October 11th, 2011
With all due respect to Michael Bosworth, author of Solution Selling, it’s time to rethink “solution selling.” Both the selling world and customer interactions have changed and require adjustments to common selling motions.
Besides, after all the books and training over 15 years, try to find one VP of Sales or Account Executive who can tell you what the 9-Block Vision Processing Model is or even what exactly are “the 9 Boxes.” While brilliant in theory and profound for a past generation, the practical application is often lost in the reality of today’s dynamic sales arena. There’s also a new generation selling in a different era.
While my sales, management and consulting career grew up with Rackham and Bosworth over the past 30 years, today I’m seeing 4 challenges facing salespeople relative to selling methodologies:
1. Shorter Conversations - customer conversations are often brief and on the phone. Reps need to be agile and skilled in the managing of short selling conversations.
2. Blended Conversations – lead generation improvements require clear distinctions between call introduction, qualification and discovery. Reps need clarity of process and conversation flow.
3. Convoluted Questioning – sales call questioning process fundamentals have been lost, forgotten or confused. Reps need talk tracks grounded in simplified questioning fundamentals.
4. Mistargeted Discovery – discovery conversations are often given short-shrift, prolonging or derailing sale cycles. Reps need clear discovery plays or templates that are simple, planned, manageable and trackable.
Do you need a revamping of your “solution selling” methodology?
Tags: sales effectiveness, Sales Training, Solution Selling
Posted in Sales, Sales Management, Sales Playbooks, Sales Process, Sales Training | No Comments »
September 21st, 2011
It’s our 10th Anniversary. MXL Partners has been providing sales consulting and sales training for companies for a decade. We’ve worked with sales reps and managers from over 150 companies in almost 200 engagements.
Over past years we’ve seen sales training change in the following ways:
- It’s not about packaged sales training programs.
- It’s all about custom-built and focused sales training.
- Experienced sales reps need and appreciate relevant training.
- Rookies need, want and seek practical and helpful training.
- Sales Managers want a return to strong sales fundamentals.
- Value Propositions are best as custom sales messaging built for specific target buyers.
- A well-defined, well-taught selling process drives best behaviors.
- Sales Management training is an effective and repeatable sales leadership/coaching system.
Do you have a clear and modern perspective on today’s approach to sales training?
Tags: sales effectiveness, Sales Leadership, Sales Training
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August 10th, 2011
If you’re a veteran to sales, when you see the topic of “Account Management” one’s mind goes to one of two places: 1) Managing and selling to large accounts, or 2) Managing existing customer account relationships. I’m seeing more organizations today that are structurally blurring the lines of “selling” and “managing customer relationships.”
Ideally, all customer-facing team members are selling and managing relationships. When existing accounts warrant full-time attention to customer service/support, implementation and care-giving, then Account Managers are needed to truly manage and service the account. They may have cross-selling and up-selling responsibilities as well.
But this does not necessarily mean they have account strategy responsibilities or even needed capabilities. Sales Account Executives need to quarterback the account. Without clearly defined roles and responsibilities havoc and missed opportunities may prevail.
Do you have clear delineation of roles and responsibilities between your Account Executives and Account Managers?
Tags: sales effectiveness, Sales Leadership, selling success
Posted in Account Management, Sales, Sales Management | No Comments »
July 8th, 2011
After 30 years of sales experience including the past 10 years coaching and training sales teams from Silicon Valley start-ups to Fortune 500 companies around the world, I’m still a proponent of the 5 key principles for success I was first taught in college by the late great Mort Utley, a sales motivational speaker for The Southwestern Company.
I recently listened to an old recording of these solid fundamentals for success in sales and in life. These resonate with me even after all these years. I realize that I’ve been consciously and unconsciously teaching these to my children and actually anyone else under my charge over my adult lifetime. These principles permeate my professional sales training, coaching, mentoring and sales management sessions.
They’re classic, never out of fashion, and they work.
As I’ve been greatly impacted by these 5 Principles for Success, I am devoting this issue of our new SalesNote publication launch to these keys.
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1. Think Big
When you think big, something always happens. Many people think small and achieve something less than they really could have achieved. Winners see the possibilities, reach out farther and swing for fences. Big dreams, big thoughts and big goals yield results far beyond the masses.
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2. Know What You Want
Understand what you want to achieve, then set goals to get there. I was taught once and now always say: “There are those that make excuses and those that find a way.” Focus and determination need to chase a goal. One has to know the target before one can hit a bullseye.
