your finger on the pulse of how those buying influencing roles may have changed or may be changing in the current marketplace? Do you understand what they’re trying to achieve, what challenges they may be facing, and how to align specific nuances of your product or service directly with their particular roles? The profiles of the roles of each person at the decision maker level may only be slightly diverse, but a rep’s clear understanding of the individuals, carefully profiled, can make all the difference in their success.

Ready, Fire, Aim Won’t Work; How We Help

At Flannery Sales Systems, our Sales Process Definition Workshops provide an opportunity to collaborate with our clients, utilizing research and our joint industry experience and expertise, to sharpen an organization’s profiling aptitude. Together, we document the profiles of the compulsory decision makers and buying influences required to facilitate a sale. We help specify the representative objectives, needs, problems and challenges of the decision makers and those in a buying influence role. Next, we help our clients carefully determine how specific components of their products and services align with their particular targeted audience profile. In a messaging session, we help build a customized strategy for the rep to use when preparing for a conversation with the target audience.

Decrease the Cost of Sales with Clear Targets

Putting profiling strategies into practice speeds up the sale by providing valuable tools for reps to help them deliver a focused and consistent message, which qualifies the prospect sooner, shortens the sales cycle, minimizes defeat, and keeps the reps on their beat closing more business and doing what they do so well. Profiling? Not only permissible…a powerful strategy for success.

December 17, 2013/by John Flannery

Turning Your Top Sales Performer into a Great Sales Manager 

Sales Skills

Many sales managers think they are good at managing sales people because they excel at selling. Because they are good at it (or so the logic goes), they can just manage their reps by example. They go on sales calls with them and show them how…. “Just do what I do.” 

After all, Einstein says, “Example isn’t another way to teach, it’s the only way to teach.”  

Sorry Einstein.  According to a recent study, nearly 90% of organizations train their sales managers to improve their coaching skills.  Progressive organizations recognize that teaching frontline managers how to deliver personalized training targeted specifically at sales rep skill deficiencies has a greater impact on overall sales performance than an investment in training the sales reps alone.

Unfortunately, training and coaching are activities that can get pushed aside as managers revert to where they’re most comfortable: the selling expertise that got them promoted to their leadership position in the first place. They’re good at solving problems and closing deals for reps, but in successful organizations, there is a clear link between effective sales coaching and sales performance.  Being a sales skills development coach may not be in a sales manager’s job description, but it certainly come with the title.

Recently, we worked with an organization whose new sales rep team was being managed by their superstar-salesman-first-line-sales-manager we’ll call Ken.   With his compensation tied to his team’s revenue numbers, it was understandable that Ken wanted to “make it happen.”  He was involved in every account, micromanaging the reps, asking for updates every other day, solving problems, and often eventually stepping in to “save the sale” as the quarter end approached.  

It was exhausting yet rewarding for Ken, and although the compensation was good for all of them, the reps on his team felt unappreciated, unmotivated, unfulfilled and ultimately, unable to continue working under such conditions. The turnover was high and the organization was not producing skilled reps who could achieve their revenue growth through their own efforts.

This organization hired us. Our first priority was to teach their first line managers how to coach their direct reports on sales skills.  We helped them link their sales process to practical, teachable, selling skills, setting up a structure for skills coaching based on individual sales reps’ needs.

The change came slowly but steadily. Because the managers were trained around conversations on current account strategies and within the parameters of their busy schedules, they developed the “muscle memory” of new coaching skills through practice with their teams. And the results followed, with an 11% increase in revenue from existing customers, a noticeable increase in the new opportunity pipeline, and a happier, more productive team. Now that’s what we call a win-win…..win!

November 15, 2013/by John Flannery

Sharpen Your Selling Skills in Our Boot Camp on November 14 and 15

General Information

The end of the year often means it’s time for sales people to negotiate, to close out those important opportunities they have developed all year. Negotiation is the skill that we get the most requests for by far. But there are 5 other distinct skills that a seller must master and execute on a regular basis: proactive new business development, identifying primary business objectives, establishing value, accessing key influencers and managing the buying process.

Which selling skills do you need to sharpen here in Q4? Or do you have a new team member or two who you would like to get up to speed with your company’s sales process? Join us on Nov 14 and 15 here in beautiful San Diego for an impactful workshop to fire you up for a great close in 2013. We will cover the basics, as well as advanced concepts on how to stay in tune with today’s sophisticated buyers. Participants from several other companies will be in attendance to share successes and challenges on how your team and you can continuously sharpen your selling skills.

To register, simply call our toll free number 866 518-7039. See you soon!

October 24, 2013/by John Flannery

Why Training Doesn’t Work

General Information

This may sound like a career limiting statement coming from someone that you perceive as a sales trainer, but sales training that is conducted on an “event” type of basis simply does not work. There are ways to achieve positive change through training, and there are ways to spend several thousand dollars for no change.

