Sales Training Blog | Colleen Stanley

Selling to the Old Brain - Two Ways to Increase Sales Results

cstanley@salesleadershipdevelopment.com (Colleen Stanley) — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 15:54:00 +0000

Many salespeople have heard the phrase that selling is an art and a science. This phrase is moving beyond a cliché with the new research on the science of selling and persuasion. Sales professionals who desire a true competitive advantage know and apply the science behind how and why prospects make buying decisions.

The first step is studying the old brain, called the amygdala. It is a small almond shaped structure, located above the eyeballs. The amygdala is often referred to as the reptilian brain as it is the oldest part of the brain. It screens all stimuli coming into the brain and does so without logical thought. It’s often referred to as the “fight or flight” portion of the brain. It is this part of the brain that salespeople must pay attention to and adapt their approach. Many untrained salespeople send prospects into “fight or flight” mode because of outdated selling techniques and how they show up to a sales meeting.

Here are two ways that salespeople can sell to the old brain and increase sales:

#1: Stop asking leading questions.

For some reason, salespeople change their language during a sales call. They ask leading questions such as, “So if we could show you how our product can save you thousands of dollars, would you want to move forward?” The old brain hears a close coming, defenses go up, and the prospect goes into “fight or flight” mode. The responses vary from objections (fight) to a “think it over” (flight).

Another place is the sales process where salespeople ask leading questions is after delivery of their value proposition. “We work with companies who are experiencing this, this and this. Are you having any of these issues?” This leading question makes a prospect feel cornered and he/she responds with a “not really” or simply holds the conversation card close to the chest. The result is a superficial conversation versus a transparent conversation.

Leading questions try to lead the prospect to the salesperson’s desired outcome, not the prospects. The old brain doesn’t like leading questions because they are manipulative and inauthentic. A better thing to say is, “I’m not sure if you are having any of these issues….” It gives the prospect control of the call and eliminates “fight or flight” responses.

#2: Seek the truth, not the sale.

The old brain is always on the lookout for danger. When a salesperson shows up to meeting with the intent of closing the sales, the energy in the room changes and the old brain knows it. Guard goes up and level of conversation goes down. If you want to close more business, change the intent of the sales meeting to seek the truth and do the right thing.

Great salespeople lose attachment to the outcome of the sales meeting. This is a mindset more than a selling skill. They are not focused on commissions; they are focused on uncovering the prospect’s problem and figuring out if the prospect is committed to fixing it. When a salesperson seeks the truth versus a sale, he asks better questions, the right questions, and the tough questions. The result is a relaxed sales meeting where both parties have an open dialogue.

Sales is an art and science. Make sure your selling skills include the science of selling to the old brain.

The Sales Final Four - Taking the Buzzer Shot for Sales Success

cstanley@salesleadershipdevelopment.com (Colleen Stanley) — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 16:14:00 +0000

The NCAA Final Four is this weekend – celebrating the very best that college hoops has to offer. This year’s tournament had many shockers – West Virginia’s upset over No. 1 seed Kentucky, and Northern Iowa’s upset of No. 1 seed University of Kansas. The four teams standing are Butler, Michigan State, Duke and West Virginia; all of which displayed amazing athletic performances thus far and great overall seasons (regardless of the outcomes in the next two games).

The skill level of the teams and athletes that make it to this point is incredibly high, and it’s almost impossible to say which team going head-to-head is “better” than the other when it comes to skill. If the winner cannot be determined by skill level, what is the winning edge? Is it sheer luck? If only luck could take us that far….. The deciding factor in winning is emotional intelligence.

Emotional intelligence is defined as the ability to identify, assess, and manage the emotions of one's self, of others, and of groups. What makes top performing athletes excel over their competitors who have the same skill set? It’s emotional intelligence.

Let’s look at two emotional intelligence traits and how they relate to winning in athletics and winning in sales:

Self-Actualization: Ability to realize your potential capacities. An on-going, dynamic process of striving toward the maximum development of your abilities and talents.

A top performing athlete is not content with being second place. When you watch the leaders of the college basketball teams, they have the drive and desire to do what it takes to win – every bit of their being longs to be the best – and the most important part? They truly BELIEVE they can do it.

Are you sales self-actualized? Do you have high goals to achieve and know in your heart of hearts that it can be done? Or is there a voice of doubt holding you back? The best way to get self actualized is to be very in tune with your wants, desires, and capabilities. A good way to do this is to take some time each day to journal and explore the deep thoughts that so often get pushed aside by the logistics of your day. Become aware of yourself in order to become the best you can be.

Stress Tolerance: Ability to effectively withstand adverse events and constructively cope.

It always amazes me how many games come down to a buzzer shot. It amazes me even more how these young athletes stay completely cool and calm under the intense pressure. Top players not only take the last shot, but want to take the last shot. Have you ever noticed how they are not in the least bit surprised they hit the game winning three-pointer? They live for the 3 – 2 – 1…..

How do you handle stressful sales situations? A rep we work with came to the realization that she needed to work on her stress tolerance after an unfortunate scenario with a prospect. She has been building a relationship with this important client for months, and was now at the solution alignment (proposal) phase. The prospect became very demanding – asking for unrealistic deadlines, nit-picking each sentence of the proposal to death – so much so that the salesperson snapped at the prospect and lost the account.

We see it all the time. Salespeople do not handle stress well, are not assertive enough to appropriately manage expectations, and end up losing business.

Learn what you stressor “hot buttons” are so you can properly manage them and adapt appropriately. When that sales stress creeps up, so something to relieve it in a positive way – a walk around the park, a chat with your sales manager or a friend who understands your demanding business. Whatever you do – don’t let it interfere with your sales process – you will wind up looking like sales amateur.

When watching the games this weekend, think about how the players and coaches use a mixture of knowledge of the game with emotional intelligence traits – it will be the deciding factor of who takes home the trophy.

Cold, Warm or Hot Call: Top Three Ways to Improve Sales Results

cstanley@salesleadershipdevelopment.com (Colleen Stanley) — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 20:00:00 +0000

Salespeople can often get caught up in labeling their calls. Is it cold, warm or hot? Here’s a tip: they all require similar selling skills. A skilled telephone conversation requires the ability to build rapport, deliver a compelling value proposition, and ask good qualifying questions. Here are three ways to enhance your sales conversations – regardless of the temperature.

Build Rapport:
How many of you have hung up the phone with a prospect and said, “I just wasn’t connecting with this person?” You might be focusing on the wrong part of the conversation. The astute salesperson immediately tunes into the non-verbal part of the sales conversation, which accounts for up to 88% of communication when using the telephone.

