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Five Ways to Help Your Salespeople Think Like Business Owners

 

 

By Mark Roberts

“I want members of my salesforce to act like business owners in their territory.” – Every Business Owner of Every Company. What’s the secret? In our last post we shared 13 skills entrepreneurial salespeople have. How can you help your sales force become more engaged, motivated, and use their inherent ownership skills and drive profitable sales growth?

I’ve heard some version of the above statement from almost every C-Suite executive I’ve ever met. Initially, I translated this request as “if everyone gave their all, we’d blow up our number, disrupt the market and grow like crazy.” In an uncertain economy, I hear the more pragmatic: “I want my reps to be more accountable for hitting their number, “ or, “I want them to take a big-picture view of their territory,” or “ The sales team needs to understand (and communicate) the value we bring to all of our clients.” Upon reflection, I’ve learned to interpret these statements into a need for salespeople to take a leadership position in their territory or, more simply, to act like owners.

“Nothing happens until someone sells something.”

– Peter Drucker or Thomas Watson

Salespeople understand that they are the last (and vital) link in the chain between company and customer. They are the feet on the street and closest to their customers. Additionally, since the entire purpose of every business is to make sales, earn revenue, and become profitable, the very nature of the sales position requires some ownership skills from the salesperson. However, most sales folks don’t really act like owners. Imagine what your organization could accomplish if every member of the sales team was self-motivated and focused all their energy on making your business successful, knowing they, in turn, would become successful also. The good news is they can!

 

So, how do you leverage all their intellect, ingenuity, market knowledge and relationships, energy, and grit for competitive advantage? Ultimately, how do you build an ownership culture?

Here are five things you can do to help your sales force become more engaged, motivated, and use their inherent ownership skills and perhaps build a few more:

● Be transparent– Today, Shared purpose and motivation is a significant driver in achieving success. Increasingly, leaders are expected to be open. Sales teams want to understand how leaders make decisions and how the choices will impact the team, their clients, and the entire market. When executives are forthright with the salesforce about company goals, priorities, initiatives and challenges, and the trade-offs they as leaders must make, employees can better prioritize their work and develop solutions that benefit all parts of the business.

Also, remember that transparency is a two-way street. Salespeople need to use the CRM, document their activities, and strive for accuracy in forecasting. Regrettably, there are still salespeople who work outside the system (via excel spreadsheet, hide their opportunities, and pad their forecasts. I believe that if the team sees leadership as transparent and fair, they will follow suit.

● Let the sales team assist in goal-setting– In all companies, executives set the company goals and total projections each year. From there, the sales team should be enabled to set quarterly and monthly goals for revenue and bookings. These targets are divided up by territories and verticals. The marketing team takes the target and derive a marketing target. In addition to these targets, sales team members should be encouraged to develop 2-5 KPIs and a detailed territory plan that will help ensure the team makes its targets. This method requires buy-in from each team-member and strategies that are thorough, time-bound, and fixed on outcomes. Also, everyone understands that they are committed to and accountable for their goals.

● If the company wins, they win– If you want the sales organization to act as business owners, you should give them a stake in the success of the company. There are lots of ways to do this over and above commission incentives such as profit-sharing or an employee stock purchase plan. I recently saw a studyconducted by the London School of Economics and Compushare. They found those who participated worked more hours, called out less, were less likely to quit, and had higher job satisfaction.

● Offer upskilling– I’ve not met the sales team that isn’t interested in up-skilling. Did you know that offering career training and development would keep 86% of millennials from leaving their current position? When your sales team gains new skills and up level their competencies, they will be more ready to smash their quota and tackle challenges within their territories. Today’s buyer is more educated than ever; training will give your team a fighting chance. Teach them business acumen and the how their customers make money. Keep in mind what salespeople want are individualized learning plans that meet their needs just in time and just enough to drive performance improvement. They do not want to be in 2-3-day boring death by PowerPoint trainings that take them out of their markets. They need to evolve from sales reps to Trusted Advisors to their customers.  Also, when you proactively help employees gain new skills, not only will they become promotable, they’ll also be more loyal to your organization. (If you want to learn more about modern training download this eBook)

●      Be less of a boss and more of a coach– If you want your sales team engaged be mindful of how you communicate with them. If you are going to pay them a compliment, highlight the specific contribution they made, especially when they show ownership. Besides, when your employees come to you for help, ask questions, and challenge them to come up with the solution themselves. This way, they’ll eventually be capable of planning, evaluating options, and tactics－finally discovering their own solutions. These are crucial skills for ‘owners.’

When leadership takes the time to build and foster an ownership mentality with your salesforce, they will become both more productive and effective. Equally important, your team will feel valued.

Do you think it’s essential that your sales team has an ownership mindset? 

What are some ways to promote ownership mentality you’ve found?

Please answer in the comments. Thanks for reading!

How to stop Killing Sales Deals You Should Have Won

 

 

By Mark Allen Roberts

 

Many sales teams are adapting to the Covid-19 challenge. For some outside salespeople they are making virtual sales calls for the first time. Some teams are training their sales teams how to build virtual relationships and conduct virtual sales professionally, but sadly many are not. In addition to adjusting to working from home and its challenges, your sales team must have the right sales mindset to deliver the maximum results. The new book: Stop Killing Deals by George Bronten will help you quickly unmask deadly sales deal assumptions your sales team may have and help you correct them strategically. You will get to the root of your sales teams’ assumptions, reframe those assumptions and then gain a competitive advantage by viewing sales through the lens of human interaction.

 

I have to admit the current sales environment is the most challenging I have seen over the past 36 years. What I find to be one of the biggest challenges as I work with sales leaders and assess their sales teams is the teams’ sales mindset. Sales teams today are often not performing due to limiting beliefs and assumptions that are holding them back from helping their customers in their greatest time of need. These limiting beliefs are resulting in salespeople killing deals they should have won, and not even in conversations on sales opportunities they could have won.

The author shared a great quote:

“ Assumptions are your window to the world. You need to scrub them every once in a while or the light won’t come in.”

  • Jsaac Asimov

So what are some assumptions and limiting beliefs that are killing sales deals for your team today?

  • I’m not good at cold calls
  • I hate cold calls
  • Cold calls do not work
  • No one wants to speak with salespeople today
  • No one has budget
  • Everyone’s business is hurting today
  • I might loose my job, so I better start looking

What is a belief?

A belief is a thought you repeat over and over again. Notice I did not say a true thought. The way our brains work is they log every thought without measuring if it’s true.

Social science says our thoughts, feelings, memories, and processes that take place below the level of consciousness drive most of our behavior.

We are unaware of what’s happening in our unconscious mind where we harbor self-limiting beliefs. If that were not enough the author also shares how cultures and organizations also have limiting beliefs.

What I found fascinating in Stop Killing Deals is the discussion on organizational limiting beliefs I have observed that negatively impact sales effectiveness like…

  • Salespeople are born not made
  • Salespeople are disciplined
  • Buyers and sellers are logical

The author does an excellent job of unpacking each of the above limiting organizational beliefs.

For example: How do you know if your organization believes salespeople are born and not trained?

  • Unreliable business results
  • Slow or non existent sales growth
  • EBIT lower than your competitors
  • High sales turnover
  • High customer defections
  • Missed sales forecasts
  • Unhappy stakeholders
  • Fast sales leader turnover

The author also shares how to determine if your sales organization is disciplined and why most buyers and salespeople are not logical.

Stop Killing Deals also helps us understand the 5 most common things that drive decision making that every sales leader must understand.

Do your salespeople have limiting beliefs that are kills deals?

The author provides numerous excellent online tools to help you and your team improve.

I cannot think of a sales team I have served over the years who would not value the insights and tools of this book to help improve their sales teams’ effectiveness.

Are your salespeople able to work remotely today? (are you sure? The data I am seeing is more than 30% of salespeople cannot work remotely without some skills training)

Do they have the discipline to work remotely?

