1- 330-413-8552 Mark@NoSmokeAndMirrors.com

increase sales

Tips to Engage with New Customers

two men facing each other while shake hands and smiling

As a business owner, it’s important for you to be constantly working on the development of your company. Part of the development is continuously bringing new customers to your business through referrals, social media, direct traffic to your website, or your organic reach. By doing so, you’ll find your profit increases, allowing you to spend this revenue on other areas of your business, such as your marketing team or developing your sales team.

 

In simple terms, sales is an art and a science. The art is in having conversations that lead to revenue. The science is data-driven sales. What does the data tell you about your ideal new customer? What have you seen help a buyer on their journey to becoming a customer? The more customers who visit your site or contact your sales team, the more likely you will make a sale as long as they match your ideal customer profile. So how do you reach new customers? From improving your website to entering new markets and using conference translation software to help you with this, we have put together our guide on tips for reaching new customers.

Improve your website

When was the last time you performed a digital footprint audit of your website? Your website is one of the most important sales tools you have. If it’s not modernized, then you may need a new one. If it is, then using a UX/UI expert could help you spot potential opportunities within your website and any errors that could reduce the number of new customers reaching out to you. Your website is essentially a shop floor but through the web. Every day customers could search for your services, but if your website is not up to scratch, they could be landing on your site but leaving instantly – just like you would if you walked into a store only to notice it looks a little run down.

Engage with customers leveraging social media 

One trait all top-performing salespeople have in common is they are active in social selling. They reach out to customers on various social platforms to complement their efforts by cold calling, attending conferences and trade shows, as well as their email campaigns.

Ask for referrals

Do you ask your sales team to ask for referrals? It’s a simple tip but can work extremely well. Whenever they complete a sale, and they feel the customer is happy with the service they provided, simply ask them if they know of anyone who could benefit from your services. You could ask them to reach out to you or ask them if you can reach out on their behalf. It’s a well-known fact that referrals convert to sales a lot quicker than any other technique. Plus, you can add a referral scheme to entice people to refer even when you haven’t asked, increasing your referrals even more.

 

When one association interviewed customers, they found over 80% would refer a salesperson if they were asked to do so, but sadly, less than 15% of salespeople ask for referrals

 

What tips do you have for reaching new customers?

Are there any tips from the above that you found particularly helpful?

Let us know in the comment box below.

 

Would you like to chat about how to engage with more new customers? Please send me a message or give me a call.

 

 

13 Skills of Entrepreneurial Sales

By Mark Roberts

Sales Leaders, did you know that the solution salesperson who conducts themselves as though they “own” their territory or book of business has a higher probability of being among your top sellers. As one senior VP of Sales I know puts it: “I want salespeople to own their own dirt, behave as if this was their business!” These entrepreneurial-minded team members are a different breed from the average sales team member. If you are interested in learning what they know and 13 skills they all have, please read on!

We’re in the midst of the new Vuca economy－a volatile mix of cutting-edge market trends, new technology, uncertain economic forecasts, internal and external business dynamics, disruption and cultural change. This new economy influences the way our prospects and clients buy from us, and it’s changed their expectations of us as sellers. They aren’t coming to us first for information, and they are doing all the research they can online. When they finally contact us, they expect solutions to their problems. They expect market and applications insights often not found on websites.

There’s enough of a need for today’s modern employee to be entrepreneurial-minded that there’s actually a term for this phenomenon, intrapreneur. Investopedia defines intrapreneurs as “self-motivated, proactive, and action-oriented people who take the initiative to pursue an innovative product or service while employed by another party.”

Curiosity + Deep Discovery + Probing = Identified Need

Salespeople who excel in selling solutions have a particular way of thinking about problems posed to them by opportunities. Some may just take the client’s word on what they need, but high-performing sales folks often see situations differently. They have a unique aptitude to understand opportunities to improve a prospect’s or client’s business. Much like entrepreneurs entering a market, these trusted advisor salespeople have an almost supernatural ability to discover, evaluate, and act on gaps in client resources.

Psychologists and business school faculty have determined that the aforementioned opportunity recognition ability is just the kind of thing that makes for great entrepreneurs. These experts have come to define entrepreneurship as the process of introducing something new into the market in response to a lack of resources or a resource mismatch. We all know someone who always has a good idea. But entrepreneurial opportunities are more than just good intentions. Ideas become genuine opportunities when the entrepreneur discovers or creates a way for the concept to be commercially viable or create economic value or provides a resource.