Top salespeople are masters at matching and mirroring the prospect’s rate of speech as well as specific words being used by the prospect. If the salesperson is speaking to a prospect who speaks slowly, the salesperson speaks slowly. If they have a rapid fire prospect on the phone, the salesperson matches and mirrors by kicking up the pace. The biggest mistake we hear in most sales conversations is salespeople talking much faster than the prospect because of nervousness or lack of focus. The prospect cannot keep up with the conversation, no rapport is built, and no appointment is set. Likeability is the key to moving the sales forward.

Compelling Value Propositions:
The key word is compelling. Most value propositions focus on the salesperson’s organization versus the prospect’s problem; i.e. “We are a 100-year-old firm specializing in blah, blah, blah. We are experts at blah, blah, blah.” The prospect is immediately bored and writes the phone call off as another conversation with a self-centered salesperson.

The well trained salesperson has a customized value proposition designed specifically for the industry and the decision maker. For example, when our organization calls on construction firms, we use statements such as, “We work with construction companies who are tired of going to beauty contests, only to end up in second place.” The phrase “beauty contests” is industry jargon in the construction business. It shows we know their world. Is your sales team integrating statements in their value proposition that show the prospect they understand the prospect’s business or are they using the same phrases for all prospects?

Qualifying Questions:
How many of you have been referred into an account only to discover the prospect has no money or pain? Hot calls need to be qualified just as carefully as a cold call. In fact, they need to be more carefully qualified. A warm introduction often causes salespeople to get sloppy and forget key qualifying questions (after all, they were referred in or the prospect called them). The main question to ask your sales team is: Did you gather information or did you gather evidence of a problem that the prospect is serious about solving?

Whether your lead is being generated by a cold call, introduction or LinkedIn, remember that a solid sales conversation with all of the above ingredients must occur. Build rapport, develop customized value propositions and qualify.

Good Selling,

Colleen Stanley
Chief Selling Officer

The Sales Oscars

cstanley@salesleadershipdevelopment.com (Colleen Stanley) — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 22:30:00 +0000

Last week’s Academy Awards marked the end of awards season. The Oscars are a defining moment for many people in the film industry – from producers to directors to cinematographers; the industry’s best are honored.

As outsiders, we watch the Oscars to see our favorite actors being honored for their work. The “boring part” of the almost 4 hour program (when we leave the couch to take the chicken out of the oven) comes when the behind the scenes awards are presented; i.e. sound mixing, art direction, costume design. We don’t know these nominees’ names – they’re not as fascinating as Sandra Bullock or James Cameron – but they must be pretty important….they ARE up for an OSCAR, right?

Who are the behind-the-scenes people in your business who need a Sales Support Oscar? As a salesperson you get the award likened to Best Actor (we could go on and on about parallels between sales people and actors here). As a sales manager you would get Best Director. If you’re worthy of the Sales Oscar, then you’re behind the scenes people should probably be nominated as well.

Some possible Sales Oscar nominations:

• An assistant who manages your calendar and keeps you on task to close deals – without who you would have “chicken with head cut off” syndrome

• A marketing coordinator who whips out great sales sheets and materials with a positive attitude – you know you can always go to her when you’re in a bind

• A custodian who ensures you walk into a nice, clean office every morning to start your day off right

• The coffee shop barista who knows your drink without you ordering it – and knows you’re in a hurry to get to your next appointment.

• A spouse who understands your hectic schedule and supports your dreams

Most of us have the intention to acknowledge those deserving of it, but we get caught up in the hustle and bustle of the day, and acknowledgements take a back seat. In the spirit of awards season, take a moment to stop, reflect and thank. Don’t worry about having a gift, simply say the words to let them know what they do makes a difference.

How Much Are Broken Promises Costing You?

cstanley@salesleadershipdevelopment.com (Colleen Stanley) — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 17:51:00 +0000

In the latest issue of Westword, there is an article about a woman who was the victim of a terrible car accident, in which her insurance company dropped her coverage after finding a loop-hole so they wouldn’t have to pay. This got me thinking about honoring agreements and doing what you say.

We’ve all done it – committed to something that we later regret. It happens in our work lives and our personal lives. Do you ALWAYS want to go to your niece’s play on a Saturday when you have a million other things to do? Do you have ALWAYS want to stay at the office until 8pm to get a proposal out because you overextended yourself that day and said it wouldn’t be a problem? The person on the other side of your promise doesn’t care how it gets done or how much you’ve overextended…they only care that you do what you say you would.

Sales is all about trust. If you do not do what you say, even on the smallest of promises, your deal is killed. An example of this would be “I’ll call you back in 10 minutes.” If it’s 20 minutes later and you make that call, the prospect has gotten a small taste of distrust and will be likely to carry that throughout the entire courtship. When you say your company has 24-hour call response does that actually mean 9pm – 5pm call response? When you say there’s always a live customer service agent available does that really mean the wait time is 30 minutes to speak with that agent?

A way to make sure you follow-through on your promises is to be realistic when making them. If you’ve had back-to-back appointments all day, do you really think you will be any shape to come back to the office at 7pm and start working on a proposal? Yes, some can do this without any problems, but are you that person? Know your limitations. If you do not, your work will suffer, and you will lose business.

In the case of the insurance company that dropped their client, they would have paid $200,000 in medical expenses had they simply honored their agreement. Instead, they paid $37 million due to a judgment in the court of law. How much are broken promises costing you?

The Sales Olympics - Three Ways to Win the Gold

cstanley@salesleadershipdevelopment.com (Colleen Stanley) — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 15:44:00 +0000

All across the world, people are glued to the TV watching the Winter Olympics. The attraction to the Olympics is universal. Spectators are addicted to “the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.” “The Games” serve as a fertile ground for teaching sales teams how to win. There are many learning points and below are three to discuss with your team:

1. Do the Work

It’s a good thing our athletes didn’t subscribe to the hours of work suggested in the book, “The Four Hour Work Week” by Timothy Ferris. I’m pretty sure mastery at this level isn’t accomplished by practicing just four hours a week.

The biggest takeaway sales teams can learn from top athletes is the allocation of time; They invest more time practicing than performing. They invest hours in preparing for five minutes of glory on the ice or snow. They are masters of the emotional intelligence skill delayed gratification. They are willing to do the work in order to reap the reward. Unfortunately, most salespeople don’t invest enough time in practice. In fact, their practice sessions are often conducted in front of prospects. (And sales managers wonder why close ratios aren’t better!)

Give this quiz to your sales team today to determine level of mastery:

· Please give me your value proposition for this buyer in this industry.

· What’s a common problem your prospects have? What are the questions to quantify the cost of the problem?

· Throw out a common objection and listen to the answer given by your sales team.

Are the answers worthy of a bronze, silver or gold?