 

What limiting beliefs does your sales team have today?

 

I highly recommend Stop Killing Deals for every sales organization and regional teams that want to become market leaders in sales effectiveness skills.

 

If you would like to identify limiting beliefs your salespeople have today and create a plan to change them so your salespeople stop killing deals give me a call.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Time To Redesign Sales? Do You Have The Right People In The Right Roles?

By Mark Roberts

As sales organizations adapt and pivot to buyer needs and their buying process one of the things you should consider is, “do I have the right salespeople in the right roles?” Unfortunately, we know three of the most common errors that managers make are:

1) placing the wrong people in the wrong jobs

2) keeping them in these jobs for too long

3.) hiring based on experience and gut instinct.

Business strategist and author, Laura Garnett, recently wrote about the ten signs that your employee is not correct for their role. Garnett asserts that these signs are often very subtle, and I agree. Perhaps you’ve noticed disengagement, signs of boredom, or one of your team’s performance lags no matter how carefully you coach them. And when the department is sales, there’s a risk of a negative impact on the top and bottom line as well as damage to your brand.

Overall, Garnett’s article has me considering how to ensure the right salesperson is in the proper sales role AND how to mitigate the issue if the person is currently inhabiting the wrong position.

The answer: Data! Let’s explore the whys and how’s.

Using Data to Ensure You Hire the Right Salesperson. 

There’s a myth in the sales biz, and it goes that “nobody really understands how sales teams work.” Over the years, I’ve heard this fable expressed by countless members of the C-suite, and it is categorically false. Understanding sales requires a decent CRM, good data, some analytical tools, as sales skills assessment and a willingness to roll up your sleeves and ask the hard questions and (most importantly) make the changes needed.

In this scenario, we’ll start from the very beginning－you’ve got a new vertical market or are expanding into a new region and need to recruit a new salesperson.

●      Creating the job description– In order to develop practical job requirements, it’s crucial to understand what characteristics (AKA sales DNA), level of grit, and competencies that will be needed for the new hire to be successful in the role. The more specific you are, the better. One successful method that I’ve seen is using the data gleaned from formal, predictive assessments of your top performing team members. Essentially you are creating a profile of your best salesperson and writing the job description to attract that person. Additionally, you may want to share this profile with your team and include them in creating the description. They will be deeply familiar with what it takes to be successful in your organization.

●      Use a predictive sales assessment tool to evaluate candidates– Hiring sales representatives is not easy. Do you need hunters or farmers or both? Does it matter? Is the sales role outside sales? Inside sales? Many companies don’t understand what traits, competencies, and grit are necessary to succeed in selling their products. Formal evaluations are critical to identifying and predicting the underlying reasons for success or failure. Currently, I am working with an assessment tool with high probability success metrics, scored over three categories: sales DNA, grit and learned competencies. For instance, 92 percent of the candidates that are recommended and hired reach the top 50 percent of the sales team within 12 months. What’s their secret? Actually, it’s no secret; it’s using data, building profiles, and performing analysis.

●      Onboarding– Onboarding is a typical point of failure for many organizations. While sales leaders understand how urgent a comprehensive onboarding process having is, there are often other priorities. Our partners over at OMG have an excellent post on the how-to of onboarding and the positive outcomes that result when you do it correctly. And don’t think hiring a rep with experience in your product/market allows you to skip onboarding. Our friend at OMG, Dave Kurlan, has a term for it called “white-knuckling.” Here’s the story behind the moniker. It is worth a read. In short, the term refers to the feeling an experienced driver gets when driving in bad weather. To quote Dave, “the scenario might mirror exactly how it feels to be a new salesperson or an experienced salesperson who isn’t being on-boarded properly at a new company. New salespeople could easily be experiencing the white-knuckle syndrome, have difficulty seeing ahead, feeling like the car won’t stop, and just being totally out of control.”

●      Continued sales effectiveness and improvement assessments– Great sales leaders understand that for their team skills, development never stops. For assessments, to maintain objectivity, consider using a third-party. An unbiased look at your teams’ skills, beliefs and motivations, strategies, and systems can tell you if your team can execute and belong in their current roles. Additionally, assessments will help you discern what exactly you need to do to help your organization achieve its potential while giving you data to support your coaching and training efforts. You’ll also glean insight as to when it may be time to throw in the towel.

●      Build an ABL (Always Be Learning) mindset– Good (to GREAT) sales teams thrive when employed by companies who understand the importance of training. The Rain Group documented that companies with a training retention plan have 31% more sales reps reach quota than the industry average and a 10% higher year-over-year increase in corporate revenue.

Also, the data extracted from the assessments mentioned above can help you pinpoint exactly the right training and coaching to drive success. Please don’t kill your team with hours of death-by-PowerPoint. eLearning and other innovations have advanced training to the point where it can be (almost) fun!

Well, what do you think?

What are some of the initiatives that you do to confirm you have the right salesperson in the right role?

Are you restructuring your sales team?

Do you have the right people in the right roles?

Do you have the right terms of trade based on the profit of each customer?

If you are in the process of assessing your sales team’s skills, beliefs and motivations to retool your sales organization let’s chat.

I can save you a great deal of time, frustration and help you make a data driven plan to drive the maximum results in the shortest amount of time.

Is your sales team automation proof?

By Mark Allen Roberts

 

Your mindset is critical to your success in sales. (any job really) I work with a many sales teams and there is a fear just beneath the surface with many salespeople: “will my job be eliminated with automation?” Some transactional sales roles that involve order entry and or order verification and communicating ship dates will be replaced by automation, it’s just a matter of when. However, there are skills our sales teams need to develop that the Bots cannot replace. In this post we will share skills that will help your salespeople become “automation proof”.

The future of work looks grim for many people from a recent Harvard Article asking if you are developing skills that won’t be automated. The author predicts 10% of jobs will be automated this year.

A recent study from Forrester estimated that 10% of U.S. jobs would be automated this year. Deploying automation is reshaping the jobs of human employees. In 2019, Forrester predicted that automation will become the tip of the digital transformation spear, impacting everything from infrastructure to customers to business models.

In another report from McKinsey estimates that close to half of all US jobs may be automated in the next decade. Automation technologies including AI and robotics will generate significant benefits for users, businesses, and economies. About half of all work activates globally have a technical potential to be automated by adapting current technologies.

No wonder some sales teams are fear filled.

The trouble with fear is it does not motivate but cripples’ salespeople. When you are afraid the creative problem-solving part of the brain that is strategic and delivers key insights shuts off and blood is rerouted to the oldest part of the brain that is about survival.

Buyers today are sharing what they want from salespeople and it is those product and market insights they cannot find in online searches or from any Bot’s today.

The trouble is many sales teams are not organized to meet the needs of buyers today and the sales value pyramid.

This leads us to the question:

What skills can we develop in our sales teams that are automation proof?

In a previous post I shared what author Anita Neilson’s new book: Beat the Bots, How your humanity can future proof your tech sales career offers as excellent insights on how sales must adapt. Salespeople today must develop their skills in human to human (HTH) skills not only survive and thrive, and they will be in high demand for years to come.

The author shares a great deal of advice you can apply.

Some of my favorites are:

·     The critical importance of personalization

·     Understand and be able to communicate your value is critical

·     Active listening and understanding your buyers, their challenges and the business of their business so you can provide valuable insights to add value is imperative

·     3 types of value (General, Company, and Personalized)

·     How psychology is at the heart of all sales

·     If you capture rational and emotional forces at work in your buyers’ minds you develop    messages that resonate with them

One big takeaway I will always remember from this book is the metaphor the author uses of how driving behavior change is like the story of the rider, the elephant and the path.

The rider relies on evidence, data, and analysis to pick the direction.

The elephant’s behavior is influenced by experiences and feelings. The fear of risk, loss and pain are huge in how the elephant makes decisions. Elephants hate change and like sameness.

