Sales | No Smoke and Mirrors

The Critical Role of Sales Farmer

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As sales organizations continue to adapt to new challenges what we often see is common sales roles emerge.

We have the Hunter who as the name implies is focused on new business, acquiring new clients to serve and increase your market share position.

We experienced a new role emerge, the fisherman, as we shared in a recent issue of Soar to Success. The fisherman is in direct responses to organizations investing heavily in digital marketing and customer engagement. Their primary role is to help “reel in” opportunities that nibble on marketing content and help guide them through the sales process and ultimately land them as a customer.

A role that seldom receives the praise deserved, given its critical role, is the famer.

In this article we will discuss the sales farmer role, the skills required to be a successful farmer and why sales organizations need hunters, fishermen and farmers today.

Farmers as the role implies are not out actively hunting for net new clients but they are constantly planting new seeds of opportunity at existing customers. They nurture and grow their current customers and continuously explore opportunities to win a greater share of wallet in existing accounts.

What skills are required today to be a successful sales farmer?

Data Analytics – Farmers today are data driven and leverage customer data to drive actionable insights for their clients. What products and services have seen a sales increase? What products and services have seen a decrease…and why? What products do other customers similar to this account buy that this customer has not bought?

Consultative Selling Skills – Farmers need to have the ability to ask great discovery questions that create commercial conversations that lead to new revenue. In addition to asking great questions they must be skilled in active listening. The difficulty most salespeople have is they listen to reply and not to learn. Farmers listen to learn and this gives them the ability to make suggestions their customers want to apply.

Business Acumen – Farmers must have the ability to speak with their customers in the language of business. They must have a clear understanding of their customers business and how their customer makes money. When farmers present new opportunities they must connect the dots between what they are selling and how it impacts their customers net income.

Strong Relationship Building Skills – Farmers have the ability to build strategic business relationships with their buyers and also all the sale influencers in their clients

Comfort Discussing Money – Farmers must have a comfort discussing money and as the opportunity size increases not have the drive to discount. Strong farmers create win-win business proposals based on value and not price.

If your sales team wants to make sure you have your hunters, farmers and fishermen in the right roles with the right skills let’s schedule a call.

Your Biggest Sales Bottle Neck to Growth May Surprise You

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How do we profitably grow our sales? How do we build business development processes and systems that consistently deliver results?
If you are the leader of an organization and have asked yourself these questions you are not alone and if you are looking for answers this article is for you.

Many CEO’s business leaders and business owners are frustrated. They typically started their carriers in operations or finance. If you want to improve something you look at the data and make strategic adjustment and monitor the results.

However the business leaders I serve often share…

Why is sales so frustrating?

Why can’t sales run like my manufacturing facility?

Why can’t we have inputs that drive predictable results?

Why does sales feel like some dark art and I can’t ever seem to have predictable forecasts?

What I often find is this growing frustration is the result of two factors:

First, the sales team has never received the sales skills training to effectively and efficiently deliver results in their roles. They have strong product and applications knowledge but they have never been taught how to sell. (We will leave this topic for a future article)

Second, the biggest sales bottle neck to growth may surprise you… it is the number of meaningful conversations that sales is having that turn into revenue.

What salespeople are doing each day to find and secure conversations that could lead to revenue is an unknown to many business leaders.

With salespeople on average only selling 20% of their sellable time…how are they using this time?

So let me share some questions you need to know to close the new account sales performance gap once and for all.

How many outbound sales calls are your sales hunters making each day?
Are they targeting your ideal customer profile?
What messaging are they using?
Would you book an appointment with them
Is the target list up to date with the correct contact information?
How many outbound calls turn into future meetings?
How many future meetings turn into opportunities?
What is your close rate on opportunities?

In many ways sales is a science as I have shared in prior articles.

The number one bottleneck I am seeing today as a sales consultant, trainer and coach is salespeople are not having enough quality meaningful conversations that are turn into revenue.

If you want to improve your fresh revenue from new accounts sales start tracking the above.

Over 20% of organizations came out of the pandemic stronger than when they went into it. One of the most common factors I am seeing is those top performing organizations all invested in training and systems based on how their market was buying. They quickly identified bottlenecks and removed them.

If you need help identifying any sales bottlenecks preventing your team from winning new accounts let’s schedule a time to chat.

Sales Roles After the Pandemic, and The Dawn of the “Fisherman”

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Sales methodologies have evolved over the years. We saw Relationship Selling in 1936 followed by Needs Satisfaction Selling in 1968. In 1988 we were introduced to SPIN Selling closely followed by Solution Selling in 2000. The Challenger Model emerged in 2011.

In response to the pandemic most sales teams evolved into a Virtual Sales Model out of necessity and market constraints. We experienced a strong rise in Social Selling as discussed in last months’ issue of Soar to Success.

