Sales Training Blog | Colleen Stanley

The research results are in: Multitask­ing doesn't work and isn't going to until the human brain can be re-engineered and/or cloned.

The brain is a powerful computer, with its hundred billion neurons and trillions of synaptic connections. However, it has limitations.

In a recent study, a group of Microsoft workers took an average of 15 minutes to return to serious mental tasks, such as writing reports or computer code, after responding to incoming e-mail or instant messages. They strayed off to reply to other messages or browse news, sports or entertainment Web sites.

The same thing happens to many sales organizations. Companies worry about competition, but instead, should worry about the misuse and abuse of technology. Salespeople spend entire days in "check mode": checking voicemail, e-mail and PDAs. They're so busy checking in, they never get to doing prospecting and business development.

So what's a company to do? Here are a few principles to endorse and enforce at your company.

Love the one you're with -- Bad manners don't win business. Cell phone/PDA addiction is creating a generation of people who just don't get it. Most of us grew up with Mom and Dad telling us not to speak with our mouth full. Now, Mom and Dad need to tell their adult children not to speak with their mouth full of a cell phone.
The next time your salesperson takes an electronic gadget, turned on, to a lunch meeting, ask them why: Are they going to call their guest, who's sitting across from them at the table? Are they going to take a call while they're talking with their customer?

Who is more important? The client and prospect, or an incoming phone call?

A colleague recently shared her story of a first meeting with a financial planner. The purpose of the meeting was to determine if he was the right professional to design her financial future. She quickly decided he wasn't when the planner took a phone call during their meeting, sending a clear message she was No. 2 on his priority list. She figured treatment of her portfolio would look the same way.

Smart salespeople know that giving undivided attention to prospects and clients is one of the best ways let them know they're important and valued.

Be present and in the moment -- Companies invest in training and hold meetings, only to have knowledge go down the drain because no one attending the training or meeting is "in the moment."
Participants live in the past or the future, worrying about what they've missed or are going to miss. PDAs line up on conference tables, with participants staring intently, making sure they don't miss a single message.

They don't miss any messages. However, they miss plenty of content, learning, sharing of best practices and eventually, results.

Play the quiet game -- You have to wonder if salespeople think other business people will think they're more successful because they have a permanent attachment to their ear. (It's scary how many people are walking around talking to themselves these days.)
We know you have a job and are important. Congratulations. The general public really doesn't care to hear your conversation in the elevator, restroom, restaurant or car.

When's the last time you encouraged your sales team to take some time to just think? Yes, think and not do. Turn off the radio, CD, cell phone and free up your mind.

A relaxed mind produces some of the best ideas and solutions. Sigmund Freud said, "Great decision in the realm of thought and momentous discoveries and solutions of problems are only possible to an individual working in solitude."

So what else were you working on while reading this article?

Many businesses are ready to leave 2009 behind and bring on 2010. The million dollar question is:

What will you and must you do to ensure sales success in 2010?

Here is a very non-sexy answer: install processes and systems that can be duplicated, measured and improved. The very thought makes most sales managers' eyes glaze over because they must move from ‘shoot from the hip’ to ‘shoot from the brain.’

The real value in documented processes means that if you leave the company or got run over by a bus, a new sales manager could step in, hire a new rep, and have processes to follow without any delay or disruption. The other value is revenue. Sales organizations with good processes are able to hire salespeople and ramp up quickly without worry of losing revenue.

Here are the top three processes to install and document:

1. Hiring processes unique to your company and industry – your sales organization should have a hiring manual that contains:

• Need to have versus nice background, i.e., sold to CEO’s versus human resources.
• Key areas to ‘vet’ the resume – can past success translate into future success? Is this salesperson charged with building a territory or maintaining a territory?
• Top seven competencies/soft skills needed for success, i.e., self-starting, assertiveness, and resiliency. Competencies vary based on the industry, management style, and life cycle of the company.
• Company core values….need I say more? Want to hire the wrong person? Forget to incorporate this piece in your hiring process.
• Behavior-based questions designed to test and assess all of the above areas.

2. On-boarding process:

This process is essential in creating a turn-key approach for ramping up salespeople quickly. It also ensures that if a bad hire somehow slipped through the cracks, you don’t hang onto them too long. An on-boarding process puts metrics and timelines to each of the following:

• Sales activity plan – What is the weekly, monthly and quarterly highest return on investment activity for this particular rep?
• Sales process skills – What is the most important skill for them to learn in the first 30 days? 60 days? 90 days?
• Knowledge – technical, product, company.
• Results – Is the salesperson achieving A, B or C results?
• Administrative – CRM tools, reports, meetings.

3. Sales process:

Let us save you money in 2010. If you have not documented your sales process, don’t invest a bunch of dollars in a robust CRM tool. It’s called garbage in, garbage out. (It’s like a contractor trying to build a house with no blue print.) Identify steps of the sales process and drill down into best practices and questions to be asked within each step. If your salespeople knew what to say and do, wouldn’t they be doing it?

Processes and systems raise the bar on sales results because your sales team finally knows where the bar is!

Good Selling,

Colleen Stanley
Chief Selling Officer

Mark Sanborn, author of ‘The Encore Effect’ writes, "What if a CEO or organization leader had such a reputation for effectiveness that as a leader-manager he/she never had to look for new employees? There was always a long line of job applicants ready to do whatever it took to work for him/her. (Example: In 2006, Google received one million job applications and made 5,500 hires.)”

So the question is: How do great sales managers create the ‘Google affect’ in their organizations?