We quickly see the conflict that goes on in most of our brains and based on the elephants’ size and power who do you think wins most of the time? Is it any surprise the status quo costs sellers more sales than competitors?

Why this metaphor is so powerful is every B2B sale I have ever made involved change.

·     Change the vendor partner

·     Change in process

·     Change in relationships

·     Change in pricing and terms

Our job today as modern sales leaders are to shape and coach the path strategically understanding both the rider and the elephant.

In an article by Global Banking and Finance the author shares 10 “automation proof” skills.

Judgement

More specifically, automation won’t be able to mimic our innate ability to tell what’s right from wrong: judgment.

Conflict negotiation and resolution are two other skills that will remain intact in the face of AI and robotics.

Communication Skills

According to Statista, an average adult American spends nearly 12 hours consuming media. That’s lots of information, implying that communication skills will form an integral part of our everyday life in the future.

The truth of the matter, however, is that people still prefer their news and information to be written in a compelling and sensible way.

Content Creation Skills

On the same but lighter note, the ability to create original and captivating content will still be in high demand. In fact, it’ll be hard to automate original content creation – the art of being able to communicate about a given topic in a succinct and refreshingly unique way. As such, if you have a combination of the skills and expertise to churn out new knowledge, you will be able to keep robots at bay.

Creative Skills

Having great imagination and a knack for creativity means that you will be able to invent new solutions and create new concepts that don’t already exist. Bots cannot beat human creativity.

The good news is that creativity can always keep you a step ahead of the pack, including robots. Whether you have a way with words or a knack for creating innovative products, your skills and crafts are in safe hands.

Empathy

If there’s something that makes us human, it’s empathy. True, robots can carry out simple human interactions like reply to an email or offer customer support via an automated answering machine. Even with top-level AI, they cannot empathize with someone. In other words, robots cannot truly understand nor connect with people on an emotional level.

Athleticism and Physical Skill

From time immemorial, humans have always been fascinated by the utter physical skill of our minds and bodies. Athletics, for instance, is a profession that will always been appreciated despite the epic speeds, dexterity, and agility robots can deliver.

Planning Skill

Being able to plan ahead fast and accurately is an incredible skill that can come in handy in just about any business or career. But that’s not something robots can do. Yes, they can schedule appointments, but they cannot anticipate shifts in priorities, unknown outcomes, and missing information.

Tech Management Skills

It might seem counterintuitive, but it’s true. It is somewhat laughable because most at-risk skills are those associated with technology. But when all’s said and done, we still need someone with the skills required to manage and stay on top of the automation tech itself.

Teaching Skills

Proliferation of technology has made it possible for millions to access information and educational materials in an instant. However, teaching as a skill calls for understanding the context. That’s why talented tutors, coaches, and teachers will remain the cornerstone of our education system despite automation.

Leadership and Social Skills

Nothing will change the fact that machines/robots are soulless. That’s why their interaction and connection with us will always feel “fake” and cold. As such, they’ll not cultivate or exercise leadership. Good leaders, as they say, have an affinity for caring, empathizing, and connecting with others on a personal level. Nothing of the same can be said of robots.

What sales skills and competencies is your training program focused on today?

What sales skills do your salespeople have and what skills do they need to develop for today?

Do you need to restructure and upskill your sales team?

Are your salespeople “automation proof”?

We have shared skills that automation won’t replace in the foreseeable future. These are the “human to human skills” author Anita Neilson discusses. They all have a foundational emotional element in one way or the other. AI and robots might actually help us sharpen these skills but won’t replace them.

From my experience buyers’ value trusted advisors who listen authentically and deliver value in every interaction. Buyers want and need powerful market and business insights that will impact their bottom line. My advice to those salespeople and some sales managers that fear their jobs may be eliminated is focus on developing skills that are automation proof.

If you are curious about your sales team, the skills they have and the skills they may need in the future please contact me and let’s discuss how we can quickly answer those questions and help your team become automation proof.

When Life’s Storms Hit (and they will) Look for Rainbows Not Lightning

Since the Covid-19 hit many states have asked nonessential businesses to close. I am speaking with many anxious and fear filled leaders. These are people I have known for years and some I served with over 30 years ago. Interestingly many business leaders share their sales have not been interrupted and some have seen an increase in business by refocusing their teams on industries that are busy. There are common concerns for what the future may bring. Other conversations start with them sharing their concerns, all the lightning they see in this storm letting out their fears that haunt their thoughts and they end with: What do you suggest we do? We discuss adapting to today’s normal and leave the calls with an action plan with things they can do. Since so many businesses are different, what advice can I give to serve those in need?…” Look for a rainbow.”

What is working now? 

What customers, markets do you serve that are busy and need your help? 

What does your data show over the past week?

What insights can you gather in terms of your buyers and what they are buying and how they are buying?

Whenever I feel stress or anxious thoughts, I read my Bible.

I look for what the Bible says for how I am feeling at that moment and the below advice is perfect when businesses are facing challenges and need hope.

“I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.” Gen. 9:13

Deuteronomy 31:6 Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.

What do we know?

We live in the best country in the world with some of the most innovative minds on this earth.

We will get through this challenge and many will come through this storm stronger than when we entered it.

Some businesses are not only surviving but thriving in this crisis.

Buyers still need to buy.

Businesses still have problems (more) they want to solve.

What other advice do I give callers even in businesses deemed to be essential?

1.    Make sure your team is following Covid 19 safe practices is #1… Keep everyone safe.

2.    Interview your top 20 accounts today. What do you know to be true? What have we seen to be true in the last week? Act on truth not emotion and not hysteria.

3.    What customers need your help today? (maybe more than ever)

4.    Who are your top accounts that generate 80% or more of your profits? Stay very close to them, listen for new challenges and offer to serve them. Develop plans for each account.

5.    Make short term playbooks for sales and adjust plays when you learn something new.

6.    Have senior leadership alignment meetings.

7.    Create scenario plans.

8.    Develop a frequent all company communication cadence.

9.    Develop a frequent all client communication cadence.

10. Focus- the more you can focus your people on the behaviors you want and need them to do, ( based on your client research) the less time for worry.

11. Build sales accountability with clear expectations, processes and accountability feedback loops- “inspect what you expect”.

12. Use this time to build new relationships at your key accounts in other departments and higher in the departments you call on. Connect with purchase influencers in your key accounts. What challenges are they facing today?

13. If you serve the following markets: food, health care, medical supply, energy, utilities, trucking, public transportation, cellular, emergency support… interview your accounts, find out how buying has changed and adapt, what are their greatest challenges today and find ways to serve them. (assume nothing)

14. Training- the number one reason salespeople give for not training is they do not have the time. They have the time now in many cases and use this time to make them stronger so when this crisis passes, (and it will) they come through it stronger.

15. Training- as teams work remotely, train your teams how to use virtual meeting tools to keep their relationships strong with their customers.

16. Sales Manager training and coaching tools- use this time to help your managers become coaches. (when this is over you will be glad you did)

17. Give your salespeople and sales leaders prescriptive data, data they can use to have business discussions with their customers.

18. If you are looking for a great book all salespeople should read, have everyone read Trusted Advisor. Follow up with a virtual book review.

 

I participated in a webinar with Selling Power recently about helping your team assess the skills they need for the next 60-90 days you can watch it here .

I was asked by best-selling author Ed Wallace to join him on his webinar on: How to Build Virtual Relationships, and still hit your numbers this year… and you can access the recording here.

Author Anita Nielsen just posted an excellent article: Sales in the time of Coronavirus every salesperson and sales leaders should read and you can find it here.

How can I help your team in this challenging time?

What do you know to be true over the last week or so?

What does your data tell you?

What are your accounts telling you?

What is your formal process to capture and share this information?

How will you modify how you serve your customers based on their needs today?

