There are essentially three reasons why we find it so challenging to adhere to our schedule or complete our to-do list:

1. Not being realistic with our timeline and as a result, have too many activities scheduled into our day.

2. Not engaging in right activities that support our goals or objectives.

3. Not planning for the unplanned. Also known as, “Externalities.”

These externalities or things that we don't necessarily plan for often go unnoticed and fly under our radar screen when attempting to map out our week. They have tendency to eat up our days.

These externalities can also take on the form of errands or household chores, the kids' carpool, time on the phone, traffic, a doctor’s appointment, a project or proposal that you’re now responsible for which has a rapidly approaching deadline, a conversation with a co-worker, television, web surfing, meetings, emails, solitaire, etc. Many of these things come along and blindside us because they’re outside of our direct line of vision. Then we wonder why we’re often unable to finish everything that’s on our plate for the day.

Now, since we don’t have a crystal ball to inform us about the imminent things that would unknowingly consume part of our day, imagine if you were actually able to plan for these things; these same tasks that often go left unplanned.

One of my clients was a bit resistant to this idea. She shared with me that, once a new client hires her company and procures her services, the unplanned begins happening immediately. Irate customers calling in and people wanting things addressed and handled immediately.

This client happens to be in the emergency restoration business. So, the only time she does get a call is when people have experienced a major or minor disaster in their building or in their home, such as a fire or a flood. As you can imagine, it’s probably hard to plan exactly when she would be receiving these calls.

When the calls came in, you can imagine how the customers would sound. Harried, upset, fearful, angry or uncertain of what could happen or would be happening. And every time my client received a call like this, she would react surprised, as if it was the first time she’s ever experienced it! “I can’t believe this is happening again,” would be a typical reaction.

When I asked her how long this has been going on, she said for fifteen years, ever since she started her business. This would be similar to a doctor who works in the ER and is continually shocked at the number and degree of emergencies that come through the door. As such, this doctor reacts accordingly by saying, “What, another emergency?”

The solution for this client was apparent. Instead of resisting the truth she began to embrace the truth, and the truth was this is her business! She is in the business of providing not only solutions to her customer’s restoration nightmares but providing support, guidance and reassurance that it will all work out okay.

Instead of being continually shocked at how her customers’ react when calling her, by embracing this as part of her business and accepting the truth, she was able to more effectively plan for it. She began to make the shift from being highly reactive to responsive and service oriented by anticipating these situations rather than being shocked when they occur.

Posted by Sales 2.0 at 05:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I have to admit that I like the message that Sales 2.0 is sending. This site "gets it." It sees the huge ties that bind sales and customer service together. It encourages companies to make sure they deliver great customer service. It knows that it costs five times more to bring in a new customer than it does to sell additional services to a client you already have.

Hmmm, with figures like that, you'd think that more companies "got it." But you don't need to spend much time waiting on hold for "customer service" departments, or desperately searching "Contact Us" pages to find even one phone number, to realize that far too few companies get it at all.

I remember seeing some great research years ago, showing that four broad factors influence which stores or businesses we choose to visit. Those factors are: 1) the specific situation surrounding this actual purchase; 2) the general environment in which we’re shopping, stretching from our own “chemistry” that will determine our tastes and styles, to the overall economy in which we’re shopping; 3) the presentation and promotions from competing stores or services; and 4) each store’s own presentation and promotions.

Admittedly, those are very broad factors. But they drive home one very important point. Of the four factors that influence us, each business only has any influence at all on the last one — its own presentation and promotions. That means that companies had better be really good at understanding those other factors, and at making sure their own presentation and promotions respond to them as impressively as possible.

That’s not hard to get. But, incredibly, far too many companies spend far too much time figuring out what they want to say, instead of paying attention to what their customers want. Customers want to know they’re important, and appreciated, and cared for. They want to know companies see them and listen to them and respond to them. They want to know that companies “get it.”

But many companies simply don’t. And, sadly, there are more things that those companies probably simply won't get. They won't get your business. Or my business. Or the business of others who like to be treated with respect and gratitude for the dollars they leave behind.

How about you? Operating a business or not-for-profit? Maybe "just" operating a family? Try smiling and saying thank-you with every interaction. Try listening hard to feedback, and correcting any things that bug people. Try "service with a smile" that actually does have a smile. You might be surprised at the smiles that pop up in return. And the rewards that come with them.

