I hope by know, we’re all painfully aware of the costly lesson this economy has taught us. The skills, the thinking and the strategies that got us here today will not take us where we want to be tomorrow. And these uncertain times have highlighted more than ever, how we have collapsed American Entitlement with the American Dream.

The simple truth is, in order to earn more we need to learn more, especially as it relates to selling, retaining your current customers and leveraging new selling opportunities.

Here’s what I’ve observed over the last six months, how the current marketplace has impacted the way we sell and connect with our prospects and clients. Granted, some of these trends have been going on for a while now. However, these last six months have put more and more companies at this crossroad, face to face with this critical decision: adapt, innovate and change or suffer from corporate inefficiency, rigidity and declining profits. Upgrade your sales and leadership strategy to respond to these times. Here’s how.

1. Yesterday, it was more of a transactional sale. You show up and take an order or worse, you wing your presentation.

Today, you need to redefine your selling strategy and become a consultative sales champion in order to survive and thrive.

2. Yesterday, you can sell features and benefits.

Today, you must reinvent your M.V. P. (Most Valuable Proposition) and develop core compelling reasons which will then move your product or service from a ‘nice to have’ to a ‘need to have.’

3. Yesterday, managers were able to tolerate more mediocrity amongst their team.

Today, leaders must transform into coaches and be more fully accountable for their team.

4. Yesterday, you could get away with connecting with your key accounts on a less frequent basis.

Today, you must over-respond and over-communicate to the needs of your customers or risk losing them to your competition.

5. Yesterday, you could be more lax with your daily activity and do enough just to get buy.

Today, you must refine your daily habits and become a master of your day.

6. Yesterday, companies had a larger budget to invest in marketing to drive more leads and prospects to the sales team.

Today, more and more companies are shifting to cold calling to generate new prospects and new leads. These were also many of the same companies who used to be resistant to this concept! This is another learned skill set and strategy that needs to be developed and embraced by your sales team.

7. Yesterday, salespeople had larger travel and expense accounts to meet with and romance their prospects and clients.

Today, more sales are happening virtually, online and over the phone. This requires learning and adapting to a new way of selling via new communication channels.]]> http://www.sales2.com/salesblog/2008/11/reinventing_your_selling_in_re.html http://www.sales2.com/salesblog/2008/11/reinventing_your_selling_in_re.html Sales Process Tue, 04 Nov 2008 18:12:54 -0500 By Jim Logan, JS Logan

The common way to create a presentation or marketing communication piece is to write it in the order it will be presented or read - slide 1, slide 2, slide 3, etc. But this is not the most effective way to prepare a message to get the greatest response.

The best way to create a presentation or marketing message is to write the close first.

The close is where everything comes together. It is where you reveal your call to action and direct the recipient to do something with the information you have presented. It is the reason you presented or wrote the white paper, landing page, case study, etc.

What you should do is write the close first and then create the slides or information before it necessary to build overwhelming support and cause to heed your call to action. The purpose of all information before the close is merely to build momentum and give a compelling reason to act.

Writing from the call to action backwards is the technique I use to write copy of all types - sales letters, landing pages, websites, white papers, case studies, presentations, etc. This simple tip provides greater focus to your copy and will increase your response rate.

What do you think?]]> http://www.sales2.com/salesblog/2008/11/this_simple_tip_will_increase.html http://www.sales2.com/salesblog/2008/11/this_simple_tip_will_increase.html Lead Generation Tue, 04 Nov 2008 18:00:54 -0500 By Jonathan Farrington, The Sales Corporation

The single most common mistake that organisations make is promoting their number one salesperson into the role of sales manager, thereby depriving themselves in a single stroke of their best producer and hamstringing their sales force with an ineffective manager.

The skills required for managing, mentoring and developing a sales team, are totally different from those required for selling.

As a result, it’s not uncommon to find newly promoted sales managers who regret having taken a management position and may even leave to get back into sales.

Insufficient Time for Sales Team Development:
The majority of sales managers – new and experienced alike – say they do not have sufficient time to train and develop their sales teams. They are so focused on sales results – and so accustomed to achieving success through their personal pursuit of those results – that they overlook their greatest potential source of power, the power to increase sales performance by developing their people.

Providing Development for Sales Managers:
Successful Sales Directors ensure that some sort of training and development program is in place to help sales managers continually improving the way they coach and develop their team. Equally important, top-performing Sales Directors look for ways to provide sales managers with the resources they need to perform effectively. This may mean, for example, giving managers tools with which to identify each individual salesperson’s strengths and development areas, providing them with an easy-to-use framework to address development areas, and putting a process in place that helps their team to implement new skills.

Opportunity to Make a Difference:
Every sales manager has a powerful role to play in developing and supporting their team members’ potential so that an increasing emphasis is placed on performance management to enable more salespeople to achieve more of their potential. We have identified the eight most common reasons why salespeople fail i.e.

