Feet on the Street: What Rowan Zorilla Can Teach You About Skills Development

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There are no shortcuts, no easy ways of getting around how to improve and sharpen your skills. Whether you are a doctor (continuing medical education classes), a fireman (drills are a regular occurrence), a salesperson (training followed by Managerial Coaching) or an up and coming world class skateboarder (ride, ride, ride), you have to put the work in to keep on top of your game. In his book “Outliers: The Story of Success”, Malcolm Gladwell cites the need to put in 10,000 hours to become an expert at something. That’s a full time job (2,000 hours per year) for 5 years; think about that when measuring your professional status!

Well, it just so happens that my nephew, Rowan Zorilla, aka RoZo, is in his breakout year as one of the hottest new riders on the Vans Skateboarding team (http://www.vans.com/team/skate/rowan-zorilla.html). In fact, on April 21st, Rowan and a small group of his elite team will be featured in a worldwide release of the Vans skateboarding movie called Propeller, which will be shown in 11 cities over a 3 week period. Check out www.vanspropeller.com for more information.

And how did Rowan get to this point in his young life? It’s the same way that an aspiring singer gets to Carnegie Hall: practice, practice, practice! Since he was 8 years old, Rowan has lived and breathed skateboarding. He participated at a competitive level in soccer and baseball, but at the age of 11 decided that skateboarding was his passion. Rowan has surrounded himself with a group of young men, kids at the time, who know skateboarding, and he had the good fortune of meeting Tony Hawk, and Tony’s son Riley several years ago. Rowan has learned from the best, as Tony is the global leader and ambassador of the sport.

There were, and still are, no shortcuts for Rowan. He skates to most of the places he goes to, and aside from a period with a banged up knee, he practices his trade on a daily basis. In high school, he maintained a high grade point average, as his parents (my sister Anne and her husband Dan), made sure that their son kept his options open for other educational and career opportunities.  He has also been provided great tools to work with, whether that be the boards he is sponsored on, or the shoes he is wearing, Rowan is ready to hit the street flying on a regular basis.

So what can we can we all learn from this? Dedication, focus, practice, tools and mentorship/leadership; it’s no different than what my customers ask of the sales professionals from their teams on a regular basis. Vans provides it to Rowan, and he runs with it. What are you doing with the skills and tools provided to you?

And there’s no way I can wrap up this article without saying how proud I am of Rowan. When he made this leap 2 years ago, it seemed like a tough goal to get to from my perspective. I am happy to report that I was wrong, and pleased to say what a great young man this nephew of mine is today. Finally, I am REALLY thrilled to say that I will join him at the premier in London on April 30th. Look out RoZo, here comes your loud and proud Uncle walking into the Prince Charles Theatre!!

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On the Road Again

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In April, John is at home in Solana Beach with Dan Albaum, Director of Marketing, Americas for Precor. Click on the video link below to hear how Dan describes how his marketing team helps drive the sales process. Dan is one of the Management Leaders who helped to build out the Precor Sales Process, and continues to evangelize the use of the process as a way to focus on the customer.

 

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Business Model Innovation with Brian Tracy

 

 

brian_tracyAs mentioned in the December newsletter, Brian Tracy has invited me to collaborate with him on a project he is developing on Business Model Innovation. With the rapidly changing technology landscape, the globalization of markets and the emergence of new markets in foreign countries, Brian sees a need to assist Senior Leaders in making adaptations quickly.

 

 

The early phases of the work on this project evolve around two key questions:

  • What is the Customer Value Offering your company provides? This means, what business objective does your product/service help your customers to achieve? And if they can reach those targets, what value does this bring?
  • Who Is Your Customer? Having a clear picture of who the customer is, and what phases they go through from being a prospect to your customer is critical. If you haven’t hit refresh on describing who your customer is, now may be the time to do so.

While doing research to contribute to this project, I came across an excellent article in the Harvard Business Review (HBR, July-Aug 2014) that asks the readers to consider a few questions around similar topics that Brian is exploring. These include the following:

  • What mix of products or services are you offering? Keeping a narrow focus on your offerings, and searching for commonalities across products was suggested in this capacity.
  • Who are the Decision Makers when it comes to selecting your product or service? This ties into #2 that Brian cites above, and is part of knowing your customer.

Next, we will move into the solution building phase of describing how Brian will help his customers to address these areas above, and we will share the answers to innovation related questions posed above. We would like to hear from any of you who have recently gone through this exercise, and are willing to share what modifications you made, and what the results were for your company. Contact us at info@drive-revenue.com.

