Schedule Downtime to Become More

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Last weekend we got into the Holiday spirit by attending a Christmas parade in Encinitas, the next town up the coast from us in Solana Beach, CA. After finding a parking spot, I happened upon the flashing sign in the attached photo. Upon first impression, it struck me as the very thing NOT to do as I round out the last month of a very busy year filled with family and the team at Flannery Sales Systems. However, as my personal, community and business commitments pick up around the Holidays, I do find it critical to schedule downtime for myself in order to maintain my balance and sanity.

Each morning, I start the day with a twenty-minute quiet period. During this time, I’m usually alone, although lately our new dog has decided to join me. I make it a practice to put away all my electronic devices, news sources and other “outside” influences. The only thing I keep is a reading on how to focus on the present moment and remember all the things I have to be grateful for.

My latest, favorite read during this time is a book by Terry Hershey called Pause: Becoming More by Doing Less. The chapters are broken into weekly two to three page reads, each with a focus on a different aspect of spiritual development. Each reading helps me put my mind in a positive place and prep me for the day ahead. On the rare occasion I don’t get the chance to start my day with this twenty-minute reflection, I feel like I’m running hard all day, and not nearly as effective, or present, as when I do.

There’s no shortage of information written on the consequences of neglecting to take care of yourself and succumbing to the manic pace that has become the “new normal”. This frenetic behavior has many subtle and often dangerous outcomes. Recently, I stumbled upon an article that summarizes this perfectly — The Disease of Being Busy.

Developing a practice of quiet reflection is about reduction, not addition. At this stage in my life, I have so much to be grateful for, and I find that my daily meditations help me slow down so I can savor each moment. Here’s hoping that you and your family have a blessed, happy and relaxing Holiday season. I look forward to connecting with you in 2017.

 

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Executing the Basics Won a Championship

Do Simple BetterThe article below (and picture to the left) were originally posted to our blog in 2015, and again in September 2016. The second posting was when the Chicago Cubs began their historic run to win the American Baseball World Series Championship.

While we all look for the shiniest, new object to help increase our results, don’t forget to overlook the very fundamentals on which sales (or sports, music, language, art) success are founded. This lies in the basics as listed below, and having the first line Manager Coaching salespeople to improve their selling skills.

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The quote on a t shirt worn by Joe Maddon, the Manager of the Chicago Cubs (an American baseball team) inspired me. It said “Do Simple Better”. Professional athletes focusing on how to do the simple things, better.

Hmmm, Do Simple Better. What does that mean to your team? In Sales, this is what the focus should be on, and as fundamental as it sounds, doesn’t always happen in the heat of identifying, developing and closing a healthy Sales Pipeline filled with qualified Opportunities.

  1. Understand the Prospect/Customer’s Primary Business Objectives (PBOs): what is the Decision Maker hoping to accomplish if they purchase your product or service?
  1. Identify the Challenges: what is happening in their business today that inhibits them from reaching the PBO? And what is the impact, financial and otherwise, if they don’t make a change?
  1. Align Your Capabilities: how do your capabilities help the Decision Maker to address the Challenges? Be specific in matching the capability, and make sure the prospect identifies the VALUE they could obtain through the use of your capabilities. If they can’t, you should be able to help paint the picture on value.
  1. Agree on a Clear Next Step: what is the next step that the prospect and you are taking to move forward?  My colleague John Golden calls this an advance, as opposed to a continuation. Are we advancing this opportunity to the next step, or in a stall with one of the above mentioned items incomplete?

Items # 1 through 4 are the SIMPLE, or The Basics for sellers in early Opportunity development. They should all be discussed, documented and agreed to with the Decision Maker BEFORE sellers create a quote, write a proposal, ask for technical support or Marketing resources, build a presentation or respond to a tender/RFP.

Sales Leaders, it’s time to Coach your sellers to get the Simple right. Right now.

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Help Your Salespeople Hold Pricing

How will you focus your team this month to successfully close business and maximize revenue potential? One key way is to avoid discounting. This may be easier said than done, especially in the fourth quarter when buyers are working hard to get the best deals possible. But, here are two proven skills we teach our clients in every workshop we run.

