Home > News > How to Make the Most of Networking Events

How to Make the Most of Networking Events

Networking effectively means the time and money you spend attending association meetings turn into revenue! Networking is one of the easiest and most important things you can do to increase sales. But just showing up doesn’t cut it.

See if this “networking” scenario sounds familiar to you: people register, walk into the meeting room, find their friends or co-workers, sit down and start eating. They chat with the people they know and then listen to the speaker while they finish their meal. When the speaker finishes the raffle prizes are given and people leave. Those are not really networking events. They are meet and eats. To make them networking events, you need to follow the steps below.

Figure out the best places to meet your ideal prospects & get there early.

Make a list of the networking events you attend on a regular basis. Then, analyze how much business you have gotten from each event. You’ll need this information to measure how much more productive your networking efforts are after working this process.

Organizations usually have registration 30 minutes before the meeting starts. Arrive then and use that time to meet as many people as you can.

Use a newspaper or business journal to find listings of local organizations holding events. Your best prospects are not always where you think they are so try experimenting and thinking outside the “box” when selecting events to attend.

Set goals for each networking event.

What do you want to accomplish at the event? What would you like to come away with? Don’t leave without meeting your objective. If your objective is to meet 10 new people, then don’t leave without meeting them.

Dress for success.

Wear something comfortable that makes you feel like a million bucks. A nice logo shirt with nice slacks or a skirt is almost always appropriate. A dress or suit may be appropriate for some events, but probably isn’t appropriate if you live in Hawaii. Wear your company name tag, and be sure you wear something with pockets so your business cards and a pen are handy. You don’t want to waste valuable networking time digging for them.

Attend new events with a member who will introduce you.

If you don’t know any members, call the president of the organization and let her know that you’d like to attend as someone’s guest. Ask her to introduce you to the members at the event, including people that you have been trying to meet.

If you’ve been the association meetings before, make it a point to meet all of the people in the room that you don’t know.

Don’t just talk with your friends and coworkers. Say “hi” and keep moving. “Great talking to you, there are a few other people I need to see today,” works pretty well.

Have plenty of business cards with you.

If you think I should not have to mention this, you are mistaken. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been at networking events and asked someone for their card and only to hear them say, “I didn’t bring any,” or “I am out.” Always have plenty of cards handy. Also, have a pen handy to write notes on the cards you collect.

When you approach someone, make conversation by asking questions about them and their business.

Don’t pitch or even mention your business unless you are asked. Ask good questions and listen to find something you have in common. If you are shy or not sure how to start a conversation prepare some questions in advance to get you started.

Be prepared with a great answer to “What do you do?”

If asked, give only a 30 second answer and then talk about the results your customers receive in the form of a short success story. Rehearse your response, not so that it sounds scripted, but so that it sounds great.

Ask for the type of business you want and be specific.

At the end of your success story, if you still have a captive audience, be sure to tell them the type of business you are looking for.

“I am looking for small and midsize companies that want to increase their sales and have a budget for sales training. If you know the CEOs of any companies like that I would love the opportunity to talk with them and learn about what they are trying to accomplish.”

Be sure you are prepared to write referrals down and ask for a direct introduction in person or by phone or email. You should reciprocate and ask them what kind of referrals they would like from you.

Follow Up.

Networking is useless if you don’t do any follow up. Following up is a process by its self. Just adding names to your database or stacking cards in a drawer is not enough.

Everyone can learn to network. Salespeople and entrepreneurs need to become expert at it. Be sure you have a networking strategy. Choose carefully the events you attend and follow the steps above to turn all the time, money and effort spent at networking events into business.

Learn more about sales & networking:

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Check out my list of upcoming event & webinars
Purchase my ebook or audio program, Networking Your Way to More Business

Home > News > Business Leaders Spend the Day in Principals’ Shoes

Business Leaders Spend the Day in Principals’ Shoes

Reno Gazette Journal

STAFF REPORT • May 12, 2010

The Education Alliance of Washoe County and the Washoe County School District plan Thursday to give local business leaders a taste of what its like to run local high, middle and elementary schools when they job shadow school principals. Fifteen businesses and their leaders will participate: Mark Foree, Truckee Meadows Water Authority; Craig Etem, Lionel, Sawyer and Collins; Rob Barrett and Roxanne Spring, Microsoft Licensing; Idora Silver, I. Silver Management Group, Inc; Karen Barsell, United Way of Northern Nevada; Mike Pomi, the Children’s Cabinet; Dean Whellams, Q&D Construction; Stephanie Lepori, Silver Legacy Resort Casino; Craig Hulse, Washoe County School District; Maria Sheehan and Paula Lee Hobson, Truckee Meadows Community College; Michelle Sanchez-Bickley, Renown Health; Mark Crawford, Northern Nevada Medical Center; Bill Creekbaum, Reno Rotary; and Jim Pfrommer, Pfrommer & McCune.

Business leaders have been paired with principals from Sierra Vista, Hunsberger, Booth, Pleasant Valley, Van Gorder, Donner Springs and Risley elementary schools; Vaughn, O’Brien, Billinghurst and Sparks middle schools; and Damonte Ranch, Wooster, Hug and Reed high schools.

“We are thrilled to provide this experience for business leaders to participate in the day-to-day activities at our schools,” said Denise Hedrick, executive director at the Education Alliance of Washoe County. “The WCSD principals will be able to share information about their school, the district and their professions with these business leaders.”

Business leaders and principals will start the day off at a school. The business leaders will shadow the principal in all their duties that day. The business leaders and principals will meet at the Microsoft Licensing offices for snacks and a debriefing session.

Feedback will be gathered and evaluated for future participants and events.

This event is modeled after a program hosted by the San Francisco Unified School District and introduced by Alice Heiman of Alice Heiman, LLC. A pilot program with three business leaders and schools was completed by the WCSD Communications Office in the spring of 2009.

Home > News > Alice Heiman, LLC receives U.S. Chamber of Commerce 2010 Blue Ribbon Small Business Award

Alice Heiman, LLC receives U.S. Chamber of Commerce 2010 Blue Ribbon Small Business Award

March 1, 2010

U.S. Chamber Recognizes 2010 Blue Ribbon DREAM BIG Small Business Award Winners
75 Businesses Showcase Commitment to Employees, Customers, and Communities

WASHINGTON, D.C.-The U.S. Chamber of Commerce recognized 75 Blue Ribbon Small Business Award® winners, honoring their critical role in creating jobs and growing the economy.

“This year’s recipients of the Blue Ribbon Small Business Award are proof that the American entrepreneurial spirit is as strong as ever,” said Thomas J. Donohue, U.S. Chamber president and CEO. “We’re relying on small businesses to lead us out of this recession, create new jobs, and get our economy moving again, and these companies are leading the way.”

The Blue Ribbon Small Business Award, sponsored by Sam’s Club®, is designed to recognize businesses that demonstrate excellent business practices in several areas, including business strategy, employee development, community involvement, and customer service.

“This award is about more than recognizing financially successful businesses,” said Donohue. “It’s about honoring those that show a commitment to their employees, sound business practices, and bettering their communities. These companies have made these commitments, and the Chamber is proud to recognize their contributions.”

This year’s 75 Blue Ribbon winners were selected from a record number of nationwide applicants and will be honored at America’s Small Business Summit 2010, May 17-19, in Washington, D.C. On March 15, seven of the Blue Ribbon businesses will be announced as award finalists, and one will be named the DREAM BIG Small Business of the Year during America’s Small Business Summit. The winner will be presented with a $10,000 cash prize courtesy of Sam’s Club.

Blue Ribbon businesses are also eligible for the Community Excellence Award, decided by online public voting, March 1-12. In addition, 25 Free Enterprise Honorees were commended for their strong business practices and contributions to the economy.

To learn more about America’s Small Business Summit, visit http://www.uschambersummit.com.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the world’s largest business federation representing the interests of more than 3 million businesses of all sizes, sectors, and regions, as well as state and local chambers and industry associations.

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Home > News > Alice Heiman, LLC receives U.S. Chamber of Commerce 2010 Blue Ribbon Small Business Award

Alice Heiman, LLC receives U.S. Chamber of Commerce 2010 Blue Ribbon Small Business Award

March 1, 2010

Home > News > Press Release: Alice Heiman Wins Sparks Chamber of Commerce Community Spirit Award

Press Release: Alice Heiman Wins Sparks Chamber of Commerce Community Spirit Award

If you ask the committee why Alice won, they will say that it wasn’t one particular thing Alice did, but her overall presence in the community.

“Alice’s energy throughout the community was noticeable this past year, everyone was aware of her, ” said Mike Draper, a committee member and VP of Marketing and Communications for the Sparks Chamber. “Last year was the year of Alice. “

Heiman is President and Chief Sales Officer of Alice Heiman, LLC, a sales training company.

Members of the Sparks Chamber nominate their fellow members for this award and a committee reviews the applications and selects the winner. The Spirit Award recognizes a business that has used their organization to make a difference in the community.

Committee member Mike Draper knows Alice outside of the Chamber, as he sits on the board of the Nevada Discovery Museum with Alice.

“I have seen her commitment to the Museum and to our community first hand. She epitomizes this award,” said Draper.

Heiman is considered an expert on networking and sees how effective networking can help people build their business. She created the BizTalk Blender®, a fun, structured networking event that the Sparks Chamber has licensed to use for their networking programs.

Home > News > Press Release: Alice Heiman named Marketer of the Year

Press Release: Alice Heiman named Marketer of the Year

“Alice was chosen out of a list of nominees for her achievement in social networking while bringing the community awareness of marketing and business strategies,” said Chapter President Bruce Knowlton. Alice was honored for many accomplishments in marketing, including the creation of the BizTalk Blender® Ultimate Networking Event, a trade-marked event that is one of the most productive and well attended networking events in Reno. “The BizTalk Blender® is a way for even the shyest person to meet new business contacts,” said Alice. “The upbeat atmosphere and structure of this event encourages people to mingle and make the connections that can lead to new business.” Alice’s success in getting people out to these events was due to her carefully crafted email marketing campaigns and her use of social media. And of course, people got results so they continue to attend the event.