 

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The Buyer’s Tactics

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If you’ve ever thumbed through an airline magazine you’ve seen the ads for negotiating workshops. They appeal primarily to buyers and, consequently, buyers often are far more prepared than most salespeople.  Let’s explore some of their tactics.

  • Playing one supplier off against the other.

This is the oldest trick in the book.   But it’s an effective one since salespeople tend to take the prospect at his word, despite the fact that occasionally prospects mislead salespeople.  Unfortunately there’s nothing in the rulebook that says the prospect has to be able to prove they have a better offer from a competitor.

  • Getting the salesperson to make the first offer.

“You’ll have to do better” is a statement often used by the prospect to get the salesperson to state a position.  Falling into the trap, most salespeople will suggest an alternative, such as a 5% price reduction.  Having made that “offer” now becomes the best price you will ever realize on this deal, and often the negotiation starts from this new level.  This is bad news for the salesperson.

  • Splitting the difference.

If the prospect is successful in getting the salesperson to make the first offer, and then counters that offer with something lower (“I was thinking10%, not 5%”), splitting the difference can seem like a “fair” way to resolve the issue, and offers the prospect of getting the deal done without further negotiation.  The problem is that the deal will be done on the prospect’s terms, not yours.

  • The flinch.

This maneuver strikes fear in the heart of most salespeople, putting them on the defensive immediately, and giving the prospect the advantage.  It’s such a simple move.  If you’re not familiar with it, here’s how it plays out.  When the salesperson quotes the price to the prospect, the prospect immediately responds by saying, “Wow, that’s a lot more than I thought it would be,” or words to that effect.  Accompanying the words with the appropriate body language and tonality, the message to the seller is clear – lower your price or this will be over quickly.  Almost reflexively, sellers respond with some sort of price concession in an effort to stay in the game.   These tactics can be viewed as manipulation on the part of the prospect, but no one said it had to be a fair fight.  Recognize it for what it is and deal with it.  Remember, knowledge is power.

By the way, you can use the very same tactics on the buyer; you just have to be proactive and use them first.

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Ask A Sales Leader: Sean Conley

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Sean Conley has enjoyed a long, successful career in  high technology Sales in the mobile platforms and cloud computing services industries. Formerly a school teacher, Sean used his background in education, and mastery of martial arts to bridge into a customer facing role. Sean is a continual learner, who treats his sales career as a craft that is continuously being refined.  He is also well rounded in music, travel, sports and the art of being a raconteur.

 

 

1. Describe how your customer facing teams use your organization’s sales process.

We have two documents which we use for our organization’s sales process. The first is an opportunity description, which outlines our current business overview, business challenges and pain. The second document is an Excel spreadsheet which scopes out the entire sales process and assigns points based upon each step.

2. What is your Management’s approach to Coaching sales reps?

I really like the TV Show on CNC called “The Profit,” where the host is a business turnaround specialist that helps failing businesses.  On the show, he mentions that there are three elements of what makes a company successful: People, Product and Process. Having a level of preparation and documentation provides management with an updated and concise dashboard into where the company and revenue is headed within a specific month/quarter.

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

I like articles on sales and negotiation from Harvard Business School Publishing. In the past, we have also white-boarded opportunities and practiced a mock pitch. Having a deeper understanding of the buying process, timing, who owns the budget and where project prioritization is taking place are critical to understanding how to accurately forecast for senior management. Also, making certain that the reps have a succinct overview and update for forecasting is a critical skill set.

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

Communicate the mission on a weekly, monthly and quarterly perspective.  Good sales leaders coach their reps to pay attention to the smaller details and establish a balance of focus on the mission while promoting an “esprit d corps” within the team.

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Becoming A Master Communicator

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Communication skills are the key to being successful in sales.  They serve two important purposes.  First, they help you understand the prospect’s business objectives.  Second, by focusing the conversation on the prospect, you are able to build a high level of trust and minimize the perception of self-interest.

 

Communication is a two-way street.  That is, it involves both speaking and listening.  Salespeople must have the skills to keep the focus on the prospect, to keep the prospect talking, to be a good listener and build a trusting relationship with the prospect.  After all, your job is to get information, not give it.  How else can you diagnose the prospect’s challenges effectively?  If the diagnosis is flawed, how much confidence will your prospect have in the solution?

When you are talking you are saying something that you already know.  When you listen you discover something that someone else knows.  Many attempts to communicate are nullified by saying too much.