Wrong or no selection process = The wrong person for the position

Wrong or no training = Insufficiently developed

Wrong or no planning = Expected to do all of their own planning

Wrong or no supervision = Left without competent supervision

Wrong or no motivation = Not properly motivated to meet objectives

Wrong or no stimulation = Not stimulated by appropriate incentives

Wrong or no evaluation = Not regularly appraised against a set of agreed objectives

Wrong or no executive action = Not adequately supported by a competent manager

The Sales Manager has control over all of these factors, including the final one!]]> http://www.sales2.com/salesblog/2008/11/we_all_know_that_great_salespe.html http://www.sales2.com/salesblog/2008/11/we_all_know_that_great_salespe.html Sales Management Tue, 04 Nov 2008 17:54:46 -0500 By Lee Salz, Sales Dodo

Many years ago, I learned, painfully, that there is no such thing as a rubber stamp. Many sales people hear "rubber stamp" and feel confident that they are working with the right person. "The sale is mine!" If anything, the rubber stamp is simply the fuse on a stick of dynamite. Better get under your desk, your deal is about to implode!

Here is what happens behind the scenes as your administrator visits with his boss. "Mr Jones, I've found a new supplier for our widgets. The sales rep is terrific. We've worked together and developed an ideal solution that makes everyone's life easier and we'll save 10% on our spending." "Put it in my inbox," says, Mr. Jones. Days become weeks as the administrator pings Mr. Jones about his rubber stamp, but no signature is forthcoming.

Finally, Mr. Jones develops an interest in his widget purchasing and surfs the web for potential suppliers. He meets with three of them and finds one to his liking. "This supplier is going to save the company 10.25%". Guess who got the deal? However, the sales person never knows about this because the administrator is too embarrassed to call him. After all, the administrator said this was just a rubber stamp, you had been awarded the business. Communication with the administrator goes dark; he just stops responding to your emails and voice mails.

What sales people often forget is that as you go up the corporate ladder, business leaders maintain accountability for the lower rungs of their responsibility. Thus, they want to feel as if they are involved in the solution development phase, or at least be offered the opportunity to participate. When administrators fly into their office with what they feel is a great decision, they are rebuffed. And, for one core reason, EGO! While the administrator's plan may very well be a great one, it is met with resistance for the simple reason that his manager was not invited to participate in the process. When he finally becomes interested enough to look at this issue, his goal becomes proving that there is a better deal to be had. In essence, this approach creates a saboteur of your deal.

If you are the sales person dealing with the administrator, how do you have the conversation where you share the concern of their manager not being involved in the process without offending? It takes a tremendous amount of finesse and strategic planning. However, if you truly have your client's best interests at heart, it is easy. This is the ultimate key. If you are committed to ensuring that your clients achieve their goals, you can have this conversation. After all, you know that they won't get what they want if you continue down this path.]]> http://www.sales2.com/salesblog/2008/11/the_secret_peril_that_causes_s.html http://www.sales2.com/salesblog/2008/11/the_secret_peril_that_causes_s.html Sales Strategy Tue, 04 Nov 2008 17:50:16 -0500 By Nigel Edelshain, Sales 2.0

As the world economy heads unceasingly down how will CEO's and VPs of sales know if their sales force is struggling because of the economy, their product or because, well, their sales team is "rubbish" (or excellent)?

Time and time again I see the same "dance" where companies hire sales people or VPs of sales, believing they have hired a "rock star" and then a year later fire them. This is a tremendous waste of time, effort and money. And how do CEOs decide to get rid of sales people or sales VPs? They look at the revenue goal they set these people and if they missed the number significantly, they "shoot" them. That's about as far as the performance analysis goes in most situations.

Why is such a big decision made on so little data? Well, mostly because so little data on sales exists or at least so little data is in the hands of most CEOs in the vast majority of companies.

Most companies have a lot more visibility into what their accounting department does than their sales force. Sales people are still allowed to run around in the field with little measurement. The argument that "sales is an art" is thrown up as defense by sales people who don't want to be measured. "How can you measure what we do?"

But in my opinion measurement has to happen. Sales does have some elements you may call art but also more elements that will benefit from science. And by applying scientific approaches we can measure many parts of the sales process and (yes even) people.

So how do you know if your sales force is "rubbish" (or great)? Compare it against some standards. Measure different elements of your sales process and people and compare them to other companies’ results. In other words: benchmark.

On November 17, I will be interviewing the authors of a new book all about sales benchmarking. The authors have gathered together a database of information on sales metrics from hundreds of companies, giving us for the first time I know of, some hope of benchmarking our own sales forces. Figuring out how they are doing versus our competitive set and diagnosing the specific bottlenecks and problems in our process and people. I'll be posting details about how to access the interview shortly.

I hope this is the beginning of making sales force performance measurable in a much more scientific and detailed way. We need to reduce the pattern of hire and fire of sales people and sales VPs based on a very limited understanding of what they do.]]> http://www.sales2.com/salesblog/2008/10/is_your_salesforce_rubbish.html http://www.sales2.com/salesblog/2008/10/is_your_salesforce_rubbish.html Sales Management Fri, 24 Oct 2008 11:14:28 -0500 In the category of "why are so many things in the sales profession messed up", a new survey by Blueroads and Sirius Decisions has found that most executives running channel programs in large companies need to focus more on helping their partners sell?!