2. Mindset – “It ain’t over ‘til it’s over.”

Johnny Spillane, Steamboat, Colorado resident and member of the Nordic Combined Unites States Olympic Team, looked like he was set to take the gold until Jason Chappuls from France edged him out by four tenths of a second. Johnny gave his best throughout the event, and ended up just short in the last seconds. (I think he just ran out of gas.)

How many of us in sales have given up before crossing the finish line because we are tired and/or the competitor is in the lead? Closing business is as much about selling skills as it mindset. When you have lost a piece of business, can you look yourself in the mirror and say, “I gave 150%. I engaged until the very end.”

3. Mastery – “Good is the enemy of great.”

This quote by Jim Collins nicely sums up the type of athletes showing up at the Olympics. They don’t have the luxury of being good because good doesn’t earn them a seat on the Olympic team. Olympic athletes are masterful. They invest thousands of hours in practice and being coached.

“Sales Olympians” possess the same qualities and mindset because they know today’s business environment is competitive and good is not good enough to win business. Great is now entry to the game of sales. Is your sales team good or great?

Enjoy the 2010 Winter Olympics. It is a great tutorial in building high performance sales teams.

Want to Make More Money? Quit Multitasking and Concentrate

cstanley@salesleadershipdevelopment.com (Colleen Stanley) — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 22:48:00 +0000

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?

2010 Sales Success: The Non-Sexy Way to Grow Sales

cstanley@salesleadershipdevelopment.com (Colleen Stanley) — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 16:49:00 +0000

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

The Law of Sales Attraction: Cultures that Attract Top Producers

cstanley@salesleadershipdevelopment.com (Colleen Stanley) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 15:25:00 +0000

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.

Great sales producers don't always make great sales managers

cstanley@salesleadershipdevelopment.com (Colleen Stanley) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:20:00 +0000

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

Need a Lesson in Management? Take it Back to the Farm

cstanley@salesleadershipdevelopment.com (Colleen Stanley) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 20:01:00 +0000

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.

Sales and the Financial Hangover

cstanley@salesleadershipdevelopment.com (Colleen Stanley) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 15:32:00 +0000

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™

Patience is Key Young Sales Grasshopper

cstanley@salesleadershipdevelopment.com (Colleen Stanley) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 21:56:00 +0000

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.

It's Half Time: What's in your Sales Playbook?

cstanley@salesleadershipdevelopment.com (Colleen Stanley) — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 16:16:00 +0000

Fall is in the air which means it’s time for football season. The sport of football brings rituals, excitement and of course, the term half-time. Many a football team has been down at the half only to recover in the second and third quarter because of the pep talk and strategy discussion in the locker room.

What’s the score looking like for your company and what can you, as the coach do, to insure a year end touchdown: 3 important things to consider:

1. It’s all about the people. Get on the sales bus and look at the people in the seats. Then ask yourself 4 questions:

- If I had to do it again, would I hire this salesperson?
- Do I have a strong ‘bench’ that is able to go in and play ball in case of injury? (i.e. termination)
- Does this sales team possess the talent, work ethic and attitude to take the company where it needs to be in three years?
- Do I have a team or a bunch of individual players?

2. Bad behavior does not occur in a vacuum. Look at your compensation plan.

Is your comp plan rewarding good behavior and de-incentivizing bad behavior? My early lessons in sales and business were with a startup company that eventually went public and is still very successful today.

In many startup organizations, there is a natural reward and consequence system in place because they are boot strapped and not heavily funded. The reward and consequence system is simple: produce or you’re gone. It isn’t because the management team is heartless. It’s because a startup doesn’t have the luxury of carrying non-producers.

How many of you are still rewarding salespeople who are not producing or selling the right lines of products and services? Here’s the new reality going forward: your sales team must be better than they were three years ago. Do you have the right people on the sales bus and is your compensation plan rewarding the right behaviors and attitudes?

3. Look at yourself, the sales coach. Would you follow you? Are you leading by example?

- When is the last time you attended a workshop on leadership? Running effective meetings? Performance feedback?
- Do you motivate your sales team by fear or by buy-in?
- Are you doing a good job of duplicating top performers and performance? (If you’re still closing the business, you are in sales, not sales management.)
- Is your sales culture one of results or excuses?
- Do you have a defined, consultative sales process in place?
- Are you hitting the fun quota and the sales quota?

It’s only half-time. Take a look at your players and playbook. You’re only 50 yards away from a touchdown.

Good Selling,

Colleen Stanley
President and Chief Selling Officer

The Gift of Truth Telling

cstanley@salesleadershipdevelopment.com (Colleen Stanley) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 18:37:00 +0000

One of the nicest Christmas cards I've ever gotten was from a former colleague I will call Joan.

At one time, she was brilliant in her profession. Unfortunately, due to an illness, Joan wasn't able to recapture her former level of excellence. The problem was that no one was willing to tell Joan.

She continued to get hired -- and six months later, get fired. Friends kept telling Joan to continue her pursuit, declaring she was still qualified. I finally pulled Joan aside and gently explained that life isn't fair. It wasn't fair that Joan was sick, not recovering and unable to execute with her former flair.

I also shared with Joan that she wasn't being fair to herself. By going after the same positions, she was setting herself up for failure. It wasn't fair; however, it was the truth.

The Christmas card I received in 2003 thanked me for being understanding and upfront with her. In Joan's words, she thanked me for being a "truth teller" when others weren't.

I often have thought more sales teams would be more productive, be more genuine and close more sales if they would just learn to be truth-tellers.

Here are just a couple of examples:

Example A -- The prospect asks you to put together a proposal. The salesperson hasn't heard any dissatisfaction with the prospect's current vendor.

Truth-telling response: "Mr. Prospect, I would be happy to put a recommendation together for you. However, I haven't heard any reasons why you would need to leave your current supplier. They seem to be giving you excellent service, fair pricing and are good at anticipating your needs. What am I missing?"

Isn't this the truth? Why should the prospect switch? Why should you spend hours on a proposal for a prospect with no problems?

Example B -- The prospect asks you to put together a recommendation but won't allow you to speak with other decision-makers. The salesperson knows input from other members of the organization is necessary.

Truth-telling response: "Mr. Prospect, I am going to decline turning in a recommendation. I can turn in a proposal; however, without input from the rest of the team, the proposal will be insufficient and miss hitting all company objectives."

Isn't this the truth? Missing data equals poor solution.

The above examples sound simple. So why is truth-telling hard on a sales call?

Salespeople are afraid of the truth. We don't want to hear the prospect is happy and satisfied because that means we may have to go out and find a new prospect. It's more comfortable spending time and energy creating proposals than creating new relationships.

