Sales Blog for Sales and Sales Management

I work with CEOs that are afraid of what the current economic environment will do to top line sales revenue.  Certainly they can get more creative with expenses, but eventually that will have a negative impact on leveraging  new opportunities.  It doesn't take talent to cut expenses;  it is a math formula.  However, it does take talent and creativity to drive new business sales when markets are like they are today.  That is where we come in.

At Anthony Cole Training Group,  we use an assessment built and constantly perfected by Objective Management Group.  The assessment and the resulting findings provides information about sales strengths, sales weaknesses and sale skills as they relate to 21 core sales competencies.  My question today, and in 2 additional blog posts, will be:  How are you addressing these core competencies in your sales development program (either individually or corporately?)  If you are reading this as a participant of one or our training programs, then this information will have a tone of familiarity, so you will be able to relate to the content.  However, you may have been more recently focused on technique rather than the core issues that may be hindering your sales success.  I encourage you to read these posts and identify how they can be additive to your current program.  If you are not one of our participants, feel free to go to our website and take the sales grader to find out how you are doing against best practices in sales.  Here are the first 7 core competencies:

1. Has written goals: this is where your courage and passion come from. Without written goals you won't have the passion or commitment necessary to ask the tough questions, continue to prospect when the market is tough and to consistently ask for introductions
2. Follows a written goal plan: Often people have goals that are written, but then fail this next critical step - establish a written goal plan. Without a plan your goals lack clarity and therefore the activity required to accomplish your goals is unclear as well. And when the required activities are unclear then they won't get executed.
3. Positive attitude: This isn't about looking through rose colored glasses. This is about keeping your head about you when all those around you are losing theirs. It is easy to get caught up the water cooler talk and the complaining about the company, economy, or what the competition is doing. Ignore the talk and focus on what you have to do to be successful.
4. Take responsibility: Excuses are like opinions - everyone or most everyone has them and, unfortunately in selling, we use them when we fail to accomplish our goals. The easy thing to do is to blame something or someone for our shortcomings. If you've been in sales long enough you know that something is always going to happen to make selling difficult for you, but if you are committed to your own personal goals, then you won't let anything get in the way.
5. Strong self confidence: This is critical to succeed. You certainly can't expect yourself to perform well if you don't feel fully confident in what you are doing, what you are representing and what you are saying to the market. But what drives all of this is how you feel about yourself. You must have the confidence to maintain your ‘posture' when you are faced with difficult selling situations. Keep in mind that external gimmicks and crutches won't support you when things are tough. You must consider yourself a ‘10' and maintain that assessment of yourself no matter what happens in your roles.
6. Supportive beliefs: What you believe dictates what you do. If you believe that the economy is too tough to sell in, then you'll be right and won't sell anything. If you believe that people don't want to talk about spending additional dollars in a tight budget environment, then you will have trouble scheduling appointments. You get the point?
7. Control emotions: You must focus on executing your sales system and be prepared for curve balls, and ‘tough' questions. If you anticipate ‘what can go wrong' then when something does come at you that ordinarily would be considered unusual then you will be prepared to handle the situation. If you haven't thought through your phone call, or sales call or presentation, then you will be vulnerable to surprises. When these surprises happen, instead of continuing to execute without ‘panic', you will ‘choke' and deviate from your tried and true sales methods and approach. The symptoms of losing control of emotions are during review of a meeting your self-dialog contains words and phrases like: "should have, shouldn't have, could have, why didn't I, I can't believe that". These are indicative of losing control of emotions.

The best thing to do is to pick just one of these that seem to be the area where you need the most work.  Tackle that one first.  Not the one that is easy, but the one that will have the most positive dramatic impact on your business.  And if you need me call me @ 513 791 3458.

I hate having these discussions because the typically come out the wrong way in writing. When I read articles like the one from Fast Company - The Most Valuable Player in Sports - I can't help but think about sales people, selling and sales results.  Check this out.  In 2006 major league baseball spent $311,000,000 (14% of payroll) on players that didn't play.  I automatically think - hmm, how much money was spent by companies on sales people that didn't play / perform?

I also think how many goals were washed out because the sales professional in charge lacked the desire, commitment, or responsibility to overcome obstacles to executing the game / goal plan to make sure they got the sales results they stated they would get.  And, as a result, failed to achieve some, if not all, the personal goals they had set?