It seems most channel executives have been spending their time and money on things like partner portals and have just realized that maybe it is time to focus on actually generating leads that their partners can close. I doubt this is much of a surprise for their partners! Of the channel executives who did focus on sales effectiveness 62% reported...an increase in revenue...

Reading between the lines, it's my opinion that channel executives are not fighting the tough fights in their own companies to get the resources they need to actually help generate business for their partners. Hopefully this report will help to change that. The channel team has often been treated as the "poor cousins" in many sales organizations I have seen. I hope they will stand up for themselves more in 2009 and help their partners drive some big revenue gains. With the way the economy looks partners surely need it!

Here's a few extracts from the report:

Top channel executives do not focus enough resources on driving sales effectiveness, suggest the results of a new survey released today by Blueroads and Sirius Decisions. In fact, 80 percent of the channel investments by the vendors that were surveyed are focused around tactical issues such as training, partner portals, and partner communication tools – all activities that automate partners, but fail to help them drive top-line revenue growth.

The Channel Survey: 2009 Priorities, which polled an audience of over 1000 high ranking vendor channel leaders, also indicates that vendors are seeking to drive revenues, but didn’t always know how, and resorted to brute force tactics including channel partner recruitment in their existing markets rather than focusing on programs that increase the productivity and yield of their current resellers and partners. The survey covered a variety of channel-dependent industries--including software, telecommunications, computer hardware, and information services--on their channel plans, investments, and expectations.

“Too many channel chiefs are engaged in low-risk, low-return activities,” said Charles Watson, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Sales for Blueroads. “Too few are ready to drive fundamental changes that help them achieve greater equality with direct sales and enable increased visibility, empowerment and accountability in the channel.”

Nearly sixty percent of respondents recognize they need to spend more on sales effectiveness programs in 2009. However, their intended actions don’t necessarily support that goal. For example, training and partner content portals were among the top technology investments, yet these are often simply easy-to-implement infrastructure investments with limited return.

Some Background Information:

Did you know that:

• 40% of salespeople are failing in their sales careers?
• 45% of all salespeople earn the average income for their industry?
• A typical salesperson devotes only 10-20% of their time to actual selling because a large proportion of their available time is devoted to cold calling?
• 85% of all salespeople do not generate enough quality referrals?
• Salespeople who actively seek and exploit referrals earn 4 to 5 times more than salespeople who don’t?
•  Referral business closes and converts more than 70 percent of the time?

Why is referral based selling so powerful?

A referred customer is already pre-sold on the credibility of the salesperson, their company and the relevance of the products/services sold. These types of opportunities are much warmer than a cold-call based opportunity because it maximises the goodwill, inherent in the relationship between the referred customer and the referring person.

By association, salespeople are consequently perceived in a different light compared to those that have made contact ‘out of the blue’. The costs of selling to a referred customer are reduced because they are easier to see, and are likely to be reasonably well qualified so that the probability for converting the business is much higher. Generally speaking referred prospects will accelerate through the sales pipeline at a much faster rate than other types of opportunities, and they will also be more receptive towards providing future referrals.

What are the biggest barriers to getting referrals?

If asking for referrals has not been included and communicated in the sales process, this will deter salespeople’s focus as they will see asking for referrals as a ‘nice to do’ rather than a ‘must do’. This in turn usually means that there is no rigorous method for measuring and monitoring how many referrals are generated and what the conversion ratios are for closing referred customer business.

Energy goes where attention flows, so without specific attention to this salespeople are unlikely to invest their energy in this direction. (Even if they are firm believers in the positive impact that referrals can create!). For many salespeople asking for referrals is uncomfortable because they feel unsure about how to do this effectively, and they aren’t confident they will get their desired response.

If people don’t know how to do something and they believe that what they are doing will damage their existing relationships, then it’s better to avoid it all together. Additionally, if salespeople make the common mistake of asking for referrals too early on in the relationship this can result in more refusals that further erode salespeople’s confidence.

Therefore, to optimise the use of referral-based selling the following components are vital:

1. Asking for referrals and acting on them needs to be incorporated in the overall sales process.

2. Metrics around referrals should be sought and evaluated on a regular basis, because this contributes towards furthering the rationale for generating them.

3. Development and training needs to be delivered to the sales team so they can maximise the impact of referrals and feel confident with this skill.

When is the best time to ask for referrals?

People will freely give referrals when they have benefited from your product/service and have an established relationship with you. This rarely occurs during the initial meeting because whilst they may like you, they haven’t yet validated what you can do for them. That’s why asking for referrals should be when the relationship you have established is strong enough to ensure their trust and belief in you.