No matter what sales methodology teams were using, one constant was the two types of sales roles: Hunter and Farmers.

For years we have quickly classified salespeople as hunters or farmers but in response to the pandemic we saw a new sales roles emerge: The Fisherman.

Let’s take a closer look at sales roles….

Hunter

The primary role of the hunter, as the name implies was to hunt for new business. This valued role is constantly prospecting for new customers and closing new logos for their companies to serve.

Farmer

The primary role of the farmer is to grow and retain current accounts. This highly valued skilled salesperson designed and builds customer centric business development plans and leverages data and their relationships to grow their share of wallet.

Fisherman “NEW”

New to the sales role category we have seen The Fisherman emerge.

Fishermen as the name implies have a customer on the line and their role is to reel this opportunity in.

The fisherman plays a key role in maximizing the return on investment of marketing dollars.

In response to the pandemic many organizations doubled down on their digital marketing investments.

The focus was customer retention early in the pandemic and now they are now leveraging digital marketing for prospecting and adding net new customers.

“The problem for most manufacturers and distributors is their once face-to-face salespeople suffer from QDD…quick to disqualify disorder.”

It is not unusual for manufacturing and distribution salespeople to disqualify up to 70% of the leads marketing invested in to drive sales growth.

Enter the fisherman…

The fisherman’s role is to respond to marketing driven inquires and quickly qualify a nibble from a bite and reel that new revenue into the boat.

Market leading organizations have adapted and 27%, according to a recent McKinsey study, are coming out of the pandemic stronger than when they went into it.

Markets leading sales teams ensure they hire the best people and place those people in the right roles based on their sales skills, motivations and beliefs.

If you would like to assess your sales team and use data to identify hunter’s farmers and fisherman, let’s schedule a call.

What is the Future of Sales and How Should We Strategically Adapt?

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We have experience a great deal of disruption due to the pandemic over the past year. Some businesses were closed, others deemed essential were open but their teams worked remotely. Buyers were not meeting with current vendor salespeople not to mention new salespeople trying to win their business.

What will the future of sales look like?

Will we go back to normal like the pre pandemic model?

Will sales be forever changed?

What will the future of sales look like?

The above questions I am hearing often enough to produce webinars and speak at sales conference on the subject of what sales will look like in the future.

Before I share my prediction I want to share some research data by McKinsey:

70%-80% of B2B Decision Makers Prefer Digital and Virtual Human Interactions

77% Of B2B Decision Makers Prefer Video (Zoom, Teams) To A Phone Call With New Suppliers

89% Of B2B Decision Makers Said Likelihood of Virtual Human Interactions Will Continue

The next data set comes from working with my clients and observing them strategically pivot how they sell based on market constraints.

We conducted voice of the customer research for a large distribution company in the B2B space and over 63% of their clients preferred virtual sales to face to face.

Why?

Efficiency

The customers shared the liked virtual engagement because it was quick efficient and they could invite a number of purchase influencers to meetings. They went on to share it has bothered them for years that salespeople would show up without an appointment and consume hours of their time and distract their other team members.

Working with large manufacturers in the B2B space we also experienced some change.

Cost of Sales

A number of my manufacturing clients experienced flat sales compared to prior but a significant decrease in the cost of sales. Without airfare, rental cars, hotel stays and client entertainment the cost of sales decreased significantly and sales continued at the same pace if not increase after April of 2021.

Last we need to consider customer satisfaction and customer experience.

Customer Experience

Completing customer research for customer satisfaction and net promoter scores the numbers actually improved for two of my clients.

Dawn of the Hybrid Sales Model

Based on customer feedback, lower costs of sale and in many cases improved customer satisfaction I believe we will see a Hybrid Sales Model in the future.
How we serve accounts will be much more strategic and salespeople must improve their skills to conduct business face-to –face as well as virtually.

The challenge becomes 60% of once face-to-face salespeople are struggling to sell virtually.

What skills does a Hybrid salesperson need to success in the future?

Empathy
Strong discovery and qualifying questions
Business Acumen
Value messaging based on buyer persona
Leverage Data
Technology Savvy with online meetings and CRM
Social Selling Competency

If you would like my help assessing the current state of your sales effectiveness and developing a plan to strategically improve your sales results lets schedule an introduction call.

Improve Virtual Sales Close Rates Focusing 5 on Sales Skills

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“How do we improve our virtual sales close rates?”… Is a common question I have been hearing from business owners and sales leaders?

They have spent the time and investments to bring in opportunities and their sales teams’ quote customers but they have low sales close rates. They want and need more sales opportunities and they want to improve their close rates so more revenue flows to the bottom-line.

If you couple low sales close rates and teams that do not have a continuous prospecting cadence your sales results will be a roller-coaster ride and very frustrating for business owners and sales leaders alike.