The article goes on to talk about how Dr. Andrews, in addition to his orthopedic wizardry, developed and honed his therapeutic  mastery as well.  He would engage the prospective athlete in dialog that allowed him to identify a multitude of success factors ‘post' operative procedure.  Here are just 6 of his questions ‘translated' into sales talk to assess a sales person's acumen and preparedness for recovery.

1. What exactly is your current sales problem? Where is / are the choke points to successful selling?
2. What happens if you don't fix it?
3. What are your short- term, intermediate and long term sales goals?
4. How committed are you to rehabbing or turbo charging your sales career?
5. What is your appetite for change?
6. What are the other external factors that will help or hinder your success?

Powerful and insightful questions that need to be asked before engaging in any sales training, individual coaching or on-going development plan.    Too often people jump into the fray of training and or self - help only to find themselves light in the checking account, lost investment of time and very little improvement in results. 

My suggestion to you is that you should look at those 6 questions before  you begin to re-invent yourself or re-commit yourself to ‘really getting it done this year'.  Honestly answer those questions and then decide on what your sales goals will be, what your goal plan will look like and how you will hold yourself accountable over the next 12 months.  Oh, and one more question once you've decided that this time you are really going to get it done:

Why should I believe you?

Sales lessons come in many disguises.  This one is about hitting sales goals with a ‘no excuse' attitude about doing whatever it takes to execute your required sales activity.

During basketball season when I was in high school, I had to work on our farm on Saturdays from 7:00 AM until basketball practice, which was about 2:00 in the afternoon.  My sister, Tresa, worked with me. We had to build blueberry crates that we used to ship pints of blueberries across the country.  On a normal day, Tresa and I would make about 800 to 1,000 crates.  On a short day, when I had practice, our goal was about 700.

One day, we had a little fight. Tresa got mad, went to the house and told my dad.  He came over to the barn where I was working, reamed me a good one and then, for good measure, told me that if I planned on going to basketball practice that afternoon, I had better plan on still building 700 crates without the help of my sister.  I could have gotten mad at Tresa, but admittedly it was my fault; however, the real issue was that I couldn't miss practice or I wouldn't start in the next game.  So instead of sitting there fuming and playing the blame game and thinking dad was unfair, I started hammering nails into those wooden crates like a machine.

I finished my 700 by 1:30, went to practice and started the game on Tuesday.

You see, it all comes down to what motivates you to do the things you have to do to succeed.  Certainly, my goal wasn't to make the 700 crates.  It was to make practice so I could start and nothing, not even my own stupidity of having a fight with my sister, was going to get in the way.

What have you let get in your way this year?

• 1. Decisions by your company to change pricing, policies or products?
• 2. A competitor going to the low cost provider strategy and doing a land grab?
• 3. The economy blues where you now have an easy excuse not to prospect for new business?
• 4. A sales manager who is taking a bullet for the team by telling the president that she shouldn't expect to hit the sales goals?
• 5. A too understanding spouse who says, ‘that's ok we'll take a nice vacation in 2010?

Whatever the reasons, you have a choice. Buy into the excuse making or ignore it and focus on your commitments.  If you focus on your commitments chances are you'll be the lone ranger because your competition is laying around making excuses, instead of making sales, leaving the market open for you to go and grab.

At the end of the day, all you have is your reputation. Will your reputation be one of an excuse maker or one of a person that fulfills their obligations?  It's your choice.

I look at about a dozen blogs and newsletters a week.  That is not a lot of browsing according to standards set by Seth Godin, Verne Harnish, Dave Kurlan or Guy Kawasaki, just to name a few.  It is enough to know that when it comes to selling, sales training, sales coaches and driving sales results, no one person has all the answers and no one person is right or wrong. Therefore, here are a couple of links to blog post that I'm sure you will find helpful:

 

• Marketing: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/10/waiting-for-the.html
• Selling on price: http://www.sellingtoconsumers.com/art_offering_the_lowest_price_is_overrated.htm
• Quality Selling Activity: http://www.sixsigmaselling.com/six_sigma_selling/2008/04/how-to-avoid-th.html
• Sales training: http://www.omghub.com/salesdevelopmentblog/tabid/5809/bid/6914/10-Types-of-Sales-Advisers-and-How-to-Choose-the-One-That-s-Best-For-You.aspx
• Effective Prospecting: http://www.referralcoach.com/individuals/
• Closing: http://blog.anthonycoletraining.com/Sales-Training-Sales-Java/bid/4767/How-to-Sell-to-Close-the-Business

