Six traps between you and sales success

Posted on May 14, 2012 by Janet Spirer

Pre-Call Planning

Getting an appointment with a prospective customer is a necessary first step for sales success – but it’s only the first part of the challenge. Before conducting a call, successful sales reps spend time pre-call planning. And, part of that planning is about avoiding the following common traps:

Having the wrong conversation. Whether a given conversation works or doesn’t work depends upon the person with whom you are talking. The content can be “off” on several fronts – such as a technical conversation with a non-technical person or a granular conversation with a CEO. The trap is doing a good job talking about the wrong things in the wrong way.

Not talking about the solution in a compelling way. Depending on the person to whom you are talking, compelling could mean relating a story or it could be a quantitative analysis with lots of numbers.  Compelling would also look different if the person on the other side of the table is an early adopter vs. someone who isn’t likely to buy a product until it’s been in the market for a while.

Failing to handle tricky situations. Most people think of tricky situations as objections. Many are – but there are others, like handling ethical issues or inappropriate times to talk (e.g., a physician in the lounge following a difficult procedure, or trying to close a deal when internal company politics are hot). These tricky situations are particularly tough for newer sales reps. Unfortunately, too often how they’re handled last long in memory.

Talking about the solution before developing a shared vision of the problem. Uncovering customer needs is “Consultative Selling 101.” Yet everyday, sales people fall into the trap of talking too soon and too much about their product.

Getting dragged into a price conversation before laying the groundwork for value. Out of concern for losing a sales opportunity – especially with a new customer – sales people sometimes try to please the prospect by providing an early price concession.  In most situations it is better to look at a price concern as an issue about value rather than concern about money.

Talking at somebody versus with somebody. Pre-call planning is critical to the success of sales calls.  But this doesn’t mean sales reps should follow a script or memorize a pitch. Sales reps must engage the customer in a business conversation – and this can best be accomplished by asking, listening, and then talking.

If you found this post helpful, you might want to join the conversation and subscribe to the Sales Training Connection.

©2012 Sales Horizons, LLC

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Sales force turnover – a problem worth addressing

Posted on May 7, 2012 by Richard Ruff

Sales force turnover

Most people would agree that the last couple of years have been pretty tough times.  Lots of bad things have happen to companies and to individuals – there are no shortages of telling stories.

The good news is more and more people are starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel.  Most nonpartisan economists say that while the economic improvement is slow, things are moving in the right direction and precluding any major international event that story is likely to continue.

This economic picture matters because history tells us that as an economy recovery begins in earnest, sales force turnover increases. In most job categories there are negative consequences to turnover, but in sales the consequences can be particularly costly.

Let’s look at some of the effects of sales force turnover and some ways for addressing the problem …  starting with the bottom line – financial impact.  Although estimates vary widely, a commonly talked about number relative to the direct momentary impact is 200% of the annual compensation package.

However, what makes sales force turnover particularly significant are the indirect consequences – for example, the impact on customer relations both from financial and non-financial perspectives.  At the extreme, in some markets the customer may actually go with the sales person when they move to the next company.

Bottom line – sales force turnover matters.  If it is high for a sustained period of time it has a significant impact on revenue generation and the morale of the sales team. So what are some strategies worth considering for addressing the problem?

  • Review hiring practices. Often the problem with turnover begins with the selection process.  As the economic climate changes, how does that impact your hiring process and criteria? For example, how would that impact the advantages and disadvantages of hiring top guns from other companies versus a grow-your-own strategy?
  • Compensation package. How appropriate is the base pay and commission structure?  How fair is the sales goal setting process and does it take into account territorial differences?  To some degree, the rights answers may vary by the generation – boomers vs. millennials.
  • Non-financial rewards and recognition. Although exit interviews often point to financial reasons for leaving in many cases that is just the easy answer. A more telling reason for leaving mentioned in exit interviews is front-line management. Also, considerations related to life style flexibility and non-cash rewards are becoming increasingly important.
  • Career development. Does an individual on the sales team perceive a career path with options for their development – for example can a sales rep advance without going into sales management?  How effective is your company’s sales training program?  Do sales people receive mentoring and coaching from their managers?

Whether your sales force turnover over the last several years has been low (under 10%) or high (greater than 20%), it makes fair sense to take a second look as the economy starts to turn around – getting ahead of a potential trend vs. finding yourself in the position of reacting to it is always a good idea.

If you found this post helpful, you might want to join the conversation and subscribe to the Sales Training Connection.