Assessing the strength of your existing customer relationships can be very subjective unless there is a meaningful set of relationship criteria in place.  Although these will vary from organisation to organisation, they may include factors like:

- Communication frequency with key influencers
- Satisfaction with product/service
- Speed of response to queries/problems
- Length of relationship

The customers with the highest scores (based on the relationship criteria) are those that should be approached for referrals.

What is the best way of generating referrals?

1. Prepare a description in the form of a criteria list that specifies the type of person or organisation that you are looking to approach. This should be based on the profile of your Ideal Customer.

2. Evaluate all your customers using a relationship criteria and identify a list of those with the highest scores. For every customer your aim is to generate a minimum of 5 referrals. Therefore, if you have 25 customers on your list your target number of referrals will be 125.

3. Contact each customer on your list and take the pressure of them by explaining that you don’t want to sell to them, you would like their help.

For example: “Do you know anyone who is (specify your criteria) that would be interested in learning about how our products/services can benefit them?” Preface your question with a softener such as: “I wonder if you can help me” or “I would really appreciate some advice.”

4. When customers give you referrals, ask their permission to use their name when making contact. Alternatively, where your relationship is ‘rock solid’ ask customers to make the initial introduction by letter or email. Often customers will give a glowing testimonial and create a relevant context when introducing people.

5. Thank customers for referrals and keep them appraised of your progress. This creates a positive association towards the giving of more referrals in the future.

So, there we go, my most recent thoughts on the importance of referral selling!

9. Don’t walk straight at a person with your hand out and your eyes on their badge. Look them in the eye like you (and they) are a normal person and say “hi.” When they look away, glance at their name badge.  This works great for checking out other things, too (I’ll let you fill in what you like to look at on people that you meetJ).

8. Avoid being the demo dolly. Anyone that has a chance of being a real customer would want to drive the demo himself on the web, and it always works out that you are showing one of the Golden Girls how to use a mouse when a real customer happens by. 

7. Make sure you are in contact with the booth nazi well before the show so you can pick who you will be serving time with- or more importantly who you can avoid. You DO NOT want to be stuck with any of a ton of different character types, including:

- your sales manager
- your company founders- those guys all suck
- a group of people all less senior  (you will be de facto responsible and have to do everything)
- the aforementioned booth nazi who won’t let you drink a coke or go to the bathroom
- anyone who could be described as “bright eyed and bushy tailed”
- anyone who would describe someone as “bright eyed and bushy tailed”

6. Don’t give into the urge to drink the free beer at the Cheers booth (there’s one at every show). Either you stop at one and spend the rest of the time trying to pry your eyes open or you get known “at the place where everyone knows your name.” Only instead of “Norm” or “Cliff” it’s “conference booze bag.”

5. Stop by the booth early and commandeer a handful of t-shirts or the best chotchkies. You can hook-up potential clients (or “partners” if you are hard up) when everyone else in the booth has resorted to handing out the logo breath mints.   Or trade them for other booth’s schwag.

4. Make sure there is an extra web connection for your laptop. It is always uncomfortable IMing your friend “BigLeroy69” or checking fantasy baseball up on the big screen.

3. Form as many impromptu “meetings” as possible and insist that you have to leave the booth area for proper peace and quiet.  I’ve done this with people in the adjoining booth before- anything to break free.

2. Create an I-spy check off list for all the walking cliché’s you see at trade shows. One point each for lego style hair plugs, not-so-incognito recruiters, white sweat socks with a suit, dwarves, magicians, hairy chest with three buttons undone guy, power dorks cruising the Exhibit Hall on personal time, lurking competitors with fake badges, obvious job seeker guy, drunks from other booths, people of unknown gender(transsexuals count), CEOs with hired escorts (extra point if she yawns while in your booth), the small pack of asian execs who sit through your entire demo even though they don’t speak a lick of English… you know, the whole trade show gang.

1. Grin and bear it. At least you aren’t dressed as a cast member in a Broadway play- like the guys across the aisle. (If you are, quit on the spot- nothing is worth wearing tights.)]]> http://www.sales2.com/salesblog/2008/10/trade_shows_part_two_booth_dut.html http://www.sales2.com/salesblog/2008/10/trade_shows_part_two_booth_dut.html Wed, 15 Oct 2008 17:22:07 -0500 By Garth Moulton, Jigsaw

Last week a dinner meeting near Open Oracle World at Moscone reminded me that an important time for sales people is upon us: Conference and Trade Show Season. All across the country vendors of every kind are banding together to co-sponsor shows around some inane topic (Web 3 dot 12, The Quickening) in hopes of luring “decision makers” from Corporate America to come take part in the latest trend in technology. I have spent a significant percentage of my sales life attending (or at least flying to and partying around) these conferences, so I plan to dedicate at least the next 2 postings to this time honored ritual.

Please don’t assume that I think big industry events are a waste of time for salespeople. In addition to being a great excuse to see a cool new city or resort, you can also scope out competitors and other companies where you might like to work in your next job. If you sell for a big company or are a remote salesperson then booth duty at a trade show it is a decent way to meet the internal people that might ultimately be critical for a sale down the road. (What better way to bond then being cramped into a 10x10 plastic box for 8 hours answering the same moronic questions from a bunch of back office troglodytes). If nothing else (be prepared for nothing else), you get a break from cold calling prospects yet don’t have to feel guilty that you aren’t ‘working.” And all the corporate logo breath mints you can handle.

