Sales Blog for Sales and Sales Management

Here is an article posted by Bill Eckstrom from EcSell Institute - an organization dedicated to helping sales managers do more of the right stuff, the right way at the right time.  Your sales management job is not an easy one so it comes as no surprise to me that Bill identifies some research indicating that 90% of the sales managers are doing 'stuff' wrong.  To put my spin on this - read his article - assess how you are doing - ask yourself; what you need to keep doing, stop doing or start doing and then take action.  Enjoy

Your job as a sales manager is to get things done. A study done by academics Heike Bruch and the late Sumantra Ghoshal  from London, investigated what they called "decisive purposeful action." Most companies, far from being hives of busy, effective executives, could instead be seen as "a few isolated islands of action amid an ocean of inaction," the researchers found. Does this ring any bells? Here are the highlights from their study.

Read the full article "Study: Most Managers are Ineffective"

Only about 10 percent of the managers took purposeful action." The remainder were busy, just not very effective: 40 percent were energetic but unfocused; 30 percent had low energy, little focus and tended to procrastinate; and 10% were focused, but not very energetic.

No wonder most businesses are so unproductive. What all of this suggests, is that we waste most of the human resources we hire. The people around us are either unfocused (they don't know how to use their energy), uninspired (they've lost their energy), or distant (they'd rather think than do.) Leadership is about galvanizing this potential and getting it to move effectively in the right direction.

The 40 percent who are energetic but unfocused are the ones you have to work on. They want to do useful work and are up for a challenge. They just don't know where to start or how to prioritize. When you have a coherent strategy, you give this energy meaningful direction. Unfocused energy is rarely the fault of the individual. Rather, it's an indication that your strategy isn't sufficiently understood or being translated into goals.

The 30 percent who have low energy and little focus are tough nuts to crack. Did they start well and just run out of steam? Are they in the wrong jobs or the wrong company? There's a high likelihood they started out in the energetic 40 percent cohort but became disillusioned and disengaged by their inability to have an impact. Your best hope is that galvanizing the 40 percent creates enough draw within the organization that the best of these get swept along.

You have the power to change this! 

1. Take the first step by making a commitment to yourself and your team around professional and personal development. 

2. Understand what actions have the greatest impact on sales performance.

3. Learn how to lead coach your team with purposeful intention, using the right skills.

If you need help with all this, that is where EcSELL Institute can help.  Learn more by visiting ourwebsite and/or take that first step and attend our Summit which is focused on developing your coaching and leadership skills.  Or attend our Sales Management Academy. We will teach you how to motivate your team to take purposeful action.

Why do you think only 10% act with purposeful intention?

I am currently at the Grand Floridian getting ready for a Keynote. My topic is: Accountability - the 14 Letter Word for Sales Success. My process has been the following:

• Talked to the client to discuss what they want the participants to leave with when they leave the conference
• Asked the client what the theme was for the conference so that I could tie my content to their theme
• Asked the client for any information they could provide me so that my presentation would be credible and support their objectives 
• Created the deck for the presentation
• Had our staff review to make suggestions and changes
• Wrote the script for the deck
• Practiced the script
• Re-wrote the script where changes needed to be made
• Arrived to the conference early so that I could meet the team
• Met some of the attendees and listened to other presenters
• Reviewed my notes, my script and made adjustments including changing, adding or deleting slides
• Practiced the opening and closing over and over
• Prayed on my delivery and message so that it was consistent with the goals of the client and ours as a company

I will leave here in a few minutes to do the sound check and make changes to the deck as needed. I will then come back to the room one more time to do a quick review of my presentation to anticipate reactions and stories I might tell to help make points I want to make. I will then leave for the keynote to visit with my client Scott of HotSpring Spas to make sure we are aligned and ready to go. I plan to then go up on stage, layout my notes, make my introduction and deliver my keynote, not really knowing if everything I've practiced will get said and not knowing if the audience will respond how I have anticipated they might.

