New Year, new apporach
The calendar has just turned to a new year, so many salespeople suddenly feel like their troubles are behind them and “this year” is going to be a lot better…
Even I think it is great to be optimistic, but change will come from “inside” – not the market.
I’m afraid that there are no real solid macroeconomic trends (here in Denmark) that clearly indicate that 2011 is going to be a much more prosperous year. To believe that your sales plan rests on a new economic high tide is a recipe for failure.
My suggestion is to develop a plan that focuses on the three key revenue generating elements:
- winning new business from new clients
- further penetrating high potential existing accounts
- and retaining as many billing clients as possible.
Each of these three elements has different challenges and requires different approaches – futher guidelines can be seen on http://oersted.org/?p=152
Common sense – but often forgotten… 
The buying process of a CRM solution
Recently for a client we have been working with the buying process of a CRM solution. Our client is going to launch a new CRM solution on the Microsoft Sharepoint platform which is a highly competitive market.
In order to understand the market, and to establish a competitive advantage we were maping the buying funnel. (You can read about the difference between selling and buying here: http://oersted.org/?p=53)
As an spin off we created a “guideline” to potential clients identifying the seven main components for a CRM purchace. You can read the guideline here…
You are welcome to use this guidline – or contact eSphere to hear more
Prospecting is still hard
I have been visiting old clients quite a bit lately and I have not blogged for a little while…There is a lot of exciting activity going on out there to be sure, but most of the companies are still cautious about forecasting growth.
The strategy of short term bottom line management will certainly run out of steam soon and many people can see the writing on the wall.
The good news for all of us in sales is that companies are becoming more open to change as they search for new ways to grow their businesses. So If we can help them then we will be in a great position.
But in this still difficult economic clima we need to focus our limited time (some will say as all ways) to the clients who are in the market.
Look for the committed prospects
Two of my clients is committed to growth – they want to double their revenue through M&A in their new financial year and they’re stating it in their Annual report. Companies that are committed to real growth are more likely better prospects than companies that just like to talk about growth but are really doing nothing different than they have in the past.
Committed organizations know that growth takes hard, heavy lifting and they are willing to change things deep within their own structure to enable and ignite growth.
Avoid the “wait and lets see” prospects
Companies that are pretending to drive growth or are strugling to get the strategy in place are looking for slogans that run out of steam after a brief discussion. In an example: “We want to be much more customer centric.” It sound like great starting points but when you drill down you find that often there is no real execution plan to make this happen. Without a structured plan to work from, these directional statements will soon become tombstones in the graveyard of failed initiatives. And remember, if the company does not have a real plan then your chances of getting them to buy a new solution from you are going to be fairly slim. If they aren’t really going to change and improve then they aren’t really going to do things different than they have in the past. They may talk a good game, but they are comfortable with the status quo.
In other words we need to plan to prospect companies that understand how to drive change and make sure that they can benefit from our services.
Common Sense for Partnering?
Yesterday at the annual selection of skilled IT companies here in Denmark, the “future customer” were in focus … It seems that there is commonality around in this industry where IT-salespeople are facing their biggest challenges – partnering with their customers.
Nailed nice and easy by Michael Moesgaard – CIO DONG Energy: “Cut the short-term trades to ensure quarterly target and reward your salesteam after our goals“ (you can read his points - on danish here: http://www.computerworld.dk/art/101559/fremtidens-kunde-langer-ud-efter-hurtige-handler?a=related&i=101580&bottom)
In other words – we need to understand that the catalyst to driving decisions is connected to our client’s strategy.
In our hunt for the quarterly target we are often inventing new talk tracks that will push prospects to move along faster and provide them with a quick order. Leveraging things like discounts, time and short term competitive advantage are some of the levers used trying to create a catalyst to move things forward.
But we are focusing on the wrong thing. Manipulative and self-centered tactics may yield a few short-term wins but they will not lead to long-term partnering.
The only catalyst that matters to a senior executive is directly related to the execution of their strategy. It is all about the customer’s strategy and what they are trying to accomplish, and this is what you need to tie your proposal to. Help the client to understand how you can assist them in executing on their key initiatives and this will be a tremendous driver toward a partneringship.
Today I had a great conversation with an old colleague who told me how far behind his company were on their targets and how the rest of the year does not look very good. His company is reselling software for one of the leading software providers. He complained particularly over the missing marketing from the vendor and that he merly didn’t get any leads (and if he got any – the prospect were looking at a bunch of other vendors).
I was wondering if this is what selling has become lately?
We not only need leads to start the sales process… but these leads need to be ready to buy right when we call them?
If this is the case then maybe salespeople should wear aprons and really focus on professional order taking.
Anyway, this type of job is an hourly one with a limited income (Danes are not used to tipping) and not what real salespeople are pursuing.
First of alle – Getting leads should always be a luxury rather than an entitlement so professional salespeople need to take control of their own destiny and be proactive.
The first place to start is with your existing customer base:
- Are they satisfied?
- Do they meet their objectives?