As we closed the last webinar, I shared the following:

“people are not going to remember the people who sold them in this crisis they will remember those who authentically cared, served them, and helped them through the most challenging time most of us have ever faced. Be that person! Be the light in the dark for someone today. “

If you feel stressed and concern and need someone to speak with let’s chat!

I might not have all the answers but working together I am confident we can help improve sales effectiveness for your organization even in this challenging time.

 

 

“Why” You Want to be CEO Has a Huge Impact on Team Results

By Mark Allen Roberts

 

Why do you really want to be the CEO, CFO, or VP of Sales? Have you ever given that much thought? If you are like me it’s just what you do. You climb the corporate ladder and one day take a leadership position then strive to perform and win the next promotion. But why? What is your motive? What impact does the reason behind your wanting to lead have on the teams’ results? I just read the book: The Motive by Patrick Lencioni and this book helps leaders really dig deep into their personal “why”(motive) behind wanting to be a leader. Leaders who chose to lead based on the right Motive outperform those who chose the wrong one.

 

Early in my career I was… let’s just say… I was “very driven”. I was first hired as a route salesperson at Frito-Lay after graduating college. I quickly wanted to earn a promotion to be a sales manager. Once I became the sales manager, I strived to be the key account manager and with each new role came a new title, greater expectations, more responsibility, larger teams and more compensation and benefits. Growing sales effectiveness with my teams for me was my sport and I desired to get stronger. Each new role, each new challenge forced me to improve and gain new skills. Early leaders I reported to in my career provided training in leadership and management skills.

 

The greater the sales growth challenge the more exciting the opportunity so it should not surprise me looking back I spent the majority of my career fixing sales problems. I enjoy serving teams, their customers and their investors. I enjoy helping sales teams improve their skills and processes to be more customer centric leveraging the voice of their customers. I have a passion to help sales reps to become trusted advisors .

 

At one point in my career I served private equity firms and they asked I help lead teams at some of their investments that were underperforming. I received a call from a PE firm I had not served prior and they asked if I ever wanted to be the CEO of a company? I believed the right answer was supposed to be “yes” so I agreed to meet over coffee and discuss their expectations.

 

The PE firm invested in an innovative new technology that solved a number of market problems. The company was not scaling a quickly as the PE firm expected and they wanted someone to come in as CEO and scale the company profitably then position the business for sale in 24 months. I had never been a CEO of a grow and flip. The partner at the firm must have sensed my hesitation and started sharing the compensation, benefits, and what I could receive at the time of sale. I knew I could lead this startup’s sales and turnaround and grow sales but being the CEO of a turnaround and flip was something I had never done.

 

My gut said to say no, but when their offer for compensation rewards at the time of sale was so great, I could not turn it down. After all, that was the next logical role in my career growth, right? I have been a VP of Sales a number of times, Worldwide Sales Leader, President of a couple of companies… I should want to be the CEO, right?

 

Within a few months I was miserable. I took the job for the wrong reasons and I was not living in my area of gifts. I was not recruiting coaching and training a team. I tried very hard to grow this company and turn it around, but the reality was I never grew the company to what the investors desired and we sold the company for much less than we originally planned. I accepted the role of CEO without asking myself why I wanted it.

 

For years this failure has haunted me. What could I have done differently? What should I have done differently?… and then I read: The Motive by Patrick Lencioni. This book is written in the form of story to help the reader connect to the message emotionally. Once I picked this book up I had to finish it. The way the author shares the message of the book through a series of conversations between two CEO’s is brilliant! The Author helped me see one of the main reasons I failed as the CEO of this turnaround was my motive. My motive was my rewards and not building the team and processes like I have done in the past.

 

Let me ask you a question….

 

If you lead a team what is your Motive to be the leader?

 

The author keeps it very simple;

 

you have two options… your motive is…

 

The rewards you will receive personally like compensation, benefits, tile, …..

 

Or

 

Leading and serving others and doing whatever it takes to bring about something good for the people you lead.

 

If you lead a team for the wrong reasons you will avoid the unpleasant situations and activities leadership requires. If this behavior is left unchecked long enough your people will not be motivated, and not feel safe, will not have high trust and this will become evident in your bottom-line results.

 

The author does an excellent job of unpacking each motive to be a leader and asks a number of soul searching questions that once again created emotional responses in me I did not expect.

 

For example, the author asks:

 

Do you feel you should be able to trust them (your leadership team) to manage themselves?

 

Do you justify not knowing what your direct reports are doing by claiming you do not want to be a micromanager?

 

Do you complain about your meetings for being boring and ineffective?

 

At the end of the book the author does an excellent job of sharing 5 key responsibilities of a CEO. (and or anyone who is leading a team)

 

I highly suggest if you lead a team today, want to lead a team, or have aspirations of being a CEO one day you read this book and answer why you want to lead.

 

Have you ever worked for someone who was focused on their rewards of their role more than the welfare of their team?

 

What symptoms have you seen of teams led by someone who accepted the position for the wrong reasons?

 

Have you ever reported to a true leader led by the right why?

 

How did they make you feel?

 

What were your team’s results?

 

What do you think was their motive in being a leader? Why?

 

I have been blessed to have been led by leaders like Harry Jones, my first manager at Frito-Lay who created a personal learning and coaching plan for me long before there was such a thing. (we are talking late 1980’S) Or Jim Sankey who taught us all how to listen for customer unresolved problems and solve them with new products and services. He taught us how to create a business case based on the value the product delivered the customer. Jim invested in my training, coached me and sent me to College to earn my EMBA. None of these leaders were “easy” but I never questioned their motives.

 

As for me this book helped me find my true whys, the things that make me wake up before the alarm each day…

 

 

Fixing complex sales problems and helping others have the tools, training and coaching to serve their customers and solve the customer’s problems.

 

Building and growing sales team effectiveness, buyer centric sales processes, systems and training that help teams to create sustainable sales velocity.

 

Helping to diagnose business profitable growth friction points then helping the team heal the businesses to serve their customers, shareholders and employees.

 

Have you read The Motive yet?

 

If you strive to lead a team and or become a CEO, or if you are a CEO I strongly suggest you read The Motive.

 

If you would like to chat let’s schedule a call.

 

 

Are B2B “Lunch and Learn” Trainings Leaving You Hungry For More ROI?

By Mark Roberts

 

As I shared in my last post about how B2B Sales is heading into a perfect storm for sales effectiveness and training, we also need to look at each way we train our distributors. One of the most popular training I have seen over the last 35 years is manufacturers providing what we refer to as “lunch and learn training” for their distributor branch locations. The idea of training distributor salespeople to help them have great conversations with their customers is strong however lunch and learn training often leaves both manufactures and distributors hungry for more ROI. In this post we will discuss why lunch and learn trainings no longer serve manufacturers or their distributors and how we must adapt the ways we provide knowledge transfer to our distributors.

 

For as long as I can remember working for manufacturers we delivered “Lunch and Learn” trainings to our channel partners and distributors. If you are not familiar with the team “lunch and Learn” let me explain. As the name of the training implies the manufacturer salesperson buys lunch (sometimes breakfast) for the distributor branch. While the distributors team eats their free lunch you have about 30-40 minutes to train the distribution salespeople. The goal is to help the distributor salespeople have a better understanding of your product and or services so they would sell more. Each of the distributors we sold often had competing products that solved problems in a similar way, so we tried to get in front of the distributor’s sales team more than our competitors. We tried to buy the hearts of the distribution salespeople with donuts, breakfast burritos, pizza and sometimes catered lunches. At each training the manufacturing salesperson for that region would share product features and benefits and, on some occasions, provide application advice. The regional salesperson for the manufacturer would distribute sell sheets and answer any questions. This was a great model for baby boomers and before 2008, before the Internet and all the training models we have available to us today.

 

Today, lunch and learn training is adding to the cost of sale and rarely produces the ROI both manufactures, and distributors want and need.