But the key is I have prepared even though I've done this now for over 10 years, delivered this content countless times to sales organizations and have given keynotes to all sizes of groups in all kinds of industries. I still prepared hours for a 1 hour presentation. The reason I do this is that the client does not care about how good I may have been in the past. They care about from 2:15 to 3:15 today. They expect me to be my best. I owe that to them and to my company that counts on me to represent our brand promise of "Changing the way companies succeed".

The reason I wanted to post this today is to gently remind you as sales managers that no matter how many times your sales people have presented a proposal - they need to practice so that they can be their best. No matter how many times you have had a coaching session or conducted a sales meeting you should prepare to be your best. That is what you should expect from yourself and that is what your people expect of you. I will give you a post - call debrief when I finish the keynote.

 Here are a few tools to help you and your team do a great job of planning for your next sales call:

Pre-Call

Post-Call

Did you call on the decision maker?

Where they unhappy with their current banker?

Do they have a budget?

Will you follow up next week?

Are you sure this is a client that we want to have?

Is there a way to get in front of the committee?

These are all questions I have heard sales managers ask their sales people during post call debriefing sessions.  When our sales development experts, Mark, Chris or Walt deliver a sales management session on coaching or a session on the "Art and Science of Asking Questions" they focus a great deal of attention on asking closed ended questions.  They role play, they drill for skill, they work with sales people to develop a strong interview approach that uses the right questions, asked the right way at the right time.  More times then not the sales manager is there in the room listening to the same message and practicing the same stuff.

But then it is time for the sales manager to coach the sales person and what happened in class is lost and closed ended questions are what get asked.

Why is this a problem?  It is a problem for many reasons but the one I want to focus on here is:  Shadow of the Leader.

When you demonstrate a behavior to your sales people there is a high probability that they will duplicate that behavior.  If you tell them to ask open ended questions but demonstrate closed ended questions what they see gets done, not what they hear.

Make sure that as you are coaching your people to successfully navigate through the sales process you instruct them, coach them using questions but using the right questions the right way:

When you told your contac that you had to get to the decision maker what did they say?

When you asked them if they were unhappy enough to leave their current banker how did they respond?

Tell me about the budget discussions?

What was the discussion for follow up that included getting a decision instead of a think it over?

How does this prospect fit our perfect prospect profile?

When you asked who on the committee would tell her 'no' to making a change and then asked to get in front of that person prior to the committee meeting what was the response?

Chances are that your sales person will tell you that they didn't ask these questions.  This allows you to ask, 'why not'?

After 3 or 4 meetings like this your sales people will get the hint that maybe they should be asking these questions, they will ask the questions, they will have better qualified opportunities, close more business and you will have effectively coached your sales team to improve the skill of asking questions.

Helpful Links:

Sales Learning Center Demo

The Art and Science of Asking Questions Audio 

Coaching for Success Workshop

What are the key focus areas for sales success in 2012?  According to a recent article from Mark Gibson at Advanced Marketing Systems which sites a recent survey from Chief Sales Officer (CSO), the following five are the path to success this year:

1. Ability to show benefit/value

2. Optimizing the sales process

3. Reaching people with power

4. Increasing customer loyalty

5. Differentiation from competition

I see the value in each and every one of these and over the last 20 years that we've had our sales development practice I can tell you that not much has changed as it relates to what sales officers feel there teams need to improve.  In addition to the list, I continue to hear the following requests:

1.  How do I keep my people motivated?

2.  How do I help our people see more people?

3.  How do we utilize and leverage the CRM tools that we've invested in?

4.  How do I hire better people?

5.  How do I motivate top performers?

Imagine trying to deal with all ten of these!  You'd be like Dr. House in the TV series - all of these symptoms and not a clear clue as to why they exist.  And that is where I believe most sales executives miss the mark. Year after year, companies attempt to treat the symptom instead of solving the root problem.  If this were not the case then why do companies still suffer the same symptoms year after year?

We have a client that when we first engaged with them told me that they had spent millions of dollars on sales training with little to no impact.  They felt that their biggest problem was with the sales management and sales leadership group - no one had coached the coaches on how to be better coaches, recruiters, mentors and motivators.  The sales leaders where great sales people that were promoted or hired because they where great bankers, insurance agents, accountants or some other highly competent professional but had virtually zero training and coaching to be an effective sales leader.

