Sales Survey - What's Missing?

"Nothing is more dangerous than an idea when it is the only one you have." 

-- Emile Chartier, Philosopher

 

A recent survey of sales management worldwide, conducted by Qvidian, found the following regarding the issues surrounding growing their business and the struggles of their sales organization.

Sales people struggle with the following:

• Effectively Present Value
• Providing Content Specific to Selling Situation & Buyer Stage
• Differentiate From Competition
• Generating Winning Proposals and Personalized Selling Documents
• Clearly Understand Customer's Buying Process
• Identify and Gain Access to All Decision Makers
• Conducting Thorough Needs Analysis

Top Areas That Need Improvement

While all of these are essential, there is a common theme that continues to surface. Sales teams are burdened with complexity and follow up in the selling process, and struggle to present greater value to the customer, leading to the buyer not making a decision. Reasons why value is often not presented effectively include:

• Sales not leveraging selling content and resources specific to buyer needs in order to convey value.
• Content and resources often not aligned to buyer stages.
• Sales spending too much time searching for content and resources, leading to less time selling.
• Selling content goes unused creating wasted resource time creating more and more content.
• Opportunities are missed because of wasted resources and less time selling.

Wasteful Activities

This study also uncovered that the majority of organizations haven't identified the wasteful activities in the sales cycle, let alone the wasted energy from resources generating quality content and tools that never get utilized. Only 7% believed their organization was able to identity wasteful activities, while over 31% said they were not able to identify at all. When it comes to leveraging the mass arsenal of content and selling tools, a staggering 90% of selling content is never used in the selling process. Our studies show 58% of salespeople's time is spent on non-selling activities. 58%!!!!

Agility

The ability for most sales organizations to be agile and adapt to change also impacts overall sales execution. 47% report that their sales process is only somewhat or not at all adaptable to change in the buying process, and over 57% state their sales organization is only somewhat or not at all agile.

Finding needed resources or creating personalized selling documents remains an ongoing challenge for salespeople. Over 39% say they have a challenge with locating and tailoring personalized selling documents and 16% say it is overly difficult.

Opportunities

The reality is buyers have changed, selling processes are more complex, and sales teams have not transformed, making it more of a challenge to achieve the organization's desired business outcomes. With all of these challenges, increasing complexity in the selling process, and critical business objectives and defined strategies, companies have invested in a variety of areas to help support their sales teams.

Typical actions taken to resolve these challenges:

• More Training - However 87% of training content is forgotten within weeks
• More Content - 70% of buyers are halfway in their buying decision before content is presented
• More Sales Reps - It is hard to find more great salespeople and 58% of the time is not spent selling

The Solution

One solution that is working for my clients is the move to fewer sales people, keeping the best and teaming them with sales coordinators. This is LESS BUT BETTER. A sales coordinator teamed with a great salesperson can more than double sales at ¾ the cost of two salespeople. One company had 5 salespeople - they moved to 2 salespeople and 2 sales coordinators and doubled their sales overall!

How is that possible? When you take a great salesperson and ask them to spend 58% of their time doing non-sales activities what do you expect? The more they prospect, the more follow up they have to do, and the less they prospect the next week. The more customers they converse with, the more follow up they have to do, meaning less conversations the next week.

 

With a sales coordinator working as a teammate, all of the non-sales follow up, quotes, letters, reporting, CRM input, appointment making etc. is taken care of by the coordinator and the salesperson's job becomes 90% sales conversations and developing relationships. This is what they are good at and why they were hired in the first place.

It also provides solutions to the issues in the survey above. Ensuring content and sales and marketing tools are being effectively used. The coordinator becomes the expert and ensures the salesperson has the right tools in hand on each call.

For more info see this flow chart -- it is an example of how the process might work in your company. 

For more information on this concept please feel free to contact me.

Fund Your "Remarkable" Company

"The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place."  

- George Bernard Shaw

The single best lead generator for our businesses are referrals or word of mouth. The key to more word of mouth is "remarkable" experiences (i.e. experiences with our company that are remarkable).

How much do you trust your people to do the right thing? After all, they are the ones that provide these remarkable experiences. We talk about it, but has it been communicated?

Seth Godin sent this recently:

"Consider giving every person on your team a budget - $1000 a year? $200 an incident? - and challenging them to spend the money to make things right, to create efficiency, to delight.

If the CFO freaks out, invite her to meet with each employee at the end of the year to hear how they chose to spend the money. A free part or service. Giving an unhappy customer a refund on the spot. Buying a subscription to an inexpensive web app that dramatically decreases customer service time...

At the Ritz-Carlton, every single employee (even the maintenance folks) has a budget of $2,000 per guest to make things right. On the spot, without asking.

Without a doubt, the guest is blown away by this rapid response. A caring person who, instead of saying, "I'll have to ask my supervisor," just makes it right. But even more important, I think, is the effect of trusting your people. You've already given them the keys to your brand, you've already made them the face of your organization - isn't it time to trust them enough to do the right thing?"

Do you have the right people, doing the right things , right? Can you say YES to all these?