Prove Value

This is one of the most fundamental and important skills we work on with salespeople, and it is central to any customer-focused selling methodology. In order to avoid heavy discounting at the end of the sales cycle, sellers must thoroughly understand their customers’ primary business objectives, the key challenges they face that prevent them from achieving those objectives, and the financial impact of doing nothing. Then, they must align the specific product/service capabilities with those challenges in the form of a question, such as “if you had a printing service that could turn around jobs in 24 hours and offers free delivery, how would that solve the challenge you’d mentioned related to compressed timelines and skyrocketing costs?”

Once that value has been established, when buyers ask for the discount at the end of the sales cycle (they will ask for some concession), sellers can return to the value they had both agreed their product or service would bring. When asked for the discount, a seller might say, “you agreed that using our printing services would save you an estimated $50,000/yr in rush charges and delivery fees. Has anything changed since our last conversation?” Reminding buyers of the value of your solution and the cost to them of not changing is key to closing business without price concessions.

For more on the questions sellers should ask in order to thoroughly establish value, take a look at our three-part series “Helping Your Customers Achieve Their Objectives”.

Refine Negotiation Skills

Proving value is something all good sellers do at the beginning of the sales cycle, while skillful negotiating happens at all stages. You’ll often hear sellers say, “he’s just a good negotiator,” as if it’s something you’re born with and you either have it, or you don’t. Nothing could be further from the truth. All salespeople can be trained to be great negotiators. Here’s what they must know:

Have a negotiation plan – you must be prepared for a negotiation – you can’t just “wing it”. Before walking into any closing meeting, sellers should have a plan in place to respond to pressure.

Know your floor – calculate the lowest price you’ll go to in order to preserve margin and revenue opportunities for you and your company.

Push back – remind your buyer about the agreed-upon value of your product, or if they’re prepared to deal with the cost of not moving forward.

Offer other concessions – be ready to offer your customer other concessions that aren’t related to price, things like extended warranty, training, a dedicated service rep, etc. These offer your customers value without eroding your margins. But…if you do offer something, be sure to ask for something in return. What can your customer give you? Think about things like exclusives, referrals, testimonials, etc.

Be prepared to walk away/Have a full pipeline – there are times when a buyer will not move forward without unreasonable discount requests, and good sellers must be prepared to walk. Tell your buyer, “I’m not going to be able to offer you the discount you’re requesting. But, what I would like to do is take some time to think about our conversation today and get back with you next week.” Sometimes knowing that they’ve pushed you as low as you’ll go is all a buyer needs to move forward.

PRACTICE– as with all skill development, practice is key to mastery. Role-play negotiations to prepare for big meetings. Practice pushing back and offering non-price concessions in exchange for something of value to your organization.

In summary, ensuring your sellers are able to prove value and negotiate effectively is key to helping them avoid the price concessions that customers are sure to request .

 

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Improve As a Sales Manager, But First….

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Part 1

The work we do with our customers includes intensive focus on sales management. These leaders are the ones who will implement the sales process we have built for their customer-facing teams. Because sales managers are so pivotal in this process, our understanding of their strengths and weaknesses, as well as how to help them to improve, is critical to their overall success.

Many sales managers still have large teams as a result of the economic downturn in 2009; some have up as many as a dozen direct reports. Even in situations where there are five or six salespeople per team, many managers are “deal coaches,” focused on assembling the right mix of products, services and pricing to present to customers. Coaching deals is important, as are regular pipeline reviews, but sales managers shouldn’t stop there.

Coaching skills is also extremely important to overall sales results, and it is often sorely neglected in the overscheduled world of sales managers. Take a look at the sales management skills below, and stack rank your skills from 1 to 6. A “1” is your strongest skill, and a “6” is the skill where you need the most improvement. Stack ranking means you can only use each number one time. Although you may want to give yourself high marks on every skill, you’ll need to rank them 1 through 6 in order to get an accurate picture of where and how to improve.

The skills are:

  • Identifying and coaching sales rep skills before a deal’s negotiation and close
  • Enabling salespeople to understand what a qualified opportunity looks like
  • Coaching opportunities through the entire sales cycle
  • Helping salespeople negotiate and close successfully
  • Developing healthy revenue pipelines
  • Forecasting accurately

Part 2

Now comes the fun part. We’re inviting you to send in your test results to receive customized tools tailored to improve your overall performance. To submit your results, simply send an email to john@drive-revenue.com with your stack ranking. If you’d like to submit for your entire sales management team, or to do so anonymously, simply enter “Manager A”, “Manager B”, etc. From the scores you send in, we will respond with tools to help you improve the lowest two scores you identified, the 5 and the 6.

