Immediately following Sales Process Workshops in Spain and France, John is interviewed by Cristina Lourenco from Acolad on how customized, focused and actionable sales training turns into revenue. Have a listen to what happens before, during and especially AFTER the training that gets results.
John and the FSS team will be in Europe for 3 weeks in April working with a global commercial translation organization. If you are in Paris or Sevilla, and would like to meet for a coffee or Spring walkabout, please reach out to John at john@drive-revenue.com. Ole and Merci!
There’s no doubt that sales training is an investment; but, when done right, it’s one of the smartest investments your company can make. Small improvements in selling techniques can make a huge impact on revenue. What would it mean to your sales results if your average reps were producing as well as your top performers?
We have 17 years of experience training sales teams, which means equipping them with the skills and tools they need to achieve sales goals. We are different from other training organizations because we don’t teach a one-size-fits-all course. Our curriculum is customized to your unique sales process and selling environment. Your reps will leave our course having learned and practiced the techniques they need to successfully engage with prospective customers to drive revenue.
We provide both in-person live sales training along with virtual sessions. While we love to engage in person with your teams, if you do opt for an online training experience, you can rely on our fine-tuned virtual event platform that allows you to maximize learning opportunities through group break out discussions, private and public chat features and a one-on-one coaching.
Whether you choose to hold your sales training in-person or virtually, take advantage of our Online Learning Portal which has helped hundreds of our customers’ salespeople reinforce what the sales skills they acquire in our workshops.
John shares his insights with Gerhard Gschwandtner of Selling Power Magazine. He has been voted by Selling Power as one of the Leading Sales Trainers.
We do sales training. At least that’s what I tell people at a cocktail party or BBQ because if I tried to say what we really do, which is help our customers refine and implement a repeatable process to drive revenue, I’d get a lot of blank stares.
But when I’m 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 their go-to-market strategy. And companies spend millions of dollars on getting their strategy right.
We help our customers improve the quality of the sales opportunities they develop and 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. Sales effectiveness is about understanding buying, not about refining your sales pitch.
Our source of pride is twofold. First, we have helped the individuals in our customers’ organizations 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 are the many, many customers who have come back to buy from us again; some twice, and some even more. This repeat business is a testament to our process and reminds me we are doing something right.
I can’t believe it was sixteen years ago when the company I was working had just been sold, and my wife Septembre asked me “what’s next?” I told her I wanted to do something that combined what I love and what I am good at. She just said, “then go do it!”
That was a leap of faith from a wonderful wife, one that included a 3-year-old son and 6-month-old daughter, to go back out as an entrepreneur, build a business and follow my passion. No base salary, no benefits—just belief, support and a loving, positive atmosphere.
The first 13 months were hard work—digging for commercial sales opportunities in a sea of competition that had some large players, many middle tiers and a ton of small companies. It was a benefit that I underestimated the task and didn’t realize just how much competition was out there. Instead, I just went for it with a relentless energy level and a good network of contacts from my twenty years in sales. It was hard work, but the wins and success stories from our customers have far outweighed the hassles. Jim Brogan, a longtime friend and former NBA player summed it up well when he told me “the success is in the struggles.”
Today, I feel blessed to have the right people around me (personally and professionally), an offering that I know can help others succeed, and rewards that go well beyond compensation. Let’s just call it a dream.
As humans, we tend to want to swoop in and fix things, often starting with the things that are most broken and most in need of repair. As sales managers, we pride ourselves on being fixers and judge ourselves on our ability to effectively coach our teams and give them the resources they need to be successful.
But, just as not all salespeople are created equal (see Bottom Third Sales Coaching) nor are the opportunities they put in the pipeline. In both cases, though our tendency may be to start with the team members and opportunities that are most in need, this impulse is often detrimental to our overall success. Just as with the bottom third of our sales reps, the bottom third of our opportunities will rarely move the needle regardless of how much time or energy we put into them. Often these are opportunities that have not been well qualified and are not well suited to our product or service capabilities. Additionally, despite equal or greater time investment, they may not have the revenue potential that some of the other opportunities have.
So, what’s the answer? As difficult as it can be, the answer is to put less time into your bottom third. Instead, focus your time on B and C opportunities. Why not your A opportunities? Because your top 10% of opportunities are so well qualified and such a good fit, that they’ll likely close with little to no involvement from you. So, spend your time on the B and C opportunities, helping your reps understand how your product or service will help their prospects increase revenue, decrease costs or mitigate risks. Spend time thoroughly qualifying these ones up front so they have a higher likelihood to close.
Neglecting the bottom third of your opportunities is not shirking your sales managerial responsibilities; in fact, reallocating your time to focus on the 60% of your core B and C opportunities will be the best way to support your sales reps going forward by helping them move the needle.