Regards,  

Rick Wallace

Referrals - Knowledge Not Lies

"Do what you do so well that they will want to see it again

 and bring their friends."

- Walt Disney

We all know referrals are one of our top sources of leads.

 

Self-limiting beliefs, though, say the key is asking for them and giving something (payment) to our customer for giving us the referral. This belief is not true.

Truths/Belief and thus Knowledge:

1. People will only refer you if you do "remarkable" things for them - not because they are paid something.
2. People refer because they want to. They want to help you, they want to help the friend they refer you to and they want to feel smart. (They know something others don't.)
3. People usually only refer when the time is right, it comes up in a conversation, they see someone and it is on their mind, etc.
4. People don't refer because you pay them or give them something. It is ok to thank them with a gift, but that is not the key to getting people to refer you, and if not done right can cheapen the experience.
5. People fear referring because they worry about what you will do with the referee. (i.e., bug them to death to buy from you, not serve the referee the way you served them, etc.) 

Thus a great referral program must:

1. Serve your customers with "remarkable service".
2. Ensure the customer that their referee will be treated well and served (not bugged to buy something).
3. Make it easy to make the referral  now - not when the time is right and easy for the sales rep to ask for the referral.
4. Give the customer something of value to gift to the referee. It is the catalyst to make the referral now and the thing that ensures the customer knows what will happen next (no bugging to buy) and allows them to offer something of value to the referee.
5. This "gift" should be something that allows you to serve the referee and demonstrate your difference.
6. Yes keep the customer in the loop let them know what is happening (they want to know how it went and reinforce the good decision they made to refer someone). It also gives you a chance to ask for another referral.
7. It is ok to send them a little thank you or gift but as a surprise not as the quid pro quo - you do this I'll do this.

My suggestion:

1. Coupon or gift certificate with a place for the customer's name on it - "This gift is for you from ______________ ".
2. A pain statement your ideal customers/prospects have.
3. This certificate entitles you to a FREE service you can provide that will demonstrate how you are different from your competitiors and have value and helps solve their pain.
4. Sales rep gives it to customers to pass on or, better still, ask the customer for the information and say I'll deliver this in person for you - nice envelope, nice certificate and nice gift.

Regards,  
Rick Wallace

Busy - Two Kinds

"There are two kinds of Busy. One is busy "on purpose" and the other is busy "on convenience". One kind reduces busy and the other perpetuates it. "

- Rick Wallace

Yes there are two kinds of busy, one works and one doesn't - although we believe it does - one of those false beliefs we talk about.

Yes I'm busy. I have blocked off the next 60 minutes so I could focus. I am focused on preparing for a weekly team huddle -- updating the charts on how we are doing against our goals for the quarter. I then facilitate the 20 minute Huddle reviewing the charts, reviewing the team's individual dashboards, and discussing a core value.

I could have been busy running around "helping" out, managing, showing people how to do their jobs, answering their questions, and following up with employees on the fly to ensure they are doing what they are supposed to. Pitching in here and there. Watching them and making sure they are busy. "Oh no we are out of "that". I'll run over and get some - be back in an hour. No, while I'm out, I'll also deliver "that" too." It is convenient, easy to just show up and do the same thing every day.

Which "busy" gets the best results and ROI for the time invested? Which busy builds a company that is accountable for results? Which busy frees you up and allows you to work "on your purpose", your WHY, your dreams?

It is your Choice! 

Regards,  
Rick Wallace

Slow Down

"Don't mistake activity with achievement." 

"Be quick, but don't hurry."  

- John Wooden  

Ladies and Gentlemen, heed the advice please. You guys, as I talk to you each month, seem to be spinning your wheels as fast as you can.  

Develop different Habits. Less but better. Saying no to some things that are not essential. Slow down to speed up your success. Do the important vs the urgent. Heed the advice. Quit saying to yourself  "things will slow down soon and I'll have time to work on that Rock". Work on the Rock now -the pebbles will get done or they will not matter in the long term. Work on that Rock now and you won't be as busy next time.  

From Steve Chandler:  

You'll feel better if you slow down.  You'll get more done, too.

It doesn't seem like it would be true.  It doesn't seem like slowing down would get that much more done.  But it does.  Every day you do it, you will get more done.  Every day you experiment with slowing down you will understand the truth behind the legend of the tortoise and the hare.  (The turtle won the race.)

The most important element of slowing down is to know that you're always working on the right thing to be working on at any given time.  Business consultant Chet Holmes said that he and his clients accomplish that by making sure each day has only six things on the Must Do list.  That list lets them slow down.

"Why only six things?" says Holmes.  "Because with a bigger list than that, generally you just try to trim the list.  You spend the day trimming the list.  At the end of the day you feel that most of the important things on the list did not get completed.  You just look down and say, 'Oh, I didn't do the most important things.'  There's a bad psychological impact in not finishing your list!  And so only list the six most important things...and then make sure you get them done.  You'll be amazed at how much you've accomplished." 

If I am on the wrong road it doesn't matter how good I get at speeding down the road.  It's the wrong road.