Also, similarly to entrepreneurs, effective sales professionals are intensely curious about their clients. They pursue a more in-depth and broader awareness of their customer’s internal workings, significant market events, relevant trends, and their prospect’s position in the broader industry. Good salespeople don’t just take what the prospect says about their problem at face value. They probe, question, explore, even debunk. These smart salespeople think about how to help their customers address their issues and exploit opportunities in new ways. These salespeople dig in to develop an accurate projection of where both the market and customer are headed. Just like the mindset of successful entrepreneurs, successful solutions salespeople are acutely sensitive to changes in customer, industry, and market patterns. They excel in the discovery phase because they devote more time and engage in a more in-depth analysis of the problem.

A significant component of the discovery phase is making sure the customer is addressing the right problem. High-performing salespeople are obsessed with uncovering and defining the real issue affecting their prospects so they can solve the customers problem completely. This type of discovery isn’t easy. You have to feel comfortable asking sometimes difficult questions. If the salesperson has a high need to be liked they often fail to ask the very questions they need answered to provide the best solution. It includes helping buyers articulate their fundamental problem as well as evaluating possible response options. In some cases, a portion of these options may or may not be addressed with products or services provided by the salesperson’s product or service alone.

While buyers of complex solutions typically express a specific need or problem to solve to the salesperson, many of these buyers have it wrong. They feel the pain, but they don’t know what to do about it, or they want to do something that won’t work. Many times, buyers want the symptom of a problem to go away without identifying the true root cause. It comes as no surprise to many sales leaders and sellers that what buyers need is something altogether different than what they asked for in many cases. The requirements definition effort involves significant and often sensitive work to define the problem and possible solution accurately.

Just as being a successful entrepreneur is a rarity, effectively selling complex solutions is one of the biggest challenges facing sales teams. In future posts, we’ll discuss what benefits the entrepreneurial salesperson will bring to your business.

How can you identify an entrepreneurial salesperson?

1.     High Accountability

2.     Does not need to be liked but wants to be respected as a trusted advisor

3.     Excellent discovery process

4.     Active listening

5.     Comfort talking about money

6.     Strong business acumen

7.     Knowledge of customer’s industry

8.     Data driven  

9.     Creates relationships throughout their customers organizations all the way up the C suite

10.  Identify economic impact to the customer’s bottom line

11.  Strategic with time allocation based on maximum ROI for their activities

12.  Growth Mindset

13.  Grit- perseverance 

Does your sales team have Entrepreneurial Salespeople?

What impact could Entrepreneurial Salespeople have on your customer’s bottom-line? (Or how about yours?)

How are you training your salespeople to manage their area of responsibility like it was their own dirt?

How to stop Killing Sales Deals You Should Have Won

 

 

By Mark Allen Roberts

 

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

 

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

The author shared a great quote:

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

  • Jsaac Asimov

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

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

What is a belief?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Do your salespeople have limiting beliefs that are kills deals?

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

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

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

Do they have the discipline to work remotely?

 

What limiting beliefs does your sales team have today?

 

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

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

Is your sales team automation proof?

By Mark Allen Roberts

 

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

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

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

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

No wonder some sales teams are fear filled.

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

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

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

This leads us to the question:

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

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

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

Some of my favorites are:

·     The critical importance of personalization

·     Understand and be able to communicate your value is critical

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

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

·     How psychology is at the heart of all sales

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

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

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

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

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

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

·     Change the vendor partner

·     Change in process

·     Change in relationships

·     Change in pricing and terms

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

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

Judgement

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

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

Communication Skills

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

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

Content Creation Skills

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

Creative Skills

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

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

Empathy

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

Athleticism and Physical Skill

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

Planning Skill

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

Tech Management Skills

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

Teaching Skills

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

Leadership and Social Skills

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

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

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

Do you need to restructure and upskill your sales team?

Are your salespeople “automation proof”?

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

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

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

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

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

What is working now? 

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

What does your data show over the past week?

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

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

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

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

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

What do we know?

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

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

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

Buyers still need to buy.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

6.    Have senior leadership alignment meetings.

7.    Create scenario plans.

8.    Develop a frequent all company communication cadence.

9.    Develop a frequent all client communication cadence.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

How can I help your team in this challenging time?