©2012 Sales Horizons, LLC

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Why isn’t great sales training great?

Posted on May 4, 2012 by Richard Ruff

Sales training

The vast majority of sales training programs have solid content and excellent instructional design.  Any company looking to purchase sales training programs has a wide variety of viable options. Yet, too often  great sales training programs don’t produce great results. Although the reasons may vary as to why many sales training efforts don’t work, the main culprit is the lack of buy-in from the sales force.

For sales people to change what they do and how they do it, they must first decide there is a need to change.  Simply telling the sales team they need to attend a great program at a really nice conference center is not going to create the need. And, the sales training program, per se, cannot be expected to both persuade the attendees that a behavior change is needed and help them to learn the new behaviors.  Sales training programs do the latter – not the former.

So, how do you create the buy-in? How do you persuade the sales team that a change is needed before the implementation of the first program?  Let’s take a look at who has a role to play and some best practices.

First, who are the players?  Two parties have responsibilities.  The company selling the sales training should be the first one in line.  They need to tee up the issue with the client and provide advice on how to address buy-in.  Unfortunately this fails to occur way too often.  The second and most important group is the senior sales leadership in the customer organization  – VP of Sales and Regional Directors.

So let’s review some ideas for getting the job done.

  • Clarify the message. The senior leadership must clarify the message as to why the sales training is being done.  What is happening in the market – in the industry that requires doing new things in new ways. Why is the status quo not okay?  All this needs to be crafted in terms meaningful to the sales team.

Once the message is crafted,  disseminate it to the sales team a number of different times in a variety of different forms and forums.  An email sent two days before the program is not within the spirit of the idea.

As a side note when the senior leadership actually spends time thinking about the “why,” it is often the case that insights will be obtained that will also actually influence the shape of the program itself.

  • Show you’re serious. Again this falls to the senior leadership.  They need to establish expectations.  What is senior leadership going to be doing differently?  What do they expect the front-line managers and sales reps to do following the program?  How will these expectations be measured and how will success be recognized and rewarded?

Buy-in is not about compliance; it is about persuasion.  Notions about the effort being the “flavor of the month” or a “pick and choose” scenario cannot be permitted to flourish.

  • Engage the front-line managers. There is little doubt the front-line sales manager is the pivotal job for creating behavior change in a sales team.  Because of that fact, they need to be engaged in the buy-in effort from start to finish.

The sales training company should recruit a subset of the front-line managers to help customize the program to the type of sales situations the reps face every day.  Next, the senior leadership should engage the managers in disseminating the message about the program to the sales team.  And, last, the sales managers need to go through the program just like the sales people so they can provide follow-up coaching.

Too many sales training efforts fail to live up to expectations not because the company selected the “wrong “ program.  They fail because buy-in from the sales team was never achieved.

If you found this post helpful, you might want to join the conversation and subscribe to the Sales Training Connection.

©2012 Sales Horizons, LLC

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Is there any value to howdy calls?

Posted on May 2, 2012 by Janet Spirer

Value in howdy calls

When recently working with a Senior VP at a top professional services firm, we kept hearing that consultants and analysts were on customer sites all the time doing project work – yet the firm routinely missed learning about new business opportunities.

As the VP shared: “Our customers only know what we do for them, not our full portfolio.  In many cases new projects pop up and we don’t hear about them. The customer doesn’t think about us.  This represents a huge opportunity lost.”

Professional service firms who have large project teams located on customer sites for long periods of time represent a special case where “howdy calls” (not a term they would use) make great sense.  The on-site teams are technical people.  Nevertheless, they can as the VP noted, “keep their heads up” for new opportunities and pass that information along to the firm’s Business Development staff (sales people).

This experience made us think about the value of howdy calls in other types of companies.  In general the notion of sales people dashing around their territories solely for the purpose of making howdy calls is an idea that has been discouraged – and rightly so.  However, we believe howdy calls that are targeted and skillfully done could be a good idea.

For example, howdy calls could have utility when:

  • The customer isn’t aware of the company’s breadth of capabilities. Howdy calls can be effective for companies that have a sophisticated solution portfolio to sell and the customer isn’t aware of the entire range of capabilities. In cases like this, for example, a customer may only see the company as providing systems integration solutions, not systems design capabilities.
  • A few products are sold to many customer contacts throughout the company so howdy calls can be used as a way to identify new opportunities for the products.
  • A sales rep has a story to tell to people who are hard to get access to. For example, the sales rep wants Dr. Silver to implant a new medical device but has been unable to get “face time” with the doc. In a brief howdy call, the sales rep can mention that Dr. Gold (a respected colleague of Dr. Silver) just implemented the device and the procedure went well – setting the seed for future sales efforts with Dr. Silver.

