Why do so many companies feel they need to hire “rock star” sales people?

I hear this quite often when companies are hiring sales people.  What does it really mean?  The description the companies give usually goes like this:

• Must have made, or exceeded quota, for the last five years
• Must have a great Rolodex of contacts in [our niche]
• Must be high-energy
• Must be a team player
• Must be comfortable with large amounts of cold calling
…plus several other characteristics…

It seems like the company is hoping that this sales “rock star” (a.k.a. “sales god”) will walk through the door and solve all their problems in one single “bolt of lightening”.  To me, this seems like an abdication of responsibility.

Why should a company need a “rock star” when they understand how sales works in their business?  If they understand their sales process, could they not just hire an “ordinary sales person” (or even “an ordinary person”) and train them to do the job really well?

Shouldn’t a company take the responsibility to nurture relationships into leads in their own market niche?  Why should the sales person have to bring a “golden Rolodex”?  Shouldn’t the company be building that over its years of existence?

If this sales person is so successful over so many years, is the company so great at what it does that this “rock star” is going to want to join?  Does the company really dominate its market or have the next iPod as a product?

Is your company really in the position to pay “mega bucks” to Bruce Springsteen or Bono (and would Bruce or Bono even want to come to work for you at any price) or do you need to hire some “ordinary people” and turn them into great sales people?

“The real selling starts with the first ‘No'”

Somebody repeated this old sales cliche to me last week.  It’s stuck in my brain because it is one of those examples of “old school selling” that just seems to have stuck around even though it seems completely wrong to me.  It’s the sales equivalent of an “old wives tale”.

If you analyze this statement logically, you pretty quickly see that it’s wrong.  “The real selling starts with the first ‘No'” This statement implies that you want your prospect to object to your offerings.  Your goal is somehow to get as many “no’s” as you can, then you can start selling for real.

My experience is quite the opposite.  Sure, there are ways to handle objections when they arise but I certainly don’t want them.  The real selling starts on day one when you figure out the basic value proposition of your company or offering.  It continues as you research and understand your customers’ industries and businesses.

When you are prospecting, or sitting in a meeting with a prospect, you ask questions based on having a deep understanding of their industry, company and individual situation.  In this scenario you don’t get many “No’s”.  The prospect respects you for doing your homework and responds to your questions. You unearth opportunities for you to work together to fix problems or generate improvements.

Selling starts day one.  Do your homework, ask questions, develop solutions and you will generate sales – not “No’s”.

The longer I am involved in sales the more I come to believe that one of the most important skills is time management.  Yes, boring old time management.  Not the “gift of the gab”, not being a “people person”, time management.

It’s coming up again this week.  Both for me, my clients, and my colleagues.  I have noticed we are all faced with a similar challenge: preparing for key sales meetings on important pipeline opportunities.  And I notice we are all spending a lot of time preparing.

In fact in some cases we are spending so much time that nearly everything else has stopped!

I think as sales people, sales managers or entrepreneurs we need to think about this carefully for a moment.  Nearly everything else has stopped!  This is serious business.  All the other projects (and opportunities) we could work on are receiving almost no attention.

I have written several times about the importance of preparation for sales meetings.  I believe this to be totally valid.  If you do not prepare, you will not win (or only by blind luck).  But here’s the flip-side: good preparation takes a lot of time.

So be very careful which opportunities you choose to pursue.  Make sure they really fit for you and company.  You will spend a lot of time preparing for sales meetings and you will inevitably forgo other projects and opportunities.  Make a wise selection and don’t fall into the trap of trying to take on everything that comes your way.

Too many “hot prospects” will quickly burn all your time.

I am “huge” on preparing for sales meetings but I am “tiny” on preparing slides for sales meetings.

Quote of the week from a sales manager friend:

“Our best sales people really don’t take anything to a sales meeting – they just have a conversation with the prospect”

Amen!

Your goal in a sales meeting is to listen.  Not to present.  You don’t need slides or stacks of brochures to listen.  Ask questions and listen.  Sure, take some blank paper on which to write notes, so you remember the prospect’s answers to your questions.

Do take time to prepare for the meeting.  Spend this time on researching the prospect’s company and the prospect themselves from as many angles as possible (relative to the importance of the prospect).  Develop key questions based on your research aimed at further understanding the prospect’s goals, challenges and constraints.  Write these questions down on your piece of paper so you remember to ask them when you are actually in the meeting (it’s easy to forget a question, or two, while in a live sales meeting).

So next time you go to a sales meeting don’t spend hours preparing your Powerpoint slides, spend hours understanding your prospect and developing your questions.  Put your questions in your pocket and leave your hands free for a pen to write down the prospects answers.

Salespeople are under-appreciated.

Salespeople do some of the hardest and most important work in the vast majority of companies and yet often are the “scapegoat” when things go wrong.

All this negative energy directed towards sales people often starts to seep into our own psyche and starts us off on a round of pessimism that impacts our performance.  Anyone who has sold anything knows you have to be “up” on yourself every day if you want to sell effectively.

My friend Stuart Scott just wrote the first in a series of articles about appreciation.  This first one is about appreciating yourself. 

If you sell, read this article (and the following ones in the series).  It may seem a little alternative to some but if salespeople appreciate themselves they will have more positive energy and hence will sell more. Hey, I can appreciate that!

This spring I declared into existence The Appreciation Project. Its purpose is to increase the total quantity of appreciation in the world. Just for the fun of it.

I’d like to tell you how the project got started. It grew from a simple observation – that appreciation doesn’t exist until you express it. Merely to feel appreciative doesn’t add to the world’s stock of appreciation. You have to communicate your appreciation for it to have an effect.

More of the article

Sales people use the telephone, marketing people write…but either way both have the same goal – leads.

When I talk to sales people about prospecting they immediately think “telephone”.  When I talk to marketing people about lead generation they immediately think about writing something – letter, email, website etc.

But actually over time I have come to believe that the best way to generate leads is by using a “multimedia” approach.  By combining the telephone with letters, email and multi-dimensional mailers (books, gifts etc.) you increase your chances of finding the “medium” that appeals to that particular executive.

During my sales career I have found that some prospects regularly answer their telephone, some never seem to answer their phone, some people respond instantly to email (and carry their Blackberry or Treo everywhere), and some people need to receive a good old-fashioned letter before they respond.

I have personally experienced several situations where sending executives something creative like a gift basket with customized contents and then following up consistently by phone finally landed a meeting with a very hard to reach CEO, CFO or CIO.

Several other sales experts have written about the need to use “multimedia” in your prospecting. You can read more from Jill Konrath, Brian Carroll and Jim Logan.

So when prospecting don’t put all your eggs in one basket…go multimedia!