There is lack of conviction in our sales process. For example, a good surgeon goes into surgery with the correct instruments, technology and nursing staffing. They don't compromise or skip steps. They have a process for surgery.

Good salespeople need to be just as convicted in their sales process and not compromise or skip steps. They need to be truthful with prospects about their process for doing a "sales diagnostic" in order to provide an effective recommendation.

Truth-telling doesn't stop with sales and sales calls. It extends to sales management and leadership roles. I have had good mentors in my business and sales career. Many of these mentors were truth-tellers holding up a mirror to my weaknesses.

One such mentor was Kline Boyd, my former boss. He was a gracious, Southern gentleman. I was a young, brazen Midwesterner climbing the corporate ladder. More than once, Kline pulled me aside, pointed out how my direct style offended others, suggested I slow down and reminded me to treat others the way I wanted to be treated.

Did I always like truth-telling? No. Did truth-telling make me grow as a person and professional? Yes. Truth-telling is a great gift.

So why don't more leaders engage in truth-telling?

It's not always comfortable and may create conflict. Many people equate conflict with hostility and anger. What most people don't understand is that a relationship with any depth to it probably has experienced some kind of conflict. (Anyone reading this article married?) Conflict often provides an opportunity for introspection, growth and change.

Truth-telling isn't a popularity contest. I strongly believe the sales manager's main role is to develop and grow people, both personally and professionally. That growth may come from teaching a salesperson how to work on a team to being more effective on a sales call to developing good work habits.

It may not be easy to tell the truth about someone's attitude, lack of sales skill or poor time-management skills. But keep in mind you may be the first sales manager to tell this salesperson the truth. You may be the first sales manager who cared enough about the salesperson to confront him or her with the reality of the situation. You may be the first sales manager who is helping this salesperson grow.

Truth-telling is a great gift. It's free. Pass it on.

Sales Jail: The Golden Handcuff Syndrome

cstanley@salesleadershipdevelopment.com (Colleen Stanley) — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 15:54:00 +0000

They are top producers and rainmakers. They are also carriers of Golden Handcuff Syndrome. Golden Handcuff Syndrome (GHS) occurs when a top sales producer handcuffs the sales manager and holds the company hostage. Hostage situations vary. The Golden Handcuff salesperson may not honor company mission statements, follow process, complete reports or participate in meetings. All of that is for other members of the sales team, not them. They might also dump work on other departments.

So why do companies keep GHS salespeople? There are many reasons. Here are a couple:

It's lonely at the top.

The vice president of sales and/or CEO is the driving force behind the vision of a sales organization. They are charged with looking to the future and making the changes needed to keep the company competitive, viable and healthy. Sometimes the problem is that no one else sees or shares the vision. There is pushback, the leader is alone in their conviction and self-doubt sets in. This is when sales leaders are tested to hold firm to their vision and convictions.

I can think of two examples of great leaders holding firm to their convictions.

The first is Jack Welch. In his book, "Straight From The Gut," he tells the story of changing the GE culture to a boundaryless environment, in which the team is placed ahead of individual ego, and leaders are encouraged to share the credit for ideas with their teams rather than take full credit themselves.

Welch was convinced this type of culture was necessary for success in a global economy. He started the initiative in 1990. Expectations were set, education provided and compensation plans rewarded managers who grew boundaryless environments. Welch let go of five corporate officers in 1992. One was removed for numbers. The other four were asked to go because they didn't practice GE values of a boundaryless environment.

I'm sure it was tempting for Welch to keep these top executives because they were hitting their numbers. Instead, he honored his convictions, and the rest is history. GE revenues went from $70 billion in 1995 to $130 billion in 2000.

The second example is football coach Lou Holtz. While at Notre Dame, he benched two top players before a crucial game with the University of Southern California. The reason: They were consistently late for practice, which disrupted the rest of the team. After numerous warnings, reprimands and lectures, Holtz honored his conviction of not making short-term decisions that can jeopardize long-term gains. Holtz knew he was building a team and a culture.

Again, the rest is history. Holtz led the Fighting Irish to a national championship.

Measuring top line, not bottom line.

Here is an example from the world of manufacturing and distribution. The Golden Handcuff (GH) producer dumps work and responsibility onto other departments in the company. Orders are missing information. (They manage so much volume they can't possibly pay attention to detail.) Customer service is charged with following up with the client to get missing information, complete the order, touch base with the GH rep to inform him of changes and work overtime to catch up on work not completed because they were playing executive assistant to the GH rep.

The problem with this scenario is two-fold.

The first is profit. While the GH rep may be hitting top-line dollars, the dumping of their work and responsibility affects the bottom line. Customer orders are delayed because of missing information. The warehouse is expediting the order overnight because of delays caused by the front end. A discount is given to the customer to keep them happy after the delay. Is the GH rep helping or hurting the bottom line?

The second problem is a morale issue. Each salesperson is paid to perform a role, which carries accountabilities and responsibilities. How does a sales manager justify the customer service representative being the executive assistant for one rep (initials: GH) and not other top-producing reps? How does the sales manager justify paying the same compensation plan when the GH rep is not fulfilling his responsibilities while other top producers are doing so?

Reward and consequence programs are one of the most effective ways to cure Golden Handcuff Syndrome. Such programs are easy to discuss but often hard to implement. Many sales organizations have a reward program, but few have put in a consequence one.

Here's a simple formula for setting up such a program. (Remember, your personal conviction may be the biggest obstacle to implementing this program.)

Define high performance for your sales team (type of customer, margin, activity, values, process). Reward high performance through compensation, recognition, incentives and perks. Deter poor performance through decreased compensation, recognition, incentives and perks. Call a peer for encouragement when your conviction starts wavering because the GH rep is threatening to leave and take away business.

Sales team realizes you are serious. Top producers not suffering from Golden Handcuff Syndrome enjoy being rewarded for their efforts, thank you and start producing more. Enjoy your new sales culture -- one that ensures a profitable future for your company. Pat yourself on the back and congratulate yourself for breaking out of sales jail.

PS. Stay tuned for SalesLeadership's new EI Sales Management Program launching in January 2010!

Are You Hitting the Fun Quota?

cstanley@salesleadershipdevelopment.com (Colleen Stanley) — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 20:58:00 +0000

Sales gurus spend much of their time showing sales teams and managers how to prospect, build relationships, close more business and lead more effectively. The purpose is to at least reach the ultimate goal: the sales quota. But often, we may forget an important component of this process that can motivate a sales force to achieve even more than expected. We forget that sales can also be fun.

