skip to Main Content

Revitalizing Your Business: Strategies for Increasing Sales and Scaling Profitably

As a business owner, you know that growth and profitability are essential for the success and sustainability of your business. Whether you are a small business owner or a CEO of a large corporation, implementing strategies for increasing sales and scaling profitably is crucial for achieving your business goals. In this article, we will provide you with some tips and strategies to help you revitalize your business and achieve growth and profitability.

Conduct a Comprehensive Business Analysis

Before you can implement any growth strategies, it is important to conduct a comprehensive analysis of your business. This analysis will help you identify your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Some of the methods you can use for business analysis include SWOT analysis, PEST analysis, and competitor analysis. I often call it running an MRI on your business.

To prepare for a business analysis, it is important to gather as much data as possible about your business, industry, customers, and competitors. You can use financial statements, market research reports, customer feedback,  win / loss analysis and other sources of information to gain insights into your business performance.

Identify and Prioritize Growth Opportunities

After conducting a business analysis, it is essential to identify and prioritize growth opportunities. This process involves analyzing your business goals and objectives, market trends, and customer needs to determine where you can invest your resources for the best return on investment.

Some strategies for identifying growth opportunities include market segmentation, product development, and geographical expansion. Once you have identified growth opportunities, it is important to prioritize them based on their potential for revenue growth, profitability, and market demand.

Examples of successful growth prioritization initiatives include Amazon’s focus on online retail and cloud computing, Apple’s focus on innovation and premium pricing, and Uber’s focus on disrupting the traditional taxi industry.

Develop a Tailored Growth Plan

Once you have identified and prioritized growth opportunities, the next step is to develop a tailored growth plan. This plan should outline your business goals, strategies, and tactics for achieving growth and profitability. I use the one page plan and have found this design is one team members access frequently.

To develop a growth plan, it is important to involve key stakeholders in your business, including managers, employees, and customers. This collaborative approach will help ensure that everyone is aligned with the growth objectives and committed to achieving them

Some strategies for developing a tailored growth plan include market research, benchmarking, and scenario planning. A successful growth plan should be flexible, adaptive, and measurable, allowing you to adjust your strategies as needed to achieve your objectives.

Examples of successful tailored growth plans include Coca-Cola’s focus on product innovation and global expansion, Tesla’s focus on electric vehicles and sustainable energy, and Netflix’s focus on content creation and distribution.

Optimize Sales and Marketing Strategies

One of the most important drivers of growth and profitability is sales and marketing. Optimizing your sales and marketing strategies can help you reach new customers, increase sales, and improve customer loyalty.

Some strategies for optimizing sales and marketing include customer segmentation, branding, pricing, and advertising. It is important to use data analytics and customer feedback to continually refine and improve your sales and marketing strategies.

Here we also assess the overall sales effectiveness and review your digital footprint. We are looking for strengths as well as possible gaps we need to fill.

Examples of successful sales and marketing optimization initiatives include Nike’s focus on brand storytelling and emotional connection, Starbucks’ focus on customer experience and loyalty programs, and Airbnb’s focus on personalization and community building.

Streamline Business Operations

Efficient business operations are essential for achieving growth and profitability. Streamlining your business operations can help you reduce costs, increase productivity, and improve customer satisfaction.

Here we are looking for relentless repeatability.

Some strategies for streamlining business operations include process improvement, automation, outsourcing, and supply chain management. It is important to involve your employees in the process of improving business operations and to continually monitor and measure your performance.

We often leverage Top Grading to help us identify A players and support them while also identifying team members who need additional skills.

Examples of successful operational streamlining initiatives include Walmart’s focus on supply chain optimization and inventory management, Amazon’s focus on automation and logistics, and Toyota’s focus on lean production and continuous improvement

Increase Customer Retention and Loyalty

Acquiring new customers is important, but retaining existing customers is even more critical for long-term growth and profitability. Increasing customer retention and loyalty can help you reduce customer churn, increase lifetime value, and generate positive word-of-mouth. This is particularly critical as the economy tightens. Selling more to current accounts is quicker, more profitable and often delivers more value to your bottom-line. The key is to conduct a voice of customer assessment and understand your overall customer satisfaction level, share of wallet, and your Net Promotor Score.

Some strategies for increasing customer retention and loyalty include personalized communication, customer service excellence, loyalty programs, and customer feedback. It is important to listen to your customers’ needs and preferences and to continually improve their experience with your business.

Examples of successful customer retention and loyalty initiatives include Zappos’ focus on customer service excellence and free shipping, Sephora’s focus on personalized recommendations and loyalty rewards, and Harley-Davidson’s focus on community building and brand loyalty.

Invest in Technology and Automation

Technology and automation are becoming increasingly important for businesses looking to achieve growth and profitability. Investing in technology and automation can help you improve efficiency, reduce costs, and enhance the customer experience.

Some strategies for investing in technology and automation include cloud computing, artificial intelligence, big data analytics, and Internet of Things (IoT) devices. It is important to choose technology solutions that align with your business objectives and to ensure that your employees are trained and equipped to use them effectively.

Examples of successful technology and automation implementation include Amazon’s use of machine learning to personalize product recommendations and automate logistics, Tesla’s use of artificial intelligence to optimize vehicle performance and safety, and McDonald’s use of self-service kiosks to improve customer experience and efficiency.