In my no smoke and mirrors process working with sales teams we reach out your customers and prospects to understand how they buy. Then we assess the sales team’s skills in 21 competencies then prescribe training and coaching to close any sales skills gaps we discover.

Improving sales closing skills is often #1 or in the top 3 of sales skills that consistently needs improvement.

Would it shock you to learn just over 50% of salespeople have never received sales skills training? (No wonder they struggle with selling based on value and closing!)

In this post we will share five sales skills to improve your virtual sales close rates.

Since April of 2020 I have helped a number of sales teams adapt and become stronger in virtual selling skills.

Five skills your sales team will want to improve for virtual sales include:

Building Rapport

Since moving to a virtual sales model and Zoom video meetings becoming the norm I have experienced salespeople skipping key steps like building rapport at the beginning of the call. Make sure and take the time to build rapport. Focus on people first products and solutions second. Every engagement is an opportunity to build your relationship with your customers.

Build Virtual Relationships

Approximately 60% of once outside salespeople are now struggling with virtual sales. They are finding it particularly difficult to build virtual relationships as easy as they once did face to face. I often speak at events and co-host training with best selling author Ed Wallace. Ed’s book: Business Relationships That Last provides five clear steps to strategically build relationships and they can be applied to building virtual relationships as well.

Discovery Questions

Create a list of great discovery questions you feel comfortable asking. Your goal is to ask great questions to discover if your customer or prospects has unresolved problems your product or service solves. Include industry terminology and make the questions open-ended so the customer shares their current challenges. Your team can have a list of questions they all need to ask but again make sure each person uses words and phrases they commonly use and ideally your buyer’s use.

Active Listening

To clearly understand the needs of your customers and prospects your sales team must develop active listening skills. From helping salespeople improve their sales effectiveness for over 35 years I have found most salespeople listen to reply not listen to learn. Building active listening skills is key in any consultative sale and is particularly important in virtual sales.

Qualifying questions

Once you have actively listened to your customer and clearly identified challenges your product or service solves we need to qualify.

An old school system I suggest teams use that still provides salespeople a great deal of value today called BANT.

B- do they have a budget or will you be helping them create a business case to win budget?

A – Authority, does the person, team, you are speaking with have the authority to make the purchase and if not who does?

N- Do you clearly understand the need and how they will measure success? What is the economic impact of not solving this need?

T– Timing, when do they need this problem solved, how long has this been a problems?

“By the nature of your question you can demonstrate industry experience, competence and build trust”
– Mark Roberts

If you need to significantly improve your close rate on profitable sales:

Improve Rapport building
Building Virtual relationships
Create Strong Discovery Questions
Active Listening Skills
Equip your sales team with BANT Qualifying Questions

I plan to unpack each of the above five skills in the weeks to come so stay tuned.

I recently shared a short video to help teams adapt to virtual sales and you can access here. What many teams have discovered is once successful outside sales producers are now struggling to meet quota selling virtually. The good news is this is a sales problem we can solve with training, coaching and sales tools.

If your team needs to improve your virtual sales close rates, let’s schedule a call.

How to Make Tough Sales Structure Decisions?

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By Mark Allen Roberts

Many business owners and CEO’s are trying to determine the best strategic adjustments they need to make now and post Covid-19. Some leaders talk about surviving right now, keeping their head above water, not needing to close locations and so on. Many share it is difficult to develop a plan with so much uncertainty and chaos.

A select few leaders however are focused on not just surviving but thriving after Covid-19. For those of you who wish to use this current time to retool and reorganize your sales team to meet buyer needs today and in the future, Harvard Business Review published an excellent article: Right Personnel Decisions Now to Thrive After the Crisis.

In this post I will share some of the insights from the article and discuss how to position your business now to thrive after Covid-19.

The article starts, and rightfully so, reminding us cash is king in such challenging and turbulent times. Leaders must review the data they have today, conduct scenario simulations and make strategic decisions to improve your cash position. This topic of improving your cash position is a topic I am confident many thought leaders are writing about and I will not discuss this in this post.

Why this timely article captured my attention is the author does an excellent job of sharing how to make strategic decisions about your people.

The author shares there are basically 4 categories of people decisions

Repurposing

Identify what parts of your business are slow or have stopped completely and how can you repurpose the people that support those areas to new areas to add value today.

For example most sales teams have salespeople who are outside salespeople. Their typical week involves traveling and meeting with their customers and helping them solve problems. In many states these salespeople are being repurposed to inside virtual sales roles. The difficulty some teams are experiencing is we have found only 41% of salespeople today have the skills, discipline and mindset to work remotely.

If you find yourself having outside salespeople working virtually you may wish to assess their virtual selling skills and provide training for any skills gaps you discover.