In addition to providing you with customized feedback on your sales management skills, we will publish a follow-up article in which we provide an aggregate view of the results gathered from our customers (again, anonymously). This benchmarking data will allow you to compare yourself to others in similar roles and will help provide you with insight on key focus areas.

So, what are you waiting for? The road to improvement begins here. We look forward to hearing from you.

 

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Nextel Communications 1995-2000: The Best Sales Team

In the early days of digital wireless networks, I had the opportunity to work for Nextel Communications as both an employee and as an Authorized Distributor (Dealer). Starting in 1995, I worked with Nextel for a total of six years. During that time, I was able to observe first-hand the key attributes that made the Nextel team excel. Recently, I reached out to a few of the leaders and team members with whom I worked to gather their thoughts on what made us such a high performing team.

Hire Great People and Work FOR Them

Sally Fleck, the San Diego Sales Director responsible for the direct team, said there were two factors to which she attributed our success. First, she hired great people who knew how to sell. There was a wide range of backgrounds on our team, and Sally looked at this diversity as an asset. Our team members’ unique perspectives helped us close different types of sales opportunities. Second, Sally firmly believed that she worked FOR the team, and not the other way around. This meant she took it upon herself to remove barriers, both externally with customers and internally with bureaucracy, which allowed us to focus on selling. She was damn good at it too, as all eight members of our team made the Presidents’ Club trip to Jamaica in 1996…..YA MON!

Focus on the Customer

When we first launched the digital network, the Motorola handsets were still in development and our network build out was not yet complete. During this time, Regional Vice President John Combs decided that our #1 priority would be our customers.  For each commercial sale, we sent a Customer Service Representative to conduct a hands-on training with the customer’s team. We made sure that all users understood how to use the handset and were well versed on its many capabilities.

In addition, all new customers received a Customer Satisfaction Survey, and the scores we earned were closely followed and reviewed with us. We knew that the sale didn’t end after the deal was closed, and that we had to expend some effort on ensuring our users were happy.

Skill Development and Career Advancement

Nextel did a great job investing in their people, and during my three years with the direct team I went through SPIN Selling as well as The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People. SPIN selling was a very hot sales methodology at the time, and I still recall the foundational concepts the program provided for our team. Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits also established a great framework for professional and personal growth. Due largely in part to our focus on skill development, five of the eight members of our team were promoted internally or advanced into the Dealer/Channel Sales program.

Brian Moses ran the Dealer/Channel Indirect Sales program for the San Diego market, and he helped bring me into this new part of the business and provide me with the support I needed to focus on closing deals and driving revenue. Having an internal perspective on how Nextel operated gave Brian, my team and me an advantage in our ability to successfully onboard customers, provide high quality service, and drive revenue through referrals.

The Best Sales Team

My career at Nextel was my final role as an individual producer in a corporate environment, and it provided me and many others with a strong foundation in sales and customer service. As I reflect with my colleagues on what made us so successful, it was the culture of hiring great people and working FOR them, an unequivocal customer focus in all aspects of the organization, and an acknowledgement of the importance of skill development and career advancement. We had a lot of fun in those years, and I still keep in touch with many of my Nextel team members today. It was without a doubt the best sales team I ever had the pleasure of being on.

 

 

 

 

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Spotlight on Marketing : Matt Heinz’s Book on a Full Funnel

Heinz Marketing Portraits

Heinz Marketing Portraits

Matt Heinz has written a terrific book called “Full Funnel Marketing” (click here for a free download: http://results.heinzmarketing.com/FullFunnelMarketing.html)

The book describes the invaluable role that Marketing has in helping to fill the revenue Funnel with qualified opportunities, keeping buyers and sellers engaged and to close more business.

Matt and I had a chance to work together in 2014, and have stayed in close touch to share ideas at the intersection of Sales and Marketing effectiveness, a place where he is fully well versed.

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1. What was the impetus behind writing the book?

I fundamentally believe B2B marketers need to expand how they view their role in the organization, work much farther down the buying journey and sales process, and transform their role into a profit center for the business.  This includes changes in how they focus, how they measure their success, how they work with sales at a strategic AND operational level, and much more.

Full Funnel Marketing breaks down many of the best practices of how leading marketers are already embracing this challenge and responsibility.

