Sales Blog for Sales and Sales Management

Tabb Evans of BB&T investments, thank you for this question.  In a series of posts, I will be addressing questions from participants in the BISA meeting held in California this last December.  We had a great session covering 5 Factors for Success in Sales.  The question from Tabb is:

"How do you take the average to low sales producer to the next level?" 

I'm going to address this from two perspectives:  1) From the perspective of a manager of sales people and 2) from the perspective of the person in that position as an average to low producer.

First, I always have to ask this question about those people in your organization:  Did you recruit them that way or did you make them that way?  They're yours, you recruited them, on boarded them and trained them; so what happened?  Either there is a faulty hiring process that lacks the appropriate profiling, attracting, screening, interview and on-boarding process or the training program isn't designed to help people perform at high levels. That is it.  Hiring mistakes or development mistakes.  Now having said that, this is where I would start to get movement.

1. Understand the the next level could be out.  And so this has to be communicated to those people in this situation.
2. Create a profile of what the role is supposed to be doing
3. Schedule a meeting with each of the producers that are getting average to low production
4. Sit with them and tell them: 
   
1. This is what I need from people in this role - show them the profile of the producer you need
   
2. This is where you are, and this is what do we do now.

I can't begin to get into all of the dialog that needs to take place next but this is how it should end.

    5.  Do you want to keep working here?  Yes.

    6.  Are you sure? Yes.

    7.  Are you willing to do everything possible to succeed? Yes.

    8.  It's going to be hard.  OK, I know I have to get better.

    9.  This is what we are going to do.

Then you describe the 'disciplined' approach to effort and execution that you will hold them accountable to for the next foreseeable future (two weeks to 30 days).  You tell them that this is how long they have to fix the problem.  You give them the EXACT details of what you expect of them everyday and then you tell them that you will talk to them everyday at a very specific time.  Not a minute later.  And do not miss the target for sales activity.  Then describe the 3 strike rule:  Late = strike one,  miss the activity target = strike two.  You get the picture.

So, your people will either fix themselves or select "out".

But, as an aside, my experience tells me that companies that have this problem tolerate less than 'at goal' performance. Offices are littered with those producers producing less than 90% of the agreed to targets and they keep their jobs.  No wonder people are performing at 80 to 85% of goal.  There aren't any consequences.

Now for you sales people: This is going to sound a bit rough, but deal with it because you put yourself in this situation.

1. Stop making excuses for lack of success.  There are people in your industry, in your company, in your geography making goals. 
   
2. With that out of the way, you MUST find out what is really keeping you from succeeding:
• Lack of Desire or Commitment
• Poor Outlook
• Not taking Responsibility
• Inability to properly Prospect for new business due to
• Need for approval
• Fear of rejection
• Too trusting of prospects
3. Identify your choke points in your sales system.  Assuming you have one (don't blame the company if  you don't.  I'm sure you convinced them that you could sell and that's why they hired you to begin with.)
4. Get help.  Go to your sales manager or contract with a local sale development expert and get help!
5. Do the effort.  When all else fails, hard work works.  Go to work and mean it.
   

"Sales vows? Tony, what are you kidding? I've read your exploits about roller skating and selling. I tolerated your stories about ‘if sales people could fly'. Sales vows? Okay, I'll bite."

Thanks.

Yesterday, Linda and I attended the wedding of her cousin's daughter, Kristen. During the ceremony when the priest was providing guidance to what helps a marriage thrive, grow and last, Father Wayne talked about several things but these three hit me as very applicable to sales and selling:

Thank you,forgive me and I love you.

1. Thank you: Anytime you get the chance to tell a prospect or client "thank you", tell them "thank you". Though you've earned the right to be with them, they still have the option to tell you "no" so thank them. Though you did what you needed to do to sell them, they could have still told you "no", so thank them. And when they bring you a problem you would rather avoid or make excuses for, thank them. This leads us very well to "forgive me".

2. Forgive me: Instead of saying, "I'm sorry we messed this up", ask them to forgive you for the mistake. No, you can tie the two together- "I'm sorry; I ask that you forgive me."- but now it is up to the client or prospect to offer the olive branch with forgiveness. Saying "I'm sorry" is an attempt to sweep the event under the rug and hope they forget it. I'm sure you've been in situations in a store or airport where something has gone wrong and the representative says they are sorry. I'm also sure that it does nothing to solve the problem and usually it sounds like something they've been trained to say. It is meaningless most of the time. "Forgive me" on the other hand is a great deal more sincere and it acknowledges that your client now has the power and option to determine what happens next. I promise you it will make them feel better and they will look at you differently.