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3. Do Your Homework
Knowledge and skill breeds confidence and competence. Get the prep work done and study what needs to be mastered and understood. There’s but a small difference between successful and highly effective people and those who are not: successful and effective people do their homework.
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4. A Positive Mental Attitude
Think yes, never no. Smile, never frown. You are what you think and the attitude you bring to any situation. Certainly problems abound in a broken world, yet you can be a source of peace and light. How you approach these mentally is critical to your own well-being and for those around you.
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5. Value & Manage Your Time
If you waste an hour, you can never replace it. The cumulative effect of competently and consistently performing prioritized activities is profound. Determine all valued actions, then scope their impact and timing. Appropriately manage your schedule. Bottom line: do good things well and often.
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Tags: Coaching, sales effectiveness, Sales Motivation, selling success
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June 17th, 2011
When it comes to sales productivity, sales coaching certainly comes into play and is crucial for a successful sales organization. If you’re going to make adjustments, the team has to to be coached to understand the new game plan. Likewise, individual contributors may need sales coaching to fully develop their field effectiveness.
But which ones? Your stragglers, high-performers, or future high-performers? Logic says leave the high performers alone and coach the others. After all, the manager/coach is there to manage and help, right? Watch your logic.
CSO Insight’s 2011 Sales Performance Optimization – Sales Management Analysis rated managers’ ability to proactively identify which reps needed coaching or mentoring. The percentage of firms rating Needs Improvement was 37%, an all-time high, and the Meets Expectations group was at 44%, an all-time low. Firms rating Exceeds Expectations grew to almost 16%.
What does this mean? Means there’s lots of room for improvement. Yes, you’ve got to coach, but do it wisely. The best firms (effective sales management) coach to metric bars and performance analytics set by their top performers, then proactively identify (dashboard visibility) players that need help. The coaching is objective and helpful, not belittling or damaging. High-potential players develop; weaker ones become clearly identified for a new opportunity, elsewhere.
Interesting also that there is a correlation between rep turnover and effective coaching visibility. There was a 10% higher turnover rate for Needs Improvement vs. Exceeds Expectations firms.
Better coaching environment; lower turnover.
Tags: Coaching, sales effectiveness, Sales Leadership
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June 7th, 2011
Getting close to mid-year (non-calendar fiscal year excepted, of course). Should be pretty clear now whether you’re hitting the number, over-achieving, or missing the mark. Go heads down, all out and finish strong. No arguments there – but open your eyes and see a looming 2nd half.
You’ve got enough At-Bats through previous quarters to make intelligent sales adjustments at this point. The new product is gaining or not gaining market acceptance; the sales message is or is not resonating; the territory re-alignment is working or not working; the new sale hires are starting to cut it or are struggling. Keep at it this month but with an observant eye toward the future.
Tough calls here require clear wisdom and discernment. The danger is to jump the gun and not see the slow ramp of a genius strategy or pull the trigger on a weak and sorry mistake. If you care, your reputation can be at stake in environments and cultures where knee-jerk reactions are frowned upon or lauded.
Great salespeople and effective sales leadership see the trends, sense the momentum or stall and see the big picture. They’re already tracking activity metrics and numbers and already have a hunch of what has to happen after this quarter ends to finish the game with a win.
Yes, plan your half-time talk and half-time adjustments. There’s not a lot of time between halves.
Tags: sales assessment, sales effectiveness, Sales Goals, Sales Leadership, selling success
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May 19th, 2011
CSO Insight’s recent Sales Optimization Report reveals that when rating their “Ability to Accurately Forecast Business,” 46% of salespeople rate Needs Improvement. This is down from 60% five years ago, so there is progress in forecasting accuracy. There were 44% that rated Meets Expectations, and only 7% seen as Exceeds Expectations.
At MXL Partners, we’re big believers in a rolling 30-60-90 Forecasting methodology. Many companies acknowledge that they practice this, however we’ve recently seen yet another example this quarter of a sophisticated multi-billion organization with sketchy forecasting practices.
While all the information is in the CRM and reports are plentiful, there are still 3 issues:
1. Visual Clarity in Reporting – CRM reports are cluttered and inconsistent, allowing missed cues and trends buried in the data.
2. Consistent Updating and Accuracy of Information – without deliberate discipline and appropriate attention to detail at the rep and management level, this is a key reason for misleading forecasting.