 

Why?

 

Let’s start with the distribution sales team receiving the training.

 

  • The training is delivered by a manufacturer salesperson (not someone trained to train adults) and the topics covered are forgotten within hours without reinforcement.
  • As a distributor with 100’s of product lines you could have manufacturing salespeople wanting to feed product information into your salespeople every day, multiple times per day.
  • Now the branch manager must monitor and manage vendor training (along with everything else they are in charge of).
  • The training is often focusing on what is important to the manufacturer not the distributor and their customers (product focus of the month, a SPIFF incentive, a new product to drive manufacturer objectives).
  • The manufacturer salesperson is not aware of the sales competencies of those they are about to train at the branch.
  • The product(s) in the training may not be relevant to some of the distributor salespeople.
  • Lunch and Learns have become a distraction for distributors wanting to guide their salesperson’s focus, time and behaviors that deliver the most value.
  • Often distribution outside salespeople are taken away from their customer facing activities to attend manufacturer lunch and learn training.
  • For the financial folks reading this …. let’s say each lunch and learn for your distribution branch has 3 inside salespeople, 4 outside salespeople, two customer service team members and the branch manager? (don’t forget the warehouse team who smelled a free lunch and stopped processing orders for an hour) So work with me here…I am estimating an hour of your team’s time is $400 -$750 or maybe even $1000. Based on their compensation. Then we consider the opportunity cost, what they could have been doing not attending this training. Let’s say your daily sales are $20,000 so an hour of time is worth around $2,500. What happens when a customer calls and your team is away from the phones? They call another distributor. If they have a great experience they may never return. Can we agree the cost in compensation and business for your branch is worth $3,500 -$5,000 for an hour of time?( maybe much more)
  • What is your ROI from that training? If the lunch and learn  produced $350,000 to $500,000 in new revenue by all means keep doing them, …heck do more!
  • From my experience Lunch and Learn trainings have become a distraction and are no longer the best method to train distribution sales teams for knowledge transfer.
  • If you are a distributor and not realizing an ROI from manufacture lunch and learn training, its time to find another way to train your salespeople.
  • One last thought….Think about the message you are sending your staff with taking their lunch hour for training. Our company believes in training but we will not invest any of our time in it but we will take your personal time?

 

Let’s not forget about the manufacturer and their local salesperson.

 

  • A growing problem in sales today is salespeople are too distracted. This is resulting in less than 20% of the time they are customer facing and actually selling. They need to be having discussions with customers who have problems they can help solve. Lunch and learns take time away from customer field visits with distribution salespeople.
  • There are only so many hours in a day. The salespeople I have worked with, coached and trained have shared they see little if any retention and return from distributor lunch and learn trainings.
  • The manufacturer regional salespeople spend more time planning the food than their presentations.
  • If you prepare properly for a lunch and learn it should take about 2-4 hours, time most field salespeople do not have today.
  • Let’s review costs: The food can cost $50-$250. The brochures you had shipped next day to you another $100. Time: planning, drive time, delivery can be 5 hours to over 10 if you needed to fly into the city for the branch. Let’s agree the average hourly cost of a field salesperson for a manufacturer is $50-$75 per hour or $750 to deliver a lunch and learn. We have the travel cost in mileage to consider and that could be $100 if the branch is nearby and air travel could be over $500. You came in the night before and had a hotel stay at $140. Let’s roll with this scenario and agree your cost to deliver the lunch and learn is around: $750 to $1,800.
  • Oh, I almost forgot the big cost…the opportunity cost. You have experienced if you go on end customer calls with your distributors, you win the business and your average new customer order from your CRM data is $45,000 in the first 12 months.( some much larger)
  • So that one-hour lunch and learn training is really costing your company $45,650 to $46,800. Let me ask you a question…will you see a sales increase from your training at that branch of $400,000 to $500,000? (I kind of thought you wouldn’t, but I was hopeful)

 

As I shared in my last post turnover at distributors is growing. The market forces are converging on distributors like never before. The new Millennial and Generation Z workers only plan to stay 24-36 months. Manufacturer salespeople often meet new salespeople on each lunch and learn training. Something needs to change. As manufacturers can you afford to have weekly lunch and learns with this kind of turnover? We must challenge what we have been doing for 30-50-100 years and explore new and better ways of training our distributors.

 

What is some market leading manufactures doing?

 

They are investing in online micro learning product courses. Small courses designed to help distribution salespeople understand the product, application quickly. They are redirecting the funds they spent per year in lunch and learn training to online learning. Distribution sales teams are seeing this training just in time, just enough, and online learning is perfect for the millennials and Gen z new associates.

This model frees distributor outside salespeople to stay in the market with customer facing activity and they can take the short 10-20 minute product training updates on their cell phones over lunch or in between customer appointments. Manufacturers who are leveraging online learning for their distributors and going on more field visits to end customers.

Manufacturer field sales managers who have been trained in product and application knowledge are now spending more time with distributors doing behaviors that have proven to move the sales needle for distributors and manufactures.

 

What is market leading distributors doing?

 

They are investing in LMS systems to train new and current salespeople. These systems provide bite sized courses with just enough, when you need it and it is relevant to the sales role and the customers they serve. These courses are mobile friendly, and if designed properly provide knowledge checks, job aids and application exercises. The knowledge is transferred over time in little drips blended with other training that works with the distributor sales rep’s everyday workflow. Because it is delivered over time and reinforced it is remembered.

 

The really advanced distributors are recruiting their top performing salespeople to be a part of their training and on-boarding and asking experienced salespeople to record insights they have learned over the years by customer type, product and industry. These innovative distributors are gathering and creating learning libraries of the tribal knowledge their senior sales performers have gained over the years  before they retire. These knowledge libraries will equip their LMS system with peer-to-peer knowledge transfer insights that we are seeing has huge returns in retention.

 

Market leading distributors are also investing in their sales skills training and branch manager training. As I shared in the last post, the new workforce wants and needs frequent coaching and feedback. Leading distributors are converting their branch managers from players to coaches and this results in scalable sales results.

 

Market leading distributors and manufactures alike is having their sales teams take sales skills assessments and prescribing individualized learning plans based on need.

 

I hear some manufacturer salespeople expressing concerns: What about relationship building? When I deliver a lunch and learn I am also building relationships.

 

Two thoughts…

 

First if you want to build relationships do so on end customer visits helping the distribution salesperson make more commission.

 

If you want to build relationships with the distributor’s team have an after hours event that is local to the branch and fun. Focus this experience on relationship building and not products, features and benefits. Get to know each person by name and strategically build business relationships. Understand how your distributor makes money and stop pulling their team away from servicing their customers in business hours.( its costing you both sales you could have won)

 

In conclusion, I want to emphasize I am not suggesting we stop training our distribution and channel partners. What I am suggesting is we design modern sales training programs that are cost efficient, time efficient and leverage the way the new workforce wants and needs to learn, and are adapted to the trend of only staying with an employer for 24-36 months..

 

If you are a manufacturer, how many lunch and learns did your field team deliver last year?

 

If you are a distributor, how many manufacturer lunch and learns and meetings did your branch have last year?

 

How do the new salespeople want to learn?

 

Aside from free food, what is the benefit of manufacturer lunch and learn training today?

 

Have you seen a strong ROI from lunch and learns as a distributor? If so please share, there has to be some great success stories,

 

As a manufacturer, what is the value of 3 more end user visits with your distributors this month?

 

We  need to change how we provide product and sales training and I suggest manufacturers provide online product and sales skills training and equip the branch managers to coach and lead their teams. I suggest manufacturers learn the economics of running a distributor branch and plan relationship building events prior or after working hours.

 

If you are sold on lunch and learns and do not plan to change, below are some articles to improve your lunch and learn experiences and hopefully improve the ROI.