3. I love you: Well, I admit this is a bit of a stretch for some of you and for others this will make perfect sense. I truly love and care about my clients. I tell them in the very beginning of the relationship that if something is keeping them awake at night, it will keep me awake at night. If something is bothering them, I want it to bother me. Nobody they can hire will care more about their success than I do. When you love someone there is no blame, there is no bitterness, noone boasts, envy doesn't exist and pride fullness is non-existent. This is how relationships, business and personal are supposed to be. Love your clients.

The reception was great. There was lots of laughing, dancing, singing, remembering of weddings past and guessing as to whom is next to walk down the aisle. One of the great moments was when two couples on the floor continued to dance. One couple had been married for 57 years, the other for 61. I imagine that many times they executed the trilogy of "thank you, forgive me and I love you". Imagine having those types of long lasting relationships with your clients.

It isn't necessarily breaking news for selling, but make sure you read between the lines.  Here is what Seth Godin had to say:

Prediction: There will be no significant newspapers printed on newsprint in the US by 2012. So, you've got two and a half years before the newspaper industry is going to be doing something else with the news and the ads, or not be there at all. Does that change what you do today if you work in this business?

Insight! The newspaper industry is in trouble, but news is not going to go away, just the paper part. Those who are working hard to preserve the paper part are asking the wrong questions and are doomed to fail.

I don't know when the world will stop needing sales people but current buyers in the b2b world really don't need sales people to get information about products or services they need to solve today's problems.  They still use sales people to get pricing if it isn't posted on the website.

Insight:  Stop kidding yourself if you are selling on price.  If you get or lose business based on price, then what are you planning to do when all the pricing and negotiations are available on line?

Prediction: 90% of your sales will come from word of mouth or digital promotion by 2011. How do you change what you're doing today to be ready for that?

Insight:  As companies attempt to get more product into the market place with fewer and fewer people, what skills beside technological skills will you need to survive well beyond 2011?  In the words of Dan Sullivan, author of The 21st Century Agent, there are three things that you must master to keep your job:  Develop long term relationships, provide creative solutions, and move people to make decisions.  Currently, the microchip can't do those things but the question is not if but when?

I take from his blog that we need to stop thinking about what we need to hold on to in order to be successful now and in the future.  We need to let go of those systems, processes and ways we do business today that will inhibit us tomorrow.  Instead of holding fast to what we've always done, we must embrace what we have to do. 

There is nothing easy about this but survival is hardly ever easy.

Shawn Johnson wins the gold medal in balance beam!  She gets the picture on the Wheaties Box.  Nastia comes in second - no cereal box contract.  Same as in selling, there isn't a cereal box contract when you come in 2^nd.

Not only isn't there a cereal box contract, but there also isn't:

1. Revenue
2. Margin contribution or profit
3. Commission
4. Increase in market share
5. Improvement in status among your competitors

Don't delude yourself into thinking that 2^nd is ok because it isn't.  Thinking so only lowers your standard for success for your next sales opportunity.  Thinking that ‘at least they know what we can do' is a good thing is anything but; all it demonstrates is that you didn't come to the table to get the deal done.

Coming in second means nothing more than you were the top one to lose the opportunity.   Yes, lessons learned are good, but commissions aren't tied to lessons, and lessons don't become lessons learned if you fail to learn why you didn't get the deal.

This isn't school yard soccer or baseball where parents wipe the noses of crying kids that lose the big game and tell them ‘it's ok, winning isn't everything'.  This is the big leagues where winning does count and it does mean everything.

Therefore, the next time you want to find comfort in doing a good job and working hard, remember the famous line from the movie National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation:

Audrey Griswold:  "he worked really hard grandpa"

Grandpa Art Smith:  "So do washing machines."