Like a lot of things in sales, it’s difficult to make sweeping statements about what works and what doesn’t work. Howdy calls fall into that category. While traditionally they’ve been portrayed negatively, a well-planned purposeful howdy call that’s skillfully done can advance sales. The challenge is actually doing them in a well-planned and skillful manner.  One of the major ways to get done is to optimize the time spent on customers sites.  Is there another person you can talk to when you are there?  Could you help someone better understand the total capabilities of your company?  This usually comes down to better planning before the visit.

If you found this post helpful, you might want to join the conversation and subscribe to the Sales Training Connection.

©2012 Sales Horizons, LLC

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Sales tip – handling sales objections

Posted on April 30, 2012 by Janet Spirer

Sales Tips

No matter how good you are at selling you will get some objections.  So, let’s review a couple of tips for handling them.  First, most major objections in any given sales environment are predictable, so know what they are and rehearse how to handle them.  This is particularly important for new sales reps.

The second tip is – have a standard process for handling them.  Although, there are many objection handling models out there, here is one that has a proven track record in major account sales.

  • Acknowledge. When a customer brings up an objection you can’t just blow by it and hope they will forget about it.  You need to acknowledge it and either handle it then and there or note that you recognize the concern and will get back to it.  And, you do need to get back to it.
  • Clarify. Too often a sales person will hear an objection and immediately try and “answer” it.  It is much better to acknowledge it but then ask questions to find out answers such as: “how important it is” – “why is the customer concerned – “what is driving the objection.”  Before you leave the clarification discussion, you need to make sure you and the customer have a shared vision of the objection.
  • Test a solution. Once a shared vision is obtained, propose a solution and test whether the customer is comfortable with how you have handled it.  Don’t assume.

The most important component of the ACT model is Clarifying.  Particularly when one is engaged in complex sales all aspects of the objection are frequently not initially surfaced.  In some cases even the customer is not totally clear about all facets of the objection; in such cases the clarifying discussion is particularly important.

If you want to read more about handling sales objections, check out our post: Less is more when handling objections.

If you found this post helpful, you might want to join the conversation and subscribe to the Sales Training Connection.

©2012 Sales Horizons, LLC

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Traps in developing internal champions

Posted on April 27, 2012 by Richard Ruff

Leveraging internal champions

In  major B2B sales where the sales cycle is long, competition is keen and multiple players are engaged in the decision, developing internal champions is one of the more effective best practices. Why? A lot of  discussions and decisions about the winner go on when you’re not there.  So if you have a champion in the room, it’s more likely you’ll have a better outcome.

But like many things that work really well, developing an internal champion is not easy.  As a matter a fact it requires substantial thought, time, and effort to get it right.  And the negative consequences can be telling – if you don’t get it right and your competition does, it could be the difference between winning and losing.

Because it’s an effective best practice, let’s explore some of the traps that sales people need to avoid when developing internal champions.

  • Confusing friends and champions. This is a case where the paragraph header says it all.  A major trap is failing to distinguish between someone who “likes you” and someone who is an internal champion. Most internal champions will probably like you but champions have the added feature that they are willing to “sell” for you when you are not there – big difference. This trap has the added negative that you may think you have a champion when you don’t.
  • Selecting the wrong person. To be effective an internal champion not only has to be willing to be your champion, they also have to be a player in the decision process.  People you develop as champions cannot be of much help if they are not one of the decision makers or key influencers.  In a complex sale this is an easy trap to fall into because it’s often difficult to determine the true decision making authority or influence power of the various players.  A wrong selection can be telling because it does take time and effort to develop a truly effective internal champion.
  • Failing to rehearse your champion. Let’s take the following scenario.  You have a champion that likes your solution, is willing to speak up for you in that upcoming key internal meeting, and is one of the key players in the decision process.  Nice picture.  The trap is the failure to leverage your advantage. The last step in a scenario such as the one presented is to rehearse your champion how best to “sell” for you in that upcoming meeting.  You’re the sales person – your champion isn’t – so help them to help you.

In summary, two points to consider:

  • Point 1 – To win major account business you have to continuously get to the right person, at the right time, with the right message.  An internal champion can be of tremendous help in getting that done.

