Posted by Victor Watts on Tue, Sep 29, 2009 @ 04:14 PM
Okay, the headline metaphor may be a bit of a Olympic-sized literary stretch...but you have to admit, the visual of a coach watching her gymnasts compete is not too dissimilar to a manager trying to coach a diverse sales team.
Let's face it, your team is made up of individuals:
- With different talents, strengths and weaknesses;
- That have divergent support needs;
- That are often in remote locations.
If that's not challenging enough for a coach, it gets considerably more difficult when the commission checks may not be quite as big as they once were. But one thing is for certain, how you manage, lead and enable your sales force today will determine what kind of issues you will be faced with tomorrow. 
Sales Is Not Always A Team Sport - But The Team Still Needs To Win!
On one level, it seems like a contradiction in terms, doesn't it? But a good coach knows that a team is made up of unique individuals. So then, why do we so often see corporate incentive and retention programs rolled out with a one-size-fits-all structure and mentality? Based on what I've seen in corporate America, it's because that's the easy way out.
What's the old management saying?
"I love a hungry sales person with two mortgages, three cars and an expensive boat and a base salary woefully inadequate to meet the need."
As a consequence of that mentality, the typical corporate retention and incentive strategy is something along the lines of establishing a performance-based bonus program. Sell more - make more. Simple. Everyone's happy - right?
Wrong. (And I won't even get into the issue of how those goals are typically set.)
While I won't disagree that I look for money motivated sales folks, have you ever seen one single survey of sales people that indicates that money is their number one concern?
Didn't think so.
Don't get me wrong, money is a key issue...it's just not the only or necessarily the top one. Let's assume that you've already got a reasonably good comp plan in place. Let's also assume that you're not currently having to... what's the corporate euphemism?...oh yeah, "right-size" the sales organization. If that premise is correct, then I'm going to suggest that it's an important time to find ways to recognize and support your key individuals. The goal is not only keeping your high performers, but also keeping them at high-performing levels!
We've Been Here Before...And If You Haven't, Pay Close Attention
So maybe you're saying,
"I don't have to worry about things like retention or recognition programs right now. These guys should feel lucky they even have jobs. And besides, there's no money for things like incentive programs or new sales enablement initiatives right now."
I hope that's not the case. It may very well be a pervasive corporate culture at the moment, but I would argue that's exactly the wrong way to look at things.
Believe it or not, we are beginning to emerge from the economic downturn. Yes, this one has been a doozy, and employment will be the lagging indicator, but economic cycles - to coin a phrase - are still cyclical. And your most valuable assets still get on the elevator every day.
When things do turn around - and they will - some of your best assets may not let the door hit them in the rear on their rush to get to their next job. It's time to pay attention. Remember, the best time to retain your best players are before you need to.
Parallel Bar Management Skills
We often talk in this blog about the emerging "sales enablement" tools and how they can help your team produce more and do so more efficiently. Not a bad thing to consider from a retention perspective either. High perfoming reps in particular will appreciate it and use them! Heck, some of the Sales 2.0 tools can even help you coach (not just manage!) your players. I applaud those companies with enough vision to recognize the significant ROI of making that kind of move now. But that's just part of the managerial picture.
As a sales executive, you are operating in critical times. A time where your best management skills need to be working in parallel with the longer-range plans and goals. Maintaining and building the morale of their sales team takes a lot of effort. And this is not news, but individuals like to be treated...well, individually.
As We Focus On The Pitch, It's Easy To Lose Focus On The Pitcher
Alright, I know. I'm mixing metaphors here. (At least it's still a sports metaphor!)
Have you found yourself so focused on the need to close the deal and hit your numbers that you've neglected what you know about Sales Management 101? If so, remind yourself of a few of the basics and pull a few of these moves out of the tried-and-true toolkit. Yes, it takes more time and energy to manage this way but, trust me, in the long run you'll be glad you did.