Most of you will be hosting or attending your Sales Kickoff meeting virtually in early 2021. How can you get the most out of the experience without the eyeball-to-eyeball interaction you’re used to at these events? Whether you are putting the event on, or going as an attendee, what you do before, during, and after the event is critical to call it a success.
Here are a few ideas to consider:
- Before: make the “audience” part of the show: the late, great David Bowie said the thing he liked about concerts in the electronic or “rave” category is that that the attendees were a part of the concert itself. Adopt that idea and put ownership of portions of the meeting in the hands of attendees. If the sessions planned are for a Product Launch, new IT tool introduction, or market segment expansion, have the attendees deliver parts of the presentation with relevance to the topic. For instance, how will the product launch help a customer to grow, resolve an internal operational issue with the new IT tool, or close the communication between teams to grow new markets. Be specific!
- During: drive the participation rates: have team members hold one another accountable for participation. Put them in pairs or small groups and ask them to alternate taking notes and providing feedback. Prep the individuals and teams for what comes next, which is how they will determine the follow-up step for each of the presentations attended.
- After: don’t wait for follow up: most presentations at face-to-face or virtual conferences wrap up with the presenter saying “contact me with any questions.” Well, that rarely works after you’ve heard three or four speakers. The follow-up should start there and then, with the spokesperson from the smaller teams setting dates and times for specific items to discuss on the Product Launch, new IT initiative, or market development plans.
Putting this mechanism in place before the virtual meetings will take some additional time. The good news is your management team and event coordinators will save a ton of time on the back end not having to chase for follow-up or next steps when attendees disperse. Put the time in now, and the results will follow.
To say the last few years have been odd is a gross understatement. There are so many things happening domestically and globally that we haven’t seen before; we will spare you the exercise of naming them all. For us, the most relevant and pressing issues for our customers and prospects are the radical shift in buying that the Work from Home (WFH) environment has created and talk of economic headwinds.
So, what have you done about it? As a sales or commercial leader, you’re doing your best to keep your team focused. Sellers and other front-line employees in customer-facing roles (CFRs) (which include sales, marketing, technical specialists, product development, customer service, project managers, etc.) are working to get the attention of prospects and keep the momentum for deals that used to move through reasonably quickly.
The new buying behavior can be fragmented and frustrating for both buyers and sellers. And one of the conduits to it all is virtual selling which relies on your ability to navigate relevant technology platforms like Zoom, TEAMS, GoTo Meeting, Google Hangouts, etc. The word we have received from buyers and sellers is that it’s still a mixed bag of good and bad on how well the technology is being understood and used. The meetings that you’re conducting with your internal teams are often the same—some attendees are plugged in and ready, while others need to ramp up their participation and stop multitasking during calls.
Our Virtual Selling Effectiveness (VSE) workshop is designed to help improve the use of technology to connect in the scenarios described above, as well as others. There are several things that hosts and attendees can do before, during, and after the meetings to increase the overall effectiveness. How well you and your teams are able to manage this new (ab)normal is a large factor in your overall success.
The ability to embrace and utilize virtual communication is here to stay, regardless of when we are fully back in our offices huddling around water coolers again. Now’s your opportunity to take the time to make sure you and your team get this right.
Join John and three other experts on Thursday, April 30th at 4PM EST/1PM PST who will cut to the chase to provide contrarian insights on how to navigate in this new environment. You will get perspectives from Strategic, Financial, Sales and Growth capacities that can be applied straight away to make a difference.
Forget the rest, join the best! See you on Thursday.
John will be discussing how to sell value when everyone else is selling themselves. There will also be 3 other expert speakers. Click on this Zoom Meeting link to register .
Many of us have attended sales training classes or retreats that weren’t very valuable or impactful. Why is this? There are several key attributes that sales trainings must incorporate in order to be successful.
They are:
- Learning relies on self-discovery. Many sales leaders do a good job talking to their sales teams, but not necessarily training them. In order to really learn, sales teams need to come to key concepts on their own. The art of good training lies in fostering that discovery.
- Practice, practice, practice. Training is about teaching a new skill or behavior, and in order to master that, sales associates need a safe environment to practice what they’ve learned and receive timely, constructive feedback.
- Training shouldn’t be theoretical. Training should be specific and applicable – sales associates should be able to use what they’d learned right away to achieve better results.
- Training without process is pointless. Once trained, sales teams need process to incorporate their new skills into a regular operating cadence. This tactical execution is critical if training is to lead to sustainable, repeatable sales growth.
Sales leaders tend to be great sales performers, as well as great people developers. The best leaders are able to effectively recruit, coach, and inspire. But, most sales leaders do not have the expertise to facilitate great training. And considering the cost of putting on a training event (travel, facilities, curriculum development, lost sales time), this is one area that companies can’t afford to get wrong.
Although training alone does not equate to sales results, a great training platform coupled with excellent recruiting, a well-defined process, and effective leadership is critical to sales success. You can’t produce repeatable revenue without effectively training your sales team.