Additionally, the problem is that when time is invested and money is spent it is invested and spent on the wrong end of the problem.  In the research we do prior to engaging with a new client we find the following:

1.  Typically only 65% alignment of sales, business and marketing strategies between executives and sales people

2.  On average, 66% of sales people make excuses for lack of success either in overall results or for losing an individual sale

3.  Usually, 25% of sales people hired lack the required desire and or commitment to be successful as sales people

4.  Roughly, 65% of all sales people have problems dealing with prospects that want to think it over, compare, shop and buy low cost.  Additionally 60% have a hard time talking to prospects about money

5.  On average, 50% of sales people do not feel it is necessary to uncover budget or the decision making process prior to making a presentation for close

6.  Over 95% of sales people have difficulty establishing a strong relationship on the very first call

7.  Over 95% believe that prospects are honest

8.  Over 80% of the sales people believe that a prospect that "thinks it over" will eventually buy from them

9.  More than 35% of sales people are making inappropriate presentations to unqualified prospects

10.  Typically only 50% of the opportunities in the pipeline have a medium probability of closing

The work required to fix the top five focus points identified by CSO does not start with more training on how to fix those problems. The work required starts with finding out why the problems exist, who has them and who with training, appropriate coaching and alignment with strategies has the ability to change when training is provided.

Additional resources:
1.  Ebook - Why is Selling So #$%&* Hard?  

2.  Objective Management Group - Sales Force Evaluation

3.  CSO website - 

4.  Sales Grader

5.  Ebook - 9 Skills for Effective Sales Managment

As I think about successful coaching at almost anything I have to believe that the coach must at some level be able to demonstrate successful execution of what they are asking the participant to perform.  If the coach cannot do that then they must have a resource that they can count on to demonstrate the ideal execution of a skill or behavior.

Imagine for a second that you are about to take flying lessons only to discover that your trainer has crashed several times.  You would not be too likely to hire that trainer.  And so it is with sales manager and being able to effectively demonstrate effective selling.

An effective selling process will accomplish the following:

1. Discovery of what the prospect wants and needs
2. Agreement from the prospect that they will make a purchase or change
3. An agreement for the required investment of time, money and resources
4. An agreement on the decision making process
5. A presentation that provides the exact solution the prospect is looking for, within the budget they have
6. A decision at the conclusion of the presentation

Effective sales call debriefing is a not only a skill required to be an effective coach but it is also a sales management process that MUST be part of your daily life of a successful sales manager.  Day in and day out you have sales people on sales calls.  In a B2B world of selling there are many variables that need to be handled if your sales professionals are going to turn a suspect into a prospect, into a qualified buyer into a client.

The key to effective sales call debriefing actually begins with effective pre-call preparation.  Again strong coaching skills are required and this has to be a process that is standard operating procedure for all calls your sales people have.  Every call should be preceded by a pre-call planning session.  This can be done individually or as a team depending on the size and complexity of the sale but you should expect this to be done on every call.  The important 'sales strategy' steps to a pre-call are:

1. What powerful discovery questions is the sales person prepared to ask.  What are the anticipated answers and how will the sales person deal with those answers.
2. What are the questions we can anticipate from the prospect, how will the sales person deal with the questions.  (Remember that when you role play this with your sales person you should expect them to answer questions with at least one additional qualifying question)
3. What curve balls can we anticipate and how will we deal with those.
4. What has to happen, what is the expected outcome, that would cause everyone involved to say that the meeting was a great meeting?

Consistently coaching skills and behaviors is the second most important skill that a sales manager / coach needs to have if sales success is their objective.  

The reason that 'consistently' is part of the skill description is that spaced repetition is a fundamental learning principle to help people of all ages learn, change and improve skill.  Think back to your days in elementary school when you were learning the '3rs'.  Remember flash cards?  Every day the teacher would break out the flash cards and as memory and skill improved then the frequency of using the flash card for 2 + 2 decreased, while the flash card for 11 x 12 continued until the class remembered the answer of 132.