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

What does your data tell you?

What are your accounts telling you?

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

 

Increase Sales: Fix Broken Windows in How Your Team Sells

 

 

Is your sales team prepared to win and achieve their sales goals  today? Do your salespeople consistently exhibit the discipline to drive profitable sales growth? Do your salespeople clearly understand your expectations and they are accountable to them? One way to ensure your sales team breaks the growing global trend of sales teams not achieving sales growth goals is to fix broken windows in your sales organization. In this post we will discuss where to look for broken windows that are hurting your sales performance.

 

I am very thankful to a number of my mentors over the years. They taught me how to capture and leverage the voice of the customer and how to serve customers by providing industry insights and best practices to improve their bottom line. One mentor taught me how to listen, actively listen for unresolved problems. Mentors help salespeople understand the discipline required to drive profitable sales growth and to be accountable for key behaviors that if performed consistently will drive profitable sales growth. Having disciple and being accountable is not about doing 1,000’s of things perfectly. Being accountable and having discipline is about is having clear goals and expectations on how you will achieve those goals. As the sales leader it is about inspecting what you expect and understanding the behaviors and attitudes to support key goals.

 

I am very proud of my children. My dream for my children was I would grow a business and give it to them one day to run. In running the business they would learn the life lessons I experienced and have financial freedom. I discovered about 15 years ago this was only my dream. My children had much different plans. My daughter became an amazing artist and now is the social media marketing manager for a company driving 3-5 times the traffic to their trade events and website leveraging her artistic skills creating innovative content. My son has a burning desire to serve and protect others and a police officer.

 

Over the holidays my son and I were talking and he shared something called “Broken Window Theory” and I thought it was fascinating. Broken window theory suggests that visible signs of crime like cars stripped and up on blocks in the street, street signs missing, traffic lights not working, people consuming alcohol in public and other anti- social behaviors create an environment for more crime and more serious crimes. The theory suggests that policing methods that target minor crimes such as vandalism, public drinking and others create an atmosphere of order and lawfulness, thereby preventing more serious crimes.

 

In the 1969 a psychologist named Philip Zinbardo from Stanford ran an experiment. He parked a car with no license plates in two neighborhoods. One that was run down, broken windows and signs of crime and one in an affluent neighborhood in Palo Alto California. The car parked in the run down neighborhood was vandalized within 10 minutes. Next he smashed the front window and what he observed surprised him. Others in the neighborhood with vandalism and other crimes joined in and within 24 hours the entire car was stripped to the frame. Who did the vandalizing is what was disturbing: It was respectable adults in the community often with their children not …street gangs.

 

The car in Palo Alto remained untouched.

 

The findings from the study?

 

Unintended behavior leads to a breakdown of community controls

 

One broken window leads to many if left unaddressed

 

Disorders drives fear and withdraw from community laws and norms

 

Even the best citizens in a community can start bad behaviors if the behaviors are left unchecked

 

My son has been a police officer in a large city now for a number of years. He has personally experienced how policing and correcting what seems like minor misdemeanor crimes helps bring a neighborhood back to life. He has seen the impact having the discipline to enforce common community norms and expectations that support a safe and prosperous community and how this reduces crime significantly.

 

“Ok Mark, this is all interesting … but how does this apply to driving profitable sales increases year over year?”

 

I thought you would never ask!

 

How many broken windows exist in your company’s sales organization?

 

Do you know where to look?

 

The good news is you have a good smart team and there are many things about your company you and your team should be proud of. When I did business development consulting work I asked a lot of questions and looked for broken windows that are signs of much bigger sales problems to be solved. It is not unusual for my past clients to not even see the broken windows they walk by each day. Many broken windows have been broken for years and they became “ how we do things around here”. New team members will see them immediately but if they want to survive they learn to look the other way. Instead of repairing the broken windows teams try to just cover them up.