If you want to interact with someone, communication is essential.  If you want to influence or advise someone, understanding his or her point of view is critical.  A good rule of thumb is to keep your prospect speaking twice as much as you do.  After all, you have two ears and one mouth and you should use them in that ratio in professional selling.  Unfortunately, most salespeople are like alligators – all mouth and no ears.

In diagnosing the prospect’s challenges, and establishing their business objectives during a sales meeting, it is important to ask good questions, take notes and follow up. Taking notes really shows the customer that you are paying attention to what their needs are. At the end of the meeting:

  • Verbally summarize what you heard at the end of a sales meeting
  • Discuss what the next steps should be including time and date for the next discussion
  • Follow up by sending an email to the prospect outlining what was said during the meeting and what the next steps are

These simple tips, when followed on a regular basis, will help you to differentiate yourself by the way that you sell, and move you into the master communicator category.

 

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On The Road Again: In Seattle, WA

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In March, John is up in the Pacific Northwest in the beautiful tree filled city of Seattle instructing a Sales Process Workshop, and working with the Managers on how to Coach to the process. In this video, John previews the upcoming articles for the newsletter and announces exciting travel plans that take FSS back out to the global market. Pack your bags and listen below.

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Ask A Sales Leader: Perspectives from the Front

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Our new feature article, “Ask a Sales Leader” is designed to provide perspectives from the Sales Leaders that we have worked with and how they have used sales processes to win more business. We asked four questions below to capture this insight. In this edition, we feature Kevin Leak. Kevin is a two time customer of FSS, a 30+ year veteran in the Life Sciences/Pharmaceutical market and has lead teams in Sales, Product Management and Marketing capacities. To learn more above Kevin’s success click here.

1. Describe how your customer facing teams use your organization’s sales process.

They work together during opportunity development by asking a series of questions and listening to the customer, in order to identify and fully understand the root causes of the customer’s problem. In conjunction with Sales, the Product Engineering team has a check list of ways we could resolve the customer’s problem and deliver value through the four drivers of Speed, Cost, Quality and Innovation. Can our solution perform faster, thereby improving the customer’s efficiency? Can our solution help the customer lower their total costs? Can our solution help the customer improve the quality of their products and processes? How can our solution deliver innovation that creates a competitive advantage?

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

The two key areas of coaching that we focus on are (1) opportunity development and (2) listening skills. Opportunity development coaching is the process we follow for identifying the critical factors that are required in refining an initially vague and undefined opportunity into a very specific and well defined opportunity that lists the decision makers, the timing, the value and the likelihood that we will be selected. Listening skills coaching is the process we follow for identifying, in the pre-call planning, the list of questions the sale rep should be asking, improving their ability to weave those important questions into the conversation with the customer and their ability during the post-call report (Meeting Summary) to show progress in our understanding of the customer’s situation.

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

Repetition is the key. They must buy-in to our sales process that is repeatable and reproducible. The analogy I use to describe “repeatable” is that our sales process is a play book and everyone on our team has agreed that these are our plays, knows how to execute the plays and when we call those plays, everyone knows their role so that we professionally execute those plays. The analogy I use to describe reproducible is that our team plays at many venues (our different customers) with varied situational challenges (such as different competitors) and we sometimes need to bring in customized resources. When we execute our “plays”, based on the consistent use of our sales process, we successfully generate the consistent sales, margins and long term customer relationships that we are playing for.

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

Break the “check the box” trap that many experienced sales reps fall into. Sales reps have their list of customers that they like and who like them in return. If the sales rep could, they would spend all of their time calling upon those “nice customers” and “check the box” each week when completing their sales call report. But frequently, they are not learning anything new that identifies new business opportunities or new influencers and decision makers, competitive threats or changes the customer is undergoing that could effect, for better or worse, our sales revenue with that customer. Challenge your sales reps to call upon the tough customers and learn something new about those customers.

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Improve Sales Forecasting Accuracy: Confirm the Customer’s Opinion During Opportunity Development

We have worked with over seventy individuals in a Sales Kickoff Workshop that took place in Australia and New Jersey. There were many bright stars within these groups, meaning the top 10 % that simply gets things done. But for as long as we have been doing this (over ten years), it never ceases to amaze me when sales people, some very experienced, do not clearly communicate with their prospect about what comes next in developing an opportunity.  These same salespeople will be asked to forecast the likelihood of success in converting this piece of business from an opportunity into revenue at some time in the next 3-12 months, yet many don’t know what is coming next.

