A Sales Guy Consulting Blog

The guys over at Sales Loft have come up with a creative matrix outlining the future of sales and marketing.  

I like where they are going with this. 

Reach is becoming increasingly critical in sales. Reach has always been important in selling, however we've typically called it our "network" or "rolodex."  Reach isn't something new, it has always been part of selling success. Now that social and the Internet are on the scene how reach is created and leveraged for selling is changing rapidly and becoming increasingly important. 

Sincerity, like reach is not new to sales. Also, like reach, social media and social tools on the Internet are dramiticaly changing how sincerity is leveraged in selling process.

As the friction to reach is diminished, the ability to engage sincerley is improved. Building a selling approach designed to capitalize on reach and sincerity is where the win is!

Way to go Kyle, great visiual.  

Seth Godin wrote this piece last month and I thought it was killer: 

"When making a b2b sale, the instinct is always to get into the CEO's office. If you can just get her to hear your pitch, to understand the value, to see why she should buy from or lease from or partner with or even buy you... that's the holy grail.

What do you think happens after that mythical meeting?

She asks her team.

And when the team is in the dark, you've not only blown your best shot, but you never get another chance at it.

The alternative is to start in the middle. It takes longer, it comes with less high-stakes tension and doesn't promise instant relief. But it is better than any alternative.

Starting in the middle doesn't mean you're rushing around trying to close any sale with any bureaucrat stupid enough to take a meeting with you (or that you're stupid enough to go to, thinking that a sale is going to happen.)

No, starting in the middle is more marketing than sales. It's about storytelling and connection and substance. It's about imagery and totems and credentials and the ability to understand and then solve the real problems your prospects and customers have every day. It's this soft tissue that explains why big companies have so many more enterprise sales than you do.

You don't get this reputation as an incidental byproduct of showing up. It is created with intention and it's earned."

 We've all received sales advice that says start at the top. I think that's bad advice.

Early in my career I fell victim to the "starting at the top" advice. I was selling to a billion dollar telecommunications company who had a change in leadership. The new President and COO was a friend of mine. When he was announced, I just about jumped out of my shoes. I instantly started counting the money. The money, I hadn't made yet. 

Bill, the new President and COO was a fairly close friend. He had actually tried hiring me a few years previous, so I had unfettered access to him. After he started, we had a number of meetings and he told me he wanted my company to do a number of things for him. He laid out what he was looking for and then told us to work with his CIO.  

Needless to say the CIO had not been in the loop and did nothing but passively resist every move until everyone finally gave up. 

I was never able to grow the account through my relationship at the top. 

Seth's post and my experience suggest the old addage about getting to the top is a must and the only way to go is a flawed approach. 

But, hey Seth and I are just two people. What do you think? Is starting at the top, the best way to go? Do you start at the top? 

Rejection is part of sales. It's unavoidable. Not everyone is going to buy what you are selling, therefore you will be rejected.  

In spite of this fact, many sales people struggle with rejection, hampering their ability to get deals closed and move with confidence. 

When we are afraid of failure we move tentatively, we are unsure and it shows in how we operate. 

Failure of rejection isn't just a "sales person" problem. Everyone lives with some level of fear or rejection. 

This guy Jia Jiag was rejected by a major VC for investment in his company. He was so dejected he didn't know how to deal with it. After doing the research and learning about how rejection works, he decided to get better at handling rejection. 

For the next 100 days, Jia is creating crazy, unrealistic request designed to have him be rejected. In this one, Jia asks to be a live Abercrombie model. 

Jia's video's are hilarious, entertaining and creative. He's asked to cut the Best Buy line on Thursday night of Black Friday. He's asked a car sales person to teach him to sell and he's asked an employee at Krispy Kreme to make a donut Olympic rings. 

Check out Jia's videos. They just might make it easier for you to accept rejection and that would make you a better sales person. 

Sales has changed. That's all there is to it.  This is a good video put out by Huthwaite, the company that brought you Spin Selling.  

Ignore the dry and almost deathly boring presence of the narrator, Huthwaite's President and CEO John Golden. It's painful, but if you can get past it, there are some good nuggets in it. 

My favorite part come at 3:56 to 4:44 when TAS CEO Donal Daly talks about the death of the relationship sales person. 