Don't think of it as customer service. Think of it as sales. Because that's exactly what it is.

Posted by Sales 2.0 at 04:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I recently accompanied Elizabeth on a call to an insurance firm. Her prospect was highly qualified to buy, Elizabeth was highly qualified to sell and her solution, offered by a new, albeit sound company with an experienced management team was a good fit. But she lost the deal.

Elizabeth's organization marketed a new, although innovative approach to building executive information systems. "Rather than move information into an expensive, redundant data warehouse," Elizabeth explained, "our solution indexes your data where it resides, avoiding the high cost of a centralized effort."

The result? Less time to implement at less cost. And it's far easier and cheaper to maintain.

Elizabeth knew how to communicate the benefits of the solution. She knew the business problem and rallied the right resources to explain how the underlying technology worked. She had her business buyer covered, her tech buyer got it – and she developed a good relationship with the procurement folks.

A solid strategic seller if ever there was one.

What happened? Elizabeth's marketing organization incorrectly identified insurance as a target market – and they weren't entirely wrong. Data tells us that insurance firms spend a great deal on EIS solutions.

But as a culture, the insurance segment buys products and services that are proven and widely adopted. Elizabeth's solution was not entirely unproven – but it was installed in places like hedge funds and oil companies – cultures that are willing to try new approaches to old problems. And they are cultures that are willing to discard IT investments that don't pay off.

This is hardly a trait of the old-line insurance firm.

You've heard the phrase "people hire others like them." The same is true in the buyer-seller relationship. When you segment the market, don't forget cultural drivers. If you sell a solution based upon an emerging technology that has yet to reach wide-scale adoption go for the low hanging fruit: buyer types that have a history of trying the unproven.

Diagnosing your prospect's cultural environment, especially their capacity for taking risks is an important qualifier you shouldn't overlook, especially if you are proposing a solution that differs from the status quo.

Try this simple diagnostic tool.

Ask your prospects if they are a cultural Type A, B or C. If they haven't heard this question before, here's how the tool works:

Type A organizations have a history of adopting technology in its early stage of hype. But be careful not to generalize. Type A organizations don't always take risks across the board. They make take risks in their sales organization for example, but not the supply chain.

Generally speaking, Type A organizations will invest in early stages of technology hype - and aren't shy about letting the media know about it.

Type B organizations are more moderate in their attitudes about investing in technologies or management techniques considered risk or counter culture. Type B managers will hear you out, but will insist on a business case or a quantitative argument. They experiment in a highly controlled environments with strong boundaries - where the plug can be pulled quickly without too much disruption to the larger organization.

Type C? You guessed it. The most conservative organizations will simply let others take the risks first. Type C buyers, typically motivated by proven techniques that reduce cost, wait for technologies to enter what Gartner calls the "plateau of productivity."

This diagnostic tool doesn't mean innovative solutions can't be sold to Type B or C firms. But, if you find yourself in this situation, identify it as an issue so you can adjust your sales strategy and messaging.

Posted by Sales 2.0 at 04:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Do you really want to get that meeting?

For most companies the biggest bottleneck in the sales process these days is getting into that executive meeting. But how often do we really earn the right to get that meeting?

As a sales person in a "Sales 2.0 world" there are many, many tools and techniques available to us to increase our chances of getting a meeting. From my observation most sales people and sales organizations do not use 10% of these. And some sales people just cold-call with no research and no customization of their pitch - dumb (and largely unforgivable if you know what resources are out there).

Here are some tools available to us that can be used to increase the likelihood of getting a meeting:

• Hoovers, OneSource etc: get the basic information on the company: company description, senior executives, revenue, profit and annual report. You know the drill (I hope!)

• Jigsaw, Spoke: dive a little deeper on contacts. Find middle managers responsible for the area(s) you sell to

• LinkedIn: invest some time building your network in LinkedIn and you can get referrals to executives in the area you want or close enough to help you with coaching on the account. Even if you aren't closely linked to your prospects you can find some great bio information here

• InsideView, Google News: use something -- whether it's a sophisticated Sales 2.0 tool like InsideView or a free service liked Google News to watch for "trigger events". Don't you want to be there when a new CMO starts at your target account? How about when your prospect launches a new product?

These are just some of the tools out there that you can use now. Use the information from these tools to customize your pitch to executives. Show them you have done your homework.

Earn the right to get in!

Posted by Sales 2.0 at 11:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Negative views of the sales profession cause damage to companies, economies and individuals.