 

7 steps to successful lunch and learn 

 

How to create a Learn at Lunch program 

 

How to run a successful lunch and learn program 

Wholesale Distributor and Manufacturer Sales Training Must Transform Due to Market Perfect Storm

 

By Mark Allen Roberts

I enjoy training and coaching salespeople, it’s a passion mine. I led sales training for a global manufacturer, helped develop online training as well as flipped classroom training. I have often helped train wholesale distribution sales teams and coach sales managers. There is a perfect storm brewing that will capsize most manufacture and whole distributor training programs ROI if learning and development teams do not make some strategic course corrections now and batten down the hatches. This post will share the top 4 forces quickly converging on how train and we onboard manufacture and wholesale distributor salespeople.

 

There was a great movie based on a true story titled: The Perfect Storm. This movie shares the story of courageous men and women who risk their lives on rescue vessels and fishing boats. On Halloween night 1991 a fishing boat faced three raging weather fronts that unexpectantly collide to create the fiercest storm in modern history. If you have not seen the move here is a movie trailer. The experienced crew has weathered storms at sea before but never three storms converging all at once making the Perfect Storm.

 

Having trained manufacturer and whole sales distributor sales and sales managers I see a perfect storm, a sales problem brewing on the horizon and in this post I will share the 4 converging forces that will capsize the ROI of sales training if you do not transform your sales training programs now. The bigger impact of this perfect storm will be felt by manufactures and distributors alike in the next five to seven years and will be seen as:

 

  • Sales growth quotas not achieved
  • Lost sales you should have won
  • Decline in customer experience
  • Decline in customer satisfaction
  • Reduced profit margins
  • Higher sales unplanned turnover
  • Large account defections to new competitors
  • Poor Training ROI
  • Manufactures not happy with their distributors
  • Distributors not happy with manufactures

 

So what are these four converging forces about to rain down on how we train our sales people?

 

  1. New Generation of workers: Millennials and Gen Z
  2. Buyers changing how they buy and what they need to buy
  3. The Amazon affect and how it’s shaping buyer service expectations
  4. Top sales talent leaving the workforce

 

 

I think you will agree any one of these would have an impact on your salespeople and how we need to train them differently. However, all these 4 forces are converging over the next few years to make a sales training perfect storm.

 

Let’s unpack each a little more.

 

New Generation of Workers: Millennials and Gen Z Workers

A new generation of workers are entering manufacturers and distributors. By (2025) they will be the majority of your sales team. Each generation is influenced by their education, experiences, technology and geopolitical environment. That is why each generation has its own unique characteristics.

 

On an article titled: 7 surprising traits that make millennials excellent employees the author shares Millennials are:

 

  • Curious
  • Individualistic
  • Want Financial Stability
  • The digital Generation/ tech savvy
  • Want and need regular feedback
  • Like to Collaborate with others

 

Other things to consider is they plan to stay with employers 24-36 months and move on to new roles that teach them new skills. They expect their employers to invest in training and if employers do not, they move on quicker.

 

Let’s take a look at Gen Z workers.

 

The Warton University article shares this about Gen Z in the workplace:

 

“As a group, they are “sober, industrious and driven by money,” reports the Wall Street Journal, but also “socially awkward and timid about taking the reins.” They are risk-averse and more diverse, says Inc. magazine. Forbes says they “want to work on their own and be judged on their own merits rather than those of their team.”

 

 

 

Another article shared these traits for Gen Z:

 

  • Preference for traditional communication
  • Work individually
  • Mobile first habits
  • Motivated by Stability
  • Naturally Competitive
  • High Priority for healthy work life balance

 

Millennials and Gen Z workers will need new forms of training and managers will need to provide frequent coaching and not micromanagement. Both generations want to know the why of what they are doing and they plan to change jobs often.

 

Buyers Changing How They Buy

 

Due to the Internet Of Things buyers can and do conduct online research like never before.

 

  • 70% of the buying process is over before they speak with a salesperson
  • 44% of buyers have already made their buying decision
  • 20% of buyers are only speaking with sales to finalize the shipping and other transaction information.

 

Buyers today want and need salespeople who are trusted advisors who provide valuable insights they cannot find online. 85% of buyers in one survey shared they expect salespeople to connect the dots from what they are selling to the impact it will have on the buyer’s bottom line and sadly only 15% of salespeople are meeting that expectation today.

 

In the past buyers made decisions based on regional proximity. Today with two clicks buyers can buy from all over the world opening up many new competitors you never faced in regional markets.

 

“The Amazon Effect” and how it’s shaping buyer service expectations

 

Entreprenuer.com article shared the Amazon Effect as:

 

“it generally refers to the difficulty many stores — particularly brick-and-mortar outlets — face when they compete with Amazon. The online retailer’s vast selection, fast shipping, free returns, low prices and “Prime” subscription service all serve to create high customer expectations for any retailer hoping to compete.”

 

More and more of Amazon revenues are from B2B sales each year impacting both manufacturers and wholesale distributors alike.

 

When buyers leave work and they go home to their families they are consumers. Each month 197 million consumers get on their devices and visit Amazon. They are experiencing what frictionless purchasing feels like and they can’t help but let it shape the type of experience they expect from their vendors at work.

 

Is buying from you as easy as two clicks?

 

How much friction do your buyers experience when buying from you?

 

Top Sales Talent Leaving the Workforce

 

Each day 10,000 boomers are leaving the workforce. This generation (my generation) often are in leadership positions in manufacturing and whole distributors. We did not grow up with technology but most of us adapted but many did not.

 

I just met with a sales branch manager at a distributor that has a 3-ring notebook with all his key account business cards, vendor sell sheets and a handwritten targeted account list. By the way he consistently is in the top 3 producers in his company. The challenge becomes he has so much what I would refer to as tribal knowledge. Because technology entered into his world at a later time the majority of what he knows is in his head. If you ask him how he consistently delivers the results he produces each year he often cannot tell you. If you complete a top producer analysis assessment you will discover the knowledge and sales competencies that he has.

 

In distribution in particular there are so many vendors, and SKU’s and nuances you just learn to know that are often not captured and it should not surprise us some distributors find it takes a new salesperson as much as six years to truly become effective generating incremental revenue. The manufactures I have served typically see a new salesperson deliver incremental revenue in 12-18 months on the job.

 

What are common characteristics of top performers today?

 

The business owners play book shares how to identify top performers and future leaders:

 

  • Quality – if you are going to do something do it right
  • Skills Development– continuous learning
  • Fearless decision making – they leverage data and make decisions
  • Desire input from others
  • Self-Directed – they have a plan and work the plan
  • Emotionally intelligent-cool under pressure
  • Strong people skills– interpersonal communication and listening skills

 

Boomers who often lead departments and are top performers will be leaving over the next five to seven years. One distributor shared with me they estimate over 50% of their workforce will be retiring over the next eight years.

 

I hear some of you saying: “This is all interesting and I knew most of this, so what about this perfect storm again Mark?”

 

Glad you asked.

 

Your sales training and onboarding must change to support the audience you are now training.

 

You must immediately start capturing that tribal knowledge digitally today.

 

Some key characteristics of modern learning?

 

Asynchronous

Online and flipped classroom application

Trainee is in charge

Fast paced

Just enough

Relevant to the sales role and customers

Just in time with workflow

Mobile friendly

Peer to peer learning critical component

Interactive

Gamification will appeal to the new generations

Virtual Reality and Augmented reality will become the norm

On the job tool and learning aids will be critical

 

If you would like to learn more about modern sales learning programs I wrote a whitepaper titled: 17 training innovations for the future and you can download a copy here.

 

Other consideration before we close?

 

You don’t have the time (6 months) to train new salespeople like the past.

 

Death by PowerPoint instructor led training alone does not work with new workers.

 

Instructor led one and done training without reinforcement or application exercises does not stick.

 

You don’t have 6 months to train salespeople who plan leave in 24 months.