The BizTalk Blender® follows a specific format that helps people get the most out of networking. Several organizations around the country have used the BizTalk Blender® to increase the effectiveness of their events and the BizTalk Blender® has just been licensed to the Sparks Chamber of Commerce. “This is a perfect event for chambers because it can help them retain members as well as attract new ones. We have launched a national campaign to offer the Ultimate Networking Event to chambers everywhere,” explained Heiman.

“I have a passion for networking and I love bringing people in the community together so they can help each other grow their businesses. I want to help people become effective networkers online and in person because it is the easiest form of marketing. I am so honored to be chosen as 2009 Marketer of the Year,” said Heiman.

Alice’s energy and enthusiasm are well known in the Reno/Sparks community. She donates countless hours to help business and charitable non-profits, with the Nevada Discovery Museum as the primary focus of her non-profit work. She delivers presentations on sales and networking to local business organizations and helps entrepreneurs and small businesses with sales advice.

You can find Alice on Twitter @aliceheiman, and @biztalkblender; Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/aliceheiman; and Linked In.

Alice Heiman, LLC helps companies increase sales through sales process consulting, training and coaching. The founder, Alice Heiman is available to run sales training, do keynote presentations, or run a BizTalk Blender®. For more information go to http://www.aliceheiman.com

Home > News > People You Should Know

People You Should Know

Background

Working for Miller Heiman Inc., lead me to where I am today. I spent the first 13 years of my life as an elementary educator and left to work for my father, Steve Heiman, at Miller Heiman Inc. After three years, in 1997, I decided to open my own company.

Why do I do what I do?

Because I love it! I love helping people increase sales and grow their business. I love teaching people how to get out and network in order to create relationships that will lead to an increase in sales.

What brought me to Reno or why I stay in Reno

Miller Heiman Inc. moved to Reno in 1992, and I came to work for them in 1994. My father moved my family here from the Bay Area, and the first year I was here, my thought was, ‘Oh my goodness, what have I done?’ And now I can’t imagine living anywhere else. I’ve raised my son here since he was 3 and we hike, ski and sail at Tahoe every year. I once lived in Chicago where there were three days a year of sun, and now I live here where there are over 300. I also love the business community here, it’s easy to get connected and know the people that you need to know in order to get things done. What can I say, I love this place!

What I do to leave work at the office

Ha, ha, ha! My great escape from work is sailing with Fred (the love of my life) and spending time with friends and family. But I live my work because I love it.

How I give back to my community

The organizations and businesses that I volunteer my time for are too numerous to mention here. My biggest project currently is the Nevada Discovery Museum. I am the chair of the campaign steering committee, where I spend countless hours every month with a great team raising money to open the museum. My volunteer hours range from mentoring young women to helping find sponsors for events such as Pops on the River, helping nonprofits start up and giving free training and presentations on sales and networking for nonprofits. One of my great passions is education. I work with the school district occasionally volunteering in classrooms, and I developed the Principal for the Day program to bring business leaders and school principals closer together.

Best business book I’ve read lately

“The Inner Edge—The 10 Practices of Personal Leadership” by Joelle K. Jay, local author and coach.

Best place in Reno to meet with clients or colleagues

The BizTalk Blender, of course!

My leadership philosophy

I lead by example. I try to be the best I can be, walk my talk and do things I would ask others to do. I try to encourage people to be the best that they can be, always.

Notable Achievements

I definitely got the sales genes from my father and got the hard working volunteer genes from my mom. I won Saleswoman of the Year in 2004, I was just voted AMA’s Marketer of the Year for building and marketing the BizTalk Blender and my son thinks I’m pretty cool, but that I shouldn’t work so much.

If I could do something else, I would “»

I really can’t imagine doing anything else, I’ve already done so many wonderful things in my life. But when I strike it rich, I’ll definitely be a philanthropist. However, because of all my ranting about education, I have been told by my best friend, Randi Thompson, that I should be the Secretary of Education for the United States!

Home > News > Why Is Your New Salesperson Not Selling Anything

Why Is Your New Salesperson Not Selling Anything

You did a search, found great sales candidates, put them through a rigorous screening process, and hired the best one. Now you expect them to get out there and sell, right? The fact is,their sales performance is awful, way below your expectations. How long should it take a new salesperson to ramp up to full speed? Shouldn’t they already know how to sell? Did I hire the wrong person?

Assuming you have an adequate sales process and good lead generation, there are three basic things that get in the way of a new salesperson’s success.

Your expectations
Lack of needed sales skills for the new position
Inadequate training period

The biggest mistake we make is setting unrealistic expectations, by putting the salesperson out in the field (or on the phone) too soon, without adequate support. This is a very costly mistake. We want them to produce sales immediately, and it costs money if they don’t. But it costs more money if we don’t train them properly and it takes them longer to ramp up and they may get discouraged and leave, we fire them, or worse yet, we keep them even though they are performing poorly. To get the desired results, put training into your budget and on your schedule and don’t expect anything of the new salesperson the first three weeks other than that they follow the training schedule and ask good questions.

If prospecting is a requirement of the job, don’t assume that your new hires are good at it — or even know how to do it. We hire people and expect them to know all aspects of sales responsibilities, when in fact they may have been very successful in their old job at account management but not at prospecting. Or they may have been great at prospecting and generated lots of leads but didn’t close enough of them. Or maybe they didn’t cover the details well enough and made it to closing but didn’t get repeat business because they hadn’t educated the customer or followed through sufficiently.

Hiring right is imperative but it never makes up for lack of training or insufficient training. You need to design a new-hire training program for all your new salespeople. You owe it to them and your organization. Aside from the typical orientation and HR overview, you probably give your new salespeople product training. This is not enough. Here is the new-hire training program I recommend. You need to invest three to four weeks in initial training. There are no shortcuts. I recommend the following five components.

Learning about the company
Learning the departments, people and roles
Learning the product/service
Learning the job
Learning needed sales skills

The first few days on the job, the salesperson should be scheduled to spend time learning about the company, the history, the company vision for the future as well as alliances and partnerships, policies and procedures and any other important facts, attitudes and values. They should also become intimately familiar with the Web site and all of the recent press releases and the investor relations section.

As part of this learning they should visit every department in the company in person if possible and on the phone where distance is a problem. They need to learn who the key people are in each department and their role. A list should be ready for the salesperson with all of the contact info and a “who to call when” section. The department personnel should have an approved list of information that they go through with the new salespeople to tell them about their department, their role and how they interact with sales.

Examine the product/service training you provide. Does it cover everything? It is in-depth enough or is it too detailed? Does it need to be broken up into smaller chunks? As part of the product training the new salesperson should have the opportunity to use the product or talk to satisfied customers who use the product. They should also have the opportunity to see first hand the product production or development and shadow the people who do that. If there is delivery and installation, the salesperson should ride along to learn that aspect as well.

In my opinion the best way to learn a job is to start by shadowing. Choose carefully from your most successful salespeople and make a schedule. Each of your successful salespeople do things differently so make sure the new salesperson gets to shadow at least three. Make sure you choose successful, experienced salespeople with positive attitudes.

Unfortunately, some very successful salespeople have negative attitudes. You know who they are. Don’t choose them! Train your experienced, successful salespeople so they know what to do and say to be helpful to the new salespeople while they are shadowing. Make sure the new person gets to see a variety of activity and has time to ask questions.

Demonstration followed by discussion is the way in which most adults learn best. Next they need to do the demonstrated task with an observer followed by feedback and discussion with that observer. The last piece is doing the task on their own with no observer followed by discussion with their previous observer. Once the salesperson has shadowed several salespeople, it is time for the manager to step in. You should ride with the person to visit clients and prospects. Before each visit, discuss with the salesperson what their approach will be, observe them and take a few notes for feedback and discussion after each meeting. Once you feel secure in the salesperson’s ability, leave them on their own to perform sales calls independently, but be sure to have a follow-up discussion each week about the results of those meetings.

After evaluating your new salesperson’s skills, you will need to bridge any gaps in their skill set. If you have a good snapshot of all the skills a successful salesperson at your company needs this will be fairly easy. Make sure they have good prospecting, discovery, education and closing skills. If not, send them to a sales course in person or online or have them read a great book on sales that covers the needed skills and then have a discussion about it. Roleplaying the needed skills with the salesperson is also helpful.

Don’t expect salespeople to have all the needed skills. They may not have had any formal training. If salespeople like a certain aspect of selling, they may be better at it than in others. For example, they might be great at prospecting, but not know how to ask good questions, and even if they do, they may need to learn the right questions to ask to sell your product or service.

A caution: Good salespeople will tend to become impatient. They’ll want to jump right in and start selling. That’s a good thing but you will need to continuously reassure them that this training process will make them more successful in the long run.

Once the three to four weeks of initial sales training are completed, are you finished with training? No, the salesperson should be coached frequently for the first six months, and all salespeople need ongoing coaching and training to stay at the top of their game.

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Home > News > When Deals Stick in the Pipeline

When Deals Stick in the Pipeline

What is going on with that huge deal that was supposed to close last month? Why isn’t that deal closed yet? It seems like everything is stuck in the pipeline. When are these deals going to close? There isn’t a sales manager alive who hasn’t wondered why the salespeople aren’t closing deals, especially the deals that were forecast. Sales managers expect and rely on accurate information about when deals will be closing. “Accurate” is the operative word here because what most salespeople give their managers is their best guess of the dates on which they would like their sales to close. Then, when deals don’t close in that timeframe there is always a “good reason” or some excuse as to why the deal hasn’t closed.

Closing is not about the salesperson or your company. It is about the customer and their needs and timeline. When salespeople get ahead of customers in the sales cycle, they usually predict the close without any input from the customer at all. They seemingly pull a date out ofthin air or assume a date that allows them to make quota that month. What they rarely figure into the forecast is the close date has to come from the customer. It is the date the customer is ready to buy, as it is almost impossible to force someone into closing a deal when he or she is not ready. If something weird should happen and salespeople actually force the close, they usually find themselves in a very bad position and often that customer will probably never buy from them again. Worse, the customer may tell others about the situation.

The most common reasons deals don’t close are:

The competition comes in at the end with something “better.”
Something at the customer company has changed (that no one knew about).
The budget was appropriated to another project.
The possible sale was fiction – the salesperson was clueless and it wasn’t going to close in the first place.
The salesperson (or someone at your company) did something to irritate the buyers.