My prediction is many sales teams will reorganize to leverage the productivity of an inside sales model once we emerge from Covid-19. Many the CFO’s I speak with are sharing they are seeing a drop in top line sales but an even more significant drop in sales expense. They will be challenging sales leaders to ensure the sales organization of the future maximizes the return on sales expense and explore more virtual sales in the future.

Engagement

Prior to Covid -19 many teams had concerns with employee engagement. Some studies shared as much as 65% of employees are not engaged and doing just enough to get by. This was costing organizations billions before Covid-19.

The author shares a key part of getting through a crisis is bringing your top performing team members with you and keeping them engaged.

Has your organization done an employee engagement research study?

What % of your team was not engaged?

What % of your team is not engaged today?

When it comes to salespeople we look for their engagement in their Sales DNA. This part of the assessment helps us discover their sales beliefs and motivations. On some teams I have worked with as high as 30% of the current team lack the will to sell. In other words they joined the sales team but lack the commitment, motivation and often sales skills to drive revenue growth. We need to consider engagement as we reorganize and retool our sales organizations for the future.

Learning, Retooling, Up skilling

As teams prepare to become more buyer centric they will often need additional training and up skilling for new roles. Many teams are currently assessing if they have the right salespeople in the right roles and if not what changes will need to be made.

As teams strategically use assessments, performance reviews and transaction data to identify the right person for the right roles, there will be a need for training.

One of the biggest pushback’s I have received from salespeople about training is: I don’t have the time. When we look at how salespeople spend their time, the average outside salesperson spending 15% of there sellable time traveling, and since they are not traveling now…they have the time. Let’s use this time wisely and prepare our salespeople with individualized learning plans that equip them to be successful in their current and or new roles.

The author reinforces the need to identify skills gaps now and use this time to close these gaps now.

Right Sizing

The hardest part of adjusting your organization to a shift of this magnitude is letting people go. Downsizing, furloughing, laying people off, eliminating their positions…whatever you call it is tough and very emotional. It is a leaders job to make the tough calls based on the best information they have today and very emotionally draining.

However as a leader its something we must do after exhausting all other strategies to protect our balance sheet today and in the future. Your mission is to make decisions to survive now and thrive when we come out of Covid-19.

Having been through market downturns over my past 36 years leading sales teams I know how difficult these decisions can be. Admittedly I have never led a team though something like Covid-19 with so much uncertainty.

My recommendation is take a data driven approach to making these tough decisions.

I can tell you how I’ve seen teams reorganize their sales teams the wrong way. I have seen some teams look strictly at their forced ranking performance reviews. They identify those associates who scored the lowest and target them for downsizing.

The trouble with this strategy alone is you may be letting some people go you should be saving or could save with additional training and sales coaching. What I have observed is forced ranking performance systems often give you the wrong data.

The leading problem I have observed is many performance systems are subjective based on opinion and not data. They become popularity contests and sales managers protect salespeople like them. They keep the easy sales reps who act and think like the manager and often these are not top performers when you study transaction data metrics like profit per sale, new business, and return on sales expense.

With 50% of salespeople today receiving no sales skills training it should not shock us to learn most sales managers have not been trained. Without training in how to motivate, lead and coach salespeople all they can do is compare how this salesperson behaves compared to the behaviors they did when they are a salesperson. Add that many sales managers today came up through the sales ranks before the internet, before social selling and even before cell phones in some cases, they are often judging your salespeople’s sales competencies based on an outdated sales process.

What is my suggestion to solving this complex sales team right sizing, re tooling problem?

Consider many data points and leverage data to make decisions not gut and intuition.

You need to answer the question: Do I have the right salespeople in the right roles?

The author suggests you make sure and understand the unit economics before you lay anyone off or terminate their employment. She suggests a thorough evaluation by solution, market, and customer segment.

Another mistake I see teams’ make when the CEO tells the CFO I need $XXX, XXX in cuts. The CFO runs sales by salesperson descending report. The CFO and Sales VP look at the Excel spread sheet and draw the line. Everyone above the line stays and everyone below the line is laid off or let go permanently.

Although they are using data to make difficult decisions, this process is often not the best for the long-term health of your sales teams’ results.

Many times I have seen the top salesperson by revenue is not the most skilled salesperson on the sales team. Often this person is someone who has been on the team the longest and or manages some of the largest accounts they were given years ago. Although they may carry some of the largest revenue numbers they often have poor farming or hunting skills. They often lack business acumen to have business discussions with buyers to help them build a business case to fund the purchase investment.

If you are sold on just running an Excel report and drawing the line…let me ask you a question to consider.

Of the salespeople above the line, if you were asked to open and grow a new sales territory would you choose them?