I just did a search on Google for ‘sales techniques'.  In .19 seconds, I had over 7 million listings for sales techniques.  If prospecting, qualifying or closing seems to be problems for you, it certainly can't be because you can't get information on ‘how to'.  Maybe you haven't taken the time to learn how to, or are comfortable with the position that you've been selling for 20 plus years.  As the song goes, ‘the times they are a changing'.  If you haven't changed, then I'm guessing that in many cases, neither have your results.  Oh, you may be selling as much as you used to, but I'd guess it's not as easy as it used to be.  Come on, take a few minutes every week and brush up those sales skills.  It will make a difference.

 

I landed at the Bradley International Airport outside of Hartford Connecticut when I was 18.  I flew out of there a couple of days ago, 35 years later, after one of our sales training sessions with an insurance company's  salesforce.  I can't believe the changes. Though I didn't remember all the details of the airport, I do remember it being small and unremarkable.  Today it is a bright, vibrant and a much-expanded hub of air transportation; the improvements are mark able.

As I sat there having lunch, I wondered how much I had changed over that same time-period.  Certainly, the physical changes were obvious.  When I was 18, I was there as a recruit to play football for the University of Connecticut.  Today, I'm a 53 year old consultant to companies that are trying to change / improve their sales force, align sales efforts, and build systems and resources that support extra-ordinary sales growth.  Money isn't the measure of everything that happens, but it is one way to keep score and to track how far you have come.  35 years ago, if you had told me that someday I would own a company with 8 employees and generating 2 million dollars a year, I would have thought you were nuts.  My goal at that time was to graduate and become a college football coach.  How did I go from football coach to entrepreneur?   The following list isn't meant to be all inclusive answer to that question, but maybe it will give you some idea of what it takes to change from an average doing ok sales person, to one that is considered extra-ordinary and best in class.

1. Goal setting - you have to establish non-negotiable goals that extend who you are
2. Commitment - you have to demonstrate your commitment with consistent behaviors
3. Persistence - nothing that you want will be easy, you have to persist beyond obstacles
4. Passion - I love what I'm doing. If you don't love what you are doing get out
5. Learning - you can't stop learning. If you do you'll stop earning and growing

Certainly, you can make a living and probably do ok, but is that why you chose professional selling as a career, to be average and ok?  Challenge yourself in the following ways:

1. Set new goals for yourself that are way beyond what you think is possible
2. Commit to write down your goals, share them with others and then execute activities consistent with those goals.
3. Persist - Do not let yourself or others convince you that you are too old, too young or already good enough to take on a challenge of getting better.
4. Re-ignite the passion that you had the first day you started. Think that you have nothing and you have everything to gain and prove. Start over again as if you had to prove something.
5. Read a book at least every other week. Learn something new about yourself, your business and about selling. Expand your knowledge and skill to become best in class.

Again this isn't the end all and you may actually be thinking is it worth the effort?  I can't tell you the answer to that and only once you accepted this challenge will you know your return on investment.

   

Yesterday, I got the honor of meeting some remarkable people.  They are sales people in fatigues. They spend their day selling other on the connection between athletics and winning on the battlefield.  One of the metrics for success:  bring everyone back alive.  That is life or death.

I was introduced to Dr. Ralph Pim by one of my first clients, Mark Bodnar.  Ralph is the head of competitive sports at the military academy at West Point.  We spent the day talking about how to transition cadets into the work environment ‘after' West Point.  We talked about how he has led to charge to ‘fix' some of the elements of the competitive sports program at West Point.  

Now, you can't go to West Point without gathering in some of the history of America and the history of West Point, where I was introduced to some amazing people.

MAJ Shawn Bault ( 3 combat tours - Assistant Director of Company Athletics)

MAJ Kahn Diep (Director of Competitive Club Athletics - 1 combat tour)

MAJ Joe Gelineau (Special Forces - 2 combat tours - Director of Company Athletics)

MAJ Scott Blanchard (Below the Zone Officer - 1 combat tour - Assistant Director of Competitive Club Athletics)  

We talked about measuring commitment.  Commitment at the military academy is at a different level then what we consider as commitment.  We think in terms of committing to prospecting activity; they commit to bringing entire companies of soldiers back to the states alive.  However, we both have the same problem:  "how do you measure commitment".  I think it's kind of simple:

• Achievement of stated and agreed to non-negotiable goals
• Do not offer up excuses when you fail to accomplish goals.

