Sales Management Tips For Success

posted in Leadership, Sales, Training

 

A friend of mine was recently promoted to sales management within this company.  He asked me what suggestions I had to help him be successful.  I shared the following book recommendations and general sales management principles with him:

Book Recommendations:

1)       Topgrading by Brad Smart

2)       Leading at a Higher Level by Ken Blanchard

3)     Don’t Fire Them, Fire Them Up by Frank Pacetta

4)      Who by Geoff Smart

5)       Coaching Salespeople Into Sales Champions by Keith Rosen

6)       First Break All the Rules by Marcus Buckingham

7)       The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John Maxwell

 Sales Management Principles for Success:

1)       Set clear expectations, in writing, with your sales people

2)       Provide regular written and verbal feedback on how they are doing

3)       Give them special projects or tasks to lead

4)       Constantly praise them for their efforts and let upper management know when they do a good job

5)       Learn how to listen better and solve their problems

6)       Don’t ask them to do anything you are not willing to do

7)       Creatively show them you value and appreciate their work (handwritten notes, plaques, letter to  spouse, etc.)

8)     Make yourself available all the time and have open/honest communication with them

9)       Keep them informed about what the company is working on and where it is going

10)     Share your vision and help your reps understand how they are a part of the success of it

11)     Control team negativity

12)     Fire low performers

13)     Empower your team members to say yes

14)     Lead by example

Hopefully these suggestions help you become a more effective sales manager!

Why Your Standard Sales Process May No Longer Be Effective

posted in Sales

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News Flash: Your prospective buyers are smarter than they used to be. Well, at least it seems that way. With the advent of the internet, they can now educate themselves on your company and your competition very easily. Do not kid yourself, savvy buyers are going onto Google and Yahoo before meeting with you. The days are over where you come into an introductory meeting and impress them with your one-of-a-kind business model.

So, what can you do to counter-act the advanced knowledge the prospective customer likely has?

Tip #1: Understand that your prospect knows more about your business than you give them credit for.

Tip #2: Your buyer is tired of the standard sales process that you are using.

Buyers today want to feel good about buying something, as opposed to being sold something. You should start focusing on things like building rapport, asking great questions and speaking candidly with the potential customer. While some of these skills may already be on your radar screen, I would offer that you are focused more on which “step” you are in the sales process versus developing areas of connection with the buyer. Once you open your meeting well, get right to the bottom line of what your presentation is all about. Speak to what your objective is, what the top reason(s) the buyer would benefit and also try to quantify what that value might mean to them. You can do all of this in five minutes if you really focus. Then, stop your presentation and ask them what they think? Their feedback at this point is very revealing. If they are interested, they will want you to explain more of the details. If they are not, then you should also be able to interpret that quickly and really determine if this meeting is worth everyone’s time.

In sales it is not simply a numbers game. You need to be more strategic than that. You need to meet with lots of prospects who are also qualified buyers. If your prospects are not qualified, then you likely will not make your annual goal.

This lack of a sales process is likely a departure from your existing methods. And, my ideas will not work all the time. However, before you reject my suggestions, give them a try on your next ten prospects. Then, measure your effectiveness at that time. You may not generate any more sales immediately, but you will likely spend less time with folks who are not real buyers of your product/service. Worst case scenario, your audience will appreciate the fact that you are different than the last ten sales reps they met with.

The 5 Best Questions to Ask During Any Sales Call

posted in Sales

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Asking great questions should be a part of every sales call. But, there may be a difference between the questions you are asking and great questions. Great questions solicit candid, thoughtful feedback, which leads you closer to making a sale. Based on fifteen years of sales experience and countless hours of training and courses on the topic, here are what I believe to be the five best questions that you can ask while in front of a prospect….

1) Who signs the order or agreement?
I used to ask who the decision-maker is, but I have been burned too many times on that question. My experience tells me the following: (1) the decision-maker is commonly not the person who signs your deal and (2) the decision-maker likes to pretend they are in charge of the decision, when they are really not. These two points are especially relevant in strategic sales applications. I would argue that most sales people know who signs the order less than 50% of the time. Now, that does not mean that you will not earn the business, it just infers that you leave yourself open for the competition to align themselves with the correct person. I have never come across anyone who has not been truthful when I asked “who signs the order?” People who do not have the authority to do so, will not put themselves out there if they cannot execute the agreement.