Your commitment to consistently coach is only trumped by what your focus on long term skill development and behavior change.  Unfortunately most of the coaching that takes place is 'in the moment coaching' - coaching 'the deal'.  This takes place during pre or post call coaching sessions. Though that is critical is does little or nothing to actually improve skill.  In the moment coaching is like calling a time out - to run a specific play or to take a specific action.  It solves an immediate problem but does nothing to improve long term skill or to improve a behavior that keeps a sales person from needing to call time outs every time they get in to a jam with a sales opportunity.

If you want long term successful sales people then the development strategy has to be long term in addition to in the moment coaching.  This requires the following (click this link to listen to the 2 minute audio on consistent coaching) :

1.  Collect meaningful data around sales metrics using huddles

2.  Gain insight from the data to determine choke points a sales person has in the selling

3.  Pro-actively allocate time for one on one coaching with sales people

4.  Schedule one on one coaching weekly wiht sales people to work on skills and behaviors

5.  Implement a disciplined approach when a sales person is failing to execute behaviors

6.  Follow up on actionable items that you have assigned the sales person to execute

7.  Repeat as necessary

Make this part of your development strategy and you will have a team that sells more business, more quickly at higher margins.

It could be 3 keys, 6 keys or 9 keys to sales success.  I don't want to get hung up on the number of keys to sales success.  What I do want to focus on and what I would suggest sales managers to focus on is this:  Of these 9 keys which ones are you familiar with, executing on and have the right skills for?  It's one thing to be aware of what you should be doing, it's another thing to be aware and executing, it is REALLY quite another thing to be doing the right things the right way.  Ultimately that IS the key to coaching your team to sales success. 

Here are the 9 Keys that we focus on;

1. Consistently coaches skills and behaviors
2. Ask sales people quality performance and results questions
3. Effective at getting commitments from sales people and prospects
4. Effective sales call preparation and debriefing
5. Effective joint calls with reps
6. understanding and coaching of major performance factors that influence sales skill execution
7. Understanding and coaching of the crucial elements that drive sales results and sales growth
8. The ability to demonstrate and role play effective selling steps
9. Effectively attracts, identifies, hires and on-boards new hires.

In the never ending quest for sales success gurus like myself and many others blog, write ebooks, speak at conferences and share our view of 'what it takes' to reach the fickle objective of sale success. During a recent conference Dave Kurlan, the facilitator and president of Objective Management Group, showed a video clip from the movie Facing The Giants. The theme of the clip is 'doing your best'. The question that the movie attempts to answer is how our own thoughts and views as well as external views and thoughts impact our outcomes.

Several years ago I heard Mark Victor Hansen say that there is normally one person between you and your greatest success. That person is you.  He went on to say that FEAR plays the biggest part of our ability to achieve at higher levels.  The fear he was reference is:  FEAR - False Expectations, Education, or Experiences, Appearing Real. In other words our thoughts and perceptoins about what we can do what is possible dictates our outcomes. Yes there are outside contributors to our failure and success but the single biggest obstacle to our success lies is the space between our ears.

What if we became blinded to outside influences and our own internal beliefs. Suppose we use one guidepost to direct us and only one. That one guidepost being 'do our best'. Not what we think is our best but our absolutely mental, emotional and physical exhausted best. Suppose that was our standard? Suppose we focused on being the best parent we could be, the best friend we could be, the best spouse we could be, the best sales manager we could be, the best coach we could be. And with that as our guidepost we behave and execute skills with that single objective in mind - be our best. Let me tie this to managing and leading sales people and sales teams.

There isn't anything easy about this. The participant has to be willing. The participant has to decide that they are no longer satisfied with how they go about doing what they do and are no longer satisfied with the results that they are getting. This lack of satisfaction cannot be just a logical recognition. The satisfaction has to be a deep emotional confession to oneself and others. It has to be a clensing of all that was so that one can become a new 'is'. This desire to go from dissatisfaction to the 'ideal normal' requires change and you know that change isn't easy.