All of these can really be summed up in one word, “position”. Your salesperson was not positioned well enough to completely understand the buyers and their needs, including timeframe. Positioning is the key to closing and positioning depends on many factors, the customer’s budget, budget cycle, needs, attitudes, accounting practices, decision making policies and let’s not forget the competition. It is the salesperson’s job to ask questions to uncover all of the information needed so he or she can get well positioned. Who are the decision makers involved in this sale, is there a budget established, what is the procedure for procurement, what is their attitude toward your solution, what is the competition for this sale is it an in-house solution, another vendor or using the money for something completely different?

Asking good questions and listening is the only way that I know of to combat the realization that “Oh, no, it’s not going to close”. Sales managers need to coach their salespeople to uncover and gather the information needed to be well positioned. This is the only way to get an accurate close date from the customer and/or to get information first hand if that changes.

Questions like these need to be asked early in the sales cycle: What is your timeline for having this purchase completed? When do you need this to be up and running? When do you want to have this installed? The answers to these questions will help the salesperson start a timeline that will allow him to help the customer get what is needed. If a customer wants something installed or up and running by a certain date the salesperson can help them work backwards from there to understand the timeline for signing the contract.

Other important questions are: Who else beside yourself will be involved in this decision? Will we need approval from any other departments? Are there others you would like me to talk with about the product and how it will work? These questions are important because what holds up a deal many times is that the key contact working with the salesperson is not the final decision maker and has no authority to proceed. They may be waiting on approval from someone that is unknown to the salesperson and so the deal doesn’t close. Knowing early in the game all the people involved in the decision gives the salesperson a chance to get to know the others and their views. Often, it also allows the salesperson to bring in management to get better positioned with the decision makers. It is very rare these days that any one person at a company would make a buying decision of any size on their own, so salespeople must be coached to find all of the decision makers.

For salespeople to know where they stand and what they are up against in a sale, they should ask questions like these: What do you see as my competition for this sale, other vendors, and in-house solution another use for the same dollars?

Keep in mind that most of what you do to be sure a deal closes has to be done early in the sales cycle. When the deal is stalled at the end it most likely is too late. That is not to say a deal can’t be saved at that time, it is just much harder and the probability of success is lower. At this point salespeople have to be coached to go back and ask tough questions such as these: This deal was moving along and it looked like we would close on this date. What has happened to delay that? What did I miss in the decision making process? It appears to me that something has changed and I am not aware of what that is, can you help me understand?

Closing should not be a big deal. If you have a solution that a customer wants, at a price they are willing to pay and understand their needs and timeline, then your sale will close. It will close when the customer is ready for it to close and you will have a happy customer that will more than likely buy from you again and become a good referral source. Closing: It’s all about the customer.

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Home > News > Walking Advertisements

Walking Advertisements

The easiest business you will ever get is more business from existing customers if they are satisfied. And if they are satisfied customers then they should not only purchase more from you but become a walking advertisement for your company. The problem is most of them don’t. Why is that? Don’t expect people to know that you need more business or the type of customers you need.Your customers are busy people who have a lot on their mind and unless you remind them they probably won’t give you referrals. You need to make it very easy for them to be a walking advertisement for you.

Most of my business now is referral business, but I had an interesting conversation the other day with someone who has known me for years and is in a position to refer customers to me. I was talking about what I was doing with the direction of my business and how I was currently serving my customers and mentioned that I could use a few new clients in certain areas of my consulting practice. He said, “I never refer anybody to you because I thought you were really busy and couldn’t take any new customers.” I wanted to shout,“Where in the world did you get that idea?” Instead I politely said that I always appreciate referrals and that I most always have room for new customers as I finish projects. This was a huge eyeopener for me. Somewhere in my recent past I must have stopped asking for referrals or be giving the impression that I don’t need new business. Everyone needs new business, but we can’t expect people to know that. You have to consciously remember to ask for referrals when appropriate.

Surveys say that if asked over 80 percent of satisfied customers would give a referral. When questioned further, those same people said that they were rarely asked. In fact it was as low as 4 percent of the time. So are your salespeople asking? How do you get your customers to go around telling everyone how much you have helped them and recommending you to everyone?

Since the second easiest way to get business is referrals from your satisfied customers you need to have a referral process. So what is your referral process? If you have one, be sure it is written down and communicated to all of your salespeople. If you don’t have one here are some ideas to get you started:

Do an outstanding job for every customer.

Check periodically for customer satisfaction. When a customer says they are happy, that is the best time to say something like, “We appreciate your business and we are looking for other customers like you. Do you know anyone that could use our products and services?” If a customer is not satisfied, fix it right away. Once it is fixed ask them for a referral. If they won’t give one it may be a sign that they are not completely satisfied or that you will have to do more to earn back their trust.

Send your customers handwritten appreciation notes and include a business card. Ask them to give the card to someone they know that could use your products and services.

Send an e-mail special offer to your customers and ask them to forward it on to others who may be interested.

Be specific about what kinds of customers you are looking for. “I am looking for companies that need the personalized service we provide.” “I am looking for entrepreneurs who want to outsource their controller function.” “I want to help entrepreneurs who can’t afford to have a full time assistant.”

Here is a sample referral process for consistently asking satisfied customers for referrals. It will start you on your way to having your customers become a walking advertisement for you.

Just as the sale is complete, thank the customer for the business and let them know that you would be happy to help others that they know.

Thank customers for their business with a handwritten note within five business days of the sale. Place a business card in with the note and ask them to pass it on if they know someone who can use your products and services.

Call the customer two to three weeks after the purchase to determine their satisfaction level.

Send a newsletter four times a year. Provide useful information and a section thanking people for their referrals and reminding them that their referrals are always welcome. If you reward for referrals be sure and highlight that as well.

You will start getting referrals if you put a process in place, but if you don’t thank customers the referrals will stop. Thanking them isn’t enough. If you really want them to send you referrals be sure and also let them know the outcome. I don’t get annoyed easily but it really bothers me when I give someone a referral and then I never know whether the two parties connected let alone the outcome.

So, when you get a referral:

Ask them to introduce you by e-mail, on the phone or in person. If they aren’t willing to do that, ask for permission to use their name when making contact.
Thank the customer for the referral at the time.
Send a thank you note by mail or email within five business days.
Let the customer know as soon as you have connected with their referral.
Let the customer know the outcome and thank them again.

If you made a sale you may want to reward the customer who gave you the referral. If you do these things your customers will surely become a walking advertisement for you.

Building, publishing and implementing a referral process is essential. Here are some tips to help you do that:

Bring all of your salespeople together to discuss referrals.
Ask them how they currently get referrals.
Write down all of the best practices.
Let them help you design the referral process that will be implemented.
Set goals for the number of referrals they will get each month.
Have them determine how they will be rewarded for getting referrals.
Continuously encourage your salespeople to use the process and ask for referrals.
Post the number of referrals each salesperson gets per month.

Most Realtors are especially good at getting referrals. They send e-mails and cards to their customers that say things like, “The best compliment I get is when you refer your friends and family to me.” There are a few retail shops in town doing a great job of getting referrals. Vino 100, a retail wine shop in South Meadows, has referral cards that they give out to customers to give to friends. Imagine That! furniture store has an elaborate referral program that rewards the customers that spread the word. Both of these referral programs are driving in business consistently.

You can increase sales starting tomorrow if you put a referral process in place and be sure that your salespeople are working the process. So what are you waiting for? Don’t you want all of your customers to be a walking advertisement for your company?

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Home > News > Time Management Critical in Sales

Time Management Critical in Sales

“Why won’t my salespeople prospect? All they ever do is complain that they don’t have enough leads.”

In the first article of this series we looked at marketing, which can be one of the main contributors to this lament. In the second article we looked at another major contributor,not hiring the right salespeople. The third looked at the reasons most salespeople do not like to prospect, a major contributor being equating prospecting with cold calling. We discussed three ways to prospect that are not cold calling: selling more to existing customers; asking satisfied customers for referrals; and networking. In the last article we looked at how to generate new business by running an effective prospecting campaign. In this article we will discuss the fact that most salespeople do not balance their time well. Time management is an ongoing challenge for almost everyone I know. This is no different for salespeople. Prospecting must be well planned and scheduled.

Since most salespeople like prospecting the least of all their duties, they leave it until last and don’t give it the attention it deserves. Prospecting is not a good thing to do when you are tired or frustrated, and it is too important to be left for last. Using all of the ideas in my previous articles, salespeople will understand how to really prospect and they will enjoy it more which should bring it closer to the top of the list. The key to time management is blocking time for activities and holding that sacred. Salespeople need to look at their calendars and decide when they will do prospecting. I recommend that it be done during the part of the day when the salespersons are at their best.

Salespeople need to ask themselves, “How many hours a week do I spend prospecting?” and “Is that enough?” Devoting the proper amount of time to prospecting is difficult but it will make all the difference when you are trying to increase sales. The amount of time may vary but the minimum should be eight hours. Yes, eight hours. But any increase in time spent prospecting will be beneficial.

Let’s revisit the definition of prospecting so that it is clear what you can do during your prospecting time.

The word “Prospecting” is not directly defined by Webster’s but leads you to the word “explore” thus the following definition. “prospecting: to make or conduct a systematic search. prospect: a potential customer, client or purchaser.” If a prospect is a potential customer, client or purchaser and prospecting means to make or conduct a systematic search, then prospecting activities can be as follows:

Make a systematic search of your current clients to look for more business.
Make a systematic search of their referrals to look for new business.
Contact all of the people you have met at networking events to determine if they need your solutions.
Research companies and gather information so that you can contact them.
Make phone calls from a lead list.
Follow up on direct mail that has been sent to prospects. Here’s what salespeople can do:
Determine how much time you currently spend prospecting.
Make a list of the prospecting activities you do.
Look at your calendar for the next three weeks and block out your prospecting time.
After blocking your time, keep records of the time you do spend prospecting.
Keep records of each prospecting activity to determine which results in the most sales.
Reward yourself for spending more time on prospecting.