“So, what do you do?”

“I’m in sales,” you reply.

“Ohh…” they say, looking slightly uncomfortable. “What is it you really want to do?”

We’ve all heard this before, or something very close to it. I wrote an article for the Institute of Sales and Marketing Management’s print magazine Winning Edge about this very subject. Here’s a cut down web version:

A Major Role

Sales has an image problem. James Hammersley, the CEO of sales consultancy Win recently told me that, when visiting his old university to give a speech on selling, he asked the audience to describe the defining traits of a salesperson. The responses included ‘sleazy’, ‘untrustworthy’, and even ‘alcoholic’!

Walter Friedman’s excellent history of selling, "Birth of a Salesman reveals a survey of mothers in the US put sales as the least desirable ‘white collar’ job for their sons and daughters. Another American study discussed in the book explains that only politicians are considered less trustworthy than salespeople.

So what?

Well, let’s face it, status and recognition are important to today’s professionals. Without them job dissatisfaction kicks in, leading to low morale, lower performance levels and higher staff turnover. Furthermore, as individuals opt for “cooler” careers the pool of new sales people is reduced and recruitment becomes even more difficult. Perhaps the most damaging outcomes of the low esteem in which sales is held occur when such attitudes pervade an organization and its management. Anyone who has ever witnessed an organization with such a mind set will know that this self fulfilling prophecy results in a demotivated sales force, high staff turnover and, ultimately, lower sales.

Posted by Sales 2.0 at 06:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Sales philosophies and actions are at the core of good business itself

When I was at school I liked the idea of being a businessman, with high powered meetings, traveling around meeting influential people and striking deals. Aside from setting up your own business or running someone else's sales is the profession closest to that school boy's dream. Ultimately, good sales and good business require many of the same perspectives and actions.

Consider the GetAbstract summary of the book The Definitive Drucker. Drucker has often been called the Father of Modern Management, but his teachings on how to be successful in business were remarkably similar to how to be successful in sales. Consider the following 7 points that summarize his advice to business leaders:

• Be customer centric - Customers belong at the center of all business decisions. The purpose of a business is to create and serve a customer. Sales people find customers, discover and develop their issues/problems (create the customer) and then design and deliver a solution (serve the customer)
• Be selective - Decide who is your customer, and who is not your customer -- sales people decide on a target market and then carefully qualify each prospect, hand-picking the opportunities to spend time on.
• Identify and deliver value - What does your customer consider value? Possibly the ultimate question for the sales person to find the answer to.
• Be proactive - Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work; Sales is one of the most active disciplines in the modern business. As IBM's Thomas Watson said, "Nothing happens until someone sells something".
  
• ...but Don't confuse motion with progress. - it's all about results.
• Ask the right questions Ask probing questions to drill down to the essential issues.
• Look outside of your business -- Strong business leaders focus on the outside world, where customers and competitors are. Just like sales do, day in, day out.

Drucker's perspective should serve as a reminder to us all as sales professionals that we are at the core of the business.

Good business = good sales.

Posted by Sales 2.0 at 06:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I've been talking to a few business owners this week about how to develop their business. We've talked extensively about prospecting and it keeps striking me that the #1 ingredient to successful prospecting for them is going to be the quality of their prospect list.

A little while back I may have picked your value proposition as the #1 ingredient in a successful prospecting program but now I put the prospect list first and the value proposition second (but of course both better be really good or your conversion/sales stats are going to suck!)

The tough part about having a great list of people to call is it takes a lot of work. A great list is like love - you can't buy it! Going out to list brokers or online systems (even the "Sales 2.0" ones like Jigsaw or Spoke) won't get you a list that will perform that well (although you can start there). Lists need a ton of cleaning and nurturing -- constantly.

Only after you've spent a lot of time and effort defining the profile of who you need to call. And spent tons of time on cleaning your list. And then spent ages on calling people and nurturing the heck out of them, will you have a list that you will start to appreciate...your "house" list.

You can't buy a list that will work well. You have to develop it with love!

Posted by Sales 2.0 at 11:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Looking to improve sales acceleration and overall sales effectiveness metrics, many leading edge B2B organizations are adopting trigger-based selling solutions. These automated tools provide sales execs with leads and insights into news and events within their territory or existing account base, which may indicate a readiness to buy.