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Catch people doing something right! Do you remember the first time your boss pulled you aside and said "good job!" Remember when he mentioned your name at a sales meeting for something you did well or for the good idea you had? Doesn't have to be a big deal. But catching people doing something right is still one of the most powerful management tools in your management toolkit. Reach for that one as often as you can!
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Discuss career pathing. Maybe the current economic times make the idea of talking about a positive career path with your subordinate seem like a silly waste of time. Heck, you might even be worried about your own career path! Well now's the best time to talk up a positive future. Just like Vince Lombardi said, "Confidence is contagious. So is lack of confidence." (Oops, another sport just entered the blog building.)
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Review reporting demands. You might feel powerless in this area because of management expectations, but I encourage you to give it a go. Your sales people will certainly appreciate it. Take a look at the reporting and administrative requirements placed on the sales team. See anything that can be minimized or eliminated? Still having a weekly sales call to regurgitate what should be in the CRM? Worse yet, are your people shackled by a CRM that has been so over-engineered that you're having reps spend hours each day just trying to keep up with data input demand?
It's about productivity - not re-productivity. Find the extraneous and the duplicitous and eliminate it! To quote Yoda: "Necessary are the battle reports you need, but get the soldiers you must beyond the weeds."
Good luck...and heads up coach, there's a game on!
Photo credits:
azzurri_nr1 http://www.flickr.com/photos/ajacied/2772283192/
Krachel http://www.flickr.com/photos/krachel/2609725004/
Posted by Tom Rothrock on Fri, Jul 24, 2009 @ 10:31 AM
Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bufferchuck/
Sales managers have long struggled with defining the characteristics of top sales reps and have frequently used the old saying, "You'll know when you see them" to do so.
That saying recalls a question a sales manager once asked us, "I've got a great rep who runs rings around the rest of the team. What does that rep do that the others don't?"
There's been quite a bit written on this question, both in the sales management and behavioral science circles. Since this is a sales blog, we'll focus our effort there.
Aside from the obvious - which are your rep's monthly, quarterly and yearly sales figures which tell if quota was met, exceeded - or not - part of our answer lies in what we'll call the "personality mix" - those traits which point to a individual's potential for success or failure in sales.
But how do you do that?
The first thing to do is to establish a profile of common characteristics of strong salespeople. While there are some variations to the needs particular to your sales environment, it's generally agreed that successful salespeople are;
Enterprising: Salespeople are leaders. They like to drive people and events from start to finish, especially their sales cycles. They're doers more than thinkers and are interested in the "big picture" than the details. Also, being true entrepreneurs, they're comfortable with risk and take ownership of outcomes, both good and bad.
Sociable: In sales, it's all about people so to be a success, your salespeople must like helping others and working with teams. They must communicate well, thrive on human interaction and prefer talking with people over working with machines or data. If they don't, they're better in a cube working on lines of code.
- Assertive: The best salespeople exhibit limitless energy and don't let themselves to be stalled or blocked when advancing their sales cycle. They can intuitively sense when they need to take control and have the ability to rebound from setbacks, too. The top salespeople are the ones on your team who're restlessly asking "What's next?" and are ones who're never content unless they're moving forward.
Take a moment and using the characteristics above, match them to your top performers. You'll find that your top performers share these characteristics. Once you've established that, your next step is to use your "Top Performer Profile" as a "best practices" hiring tool. We'll talk about that in a later post.
Posted by Victor Watts on Mon, Jul 20, 2009 @ 01:45 PM
Corporate leadership is based on basic fundamentals...
...and it often comes down to focusing the efforts of followers on such nuts and bolts like:
A. Listening to customers;
B. Producing quality outcomes and products, and;
C. Motivating employees to do the right things.
Sales Leaders - The Same Principles Apply!
The same basic leadership objectives may be applied to sales management. But anyone who's ever been a sales manager knows that getting all their sales people to consistently do the right things is a constant and significant challenge. And I don't think any successful sales manager will disagree with the idea that planning for an important sales call is one of the keys to getting and growing the business.