But seriously, if you must attend a trade show, here are a few tips that might actually make it worth your while.

10. Take control of your time. Schedule every minute weeks in advance if you can. Fly alone and make sure the times work for your meetings, not your corporate marketing team’s agenda. Go on offense, not “with the flow.”

9. Avoid booth duty at all costs. Those slack jawed students or low level engineers wandering around Exhibit Hall A are NEVER going to become your customer. I’ll get into what to do (and not to do) if you can’t get out of your shifts (fake your own death if necessary) in my next post.

8. Research the hell out of the event venue, schedule, eating places, etc. Your prospects will want to be around you if you know the answer to every logistical question before it gets asked. I was like Julie, Vickie, Gopher AND Isaac at my best.

7. Strategically place your prospect meetings. Don’t ask your biggest deal CIO to meet you during the Jack Welch keynote. Breakfast or lunch meetings away from the hubbub in a quiet spot are perfect. Leave the Tainted Love concert for meeting large groups of people that are already customers - you don’t really want to talk to them anyway.

6. Resist the urge to get hammered in the first 24 hours of the trip (on the plane on the way to the conference with co-workers). Save that for the last night with people that you specifically choose. It has taken me forever to learn this one.

5. Hog the resources. Know every impressive person in your company (Hot Shot Exec, CTO, super tech guy, smarty pants product geek, hot marketing chick, whomever) that will be within a 100 mile radius of the conference and get them in front of your customer. Not in the damn booth!

4. Stay at the venue or at the recommended hotel. It’s where the customers that you care about are staying, and nothing says “I’m a schmuck working for a flailing company” like showing up late for a meeting because you couldn’t get a cab to pick you up at the Motel 6 in the barrio.

3. Have reasonable goals. Don’t try to complete the whole sales cycle from “Hi, I’m your account rep Shooter McGavin” to “Please sign this contract” in one show. Yes, it is exciting to be able to hang with a VP on consecutive days, but don’t wrap onto the guy like a cheap suit.

2. Partition off a couple hours to do something touristy or cultural. Beside the fact that your customer will be interested (and probably envious) in hearing about your local experience, you will take away something that you value and remember way after all the corporate dipshit stuff is over.

1. Travelling for work isn’t as fun as vacationing, but it’s still a road trip. Eat big. Check out all the freaks. Have fun.]]> http://www.sales2.com/salesblog/2008/10/trade_shows_part_one_work_it.html http://www.sales2.com/salesblog/2008/10/trade_shows_part_one_work_it.html Business Skills Wed, 15 Oct 2008 17:10:15 -0500 Gee, how much more bad news do we need?

I think it's great for news stations and newspapers. I know I can't help looking at the Wall Street Journal site five times day to see how much the Dow Jones is down but I also know that is NOT helping me sell more.

I'm also pretty sure a lot of us sales people are feeling pretty worried/scared right now.

"Is my company going to cut some jobs soon?" "Don't companies often lay off their sales people first?" Most of us know cutting sales people during a downturn is a big mistake (and we don't even know if this is a real downturn yet). Companies that don't market during a recession are in a really weak position when things start to improve. But even though CEOs know this they often still cut sales people because they feel compelled to cut costs in the short term and don't care about two years hence - basically because they need to save their jobs.

But the longer I spend in the “sales industry” the clearer it is to me that highly-skilled sales people are in short supply. I believe this will continue to be the case even if we go into fairly deep recession. Every company I talk to seems to want more sales people and even if some companies start cutting back and not hiring sales people, sales talent will always be in demand.

Hence, if you are committed to being a professional sales person and want to stay with it as your career, I predict you will have no problem finding a job even if things get “dark” with the economy. But how about making your journey through the tough economy easy - or at least easier?

Too much of the time sales people “fly totally solo”. This fits the cliché of the sales person as the “lone wolf” hunting for meat. But does this cliché really make sense when you need all the help you can get to sell in a market where buyers have less budget to spend? I don’t think so.

Consider the other sales people in the world. They likely feel just as concerned as you about the future. Why not reach out to them and start building support structures for yourself? How about starting to connect with other sales people to partner up on business development and knowledge sharing? Form your own "sales team".

If you are a sales person, you have a complicated and challenging job. Trying to do it all alone, especially in a downturn, is a huge burden. Why not share the load with others? Why not build yourself a team to help you sell (a lot) even during tough times. Even wolves work together when necessary.]]> http://www.sales2.com/salesblog/2008/10/sales_people_lets_support_ours.html http://www.sales2.com/salesblog/2008/10/sales_people_lets_support_ours.html Team Selling Thu, 02 Oct 2008 10:32:39 -0500 The sky is falling.