 

On the job training is great if managers do it (50% of the time they do not)

 

The new generation wants coaches not managers.

 

Your sales managers will need strong coaching skills.

 

With every new challenge an innovator will design and deliver new solutions to meet the challenges.

 

What will sales training look like in the next 5 years for manufacturers?

 

What will distributor onboarding and sales training look like?

 

How will these converging four forces impact your sales?

 

What will sales training need to look like if employees only stay 24 months?

 

So there you have it. All the above forces are quickly converging and will create a perfect storm for training manufacturer and wholesale distribution salespeople.

 

What do you think?

 

Is my argument that sales training must change all wet?

 

Is there something I forgot to consider?

 

How does your team plan to weather this storm like we have never seen before?

 

I see this as an urgent and pervasive problem that is growing each month and must be solved.

If you have some ideas how to solve this perfect storm of a sales training problem I would enjoy chatting.

Fix Sales: Could a Business MRI (BMRI) Make Your Sales and Profits Healthier?

 

By Mark Allen Roberts

The new year is underway and soon we will be ending the 1st quarter. When I ask CEO’s and Sales leaders: do you feel you will achieve this year’s plan? I hear I hope so, I think so, and more often than not I hear I’m not sure, it’s too soon to tell. I recently spoke at the NAW event in Washington DC and asked a room of CEO’s and business leaders to raise your hand if you felt with 100% certainty your sales organization would hit your sales and profit objectives in 2020…. not one hand was raised. Will 2020 be like the movie Groundhog Day and be another year like last year where more sales team’s missed quota than achieved it? Or will 2020 be the year you make strategic adjustments to transition your sales organization? In this post we will discuss how to run a BMRI for your business now and detect problems before the end of year when they can become terminal.

 

There was an interesting article in the Wall street Journal some time ago about a reporter who wrote about healthy lifestyles discovering he had a blocked Carotid artery although he was not currently showing any symptoms. As I read this article it reminded me of how many business owners, CEO’s and sales leaders I speak with have deep issues in their businesses that need some kind of an early warning, a business health MRI maybe to identify issues today that could be potentially crippling  at year-end or fatal in the future.

 

Meet Thomas Burton, age 68 a journalist covering the medical field, and he has spent years writing about strokes, most of which are caused by clots blocking blood flow to the brain. Now he faced a question as he shared in this article: “Am I going to become a weird punch line? As in: Did you see that the guy who writes all those stories about strokes just had a big one?” He felt healthy, ate right and exercised. He considered himself a young 68, but inside his body small fat cells were traveling in his blood and forming a clot.

 

He had none of the common stroke symptoms like:

 

Slurred speech

Temporary loss of vision

One side of face droop

Arm or leg weakness

 

As I read the article I learned 700,000 strokes a year are caused by blood clots and 130,000 of them end in death according to the American Stroke Association.

 

A simple scan, an MRI saved this reporters life. I was so moved by this article I signed up for a body scan myself.

 

This led me to a a couple of questions:

 

What if we could provide a scan for the health of your business today and predict the future health of your business?

 

If we used a scan of your businesses health today could it help us prevent your business having a stroke and or going out of business?

 

Would you do it? Why or Why not?

 

What if we had a Business MRI (BMRI) and we could scan your business and share specific areas that need to improve before they become fatal?

 

For over 30 years of my career I was hired to “fix sales problems”. The first thing I would do is assess various parts of the business, understand the voice of their customers today, and determine the organizations’ overall health then work with the leadership teams to improve any areas that are not performing or could be a risk for the organization in the future. This process I used was the same but the time to complete it varied from 3-6 months to a year. (but that was many years ago) As a leadership team we would find, divide and concur the data and I would conduct four legged sales calls with the sales team and visit all the customers who represented 80% of the profits. I was assessing the sales team skills, beliefs, motivation, process, strategy alignment and the tools they were using. I was also capturing the voice of their customers today. Luckily today we have the technology and systems to complete a business health scan (BMRI) in less than three weeks.

 

What if, buried deep in your transaction data and your sales team itself are the answers you are seeking?

  • How effective are we?
  • How much more effective can we be?
  • How long would it take?
  • Does my sales team have the beliefs, motivation, skills and systems support to drive the sales and profit growth I need?

 

Could clots be forming that can cause a sales and or profit stroke in your business or worst?

 

If we could run a diagnostic scan of your sales and your overall business health what would we look for?

 

I would suggest seven (body) parts of your organization to scan.

 

Voice of your customers

 

Net promoter score

Customer satisfaction score

Company knows why they win and why they lose sales

Understand your customer’s buying criteria today

Understand your customers buying process today

Understand the business of your customer’s business

 

 

Systems and Processes

 

Sales Plan

Sales Process that is buyer centric

Systems to support profitable growth

Sales skills and competencies

Is the CRM your single point of truth or a box of lies?

Sales Support

Excess capacity

On time shipments

Shipment accuracy

 

Marketing

 

Web page rank

Web bounce rate

Web content in the form of problems you solve

Testimonials

Lead generation

Quality of leads generated

Cost per lead

Lead rolling 12 months close rate

Case studies with economic impact

Social Media presence

Digital marketing competence

Ease of online engagement

Content

Content, thought leadership positioned in key channel associations

Leads from events

 

 

 

Sales support

 

Ideal customer profiles

Buyer personas by channel and product type

Sales Enablement

Sales tools

Sales Management Skills

Sales Manager Coaching Mastery

 

 

Sales Mindset

 

Beliefs of your salespeople about selling

Motivation of your salespeople

Sales team Accountability

Will they sell?

Emotional intelligence

Figure it out factor

Empathy

Beliefs about your pricing

Beliefs about your quality

Beliefs about the economic value your team delivers

 

 

Sales Skills

 

Qualifying

Discovery

Value based sales skills

Product knowledge

Follow up

Build and leverage relationships

Account management

Project management

Problem solving

Critical thinking

Do what you say you will do

Listening, active listening skills

Business acumen

Market knowledge

Understanding of your customer’s customer

Understanding of how your customer makes profit

Negotiation skills

Closing skills

Understanding of company strategy

Understand sales behaviors that support company strategy

 

 

Metrics and Data

 

On boarding new sales associates and time to revenue

Sales skills assessment

Sales training content, time and delivery method

KPI’s (leading and lagging indicators)

Sales $’s

Cost of sale by customer

Sales growth trend last 24 months

Cash flow

Average sales profit last 24 months, total, by region, by salesperson

Net profit by customer

Share of wallet by key customer

Customer retention %

Customer defections $’s

Net new customer $’s and profit

Net new product and or new service sales and profits

Price override %

Cost of new customer acquisition

Sales turnover (planned and unplanned)

Sales close rate

 

Once we scanned your organization for all of the above, we could diagnose the overall health of your business today and predict the future success of your organization. We are establishing your current state.

Most of the teams I have served have a much clearer vision of their future state they desire than the current state they are working in today. We look at your business and customers today then create a plan, connect the dots between today and where your team desires to be,

 

What would you add to the list?

 

What else would you want to diagnose?

 

How healthy is your business?

 

How healthy is your sales and profits?

 

Are your salespeople doing the sales behaviors you need today?

 

I hear some of you saying: “Wow Mark that’s a lot of work, I am already buried in work and so is my team how will we find the time to gather this information? “

Or another common concern: ” This sounds like a pretty big change and we are not typically strong at change management.”

If you have been following any of my articles or attending webinars there is an assessment tool and process to gather the above data points. We leverage technology to gain the insights we need to shape a healthy business plan for the future.

If you want to DIY your assessment have at it. Before the tools we available today I helped teams gather this much needed data and it typically took 6-8 months.

With the rate of change we are experiencing in this VUCA economy by the time you gathered everything yourself it may not be relevant anymore.