Over the years we’ve been hired by clients for a 1 hour kick off motivational keynote, we’ve been hired for 3 days of intense sales process training and we’ve been hired for everything in between. Different types of training accomplish different goals. We’ve learned a few things along the way. If your goal is to transform the organization to achieve goals like increasing sales or increasing profit margin, then the actual training itself is only10% of the overall process.

Consider the following before you spend your valuable dollars on sales training:

Step 1: Change begins with the Implementation Plan

Begin your transformation with the end in mind. What are the metrics that will be measured for the sales person, managers and related team members to achieve? Is the leadership going to hold them accountable for achieving goals? For example, to achieve 10% growth in revenue, you’ve calculated that each sales person needs to meet with 1 additional qualified prospect per day; the skill being developed is new business development. How do hold them accountable for that number? The measure of success could be an email that the sales person sends to the customer as a summary of that meeting. This is an auditable measure by the manager and the manager’s manager. Those emails not only provide a quantitative measure, but managers, even the CEO, can peek into an email and see the quality of the customer interactions. How well was the skill being utilized captured in the follow up e mail? Is this a qualified prospect as defined by the metric to add 1 new per day?

Step 2: Reinforcement and Coaching as part of Management’s “Operating Rhythm”

Sales skills enhanced or gained in a training session are 80% forgotten after the first 30 days. Why? When not practiced or measured with a 3^rd party, there’s often little to no change in behavior. The formula for reinforcement is: a) apply the skill learned b) share results with the coach and then c) reinforce the behavior. First, get attendees to apply new skills in the field, and do this one skill at a time. This could be a verbal or written sales skill, then coach. Ask the individual specific questions pertaining to the outcome desired. For the example above, did they meet (or converse) with 1 new, qualified prospect. Frame questions that help them to understand what went well and where correction needs to happen. Next, ask them how they can improve their results. Effective coaches help the person being developed to find their own answers. Finally, ask would happen if next time you tried…. and insert a specific recommendation. Another method is to reinforce a skill that’s lacking by reviewing a video of someone who is good at the skill execution, or practicing a future conversation with a recording.

September 19, 2013/by John Flannery

On The Road Again: The Rolling Stones

consultative sales, life cycle, pipeline

Very few people stay in the same job or career for their entire life. My Uncle Jerry Rowan worked as a salesperson for DuPont for 37 years, and my father-in-law Dr. Stephen Nohlgren taught Biology at the same college for 43 years, but that longevity is rare to find today.

I found it in Philadelphia on June 18th, watching Mick Jagger and the rest of The Stones rock out an evening with a great show. And while it may not be the heyday of their career from an artistic productivity capacity, it is still quite amazing to watch them perform.

Who do you know who has been committed to their career in a similar capacity for an extended period? Drop me a line and let me know. Until then, click on the link above to hear more.

July 25, 2013/by John Flannery

Sales Boot Camp

General Information

Who Should Attend…

Sales Reps, Sales Managers, Sales Engineers, Professional Service Providers, Marketing Managers and all others who sell in a competitive, complex selling environment where relationshipsand consultative selling skills are a must for success.

You Will Receive…
• Over 15 hours of lively, informative, interactive training tailored to the specifics of relationship selling
• A comprehensive Common Sense Selling® workbook
• Free subscription to our highly acclaimed email sales newsletter, The Monday Morning Sales Coach
• 10 Weeks of Reinforcement Training & Coaching

Attendees Will Learn How To…
• Create buyer visions that are aligned with your solutions
• Create a sense of urgency and shorten the sales cycle
• Eliminate price as a major buying criteria
• Forecast reliably

• Weed out dead deals faster
• Use demos and presentations to close, not educate
• Implement a counterintuitive sales process that has proven successful in a competitive, relationship sales environment

Guarantee: We are so confident about the strength of this program that at the end of the first day of training, if you are not completely satisfied, we will refund your entire investment with no questions asked.

Investment: $2397 per person

Date: Thursday & Friday from 8:30 am to 5:00 pm.

Location: Whetstone Group Training Center, 3934 Murphy Canyon Road, Suite B-200, San Diego, CA 92123

Information: To sign up or to learn more about this innovative selling seminar, please feel free to contact us at 866-518-7039 or at mindy@drive-revenue.com

We'll look forward to hearing from you!

July 25, 2013/by John Flannery

On The Road Again: Yosemite National Park

General Information

Willie Nelson's signature song (as above) often pops into my head when I am pulling out of the garage at 4:45 am, off to the airport headed out on business travel. Like many of you in Sales, there are many days and nights away from home, but on a few occasions a year I take time to stop and “smell the roses” of some of the beautiful places I go.

Where are some the places you have explored while on a business trip? Please send me a mail to john@drive-revenue.com to describe where you were, what you saw and include a picture if possible.

Here's the video link: John E Flannery in Yosemite National Park

May 21, 2013/by John Flannery