Depending on the solution a company offers, these triggering events can include management changes, new product announcements, mergers and acquisitions, new financing, new locations, etc. The leading trigger-based tools monitor and mine large bases of business information sources and filter the information based on pre-set profiles so that only information relevant to their account base is provided. The alerts are typically delivered via email or through a web portal right to the sales person’s desktop or mobile device, utilizing a pre-set profile.

Many companies are finding that trigger-based tools are accelerating the closing cycle and making their sales staff more efficient. Condensing the amount of time sales people spend researching their accounts (estimated to be as high as 15% to 30% of the average work week) these trigger-based sales tools have proven to be effective for sales execs managing a small base of large accounts, as well as someone with a large geographic territory.

“Knowledge is the price of admission for sales people today,” says Jill Konrath, a leading sales strategist and author of Selling To Big Companies (www.sellingtobigcompanies.com). “It is a huge competitive advantage to have timely information about your existing clients and prospects. It has really become a baseline item. You either have it or you don’t and if you don’t you can’t compete.”

Joe Chappell, CEO of TrueAdvantage, one of the leading suppliers of trigger-based subscription services, points out that another key benefit of these solutions is providing the ability to be in front of clients early in the buying cycle. “One of the biggest issues we keep hearing from our prospects is that they want to know more about the buying cycle,” Chappell says.

With more buyers making their early-stage decisions without the involvement of vendors, companies want to make sure they aren’t left out based on an analyst recommendation or another factor. “By knowing all of the key triggering events that are going on with an account, you are greatly reducing the risk of being left out of a deal,” he says.

Integrating With Sales Systems
Unlike some of the other complex sales automation tools, trigger-based solutions are relatively inexpensive and can be easily integrated into most of the major CRM systems. Frank Filippo, director of product management for Dow Jones' Factiva SalesWorks product line, points out that the company’s solution has been easily integrated with Salesforce.com, Microsoft Dynamics, Siebel and many other sales management systems.

Factiva SalesWorks has north of 200 companies utilizing its solution, including major tech players such as Cisco Systems and Microsoft. Factiva SalesWorks sits on top of one of the largest news and content sources via Dow Jones brands such as The Wall Street Journal and Barron’s. Beyond the vast content, Fillipo says another key feature of the tool is the mapping and chart functions that allow sales professionals to monitor their territory in a single view or build a breakdown of a single company.

Thanks to the easy integration low cost of entry, proving the ROI of trigger-based solutions has been a relatively easy exercise for the early adopters. TrueAdvantage’s Chappell says most of the company’s clients have started out with 20-40 sales executives who test the solution over a two to three month period and then roll it out to the larger sales force based on the initial success. TrueAdvantage also has more than 200 accounts, ranging from large tech players (IBM and Tech Data) security services (ADT) and office furnishings (Herman Miller).

“We go as far as guaranteeing the results for our clients,” Chappell says. With TrueAdvantage’s solution selling for approximately $1,200 per sales person per year, he points out that most companies will see ROI from the margin on 1 incremental deal. “We’ve seen the solution work equally well for sales people that have a concentrated territory of 1 to 10 very large accounts, as well as account executives that have 300 to 400 accounts across a large geographic territory.”

Posted by Sales 2.0 at 06:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Have you ever wondered if sharing price up front helps or hurts closing a sale? I have. As a general rule, disclosing price before you’ve established a benefit and value is detrimental. But what if you didn’t share the price of your product or service until your prospect takes action to buy?

What if you didn’t let your prospect know what your offer costs until they clicked on a button to purchase? Would your sales increase or decrease?

James D. Brausch wondered just that – he noticed a number of Internet marketers were hiding their price until a click to purchase were made. So, James gave it a test. He found hiding the price until a prospect clicks to purchase resulted in nearly half as many sales. Here’s the link to James’ post on the subject and some numbers behind his test and conclusion that prominently placing the price of your product or service next to a button to purchase is best.

While you’re there, check-out his multivariate testing solution, MuVar. In oversimplified terms, MuVar automates the testing process for online sales copy.

As you know, copy has to be tested. The change of one word can make the difference in a sale. Color, pictures, guarantees, headlines, fonts, etc. all have an influence in how copy is read, understood, and acted upon. One simple change can make a difference and a combination of changes can take a pitifully performing sales letter and turn it into a money machine. We all know it.

The problem is it’s a bear to test. That’s what MuVar automates.