As simple as this concept is, and with all the leadership taught at the academy, this seemed to resonate and help them realize that yes, even at this high level of performance, people will be susceptible to performing less than they are capable of.

In addition to our discussion around identifying and measuring commitment, we discussed how they work to develop commitment and cohesion within their teams.  I asked them what they do or discuss currently; their response:   they talk about and coach to vision, goals and core values, having the right team members and creating a culture that enables teams to succeed.  Sound familiar to what it takes to build a committed and cohesive sales team?  It was comforting to hear that one of the best learning institutions in the world addresses this crucial element of success the same way we do.

I'll close by reminding myself and you that their objective of focusing on building teams of significance and winning with honor is to prepare cadets for battle, for fighting, for protecting our country.  They measure success by lives not lost and those not wounded.  These are their objectives, their metrics for success, and all the while they have fun, they joke, they enjoy a deep commitment to each other and to the cause.  Truly a remarkable environment.

As you go about your day today, remember that selling isn't life or death.  However, if you prepare and have commitment, your approach is based on solid core values, and you execute and work to win with honor, then you will win more than you lose, you will thrive and can be proud to call yourself a Sales Professional.

So what is the connection?  Maybe nothing at all.  We have a program called Sales Management Environment.  One of our clients adopted the program and changed the name to Sales Management Effectiveness.  I like this too, but the point is this:  What does it mean to have a sales environment and/or culture, and how and what defines the culture?  In addition to answering that question, we must also address this question:  ‘what is the impact on sales results?'

Unknown!  That's a scary, yet valid, answer because most companies do not have the ability, or simply do not track the appropriate metrics that would indicate progress or a decline in results other than sales results. Certainly that is an indicator, but depending on the ramp-up time you expect for a new sales leader, new sales people, or a new sales training program, how could you possibly use just sales results as a measure of success?  That's like using just the score at the end of the game to determine how well your team played.  You may have won, but did you play well enough to win again and again?

Ideally, you would look at the following:  Sales activity and critical sales ratios , such as conversion of contacts to appointments, appointments to opportunities, opportunities to presentations and presentations to closed business.  In addition, you would have to know your average size sale.

In the past, when I've asked senior sales management, sales leaders and sales people about these numbers and ratios, I got a blank stare, a shrug of the shoulders and an "I don't know'.  Why is it a problem?  Because without knowing this information, you can't possibly measure the impact that sales leadership and other influences have on sales results.  And, if you are trying the ROI of a sales leader or sales program, then you MUST know this information.

With our system of testing, training and tracking you can be sure that you will know what needs to be fixed, how to fix it and if it is being fixed.  Without that approach to hiring a sales leader or sales training program, why would you invest the money?

     I present all of my material, not counting my disaster in ‘Selling Sure Is Funny' post, standing up.  Often, if given the right environment somewhere in my presentation to sell sales training and development, I will find a way to stand up.  Normally this requires either a flip chart or a white board.  Either one works.

     When you blow out the birthday candles, how do you normally do that, sitting or standing?  I have to believe that our family is representative of most other families and, except for my son, Anthony, who is in a wheelchair, we blow out candles standing up. I'm not sure why.  But it did get me thinking about presentations to close a sale.

     You should present standing up.  It is show time.  After all that time of asking questions and listening, now is the time to demonstrate that you are extra-ordinary.  You are in command.  You are the expert.  You know what to do and you will now divulge to your audience, the prospect, why they should buy from you. 

1. Standing gives you the appearance of confidence.  Do you want to buy from someone with confidence?
2. Standing up is different.  Do you want to be judged just like all the others who present or do you want your prospect to think, ‘well now, this one is different'?
3. By standing up your voice will change to a deeper tone which will grab people's attention.  Do you not love listening to James Earl Jones?
4. Standing up changes your posture in the room.  You will no longer be viewed as a potential vendor but more like someone in authority within their own company.  Is that a good thing?
5. And, if you crash and burn, it's easier to run out the door.

     Call to action:  Prior to your next sales presentation, conduct a dry run of the meeting in front of staff or peers.  Ask them to prepare for the meeting as if they were the prospect.  And make sure that, as part of this dry run, you strategically plan when you will stand, why you will stand and what impact that you are hoping to achieve as a result.