 

Let me help you see the broken windows that I have seen because you too may have grown accustomed to seeing them and may walk by them everyday and they are hurting your business development and sales growth efforts…

 

Majority of salesperson’s time spent in non-sales activities

 

“Hi how are you meetings” …Salespeople bringing donuts to their distributors with no other business reason for the visit, no one at the distributor even knew you were coming

 

Not being properly groomed

 

Company car dirty inside and out

 

Not making eye contact with customers in meetings

 

Sales people not taking notes in meetings

 

Salespeople not having a pen visiting a customer job site and having to “remember” the requirements

 

No pre-call plans 

 

No CRM entry for future meetings or past meeting notes

 

Outdated company brochures in sales associate’s vehicles

 

Damaged and stained brochures from not being properly stored used in customer presentations

 

Poor or no customer follow up

 

Not following up on leads provided, QDD disorder

 

Salespeople leaving sales training to make/ take phone calls

 

Customer email not responded to in 24 hours

 

Out-dated sales process

 

Salespeople working on laptops in meetings and not paying attention

 

Missing team weekly meetings

 

Salespeople openly criticizing others on sales team, others on other teams ( not constructive criticism ) 

 

Not responding top your email of voicemail in 48 hours if you asked them to

 

No plan to achieve their sales goals

 

Showing up late to weekly meetings

 

Salespeople playing feature and benefit bingo 

 

Not being prepared for weekly meetings

 

No cadence for how often they visit with each customer

 

Not completing expense reports timely

 

Poor interpersonal exchanges with team members from other business groups

 

Talking too much in meetings with customers

 

Salespeople who have never been trained in sales (product-yes, sales-no) 

 

Not understanding their customers’ businesses

 

Not understanding their market or market language

 

No dollar value in CRM for new opportunities identified

 

Not understanding how your product or service impacts your customers’ bottom line

 

Not qualifying potential customers

 

Salespeople seen as just another rep not a trusted advisor

 

Salespeople not spending the majority of their time in sales behaviors

 

Not updating sales stage in CRM

 

Asking poor questions in meetings

 

Poor listening, talking over customers 

 

Selling on price not value

 

No ideal customer profile so everyone could be a customer 

 

Company vehicle not maintained

 

Poor to no relationships at key customers

 

Key account budgets/goals… but no strategic growth plans on how to achieve them

 

Only knowing the buyers at key accounts no relationship with other influencers 

 

Sales pipeline bucket not a funnel 

 

Poor new product sales 

 

Poor sales customer visit trip planning (more time driving and flying than in front of customers)

 

No formal sales process

 

Salespeople staying at very expensive hotels

 

Salespeople submitting very expensive dinners without customers

 

If you see some of the above you have broken windows that need to be repaired before your team can experience explosive sales growth.

 

The above are some broken windows I have observed but there are plenty more I am sure.

 

How about you…

 

What broken windows have you observed in your sales teams that are negatively impacting your profitable growth plans?

 

Do you have associates in key sales leadership roles that have not been trained to lead salespeople?

 

Are their politically incorrect secrets that your salespeople know but are afraid to discuss?

 

If we allow broken windows in how we sell they hurt our ability to drive profitable sales growth and increase shareholder value. We are not saying everyone has to be perfect and 1,000’s of things. What we are saying is we need discipline and accountability in our sales teams. As the leader you need to set the expectation and insure compliance. If you observe a behavior that is not consistent with what your team has identified as your core values you must be safe to address it and correct it. If not the little broken windows become chaos and good team members in your sales community will start behaving in ways counter to driving profitable growth.

 

In our next post we will discuss common marketing broken windows to look for and repair.

How to Overcome The Top 10 B2B Sales Challenges

 

 

The number of salespeople meeting and or exceeding sales quota is dropping each year. Why? If you were in the quality department and not sales you would find root causes. What are the top 10 root cause problems B2B salespeople face and how to you solve them?

 

Thomas Williams and Thomas Sain just released an excellent book: The Seller’s Challenge to help salespeople and sales leaders fix common sales problems.

 

Why is The Seller’s Challenge relevant to every B2B seller and their leaders?

 

Take a look at some of the common sales problems this book discusses and gives you applicable advice to solve.

 

  • What is the best way to sell multiple buyers?
  • What is the best way to research and execute a sales call that moves the sale?
  • How do I influence buyers who are strongly committed to a different course of action? (they are happy with what they have)
  • Why are y sales calls bombing and how can I fix this sales problem?
  • What is the best way to address gatekeepers?
  • Why is the status quo my #1 competitor?
  • When should I participate in an RFP?
  • Why is selling to committees so hard and what should I do?
  • What is the best way to manage price and discount demands?

 

Do I have your attention now?

 

The authors captured my attention because I frequently was asked to solve a number if not all of these sales problems in my career.

 

Not only did I find the content extremely relevant to solve seller challenges, but the way it is written is brilliant.