In sales this means we would have to change our thinking about metrics, standards, goal setting, accountability, inspection and coaching. Instead of focusing on 'did you hit the numbers' the focus would be on 'does this represent your best'? As a former coach and current sales development expert I am a person that is drawn to numbers, ratios and statistics to tell me a story about performance, results, effort and execution. But maybe, maybe I have it wrong. Maybe at the end of the day what matters is this, did I do my very best?

I pose this question to you as you manage and coach your team to success.  If you focused on being your very best at what you do how will those that you are responsible for respond?   And those families, communities, businesses and charities that rely on your and your team performing at our very best how will that impact their opportunity to enjoy life at it's very best?

Other articles about performance, coaching and motivation:

Coaching - It's an inside out job

Performance - Big challenges beget best effort

Motivation - create plans suitable for you sales success.

There is a saying in sports; “You can lose with great people but you cannot win without them.”  This theory applies to business, and winning in business starts with a winning sales team.  

Let’s return to the sports application first.  Theo Epstein was the general manager for the Boston Red Sox.  The Chicago Cubs hired him away from the Red Sox and his first item of business to address is the hiring of a new manager for the club.  

Below is an excerpt of a recent article about the process he is going through to get the right person for the job.  Earlier in the week, he had made it clear that one of most important criteria for the job was that the candidate MUST HAVE major league managerial or coaching experience.

One media person inquired what type of attributes Epstein is looking for in a manager.

"In the real world, it's hard to find a candidate that has everything you're looking for," Epstein said. "What you do is you weigh your variables and make your sacrifices where you have to. Often times, if you're going to take a candidate without previous managerial experience, even at the minor league level, he has to represent real upside in other areas. In that case, you have to do even more due diligence than you normally would because you're projecting him into that role."

One of the talked about candidates early in the selection process was Ryne Sandberg.  Below is his stellar baseball resume. 

Ryne Dee Sandberg (Ryno)

Positions: Second Baseman and Third Baseman 
Bats: Right, Throws: Right 
Height: 6' 1", Weight: 175 lb.
Born: September 18, 1959 in Spokane, WA (Age 52) 
High School: North Central (Spokane, WA)
Drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies in the 20th round of the 1978 amateur draft.
Signed June 15, 1978. (All Transactions)
Debut: September 2, 1981 
Teams (by GP): Cubs/Phillies 1981-1997
Final Game: September 28, 1997 
Inducted into the Hall of Fame by BBWAA as Player in 2005 (393/516 ballots).

I won't list his stats - induction into the baseball players Hall of Fame speaks for itself.  The one thing that is missing is managerial or coaching experience at the major league level.  He was never interviewed for the position. 

The point here is that Epstein had a profile for the position and he stuck with it, regardless of the star qualities of Sandberg. 

The lessons in this story for senior sales executives include:

• You must know exactly what qualities the candidate must have
• You must communicate this to likely candidates
• You must not be swayed by other experience "outside" your profile
• You can consider other experience but consider the downside
• You must be prepared for a "project" if you hire outside your profile

Finding the exact right candidate is a long shot no matter what the position.  As Epstein points out, you have to weigh all the information and consider what you are willing to sacrifice.  As you prepare to "upgrade your sales staff", follow these steps for Sales Talent Acquisition and improve your probability for success:

1. Build a profile for the IDEAL Candidate
2. Communicate that profile to "attract" the right candidate (in ads, etc)
3. Screen (assess) the candidate before interviewing the candidate
4. Create screening and interviewing processes that simulate the environment in which the candidate will have to perform
5. Make the candidate sell you, DO NOT sell the candidate on the position
6. Have a detailed communication process in place so that once hired, the candidate knows "exactly" what the objectives and expectations are.
7. Have a very tight and detailed on - boarding process that ALL candidates go through regardless of their experience.
8. Inspect what you expect for the first 180 days of their employment

Following these steps will improve your probability for recruiting and sales success.  To help you begin, try this Free 3 Day Express Screen Trial (select the "Sales Candidate" option).