I believe -- and have proven -- you don't have to sacrifice the fun quota to hit the sales quota. Here are several reasons you should want to achieve the fun quota at your company:

Put problems in perspective.
A few years ago, I was vice president of sales and marketing for a large manufacturing and distribution company. We periodically had trouble with production and distribution, attempting to keep up with annual growth of nearly 30 percent. One year, we did a particularly fine job of filling few orders on time because of process inefficiencies and the inadequate size of our warehouse. Our sales force was rightfully frustrated and upset. The national sales meeting was coming up, and I realized it could be the appropriate time and venue to address the attitude and morale problem.

It was time for a fun strategy.

Prior to the meeting, the company solved the order-filling issues by improving the technology and expanding the warehouse. So the reason for the sales force unhappiness was eliminated.
I could've opened the meeting by delivering a stoic speech on warehouse improvements and assuring my team of better days ahead. But I knew these people, and I understood they needed that little extra boost to get them re-energized and ready to sell again.

So I opened the meeting with a lively animated video of me stuffed into a small shipping container, leading them on a tour of the new and improved warehouse, with all its added amenities designed to help them fulfill their promises. The group cheered, laughed and, ultimately, went back to their respective territories to surpass even more sales goals.

Walk the talk when it comes to innovation.
You can't just tell people you're different. You must be different. We all have relentlessly pursued those elusive top prospects or dissatisfied clients who, regardless of what we do or say, we just can't seem to close the deal or bring them back. This is where a fun strategy replaces some of the high-level strategy.

A few years ago, a client of mine acquired one of its competitors. The clients of the acquired competitor were absorbed by the existing sales team. Unfortunately, some of these clients didn't like being absorbed and were refusing to speak with their newly appointed sales representatives.
It was time for a fun strategy.

In a brainstorming session, we came up with off-the-wall strategies to placate the disillusioned customers. One sales representative showed up to an appointment with a bull's-eye pinned on her jacket. Another rep who had trouble getting the first appointment showed up with ice cream cones at the front desk. Upset customers laughed -- breaking the ice -- and greeted their new representatives. New relationships started.

Have fun with failure and learn.
How many of you are tired of hearing: "You learn more from your failures than your successes. Don't take failure personally."?

Then why aren't we talking about these failures? Legends are built at great companies by sharing these stories and laughing at them. It's important to remember where we have failed and what we have learned, and enjoy a chuckle or two along the way.

I've shared several of my failure stories from my early years in business with clients. One of my favorites is about the struggle I had in learning how to create real pain and impact on a sales call.
Early in my career, I had an appointment in which I was committed to finding a prospect's "pain." In fact, I wasn't leaving until I found it. Well, I created pain, all right. After a three-hour meeting, the prospect escorted me out the door, informing me he was diabetic and could no longer wait to eat.

In so many words, he informed me I was a bigger pain than any problem he had just shared with me during our half-day sales call. Not my finest moment; however, I learned more that day than I could have learned in a dozen easy sales calls.

Business owners and sales managers: If you aren't sharing your war stories or providing a forum for fun and failure as well as success, you are sending an unspoken message that failure isn't OK unless you are the author of a motivational book.

When was the last time you actually had fun developing and implementing a sales plan?

It's time for fun strategy.

Why Impact Sales Training May Have No Impact at All

cstanley@salesleadershipdevelopment.com (Colleen Stanley) — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 22:30:00 +0000

Billions of dollars are spent on sales training each year. About 10 percent of the information imparted by knowledgeable trainers and consultants is retained and applied to the real world. The intent of the company is usually good, to invest in its greatest asset: its people. So why isn't your sales training program giving you a greater return on investment?

Reason No. 1: Ignorance with good intent.
Many of you may be like me. I grew up in the world of impact training. At my previous company, we would bring in a crew of 20 salespeople for two weeks. We would start sales training at 8 a.m. sharp and break at 6 p.m. After two weeks of intense training, we would send new hires back into the field. Then we would wonder why the new recruits couldn't remember all the great information from their impact training.

Step out of the sales world for a moment. Have you ever watched an expert in their field perform, such as a musician, artist or athlete? I dare you to ask this expert if they learned their craft at a one-day seminar or two-week training program. Chances are they would look at you in disbelief, laugh and think you were joking.

Sales organizations want to be treated as professionals, yet, often don't do what true professionals do to become an expert in their fields. Instead, sales organizations hold one-day sales training workshops and expect the team to learn, retain, change and apply new information.

The fix: Go back to basics. For example, you learned some of the most useful things as a child. After all these years, you are able to retrieve grade school information and deliver it on a moment's notice. That is the power of reinforcement, ongoing education and training.
Organizations serious about creating permanent change need to be well-versed in the adult learning model, which focuses on how adults learn instead of what they learn.

"Training fails because trainers and organizations do not understand how the adult brain processes information," said Pam Gordon, president of Pam Gordon and Associates, which teaches companies how to better train their employees using adult learning methods.
She says that for the knowledge to really take, "participants need to engage in a minimum of seven practice sets over 21 days to make sure the information has been stored and can be retrieved."

Reason No. 2: No training focus on beliefs and attitudes.
Let's say a company has invested time and money in a sales training program. Its sales team is talking the same language and has a process that can be duplicated, and the sales tactics are sound. So why isn't the salesperson out prospecting, calling the "C" suite and talking money before presenting any type of solution?

It could be because the sales training program didn't cover the driving force behind any successful person: their self-confidence. The salesperson is either intimidated or doesn't feel worthy to make the call. Unless the true issue is addressed, no sales tactic or plan ever will be executed.

The fix: Make sure you are working on the right end of the problem. When a salesperson has learned the knowledge, can apply it in a practice set but still doesn't do what is needed in the real world, you have a conceptual roadblock to deal with versus a technical roadblock. Unfortunately, sales managers and trainers keep throwing more product knowledge and skill training at the salesperson, when the real focus of coaching should be on building their self-confidence when calling on people of power and authority.

Reason No. 3: Sales manager or firefighter?
Companies hire sales managers and turn them into operations managers. The manager is busy putting on a firefighting hat, filling out reports or attending endless meetings when they should be in the field training and coaching their sales team.

Neil Rackham, author of "Major Account Selling," conducted a study of 1,000 salespeople. Sales teams involved in a consistent, ongoing coaching program generated 17 percent more revenue than the uncoached sales team.

The fix: Change the job description and accountabilities of the sales manager to reflect what is really important in their position: coaching their team. There is only one way sales skill levels grow: through consistent reinforcement, feedback on performance and practice. Sales training works only when three ingredients are present: A sales training program that works (outside of the classroom), commitment from the participants to learn and practice, and reinforcement by the sales management team.

To be effective as coaches, sales managers must incorporate the adult learning model into their training program and learn new skills associated with training and coaching. These are very different than the selling skills that often get a person promoted into sales management.
Knowledge is power only when it can be applied.