2. What “trigger” events transpire that get your prospects to pick up the phone and call you?

The most valuable triggers are related to desired outcomes, likely “triggered” by an internal or external factor that makes change more urgent.  Sirius Decisions calls this the “challenge the status quo” stage of the buying journey, and it’s a critical opportunity to educate, reframe and build value with the buyer.

3. I’ve see you speak at conferences and you are very well prepared. Can you share any secrets for how you prepare?

Wow, thank you first of all.  What I do to prepare isn’t rocket science, but it works for me.  First is to focus intently on what the audience wants to hear.  Who will be there, what’s their mindset, why did they attend, and how can I give them some really valuable pieces of information that help them think differently, do their job better, etc.  Second key is to practice, be prepared, know the topic really well, and bring a lot of energy to the stage.

4. You live on a farm. How do you compare that to helping your customers to coordinate the efforts of Sales and marketing?

Chasing chickens is like chasing down leads?!  Harvesting the fall produce is about timing – get it while it’s ripe lest it go bad on the vine?!

I’m not sure there’s a perfect analogy there.  When it comes to managing our little hobby farm, my wife and I have similar but sometimes different objectives.  We ultimately want the same thing but have different visions of how to get there, what operationally we need to build or plant, what projects are bigger priorities than others.

For example, I really want to get pigs.  My wife doesn’t.  Both of us are committed to the ultimate goal of having a fun hobby farm that our kids enjoy and that teaches them responsibility, etc.  You can do that with pigs just as well as you can with produce I guess.  And so it is with sales & marketing, both ideally focused on the same objective but with different ideas of what to do every day to get there.

Are these the right leads?  Is that the right target market, or follow-up process, or trade show to attend?

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On The Road Again: Shanghai, China

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On another customer visit to Asia, John discusses the importance of having Sales and Marketing focused on the best targets for new business, as well as the items that a salesperson must have before presenting a proposal to a prospect .

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Prospect Profiling: Agree on the Best Targets First

prospect_profile    Although the word “profiling” may have a negative connotation in some capacities, profiling in sales is not only permissible, it is paramount to success.  According to Merriam Webster, profiling is defined as “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 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 

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 with Marketing and Sales leadership.  We help pinpoint business 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.

 

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On The Road Again: Narberth, Pennsylvania

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John reports back from his original hometown on the upcoming topics in our newsletter to include Ask A Sales Leader with Melissa Clemens. Also, we revisit “Doing Simple Better”; what are the basic components, which are often overlooked or minimized, when developing sales opportunities.

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Ask A Sales Leader: Melissa Clemens

melissa_clemensMelissa Clemens has experience in front line Sales, as well as in running a large, dispersed team. Her background includes product and service sales, and her Stanford English degree enhances her communication skills into a finely tuned art, transferring into sales success for her customers and herself. Listen in below on how Melissa has used sales process as the foundation of her success.

  1. Describe how your customer facing teams (or you) use your organization’s sales process.

Sales process was instrumental to revenue achievement at my previous organization. I was Head of Sales for a national media company with a large, distributed sales team. We had over 400 reps in 26 different markets. With a team of that size, it’s imperative to establish a sales process for several reasons. First, a proven sales process demonstrates what success looks like, which is critical for your organization’s credibility. If reps don’t believe their quotas are achievable, they will fail. Second, a solid sales process is the foundation for building a training platform to teach reps the skills they need to be successful. Finally, a well-articulated sales process ensures compliance with critical sales ops protocols like establishing account ownership and sales forecasting.

  1. What is your Management’s approach to coaching sales reps?

In our organization, training was a one-time opportunity for new skill acquisition; coaching was an ongoing effort to hone and improve those skills. All good managers prioritized coaching, focusing on their middle performers and delivering personalized, timely and consistent feedback to their reps.

  1. How do you reinforce sales skill development for sales reps?

We encouraged regular sales training for new skill acquisition as well as one-on-one coaching with managers to further hone and refine those skills.

  1. What advice would you give to other sales leaders?

Take the time up front to develop a sales process that is customized for your markets and customers, proven to work and replicable. Invest in a training platform that allows reps to learn the skills necessary for success within their respective markets. Invest in talented sales managers that prioritize ongoing rep coaching. Finally, don’t forget to include key sales ops functions in your overall process as they are often critical to running a healthy organization that can consistently meet or beat revenue goals.

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