We’ve written three additional posts on internal champions which you might find interesting:

If you found this post helpful, you might want to join the conversation and subscribe to the Sales Training Connection.

©2012 Sales Horizons, LLC

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Quantifying your value proposition: making the business case – A STC Classic

Posted on April 25, 2012 by Richard Ruff

A Sales Training Connection Classic

Quantifying your value proposition requires creating and communicating a clear, compelling picture of how your solution will drive your customer’s business results - allowing sales reps to make their business case. It requires translating the benefits of your solution into high impact, measurable outcomes that matter to the customer. When done effectively, it enables you to maximize the competitive advantages that differentiate you from your competitors.

Quantifying a value proposition involves three steps:

  • First, list the business outcomes your solution impacts (e.g., improvement in the percentage of just-in-time deliveries).
  • Second, select a customer metric that will demonstrate the impact of the business outcome (e.g., reduction in inventory x annual inventory carrying costs = value of just-in-time deliveries).
  • Third, determine the most compelling anchor for bring the metric to life (e.g., compare the outcome of your solution against the status quo or compare it against your estimate of the competitor’s solution or against other companies in the customer’s market space).

What are some best practices for quantifying value? Having a simple and straightforward planning process for the quantifying value is one piece of the puzzle. As is often the case; however, the real difficulty and creativity lie in the execution. Hence it is useful to explore four best practices for quantifying and selling value.

1. Sell the Concept First. Top performers do a superior job quantifying their value proposition but they don’t just “sell by the numbers.” Even a great set of numbers will fall on deaf ears if you have not established a foundational level of understanding of your solution and a high level of trust. Worst possibility? The quantitative analysis is viewed as a selling ploy and therefore discounted accordingly.

2. Remember the Ripple Effect. Often in addition to the primary impact of your solution, there are, as well, secondary and tertiary positive outcomes. The other benefits might occur in another division, in a different time frame or for an alternative set of players inside the organization. Make sure you have uncovered and demonstrated the payoffs of the Ripple Effect.

3. Translate Soft Differentiators. If your only major competitive advantage is price, the challenge of quantifying your value proposition is simple and straightforward. On the other hand, if you have other competitive advantages – such as integrity, superior integration, and creativity – the challenge exists to translate those soft differentiators. It is easy to quantify that part of your value proposition that is easily measurable, like price. However it is equally important, although much harder, to generate quantifiable proxies for soft differentiators.

Soft differentiators tend to fall into two categories: Value Adds and Strategic Opportunities. Value Adds focus on improvements to the quality of the business operations. Examples of intangible benefits include:

  • Providing better information and/or more timely information
  • Improving customer good will
  • Improving service image
  • Identifying problems on a timelier basis

Strategic Opportunities are those intangible benefits that help the customer expand its business. They might include:

  • Protecting a company’s competitive position
  • Increasing market share
  • Venturing into new markets

4. Tell the Integration Story. Many companies have created integrated solutions. However, they continue to sell the individual pieces – hence there is a huge opportunity for differentiation for those that get it right. One solution? Help the customer connect the dots and understand the power of an integrated solution by displaying a unique set of numbers that tell the story.

Check out other posts on sales effectiveness at the Sales Training Connection.

©2011 Sales Horizons™, LLC

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Selling medical devices that are evolutionary not revolutionary

Posted on April 23, 2012 by Janet Spirer

Selling medical devices

Medical device innovation is slowing down – so product categories are becoming more and more crowded often filled with many “look alike”products.  At the same time physicians are more willing to accept a medical device offered at the lowest price as long as it meets quality standards.

This combination of trends is especially true in those portions of the medical device market that generate the largest profits: CRM devices, cardiology, spine-related devices, and orthopedics devices.

Bain believes that these changes in doctor behavior are so significant that the marketplace is at a tipping point that will force medical device manufacturers to change the way they do business.

What does this mean for the sales force?

Historically, a medical device sales team primarily focused their efforts on selling the clinical benefits of a product to physicians.  Tomorrow that is unlikely to carry the day.  They will also need to sell the economic benefits to both the physician and to non-physicians who are strictly concerned about the cost-benefit considerations.

In some cases, the medical device sales rep will be making this economic case on their own. In others, the company will initiate a coordinated effort to leverage the entire portfolio across product lines (often through corporate sales directors) and enter into discussions with hospital administrators. According to Bain, this enables the companies to do two things: (1) offer a lower price and bring additional benefit to the hospital because their costs are lower (2) sell more by focusing on the totality of needs of the hospital by selling directly to a economic decision maker.