2) What is my competition saying about me?
This is the quintessential assumptive question. If they are talking to others, this question will uncover who they are and what their positioning is. Or if they are not talking to others, this question will generally open up discussion around whether the buyer intends on inviting other companies to participate in the opportunity. You may be thinking, “Why introduce competition when there may not be any?” Again, my experience tells me that buyers will elect to include another vendor (or not!), whether you bring it up or not. Give this question a try, I think you might be pleasantly surprised by the discussions it generates.

3) Even though you want our product, what are the reasons why you would not be able to buy it right now?
This is a terrific question because it gets to the heart of several possible sales obstacles. First, while the person you are speaking with may want your solution, it does not mean that the organization is really committed to buying it. Your question will uncover the true obstacles to closing this sale. And it makes it easy for this person to defer the challenges to your sale to another person or department, if appopriate. Second, this question speaks directly to the timing of your prospective order. Sometimes this response will validate that this is a pressing issue for the potential buyer, but usually it will tell you the real timing of the opportunity. And yes, depending on what you are selling, your conversation may be one or two years ahead of their actual buying schedule.

4) After you say yes, what has to happen?
After experimenting with lots of different ways to ask this, the question above has proven to be the most effective at determining what the REAL decision-making and buying process is. I have found no other way to get to the heart of what happens next. The beauty of this question is that it includes the person you are engaged with as part of the buying process; yet, uncovers who else is involved and what other buying influences exist. The importance is not only in asking this question, but listening intently to the answer. This will reveal the keys to your success with regards to this order.

5) After we earn your business, what is the best way to encourage you to speak with others about your good experience with us?
This question addresses several relevant parts of your sales campaign. First, by starting off with an assumptive question, you can quickly qualify the buyer’s interest in you, your product/service or your company. If they did not want you to “earn” the business, their answers to this question would likely divulge that critical piece of data. Next, one of the best ways to grow your business is to cultivate a customer to an extent that they pro-actively tell others about you. This is no easy task. That is precisely why you ask the question before you close the sale. This way, you know exactly what you need to do in order to encourage this buyer to recommend you to others. Understanding the “triggers” to what motivates a buyer to talk favorably about you is paramount.

While there are many good questions to ask during a sales call, I have found these five to be the most beneficial. If you already using these, then measure yourself in terms of how often you are doing so and also what responses prospective buyers give you. If you are not asking these questions, then I recommend that you start right away. I believe that one’s ability to close business is often related to the quality of the questions he/she asks!

Communication Made Simple: Get to Your Point Quickly!

posted in Sales

Download a PDF Version. Also Posted at Sales & Marketing Management Magazine.

Once your reps have mastered the above concept, interaction with their prospects will become markedly more productive. It’s a lesson I’ve learned the hard way: When I was first starting out, I was taught a sales process that had me asking lots of questions to avoid giving the buyer too much information about my proposed solution. My sales meetings would typically take 60 to 90 minutes, yet by the end of them, my target buyer sometimes had no idea what it was I trying to sell them or how much it would cost.

You see, my training dictated I first gather as much information as possible, and then bring it back to my team for a discussion. At that point, we would figure out the right way to deliver a proposal. Not only did this process seem to irritate some of my prospective clients, I found it to be a huge waste of my time.

Yes, I am a proponent of asking good questions. But I’m not an advocate of dancing around questions made by the client in order to hide what your solution might really be. Direct questions deserve direct responses. Your reps prefer that when dealing with a potential buyer, and they desire the same kind of treatment in return. Why wait to the end to give them the bottom line?

I advocate starting most presentations by stating the meeting’s objective. This seems to disarm the buyer, but it also sets a tone of candor with them. Direct communication is often reciprocated by the client. The benefit of this approach is that it’s easy to determine how serious the prospective buyer is right from the start.

Company executives tend to make up their minds in less than five minutes. If that is true, then why wait to the last five minutes of a 90-minute presentation to tell them what the bottom line is? Most likely they have already tuned out of your presentation or have left the meeting because “something else came up.”

I think of myself as a straight shooter, and I respond best to people who try to sell me in that fashion. Salespeople who are direct with me may not always win the business, but they will know where they stand after a short meeting. Direct conversations will likely lead to more constructive sales engagements for both parties.

Once your reps have mastered the above concept, interaction with their prospects will become markedly more productive. It’s a lesson I’ve learned the hard way: When I was first starting out, I was taught a sales process that had me asking lots of questions to avoid giving the buyer too much information about my proposed solution. My sales meetings would typically take 60 to 90 minutes, yet by the end of them, my target buyer sometimes had no idea what it was I trying to sell them or how much it would cost.

You see, my training dictated I first gather as much information as possible, and then bring it back to my team for a discussion. At that point, we would figure out the right way to deliver a proposal. Not only did this process seem to irritate some of my prospective clients, I found it to be a huge waste of my time.