If your salespeople are having a hard time finding the time to prospect you will need to have them do a time on task survey for about a week. Simply have them write down every activity they do during the day. Once you have this information you can help them prioritize and eliminate activities so that they have the time to prospect.

Home > News > Selling is About Listening, Not Presenting

Selling is About Listening, Not Presenting

Are your salespeople out giving lots of presentations but closing very little business? Do they think, “People love me, I have a great PowerPoint, I am ready, willing and able to present my product anytime.” Is that what it takes?

Selling should always be more about asking and listening than about telling. Continuous coaching from sales managers is needed in this area. Your salespeople love the products and services they sell and are very knowledgeable about them. Of course they want to go out and tell everyone. Steady, consistent sales come when we learn about our customers, their goals, their problems and their vision for growth and then determine if there is a fit between that and our product and service. The only way to do that is by listening. Salespeople need to be masters at asking the right questions and listening to the answers.

Tips for determining if your solution will fit the customer:

1. Be sure you are talking to all of the people who will be involved in the decision.

2. Prepare your questions in advance so you can give your full attention to the person speaking, not to wondering what you will say next.

3. Take notes. This is important for many reasons; you won’t have to interrupt the speaker, you can remember the answers and jot down how your solution would help, you can prepare for follow-up questions, you can summarize at the end and you can use your notes to prepare your presentation.

4. Interject only briefly and if relevant with a clarification question or with a feature or benefit that fits something the speaker mentioned.

5. Most people love to talk about themselves and their company. Allow them to do that and ask good questions to keep them on track so you get the information you need.

So if salespeople are asking and listening instead of telling and presenting how does the prospect learn about the solution?

The solution should be interwoven into the conversation as appropriate.

For example you ask, “How has your company solved this problem in the past?” The answer is “We have never really found a solution.” Is this an invitation for the salesperson to dive in with their product information? No. More questions need to be asked like, “What have you tried?” and after the answer, “Why didn’t that work?” The answers will help determine if your solution is a good fit. At that point a follow up might be, “It sounds like you need a solution that will be easy to use and doesn’t need constant monitoring, is that right?” Depending on the answer, reveal some information about how your solution might work in that case. Then move on to ask more questions to get the rest of the information needed.

After all these questions, at some point the prospect will want to know about your solution. Is this the time to get out the PowerPoint and start presenting? No. First make sure all of your questions have been answered and let them know that you will come back with a solution to fit their needs (Much of the time, preliminary questions can be asked over the phone, especially when many people need to be reached prior to a presentation and they are not available to meet in person or all at the same time).

At this point the salesperson should go back to the office with the answers to all of the questions and create a customized presentation pulling from whatever good “generic” presentation your company already has.

As a sales manager, this would be a good time to provide some coaching. Be sure the salesperson understands the prospect’s problem thoroughly. One or two slides will be needed for each feature or benefit that speaks directly to the solutions they need. There may be lots of other fantastic features and benefits, but don’t let them be tempted to throw them in. They can always have extra materials ready if needed.

Have the salesperson practice the presentation. This may cause a bit of grumbling but this type of selling shortens the sales cycle because it keeps the sale moving forward or ends it quickly so time is not wasted. Salespeople appreciate that. They need to practice the balance between presenting and asking questions about what has been presented before moving on to the next idea.

At the beginning of the presentation there should be a brief review of the things learned at the last meeting, letting the prospects know that each will be covered. Start by describing their situation and the current need that led them to contact your company. Take their needs one at a time and match something from your solution that solves each. If there is an area you can’t address properly, let them know that your solution won’t cover that but that you have thought of some alternative ways to handle that. At each point along the way check in with the customer by asking a question.

A salesperson may react by saying, “Now wait a minute, I finally get a chance to present and you are telling me to ask more questions!” That’s right. When you present a solution you need to check in with the prospect to determine if that works for them and if they have any questions about it. Often when people hear ideas fed back to them it helps them clarify even further and develop new thoughts and directions. This may happen during your presentation and you will learn even more about your potential customer. You can address these things as they arise even though they may not be in your presentation. And good thing that you can because that may be the decision point and you won’t need to go through the rest of your slides.

Does this scare you? It shouldn’t. Salespeople waste so much time chasing customers that aren’t going to buy. I like to know as quickly as possible whether there is a fit between the need and my product so I can determine where to spend my time. People appreciate when you help them figure out that your product is or isn’t a good fit for their particular problem. It builds trust and loyalty that will lead you to future business with them or with someone they will refer you to because of your honesty.

Very rarely these days are purchasing decisions made by one person. None of the above will help if the salesperson is talking to one person only or the wrong people. Salespeople need to be coached to find multiple people at each organization who will be interested in their solution. Questions need to be asked of all of them individually or in a group setting. Presentations need to be made when all of the decision makers can be present. This speeds up the sales cycle. Making the best presentation in the world to the wrong people rarely leads to a sale. Coach your salespeople to find all of the decision makers, take time to ask questions, listen, and tailor their presentations to their audience. Good presentations engage the audience and encourage them to participate.

The rules of PowerPoint

1. You do the talking, not the slides.

2. Short bulleted ideas only, your words fill in the details.

3. The slides should be very easy to read quickly.

4. The prospect should never have to squint to read the slides. Use a large font size.

5. Make sure the background doesn’t distract the reader from the content.

6. Graphs, charts and photos should illustrate main points as much as possible.

Home > News > Prospecting Without Cold Calling

Prospecting Without Cold Calling

In this article we will look at the reasons that most salespeople do not like to prospect. OK, there are always a few who do. When I am doing a sales training and ask, “How many of you love to prospect?” A few hands always go up, but the majority are willing to admit that they don’t like it and don’t make time for it.

Many salespeople equate prospecting with cold calling, and because of that, associate it with rejection. Some salespeople think it is beneath them; they are closers. Prospecting for many salespeople amounts to taking a list of names, picking up the phone and trying to reach the person on the list. If they do, they start their pitch. Typically the person on the other end says, “Not interested,” and the call ends. The salesperson runs through the list this way calling 20 – 50 people and hoping to get a few appointments. Hope is not a strategy.

So how do we get salespeople to like prospecting? If they like it, they will do it. Right? For most, if prospecting equals cold calling they will never like it.

If they’re not going to cold call just how are they going to generate leads? Here are a few ideas.

Prospecting in their current customer base.

There is never an easier sale than selling an existing product to a satisfied customer. Salespeople should be in touch with their customers to uncover needs. They need to keep in touch with all of the key people at each of their accounts. Salespeople should ask themselves, “Do I have a systematic plan to keep in touch with my customers?” If not, make one and put reminders on the calendar. Keep in touch by phone, visits, attending industry meetings, mail or email. Use notes, letters and emails to thank them for their business, ask if they need to reorder, introduce new products, follow up, or invite them to an event.

Consistently asking for referrals.

Everyone loves referrals, but how often are you actually getting them? If you keep your customers satisfied they should be a walking advertisement for your company.

If they’re not satisfied, do everything in your power to change that. It’s very easy to ask a satisfied customer for a referral, but most salespeople don’t do it consistently. Get in the habit and watch your revenue soar. Here are some tips: In person, by letter, by email or on the phone, thank them for their business and tell them that you are growing your business and looking for more great customers like them. Ask if they’d introduce you to someone they know that would be a potential customer. If they don’t know anyone to refer you to, ask them if you could use them as a reference or if they would give you a quote to use. Make a plan to ask every satisfied customer you have for a referral.

Networking.

Get out to the organizational meetings that your prospects attend, but just being there isn’t enough. You need to develop a networking strategy. Here are some tips:

Figure out the best places to meet your ideal prospects. This may mean that you have to experiment a bit and that you may have to “think outside the box.” Our best clients are not always where we think they are.

Dress for success. Wear something comfortable that makes you feel like a million bucks. Don’t overlook this important detail.

Attend new events with a member who will introduce you. If you don’t know any members, call the president of the organization and let him know that you’d like to attend as someone’s guest. Call that person in advance and ask her to introduce you to the members at the event.

Make it a point to meet all of the people in the room that you don’t know. Don’t forget to say “hi” to those you do. If you bring a guest, it gives you a reason to talk to everyone as you do all of the introductions.

Have plenty of business cards with you. Should I have to mention this? The answer is yes. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been at networking events and asked someone for their card and can’t believe my ears when they say, “I didn’t bring any,“or “I am out.” Make conversation by asking questions about their business. Don’t pitch your product. Don’t even mention your product unless you are asked. If asked, talk about the benefits of your product and possibly tell a short success story. Rehearse, not so that it sounds scripted, so that it sounds great.

Be prepared with a great answer to “What do you do?”

Be sure to ask for the type of business you want.

If you say, “Let’s get together for coffee or lunch,” then make that happen. It shouldn’t be something you just say to make conversation. You can call or email after the event to set it up.

Follow up. Send an email or snail mail stating that it was nice to see them or to meet them, whichever the case may be, and enclose your business card.

Do not add them to your mailing list unless they specifically request that you do. There’s nothing worse than a salesperson who collects cards at a networking event and then adds them all to his mailing list. These tips should keep you busy for a while. Look for tips on building a prospecting campaign in my next article.

Home > News > Making a Good Hire

Making a Good Hire

It seems like every client I have currently is trying to find qualified salespeople as well as hang on to the good ones they have.

At first glance it seems as if those would be pretty easy tasks. Hiring is simple enough. Prepare a job description, write an ad, screen resumes, interview, hire. Unfortunately it is not so.

Several factors are making this more difficult than ever before. In Reno and across the nation we have very low unemployment. That means that there are not a lot of people looking for jobs. Roger Herman in his book, The Impending Crisis: Too Many Jobs, Too Few People, tells us that economists predict that by 2010 there will be too few people to fill the open positions in the U.S. Although some criticize his work, there is already truth to this in many fields such as nursing, accounting and sales. In Reno, these shortages are already happening. Besides my own clients, I get requests almost daily from companies who are looking for salespeople.

