By Jim Berkowitz, CRM Mastery

In How to Identify Great Salespeople it's noted that:

There are three kinds of salespeople. There are those who sell, and those who really try to sell, but never quite make the grade. The third kind? Well, we hope we never accidentally hire one of these, and the list of things that sent them packing is far too long to talk about here. We are going to concentrate on the first two, with the aim of helping you help your company rise to the top.

What's the difference between the first two kinds? What does Sally Success know or do that Joe NotSoSuccessful doesn't know or do? Is it how to talk to a prospect?

Is it charisma? Education? Is there such a person as a "born salesperson"?

It is suggested that you start your search for a winner by having in-depth discussions with your top salespeople. Your goal is to obtain specific answers to six specific questions (see the article for the detail).

Then you ask the identical questions of your other salespeople in the same order (as you asked your stars). You've got to write down what they say in both cases so that you can compare their answers.

If you follow the guidelines in the article then it is sugessted that you just might learn that there are two main differences between the successful and the not-so-successful:

1. The successful salesperson knows just about everything there is to know about your industry, your position in that industry, your product/service line and how it stacks up against the competition (in detail).

2. The successful salesperson can identify his/her top 12 customers, including what they are going to buy and when, and why.Your successful salesperson can talk in-depth with target customers, selling them the exact product they need when they need it, and selling your other products or services when things are slow. He/she will be able to differentiate between your product and your competitor's product, knowing that this year it may only be a small item, but next year will be the "big one."

Posted by Sales 2.0 at 01:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Most sales people have a virtually unlimited amount of work.  They usually have thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of suspects they can call at any one time.  With all this opportunity sales people really need to think hard about how they use their time. 

Most sales people treat their own time as almost valueless and their prospects’ as golden.  Sales people should stop thinking this way.  It is critical that they complete their most critical tasks every day, week and month, if they are going to have a shot at making their quota.

The most common mistake sales people make is not “protecting” their prospecting time.  Sales people need to “build a fortress” around their prospecting time.  They need to schedule in prospecting time as an important meeting...with themselves.  They need to tell prospects that they are busy during this time and NOT schedule any conflicting meetings.

Sales people need to schedule their time carefully.  They must schedule the tasks that are critical to their success into their weekly calendar and make sure these tasks get completed.  Sales people need to manage their time very carefully and treat their own time the way they treat their prospects’.

Posted by Sales 2.0 at 12:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

It's been well documented that quality of collaboration between sales and marketing directly impacts ROI.

The challenge that many organizations face is that their sales process is a black box. No one except the sales team knows what is going on inside the black box until a proposal or sale happens. Worse still, 80% of the leads that go into the sales black box are rarely seen again.

I've encountered many companies where sales and marketing do not jointly agree upon or understand their sales process. At the same time many do not understand their potential customers buying process.

This makes it particularly challenging for marketers who are trying to measure their revenue contribution and lead generation ROI.

Process mapping is a well-known technique for creating a common vision and shared language for improving business results. However, this technique hasn't been widely adopted by sales and marketing departments.

I read this excellent article, on i Six Sigma, by Michael J. Webb, President, Sales Performance Consultants. Webb's article tells how to avoid the common pitfalls of sales/buyer process mapping.

"Leaders in both large and small sales organizations often make mistakes that undermine the potential of process mapping. A common result, for example, is that salespeople ignore the process and operate outside the system," writes Webb.

Read "How to Avoid the Four Most Common Mistakes of Sales Process Mapping."

Kristin Zhivago's book, Rivers of Revenue, has an excellent worksheet on how to map out the customers buying process for what she calls an intense scrutiny product (complex sale).

Webb's four common mistakes that hinder success:

Map all the details, losing track of the big picture.
Focus on the seller, instead of the customer.
Map the process without showing how the results will be measured.
Buy somebody else's "ideal" sales process.
Webb's principles That Yield Powerful Results:

Keep your goals in the foreground of your process map.
Map tools, skills, and performance metrics along with the process.
Engage your people in process mapping to define problems and solutions. This must be cross functional.
Determine how to create value for the customer throughout the process.
June 8, 2005 | Permalink

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Another reason for mapping marketing and sales processes is that repeatable processes can often be automated for optimal productivity. Combining processes and technology to produce significantly more qualified and timely selling opportunities helps close the gap between marketing and sales.