The other consideration you must assess is the organizations culture if you want to DIY your sales and profit health project. Your organization culture is like the blood flowing throughout your body. It touches every organ or as in this case every process and system.

 

Culture 

Innovative or Protect the Fort?

Comfort with change?

Leaders have fixed mindset?

Matrix structure, top down, very flat?

Decision making process?

Leaders open to new ideas or do they have deep biases that may slow down the process?

 

My recommendation is you want a 3rd party to give your business a BMRI so the data is not biased.

 

Be prepared some of what you learn will be great and confirm your beliefs and some of what your 3rd party discovers will make them seem like a Heretic. There is a tremendous value of hiring a heretic when it comes to adding value to your bottom line.

Keep your focus on the desired future state, processes and customers.

Create cross functional teams to help you get there.

You have a smart and experienced team give them data and watch them shine.

When you find the above you will complete a health assessment of your business.

You will have all the data. Where the art of this comes in is seeing all these puzzle pieces and knowing how to assemble them into a plan your team can execute that drives short term gains while establishing long term profitable sustainable growth.

 

If you want help let’s chat.

 

I can help you answer the above questions in 3-4 weeks and establish your current state, then together we can collaboratively build your sales and profit health plan.

 

 

 

 

Fix Sales: Is Your CRM a “Box of Lies”?

 

By Mark Roberts

More and more sales teams are investing in a CRM to improve their sales effectiveness and drive more revenue to the bottom-line. (or that’s what the business case you wrote said to justify the investment) The right CRM becomes your single voice of truth to determine sales pipeline, sales behavior and customer activity. Salespeople often push back because the tool was thrown on them and not sold to them on how it could benefit them. Most salespeople believe a CRM is basically one more way for the organization (big brother) to watch them and challenge what they do. Sales organizations are already the most measured business team in most organizations. One-way salespeople push back on a CRM is making it a “box of lies”. In this post we will discuss why sales teams often hate CRM’s, the value a good CRM will deliver and how to tell if your current CRM is just a “box of lies.”

 

I was watching the Jimmy Fallon show not long ago and he had a guest Mellissa McCarthy and they played a game called box of lies. If you are not familiar with this game click here and watch a short video. The game is set up with two players facing each other and they have a small window to make eye contact. One player picks a box from the shelf and opens it and can describe what they see or lie. The other person must try to guess if what they are being told is the truth or a lie.

 

As I watched this show it reminded me how this is often how sales leaders feel when they look into their CRM systems trying to find valuable insights about the accounts their salespeople are working with.

 

Working with senior sales leader I often hear two common concerns about their CRM:

 

  1. The doubt the accuracy of the data
  2. They struggle to have their sales teams use the tool they invested in

 

Salespeople who have the right CRM for their application and have received training on how to use the technology to become more efficient and effective love their CRM. The CRM is the first thing they open each day, they can enter updates from their cell phones and they have seen how this tool helps takes the complexity out of account management and helps them close more sales faster.

 

However this is not the norm in most sales organizations I work with. Salespeople do not use the CRM in many cases and if asked they share they hate it.

 

Why?

 

If we seek the root of a problem we can often better understand it and fix it. To fix this sales problem I Goggled: “Why Sales hates CRM systems” It seems I am not the only one who has noticed salespeople hating their CRM and wanting to know why.

 

Why sales (don’t) hate CRM, but why they won’t use it 

Why do salespeople hate CRM? 

5 Reasons Salespeople Hate CRM 

Why do your Sales Reps Hate your CRM 

Why salespeople hate their CRM (you tube)

Why Your Sales Reps Hate CRM Software [Infographic]

 

I read these posts and watched You-tubes and identified 5 common reasons salespeople Hate CRM.

 

  1. Trust – they believe it was implemented to check on them, hold them even more accountable. They believe its one more way for big brother to watch them and challenge them and their sales leaders have no idea what selling is like today.
  2. Written for sales managers not salespeople– this came up often and I hear it from salespeople I work with and coach. The tool their leaders invested in (often in a big way) does not add any value to the salesperson. The tool they use, if they use it, was not designed for the user but the manager.
  3. Access– some salespeople complain their CRM system is not accessible when they are in the field working with customers. Many complain they cannot update account data from their cell phones. One team expressed the concern their CRM is so poor they spend hours entering the updates and it is lost.
  4. Not easy to learn or use– many of the salespeople I coach share they received little if any training on how to use their CRM and if they did receive training it was on the basics and not real life examples of what they do in a typical day.
  5. Adds more time and complexity to their day not efficiency – this comes up in every conversation. Some CRM tools have such a poor user interface they just add frustration to the salesperson’s already frustrating and stress filled day. As one seasoned salesperson shared with me off the record: “ What does my CEO and Sr. VP of Sales want? They said it very clear in our last meeting. They want more organic growth, more customer face time, more net new business and sales selling based on value not price. The trouble is the CRM system we chose is not adding efficiency to my day it is taking time from the hours I could be selling.”

 

One article shared the below quote:

“The valuable data and sales process flow reviews and improving your sales forecasting you hoped to gain from the investment is now a bunch of meaningless data that is not worth the time it took a salesperson to enter it.”

 

Another article went on to share:

“Salespeople should be doing one thing and one thing only: talking to prospects and building real human relations in the process. Traditional CRM systems are keeping them away from that. Instead of facilitating relationship building, CRM’s hold sales people from their prospects and force them to log calls, update contacts, attach emails and other mindless admin work humans are not meant to be doing.”

 

What good is a tool if you need to help it to make it help you?

 

One last quote from SalesBox.com (I promise):

“We have personally discussed CRM with thousands of people worldwide. The general feedback from the salespeople is usually unprintable, we usually say they get something dark in their eyes when you mention the word CRM”

Why have a CRM if a sale hates them so much?

What are the key benefits of CRM software?

The right CRM can help your sales grow profitably with:

  • Improved efficiency
  • Improved customer retention
  • Get greater customer satisfaction
  • Increased sales productivity
  • Do better forecasting and reporting

Former CEO of General Electric, Jack Welch insists that the secret to making it to the top of your industry (and staying there) starts on the inside:

“An organization’s ability to learn, and translate that learning into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive advantage.

I thought this quote was a compelling reason to have a CRM:

“Digital transformation is no longer an initiative used by progressive companies to increase efficiency or gain a competitive edge over their peers—it is a requirement for all businesses to thrive in the future.” – Gartner

How do you know if your current CRM is the wrong CRM?

  1. Sales Managers have to force salespeople to use it
  2. The tool is not accessible 24/7
  3. The tool is not accessible on mobile devices
  4. Sales is not updating account records timely
  5. You have zero confidence in your sales pipeline
  6. Salespeople are spending less time selling and more time with data entry

So how about your team?

Are you looking for a CRM?

Does your sales team hate your CRM? If so, why?

Did your CRM training include applications for typical sales activities?

Did your sales team receive CRM training?

I purposefully did not call out any CRM Software companies in this post. You need to find the right tool for your sales process. As Covey said: “start with the end in mind.” Why do you want or why did you buy the CRM you have? We need to help salespeople by improving the user experience and with training. Fail to have a good user experience and fail to train your sales team…you will have an expensive box of lies.

To close, I want to share I do not work for any CRM company. I would also like to share I am a huge fan of having a CRM if it is the right application and interface for your business and supports a better buyer experience and adds efficiency and effectiveness to your sales team.

 

What is my advice if your sale hates your CRM and they are not using it?

 

  1. Understand your current sales process and make sure your CRM matches how your salespeople sell, or are supposed to sell today.
  2. Ask the users what they want and need to make the CRM more useful.
  3. Continuously train and facilitate peer to peer sharing of best practices
  4. Coach your salespeople
  5. Share with your sales team how you will use this tool to identify needed new sales tools and job aids based on the data they are entering.
  6. Share how critical it is to enter account updates and why we win and why we lose sales and the role that data will play in the future
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