Flannery Sales Systems is grateful to have completed a successful virtual sales process and sales skills training workshop with Language Service Providers from five countries around the world. Read what some of our customers had to say…..
Archive for month: September, 2020
John is finally on the road again after 200 days “grounded” from the pandemic. Listen and watch him from a beautiful hike (with bear spray) in Big Sky, Montana, discuss planning for 2021 in our upcoming newsletter.
“What happens if we train them and they leave; what happens if we don’t and they stay?” We have all heard that one before and it is just as true today as it was when it was first uttered.
Many organizations believe that if they hire someone with experience they won’t require much coaching or training. It is especially true in sales. Few organizations have in house training and even fewer provide training exclusively for the sales team. Therefore, in many cases, coaching is left to the sales manager.
But sales managers struggle with these four obstacles:
Demanding Work Environments
Sales managers operate in demanding environments. They spend their day working on the hottest deals, pricing, closing, and dealing with staff (expense reports, commission checks, HR issues). In many organizations, the sales manager is often required to push reports to executives or other corporate departments.
Far down the list in their job description is coaching and training. There are no measurable goals or compensation for them to train, only whether you hit your revenue goal.
Inadequate Skill Set
Most sales managers have matriculated into the role by first being a sales rep and approach the job with that mindset. However, sales coaching is an entirely different skill set than being a sales rep. Once past onboarding and orientation, there is usually little curriculum available. Frankly, through no fault of their own, they do not know what to teach. There are no college degrees in Sales Management.
Meeting Fail
Some sales managers have the mindset that meetings fulfill coaching and training needs. But that is often not the case.
- Group meeting fail: Meetings that could include coaching and training are focused on pipeline metrics, hot deals, and corporate announcements.
- One-on-one meeting fail: Some sales managers think they are conducting training when they are merely providing feedback. Feedback is reactive and occurs after events. Coaching is proactive and occurs before events.
Resistance
The sales manager will face resistance. Sales people, especially the seasoned ones, dislike things like coaching, training and role playing. They think they can merely rely upon their relationships.
With 2021 rapidly coming upon us, companies are preparing for something completely different. Sales managers will likely have less availability, less resources and less support to provide the team with the coaching it requires for success. Outsourcing is the most viable alternative and engaging an organization virtually during their kickoff meeting is an inexpensive and efficient way to drive revenue for 2021.
It’s that time again when executives begin to finalize their plans and budgets for the next business year. 2020 is, and perhaps 2021 may be, unlike any other 365-day period in a long, long time. Never has unpredictability played a larger role than now. As the great Oscar Wilde once said, “Expect the unexpected, but don’t count on it.”
Companies spend millions of dollars to get their commercial strategies right. A global customer of ours just spent $ 4 million dollars to get their strategy aligned to the best markets for growth. Now what? The newly found information is delivered to sales and others in customer facing roles (CFRs), including marketing, customer service and technical support, and then they HOPE that they all get it right. They hope that all these roles just sync up in a well-coordinated unison. Unfortunately, we all know that it’s just not that simple.
At Flannery Sales Systems, we build process for our customers that include the tactical execution of the commercial/go to market (whatever you choose to call it) strategy. And what does that mean exactly? It is a clear plan for how the individuals in your CFRs conduct conversations to provide a customer or prospect with an understanding of how to use your product or service to increase revenue, reduce costs or minimize risk. Simple, right?
Our customers improve the quality of the sales opportunities they develop and increase the overall revenue in their pipeline when they embrace and execute this process. All sales organizations are focused on this, and we enable it with a skills-based program that is custom built for our customers based on the markets they compete in and how organizations BUY, not how they should be selling.
Whether it’s to prepare for next year or fine tune opportunities in the pipeline now, we can help. Take fifteen minutes to consider how we can enable you to meet and exceed your objectives. Ready? Let’s go!
For additional Sales Strategy information, check out some of our other blog posts here.
An excerpt from San Diego Voyager Magazine.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Flannery Sales Systems, LCC – What should we know?
At a cocktail party or BBQ I say we do Sales Training. What we really do is help our customers to refine and implement a repeatable process to drive revenue. If I say the latter at a social event, people walk away (joking). But if I am speaking with a Commercial Leader of a mid to large size organization, they get it.
Because the work we do is fundamental to the tactical execution of the GoTo Market strategy. And companies spend millions on getting their strategy right. We help our customers to improve the quality of the Sales opportunities they develop, and to increase the overall revenue in their pipeline. All Sales organizations are focused on this, and we enable it with a skills-based program that is custom built for our customers based on the markets they compete in and how organizations BUY, not how they should be selling.
Sales effectiveness is about understanding buying, not refining your sales pitch. The source of pride for us is twofold. First, we have helped the individuals in our customers’ organizations to improve their success. This is important monetarily, but even more so when you hear the effect it has on their families – that makes my heart sing.
And second, there are seven customers who have come back to buy from us again: four have bought from us twice, and three have done so 3 times. It may not be seen like a lot, but we only have 3-4 customers at a time and have worked with 56 overall, so the repeat business says we are doing something right.
What sets us apart is our team. I know that may seem trite or overused, but people buy from people, and we have super individuals at FSS who make the difference.