You’re not the person I hired

So how do you find good salespeople in a market like this? There are several things you can do and the first is read You’re Not the Person I Hired by Boydell, Deutsch and Remillard. I highly recommend it. It is a great how-to guide, and there are so many things covered that most of us don’t think about. After reading it, I confirmed my feeling that the vast majority of you should find a professional recruiting agency to do the work. I know that many companies believe they can’t afford this but I have learned over the past 10 years that it almost always costs more to try and recruit and hire on your own unless you have an inside recruiter and plenty of HR people to help. A bad hire can cost you big dollars, but worse, it may hurt your reputation.

Knowing that despite my urging many of you will hire salespeople without assistance, I am going to give you my best tips on how to improve your hiring process.

Right ad draws right people

Job description – Recruiting starts with an excellent job description and performance standards. Once everyone agrees on those the job ad can be written.

Job ad – A well written ad will attract the right kind of people. The authors of You’re Not the Person I Hired have a great example in the book. The job ad should be about the person, not your company. It should describe the attributes the ideal candidate will have. It should entice high performers to send you their resumes.

Ad placement – This is crucial. The best-written job ad will do nothing for you if the right people don’t see it. The first thing I recommend is to send the ad out to everyone in your company. Someone who is already an employee may be interested. Then ask them to refer anyone they know who is interested. Ask them to send it to colleagues, family and friends in the local area. EDAWN does a great job of this and they find excellent people. Post the ad in Career Builders and on Monster.com and then get creative. Find other job posting sites within your industry. Be sure the ad is posted on your own website.

Resume screening – This is the toughest part but if you have a solid job description and placed a good ad you should have some good resumes. It is easy to look good on paper; it is also easy to look bad.

Immediately eliminate any resumes that are sloppy or have errors. Next start looking for results not job duties. Does the candidate state the results achieved at previous jobs? Does the candidate have the needed education and skills? Has the candidate been in similar work situations? Is the language used positive and engaging?

Look at as many resumes as you can. It is not always possible but I recommend that you find at least three candidates before you start the interview process. This gives those involved in the interview process some means of comparison. Do what you can to get several at the same time because candidates won’t wait weeks to see if you are interested, someone else will snap them up. A good job ad properly placed should bring you a good amount of resumes to choose from.

Prepare questions – You would do well to consult an expert here. All of the questions should be planned in advance and address the requirements in the job description and ad. Behavioral interviewing is the way to go. According to Quintessential Careers (http://www.quintcareers.com) “The premise behind behavioral interviewing is that the most accurate predictor of future performance is past performance in similar situations. Behavioral interviewing, in fact, is said to be 55% predictive of future on-the-job behavior, while traditional interviewing is only 10% predictive.”

There is a lot of information in books on hiring and on the internet. QuintessentialCareers.com is one I have used. It has some good examples of behavioral-based interview questions and other resources. There is also good information in You’re Not the Person I Hired.

Questions are the answer

It is important to plan all of the questions in advance. You should plan appropriate questions for each interview. The first interview on the phone serves as another screening, so questions that will screen the candidate in or out should be asked. The second interview may be face-to-face, one-to-one or with a team. Everyone involved in the interview should be prepared to ask questions. There should be questions about past situations and performance that will indicate the candidate’s future success as well as questions to determine the character of the candidate. A third interview may be necessary and more questions that will reveal the character and potential of the candidate should be asked. It may be helpful to ask some of the same questions during the different interview sessions to see if the candidate answers consistently.

In order to be successful in comparing candidates the same questions should be asked to each. Another thing to consider is that when you have several members of your organization participate you need to make sure each knows what role to play during the interview and what questions to ask. Determine that in advance and do a run through so that everyone is comfortable. It is important that the person who will manage the new hire and some of the people who will work with the new hire be involved in a team interview.

Home > News > Interviewing, Hiring Top Sales Candidates

Interviewing, Hiring Top Sales Candidates

In my last article I discussed some ways to be sure you find high quality candidates. Again, I can’t stress enough that there are many agencies out there that are experts in hiring that you can consult or engage. Making a good hire is critical; making a bad one is costly. Most small to mid-size companies don’t have the necessary resources to do effective hiring on their own and I have seen many very costly mistakes. Whether hiring salespeople on your own or using an agency the interviews are critical. Here are some of the things I have learned that will help you make a good hire. Plan a series of interviews Phone interview: The first interview should be on the phone. Explain your interview process to the candidate. Ask if they have looked at your website and what they know about your company and the product they will sell. If they say nothing or they know very little and you are still interested ask them to learn about your company and get back to you, but typically that is the end of the interview with me. Use a standard set of questions to screen all aspects of job-related fit. For example, one of my clients has a non-negotiable requirement. The candidate must be able to handle a 200-pound piece of equipment that they will have to take in and out of a van and push into doctor’s offices in order to do a demo. So questions need to be designed to careful screen this ability without discriminating. Questions about credit, references, why they are looking for a job, current income — anything that will screen them in or out should be asked here and marked on some type of rating scale. This interview could be done by someone in HR or an administrative assistant to save time. It is not something a sales manager should be doing. The purpose of this interview is to see who will continue on with the process. First face-to-face interview: Check out the obvious — manners, dress, attitude, posture. I recommend starting with a tour of your office and facilities. Make introductions to people who might work with the candidate. Make the candidate feel at ease so they will be able to give their best performance. Watch to see how the candidate interacts with people and note the type of questions asked. If the interview goes well, some companies schedule the candidate to shadow a successful salesperson. This can be done for several hours or a whole day. At the end of that time you can meet again to answer questions. This can be very enlightening for both you and the candidate. I’ll never forget the time I interviewed for a sales position with Minute Maid. It was the frozen juice division. I was very interested in the job until I shadowed a salesperson. I had to get up at 4 in the morning to meet the salesperson in time for her route. Her job included resetting juice in the frozen section of grocery stores. Try sticking your hands in the freezer for an hour at 4:30 or 5 a.m. I wasn’t interested in the job after a morning of shadowing. That worked out best for me and Minute Maid. One of my favorite things to do when interviewing is to ask the candidate to come up with ideas for selling the product or service. I am looking for a few creative ideas. I also ask how they will generate leads and how long it will take for them to become the top salesperson. I love to hear the answer to that question. Second face-to-face interview: This can be team or one-to-one. If appropriate, I recommend taking the candidate out for a meal. I do this for a couple of reasons. First it gets them out into a different setting and I can watch the reactions. It provides a different setting for conversation. If the team goes to lunch you can watch to see how the candidate interacts with each person. Second, most sales jobs require meeting customers for meals. I want to be sure they have the manners and business etiquette required. I want to be sure they can handle eating and holding a conversation at the same time. References and checks Check, check and check! I can’t tell you how many problems I have heard about simply because references were not checked. You read about senior executives who didn’t really have degrees from universities or who lied about prior jobs or reasons for termination and yet references still go unchecked. Hiring the wrong person is a very expensive mistake. It is worth someone taking the time to check references. Someone at your company must be responsible for doing this. • Personal – check at least three references. • Professional – minimum three employers. The best case is to check with two co-workers, two people who managed the individual and, if you are hiring a manager, two people who worked for the candidate. Ask tough questions such as how the candidate handles pressure. Ask about an incident with a customer that the candidate handled well. Ask about one handled poorly. What would the reference say are the strengths of the candidate? What are the weaknesses? How would the reference describe the candidate’s personality? Look for consistency in answers from those who talk about the candidate. There are professionals who do nothing but check references and if you use a professional recruiter they may do this for you but be sure they are checking in all of the areas and with multiple people. There are websites you can use to do financial and background checks. It is important to note that you need to get permission from the candidate to run these checks. I often ask, “Is there anything you would like to tell me before I run these checks?” There can also be legal ramifications. It is important to check with your HR department or your employment law attorney to be sure that you do all of this correctly. Here are some areas you will want to check. • Education • Background – Criminal and DMV • Financial Personality and performance survey I urge all companies to do some type of testing and assessment before hiring. It is important to be sure that simple things like computer skills are verified. If you require salespeople to input information into any type of sales force automation tool, then typing proficiently is a must. Can they write a letter or email to a client that is acceptable? Do they know how to use e-mail? If they don’t know these things then you better be willing to teach them or not hire them. How quickly does this person learn? What is the personality type of the successful salespeople at your company? Does this person match? There are many different types of assessments to help you determine these things, find one that is suitable for your company. Making the offer Be sure that you have everything ready to go before making the offer. Read chapter 13 in “You’re Not the Person I Hired.” The authors say, “Never make an offer unless you are absolutely sure it will be accepted.” Once accepted you should have everything in place to provide a smooth transition and training period. Don’t wait until after they accept to have everything in place. So, now that you have hired them how will you train them and retain them? My next two articles will look at new hire training, ongoing training and how to retain the best salespeople.

Home > News > How to Gain Advantage in a Down Market

How to Gain Advantage in a Down Market

Everyone is complaining about the market. Things are bad; the worst I’ve seen. Business is slow, yet all of my clients are doing well. They will survive this market and come out strong on the other end. What are they doing? How can your company compete and gain the advantage in this market?

Here is a peek:

Extraordinary customer service
Consistently asking for referrals
Refining processes to become more efficient
Consistently coaching salespeople
Keeping salespeople focused on selling by reassigning non-revenue generating activities
Releasing salespeople with bad attitudes and poor sales results
Hiring the great salespeople that have come available in this market
Staying focused on the positive
Telling success stories
Finding the good news in the industry and sharing it with customers

Be the best you can be. Are you giving your customers extraordinary customer service? Not sure? Ask them. Your best source of business is always more business from your existing customers. If they are happy they continue to buy, and if they are really happy they tell everyone they know. Turn your customers into walking advertisements by giving them extraordinary customer service.

Capitalize on happy customers. Do your salespeople consistently ask for referrals? I can answer that for you: if they ask, it is less than 10 percent of the time. Why wouldn’t they ask for a referral? Most likely because the customer is not completely satisfied and they are nervous about asking. The other most likely reason is because they don’t think about doing it. Now more than ever, they need to get in the habit. Satisfied customers usually will give a referral when asked.

If things have slowed down a bit at your company it is a good time to clean house. Go through your processes and do what you can to refine them. You can hire an outside consultant, but I will bet you have all the knowledge you need in your workforce. Do a brainstorming session. Ask them how processes can be improved, ask them to help make the needed changes, and reward them for doing it.