  • A summary of the sales challenge
  • A story to help you quickly emotionally connect to it
  • Discussion of the challenge and all the dynamics involved
  • An illustration or model to resolve the sales problem
  • A solution and best practices
  • Summary of key takeaways
  • Commitment and action steps quickly after the content for the reader to apply what they just learned
  • Chapter addendums illustrating exactly how to implement the best practices

If you are like me and have been in a sales role or leading sales teams you will agree sales has changed a great deal over the years. I find companies continue to be prisoners to outdated sales processes and they fail to identify the root cause of their sales problems they face each day. The result? Sales teams continue to fail to achieve sales and profit quotas year over year.

 

What do most sales managers recommend who have not read this book?

  • Try harder
  • Try more
  • Sign up for Sales training

Or my personal favorite: “Just make it happen!”

 

And how’s that working for you?

 

Be honest its just us…

 

I highly recommend The Seller’s Challenge as a strategy roadmap to help your sales team achieve and surpass their sales quotas by fixing some of the most common root cause problems they face in todays marketplace.

 

 

 

 

Achieve Sales Goals: Turn “Sales Rep’s” Into “Trusted Advisors”

 

 

On average 48% of salespeople fail to achieve their sales quotas…why? The number of salespeople not achieving sales plan continues to grow year over year…why? Why do 58% of buyers surveyed share meeting with the sales rep today added no value to the buying process? We have 79% of business buyers share it’s absolutely critical or very important to interact with a salesperson that is a trusted advisor.

 

It is time we turn “sales rep’s” into “trusted advisors “ and the book: The Trusted Advisor by David Maister gives you a roadmap to accomplish this objective.

 

The author starts the first chapter with a simple yet critical question I want you to think about.

 

“What benefits would you realize  if your customers trusted you more?”

 

Maister then goes on to share a list of benefits your company and your sales associate will realize when your buyers trust you more. There is a list of 16 benefits and below are three I have personally experienced.

 

  1. They reach out to you for advice
  2. They bring you in on more advanced strategic issues
  3. They share more information that helps you help them

 

This is not the first thought leader to discuss the importance of trust. In Stephen Covey’s book: The Speed of Trust he shares the specific financial impact to your companies’ bottom line when you have high trust.

 

Where do your salespeople fall on the client advisor relationship spectrum?

 

First we have salespeople who sell on price. It drives us nuts, we have taught them to sell based on the value our product or solution provided but the reality is they sell on price.

 

Then we have product experts, subject matter, and process experts. If a client shares a problem with them (big if) then they connect the dots to solve the problem with a product or service.

 

Next we have the subject matter expert problem solver. This type of salesperson clearly understands their customers, markets and common problems they have. They hunt for customers with those problems and help clients solve them. They are a valuable resource for their customers.

 

Last and the level very few salespeople achieve is that of the Trusted Advisor. They have product, market, and application knowledge. They also know how to help solve problems. The big difference is they also know the customers business of their business. They have a strong grasp of financial business drivers and business acumen. They ask questions and help customers find better more efficient and effective ways to run their businesses and they have a measurable impact on their customer’s bottom line.

 

This level of sales professional is seen as a trusted advisor to their customers because they use a value based sales approach.

 

As you can tell I like to share sales and marketing research findings on why buyers buy and must have in our markets of today to make buying decisions. (Sorry)

 

To paraphrase the research results from a report by The Rain Group…

 

“85% of buyers today expect salespeople to present their solution and identify the value it will bring and less than 15% of salespeople today actually meet this key buyer need.”

 

So how you feeling right now?

 

Are we hitting a little too close to home?

 

From my experience with business owners and investors they usually admit this conversation makes them feel a bit uncomfortable.

 

They know what they want: profitable repeatable growth.

 

They have invested in a sales team, marketing, operations and often product development to achieve what their shareholders want.

 

They have invested in sales training but are not seeing sales behaviors change to meet what buyers require today.

 

Quietly …on their drive home or when they are taking a shower, or if they are like me at 3:00 am a thought interrupts your peace.

 

“ I don’t think we will hit sales plan and I need to fix this problem”

 

If you are a salesperson where do you fall in the Client Advisor Sales Spectrum? (be honest its just us)

 

How much of your day is actually spent helping your customers solving problems? If you are like most salespeople today less than 20% of your time is spent selling.