     If you truly want to be different and have a significant impact while presenting, stand for what you believe in:  yourself, your product and your company.

 

 

I'm watching the ESPN Sports Center program this morning and I am inspired to create a post around coaching.  The reason is that often when I am coaching sales managers and sales leaders about their performance, either monthly or year-to-date, I hear:

• 1. Number one in year-over-year growth
• 2. Number one in our district
• 3. Number one in contribution to profit
• 4. Number one with a bad economy and no hope for the future
• 5. Number one in sales of widgets that only gets sold in the months of January

You get my point of the title?  Get it - Coach the tallest first grader - all first graders are short.  It's not a big deal to be the tallest first grader.  So why do we fall back on that rationale when we are clearly failing?  Here is the sports story that prompts this post.  For those that are not sports or baseball enthusiast, please bear with me as I look for statistics on music or artistic standings.  But below you will see the standings for the West Division of the National League of Major League Baseball as of July 21, 2008 (Happy Birthday Ray).

     

West	W	L	PCT	GB
Arizona	48	50	.490	-
Los Angeles	48	50	.490	-
Colorado	43	57	.430	6.0
San Francisco	40	58	.408	8.0
San Diego	37	62	.374	11.5

 

What do you think?  Pretty impressive when you can have a losing record and still be in first place. 

What is my point?  You get my point.  Here are the 5 things that sales people that are failing to hit goal must do in order to get themselves on the right track.  You will notice that none of the 5 has anything to do with a new sales technique or a better business plan.  They have everything to do with either your head or your heart.

• 1. Set you sights higher than "at least'. You know the self talk: "I may not be first but at least I'm not at the bottom".
• 2. Understand that success comes before work only in the dictionary. Which leads me to my point number 3.
• 3. For those of you that tell someone in the morning that you are going to work: Try it. You'll be amazed at the results.
• 4. Make sure that you are working on the right things. This has nothing to do with an effective well thought out business plan. You know exactly what activities allow you to go to the bank with a commission check every so often. Do those activities 80% of the time.
• 5. Stop making excuses and failing and stop accepting luck as a reason for success. It lowers your own expectations and continues the cycle of failure.

Sorry to be so harsh, but I didn't get into this to make friends, just to make people as successful as they ought to be.

I attended my Mom and Dad's memorial service in May.  Today I want to talk about Dad.  When I returned home, I had with me a box of some of my Dad's earthly possessions. He wasn't a wealthy man in material things, but quite a rich man when it came to friends and people that he touched in many ways.  He was as they say ‘old school'.  He believed in the flag, honor, hard work, love, God, and providing for his family the best that he could.  He was a high school drop out, but a man of great intellect and knowledge, not taught in traditional school systems.  In my world of developing and assessing sales people, my guess is that Dad would have been a superstar, and he would have had a long career.  This is what he knew how to do:

• Work hard - he told me time and time again - when all else fails, hard work works.
• Develop relationships - Dad didn't just have people that he met, he had friends. He had life long friends, as was evidenced by the number of people that I had never met who attended his memorial service. And the testimonials I heard validated that Dad was constantly meeting new people and making new relationships.
• Get to the point - Dad could sort through the BS in a hurry and he would call someone on it the moment he heard it or sensed it. He didn't have much tolerance for those who tried to snowball him. With Dad, you told him the truth up front and once you had his trust, only you could lose it and once lost, it was very hard to regain.
• He knew how to communicate what he wanted, and what it was going to take to make the relationship work. He was honored as a man that kept his word, promised a lot and delivered more.
• He was committed to his work, his fun and his family. Day in and day out my Dad did everything possible to succeed and achieve the objectives of the farm that we grew up on. He provided the best possible lifestyle for our family, even putting himself in debt to do so, and made sure that we had moments of complete and fulfilling joy through hunting, fishing and being outdoors.
• His passion for excellence was legendary (not always so pleasant an experience when something wasn't done to his expectations)
• Never made excuses. Rain was not a reason for not getting crops in the barn. It was never too early, too late, too dark or too hot. You worked until the work was done and not a minute before.

As I think about my dad and these qualities,  I'd say that he would have been a fine salesman and a great sales leader.  If you think about his ‘old school' qualities, I think you'll agree that they would serve you well today.