- What else can you do to help them be successful?
Deep understanding their (business) issues and what they are trying to fix, accomplish /or avoid are great mechanisms for account growth.
After this you need to get “out of the box” and develop a target list:
- what is the profile of the clients you have been able to successfully serve?
- What industry are they in?
- What challenges are they facing?
- What was the catalyst for seeking a solution?
- How do they treat their suppliers?
- What is going on with their customers, etc.?
You now need to target companies that aligns with this description. This may be a little bit of heavy lifting but it is definitely well worth the time.
I think salespeople understand this exercise and can see value in doing it. The problem often lies in the next thing that needs to get done — you have to get an ongoing dialogue with the prospect…
In my opinion (we are as) salespeople ultimately responsible for our own success. Pointing fingers and worrying about things outside of our circle are not strategies that will enable us to hit the objectives we agreed to.
So let’s get back to basics – real selling…
Tonight FC København is playing against Rosenborg struggling for a place in “the Promised Land” – Champions League.
I believe that the team with the best players wins in the long run – There is a Danish proverb that says that even a blind chicken can find grain. But in the long run, you should not rely on luck but on talent.
And so it is in sales, often 80 percent of sales are produced by approximately 20 percent of salespeople.
The question is, should we fire or should we educate the “last” 80%?
The answer is often in between…I will hereafter give my perspective on how to find the right people for your sales team.
Setting the team
Most managers assume that “each person can learn to be competent in almost anything”, while great managers assume that “each person’s talents are enduring and unique”. And we all know some people earning their living in sales who should be doing something else. We also know some people who have what it takes to sell, but they should be selling something else (I tried it once and to be a bad performer, and it is awful, no fun and a struggle)…?
One reason for this and why many companies suffer from bad sales performance is because their processes for hiring, training and managing salespeople rely almost entirely upon subjective information.
I.e. in the hiring process we relied on a resume who are an individuals subjective portrayal of their capabilities and experiences and in the interview – Interviewees attempt to package their responses to questions (they are selling) in a manner that will make the best impression. Meanwhile, you (as a buyer) are forming your personal opinions about candidates’ qualifications for the position.
So you will need to “measure” who should and who should not be on the team.
First you assess your current top performers so you have a baseline score on important sales related attributes as:
- Sales Drive: Does the individual enjoy presenting, persuading, negotiating, and motivating others?
- Emotional Toughness: How rapidly does the individual rebound from rejection? Do they learn from their experiences and move on quickly? Or, do they suffer a sustained reduction in productivity?
- Reasoning Ability: Does the individual ask good questions? Can they dissect answers and pick out the pieces that will help advance the conversation toward a desired end result?
- Service Drive: How friendly and agreeable is the individual? How interested are they in building relationships and helping others?
- Assertiveness: How self-assured is the individual? How effective are they at convincing others to take action?
- Attitude: How positive is the individuals attitude? Do they perceive a glass to be half-empty or half-full?
- Communication Skills: How precisely does the individual communicate, both verbally and in writing? Are their communications clear and effective?
- Competitiveness: How competitive is the individual? How does their competitiveness manifest itself?
- Energy: How energetic is the individual? Are they always “on”, or do they need to be prodded into action?
- Independence: How readily does the individual accept direction from others?
- Learning Rate: How rapidly does the individual learn new information? What styles of learning are most productive for them?
- Tolerance for Administration: How willing is the individual to perform administrative activities? How much attention do they pay to details?
The assessment test scores for the preceding characteristics can be used to predict how effectively a salesperson or sales candidate will perform in the following 5 critical job functions for a salesperson:
- Hunter or a Farmer? Do they prefer to pursue new business, or do they prefer to manage existing customer relationships? Or, are they capable of performing both functions effectively?
- Internally or Externally motivated? Internally motivated salespeople are capable of directing their own activities. Externally motivated salespeople require frequent direction and support from their manager.
- How effectively will they Prospect? How aggressively (and consistently) will they pursue new opportunities?
- How willing are they to comply with Administrative Requirements? This may include updating records in your CRM system and providing timely and accurate forecasts and opportunity pipeline updates.
- Will they be a good Team Member? Will they work cooperatively?
This sales assessment tests can help you with existing salespeople who are struggling in two specific ways. First, they can determine which salespeople should be in your salesteam. The second way is to identifying the unique training needs in your team.
I believe if you identify each salesperson’s individual training needs, and you supply targeted training to address these needs, you can dramatically improve their performance.
Remember – sales persons who are passionate about what they do, and who choose to give the best, will deliver a great customer experience.
I’m back from a wonderful vacation where I really got recharged my batteries. As usual it is hard to start up again – clients and customers is also returning from vacation, so there is a lot of excuses not to perform in August… but my clients are probably calling soon…
To believe that my sales plan rests on a new economic high tide is a recipe for failure. Top performers in sale know that the best way to get back on track is to develop a plan of attack that creates more precision around the strategies and tactics needed to reach their performance targets.