In summary,

  • All hospitals are not evolving at the same rate, so what’s important to them and who makes the buying decision varies from a traditional physician-driven account that’s more clinically focused, to accounts where the administrators are the key players in the purchasing decision, to accounts in-between where it’s a collaboration between the clinical and “carpeted” areas
  • From a sales perspective the focus has shifted to incorporate not only therapeutic advances but also factors related to driving down the total cost of care for the patient and for the hospital. For example, medical device sales reps must now be able to show a physician or hospital how using a specific device can cut time in the operating room in half while maintaining excellent customer care.

If you found this post helpful, you might want to join the conversation and subscribe to the Sales Training Connection.

©2012 Sales Horizons, LLC

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A sales leadership lesson from IBM’s Executive School

Posted on April 20, 2012 by Richard Ruff

Lessons from IBM for Sales

Way back in 1955 when the average cost of a new car was $1,900 and a gallon of gas was 23 cents, Louis Mobley was given a blank check by Tom Watson, IBM’s CEO,  to create a school for training IBM executives.

The first step he took was to locate a group of the very best executives he could find.  Then he developed a battery of test to find the skill sets they had in common.  The logic being find out the skills the very best possess and then develop a comprehensive training program to help others learn those skills.

So on which skills do you think the very best executives consistently scored high?  Interestingly, the answer was – there weren’t any.  Regardless of the skill tested the proven top executives were all over the normal distribution – on any given skill some were at the top, some in the middle and some at the bottom.  Maybe the tests were flawed – possible but unlikely since Mobley had contracted with the Educational Testing Service to help in the testing.

But given that Mobley was a pretty smart guy and had a substantial bankroll, he continued to try.  After a fair amount of time and effort, he solved the puzzle.  Unlike supervisors and front-line managers what successful executives had in common were not skills, but values and attitudes.

For a comprehensive review of the values and attitudes that Mobley identified take a read of August Turak’s excellent article – 10 Leadership Lessons from the IBM Executive School.  A couple of examples: great leaders want options, great leaders stick their necks out, and great leaders are tough enough to face facts.

But for Mobley finding out what the very best had in common was only a way station on the journey, the objective was to develop a series of training programs to help build future top executives for IBM.

The breakthrough on that next step was the realization that since the right answer was not about skills but values and attitudes, then the standard step by step curriculum was not the answer. Instead Mobley turned to experiential techniques such as simulations.  The rest is history – IBM’s Executive School has become legendary.

Fast-forward to 2012 and the challenge of developing sales leaders.  First question – Do we believe Mobley’s findings and conclusions are applicable for developing today’s Sales VPs and Regional Directors?  Our experience working with Fortune 1000 companies would lead us to the answers – yes and yes. Yes – what separates the best from the rest is about values and attitudes. And, yes – experiential learning experiences are the most effective training vehicle to help people become the very best.

So what is the lesson for developing sales executives?  Today it is getting harder and harder to differentiate by product alone. Having a great sales team is one of the few sustainable advantages remaining.  And, having a great sales team in the absence of great sales leadership exists only in middle-earth.

The good news is in the last several years the work on sales simulations and other forms of experiential learning has expanded exponentially.  It’s now possible to design sales simulations that can help sales executives reach the level of excellence that Mobley was attempting to achieve.

If you found this post helpful, you might want to join the conversation and subscribe to the Sales Training Connection.

©2012 Sales Horizons, LLC

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Sales tip – working a conference

Posted on April 18, 2012 by Janet Spirer

Sales Tips

Sales reps often find themselves at industry conferences or other large meetings where they should be networking. However, in too many cases sales reps fail to optimize the opportunity because they aren’t sure what to do.  So, by default, they end up spending time on activities like waiting in line to share a moment with a keynote speaker – which will be forgotten by the speaker and hence a waste of networking time for the sales person.

So, what might a sales rep do? A colleague of ours, Scott Nelson at Medsider shared a piece on becoming a Conference Ninja – with “13 easy ways to help you do just that”. Here’s a quick look at some of the points on Scott’s list.

  • Know who you want to target at the conference. Then think about what you might do to help them.
  • Think about thoughtful questions you might ask during Q&A sessions. It’s a great way to gain 30 seconds of airtime and create a basis for subsequent networking.
  • Use breaks as time to meet people – not snack on munchies or chat on your iPhone.
  • Be prepared – when you engage a target contact, know what you want to talk about … don’t waste the time discussing the weather.

Have piqued your interest? Click here to read more.

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