• Raise the Bar to Entry
Strong sales organizations know that rock stars want to hang with rock stars. Instead of making it easy to join their company, they install hiring processes that are designed to screen, eliminate and only allow the best to join. Google’s culture begins and is maintained with a rigorous hiring process.

If you don’t have a documented process for hiring, there is a good chance you are still hiring from the gut, bringing bias to the interview, and keeping a fair amount of finger crossing in your final selection.

• Create Cultures of Accountability
Great sales managers know how to take a team from startup to grownup. Effective sales leaders know that even good, disciplined salespeople work best when there is a culture of accountability. This starts by having systems, processes and metrics for performance in place. If you don’t have anything to measure, you can’t inspect, which means you can’t expect. High performing sales organizations have metrics for hiring, on-boarding, business development, sales and client retention.

• Be Excellent Teachers
Marshall Goldsmith authored the book, “What Got You Here Won’t Get You There.” This pretty much sums up the challenge for a tops sales producers transitioning into sales management. What got them to management was their ability to sell and close business. This skill has zero value if they don’t have the ability to teach and transfer skills. Sales managers are only as good as their sales team.

• Create Community
We may be living in an increasingly virtual world; however, people still want connection. Look at all the different groups on LinkedIn, Facebook, etc. Strong sales leaders are connected with their sales team, regardless if they are local or global.

Arunas Chesonis, CEO of Paetech, has a Friday afternoon conference call with his 4,000 employees every week. People on his team look forward to the call because it’s an update on what’s happening, where the company is headed, and includes a good deal of humor. The salespeople might be located all over the country, however, are connected to the mission and vision because of the video conference.

I began my sales career in manufacturing and distribution, where I learned process is critical to success.

A process enables you to define, measure and change what's working and what's not working in an organization, regardless of the industry. In manufacturing, for instance, many processes must integrate to make a high-quality, non-defective product. Similarly, successful companies must have defined processes that integrate and align to produce high-quality, non-defective products and then consistently successful distribution.

This philosophy must also apply to their sales processes. Otherwise, the caliber of goods and their delivery will be moot.

Too often, the sales process isn't aligned with other areas of the organization, resulting in a breakdown on the sales production line, thus limiting its ability to achieve revenue goals. Three process components must be integrated into any sales plan to realize optimum success: hiring and selection, infrastructure and sales leadership.

Have you ever hired someone with an impressive sales resume and impeccable recommendations, only to have them fail miserably? Have you examined your hiring process, and if so, were you able to find the breakdown point?

Many organizations fall short in the sales-selection process because they didn't benchmark the sales job. They think sales is sales, and if you can sell, you can sell. (Did you stay with me on that one?)

In other words, the company didn't identify the necessary cognitive skills, behavior style and cultural motivators needed for success at this job in this industry in this corporate culture.

For example, a salesperson selling a high-ticket, intangible, complex service requires strong conceptual thinking skills and problem-solving skills. They need to be able to take the abstract and formulate a conclusion.

On the other hand, a route salesperson, making 15 face-to-face calls every day, needs great interpersonal skills. They need to be able to build rapport quickly with a variety of buyers.

Note the competencies for success in each job are very different. If you don't have a selection process to benchmark competencies needed for the specific sales job at your specific company, you may end up producing a defective sales force.

There are many sub-processes that make up a sales infrastructure. Sales organizations need processes in methodology, prospecting, referral strategies, presentation skills, client-retention programs, database management, sales compensation and time management, to name a few.

Here's another misalignment that can occur if the infrastructure process isn't integrated with the hiring one:

You've improved your hiring process and now have a sales team comprised of money-motivated, independent individuals.

However, your company has a sales compensation program that rewards individuals who value team and secur-ity. The current plan includes a comfortable base salary with limited upside commissions.

The money-motivated salesperson is now demotivated because he or she wants to be paid for individual performance, not team performance, and what he or she is worth. In fact, this type of salesperson would rather have a lower base and more upside on the commission.

After a few years -- or months -- this person leaves and joins a sales organization with a compensation program that matches his or her behavior style and internal motivators.

We've all heard sales management horror stories before, such as: Top producer gets promoted to sales management and fails in new role.

But why do they fail?

A strong salesperson must have the ability to grow a territory. But a sales manager must have the ability to grow a team. This isn't the same thing; in fact, it even can be counterintuitive.

An independent sales representative is primarily self-motivated (and often self-serving). A sales manager, whether in a direct producing role or not, must also be team-motivated -- but more importantly, team-motivating.

Perhaps this successful salesperson didn't have the competencies needed for sales management. Or perhaps, the new sales manager wasn't provided the tools or education to develop the new skill sets needed.

Great sales managers are great coaches. New sales managers often have poor or no coaching skills. For instance, they tell the team members how to improve their sales calls. Because telling is not coaching, the sales team doesn't respond and likely will fail to achieve its goals. This organization is left with poor revenues, unhappy salespeople and, soon, vacant positions.

I've been known to say, "If you want a better outcome, you must commit to doing some things better." It's easy to blame one individual or even a group of people who just aren't performing.

While it's not always easy to step back and do organizational analysis, learning the importance of developing effective sales processes and implementing these into overall strategy and corporate objectives will be well worth the effort.

The word "process" may previously have sounded sterile and rigid. But it really is all about developing the building blocks to a successful organization.

And "process" sounds much better than the words "turnover," "poor margins" and "mediocre sales leadership."

Don't you agree?

Register for our FREE webinar 'Top 9 Practices for Building a First-Class Sales Organization' https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/938682771

Labels: "sales management training", "sales management workshops", "sales management"

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.