 

If you lead a sales organization where do most of your salespeople fall on this spectrum?

 

From my experience teams typically hover in and out of product experts and problem solvers. Each team has about 10% of salespeople selling based on price and they are significantly underperforming.

 

If you own a company what impact would it have to have your typically 60% of salespeople on your team who are mid-level sales performers coming in under plan every year produce the results your top 20% of sales performers produce?

 

When your team is trained to understand market problems and sell with a value based sales model they will become trusted advisors to your customers.

 

If you want (need) your salespeople to fix their sales problem of not hitting sales goal and profit objectives I highly recommend you buy the book The Trusted Advisor and follow the author’s roadmap to help your team move from “sales rep “ to “trusted advisor”.

Increase Sales Profitably: Put a Collar on Non-Selling Behaviors

 

 

What % of your salesperson’s time is actually spent selling today? (are you sitting down?) The average salesperson is spending less than 20% of what I call “sellable time” actually doing sales behaviors today. That’s a problem, a big sales problem we need to fix to keep our sales leaders, owners and shareholders happy. In this post we will discuss how to put a collar on non-sales behaviors.

 

Meet Duke, pictured above. He is our current Lab rescue. Our family fosters Labs, and Lab mixes for the Lake Erie Lab Rescue. (an awesome non-profit organization of people who love animals) When the rescue found Duke he was a hot mess: two ear infections, could not put weight on a hind leg, underweight by about 20 lbs., lime disease, and also anemic.

 

For the last few months we developed a plan to bring him back to health so we could find him a forever home. Our plan had very specific behaviors we executed, tracked and even logged on medical forms. We gave him various medicines and a special food. We slowly started walking him and exercising him including water therapy. We put drops in his ears and basically loved on him. He was not thrilled about all these new behaviors but is a gentle old soul and went along with it.

 

The last thing we always do before adoption is spay or neuter. The surgery went great and Duke came home. To insure the incision healed we had to make sure Duke did not bother it. We corrected him many times but his nature was to lick the incision and it started to get infected. So we collared this behavior with a cone he wears for a few weeks.

 

So what does a lab rescue with a cone collar have to do with growing your sales profitably?

 

I thought you would never ask!

 

If you want to increase your sales profitably and create sales velocity for years to come you need to reinforce the sales behaviors you have seen that drive profitable sales and collar non-selling behaviors.

 

Like what?

 

If you read my content you know I have served many companies in a variety of markets both domestic and international over the last 35 years. At the fear of sounding like an attorney, the answer to what behaviors drive profitable sales for you depends. It depends on your company, markets and what your buyer’s journey looks like. That is why we do voice of the customer work and data analysis before we develop strategies and plans.

 

If you have done your voice of the customer work you understand what your buyers want and need in their buying journey. You know their buyer personas, and the value drivers for their businesses.

 

I have worked with 1,000’s of salespeople that have been on my teams and on distributor sales teams and some of the common behaviors I have seen salespeople doing include:

 

Lead Generation

Building and leveraging relationships

Qualifying opportunities

Qualifying prospects

Qualifying leads

Follow up

Making presentations

Servicing customer needs for information on deliveries

Account management

Networking

Trade shows/ Industry conferences

Territory management

Creating monthly email newsletter blasts

Training and education

Training accounts and distributors

Handling Quality issues

Helping AR collect past due funds

Searching for content

Driving and transportation

Creating new customer target lists

Lead nurturing campaigns

Writing content for industry articles and trade publications

Weekly reports

Call reports

CRM updates

Phone calls

Emails

Social Selling

Customer visits to your plant or corporate office

Applications advice

Helping customers sort parts that may have quality issues

Visiting end users with distributors

Tracking order status

Expediting ship dates

Finding out why orders did not ship on time

Dealing with product damages that occurred in shipping

Reviewing plant inventory

Personal Social Media

Personal emails

Webinar training updates

Team sales meetings

Product demonstrations

Creating content

Working with field service to resolve customer problems

Entertaining customers

Booking hotel rooms

Booking airfare

Booking rental cars

Expense reports

Family time

Workout time

Plant tours with customers

Driving late orders to customers

Picking up material and driving to your plant to help make late order re-promises

Meeting with customer engineers and influencers

Meeting with other buyers at key accounts

Meeting with C-suite executives at key accounts

Product installation and repair

Monitoring and helping with product tests

Distributor training

Distributor management

Customer audits and assessments

Computer and IT issues

Booking advertisements

Managing point of purchase

Ordering content for customers and distributors

Company vehicle cleaning and maintenance

Ordering and stocking sales tools

Creating new sales tools

Customer events and outings

 

And you thought you had a lot to do…

 

Is it any wonder when we ask salespeople why they are not prospecting for new business at current and new accounts say it is because they are too busy?