Are your sales managers really coaching your salespeople or are they busy doing reports, putting out fires, attending meetings and selling because sales are down? Sales managers need to spend 80 percent of their time coaching their salespeople to close business. If they are doing anything else you are missing out on revenue.

Are your salespeople focused on sales? How much time are your salespeople spending in your office doing paperwork or following up to see that orders are processed and delivered? Your salespeople need time to be in front of their customers learning about their goals and needs, and doing what they can to meet those. They need to increase the number of customer visits each week. They need to increase the number of prospects they see each week. How can they do that if they are sitting in the office doing paperwork?

Tired of the poor results some of your salespeople are getting? If you are coaching them properly, giving them time to sell, and their results are still poor, it is time to cut them loose, especially if they have a bad attitude. I can’t tell you how many times I ask clients, “Why do you keep this salesperson?” I get a wide variety of excuses, but when it comes right down to it, they know they should have let the person go months ago. Not only is the salesperson doing a bad job, but the “ick” being spread by the bad attitude is upsetting other employees. Get rid of the ick!

Why would you hire in a down market? To get a fantastic salesperson you might otherwise not be able to get. Don’t be hasty though, do a very thorough job. You don’t want to hire another company’s problem. I caution you to use a professional when hiring salespeople.

Focus is powerful. Get your whole company focused on the positive. Positive words need to come from everywhere in an organization. If you don’t like the situation work hard to improve it. If you can’t, get out. Positive words need to flow freely throughout a company. Everyone should be quick to recognize a job well done. Senior level management needs to show appreciation for work well done. In fact, senior level managers would do well to write at least one note a week to someone in their organization, especially those who report to them. All employees should be encouraged to speak up when they see something good happening. We are so quick to jump on the things people do wrong, why not be quicker to jump on the things they do right? Salespeople, especially, love appreciation. They hear complaints all too often about how all they do is take people to golf and lunch. Every sale should be cause for a celebration.

Success stories should abound in your company, they are everywhere. Some examples include success that employees have with projects, success with difficult situations, sales success and customer success. It is hard to have a lot of grumbling and complaining when you are telling success stories. And why not focus on success? It is well known that we get what we focus on. I would rather have success than failure, so it always bewilders me when companies are focused on what is wrong with their operation rather than what is right. Of course we have to continuously improve, but focus on what is being done right. Share that, do more of it, and gently correct the things that need to be corrected, without bludgeoning anyone. If they need to be bludgeoned, they probably shouldn’t be working there!

Doom and gloom doesn’t usually put people in a buying mood. All of the media attention on what is going wrong affects the economy in and of itself. There is plenty of good news in your industry to share. Find it and share it with your customers. Help them understand what is happening in your industry and dispel rumors. Be sure and combat the bad news with the good news. This means you will need to read your industry journals and keep up with the media. Salespeople can ask for success stories to share when they are out visiting customers.

Stop complaining about the economy, the market, your industry, and slow business and start making the changes needed to increase your sales.

Home > News > How Much Are You Leaving on the Table

How Much Are You Leaving on the Table

Ever wonder just how much your salespeople are leaving on the table? Are all of your customers buying all of the products and services they could be? Are you getting all of their orders or are some going to the competition? Are you getting repeat orders? How many customers do you lose each year? As a sales manager or senior executive of a company I would want to know the answers to these questions.

Almost every company I work with has a gold mine waiting in its existing customer base. There are a few exceptions to this but they are rare. One of the first things I do when companies tell me they want their salespeople to go out and find new customers is ask them those questions about their existing customer base.

The easiest way to increase business is by getting more business from your existing customer base. The second is through referrals from your satisfied customers (so they all should be satisfied, right?). The third is through networking and the hardest is prospecting for new customers from a list and cold calling. So why do the hardest thing first? Selling should be easy, so let’s stop making it hard. Get those salespeople to go out and sell to the customers that know and love you.

Gather your salespeople and do the following:

Take a look at your customer list.
Mark the ones who haven’t purchased anything in the last year.
Mark the ones who only buy one of your products or services regularly but could buy others.
Plan a strategy to go out and get all the money you are leaving on the table. Who’s on the current customer list? Should they all be there or should some be removed because they went out of business, moved away or are not an ideal customer? Clean up the list.

Now with a clean list follow these steps:

1. Look at the customers who haven’t purchased in a year or more and develop a campaign. You can use phone calls, e-mails, visits or mail to reach them. Decide which contact method to use based on their potential to purchase, not on their current purchases. Phone calls are a great way to start. Here is an example of what my clients in the Boston area are doing.

They started without cleaning the list and had approximately 700 customers to call. The inside salesperson called each customer. She cleaned the list as she went because on every call she asked if their information was still correct. It took about three weeks for her to get through them all and maintain her current work. Here is what she said once she got the right person on the phone, “Hi, this is Judy calling from The Audio Company. We installed your Direct TV. I am calling to find out how that is working? Is all of the equipment functioning properly? Is there anything that needs to be fixed? Are you interested in having any features added? I am glad it is all working for you. I am updating our database, is the following information correct? I also wanted to mention that our company supplies music for companies like yours. Do you currently have music in your restaurant? (Dependon the answer which was usually, “I didn’t know you offered music”) Would you like Rob to come out and talk to you about that? OK, let’s set up an appointment.“Three of the first ten calls yielded new business.

2. Mark the customers who only buy one of your products or services regularly but could buy others. Again, you can use phone calls, e-mails, visits or mail to reach them. What you want to do is determine the best way to introduce new products. I recommend a visit if that is how you usually sell to them. The best way to introduce items they may not know about or purchase is to determine their needs. A client of mine that sells medical supplies is having their salespeople do the following:

The sales manager called a meeting and asked for each salesperson to identify 10 of his or her best customers. He then asked them to analyze their purchases. He asked the salespersons to identify one to five other products they thought these 10 customers could use. The next step was to have the salespeople develop questions they could ask their customers to determine if they did indeed need those products. The next step was to determine the right buyer to talk with and then they planned the questions they would ask. They made appointments, went in and asked the questions and almost all of the visits resulted in the sale of a product the customer was not currently purchasing.

Here is another example from a software company that works with all of their customers via phone:

“Hi, this is Janelle calling from Super Tech Inc. I am making customer satisfaction calls today and I am calling to find out how our software is working for you. (If they don’t tell you then ask ...) How is it working for you personally? How is it working for others? Have you had any complaints? Is there anything you wish it could do that it doesn’t? What are your plans for growth in the next year? Will this software still suit your needs then? (If not, delve into that.) Please be sure and call me if you have any questions about the software or if you are getting complaints. Do you have my phone number? While I am at it let me verify all of your information. It sounds like our software is meeting your needs. I have another idea for your company. Does your company have a need to protect data? What types of data do you need to protect? Who are you using currently to help you do this? Is that working for you? Does it fit your budget? Is there something in particular you would like in regards to data protection? Oh, well Super Tech Inc. provides a great solution that will handle the things we just discussed. Would you like a demonstration of the security software? Is now a good time or should we take out our calendars? Thanks so much for using our software; we are delighted to have you as our customer.”

All of this will decrease the number of customers you lose each year simply because you are keeping in touch with them but also because you are interested in their business and their needs,not just what you can sell to them. Remember, selling is all about problemsolving. If your customer has a problem or a need and your products and services can fill that in a cost effective way, you will most likely get the sale. Stay focused on what you can do for your current customers to help them attain their goals. Now that doesn’t mean we never go out and look for new customers, but that is for another day. And don’t forget, while you are at it, get referrals from the customers you call on that are satisfied. They all know other companies that could use your products and services.

Home > News > Hiring Key to a Good Sales Staff

Hiring Key to a Good Sales Staff

“Why won’t my salespeople prospect? All they ever do is complain that they don’t have enough leads.” In the first article of this series we looked at what can be one of the main contributors to this lament: marketing. Salespeople always want leads from marketing. When they don’t get them, the war between sales and marketing ensues. As I said in the last article, management should expect good marketing to produce good leads for salespeople. If not, something needs to change. I believe that generating leads is also part of a salesperson’s job. Consequently, another major contributor to the lack of finding quality leads is not hiring the right salespeople.

Prospecting skills are different than other selling skills. When managers hire salespeople they often look for someone who has a history of meeting or exceeding quota, a good closer. After hiring a heavy hitter, many managers scratch their heads wondering why this heavy hitter is sitting around waiting for leads.

What are the potential causes for this? It may not have been revealed in the interview that leads were provided to this candidate at her previous job. Prospecting needs vary from company to company. Some companies have more leads than they can follow up on so salespeople never have to prospect. Others require serious prospecting. How can you determine a candidate’s prospecting skills during an interview?

Hiring good salespeople is not that easy. Most companies have a hiring process, however, hiring salespeople is a multifaceted task and they don’t have a good process in place to do this.

A salesperson leaves or the company is growing and suddenly you are in desperate need of a new salesperson. Desperate need is not a good way to hire anyone. Even if hiring is not done in desperation, the process used is usually not adequate. How many of you have actually been taught how to hire a good salesperson? Anyone? By show of hands, don’t be shy. Vice presidents of sales and sales managers usually aren’t sent to a course on how to hire. Too bad; it would save companies hundreds of thousands of dollars. Oh, yes they have a human resources department to help them, but are the HR people sent to a class on how to hire a good salesperson?

First you have to determine what you are looking for. How can you spot success? How do you know that this candidate can sell? How do you know she will be successful at prospecting? There are some very simple things that can be done. For example, assessing presentation skills. In most cases salespeople are asked to do presentations for potential customers, so why not have the candidate give a sales presentation as part of the hiring process? You will have to determine what defines a good presentation. Lots of PowerPoint slides and a good pitch? Wrong answer. You are looking for a salesperson who is customer focused, therefore, a few slides and a few good questions would keep a candidate in the running in my book. Can you assess their prospecting skills in a similar fashion? Give the candidate a list of companies and ask them to return a plan for prospecting the list. The answer should contain certain elements. One of the important elements is how many attempts they will make at each company on the list.

