Sales Training Blog | Colleen Stanley

Lessons about business can be learned everywhere, if you're willing to keep your eyes and ears open to the possibilities.

It struck me on a trip home to Iowa that the earliest principles of leadership and management were taught to me by my mother and father. Their official titles were farmer and farmer's wife, with no academic letters following their names.

These principles of management were not taught in meetings or with great rhetoric. The lessons were learned by observing their day-to-day actions in running a growing farm operation.

Management lesson No. 1: Manage results, not excuses
Anyone vaguely familiar with farming knows the desired outcome is to plant and reap a bountiful crop. That job can be fraught with problems, usually caused by Mother Nature. Planting can be delayed by excessive rain, crops replanted because of hail and harvest impeded because of snow.

All of the above are potential good excuses to give up and say, "Well, we just couldn't get the job done this year." I don't recall ever hearing those words.

Instead, what I saw was a determination and perseverance that the job had to be done, despite any complications handed to my parents. They could not, would not, accept excuses. The outcome was too important to achieve (feeding and clothing eight kids).

If there was a delay in planting crops, they would work literally day and night to make up for lost time. My parents understood this was a part of being in the business of farming, and the result was the only thing that mattered or would be measured.

As sales professionals, we face similar challenges in achieving the outcome, our sales goal. The challenges may be handling operation issues or customer complaints. These challenges are potential good excuses for not implementing a consistent sales and marketing plan.

Sales managers may be tempted to buy those excuses and start managing excuses instead of results, which produces a less-than-bountiful harvest. The true sales professional knows challenges come with the territory. The winner is the salesperson who works through and around roadblocks to achieve success because they know only one thing matters -- the result.

Management lesson No. 2: No-option behavior
Chores are a part of everyday life growing up on a farm. Depending on your age, the chores changed, but the expectation of getting them done didn't.

Saturday morning cleaning was a ritual at our home and no play was allowed until the cleaning was done. Tantrums, faked illness or comparisons to kids who didn't have chores did nothing to deter my mother from having us complete our mission: cleaning the house.

I now realize what a gift that was to me. The lesson being taught was as a member of this family, you have responsibility. Entitlement was not in my parents' vocabulary. As part of that responsibility, you have a job to do. You may not like the job, but you will do the job. Today I call it "no-option behavior."

Great sales managers teach the no-option behavior principle to their sales team. They understand there are certain things in each of our job roles that we don't like to do. Salespeople may not like cold calling. Nontraditional salespeople, such as attorneys and CPAs, often don't like networking.

Guess what? It doesn't matter. Because if you're going to thrive in today's competitive business environment, you better engage in no-option behavior. You don't have to like it, you just have to do it. It's a chore that needs to be done before you get to play and collect pay.

Management lesson No. 3: Actions speak louder than words
Most people have heard of detassling corn in Iowa. However, most people haven't heard of an equally fun job called "bean walking."

Bean walking (now defunct) was the hot job of walking up and down bean rows, hoeing out weeds to produce a greater yield at harvest.

One evening, after a full day of bean walking, my father loaded all my siblings in the car and drove to the field we had just completed walking. He was inspecting our work. One of my brothers was rather sloppy in his work that day, leaving tall weeds in his assigned rows. My father asked my brother to re-walk his rows.

My father didn't deliver a huge lecture on right and wrong. He didn't rant and rave about the sloppy work. His actions spoke louder than any words. His actions told us that if the job wasn't done right, it would be done again and again until it was right.

"Your actions speak so loudly, I can't hear you."

Do your actions as a sales manager match your words? New sales recruits are a great example. Do your words say, "We invest in our people," but your actions reflect little time in working with and training the new salesperson? Are there policies and procedures in place but exceptions made for certain sales representatives and/or customers? Do we talk about excellence but settle for mediocrity because achieving excellence takes perseverance and patience?

The great sales managers I know don't give loud and long speeches. They implement, and let their actions and results do the talking.

I think I'll drop Mom and Dad a note telling them thanks for all the management and leadership training. Best schooling I ever had.

The financial meltdown of recent months has changed the way sales organizations must approach the market and their prospects. It’s similar to a hangover that lingers long after the party is over.

This meltdown is different than the ‘dot com crash’ or even the disaster of 9/11 because the ramifications hit personal checkbooks and upset the norm. People who played by the rules of saving and living within their means got clobbered right along with those not playing by the rules.

Here are three questions your sales team needs to be prepared to answer in order to capture their fair share of the recovery:

#1: Why you?
The prospect is wondering if you are really any better than the next guy. Is low price is the way to go? To respond to this question, your sales team needs to take a closer look at the answer - which is your value proposition.

In working with hundreds of sales teams, we have found most value propositions to be fairly dismal. Most sales organization design them so they are highly intellectual and are loaded up with benefits that have no emotional connection to the prospect’s problem. It might be time to ‘remodel’ your pitch. In doing so, following these tips:

· Speak in layman’s language. For example, increased productivity (benefit language) should be reframed as: “We work with organizations that have a bunch of people sitting around, not sure what to do, and as a result are missing deadlines.”