Yes, I am a proponent of asking good questions. But I’m not an advocate of dancing around questions made by the client in order to hide what your solution might really be. Direct questions deserve direct responses. Your reps prefer that when dealing with a potential buyer, and they desire the same kind of treatment in return. Why wait to the end to give them the bottom line?

I advocate starting most presentations by stating the meeting’s objective. This seems to disarm the buyer, but it also sets a tone of candor with them. Direct communication is often reciprocated by the client. The benefit of this approach is that it’s easy to determine how serious the prospective buyer is right from the start.

Company executives tend to make up their minds in less than five minutes. If that is true, then why wait to the last five minutes of a 90-minute presentation to tell them what the bottom line is? Most likely they have already tuned out of your presentation or have left the meeting because “something else came up.”

I think of myself as a straight shooter, and I respond best to people who try to sell me in that fashion. Salespeople who are direct with me may not always win the business, but they will know where they stand after a short meeting. Direct conversations will likely lead to more constructive sales engagements for both parties.

Out-Sourced Sales: Money Maker or Money Breaker?

posted in Sales

Download a PDF Version. Also Posted at ManageSmarter

Outsourcing different parts of your business is not a new concept. In fact, most of you probably have heard of it or are doing it already. But what about outsourcing the sales function of your business?

How does an outsourced sales partner work? In most cases, when you partner with a company to provide outsourced sales (also known as a contract sales force), the company you’re teaming up with will generally be working on a commission basis. You simply pay them a commission when they deliver a signed order or agreement.

In other instances, contract sales forces will be paid a retainer by the partner firm—usually on a monthly basis—to act as their feet-on-the-street partner. A commission would likely still be paid if they close a deal, but at a percentage that is less than if this was a 100% commission arrangement.

One other case might be for you to retain the sales people on your payroll, but hire an outsourced firm to manage your people and help your team members close deals. Again, this arrangement would likely have some kind of retainer-plus-commission formula to it.

Regardless of which model you choose, you can use an outsourced sales force as your exclusive sales team or you can use it to compliment your existing staff. Most good outsourced sales companies do their best to act as an extension of your team. This means having business cards with your logo on it, e-mail addresses from your company and voice mail extensions from your office. They even are trained by you and will attend meetings with your group. This provides the greatest level of consistency to your team and transparency to your buyers.

Reasons to Outsource

Why would you consider outsourcing your sales function in the first place?

• First of all, sales may not be a core competency for your company. There are lots of companies that have great leadership and products/services, yet have no idea how to translate that into revenue. These companies have no dedicated sales resources on staff and it is usually the founder who ends up selling (in addition to doing many other functions). The problem with that logic is that sales is a practice that is learned, applied and truly successful only with training and hands-on sales experience.

• Secondly, your existing sales force may not be meeting expectations. Why not team up with a contract sales force in several new markets to see how they perform relative to your seasoned veterans? At a minimum, this will generate some competitive spirit.

• Third, it may provide a quicker way to market for your emerging business. If you have no existing sales force, it will take you months to interview, hire, train, and deploy a sales force. That lost time may be costly if you are trying to capitalize on a first-mover advantage in your market. Generally speaking, outsourced firms have sales resources on their bench or can bring people on board much quicker than you could. And they typically have more experience hiring the right candidates.

What does an outsourced sales agreement cost? The good news is, probably less than you think. The bad news is that most people do not realize how expensive it is to pay for good salespeople. For example, if you had a good salesperson, you are compensating them in any or all of the following ways: salary, commissions, benefits, travel, entertainment, car, cell phone, office supplies … the list can go on. When you add all of that up, it is a big number. And for most business owners, that number is bigger than they care to admit. So, an outsourced sales partner starts to make more sense once you break down your actual costs.

Here are some benefits to keep in mind with an outsourced sales group. First, if they are just on a commission basis, you only pay them when they perform. Granted their commission percentage is generally higher than your typical rate, but then again, it should be as they are assuming all of the up-front financial risk. Secondly, if you are building a business and cash flow is tight, having the flexibility to only pay-for-performance might be a very attractive option for you.

Finally, many contract sales agreements can be terminated with relatively short notice. So, if something changes with your business and you want to move in a different direction, just put your sales partner on notice. You will need to work out the economics for your business, but it’s safe to say this could be a more cost-effective route for you.

Hiring a professional sales force should be treated no differently than choosing an attorney, accountant or doctor. These people are all masters at what they do. Whether you build your own team or hire one to assist you, the sales function is critical to the short- and long-term success of your business.