Howard Stevens, CEO of The HR Challey Group, states, “Managers who identify these ‘failure points’ and build them into the selection process can reduce hiring mistakes by as much as 25%. In most sales situations, for example, the average prospect buys from a new salesperson only after six contacts. The average unsuccessful salesperson gives up after three contacts. While that salesperson’s techniques may be adequate, the tendency to give up after three rejections was never uncovered or evaluated.” (Selling Power, Smart Hiring, How to Avoid the Nine Most Common Sales Hiring Errors, Volume 18, number 7, page 23).

Before making the final decision, have the candidate tag along with one of your successful salespeople. Years ago, I interviewed for a position at Coca Cola for their Minute Maid® division. They decided to hire me and asked me to ride with a sales rep before I made my decision. Arrangements were made and the sales rep said, “I’ll pick you up at four o’clock.” Surprised, I asked, “Isn’t that awfully late to get started?” She laughed, “A.M.” Our first stop that dark morning was a grocery store that was part of a large chain. Job one was to reset the frozen juice case. I knew that job wasn’t for me long before we had finished. I think my hands are still frozen.

Avoid this huge hiring faux pas: Neglecting to properly check references. Too simple? Then how do some people get away with misrepresenting themselves on their resumes? We have all read the headlines about CEOs who didn’t really have a Harvard degree or doctors who never finished medical school. How does that happen? Didn’t anyone check their references? Sad to say that someone probably did. Poor reference checking is rampant, who has time? We tend to go more by the “oh, she seems so nice” or “he is a great guy.” It never hurts to have good information. Calling three hand-picked references supplied by the applicant is just not enough.

What to do?

Establish a process for hiring.
Brainstorm with those you work with to gather ideas.
Have your salespeople make a list of the things that make them successful.
Take a look at the difference between high performers and low performers. Make checklists based on successful and unsuccessful behaviors.
Check references. Call at least three people who worked for the candidate, two to four who worked with him and two or three who he reported to. If you have talked to eight to ten people you will have a much better picture of the candidate. You could even call a few of the candidate’s customers (if you can get that information from the candidate).
Prepare good questions for those reference checks in advance. Ask things like, “How did the candidate react in situations with tight deadlines? When under stress, what behaviors does the candidate exhibit? What are the qualities that you feel make the candidate a good salesperson?” This may not be easy as confidentiality and other issues limit what employers can say, but give it a try anyway.
Ask candidates to demonstrate their knowledge and skills, not just tell about it.
Prior to hiring, have the candidates ride with or listen in on a successful salesperson.
Do a trial period with strict guidelines. Many candidates will self-select themselves right out of that process. Any salesperson worth her weight will agree because she knows she will be successful.

Home > News > Handling Objections: Its Really Not All About the Price

Handling Objections: Its Really Not All About the Price

How often do your salespeople come back to you and say they lost the deal because of price? How often do your salespeople lower the price of your product or service to close a deal? It is important to determine the percentage of time that price is the issue, and if it is more than 20 percent of the time your salespeople may need more training. Price is only one type of objection. Prospects will have objections about timing, features, service, shipping and a myriad of other things. Objections are a natural part of the sales process. When the salesperson and the customer are taking the steps to move forward in the sales process it is natural that objections will arise.

Sometimes people are just not interested but don’t know how to say no or they really can’t afford it and don’t want you to know that. Learning to handle objections is important so that salespeople don’t spend time with prospects who are not going to buy.

What are objections? They are a signal that the customer is interested but not ready to buy. Objections usually arise because either you or the prospect doesn’t have a full understanding of something important. People want to feel good about their purchases, business or personal. They want to be sure they made the right decision. So sometimes an objection is really the prospect saying,“Tell me why your product is so great so I can feel good about my purchase.”

Most objections are legitimate and should be treated that way. Many salespeople talk about having to overcome objections. I always use the term “handle” instead. If I have an objection I don’t want to be “overcome.” I want to know how you will handle that objection and make sure the purchase is a good fit for me or my company. As a prospect, this will tell me a lot about how you will respond in the future if I become a customer.

A Process for Handling Objections

Listen – listen carefully to the objection. Listen with your eyes and ears. What words are they using? What is the tone of voice? What body language do you see?
Confirm – your understanding of the objection. Ask questions to clarify.
Answer – with the appropriate solution. What is it that your company can offer to handle this objection or is it a situation where you don’t have a solution and should point the prospect elsewhere?
Ask – if that covers their objection. Once you have provided a solution be sure that it is acceptable to the prospect by asking.
Move on – to the next steps. Don’t over sell the solution. If you have handled the objection, take the next step to move the sale forward.

Objections usually fall into one of four categories: price, timing, product or something the prospect will not disclose to you. The fourth is something like, “My brother sells the same product and I need three quotes but I am going to buy from him.” Or “I don’t like you, but I am not going to tell you that so I will throw out some other objections.”

Your salespeople know all of the common objections so I suggest doing the following exercise with them.

1. Have them make a list of the objections they commonly hear.

2. Have them write several solutions that are appropriate for those objections. These must be things that the company approves.

3. Have your salespeople craft questions that will help them understand the objections. Here’s an example of how this works:

Objection: The price is too high.

Possible solutions: Provide financing, develop a payment plan, explain the return on investment, help them work it into the next budget, discuss the value.

Possible questions: What have you discovered in comparing our product to the competition? How much were you planning on spending? What is your budget for this purchase? Would financing make the purchase possible? What features and benefits would make the price work for you? Handling objections is something you need to review with your salespeople frequently. New objections come up, but typically your salespeople hear the same objections and can help each other with good solutions to handle those. It is good to do the above workshop several times a year and then remind them of the process for handling objections above, right.

Handling objections is something that should be easy for salespeople to do. Objections are a natural part of the sales process. In fact, if I don’t get any objections when I am selling I get a bit worried. I would rather handle objections before I close a sale than after because I never want a buyer to have “buyer’s remorse.”

Home > News > Goal-Based Selling Motivates Salespeople

Goal-Based Selling Motivates Salespeople

As sales managers we are always searching for ways to motivate our sales force. We want to motivate those salespeople to go just a bit farther. We want them to exceed their quota, not just reach it. We need to determine if our salespeople are engaged in their work. It is critical to know because it is impossible to motivate someone who is not engaged in his or her work. In fact, most of us know that it is impossible to truly motivate someone else because real, long-lasting motivation comes from within. Knowing that, it is vital for sales managers to find out what motivates each and every one of our salespeople.

Contest crash

Several years ago I was working with a company that sold anti-virus computer software. Most of their sales reps sold over the phone, making outbound calls to potential customers. The sales manager wanted to really push the team and decided to have a contest. He decided the prize would be a Skidoo jet ski. He was so excited. He announced the contest to his team and thought, “This will really motivate them.” This company happened to be right outside of Chicago, which we all know is near Lake Michigan so this might seem like a good idea.

However, if you have ever lived near Lake Michigan you know that the water is very cold and that there is a very short season for doing any activity on the lake. Aside from that, only a small number of people are really in the market for a jet ski. Unfortunately, there was only one salesperson who really wanted the Skidoo and that person worked like crazy while the other 20 or so people just kept doing what they had been doing. I think that sales manager is still wondering what went wrong with his motivation plan.

Ask what motivates them

External motivation is great. Cheering your team on is great. Words of appreciation work very well, but again that is all coming from you. If you want to motivate your salespeople, you have to ask them what motivates them. Have your salespeople write down the answers to the following questions: How much money do you make annually right now? How much they would you like to make and by when? What numbers signify the gap? At your current rate of pay and commission what it will take to close the gap? Be specific.

How will you keep track of your progress? (Make it visual.) What will you do if you are not on track to hit your goal? What will you do with all the money you make? What motivates you? (Make it visual.) I frequently do this with sales teams when I am doing sales consulting and training. Here is one recent example. I make $60,000 per year. I would like to make $100,000 per year by January 1, 2006. The gap is $40,000. At my current rate of pay, I would need to sell four more systems per month. (Don’t let them stop here; if they do they will never hit their goal.) In order to sell four more systems per month I need to do more prospecting. Four more systems per month equals 48 more per year. To make this easier I will also need to get referrals from my current customers. I will make a chart with the number of systems I sell each week. I will ask for coaching from my sales manager, I will be sure I am asking for referrals from my satisfied cust omers. I will put half the money in my retirement account and the other half into fixing up my house. Right now those are the things that will motivate me to sell more. My visual will be a graphic that signifies saving money for retirement and photos of the part of my house I want to fix up. (Don’t let them stop there.) I will bring those in and hang them in my work area so that I can see them everyday.

Identify the motivator

Is the $40,000 the motivator? Or is it the growing retirement account and fixing the house? Now you know something personal that motivates this salesperson and that you can cheer this salesperson on to achieve.

You need to do this exercise at least once a year because most of your salespeople will achieve their goals and will have new ones to set their sights on. Along with having your salespeople verbalize and visualize what motivates them you may also want to ask them for suggestions on what type of sales contests would motivate them and for ideas to inspire the entire team. Consistently recognizing your salespeople for things they do well along with some of your undivided attention periodically will help you learn what is working well for them and in what areas they need some coaching. Engaged, motivated salespeople are the ones who most often exceed their quotas.

Home > News > Give Bad Customers a Pink Slip

Give Bad Customers a Pink Slip

Most of us will agree that not all business is good business. We all aspire to have customers we love and who love us. They pay their bills on time.

They have appropriate expectations of our products and services. They consider us a partner and take our advice. They place large orders frequently. If you were to make a list of your customers right now and sort them into categories: Great, Good, Not So Good, and Troublesome, what would your list look like? Which column would have the longest list?

Knowing that all business is not good business, why do we persist?

We all have troublesome customers who take up much more of our time and energy than our other customers. However, we continue to spend an inordinate amount of time on their demands and continue to get aggravated at them (and try not to show it) when what we should do is fire them. In fact, we should give all of their contact information to our competitor and then coach our competitor on how to win their business. OK, so we won’t go that far. We have many excuses for not firing our customers. I mean, after all, they are paying their bills ...or are they? They only call five times a day now when they used to call 10 times. They just placed another order; however the discount they demanded will prevent us from making our margin.

Just imagine if you could fire your most troublesome customers and then use the time you were spending on them to nurture and grow your good and great customers. You could even use the time to go out and find new customers.