· Customize to the prospect and industry. For example, in our business, the words ‘free consulting’ resonate with service providers who sell an intangible. The words ‘price shopping’ and ‘endless quotes’ connect more with mature industries struggling to avoid a transactional sale.

#2: Can I trust you?
401K’s became 201K’s almost overnight. The buy and hold strategy failed for many investors. So who can you trust? What can you trust?

It’s important your sales team is aware of this dynamic and make sure they aren’t showing up to a sales call slick and armed with outdated sales skills. I.e., “If we could show you, would you want to? Would you agree....”

It’s also important that your sales team show up with the most important selling skill of all....intent. Prospects are looking for any misalignment in messaging and messenger. If you are saying one thing and your body language and tonality are saying something else, there is a disconnect that creates mistrust. Most people allow ‘gut’ to play into their decision making. If the ‘gut’ doesn’t say yes, the prospect won’t say yes.

#3: Can you really deliver?
If you are going to focus on teaching or improving one selling skill this year, work on helping your sales team dollarize the cost of the problem or the opportunity. Fluff and stuff is gone. Metrics and return on investment is in. If the salesperson, in partnership with the prospect, can’t put a number to the problem, there is a good chance you will lose to price, the existing vendor, or doing nothing.

The economy is recovering, however, be aware of the financial hangover. Deliver a sales aspirin comprised of answering three questions: why you, can I trust you and can you really deliver?

Good Selling!

Colleen Stanley
Chief Selling Officer, SalesLeadership, Inc.
Creator of the Ei Selling System™

Technology has served us well in many ways. We can communicate in seconds across the world. We have a plethora of information at our fingertips, and organizations are able to speed up the development of products and services.

What technology hasn't been able to speed up is the development of solid business relationships. Unfortunately, I see too many salespeople thinking that because everything else in the world is moving at the speed of light, so should their ability to build relationships.

There are many factors that go into building relationships, including the investment of commitment, time and a true spirit of giving.

If you're a sales veteran, you know relationships with clients and referral partners are keys to growing business. Knowing this fact is one thing; doing what it takes to develop meaningful relationships is another. Just as there are many factors that go into building good relationships, there are just as many reasons relationships don't develop, grow and improve.

Lack of Commitment
I believe good referral partners are as committed to growing their referral partners' businesses as they are to growing their own. When I attend association meetings or networking events, I am always on the lookout for people or information that will be of interest or value to my referral partners and/or customers.

My goal is to be an extension of my referral partners' and clients' businesses because I am committed to the relationships and what it takes to grow them. We often think we are good referral partners. But how many of us can answer the following questions about our referral partner(s)?

- Can you give your referral partners' 30-second commercials? (If you can't describe your referral partners' businesses, how can you provide an introduction?)

- Can you name the top three prospects your referral partners have targeted for 2004? (If you don't know their targets, how can you look for opportunities and resources that will help them gain entry into the account?)

- Do you know your referral partners' personal and professional goals? (If you don't know their goals, how can you help your partner achieve them?)

If you don't know the answer to the above questions, or if any of the answers are "no," you may need to commit more time to learning about your partners.

Not Working vs. Networking
I see too many salespeople in the referral business when they should be in the introduction business.

An example is a leads group that is poorly operated. Now don't get me wrong - I think leads groups can be successful when they do what it takes to nurture relationships: invest time and work.

One reason many leads groups produce less-than-positive results is participants haven't committed to the time and work it takes to help their referral partners. Many leads groups confuse passing a pink slip of paper that say "use my name" with relationship-building. It's not. It's transferring data from your Smart Phone to a slip of paper.

The person interested in building relationships will take the time to make a call of introduction, deliver their referral partner's 30-second commercial and set up a personal introduction if there is interest by the recipient of the call.

Study good friendships, marriages and business relationships. What makes them good is the investment of time and the willingness to work at the relationship.

Lack of a Plan
Good sales professionals proactively plan their month. They know the prospecting activity it takes to make a territory or business run: cold calls, networking, association meetings and appointments.

But how many of you are proactively setting aside time to pursue your most important prospecting activity? Helping your referral partners grow their businesses will result in growing your relationship with them.

Take a calendar review. How much time did you invest last month in activities related to building relationships with your referral partners and/or clients? For example:

- How many lunches did you set up to introduce your referral partner(s) to other partners, clients or prospects?

- How many calls of introduction did you make on behalf of your partners or clients?

- How many telephone calls/e-mails did you make/send informing referral partners and clients of an event that may be of interest for them to attend?

- How often are you keeping your referral partners posted on progress made on introductions provided by them?

- How much time did you spend sending thank-you notes for the introductions? (Mom was right on this one, and it hasn't changed.)

Sales and business professionals good at relationship building embrace a spirit of giving.