MuVar learns what combination of variables sell the best and presents those versions of your copy more often…as it continues to test other combinations for better performance. MuVar doesn’t write copy for you, but it does the heavy lifting of telling you what works best. It’s worth an investigation to see if it will meet your needs.

As a disclaimer, I haven’t yet played with MuVar (I plan to within a couple weeks), but think it’s a great concept and have been satisfied with the information James has shared on his blog relative to its features and functionality…the benefits are a no brainer.

So, this isn’t yet a review or endorsement of the product, but a heads-up that this product exists and if accurate in its stated ability, is going to be hot. I’ll review it after I use it.

Posted by Sales 2.0 at 12:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Jill Konrath, author of Selling to Big Companies, helps sellers crack into corporate accounts, shorten sales cycles and win big contracts. She is a frequent speaker at national sales meetings and association events. For more article like this, visit SellingtoBigCompanies.com . Get a BONUS Sales Call Planning Guide ($19.95 value) when you sign up for the Selling to Big Companies e-newsletter.  --- Book link: http://tinyurl.com/9b6mu Website link: http://www.sellingtobigcompanies.com ---

Posted by Sales 2.0 at 12:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Jill Konrath, author of Selling to Big Companies, helps sellers crack into corporate accounts, shorten sales cycles and win big contracts. She is a frequent speaker at national sales meetings and association events. For more article like this, visit SellingtoBigCompanies.com . Get a BONUS Sales Call Planning Guide ($19.95 value) when you sign up for the Selling to Big Companies e-newsletter.  --- Book link: http://tinyurl.com/9b6mu Website link: http://www.sellingtobigcompanies.com ---

Posted by Sales 2.0 at 12:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Jill Konrath, author of Selling to Big Companies, helps sellers crack into corporate accounts, shorten sales cycles and win big contracts. She is a frequent speaker at national sales meetings and association events. For more article like this, visit SellingtoBigCompanies.com . Get a BONUS Sales Call Planning Guide ($19.95 value) when you sign up for the Selling to Big Companies e-newsletter.  --- Book link: http://tinyurl.com/9b6mu Website link: http://www.sellingtobigcompanies.com ---

Posted by Sales 2.0 at 11:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Recently, the following question appeared on the www.iSixSigma.com discussion forum. It is a telling question, and the answer is crucial to every company today:

"Our organisation has started using Six Sigma for marketing and sales projects. We've instituted metrics like "conversion of leads," "improving cross-sell per employee," "improving productivity." 

"Why is it that quantifying the benefits of these projects often seems ambiguous?"

The reason sales process improvement projects have ambiguous results has little to do with Six Sigma, and a great deal to do with how a company thinks about sales and marketing. 

Consider:

Most people would readily agree that sales and marketing is a production process. Yet, what does it produce? It seems obvious that the answer is "orders," or "revenue."

However, that answer misses a crucial point: what is the value to the customer?

Lean and Six Sigma require that we find the customer's CTQs, which means what they value/what they would pay for. Excellent companies analyze every step of their production process this way. In fact, they are willing to radically re-design things when they find ways to create even more value for customers with less investment.

Yet, two cultural blind spots prevent companies from improving their sales and marketing (whether they use Six Sigma or not).

First is ignorance of process. Without the requisite focus on their process, companies literally cannot see the causes of their results. 

The second is ignorance of customer value. How often have you heard a company consider the value to the customer in their marketing and selling? For example:

• What value does that brand awareness campaign create for the customer?
• What value does that tradeshow create for the customer?
• Why should the customer read your advertizement?
• Why should the customer take your salesperson's call?

Better yet:

• Why wouldn't the customer be willing to PAY for your salesperson to call on them?

And, perhaps most importantly,

• What is the quantifiable benefit the customer receives when they use your proudcts and services?

Instead of zeroing in on these important questions, companies define their sales process in terms of themselves. "We prospect for business. We make sales calls. We do demonstrations and proposals. We close deals."

Right. Then, why doesn't the customer cooperate with each and every one of those steps? Because there is no value to them, of course.

Customers have free will. They act only when they see value to themselves (or their company). If you want to get their attention, or get their information, or their cooperation (much less their money!), you must show them what is in it for them. In fact, their actions are the only evidence that value has been created.   

Customer actions are hard data that can be measured. Doing this requires that you define the process correctly. Attempting to "improve" a sales process without

  A) defining the value to the customer
     (i.e., why they should do what you want them to), and
  B) setting up a means of measuring their actions

is pretty much a waste of time. Which is another way of describing so called "Six Sigma projects" that produce ambiguous benefits. It also the reason sales and marketing organizations don't consider Six Sigma to be credible or applicable in their world.