Good Selling,

Colleen Stanley

The Sales Jury: The Top 3 Skills to Win Your Business Case

cstanley@salesleadershipdevelopment.com (Colleen Stanley) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 22:01:00 +0000

What do sales and law have in common? Not enough. I am married to a prosecutor, and the more I learn about his business, the more I realize how much the sales profession can learn from the legal profession.

What would happen if we adapted best practices from law to sales? What would happen if your sales team had to present its latest proposal to a sales jury of 12? Would the sales jury determine, beyond reasonable doubt, that there is enough evidence from the prospect to:

Determine if the problem presented by the prospect is a big enough problem to fix?
Invest time and money in fixing the problem?
Make necessary changes to go to the next level?

If your answers are no, you may be open to learning about skills taught in Sales Prosecution 101.

Skill No. 1: Skepticism
Trial lawyers are trained in gathering information. They are trained to question everything twice. An investigator brings a case to a prosecutor. The prosecutor questions the investigator. The police department brings a case to a prosecutor. The prosecutor questions the police force.
Why? They are making sure the evidence presented is solid, without holes.

Salespeople by nature are not skeptical. They are trusting and optimistic. When the prospect throws out a problem, the salesperson automatically believes them. They start buying "the buying signal." As a result, they stop questioning, start believing and begin presenting solutions to a prospect that hasn't produced enough evidence the problem is big enough to fix. The result: No conviction, no close.

Sales managers can help their team develop this skeptical mindset by being skeptical. Ask:

Why do you believe this is a big enough problem for the prospect to fix?
What happens if the prospect doesn't fix the problem?
How much is the problem costing them? Today? In one year?
Why are they looking to solve the problem now?

Skill No. 2: Critical thinking skills
Prior to marrying a prosecutor, I thought law school was all about learning the law. I since have learned it's more about learning to think and apply knowledge. The information age requires that the sales force of the future possess critical-thinking skills.

In the old days of selling, salespeople were valued because of their product knowledge. Today, product knowledge is viewed as a commodity. The Web has made it easy to access information at a low cost.

Prospects need and value sales consultants who take a plethora of information, create a new solution and help them look at their business from a 360-degree view. In other words, they are looking for a trusted adviser relationship, not a sales relationship.

Sales managers help develop critical-thinking skills and trusted adviser relationships by asking their sales team to focus on big-picture questions vs. problem-focused questions. A trusted adviser knows the following about their prospect:

Best customer profile.
Trends in the industry.
Biggest competition; new players on the horizon.
Marketing strategy.
Products or services providing the greatest growth for the future.
How it is positioning itself in the market.

Skill No. 3: Seek the truth
Prosecutors will ask the questions, apply critical-thinking skills and seek the truth. If a prosecutor discovers there is not enough evidence or proof to take the case to trial, they don't.
The sales profession has a reputation of not caring about prospects and trying to sell at all costs. The salesperson earns this reputation by presenting proposals when there isn't enough evidence the problem is big enough to solve, or trying to sell a solution that is not the company's expertise, such as sales trainers teaching time management.

Sales managers can grow the integrity of their team by coaching the salesperson to "call it." If there is not enough evidence being shared by the prospect, seek the truth. Be up front with your prospects and state, "I am not hearing enough reasons for you to switch. What am I missing?"
Or, "I have to be up front with you. It sounds like you need this. That is not our specialty. I will be happy to refer you to someone that can serve you better."

You may lose the sale today, but you will build a relationship forever. Be skeptical, develop your critical-thinking skills and seek the truth. Your team will uncover more evidence and better evidence, and prove beyond reasonable doubt your solution is the best.

For your next sales meeting, schedule an evening watching "Law and Order." It could be your best sales training class to date.

Good Selling,

Colleen Stanley, Chief Selling Officer

Top 3 Lessons in Athletics that Contribute to Sales Success

cstanley@salesleadershipdevelopment.com (Colleen Stanley) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 22:30:00 +0000

We have sent men and women to the moon and we can e-mail across the world. So why can't we figure out how to manage and lead sales teams? One word: process. Most companies operate without integrating three key processes needed for building high performance sales teams:
1. A hiring process.
2. A sales process.
3. A management process.

I often use (and overuse) athletic analogies to make my point in building high-performance sales teams. I believe the world of athletics has done a better job of establishing and using processes in building top-performing teams than business has in building top-performing sales teams.
Let's examine the three processes.

Recruiting (hiring):
Top sports coaches are disciplined in their approach to building teams. They have determined their "need to have" versus "nice to have" criteria. For example, my nephew plays pro football for the Carolina Panthers. While Bruce was in college, the scouts were not willing to sign him until they were convinced that he could reach 300 pounds. Bruce was a great player, which was nice. However, the NFL is disciplined about its need to have 300-pound players.

Many owners and sales managers have not determined the "need to have" for excellence on their teams. Do you need someone with a finance background? Do you need someone who has built a sales territory from scratch? Do you need someone who thrives on new business development versus account maintenance?

Sales managers often settle for nice instead of need. The result can be mediocrity -- not a great strategy for growing companies. Be disciplined when identifying your "need to have" in building your sales team:

1. Hard skills - If you are selling a highly technical product, you may need to have someone that possesses the technical knowledge in order to succeed in your business. You may need someone with major account-selling experience due to your customer profile.

2. Competencies - Identify key competencies needed for this specific position. A highly competitive territory may need a person with tenacity, resilience and initiative. An established territory may need high relationship attributes.

3. Behavior style - Determine the type needed at this time in your company. Do you need a salesperson with a high sense of urgency or one who will work at an even, steady pace?

Playbook (sales process):
"I didn't hire a rookie. I expect them to know how to sell." The is second area of breakdown in building high-performance sales teams: no sales playbook or expectations for sales excellence.
What would happen if Broncos Head Coach Mike Shanahan allowed each of his players to run his own playbook? There would be a lot of running around, with few touchdowns.

It looks the same in business. Sales representatives are running around, calling on unqualified prospects and not accomplishing the goal. Because a sports team has a playbook, coaches can look at post-game films and determine what plays worked, where breakdowns occurred and what to focus on in practice.

Without a sales playbook, the sales manager doesn't know where the sales representative needs to improve or what part of the sales process is not working. A sales process that worked five years ago may not work today.

If sales managers want to build high-performance teams, they must take time to document the company's sales process. This may be a four-step or a 10-step process, depending on the industry and product. Creating a template of a sales process can often take a full day of brainstorming with your team. You must identify and start building best practices in three key areas: activity, knowledge and skills.

What is the activity needed to build and grow business? What are the necessary steps in the sales process? What knowledge is needed for effective client management? If you are not willing to document, be ready to settle for a lot of running around with few touchdowns.