When I have asked sales leaders and sometimes CFO’s this question I receive an uncomfortable…No.

This method of restructuring and retooling your sales team does not identify team and individual skills gaps and therefore does not help you close gaps to help your sales team become more efficient and effective after Covid-19.

Again a sales assessment that measures sales skills competencies, motivations and beliefs coupled with sales transaction data and past performance data is the best method to make these hard decisions.

I use a tool called a smart sizing tool that considers the following when restructuring and rightsizing sales teams when necessary :

Revenue

Pipeline health

Sales skills

Sales beliefs

Sales motivation

Performance to KPI’s last 12 months

Compensation

Consultative sales skills

Ability to work remotely, virtually

Value based sales verse selling on price

As Rebecca Hones shares in this excellent and timely article we have 4 categories of people decisions when we face a crisis like we are in today as we discussed above.

Some of the leaders I speak with that serve the food industry and medical supplies and safety products industries have not seen a decrease and some have experienced a slight sales increase in the last 30 days.

If your business has not been disrupted and or is actually increasing consider yourself blessed.

I suggest this is a good time for you to assess the skills, beliefs and motivations of your top sales performers and strategically use this data to recruit new salespeople that match the sales DNA of your top performers.

If you find yourself and your team needing to make the tough decisions and wantt help with a data driven tool that helps you explore various sales organization structure scenarios, please contact me. Leveraging the smart sizing tool we can get you the insights to make current and future sales structure decisions within one week.

There is one other critical data point market leading organizations need to consider when reorganizing and retooling their sales organization and most teams do not even have it on the list right now.

In my next post I will share this additional information to ensure your sales reorganization drives the maximum value for your team.

Restructure Your Sales Team? Shorten Time to Revenue

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By Mark Roberts

Many sales organizations are reorganizing and retooling their sales teams. They are determining how their customers want and need to be served with voice of the customer research as well as net profit by customer analysis.

Market leading sales organizations are assessing their sales skills by salesperson to ensure they put the right salesperson in the right role. This assessment also helps salespeople assigned to new roles create individualized learning plans based on the sales competencies needed to be successful in that role.

If your organization is like many I’ve worked with, the first few weeks for sales representative in a new role are intense and their training often feels like they are drinking from a fire hose.

However, it takes the average sales rep twelve months to ramp up after training and apply the skills they have learned and that’s a lot of runway to reach full, quota-carrying potential.

Sales organizations that take the long view on salesperson on boarding have the best chance of producing a high-yield, low churn team. Here are some new sales roles on boarding and post-on boarding activities that can help to this end.

How long does it take a salesperson in a new role to be effective in your organization?

What value would it deliver to your bottom line if we cut that time in half or even more?

Given today’s business climate can you wait months or a year for a salesperson in a new role to add value?

What steps can you take to help on board salespeople assigned new sales roles?

Sales Effectiveness Assessment:

Does this candidate have the skills, beliefs and Sales DNA to succeed in your organization and the sales role? The quickest way to shorten ramp to revenue is have an assessment that looks for the sales mindset of your top producers.

We do not expect all salespeople to have all the sales competencies needed to succeed but they must have the right sales mindset and beliefs about sales.

We can improve skills, product and systems knowledge but changing mindsets like needing to be liked, working remotely, and or having difficulty talking about money are much more difficult and take longer to improve.

Post New Role Assignment:

Sales Welcome Packet- After you place a salesperson in a new role, but before they start is an excellent time to send them a welcome packet from the sales organization they are joining.

Include things like corporate history, sales org chart, high-level sales process workflow chart, high-level brand messaging, vertical market marketecture (how the product(s) solve problems for the major verticals, and some comprehensive case studies. Provide them a clear value proposition that you know resonates with the buyers they will be speaking with in today’s buying climate. On the salesperson’s first day, ask them a few questions about the material to ensure they’ve had the opportunity to absorb it.

On boarding:

Content- For on boarding a salesperson into a new role that better suits their skills , motivations and beliefs, it’s critical to have the right content and have it ready for consumption because they need to learn many things quickly. Think of your on boarding content as everything a sales rep needs to be successful in that particular sales role and when they need it. Start by deciding what topics matter for your salespeople and then back into engineering the content format.

When possible, a subject-matter expert should produce the content and use known best practices from top sales performers I that role today. Many teams are leveraging short videos from top performers by role.

Enlist marketing, sales peers, product management, management, and training to record themselves explaining selling strategies, solution offerings, sales wins, and losses. Supplement this content with quizzes to verify comprehension. This content should be available in a learning library the new sales associate can easily access from their cell phone or other mobile devices.