Conversely, the Six Sigma professional who approaches a sales and marketing project correctly will get the attention and the respect of sales and marketing practitioners quickly. Not to mention producing hard improvements to the companys top and bottom line.

Posted by Sales 2.0 at 11:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Pfizer, the worlds largest pharmaceutical maker, recently (December 2006) announced that it was laying off 2000 of its 10,000 person sales force. According to Charles Green (author of "Trust-Based Selling," and co-author of "The Trusted Advisor"), a reason for this is that the productivity of the sales force has plumeted, and the reason for that is the low level of trust between the pharmaceutical representative and the physician. You can read his blog entry at Pfizer, Doctors, Sales, and Trust.

The problem, which is common throughout industry, is that the "sales organization is managed as a revenue engine to sellers, rather than as trusted advisors to [the customer]."

It is true that a company must generate revenue, and that the sales force plays a key role in doing it. However, factories used to be run with a "convenience for us" mentality too, and that proved to be wasteful. Now days, factories are working hard to "lean" their facilities, meaning: get rid of the waste. How do they determine what is wasteful? By what the customer will pay for, of course.

Leaning the sales process = creating value for customers = building trust

People are paying for what you offer long before they buy. Customers pay you with their actions: their attention, their response, their information, and their time. If you aren't getting these things, it is because they don't see enough value in your marketing promotions and offers.

It is time for most companies to take a hard look at their sales and marketing.

• When marketers are accountable for gross volume and not getting just the right customers to respond, is it any wonder customers turn off to their promotions?
• When the sales process is left up to sales people alone, is it any wonder they try to succeed by hook or by crook (causing customers to worry about both)?
• When senior executives continue to manage marketing and selling as separate functions focused on their cash needs, without worrying about value and helpfullness to customers, is it any wonder things don't get better?

The fact is this: The value of your company most certainly extends to the way you help customers buy.

In a free economy, business is won by finding win/win solutions. We're not talking about altruism here. It is simple hard nosed business. There aren't many sellers markets left. You have to take the customer's perspective into account because that is the only way you can get their attention, their time, and their trust. In other words, it is just about the only route to getting their money.

Maybe examples like Pfizer's will help more executives see how pervasive this problem is, so they can begin working on solving it.

Posted by Sales 2.0 at 11:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Recently, in the boardroom of a major corporation, my friend Steve was recommending the roll-out of a sales negotiation program from Think! Inc., an internationally-recognized business negotiation training and consulting firm. The company's Senior V.P. of Sales was there, along with his directors of sales operations, CRM, sales training, plus several regional vice presidents. Laptops were open and papers were being passed around as they combed through Think! Inc.'s proposal.

"So, tell me, Steve," the sales trainer began, "We've spent an awful lot of money on our sales training and software. How will you integrate your negotiations approach into it so we can preserve our investment in training and software?"

There was a pause as Steve collected his thoughts.

"I understand what you are asking," Steve said carefully, "yet I don't think it's the right question." He paused again briefly.

"Is this about getting bigger and better deals and landing them faster for your company, or is this about perpetuating your current sales training?"

The Senior VP looked up. He slapped his laptop shut. He leaned back in his chair. The room went silent.

"Do your shareholders reward you for being consistent with your current process," Steve continued, "or, do they reward you for better business results - which start with better business deals?" 

The answer was obvious, but so was the Senior V.P.'s concern. Steve definitely had everyone's attention.

"If you had to choose between the two, would there be a choice?"

Steve paused for effect and then continued, "I don't think so. The right question is not about preserving your investment. If the investment in your current approach were working as well as you'd like, I doubt we'd be talking right now."

"The right question is more like, 'How can the Think! Inc. approach help you obtain higher-margin deals more quickly, so you can get a better return for your investors?'"

Avoid the Dangers of the Functional Mindset

Steve had touched on a critical secret of the sales process. Most companies believe their sales process is connected to results. With a little prodding, however, they'll admit that their marketing process aims to optimize marketing, while their sales process aims to optimize short-term revenue. In other words, they are trying to optimize different functions with their processes. 

When "processes" aim to optimize "functions," they become disconnected from results in subtle, yet painful ways. Steve's situation above is one example. The sales trainer's instinct was to preserve "the existing investment." In fact, she should have been looking for just the opposite: what needs to be changed in order to improve the company's performance? 