In my post "5 Questions to convert more appointments to sales opportunities" I talked about asking 5 key questions to get more of your appointments to become actual sales opportunities.  In addition, regardless of how well you conduct those questions, and the additional questions about time, money and resources and undoing a current relationship, typically, you will leave an appointment, only to be disappointed by unforeseen delays.  We have to fix that problem.  We will do that with the following steps:

1. What will get in the way of getting started and how do we overcome any hurdles or obstacles?
2. (Assuming that you've eliminated or helped your prospect overcome their hurdles then you proceed)  To move forward in the process of fixing your problem, I need for you to provide to me today a signed letter of agreement on the following:
1. We will begin the assessment process of the severity of your problem
2. We will deliver our findings of your problems as they compare to best practices.
3. We will provide you with a direction to take so that when you take that direction, either with us or someone else, you will begin to convert your problem today from a completely unsatisfactory (how they described it today) problem to extra-ordinary results
3. The cost to conduct the assessment, provide findings and direction is __________.  I will need a check for that amount by _________.
4. Spread some corn for the chickens - this is what you can expect to happen over the next 90 days.

It is absolutely critical that you ‘test' the waters relative to your prospects commitment and actual tipping point to take action.  Do not delude yourself into thinking that you will actually get a signed agreement or the check.  They are important but not critical.  What is critical is that based on their response to these steps you now will know if you have an appointment with a suspect that has been successfully converted to a sales opportunity.

You want to become ‘sales buff?'  If yes, then you have to make sure you understand what it takes to be buff and what happens if you are buffalo.

If you exercise at all, or if you've seen someone that really works out a lot, then you know the term ‘buff'.  To get buff you have to constantly improve in at least three areas:  your food intake, your cardio vascular fitness and your muscular definition.  You work on those three items and you end up with those well defined muscles .

Click here to find out if you are buff or buffalo in your professional sales career.

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).

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.

Sales Strategy and Execution

As I approach the 10^th tee I look down the fairway and read the slope of the fairway, the angle of the dog leg and the elevation of the ‘position a' landing area.  I then select the appropriate club to execute my perfect shot, address the ball, swing and hit the ball cleanly:

Into the woods.

As my good friend Whitey Kollmeier says, "That execution thing is overrated".  Certainly, he says that in jest, but it brings up the issue of how so many salespeople spend time on ‘sales strategy' stuff and yet fail to execute on the strategies.

My point today though isn't around the execution of your sales process.  My focus is on strategy development for your sales opportunities.  The process is not complicated, but it is critical to improving your success of converting appointments to opportunities.  In other words, using Dave Kurlan's example in Baseline Selling, you want to get from first to home, but you just can't go straight to home.  You must have touched 2^nd and 3^rd bases and eliminated all possibilities of getting picked off.

This requires strategy.  The ‘pre-call strategy' is simple:

• What is your ‘macro' objectives: disqualify the prospect, qualify the prospect
• What is the "micro' objectives - discover qualifying qualities of the prospect
• Start your process to achieve the objectives
• Identify qualifying or disqualifying questions you will ask
• Identify in advance qualifying or disqualifying answers to your questions
• Identify what question they may ask and your appropriate response (notice I didn't say answer)
• Understand what potential curve balls can be thrown at you and how you will react

Establishing this information and process up front will help you close more business more quickly, not because the pool of qualified prospects has increased, but because you will have stopped wasting time with non-prospects.

Baryshnikov, Jordan, Navratilova, Sinatra, Ella, Einstein, Comaneci, Mercedes Benz, Cadillac, Rembrandt, Ruth Chris, Dom Perignon, Stradivarius.

To many, if not all, of you the above names or brands are quite recognizable.  Not only are they recognizable but they are also associated with a certain definition of status within their profession.  To summarize that defined status:  "the very best'.

I'm sure that when you've attempted to describe an event or person or process, you may have used something like: "The dell is the ‘Cadillac' in laptop computers".  You didn't say that to mean average, middle of the road, good enough.  You said it to convey the message that the Dell computer is the very best.

How would your success as a sales professional be defined by your peers, your direct reports and your company?  Better yet, how would the people that depend on your success the most (you and your family) define your status as a sales professional?  Would they say that you were the Einstein in your profession or would they describe you as Mr. Smith the high school geometry teacher, the assistant professor of math in college or dean of the math department at Harvard?

Here is the bottom line when it comes to you and your sales success as measured by sales activity and sales results:  Your activity and results will describe you as a professional.  You can tell everyone how good you are, how well you are doing, what is coming your way and how you anticipate finishing the year.  But in the end, only one thing will determine if you are described as the Sinatra of Selling or the Sammy of Smelling.  So decide today how you want to be recognized in your chosen profession and begin performing at that level.  No excuses, no alibis, no shouldas and couldas.  In the words of Nike and Mr. Jordan.  Just do it!