I need to remind myself of this: Slow down and win.  I need to take my sweet, gentle time.  I want this conversation ahead of me to be relaxed and strong so that the relationship I have becomes relaxed and strong.  So all day it helps to tell myself:  Slow down.  Even slower than that.  There you go.

No And Focus

"Anything you focus on grows."

- Steve Chandler

 

Do the One Thing, The Only Thing

From Steve Chandler: 

One slow thing at a time is a strong way to live. Being focused is a strong way to live.

Richard Sloma explains it in his powerful book "No-Nonsense Management: A General Manager's Primer". Pardon the cliché, but General Custer could have become one of our most famous military heroes if, somehow, he could have forced the Sioux nation to attack over the hill one at a time. Supremacy of the seas was guaranteed for the British when Lord Nelson maximized and exploited the technique of "crossing the 'T'" so as to allow all of his ships to fire broadside at each enemy ship as it appeared next in line.  Look at problems as adversaries. Summon all your forces and deal with them one at a time.

The Number #1 Reason to Focus  

From Seth Godin: 

You will care more about the things that aren't working yet, you'll push through the dip, you'll expend effort and expose yourself to fear.

When you have a lot of balls in the air, it's easy to just ignore the ones that make you uncomfortable or that might fall.

Success comes from doing the hard part. When the hard part is all you've got, you're more likely to do it.

And this is precisely why it's difficult to focus. Because focusing means acknowledging that you just signed up for the hard part.

From Steve Chandler:  

We don't have time to do everything we want to do today.  If you have any kind of success at all going on in your life, that will be your reality: more to do than time allows. Celebrate that. Then go warrior on your list and DELETE and/or DELEGATE as many items as you can.  

It's what you say NO to that creates your focus and pathway to an invented future. Not what you keep saying YES to all day in a vain attempt to please others and get them to like you and think you are accommodating.

My Input: 

To focus you have to say NO to other things and requests. You have to commit to yourself as though you were making a commitment to your largest customer. We cannot continue to say yes to everyone that requests something from us. That is what we do now. We want to please everyone, we want to be helpful, and we don't want to disappoint people. But think of it this way - saying no is uncomfortable for a few moments, saying yes to something that is not IMPORTANT will hound us for weeks or months as we stress out over fitting it in with the IMPORTANT things we need to get accomplished.

There is no such thing as time management - you can't manage time, it is finite, but you can manage what you do in the time you have and the quality and impact the things you do in that time.

So the answer is to start politely, and with empathy, say NO to non-essential, non- important requests. People will begin to respect you for it and maybe begin to emulate you.

Are you blocking time on your schedule to work and focus on important ROCKS/ACTIONS that will impact the company and your life and sticking to that hour of uninterrupted time?

You must treat those appointments with yourself as meetings with your most important customer and not let them slip. Don't change them because you get a request from anyone else, including your best customer. After all you wouldn't change a meeting with your best customer to accommodate another customer would you? Other times are open and you would suggest those instead.

First you have to know your clear purpose, your goals and the Rocks/Actions that will get your there. Then start saying NO politely, with empathy and focusing on the important.

Rick Wallace 

Success is Easy, But So Is Neglect

"You are the way you are because that's the way you want to be. If you really wanted to be any different, you would be in the process of changing right now."

-- Fred Smith, FedEx

Success is Easy, But So is Neglect  by Jim Rohn

People often ask me how I became successful in that six-year period of time while many of the people I knew did not. The answer is simple: The things I found to be easy to do, they found to be easy not to do. I found it easy to set the goals that could change my life. They found it easy not to. I found it easy to read the books that could affect my thinking and my ideas. They found that easy not to. I found it easy to attend the classes and the seminars, and to get around other successful people. They said it probably really wouldn't matter. If I had to sum it up, I would say what I found to be easy to do, they found to be easy not to do. Six years later, I'm a millionaire and they are all still blaming the economy, the government, and company policies, yet they neglected to do the basic, easy things.

In fact, the primary reason most people are not doing as well as they could and should, can be summed up in a single word: neglect.

It is not the lack of money - banks are full of money. It is not the lack of opportunity - America, and much of the free World, continues to offer the most unprecedented and abundant opportunities in the last six thousand years of recorded history. It is not the lack of books - libraries are full of books - and they are free! It is not the schools - the classrooms are full of good teachers. We have plenty of ministers, leaders, counselors and advisors.

Everything we would ever need to become rich and powerful and sophisticated is within our reach. The major reason that so few take advantage of all that we have is simply neglect.

Neglect is like an infection. Left unchecked it will spread throughout our entire system of disciplines and eventually lead to a complete breakdown of a potentially joy-filled and prosperous human life.

Not doing the things we know we should do causes us to feel guilty and guilt leads to an erosion of self-confidence. As our self-confidence diminishes, so does the level of our activity. And as our activity diminishes, our results inevitably decline. And as our results suffer, our attitude begins to weaken. And as our attitude begins the slow shift from positive to negative, our self-confidence diminishes even more... and on and on it goes.

So my suggestion is that when giving the choice of "easy to" and "easy not to" that you do not neglect to do the simple, basic, "easy" but potentially life-changing activities and disciplines.