The cult-like sales movie Glen Garry Glen Ross cites the acronym “ABC” when it comes to sales, or “Always be Closing”. Well, this tired old tactic simply won’t work in today’s buyer-driven world. Instead, we embrace a concept, and practice this with our customers, that includes a related approach to “ABC”, or Always Be Confirming. For those of you who do this every time, we offer a round of applause. For those who skip it, or only do this when it feels comfortable, read on.

At each step of the customized sales process that we build with our customers, there is an action that the seller must take to qualify that the person they met with sees value in the conversation they just conducted, and agrees to proceed to the next step. This can be a formal document, or a simple follow-up email to identify clear next steps. In either scenario, we are asking the customer (or prospect) if we have a mutually agreed upon understanding of where this opportunity may go, and how they will work together to get there. This includes a situation when the two parties do not agree, and decide to stop. In our program, a “no” is okay, especially when it comes sooner as opposed to later in opportunity development.

The one confirmation of progress that all sellers will document is when they win. This is validated with a signature, check, or purchase order. But what about the 4-5 steps that come before, especially when it comes time to commit serious resources to winning the business? This generally plays out in the form of a demo, presentation, proposal or reference account to validate your ability to perform. Are your sales people making certain that when they provide that information, they will get an answer? Or is it left in that limbo zone of getting back with you when they’ve made a final decision.

By proactively managing the sales process, you can organize how the opportunity develops, and let your customer/prospect know that you will be asking for confirmation at certain intervals to confirm progress. Without doing so, many sellers are flying blind and can’t tell how well they’re progressing until very late in the game, which makes for messy forecasting and poor execution. To avoid this, make sure your team is trained on opportunity development and knows how to track progress from the very beginning of the customer engagement.

 

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7 Common Sales Myths to Avoid

 

sales_mythHere’s a summary of common beliefs salespeople have that will do them more harm than good.

1. I need to educate my prospect; presentation skills are my most effective tool.  Premature presentations are the biggest challenge salespeople face today.  Let’s face it, no one ever lost a sale by listening too much.  When you’re educating, you’re talking.  When you’re talking it’s difficult to understand your prospect’s challenges and he will realize that and conclude that you bring little value to the relationship.  Your job is to qualify your prospect and investigative skills are your most effective tool.

2. Everyone needs what I sell; hearing “no” is a failure.  If you feel that “no” is a failure, you’ll resist it at all costs, creating a pressure filled atmosphere that will turn a skeptical prospect into a defensive prospect who’s main objective is to get rid of you.  If you believe that everybody needs what you sell, it’s difficult to be objective.  The buyer will conclude that your self-interest is greater than your desire to help.  A more productive belief is that not everyone is a prospect for what I sell and “no” is not a failure as long as I’ve qualified the opportunity adequately.

3. When the prospect says, “I need to think it over,” there’s still a chance.  Many “think it over’s” are just slow “no’s” with a free torture treatment. Prospects rarely say “no” to salespeople even when they have little or no intention to buy.  They believe that it is polite not to hurt the salesperson’s feelings or they want to avoid the pressure that they feel the salesperson will apply when rejected.  Sometimes prospects won’t say “no” simply so they can bring the salesperson back to pick their brains for more information.  Instead, you’ll be put in the chase mode, making a long sales cycle even longer.  You should be skeptical (not reassured) when your prospect tells you that he needs to “think it over.”

 4. My features and benefits differentiate me from my competitors; they give me an advantage.  Face it, most salespeople show up with the same tired old platitudes (‘we have the best quality in the industry, our service is outstanding and our prices are very competitive”).  It’s called “fluff.”  If you rely on features and benefits, you’re probably going to sound just like everybody else, and your prospect may conclude that what you sell is just a commodity.  When you’re perceived as a commodity, price becomes the most important buying criteria.  Bad news for you.

5. My job is to convince my prospect that he would benefit from purchasing from me; I need to be a good closer.  This is an antiquated belief and bound to lead to resistance. Following this belief will encourage you to put pressure on the prospect to buy.  People resist pressure in a relationship sale; it’s just human nature.   The prospect’s job to convince you that he has a problem, the budget and the decision-making ability to fix it and needs your help.  Try this attitude on your next sales interview and see how it will change your approach.

6. Financial considerations are the most important factor in determining who gets the business.  This belief puts the emphasis on price and that’s not what you want.  Price is very seldom the real issue in a complex sale. Conviction that you can help them solve their problem and get a return on their investment is the bottom line.  If you can help them increase their business or save them money, your price is relative to their gain.

7. If my prospects like me, they will buy from me.  Trust and rapport are important but the real issue is whether or not the prospect thinks you can solve their problem. If they do, you’re likely to get the business.

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