A white paper titled: "Finding and focusing on customers with an immdiate need for a solution you have", describes this systematic marketing approach and can be read at www.Ascend2.com/pdf/whitepaper.pdf

Posted by: Sergio Balegno | Jun 9, 2005 6:05:29 AM

Brian. Love the site! I have a strong service and support background and have found myself thrust into a role of managing end-to-end sales programs for a client. Can you point me to a resource that would enlighten me as to current trending regarding key performance indicators? How many contacts to a lead, how many leads to a sale, time frames, etc. Help!

Posted by: mike | Jun 9, 2005 8:59:18 AM

There are a couple of places you can check out.

http://www.siriusdecisions.com/ is a firm that focuses exclusively Chief Executive Officer, Chief Sales Officer and Chief Marketing Offices and provides benchmarking data. They have benchmarked 200 companies at a very detailed level.

Another place is IDC. http://www.idc.com IDC published a study on tech marketing benchmarks for budgets. IDC surveyed over 100 of the largest tech vendors and compiled a database that represents approximately $400 billion in total revenue and over $11 billion in marketing spend.

Marketing Budget Planner 2005: Benchmarks and Key Performance Indicators
http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=31755

Also, I just posted an article about MarketingSherpa's IT Marketing and Benchmarks survey
http://blog.startwithalead.com/weblog/2005/06/it_survey.html

I hope this was helpful.

Posted by: Brian Carroll | Jun 9, 2005 9:13:01 AM

Posted by Sales 2.0 at 10:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The cover story from June's issue of Sales and Marketing Management magazine is making me feel uneasy (a paid subscription is needed to access this article). It's not so much the explicit subject of the article - which is about hiring - but the implicit idea that companies should only be looking for sales stars - the article is entitled "Star Search".

I believe there is a “sales star myth” in existence…It seems to be a common perception in the technology industry that sales managers and CEO's should only be trying to find "sales stars" or "top guns" to work in their sales force.

Companies are spending months on the hiring process and then frequently experiencing huge disappointment with their eventual hire(s).  Frequently turning around and firing these same people within a year.

I am not that surprised.  Having met hundreds of sales people in the technology industry, I can honestly count on one hand the people who have struck me as "stars".

So what’s the solution?

I suggest VP's and CEO's start thinking more realistically about sales people.  Sales is a job just like any other (I like to say just like accounting!)  Selling is a process. 

In his classic book the "E-Myth" Michael Gerber shows entrepreneurs that they need to break their businesses down into documented business processes so that they can be run by people other than the entrepreneurs themselves. 

Sales managers and CEO's need to start thinking this way. The upshot of Michael Gerber's system is that you can staff your business with “ordinary people” who run the great system you developed.  The same is true in sales.

So think about developing sales processes for your firm...You won't have to spend all your time searching for mythical “sales stars"; you will greatly reduce staff turnover; and you may dramatically grow revenue as well!

Posted by Sales 2.0 at 02:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (2)

I often ask sales people what sales methodology they use...and I often get greeted by a blank stare. 

So then I ask which sales training they took over their career is the one they use on a day-to-day basis.  The answer to this question is often a list of four to five, often well known, training courses...

Then the sales person usually tells me they don't really use any of them...

In my opinion this is not good news for the company these sales people work for.  If you, like me, believe that sales is a process, you want your sales people to have a process. The goal of sales training is to change behaviors and to pass on a sales process to attendees so that they are more effective in selling in the field.

Research conducted by the Huthwaite Group (authors of SPIN Selling) concluded that 87% of skills are lost within 4 weeks of sales training if no reinforcement is carried out.  If skills are lost, behavior will not change and sales people will keep doing things "by their gut" - often in a fatally flawed manner.

So next time you consider sales training, make sure you factor in ways to reinforce the learning that takes place in the classroom, either through formal reinforcement sessions or on-the-job coaching.  Otherwise, your sales people will come out of the training class looking like "shiny cars that just went through the car wash" but they will not improve their sales results.

Posted by Sales 2.0 at 12:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)