Coaching (sales management):
Training and coaching skills are essential to growing people and teams. Sales managers often get stuck in their manager role and spend too little time in their training and coaching roles. This is the equivalent of a sports coach spending time in his office during basketball practice.
Sports coaches are excellent at having a playbook and making sure their teams execute it. They accomplish this through drills, practice and more practice. They understand that top-performing teams know the plays so well, they can execute without thinking.

Sales managers often receive pushback from their teams when it comes to running practice and drills, i.e. role playing. The excuse given by the team and accepted by the sales manager is "it is not real."

My response is the same: "Neither is basketball practice, but it is as close as you are going to get to the real thing. Stop practicing in front of your prospects." Start running practice sessions with your sales team. Managing numbers and dealing with operation issues are important. However, I haven't seen a sales team improve skills from either of those areas.

Practice sessions can be held at sales meetings, one-on-one coaching sessions or field coaching during a sales call. The point is to let your team know that yours is a culture of continuous learning and improvement. After all, NFL players show up every day for practice, and they have been playing football for years.

Hire the right stuff, build a sales playbook and coach your team to the next sales Super Bowl.

Good Selling,

Colleen Stanley
Cheif Selling Officer, SalesLeadership, Inc.

The Top Three Sales Mistakes Made that Lead to Price Shopping

cstanley@salesleadershipdevelopment.com (Colleen Stanley) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 17:48:00 +0000

“My sales team is getting price shopped. The only way we get the business is to give a discount. Margins are eroding.” All of these statements are pains expressed in good times and bad. The current recession has added pressure to these pain points, testing even the most seasoned sales professional.

So how do you get beyond the price game? First, quit blaming external factors. Jim Collins, author of “How the Mighty Fall,” identified that companies in Stage 3 of failure blame other people or external factors rather than confront the frightening reality that the organization might be in serious trouble due to their own denial. The reality is your sales team might be the problem, not the economy. Here are three areas to examine, confront and change:

1. The Sales Activity Plan
This is all the activity that leads to an appointment. Many organizations make the mistake of measuring appointments, not activity, and end up working on a lagging indicator which often leads to empty sales pipelines. Put a number to each specific sales activity so your team knows if they are winning or losing; i.e. 4 networking events per month, 6 influence meetings, 5 introductions given for referral partners and clients. Empty pipelines always lead to desperation and discounting. The more robust the sales pipeline, the easier it is to execute good selling and negotiation skills. Oscar-winning actor Denzel Washington shares what his Dad once told him, “Do the work so you can do the work you want.” Sales professionals still winning business at full margin have consistently done the work for years.

2. Does your organization deserve the business?
When is the last time you have done business with your company? I heard Diane LaSalle, author of ‘Priceless’, speak two years ago. She shared the case study of a spa that engaged her firm to help improve new and repeat business. Diane’s firm set out to determine if the spa deserved the business and documented every step of the customer experience with the spa. The first disconnect they noted was the difficulty in finding the spa. The sign was hidden and her team drove by it six times. (What do you think the frustration level is for the typical customer trying to get to their appointment on time?) The second disconnect came when checking in for their luxury appointment. The counters were extremely high, requiring most women to get on their tip toes to even make eye contact with the receptionist. Getting the picture? At your next sales meeting, run through a detailed discussion of each step of your sales process and rate the client experience on a scale of 1 – 10. Confront the reality. Would you do business with your organization at full price?

3. Your Teams' Ability to Persuade, Influence and Negotiate
Many sales managers make the mistake of focusing their time and energy on training sales skills. Then the salesperson gets in front of a professionally trained negotiator and buckles like a paper cup. The reason is not lack of knowledge. The reason is the salesperson’s mindset.

My first negotiation workshop was over 15 years ago. The number one thing I took away from the instructor was: “If you can’t walk, you can’t talk.” (By the way, it’s easier to walk with a full sales pipeline.) The instructor’s point was that you must be mentally ready for negotiations before any skill training has meaning. Mindset means checking into your sales team’s value of themselves or your services. You can’t give away something you don’t have. If a salesperson doesn’t feel they are of value, why should the prospect?

Once the proper mindset is in place, focus on skill training. Salespeople have a bad habit of trying to convince the prospect of the value of solving the problem. Stop! Put the responsibility of solving the problem on the prospect. People believe their own data and a good salesperson facilitates that type of sales conversation. “What value is the organization putting on solving this issue? Is solving this issue in the top five priorities for the company? What happens if we are having this same conversation in a year?

Take a hard look at the sales activity plan. Ask the tough question: do we really deserve the business? Get the right mindset and skill set to sell beyond price.

Examine and confront the reality. Is it the economy or your sales team?

Good Selling!

Colleen Stanley
CSO – Chief Selling Officer

PS. Pick up Jim Collin’s new book. It’s a good read.

Go for the Green $$ - Don't Miss the Recovery

cstanley@salesleadershipdevelopment.com (Colleen Stanley) — Tue, 19 May 2009 18:28:00 +0000

The pundits and economists are predicting we are near the bottom of one of the deepest recessions since the depression. One good thing about the bottom is that there is only one other direction: up. How well positioned are you and your sales team for taking advantage of the recovery? Some economists are predicting that it could take four to five years before we are ‘back to where we were.’ What does that mean to sales managers and sales teams? It means upgrading the sales team, getting creative and taking exceptional care of customers.

#1: Check Your Sales Bus:

The much quoted phrase from Jim Collins, author of ‘Good to Great,’ still holds true. “Get the right people on the bus in the right seats.” Getting the right salespeople on the team means looking at two emotional intelligence skills necessary for success in tough, competitive environments.

Flexibility is defined as the ability to adapt to unfamiliar, unpredictable and dynamic circumstances. (Does any of this sound like the last nine months?)

The internet, global economy and Sales 2.0 have created buying environments that are fast-paced and ever changing. Alvin Toffler says it best: “The illiterate of the future are not those who can’t read or write but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.” How adaptable is your sales team? How good is your sales manager at spotting new trends in the industry and quickly adapting strategy and tactics? The salesperson of the future must be flexible and have the ability to change course.

Impulse Control is defined as the ability to delay an impulse, drive or temptation to act.

Salespeople scoring low in this area often exhibit high levels of frustration. This is a problem in business environments where buyers have been burned, are cautious, and taking longer to make decisions. The easily frustrated salesperson may not invest the appropriate time in building relationships and trust. Low impulse control shows up in prospecting as well. If there is no immediate pay-off, the easily frustrated salesperson quits doing the activity and blames lack of results on the marketing department.