Another one of my favorite parts is when Dave Stein of ES Research talks about value propostions. 

Take the time to check out this video, it's worth it. It does a good job of explaining what has changed while you've been busy selling. 

A client and I were talking about 2013 the other day. He told me he his growth strategy for 2013 was going to be through improved sales productivity. His thought process made sense, considering this year we spent a lot of time growing headcount. He is headed into the last part of a wildly successful year of 165% bookings growth.

Looking into 2013 my client sees tremendous opportunity to grow through productivity. In other words, he thinks he can get his existing team selling more.  Considering how new the majority of the team is, I think he’s right. There is a lot of room to grow. But, how much room?

We started talking about how much he could grow and his maximum productivity. I asked what he felt maximum productivity was and how much growth could that could provide.

To get to the answer, we did the following.

We identified the key sales metrics he felt represented sales productivity.  In his case, it was average deal size, number of deals sold in a year and number of sales reps. We then took those metrics and made some assumptions on what we believed were realistic expectations.  We then did the math.  We subtracted this “optimized” number from the 2012 numbers and found the growth rate for 2013.

I know that was tough to follow, so I’ll try to make it easier.

(X=average deal size) x (Y=average number of deals a rep can close in a year) x (the total number of reps) = MP Maximum Productivity

(MP=Maximum productivity) – (CP=current productivity) = P=Productivity growth potential

Once we have this number, the question then becomes, is it enough growth? If yes, proceed. If no expect to hire more people at sometime, or evaluate the underlying average deal size assumptions, number of deal assumptions etc.

This is a simple model. It can certainly be come more complicated. However, I try to keep things as simple as possible.

This model will tell you a few things:

1. What your maximum growth ceiling is. In other words, how much growth/revenue can you get out of your existing team
2. When you need to hire more sales people
3. If your optimizing your sales resources
4. The strength of sales leadership
5. How much money you “may” be leaving on the table

To download a simple sales team productivity calculator click here; Sales Team Productivity Calculator

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Footnote: I’ve intentionally kept it simple for this blog post. There are some additional complexities to be aware of. For example, new sales people must be factored in.  New sales people will not be as productive therefore that must be accounted of in the model. Underlying assumptions must be data driven. If not, it can have an adverse effect on the outcome.

I see this far too often.  Sales managers and sales leaders reactively manage their people. They reactively manage because they to manage to results.  Results are a trailing indicator in sales. If you manage to results your too late.

It’s a common approach in sales.  The sales rep misses quota. The manager says that’s not good, don’t miss quota again.  The rep misses quota again, the manager puts him on a PIP (performance improvement plan), which in essence lays out goals the rep must meet in the next 30 to 60 days or be fired.  In the less agressive scenerios like this, the manager works with the rep to figure out what is wrong but even then it’s still being reactive.

I have always felt this is a bad way to manage and lead sales teams, yet it has staying power and seems to be the course of action for most organziations.

Being reactive does little for anyone.  The key is to be proactive.  Like most things in life getting ahead of the problems or preventing them entirely is far better than trying to fix them. The key is find the leading indicators of failure.

To find the leading indicators I break down sales management into 4 integrated categories; planning, execution, results and talent.

Failure and poor performance can and will be seen early in any and all of these categories. They are a barometer for failure or success.

If a poor plan is put in place, failure is imminent even if it’s executed well by a talented sales person. – Manage the plan.

If a great plan is in place but is executed poorly by a talented person, failure is just around the corner. – Manage execution.

If the sales person lacks the skill or talent a good plan won’t make a difference. – Manage talent

If it’s a poor plan, executed poorly by someone with out the talent you’re screwed. – Manage all three.

If it’s a great plan, executed brilliantly, by a talented sales rep and the results aren’t there, you’ve messed up somewhere. – See 1, 2, or 3.  The problem is there.

Proactive management requires a process that embraces and monitors all the critical elements to sales delivery.

My management process to increase sales and get ahead of the problem works like this;

1) Everyone on my team builds a yearly plan.  They share it with the entire team, peers and all.  We cut it up, attack it, challenge it, and rework it until its a solid plan.  Plans go through a rigorous evaluation process to ensure they’re sound.