Build a Strong and Capable Team

Finally, building a strong and capable team is essential for achieving growth and profitability. Your employees are your most valuable asset and investing in their development and well-being can help you attract and retain top talent, improve productivity, and foster a positive workplace culture.

Some strategies for building and retaining a strong and capable team include employee training and development, performance management, compensation and benefits, individualized learning plans and work-life balance. It is important to create a culture of open communication, collaboration, and accountability, and to recognize and reward outstanding performance.

Examples of successful team building, and retention initiatives include Google’s focus on employee well-being and innovation, Southwest Airlines’ focus on employee engagement and customer service, and HubSpot’s focus on employee autonomy and learning opportunities.

Conclusion

In conclusion, revitalizing your business requires a holistic approach that involves conducting a comprehensive business analysis, identifying, and prioritizing growth opportunities, developing a tailored growth plan, optimizing sales and marketing strategies, streamlining business operations, increasing customer retention and loyalty, investing in technology and automation, and building a strong and capable team.

While the strategies we have discussed in this article may require time, effort, and investment, the benefits of achieving growth and profitability are well worth it. By taking action and implementing these strategies, you can revitalize your business and achieve long-term success.

So don’t wait any longer. Start implementing these strategies today, and watch your business thrive and grow.

As a business acceleration coach, we have a number of tools and assessment instruments to help understand your current state and work with you to design your plan to increase sales and profits.

Let’s schedule a call and discuss how we can help your team.

How to Make Tough Sales Structure Decisions?

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.

 

 

 

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.

 

 

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.

 

 

 

 

It’s Not What You Sell ,But How You Sell It …That Drives Sales Growth

 

 

The role of Sales has changed and continues to change year over year. Salespeople were once the keepers of the keys in terms of product information, application experience, competitive analysis, needs assessments and so on. Today a great deal of what we used to do to provide value to customers can quickly be accomplished in the digitized world with a click of a mouse. Studies indicate as much as 70% of the sales process is over before a customer speaks with a salesperson today.

What can sales people do to differentiate?

What are the top 5% of sellers consistently doing to meet and exceed their sales objectives?

Lee Salz’s new book: Sales Differentiation, 19 powerful strategies to win more sales at the prices you want helps salespeople and sales managers adjust to the sales environment of today and provide value to their customers.

When I meet with sales teams or conduct workshops I often ask a question…

How have you seen sales change in the last 10 years?

What I often hear includes:

The internet of things made buyers much more informed

We face buying committees instead of a single decision maker

Buyers are much busier wearing more hats, managing more products and it is more difficult to win meeting times

Our competitors caught up with us in quality and service and buyers are commoditizing our products and services

I don’t have enough hours in a day to do everything expected of me today

All else being equal, buyers are making their decisions based on price and we lose

Today sales is a 27/7 job and buyers expect answers in minutes

Social selling, social buying, the ability of buyers to do research in an instant

Buyers don’t ask for referrals anymore, they find our customer feedback ( good and bad) on their own

And the list goes on…

With all of the above and more seeming to commoditize our products and services is it any surprise salespeople are so quick to discount price?

For years I have done win-loss analysis calling customers we won as well as those deals we lost.

When I ask sales why they think they lost the sale I hear “Price” as their number one reason.

However when I speak with buyers they share two things very often:

We are at a critical tipping point for sales and how we sell today.

As Lee Saltz shares in his new book it is not just what you sell but how you sell it that can be your differentiation in the crowed and busy market of today.

To win deals at the price your team wants (and needs) you need to differentiate.

Why this book is important for sellers today is it provides 19 differentiations they can apply today that will help your salesperson standout among all the competition and help you win deals you should be winning.

How can you apply this book to drive sales growth for your team?

  1. I suggest you buy a copy of this book for each of your salespeople and tell them we will have a book review in 45 days.
  2. Have a virtual training and ask each salesperson 4-5 of the differentiation strategies they plan to start using.
  3. Over the following 3-4 months travel with your salespeople on four legged sales calls and observe. Are they applying the differentiation strategies or are the selling the way they always have? Coach and encourage them to use these strategies.
  4. After you have traveled with your entire sales team note the differentiation strategies they chose to use and rank them based on use.
  5. Use your findings to build short micro learning training courses that reinforce those strategies.
  6. Capture team success stories and share them.
  7. Use the new micro learning training courses as a part of your sales on-boarding training for new team members.

We need to fix this sales problem of commoditization and helping your salespeople differentiate themselves in how they sell is a smart strategy.

If you follow this advice you should expect to experience the following:

  • Improved close rate
  • More opportunities
  • Shorter selling cycle
  • Higher profit per sale
  • Increase in cross and upselling
  • More sales team members achieving quota
  • ( and much happier Monday morning executive meetings for you)

How about your company…

Could teaching your salespeople how to differentiate themselves in their crowded markets help your sales results?

Could how you sell become your team’s distinctive competence?

How often are your salespeople asking for price discounts?

What % of your salespeople achieved and or exceeded sales quota this year?

Is your team’s sales quota increasing or decreasing next year? (Yah, that’s what I thought)

What % of sales deals won was discounted in the last 6-8 months? (that many?)

Why wouldn’t you try to strategically adjust the way your team sells and let the way they sell become your differentiation strategy?

 

 

 

 

Back To Top
Verified by MonsterInsights