Sales Skills- In this case, skills refer to sales competencies. Did you know that according to CEB, salespeople only average 14 hours per year on sales training? Assuming you’ve used as assessment tool pre-hire, you now know what skills are needed to fill in the gaps. Competencies should be taught by outside experts or internal top-producers and focus on data-driven best practices. This prescriptive individualized learning is key to training engagement. Additionally, salespeople may require instruction in soft skills such as collaboration, communication and active listening.

Repeatable Sales Processes– Ensure salesperson is educated on your sales processes and funnel. A sale can quickly go awry by not understanding sales processes. Earmark time to teach new sales reps on lead follow-up, sales engineer resource requests, finding and using your sales collateral, proposal processes, contract reviews, and new client on boarding. Sales reps who understand and use your well-defined methods will outperform reps who do not and give your customers the best buying experience.

Practice and share tribal knowledge- Salespeople learn sales with application and repetition. Work with the salesperson to have them deliver an elevator pitch, value proposition, full-deck presentation, and objection handling in their own language. It is critical they do not sound like they are using a caned pitch and words they or the customer would not normally use in conversation.

Help them become a part of the process by assigning them a task to shape content to their normal language and that of their buyers. They should also know a few client success stories verbatim.

In the success story it is critical the story include: the situation and or problem, how you diagnosed the problem, the proposed solution and the financial impact of implementing that solution for your customers.

This practice can take place in front of a peers, for the entire team or on the salesperson’s own time with their sales manager. Tribal knowledge lives in every sales organization, but it doesn’t always filter down to every salesperson by role. Share your best practices and tips at scale with guided lessons, videos, or other interactive activities to draw out hidden ideas.

There are many LMS systems that offer peer to peer learning opportunities. If you have more than one salesperson starting at the same time, set up some friendly competition over who presents best, anything that gets reps to practice before conducting a call will increase training comprehension and build their confidence.

Scorecards- Gamifying achievements is a great way to keep the salesperson engaged in the training process, and it helps you know if your on boarding program works. Develop an on boarding scorecard that measures fundamental metrics by salesperson by role and then tracks how they perform over time.

If performance isn’t improving, adjust additional training and coaching accordingly. If you are starting multiple salespeople, new employees in the same roles will naturally compare themselves to each other.

Managed right, this helps everyone ratchet up their performance together. The peer relationships they develop in training often remain years after the new role on boarding program is over.

Social Selling- Many of your salespeople are probably millennials, so some of your training methods may be outdated. To reach these salespeople, the sales tech stack and social networks need to be a central part of your on boarding.

Use video, social media, and content sharing tools to encourage dialogue, development, and interaction.

Studies have shown that using social selling tools can increase win rates and deal size by 5% and 35%, respectively. Training is much stickier when it uses communication methods favored by the student.

Post new role on boarding:

Leverage start groups- A start group is an association of employees who start with your organization at the same time. On boarding groups of various roles of staff together has an efficiency and effectiveness advantage. Group new role on boarding makes better use of the time of all those involved. Cohorts can help and push each other along the way, especially naturally competitive sales reps.

Assign a sales mentor year one – This mentor is not their sales manager but an experienced subject matter expert who has years of sales experience in this new role and scores very high in sales effectiveness assessment evaluations. They need to have a strong knowledge of how we get things done here coupled with product and sales skills. What you are looking for is someone who coaches the new associate on how to find answers to their questions.

Territory Planning Sales Playbook- Salespeople assigned new roles often are suspect of their sales goals. Their sales goals can seem impossible to achieve. Encourage sales representatives in new roles to take their quota number and build their plan, their sales playbook. As most experienced sales representatives have found, the best approach to successful sales is having a territory plan and working that plan each day.

While sales territory planning can seem time-consuming, territory planning is a useful exercise, especially for salespeople in new roles, as it helps them learn the ecosystem of their territory.

Here some essential territory planning tips for new salespeople:

First, conduct an overall review to analyze the region and review the current situation before projecting future goals. A global review should include an evaluation of business from the previous year; an analysis of customers who are currently the strongest and which are the weakest, a review of the best-selling products, and a list of top prospects for future clients. Have your new salesperson help in gathering the data.

Second, identify and profile clients to target. Marketing can be helpful with customer modeling. Your data is a great source to identify your ideal customer profile. As discussed in other articles the whale curve is a valuable tool to identify the types of customers you want your salespeople prospecting based on their net profit contribution.

The salesperson should also make a list of specific discovery questions for approaching each customer type. What works for one customer will not necessarily work for another, so the salesperson should be making use of personas and targeting technology.

Your sales training for each sales role should provide market specific sales problems your product or service solves and discovery questions to find them so that new salespeople earn trust quickly.

Third, create growth goals and strategies that, if successful, will get the salesperson to quota. For instance, the representative’s goal might be to add a specific number of new clients to the territory or expanding sales of a product by a certain amount or growing current client share of wallet.