Well, the stock market and many of the great behemoth financial firms that I have sold to over the last dozen years are. Let's say many of us are not in the most upbeat mood right now.

And how does this "macro economic tension" tend to show up in sales organizations? Concern over making our numbers. And that concern over making numbers makes tense sales people. Tense sales people that tend to put too much pressure on their prospects to sign on the dotted line.

People love to buy but they hate to be sold. Sales cycles don't really exist what really exists is a buying cycle. In our world of so many options for the buyer, we need to face facts that it's the buyer who controls the "sales process" not the seller.

The sales person's job (actually the whole company behind the sales person) is to be in-sync with buyer at whatever point the buyer is in the buying cycle. A typical buying cycle might look like this: (1)recognition of a need, (2) seek out options, (3) discuss/evaluate options and (4) buy.

A sales person who tries to close the buyer when they are not in phase 4 of the buying cycle will annoy the prospect/buyer and won't get a deal. But that's what "old school selling" tells us to do "always be closing". Watch out because as the pressure mounts on us sales executives to close more the opposite is happening for the buyer. As the market fear grows buyers will be thinking "should I really pull the trigger on this spend or should I hold off". The last thing that will help a cautious buyer commit is a pushy sales person!

What's a sales person to do?

Calm down. Don't try to close everything in sight. Stay in-sync with your prospects. Make sure you know where they are in the buying cycle. Act accordingly. If they are just starting to look at options, get them the information they need to understand and evaluate your offering.

And...prospect. Yes, whenever things get tougher in the economy sales people need to be able to put more leads into their sales funnel. You will need more prospects because either some deals will drop out due to budgets being cut etc. or some of the deals that survive will move more slowly to close than you originally thought.

You will need to "diversify" your sales pipeline as the market gets more volatile just as an investor diversifies their stock portfolio. You will want more prospects in your sales pipeline than when times were "easy". Preferably prospects from lots of different companies and industries so your risks of being clobbered by any one company's or any one industry's budget cuts are reduced.

So as things get tougher don't become a closer. Become an opener.]]> http://www.sales2.com/salesblog/2008/09/dont_be_a_closer.html http://www.sales2.com/salesblog/2008/09/dont_be_a_closer.html Closing Thu, 25 Sep 2008 10:59:33 -0500 EVENT TITLE: CRITICAL STRATEGIES FOR WINNING BIG COMPANY CLIENTS
Strategies Your Team Can Use Right Away

DATE:Tuesday, October 14, 2008

PLACE
The Penn Club
30 West 44th Street (between 5th & 6th Avenues)
New York, NY

PRICE
$35 General Admission
$20 for Wharton Club of New York members

DESCRIPTION
Selling to large corporations today is tough, tough, tough.

As more and more companies are selling to fewer and fewer large, corporate accounts, sales teams at companies of all sizes struggle to consistently hit ever-increasing targets quarter-after-quarter.

In today’s hyper-competitive, ‘always on but never available’ selling environment, sales reps and sales managers face equally hard challenges.

Sales reps have to deal with prospects who don't answer phones, all calls are routed to voice mail and no one ever calls back. Even when sales reps do manage to get prospects engaged, the likelihood that the deal would close is anybody’s guess.

Yet, both sales executives and their managers’ careers depend on forecasting and delivering results accurately.

There is light at the end of the tunnel!

Join us for an energetic conversation on the critical strategies and proven tools your teams can use right away to:

• Crack into corporate accounts
• Shorten sales cycles, and
• Differentiate themselves from competitors

Together with Nigel, they will discuss the key elements of building effective sales teams from the new selling skills needed for closing corporate accounts to the new Sales 2.0 technologies that are helping salespeople win corporate accounts consistently.

First 20 registrants will also receive an autographed copy of Jill Konrath’s best-selling book, Selling to Big Companies.

Register Here

About the Speakers:

Nigel Edelshain, CEO, Sales 2.0
Nigel Edelshain is CEO of Sales 2.0. Companies use Sales 2.0's telesales and consulting services to take their sales to the next level, typically boosting results 3 - 10 times. The company applies the latest Sales 2.0 tools and techniques in its telesales operation and shares resulting breakthroughs in sales methodology with clients through its consulting practice. Nigel is chairman of the Wharton Club of New York and graduated from Wharton’s MBA program in 1993.

Jill Konrath, CEO, SellingToBigCompanies.com
As a thought-leader in the selling and marketing arena and CEO of SellingToBigCompanies.com – a popular web resource focused on helping sellers win big contracts in the corporate market, Jill has been featured in top business magazines including The New York Times, Entrepreneur, Business Journal, Sales & Marketing Management, and Selling Power. Her clients includes 3M, Medtronic, United HealthGroup, Imation, General Mills, RSM McGladrey and Hilton. Prior to starting her consulting firm, she was a highly successful sales executive, regional sales manager and product launch manager for leading technology companies.