But how many of you truly believe that there is consistency among the sales staff when it comes to the quality and the messaging of that planning? ...I didn't think so.
Try This...
Before your next sales conference or staff conference call: Send out an email to your team and ask them to describe how they normally prepare for a sales meeting with a key account. Ask things like:
- How long does it take you to adequately prepare for an important call?
- What are the elements of your plan?
- What is the unique selling or value proposition that you use?
- Do you plan the questions you will ask in advance or do you just "wing it?"
- Have you thought through what objections you might face and how you will handle them?
- Do you always plan a meeting objective?
And how about...
- Do you carefully consider and plan how you will close against that meeting objective?
Based on my 25+ years of sales management experience, I think I can safely say you will be surprised by the wide variance in responses you will get. Or maybe you won't be surprised. Either way, I'd love to hear back on what you learn by completing that exercise.
And unless you're already making sure that pre-call planning is a key element of your team's sales process, I'm willing to bet that a little leadership guidance along these lines - supported with some very clear management expectations - will go a long way to getting those sales numbers where you'd like them to be!
Happy hunting!
Photo credit: coloradohousechurch
Top Sales Professionals National Survey
Learn more about what national top-performing sales representatives had to say about their precall preparation habits.
Download a free summary of the top sales professionals survey.
Posted by Todd Kasper on Thu, Jul 16, 2009 @ 10:32 AM
Earlier this spring, we conducted a global survey of top-performing sales professionals (defined as being in the top 20% relative to their peers) in order to examine the pre-call planning habits of these high performers. By conducting the study, we reached the following five conclusions about top-performing sales professionals, some of which are not likely to be a surprise (and some may be):
- Pre-call planning is critical to achieving success
- The key benefits of pre-call planning to top-producers are: greater control of the sales process, more effective use of time, and better customer-specific need discovery
- Top-performers prepare better than their peers
- Top-performers say that if they could improve how they prepare, they could sell even more
- They'd do pre-call planning more often if it took less time
Show Me the Money!
What was very striking, however, was the difference in responses between top reps who listed "increased income" as a benefit of pre-call planning (we'll call these people collectively the "Income Crowd") versus those who did not list income as a benefit (the "Non-Income Crowd"):
- The Income Crowd placed a higher level of importance on pre-call planning (9.00 versus 7.68 - on a scale of 1 to 10)
- The Income Crowd tends to spend more time preparing for customer interactions than the Non-Income Crowd
- 78% of the Income Crowd peforms internet research (website, financials, etc.) on customers before meetings, versus only 41% for the Non-Income Crowd
- 91% of the Income Crowd respondents identify the desired outcome of the call/meeting beforehand (versus 73% for the Non-Incomers). The same numbers applied to creating a written list of questions to ask during the meeting.
- Additionally, 88% of the Income Crowd respondents say that they use pre-call planning better than their lower-performing peers. Only 58% of the Non-Income Crowd shares this sentiment.
Clearly, there is a link between (1) recognizing increased personal income as a benefit of being better-prepared for customer meetings and (2) the quality of the preparation by sales professionals for those meetings. Even among top-quintile performers, we see striking differences in the way these professionals approach pre-call planning.
What's in it for Me?
So what does this mean for you? You should examine the views that your sales professionals have regarding pre-call planning and the benefits they perceive that they get out of being prepared for a key customer call or meeting. Ask your reps what they see as "in it for them" and see how many say that pre-call planning will help their personal income. If a large portion of your sales team sees extra cash for them as a benefit, congratulations! If not, you may want to consider addressing pre-call planning at your next sales meeting.
We're all busy, especially sales professionals trying to make a living in a tough economy. But why not spend a few extra minutes preparing to help making that living a little easier?
Photo credit: AMagill
Top Sales Professional Survey
Learn more about what top-performing sales professionals had to say about their preparation habits.
Download a summary of the top sales professionals survey.