The growth strategies need to be data driven and focus on known behaviors that drive performance in your organization.

Fourth, the salesperson should review their plan regularly to ensure their performance is on target. It is easy to forget goals unless they referenced, so the sales plan should be a constant reminder of territory objectives as well as regular sales manager coaching.

This requires strong systems for goal updates and reviews. The data should not require salespeople to become librarians and key account data should be quickly and available in easy to read dashboards.

Fifth, establish a coaching cadence and expectations. Clearly explain what you want the new salesperson to report on each week and make the discussion data driven. A popular discussion is: What did we say we would do? What did we accomplish? What did we say we would do but have not done yet? What is our corrective action plan to get back on track? How can I help you?

Remember, the more you can do to help your salespeople internalize new information, the faster they will ramp up.

By using the salesperson in new role hacks above, you can scale and ramp up your new salespeople quickly.

How long does it take a new salesperson to ramp up in your business?

What would the value be shortening that timeframe by 30%?

Do new sales associates have mentors assigned to them?

Is your training accessible on mobile devices to review and refresh topics?

Have your sales managers been trained to coach?

If you need to strategically reorganize your sales team and would like to take a data driven approach in doing so please reach out and we can discuss the process I use that can be accomplished in most cases in 10 days.

Where Have All The Sales Hunters Gone?

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By Mark Roberts

As I work with sales leaders and CEO’s common questions and comments we hear are: “Where have all the hunters gone? We need more sales hunters. We need hunters to find and close new business at current and new accounts. We need more organic sales growth…” When we review an entire sales team’s skills, effectiveness and opportunities for growth there is often an obvious shortfall in the ratio of sales hunters to farmers in most sales teams’ todays. Many teams today are relying on an outdated strategy of relying on relationships alone to grow sales. However, without identifying and strategically recruiting sales hunters these sales teams often fail to hit their team sales KPI’s year after year. Why should you add more hunters to your sales team? How do you identify current salespeople who can become hunters? That is what we will discuss in this article.

In a Harvard article: Selling is not about relationships the author shared salespeople fall into one of five categories and defined the relationship builder role:

“Relationship builders focus on developing strong personal and professional relationships and advocates across the customer organization. They are generous with their time, strive to meet customers’ every need, and work hard to resolve tensions in the commercial relationship.”

When I refer to relationship selling, I mean the main sales behavior focus placed on building a relationship with your buyer and others in their organization over time. Could the relationship selling model that has served as a foundation of most sales training be failing us today?

Here are some alarming statistics:

● From Biznology, 82 percent of decision-makers think that sales reps are unprepared for their engagement.

● Furthermore－according to Gallop－68 percent of customers are lost because of indifference or perceived apathy, not because of mistakes.

● Only 46 percent of customers said vendors deliver on what was promised.

● In 2019 more salespeople failed to achieve quota that hit it. – Salesforce

Additionally, relationship selling alone just plain doesn’t work for many businesses.

A salesperson’s time is valuable, so unless it is a long-term sale or a huge complex opportunity, relationship selling is expensive to maintain. It also doesn’t work with every business model, so if you sell a product that is only purchased once, relationship selling isn’t an excellent strategy to use.

For years we were taught: “People buy from people they like.”

We have taught relationship building skills and we should not be surprised that many sales organizations rely on relationship builders alone to grow their sales.

Relationship building skills are still very valuable, but they must not be the only skills your salespeople have today to strategically drive sales growth.

What I am discussing is the belief that all salespeople have to do is build a relationship, a friendship with their buyer so over time and they will win more business. This is a flawed strategy today, and we need more sales hunters.

For decades, most companies have placed their time, effort, and energy on recruiting and developing farmers. That’s right, you’ve “bet the farm” on the sales profile which is least likely to prospect and close new business. Farmers have their place on your team and can add great value if they are in the right role. They are very likeable and build relationships through service but statistically most do not drive the organic sales growth organizations need today like a sales hunter profile.

The most important question: Who will close the sale?

According to the Harvard Business Review, the biggest driver of customer loyalty (53 percent) is the sales experience if we define it as a function of “how you sell rather than what you sell.” Prospects and clients reward suppliers who “offer unique and valuable perspectives and educate them on new trends, issues, and outcomes.”

So, let’s change what we were taught years ago to: “People buy from people they…trust to drive the most value.”

Therefor we need to clearly define, find and develop more sales hunters to achieve our sales growth objectives today.

In my opinion, the critical skill to providing an excellent sales experience is the salesperson’s ability to ask a lot of good, tough, timely questions along with the ability to push back and challenge prospects’ assumptions and decisions. Hunters not only know your product and applications but also clearly understand their market and the business financial outcomes of your products and solutions. They have meaningful business conversations based on financial outcomes- not the need to be liked.