Razi Imam, CEO, Landslide Technologies
Razi is the CEO of Landslide Technologies, an award-winning company recognized for offering an innovative sales management system. Razi has over 18 years of global marketing, business development and sales management experience in the high-tech arena. During his years of sales and sales management experience he adopted leading selling processes such as Solution Selling, Conceptual Selling, Power Base Selling and Strategic Selling. He has also worked with experts like Geoffrey Moore, Michael Gerber and Al Ries who helped formulate the foundation for his experience in launching and developing high-tech companies.]]> http://www.sales2.com/salesblog/2008/09/sales_20_event_october_14_new.html http://www.sales2.com/salesblog/2008/09/sales_20_event_october_14_new.html Event Announcement Tue, 23 Sep 2008 17:34:06 -0500 By Jonathan Farrington, The Sales Corporation

As the recession begins to bite hard, now is the time to make the very most of our most important customers.

A vitally important sales activity is that of managing existing customer accounts to consolidate and grow the relationship. Yet unfortunately, when compared over time, the customers’ interest levels increase while salespeople’s interest levels tend to decrease. This creates a “relationship gap” and is due entirely to complacency.

Another major issue is that too often the salesperson fails to expand his “contact base” as this next survey proves which results in vulnerability and exposure to competitive activity

Periodically, the Financial Times conducts a survey of British industry to establish how companies go about their purchasing. The survey is very comprehensive, broken down into many kinds of products and services.

From a Sales Director’s perspective, these are very worrying statistics.

Customer size (Number of employees): Less than 200
Average number of buying influencers: 3.43
Number of influencers visited by salespeople: 1.72

Customer size (Number of employees): 200 – 400
Average number of buying influencers: 4.85
Number of influencers visited by salespeople: 1.75

Customer size (Number of employees): 401 – 1000
Average number of buying influencers: 5.81
Number of influencers visited by salespeople: 1.90

Customer size (Number of employees): 1001 +
Average number of buying influencers: 6.50
Number of influencers visited by salespeople: 1.65

In essence, without a sustained approach to ongoing servicing and support activities, customers that took months to win are ultimately lost because there was a lack of interest from their supplier.

To-days clients/customers are looking for vendors who can be business-partners, who are willing and able to share risks and who are able to properly manage the entire sales process.

Fact: It costs seven times as much to locate and sell to a new customer as it does to an existing one.

Are you making the most of your customer base? Answer the questions below honestly and find out.

1. How many regular clients do you have?
2. Has that number increased in the last twelve months?
3. How many of them have bought in the last three months?
4. Of those ‘regular clients’, how many have you contacted in the last month?
5. Of those, in how many have you progressed upwards from the user/recommender?
6. With how many of them do you enjoy exclusivity i.e. preferred supplier status?
7. How many of your clients have bought more the ‘second’ time around than when they originally bought from you?
8. With how many of your regular clients have you conducted an account review within the last six months?

Study your answers - are you still confident you are making the most of your most important accounts?]]> http://www.sales2.com/salesblog/2008/09/are_you_really_making_the_most.html http://www.sales2.com/salesblog/2008/09/are_you_really_making_the_most.html Sales Strategy Mon, 22 Sep 2008 18:10:53 -0500 By Jill Konrath, Selling to Big Companies

What are the main issues you face when you target new vertical markets where you don't  have any experience in that area. Also, how do you overcome these problems?

I get asked those questions frequently. But usually it's after the decision has already been made and the poor salespeople are struggling to gain a foothold in the new vertical market.

If you're considering moving your company in a new business direction, here are my suggestions:

Your biggest issue will be credibility. Corporate decision makers don't want to be your first client in a vertical market. They don't want to have to educate you since it takes up their precious time.

Even though you're a good company, they know that your lack of experience could lead to time-consuming and costly errors. They don't want to risk this happening.

1. Move into the market slowly.
Don't bet your company on success in the new vertical. Study the industry. Learn their terminology. Know their competitors. Double check for "fit". I've seen way to many companies leap into new markets because they sense greater opportunity there than in their current market space.

2. Define the business case.
Uncover how they're currently handling things related to your offering. What are the common status quo scenarios? What business objectives will they have difficulty achieving unless they change the status quo? What are the financial ramifications of these? Then define the value they'll get from changing to your product/service.

Potential clients need to hear a strong value proposition that clearly articulates the business outcomes they'll realize by using your offering. Use business terminology, not techie talk.

3. Create linkage.
If possible, try to create a link between your current customer base and your new one. If all your clients are schools and now you want to move to theme parks, you need to be able to clearly articulate why it's relevant.

As an example, last week I had lunch with a good friend who spent over 20 years in marketing with a large accounting firm. She was laid off a while back. Now she wants to work with technology companies.

After analyzing both industries, combined with her experience we realized that her expertise was in helping company's implement strategic changes in their marketing. That positioning makes sense to potential decision makers - and minimizes the "you don't have any experience with companies like mine" objection.

4. Pursue smaller opportunities first.
This significantly reduces the decision maker's perceived risk in moving ahead with a new player in the market. Then, make sure you do a superb job on delivering on what you promised. After that, pursue additional opportunities within the account to expand your footprint.