Consider which of these additional situations are occurring in your company:

- Does your marketing department produce piles of product-
   focused collateral that does not solve problems or help
   people buy (and do your marketing executives wonder why
   no one reads it)?
- Does your company conduct branding campaigns that inflate
   egos and create "awareness" (while salespeople are
   fruitlessly turning over rocks attempting to find
   opportunities they can sell)?
- Is one of the marketing department's goals to reduce the
   cost of leads (without knowing whether low-cost or high-
   cost leads generate more or fewer sales, or high or low
   margin sales)? 
- Does your firm mandate sales training that ignores
   fundamental problems of the sales job (and do managers
   wonder why behavior recedes so quickly in the field)? 
- Do your sales executives struggle to negotiate with
   internal department managers who are rewarded only for
   protecting the company's interests (meaning, the sales
   department's "whining" is ignored)?
- Has your company spent enormous sums on vast and complex
   software systems that do not help salespeople sell (and
   then management wonders how to get people to use them)?

The list of problems brought on by the functional mindset is huge. If you said "yes" to more than two or three of the examples above, you are suffering from it. The functional mindset disconnects the sales process from the results because it drives people to try to become more functional, without changing any of the underlying … functions.

Like Steve's client, most companies just assume that the parts of their marketing and sales process are working. Since they only measure the end result, they don't really know how easily prospects take the intermediate steps toward the sale. The "sales process" is literally disconnected from that information.

To be sure, the company believes its "process" works. Yet, knowing if it works (and how well it works) requires measuring something about the actual flow of leads and qualified opportunities through at least some of the stages. (Assigning arbitrary "percent chance of close" to each stage doesn't count - and is a huge mistake in any case.) A process without measurements is really just a set of activities people feel they must preserve and protect.

Connect Your Sales Production System to Results Now!

The alternative to the functional mindset is a true process approach. It starts with the recognition that your company is a system of moving parts whose purpose is to make money (value) by finding, gaining, and keeping customers. It seeks to identify how all the moving parts interact so as to optimize their effect on the overall system.

One dramatic advantage of looking through the process lens is that it links the activities to the results at intermediate stages by identifying the outputs (results) that can be measured at each stage:

- Are you finding and nurturing enough relationships
  (process) to generate the quantity of qualified
   opportunities (output) necessary for the sales department
   to make its goal? How do you know?
- Are you converting enough of those qualified
   opportunities into orders (process) at satisfactory
   margins (output)? How do you know?
- Are you managing customer relationships well enough
  (process) to generate enough ongoing revenue,
   testimonials, and referrals to make your goal (output)?
   How do you know?

Implementing a process approach means, of course, that your people will have to be crystal clear on terms such as "leads" and "qualified opportunities." People need to spend the time to hash out the details of how things work now, and how to improve them.

The reward of a well-designed process is getting the results in the fastest, cheapest, most effective way possible. That's because the process approach considers both your company's and the customer's interests at every stage.

Many companies are surprised to find they have been getting in their own way. They learn that many of their sales challenges result from focusing on what they want to do, instead of what the customer is ready to do. They learn to reconsider their sales process from the buyer's perspective:

- Why should we (the prospect/buyer) read your ad or your collateral?
- Why should we believe anything you say?
- What good are you to us?
- How can you help solve our problems?
- How will you minimize our risk?

These questions focus the seller on the right priorities (those of the customer). They highlight the basic blocking and tackling of sales and marketing: Unique Selling Propositions, testimonials and case examples, focusing on the customer's perspective of value, reversing risk through guarantees, and so forth.

While answering these questions, sellers will also address issues such as:

- What action do we want the customer to take? 
- Why should they do what we want them to do?
- What can we offer that will help them do what we want them to do?
- How will we know if we've succeeded?

The best strategies help customers to move along a path of incremental steps, such as opting into a newsletter, attending a teleconference/seminar, filling out an assessment, taking a sales call, providing coaching information, supporting a proposal, negotiating an agreement, and eventually, writing a testimonial.

Learning to connect your process to those results (the customer's baby steps) is the key to unlocking the flow of customer actions to make your sales funnel flow faster. That is because you can examine the causes and effects, and change what needs to be changed.  It enables you to spot bottlenecks early, when the problems can still be fixed. Further, you won't have to fix things that don't need fixing. 

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