3. Adherence to Sales Process – paying only lip service to stages, milestones and stepscauses more pain and delusion than it should.
When a rep creates and manages their own visibility reports of all Pipeline, Best Case and Commit Opportunities, updates this weekly with views over at least a rolling 90-day horizon, and then forces adjustments and actions to this Pipeline/Forecast view per a prescribed milestone process, then they will be prepared to report to management, and themselves, with truth and accuracy.
It’s actually simple and powerfully effective. The problem is not in the CRM but at rep and management level.
Tags: discipline, Sales Forecast, Sales Goals, Sales Leadership
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May 12th, 2011
There’s a growing trend in the sales kingdom. It’s ad-hoc sales messaging. Not necessarily bad if you’ve got a hot and compelling product. Certainly some sales teams can still be successful while they vary in their adherence to the purity of whatever target sales messaging was produced by Marketing. It’s like winning a game with a team of great athletes in spite of a less than coherent game plan.
The problem catches up to you eventually. Wide variations of a team’s sales messaging (direct, phone or email) will leave openings for the competition to exploit if they’re better at this than your team.
There are 3 keys to effective sales messaging:
1. Audience Specific Targeting
2. Clarity of Market Trends, Audience Objectives and Challenges
3. Short and Long Sales Talk Tracks, Questions and Visuals
In the absence of effective control of these, any sales team will “roll their own” – that is, they will create their own versions of scripts and emails and anything that they believe they need to be successful. Sometimes what they create is worthwhile; many times it can be quite ugly. Multiply this across an aggressive and frustrated sales team and you have a recipe for confusion internally and in the marketplace.
The fix takes work and involves (re)alignment or sometime wholesale (re)creation. It’s critically important though to avoid an ad-hoc sales organization.
Do you have an ad-hoc messaging, ‘roll your own’ sales team?
Tags: customer/audience targets, elevator pitch, sales messaging, sales questioning, Sales Training
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April 18th, 2011
CSO Insight’s recent Sales Optimization Report reveals that salespeople are knowledgeable about their products. However, there are clear weaknesses when it comes to effectively understanding buyers, cross-sell/up-sell, selling value and forecasting accuracy:
Meet or Exceed Expectations- Effectively present Features and Benefits = 67%
- Differentiate from Competition = 69%
- Align Solutions with Customer Needs = 68%
- Generate Accurate Bid/Proposal = 85%
Needs Improvement- Understanding Customer Buy Process = 40%
- Effectively Cross-sell/Up-sell = 47%
- Sell Value/Avoid Discounting = 42%
- Forecasting Accurately = 54%
This data shows that salespeople, for the most part, know their products, but are lacking in areas not typically emphasized in training across sales teams.
Tags: sales effectiveness, Sales Forecast, sales messaging, sales questioning
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April 6th, 2011
It’s an age old question: Do I spend more time researching companies before I call them or do I make more “cold” phone calls? This topic is too much debated. It’s a qualified no-brainer. You want to make more calls. Let me explain.
If you make 10 calls in a 2-hour period because you’re studying lead prospects’ web sites, social media sites and rooting around your CRM, and I make 30 calls in the same 2-hour period, all things being equal, I’m going to outsell you. Over a period of weeks, months and year, I will cover more ground in the territory, uncover more opportunities and drive more revenue.
Now I didn’t say zero research or no entries in the CRM. It’s about intelligent balance. Here’s the trick – 3 keys that will separate Producers from Meanderers:
1. Know Your Targets - if I know my vertical or target audience, then I can do cursor research, i.e., quick specific info checks on web sites or other sales intelligence resources.
2. Know Your Pitch - if I know what I’m going to say then I have No Fear and will boldly make great quality calls and leave great quality messages all day long.
3. Know Your Metrics - if I know my cadence metrics and results then I will confidently and systematically work the numbers game.
4. Batch Your Updates - if I keep my calling notes separately on a spreadsheet as I make my calls I can update the CRM appropriately at the end of day or night without losing my calling rhythm.
These keys result in Focus, Confidence, Accountability and Speed. You don’t need a manager to guide you; you can manage yourself. I will gladly take a team full of smart focused, confident, productive self-managers any day over a team of over-organized, plodding, CRM perfectionists.
Are you or your team really as productive as can be?
Tags: cold-calling, customer/audience targets, discipline, Prospecting, sales activities, sales effectiveness, Sales Forecast, Sales Training, sales visibility, selling success
Posted in Sales, Sales Management | No Comments »