2) I focus on execution.  Plans are reviewed every quarter asking the following questions: what did you say you would do, what did you do, what did you learn, what are you going to do next quarter.  The process ensures proper execution by evaluating WHAT a rep is doing and HOW they are executing to the plan.  This allows problems to be identified early and changes made on the front end.

3) I hire for talent, and coach.  The most important aspect of proactive management is talent.  I hire for talent and I coach them.  I have standing one on one meetings every 6 weeks with all of my direct reports.  During these sessions we talk about what they do well, what they need to improve on and what they need to stop doing.  These are not performance reviews.  They are coaching sessions, designed to help them grow as a sales person and as a leader.

A process that embraces all of these elements is proactive.  Problems are seen early and symptoms are separated from root cause.

Getting poor results with proactive management is almost impossible.  You see it coming long before the boat sinks.  It gives you time to course correct, limit the damage or turn things around.

If your results aren’t there, if the numbers are off, if quota is in jeopardy it’s one of 3 things; a bad plan, poor execution or lack of talent or selling skills.  

Quick can you tell me which it is?

How do you know?

We don’t control very much in the world of sales. We like to think we do. We build neat little sales processes. We have weekly, monthly and quarterly business reviews. We make commitments to the sales managers, to the executives and to the shareholders about how much we are going to sell and by when. We build fancy reports to show we have things under control. But we don’t We like to think sales can be controlled. It can’t.

We can’t control when our customers will buy. We can’t control how much they’ll buy. We can’t control who they’ll buy from. We can’t control what they’ll buy and why they’ll buy it. There is not much we can control in sales.

What we can do is influence. We can deliver “best in class” customer service to influnce them. We can create innovative, easy to use, products that deliver exceptional value. We can be easy to do business with. We can give away our products to our best customers. We can be responsive. We can listen. We can make our customers our number one priority.

We can’t control very much in the world of sales but we CAN influence a whole lot of things.

To increase sales focus on what you can influence, not what you can’t control.

Do You Have the Guts?

It takes guts to be a leader. It takes real strength to be a leader. Unfortunately, these characteristics scare people, they scare companies. They disrupt the status quo. They challenge the systems. The create chaos. They create unpredictability. Corporations thrive on predictability and the status quo and unfortunately the cost to maintaining the status quo is the loss of great leaders.

Do you have the guts?

“You are the CEO of your own business.”  I said this all the time during my years leading sales teams. I would say it to every sales person and sales team that worked for me. I believe it.  Great sales people are like CEO’s.

More than any other position, sales has a tremendous amount of autonomy.  Like a CEO, this freedom gives sales people an infinite amount of lattitude in how they are going to attain quota.  Sales is a performance based role, like that of a CEO. Therefore, the best sales people approach sales like a CEO.

Great sales people, like CEO’s

• Leverage others to help them accomplish their goals – they don’t try to do it all themselves.  Great sales people know how to leverage the entire organization. Good and average sales people try to do it all themselves.

If you sell, getting people to change their minds or switch is part of the job. Sometimes people already have what you’re selling and you need to get them to try something else. You need to get them to switch. Getting people to switch is like selling to the monkeys; hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil. No one is paying attention.

We don’t like to switch. We are normally very happy with our choices and unless there is a compelling reason, we will defend our choices to the end. We don’t want to listen to anything new, because we’ve heard it already. We don’t want to see an alternative, because we’ve seen it all before and we don’t want to talk about anything new, because there is nothing new to talk about. Considering a change without a compelling reason calls into questions our original decision and we don’t like to think we originally made a mistake

Getting people to try something new is hard. It’s even harder if you don’t have a compelling reason.

People don’t switch just to switch. This is especially true in b2b sales. To get your customers to switch, create a compelling reason. Make it difficult NOT to change. It can’t be because your new. New isn’t compelling. Save your customers 2X more money. Grow revenue by 25%. Increase productivity 2 fold. Shorten production by 15%. Reduce operating costs 30%. Shorten the sales cycle by 30 days. Make a real impact.

Selling to the monkey’s isn’t easy, they aren’t going to pay attention for a different banana. You need to bring ice-cream covered in chocolate. They’ll pay attention then.