#2: Innovate and Renovate:

Sales teams poised to capture the recovery are done mourning the good ‘ole days. They are creating the new days by figuring out creative ways to close business. The Denver Post recently ran an article on a group of innovative realtors. These realtors changed up the old concept of an open house. One realtor partnered with an art gallery to create a gallery in one of his listings. Another held a charity event at one of her listings. Still another threw a tailgate party at one of his properties. They all used innovative ways to drive traffic to their listing.

Take time to study other industries. Brick and mortar companies can learn a lot from the e-commerce stores in the way of innovation. Zappo’s, an online shoe store, is a brilliant example of innovation. They advertise where they have a ‘captured’ audience: the security line at the airport. There is a Zappo’s advertisement at the bottom of the gray tub where you deposit shoes that are killing your feet after a long day of business. Then you go to the website and find that they address the two biggest e-commerce objections by stating: Free shipping both ways and returns 365 days a year.

Where is a new place that you could place your marketing message? What is the unspoken objection in your business and how are you eliminating it? It’s time to innovate and renovate.

#3: Send a love note to your clients: (okay, a thank you or appreciation note)

There is a great article in the May issue of Selling Power where they interview the CEO of the New Jersey Nets, Brett Yormack. He has taken an under performing franchise and turned it into one of the few that have sold 2,000 full season sponsorships three years in a row. Innovation is one of the reasons as well as exceptional care of the client. On Fan Appreciation Night, the New Jersey turnpike tolls at the stadium exit were paid for by the team for one hour. A nice way of saying thanks to the fans.

I recently experienced the extra mile with a store, The Pine Creek Clothing Company. I made a small purchase, a sweater, which was placed in a lovely canvas bag. The friendly clerk then handed me a water bottle noticing it was a hot day outside. One week later a handwritten note (yes, handwritten) arrived thanking me for my business. I have spent thousands of dollars on vehicles, sound equipment and other stuff with no note acknowledging the exchange of cash. Guess who is getting my repeat business?

Go green and capture the recovery with top salespeople, innovation and client care.

Good Selling,

Colleen Stanley
Chief Selling Officer

Three ways to get out of the objection game

cstanley@salesleadershipdevelopment.com (Colleen Stanley) — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 17:00:00 +0000

A common request heard in the sales training business is, “Can you teach my sales team to overcome objections?” The answer is yes and no. Old sales training methodology preached a salesperson must overcome objections at least three to seven times on a sales call. Doesn’t that sound exhausting? It’s no wonder prospects won’t tell us the truth! Here are some ways to get out of the objection game and into the sales conversation game.

#1: Bring up the objection before the prospect does. You and your team know the objections because you talk about them at every sales meeting. For example, a prospect may be able to do what you offer internally. I.e. Marketing or IT. Isn’t it good common sense to bring the topic up and ask: Why don't you just use your internal team? When the salesperson brings up the objection, the truth starts surfacing and real dialogue begins. That’s when you have smart, meaningful conversations with prospects.

#2: Clarify. Is it a statement or an objection? Many salespeople hear the words, ‘this is more of an investment than I anticipated.’ That’s not an objection, it’s a statement. The well trained salesperson simply clarifies by asking, ‘meaning’ knowing the prospect will fill in the rest of the sentence. When we give the prospect a chance, it usually sounds like this. ‘Meaning… it’s more than I anticipated, however, well worth the investment.’

#3: Quit pushing. I am still amazed at the number of salespeople who think they can convince a person to do something. If a person had that kind of power, we’d all be eating five helpings of vegetables a day, exercising weekly and getting eight hours of sleep. What a salesperson can do is facilitate good questions that helps the prospect discover what decision is best for him/her. Questions such as:

Let’s look at all sides. What is the cost of doing nothing?
Is the problem going to stay the same or get bigger?
What is your biggest competitor doing about the problem?

Stop overcoming objections. It’s tiring for both you and the prospect.

Good Selling!

Colleen Stanley
Chief Selling Officer

Check out our Prospecting Workshop on February 12, 2009. We will be providing you the best of Sales 2.0., Sales Skills and Building Referral Relationships.

Re: Be Thankful

cstanley@salesleadershipdevelopment.com (Colleen Stanley) — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 20:35:00 +0000

We are rapidly approaching that time of the year where we sit down at the dinner table, look at an oversized turkey, mingle with relatives and give thanks for the many blessings we have been given. It is often easy to be grateful for positive events, but not so easy to be thankful for events that are perceived to be negative. So the question I pose today is: When is the last time you were thankful for an adversity you faced?

Let’s take a closer look at adversity, thanks and sales.

· Be grateful for the rude, hostile prospects. They make you extra thankful for your gracious, pleasant, repeat clients.
· Be grateful when you go home exhausted at the end of a long work day. It means you have a job when many are standing in the unemployment line.
· Be grateful when you ‘screw up’ a sales call. It might just be a wake up call that you're getting complacent which can lead to mediocrity.
· Be grateful for not getting a deal. It may just have been one of those deals which would not have been good business.

During these tough economic times, remember your friends and family. You have control over your realtionships: they can't be given away in a bailout, they endure all financial cycles and in the end are the measure of true wealth.

I wish you and your families a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Best regards,

Colleen Stanley
Chief Selling Officer

Close More Sales - Getting Face Time With Decision Makers

cstanley@salesleadershipdevelopment.com (Colleen Stanley) — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 19:52:00 +0000

There is an old saying, "If you want to catch fish, fish where the fish are." This quote directly applies to building strategies that enhance contact and communication with decision makers. So just how do you find 'fishing holes' that provide introductions to the power buyer, the economic buyer?

The most powerful tool for connecting with decision makers is building strong referral networks. Unfortunately, many sales professionals don't understand the last four letters in the word network---work. Our instant gratification society doesn't lend itself to building solid relationships. Relationships are built over time. A person must invest time with potential partners to make sure business and personal values are aligned. It takes time to discover if your potential referral partner is a giver not a taker. Building strong networks is a lot like building a successful financial portfolio. You must invest time and energy before enjoying a return on investment. Investment of time means picking up the phone and making a call of introduction versus saying, "Tell Charlie I told you to call." Investment of time means keeping your referral partners informed of the outcome of the introduction. Investment of time means looking for opportunities everyday that will help your partners grow their business.

Membership in associations can be a good or bad investment, depending on your qualification of the association and personal involvement. Sales professionals join associations to meet referral partners and/or potential clients. If the association doesn't have either one, you are 'fishing' at the wrong place. Once you've selected the right association(s), get involved. It's a well known fact that people with influence and connections are on committees and/or lead committees. Don't fall into the trap of just showing up to meetings, eating lunch and listening to a speaker. The only thing you will build is your waistline!

If you want to catch fish, go where the fish are with the right 'bait' in hand.