The plan need to be simple and focuses on the three key revenue generating “pillars”:
- winning new business from new clients
- further penetrating high potential existing accounts
- and retaining as many billing clients as possible.
Each of these three elements has different challenges and requires different approaches. Remember to start with the task of segmenting your overall target so that you know how much revenue you need to do in each of these elements.
This first step will give you better insight into where your biggest challenge will be and where you need to spend most of your time.
Next step is to think through the 3-5 most important things you need to do in each sub category.
The key point is that each of these key revenue components requires precise thinking and specific actions. This kind of granularity leads to more effective management of your business (and may lead to improved discussions with management around resources and overall sales performance).
So lets starts planning how to reach our target
Peaks and Valleys
Summer time is reading time… Time to recharge the batteries Remember when you get back there is “only” approx. 100 working days until this year is over…
Last sommer I was reading two “easy reading” books:
- Peaks and Valleys by Spencer Johnson
- Speed of Trust by Stephen Covey
As always, I found great inspiration in the simple advice of Spencer Johnson (author of “who moved my chess”). As a reader you’re told a story of a man who is troubled by life. A friend tells him a story about a man, also troubled by life, who lives in a valley and makes a trek up a peak to see a wise man. At points in the story the Spencer stops and explains a self-help message who lead to a conclusion about how to make life better.
The book is intuitive. For instance one message is “The path out of a valley appears when you choose to see things differently.” If you are looking for a story which leads you to key truths about life, without a bunch of analysis, then you will enjoy this book.
More info: http://www.peaksandvalleysthebook.com/
As I said before – it is realy easy reading, it is read on a plane trip or on the beach.
By the way you can read an intro to the other book ” The Speed of Trust” here: http://oersted.org/?p=68
Enjoy your sommer time….
Yesterday I was visiting a client, they “abandond” the Lotus Notes Platform two years ago – bought a new CRM solution apointed a project manager and took the system live after six month, and gues what – we are still doing both maintenance and developing new functions to the “old” solution.
Why do so many BPR and IT projects fail? In this case the users lost the trust to the new system before it could prove it value and because it was managed by a spreadsheet general.
It is a fact of life that as many as 80-90% of IT projects run over its timeline and budget or are terminated prematurely. And even those that reach some sort of completion often fall far short of meeting user expectations and business performance goals.
In my oppinion software projects can be thought of at the highest level as tree phases:
- First figure out what to build,
- then build it,
- And last but not least implement it
The first phase is dominated by strategy, and the second and third phase is all about execution and selling the value for the business.
During the first phase, you are exploring new ideas, you talk with scores of users and customers, you learn how you can apply new technologies, you flesh out your product concepts and test them out, and you spend a lot of time thinking about the overall product direction, both immediate and longer term. it is all about discovering that mix of functionality and design that results in a winning product.
However, once you’ve specified this new product, and your engineering team begins the process of building this product, a very profound and important shift needs to take place for the product team.
Now the game is all about execution… Getting the software:
- built
- tested
- and delivered to the business.
In this phase you spend your time keeping everyone focused and aligned, chasing down the countless issues that arise, and getting these resolved immediately – speed is often crusial.
M&A, competitors, organizational and management changes; these are all distractions, and your job is to keep the team on track so this product can get out there when it needs to be.
In many project, this shift in mindset doesn’t actually happen, or at least it doesn’t happen until much later. Instead, the project team or management continue to explore new ideas… Essentially, the product spec continues to change in significant ways, impacting engineering and the rest of the product team, and typically the release dates push out, or features get cut, or the quality gets compromised. And the users is loosing the fate in what they were “promised”…So in the third phase you need to resell the project - by giving the business trust in the tool (performance and GUI is important) they will start the adoption of your outcome.
It’s important that the project team is aware of the shift because we all have our own preferences and different skills. A strategy kind of person often preferring the freedom and creativity of the invention process, they will have to work extra hard to contain those urges during execution. On the other hand, the project manager type is educated to getting things “out of the door”, so they need to work on their strategic thinking and design skills, and remembering that what matters is creating a product that the business wants.
To develop new software or implement a new process is basically about setting the strategy and let the delivery team execute by giving them the possibility to perform. I don’t mean to make this all sound easy, but I do believe that with discipline software project and BPR can be managed.
AppSense – User virtualization
I recently started reselling products from AppSense – software that helps IT managers managed and maintain the “personalities” of virtualized desktop PCs in enterprise enviroments. For the IT department, user virtualization represents a fundamental change in the way the corporate desktop is constructed, delivered and managed. There are many bennefits but as always some challenges and AppSense can help with managing user-specific information independent of the desktop, and applying this information into any desktop on-demand.
AppSense enables IT to standardize the desktop build, automate desktop and application delivery, and migrate users to new desktops – all while ensuring the user experience is seamless, personal, predictable and easily manageable.
There is a huge potential of savings – see: http://www.appsense.com/roi/
You can read more about the AppSense Management Suite here: http://www.appsense.com/products/
And as allways – I’ll buy you dinner if we can’t save you business money on implementing AppSense