Ask A Sales Leader: Preston Foreman

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This month’s Ask A Sales Leader is Preston Foreman. Preston is the Regional Sales Manager for Pioneer Steel Corporation. He also has experience as a sales trainer and shares multiple perspectives from the different roles in sales.

1. Describe how your customer facing teams use your organization’s sales process.
• The team uses the sales process in three different ways: Opening / Background questions, Value proposition (added services beyond materials), Closing and follow through.

2. What is your Management’s approach to Coaching sales reps?
• I approach coaching in a mentor role as opposed to a subordinate / Manager role. I make sure my team feels we are all in this together. I ask what ideas they have first then analyze those ideas and add my own experience and expertise to make a custom fit coaching session to that individual Rep. It is important the Rep. does not feel like they are being “told” what to do. Having a stake in the coaching process gives them ownership and motivation to try the new approach.

3. How do you reinforce sales skill development for sales reps?
• The best way for me to reinforce sales skill development is to stay involved and be a mentor. The “sandwich” approach is what I use. First, it starts out with positive comments and telling what they did right, second, identify areas of growth and changes that need to be made. The second part is critical as it must be specific to what did not work. Generalized comments are NOT effective. Third, end on a positive note and make a new plan moving forward then a follow up of how the new plan worked. This is a constant cycle that must be continued so the Rep. knows management is involved and cares about their development as a salesperson.

4. What advice would you give to other sales leaders ?
• The best advice that I can give is to make sure the team feels PART of the process and not just subordinates to carry out orders. The role of a Manager is to motivate, inspire, and develop. Being a Manager is not about the Manager. It’s about the team and individual development. Listening is key as well. Some of the best sales ideas I have received are from new Reps.

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Online Learning Portal Reinforces Your Sales Process

We are pleased to announce the release of the Flannery Sales Systems’ Online Learning Portal (FSS OLP), another tool to further enable our customers to drive revenue through sales process.

The OLP was built to help our customers’ sales teams with a deeper understanding of buyer behavior, their sales process and the refinement of the skills needed to be successful. The web based portal (view screen shot here) includes:`

  • Six reinforcement videos by sales stage and skill; each are 5 to 7 minutes long (click here to view a sample)
  • e-Toolkits that support each stage
  • A reinforcement quiz for each stage
  • The Manager’s Coaching Room
  • Support with live phone coaching sessions

In the article we posted last week, one of the key tenets of Adult Learning Theory emphasized a need for a learner (salesperson) to use repetition as a way to embed additional skills into their everyday routine.

Coaching is a major component to reinforce the use of enhanced skills, but until the new skills are entrenched, coaching will be difficult. The portal is designed to provide the repetition, and then offers the visibility for a specific skill that needs improvement (i.e. qualification, establishing value, negotiation, etc.).

We built the FSS OLP to:

  1. Reinforce the core concepts and selling skills of your Sales Process for all individuals in customer facing roles.
  2. Provide practice and repetition of skills in a self-paced, ongoing basis.
  3. Help Managers to understand where their sellers are competent, where they need coaching, and how to improve results.

Once the salespeople go through all six modules, Managers will be able to see the results of the scores on the quizzes completed. This provides the Managers with the objectivity needed to pinpoint coaching efforts.

Many Sales Managers still have larger teams as a result of the economic downturn in 2009. And even in situations where there are 5 or 6 salespeople per team, most Managers are “Deal Coaches” focused on assembling products, services and pricing for the right mix to present.

This means that coaching sales skills is often one of the last things to be addressed in the overscheduled world of most Sales Managers. The OLP provides Managers with an objective way to assess skills, as well as a platform to create skill related topics for sales team meetings.

Marketing, Customer Service and Inside Sales personnel can also benefit from the use of this valuable tool, as the OLP provides a window into the buyer’s world, the sales process that is being used in the field, and how other customer facing roles can benefit from the use in their respective roles.

To learn more, or get answers to any questions on how your team can use this to improve results, please contact Malinee Kukkonen at malinee@drive-revenue.com or 866-518-7039.

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