 

Is it any surprise we find the below statistics for sales teams today?

 

The Average Salesperson spends less than 20% of their time selling today

 

30% + of time searching for sales tools (or building them and that’s really scary)

 

40%-50% administrative

 

10%+ non-selling activities

 

Multitasking decreases productivity by 20-40%

 

Workers waste an average of 40% of their workday because they have never been taught organizational skills and how to focus on behaviors that matter.

 

I have yet to meet a salesperson that is not busy. We are all hard working competitive people and the top performers are seen as strategic advisors by their customers.

 

The question becomes: is your sales team busy doing the behaviors you know drive profitable sales based on the VOC work and sales analysis data, or are they just busy?

 

Here’s the deal…some salespeople believe if they are busy they are safe. So they get real busy. How do they determine what to do? There is a high probability they are doing what their sales manager did when they were in sales. They are prisoners to an out-dated sales process…Let that sink in a minute or two.

 

“You mean to tell me my salespeople are doing the behaviors my sales team did say 20 years ago? 20 years ago before we had a customer service department, the Internet, a CRM system, a formal sales process? Before we spent all that money with the consulting firm? Before invested in new IT systems? Before we invested in a marketing department?

 

Yep!

 

Salespeople, like all of us, will gravitate to their comfort zone of behaviors they like to do. If someone has been in sales for any length of time they likely spend a great deal of time in service and relationship activities.

 

One last consideration is fear. Sales people have been managed (not led, true leaders inspire and motivate they do not use fear) by fear for years. If you are fear filled the creative and strategic part of your brain shuts off. So they do not see what behaviors drive the best results so they do what they are told and stay “busy” to feel safe. They are in fight or flight mode.

 

The shame is busy salespeople lack focus and they often experience problems and not hitting their sale numbers like 70% of the sales people and then what do you do? We put them on a PIP…performance improvement plan and share what happens if they don’t improve. Then we see behaviors that really hurt the bottom lines like unnecessary discounting, extended payment terms, promises our products and services could never meet. This results in more fear, even more busy behaviors, more stress, altercations with other departments and so it goes.

 

How do we put a collar on non-sales behaviors?

 

Do your voice of the customer work

Create buyer personas

Map buying journey and what buyers need today to make a buying decision

Mirror your sales process to the buying process 

Determine the behavior your data shows drives sales velocity today

Determine the top 5 behaviors that drive the sales you want

Train your sales leaders 

Train your sales people 

Train support departments on new sales process and how they help

Establish / reinforce service expectations for support departments

Track support indicators weekly

Create leading indicator behaviors sales must execute

Measure those behaviors

Have sales report on those behaviors weekly and in each coaching discussion

Coach those behaviors on four legged sales calls with your team

Coach sales to eliminate, put a collar on non-selling behaviors 

Inspect what you expect

Reinforce behaviors you want

 

When we implemented the above in a number of companies we experienced:

  • Sales growth exceeding 20%-40% year over year
  • Gross profit increases of 6%-10% in 18 months
  • Customer satisfaction increase
  • New business increases at current accounts
  • New customers (one company realized over 200 new large accounts in 12 months)
  • Sales close rate increases of 30%-50%
  • Improved moral inside sales team
  • Improved sales efficiency
  • Reduced cost of customer acquisition
  • Improved relationships with other departments
  • Reduced marketing expense
  • Improved engagement form entire team
  • Reduced turnover
  • Reduced recruiting expenses

 

If you want profitable sales increases you must focus your sales teams behaviors on those activities that drive the maximum return. When your sales team is aligned with what buyers have shared they need and you deliver it when they need it in their buying process your team too will experience the healthy sales results above too.

 

As for Duke, he is meeting with his new forever family today. He is happy, healthy and not only walking on his hind leg but running! He did not want to do everything we had to do get him strong and healthy but we coached and trained the behaviors that would lead to this day where he will be placed with a loving family, and put a collar on those behaviors that did not support our long term goals.

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