A sales hunter is constantly looking for problems to solve for customers and are not afraid to have uncomfortable conversations new accounts. To researchers, this ability may have simply appeared to be industry intel and perspective but make no mistake exceptional hunter salespeople know exactly what they are doing with their questions. The skill sales hunters have mastered is asking the tough questions to drive the maximum impact for their customers. Top hunter salespeople need to be respected as trusted advisors and do not have a high need to be liked by their accounts. They do not fear rejection. They hope being liked and building a relationship is an outcome of providing value for their customers, but it is not a deep need inside the DNA of a sales hunter.

Most sales organizations need more sales hunters!

From my observations assessing sales teams globally we have enough farmers. Farmers add great value managing key accounts and giving the key customers value. They manage product portfolios and lead cross functional business unit projects to give the customer the best overall experience. They identify ways to add value to the key accounts’ bottom line and have a strong relationship matrix they have strategically built over time in their accounts across many job functions and many management levels.

Sales hunters are constantly looking for new business opportunities in current as well as targeted strategic new accounts and markets. They are hunting as the name implies for profitable new opportunities.

These hunter salespeople have common sales skills and competencies like:

· They are comfortable talking about money

· They don’t need to be liked but seek to be respected through adding value in each interaction

· They have strong business acumen

· They ask great discovery questions that help them, and the buyer discover the root of their problems to be solved

· They take a data driven approach to driving value for their customers

· They have Grit

· They are rejection proof

· They sell based on value to the customers’ bottom line

· They prospect continuously

· They have a strong sales process and use the sales process strategically

· High time management skills

· Continuous learners seeking the best way to drive the maximum results in the shortest period of time

· They think and behave like entrepreneurs focused strategically on driving the maximum ROI for each of the sales behaviors they execute

If you need more hunters, how do you identify current sales team members who have these traits?

How do we recruit hunter salespeople from outside your organization?

The answer to both of these questions is: through predictive sales effectiveness assessments and pre-hire assessments. Leveraging the power of these instruments you will identify salespeople with sales hunter DNA characteristics and with pre-hire sales assessments you can target hunters in your recruiting efforts.

By evaluating salespeople based on their sales DNA, a combination of sales-specific skills, strengths – their beliefs and motivations you can identify the very best hunter salespeople.

Because prospects are more knowledgeable (due to the internet), increasingly skeptical, and empirically proven to contact salespeople much later in their buying process, hiring managers must identify a salesperson’s DNA and skill gaps very early in the recruiting process.

Sales DNA, competencies, and grit are not easy to spot during an interview; long-established sales organizations and startups new to building sales teams struggle to find talent. Utilizing an assessment tool allows hiring managers to measure the specific skills and behaviors required by your unique sales roles. Competencies tied directly to each sales role can be measured using a predictive assessment that can anticipate sales success related directly to these situations.

If you are looking for proof that assessments work-here it is:

“75 percent of the candidates that aren’t recommended via our assessment but hired regardless, fail in less than six months. However, 92 percent of the candidates that are recommended and hired rise to the top 50 percent of the sales force within 12 months.”

The key is knowing what kind of salespeople you need by role. You can look internally and recruit externally based on the sales role and competencies required to perform that role effectively. If you want to hire sales hunters, then use a sales assessment tool that assesses sales hunting competencies.

The good news is if your sales team is like most, you have salespeople on your team today that could become the hunters you need today and tomorrow to achieve your strategic sales growth objectives. If you assess your current team and find you lack the bench strength in hunting skills, there is still hope. Working with your HR partners you can develop pre-hire sales assessments that identifies and measures hunting characteristics your top sales hunting performers. Once you find these candidates with the right sales DNA for the sales hunting role you can train and equip them with the right sales process and tools to hunt and close the new business your team desires.

As our markets evolve, we need to ensure we leverage technology and make sure sales roles are populated with team members who have the right sales skills, beliefs and motivations to be successful in their roles. A strong predictive sales assessment tool is critical to finding and recruiting more hunters in the years to come to drive organic sales growth.

How about your sales team?

Do you have more famers than hunters?

Do you need more sales hunters to achieve your strategic sales growth objectives?

Does your organization use a sales skills assessment tool to align the right candidates for the right roles?

If you do not use sales effectiveness assessments what tools do you use to find and develop sales hunters?

How does your organization develop sales hunters?

Can a farmer become a hunter?

We keep hearing: “where have all the hunters gone?” The good news is they are probably on your team today waiting to be identified and trained and they are available in the marketplace if you have an assessment tool to identify them based on hunting skills beliefs and motivations. Build a sales hunting capability in your sales organization to meet and exceed your sales team’s objectives.

Would you like to find your hunters or those who could be hunters?

Let’s chat

Is your sales team automation proof?

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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

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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.