5. Train your salespeople on all the above.
Without this knowledge, they will flop. That I can guaranteed 100%. Ultimately these people have to make it happen. Don't send them into the field with some worthless PowerPoints explaining your technology in excruciating detail. They need to be able to have intelligent business conversation with decision makers.

6. Create field-ready sales tools.
Focus especially on the early stages of the sales cycle. Your sales reps are going to have a tough time setting up meetings. Show them how to integrate their value proposition into phone calls, voicemails and emails.

Give them relevant white papers and case studies that are closely aligned with this new market segment. They must be able to show your company's expertise to customers, so this is a necessity - even if you're moving to a new market.

Create a "question matrix" that outlines what they should be looking for on calls and the questions they should ask to uncover this information. Develop customer-focused PowerPoints to use on follow-up meetings.

7. Pray!
It takes a lot of hard work to succeed in a new marketing segment. Implement the above suggestions and your chances of success increase. Rush blindly ahead and you'll most likely waste tons of money, put your firm in financial distress, frustrate your sales force and create incredible internal animosity.]]> http://www.sales2.com/salesblog/2008/09/how_to_develop_credibility_whe.html http://www.sales2.com/salesblog/2008/09/how_to_develop_credibility_whe.html Wed, 17 Sep 2008 18:43:55 -0500 By Aaron Ross, Alloy Ventures

Building a highly productive, modern sales organization requires increasing specialization - and frankly, it's a big reason salesforce.com has such an amazing sales organization. Though they take it to the extremes - you wouldn't believe the number of different kinds of sales groups, inside and out, that salesforce.com has :)

One of the biggest sources of lost productivity is the practice of lumping a mix of different responsibilities (such as raw web lead qualification, cold prospecting, closing, account management...) into one general "sales" role.

Issues contributed to by lumping

• Lack of focus: Salespeople juggle too many responsibilities, reducing their ability to get things done. Salespeople have a reputation for being ADD - how does adding more responsibilities help that? For example, qualifying web leads is a much lower value distraction for salespeople from managing current clients. And managing a large current client base is a distraction from closing new clients!
  
• Talent development: It's challenging to bring in raw talent and develop them with a progressive career path. This is unfortunate, because homegrown talent usually ends up being the best! (also see "Where do I hire great salespeople?")
  
• Metrics: It's harder to break out and keep track key metrics (inbound leads, qualification and conversion rates, customer success rates...)
• Problem-solving: When things aren't working, lumped responsibilities obscure what's happening and make it more difficult to isolate and fix issues with accountable follow through.

The four core functions / themes

Here are four basic themes (I say 'theme' because even each of these functions can be sub-divided even further as your organization gets bigger):

1. "Inbound" Lead Qualification: Commonly called Market Response Reps, they qualify marketing leads coming inbound through the website or 800#. The sources of these leads are either marketing programs/SEO or organic word-of-mouth. Presentation: Inbound Lead Management Best Practices
   
   
2. "Outbound" Prospecting/Cold Calling 2.0: Commonly called Sales Development Reps or New Business Development Reps, they prospect into lists of target accounts to develop incremental new sales opportunities that don't already exist, that require a lot of proactive work. These outbound reps qualify their new sales opportunities and then pass them to Account Executives to close. Presentation: Introduction to Cold Calling 2.0
   
   
3. Account Executives: Quota-carrying closers, either inside or in the field. As a best practice, even when a company has an Account Management/Customer Success function, Account Executives should stay engaged with a new customer past the close and until they are deployed/launched. Also see "Sell To Success (The All-Natural Close)"
   
   
4. Account Management / Customer Success: client deployment and success, ongoing client management and renewals. In today's world of frictionless karma, someone needs to be dedicated to making customers successful - and that is NOT the salesperson!

When to specialize?
I frequently hear "we're too small to specialize yet". Every company is so different, it's tough to generalize. One rule of thumb is: "sooner than you think"...even if you just have a handful of Account Executives. A second rule of thumb I like is the 80/20 rule - when your reps, as a group, are spending more than 20% of their time on a non-core function (web lead qualification, cold account prospecting, account management), break out that function into a new role. Yes, I said 20%!

Here are a couple examples. Regardless of how many Account Executives (AEs) you have, if you're getting a couple of hundred inbound leads per month you should have or planning to have an inside Market Response Rep qualifying them for the AEs. Or if you already have 3-4 AEs, rather than making your next hire another AE, consider an outbound Sales Development rep who can spend 100% of their time working to feed the AEs.

Questions? I'll answer in the comments
This is really just a first introduction to the topic - we could drill ad naseum into the mechanics, metrics, comp, career paths... (as I said, nauseum) of the different groups and how the relate to each other. If you have specific questions, post them in the comments and I'll do my best to answer them.

Puzzle pieces
You'll have to pick and choose which puzzle pieces here are right for you, and how they fit into your business. My rule of thumb from experience is the 80/20 rule: 80% of the puzzle pieces here can should be plugged into your business, and 20% shouldn't or should be heavily customized.