Win-win behavior is the crux of all good business, and anything else is very wearing. Most of your customers want to have win-win relationships with their vendors. Some may not know they are troublesome. Clearly explaining your concerns will very likely facilitate adjustments. Most of your customers do not want to see you go out of business, and if you explain that, like them, you need to make a certain margin on your sales, they may be more understanding of the price you are charging. Certainly the managers may not know that five calls a day from their staff to your office is too many. Maybe they could suggest to their staff that they list their questions and call once a day. There may be some problem you are unaware of which could be easily fixed. Communicating with them may help solve their problem, inadvertently solving yours.

Sounds great, but how do you do it?

Step 1: Make a list of the customers you would like to fire.

Step 2: Next to each customer write down what they would have to do to move from your “want to fire list” to your “great customer” list.

Step 3: Figure out a way to communicate this information to the appropriate people at that company.

Step 4: Check with your manager to be sure your plan meets approval.

Step 5: Schedule a meeting with the appropriate people clearly stating that the purpose of the meeting is to improve your relationship and the service you provide.

Step 6: Communicate your concerns one at a time and ask your customer to help you come up with solutions. If you come up with solutions that are mutually agreed upon, get it in writing and be sure it is communicated to the proper channels. Now move this customer to your ‘Good’ or ‘Great’ customer list. If not, go to Step 7.

Step 7: If the customer doesn’t see your concerns as a problem and is not willing to make any changes, end the conversation by saying something like, “We appreciate your past business and are very sorry we will not be able to work together in the future. This is the last order we will complete and we wish you much success” and “Here is my competitors business card.”– just kidding. Now you know how to do it, what are you afraid of? Why aren’t you going to run right out and fire some customers? Afraid of losing your job? Afraid your manager will think you are crazy? Afraid your sales numbers will drop?

Obviously I can’t recommend firing customers at the risk of losing your job. But do consider this: Losing a job is better than losing your mind. Only you know whether it would be worth it or not.

If you mention firing some of your customers and your manager thinks you are crazy, give her this article and then schedule a meeting to discuss your current customers, quota and growth initiatives. Make the ‘Great’ through ‘Troublesome’ lists together. Determine a plan for each customer who ends up in the ‘Not So Good’ and ‘Troublesome’ columns.

If you are afraid your sales numbers will drop, remember you could have the time you take away from a troublesome customer to grow a ‘Good’ or ‘Great’ customer or find a new customer. Also, remember that your ‘Troublesome’ customer may turn into a ‘Great’ one with win-win communication. Just be sure you have a good plan to approach each customer on the ‘Not So Good’ and ‘Troublesome’ lists. You may be pleasantly surprised; those customers may move over into the ‘Good’ or ‘Great’ column when you communicate your concerns clearly. And if they don’t, fire them!

Home > News > Generating Leads Without Creating Conflict

Generating Leads Without Creating Conflict

“Why won’t my salespeople prospect? All they do is complain that we never give them enough leads.”

This is a very common complaint from sales managers in almost every industry. The fact is that although some salespeople are not expected to prospect, the vast majority must do so in some form to reach their sales quotas.

Much of the problem comes from a lack of understanding of exactly what is meant by the word,“prospecting.” Most believe it means,“to generate leads.” If that is true where does prospecting belong in an organization — sales or marketing? This age-old management territory debate is easy to understand when one looks at some basic definitions.

According to Webster’s: marketing: the process or technique of promoting, selling, and distributing a pro~ duct or service sales: operations and activities involved in promoting and selling goods or services The word “prospecting” is not directly defined by Webster’s but leads you to the word “explore” thus the following definition. prospecting: to make or conduct a systematic search prospect: a potential customer, client or purchaser

Based on those definitions it is easy to understand the controversy: is sales part of marketing or is marketing part of sales? Further, if a prospect is a potential customer, client or purchaser and prospecting means to make or conduct a systematic search then prospecting absolutely cannot equal cold calling.

Many things contribute to the “never enough leads” problem. In this article we will explore the contributors and solve the first of these issues. You can look forward to solutions for the others in my upcoming articles.

One of the main contributors to this problem can be marketing. No, this is not an attempt to bash marketing departments. Still, this simple question should be answered, “What are you doing to generate leads for the sales team?” Management should expect good marketing to produce good leads for salespeople. If not, something needs to change.

The rest of the problems reside in sales and sales management. Here are some of things that contribute:

Prospecting skills are different than other selling skills. When managers hire salespeople they often look for someone who has a history of meeting or exceeding quota, a good closer. After hiring a heavy hitter, many managers scratch their heads wondering why this heavy hitter is sitting around waiting for leads.

Most salespeople do not like to prospect. Many equate prospecting with cold calling and associate it with rejection. This is very unfortunate. According to my definition cold calling isn’t even a type of prospecting

Many salespeople do not know how to prospect. Neither do their managers, especially if prospecting is not synonymous with cold calling. It is hard to manage something you are not good at yourself. There are a variety of ways to prospect; remember, cold calling is not one of them.

Salespeople don’t balance their time well. Because most salespeople like prospecting the least of all their duties, they leave it until last and don’t give it the attention it deserves. Prospecting is not a good thing to do when you are tired or frustrated, and it is too important to be left for last. Once salespeople understand how to really prospect they will enjoy it and it will rise to the top of the list.

Salespeople are not directly rewarded for prospecting. There is no instant gratification like there is with solving a customer’s problem or closing business. People do what you pay them to do and most salespeople are compensated to close business.

Several years ago I was working with a start-up company in San Francisco that sold web-based training to human resource departments of very large companies. The sales department was told to generate its own leads, so the vice president of sales told the salespeople to prospect. The salespeople asked for some marketing material and without consulting the salespeople, marketing came up with a complex marketing piece that cost about $20 per piece to print and about $3 to mail. The marketing people were delighted with the finished product and felt they had done excellent work. The salespeople were very disappointed. The piece was so long and complicated that the salespeople didn’t use it. Boxes of brochures were found sitting around and collecting dust. The marketing team bad-mouthed the sales team for not using the beautiful marketing materials. The sales team thought marketing produced a worthless sales tool. The result to the company, besides a huge waste of money, was another wedge driven between sales and marketing. It was a mess and I had my work cut out for me, but I made it work and so can you.

Here are some ideas:

1. The people in charge of sales and marketing need to communicate their expectations and develop a plan together to coordinate both department’s efforts. If this is not possible, the CEO does not have the right people in place.

2. To build rapport between the people in the two departments, team-building exercises are a great way to start. These can be done inhouse or outsourced.

3. Senior sales and marketing management must communicate the expectations to the two department teams, mandating that they will now work as a team and support each other.

4. Brainstorming sessions must be held to develop sales messages to use on the website and in marketing materials. Consistency in the company’s messages to its customers and potential customers is essential.

5. Measurements must be put into place. If Marketing is charged with generating leads for Sales, then Sales should let Marketing know how that is working. 6. Marketing should not be the sole source for lead generation. Salespeople need to participate in other prospecting activities. Trade shows, networking in professional organizations, getting referrals from satisfied customers and selling more or other products to existing customers need structured plans for salespeople to implement. Future articles in this series will discuss these tasks.

Marketing and sales departments cannot be at war. They must work together and work as a seamless team. The senior executives must expect constant communication and collaboration.

Home > News > Your Follow-up Falls Short

Your Follow-up Falls Short

It seems like a lot of people have trouble with selling not because they’re not doing the selling part right, but because they don’t follow-up.

I teach networking to many people, and most of my clients need to know how to network. I continuously hear that they go to all these events and they don’t get any business from them. I’ll then ask them, “What do you do at these events?” and “What do you say?” I can get most people to understand they should ask questions instead of walking up and trying to sell their product or service to someone. I can help them understand what to say in 30 seconds that helps people understand what they do. I can even help them ask for what they want. But it seems like the biggest problem is follow up. What do I do after the event?

I think it’s important to really take a look at what your follow-up process is. I think making networking events profitable and making them generate revenue for you is truly dependent on what you do before, during and after the event. Not so much during the event, but before and after. For every event, it’s important to think about what it is you want to accomplish at that event. Who is your audience? Who’s going to be there? What kinds of questions will you ask to these people? What is the message you want to give them and what is it that you want to ask for? What are the kinds of things that are going to get them excited? For example, if you sell IT services, and you go to the Nevada Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology meeting, those people are going to understand IT technology kinds of issues really well. So you can probably say something technical about IT services. But if you’re going to go to a Commercial Real Estate Women meeting and talk about IT services, what you’re looking for is women with small businesses who need to outsource their computer needs. You may not even want to use the word IT because some may not know what it is. So you have to think before you go: What is the message, who is your audience and what message do you want to deliver to them? Be specific in what you want. For example: “I’m looking for companies with five to ten employees who have their computers on a network and would like to stop wasting their time on computer problems by having someone outsource their IT and do preventative maintenance.” Getting set up ahead of time and being ready for your audience and what you’re going to say is really critical. Once you’re there, executing beautifully is important as well. Making sure you’re asking good questions. Making sure you’re moving and meeting a lot of people. Those kinds of things are probably easier, but if you meet a lot of great people, collect their business cards, go home and put those business cards in a stack and leave them there, then nothing’s going to happen. People need the opportunity to know what you do and you need to provide them that opportunity in such a way that gives them information.

Once you’ve left the networking event, take those business cards you’ve collected and enter them into your system. So let’s back up for a moment to what you did before the event. Since the event is obviously on your calendar, you also needed to schedule follow-up time on your calendar so you would have follow-up time blocked off in the 24-48 hours after the event because after that, you’ve basically missed your chance. Sort the business cards. There are ones that don’t seem like somebody that will do business with you or refer business to you, and they have nothing you need. It’s OK to throw those away. Just throw them out and get rid of them. Don’t bother entering them into your database. Now take the cards that are left that are the people you want to meet. Enter them into whatever database you have. Hopefully you’ve written notes on those cards to remind you who they are, what they do and what you talked about. Put all the information into your database. In the notes section, put the date of the event and what the event was so later you’ll know where you met them. Also put in the notes anything you talked about that was important or interesting, and any information you promised to give them or follow-up that you promised to do. Then follow-up with an email, a phone call, a letter, something interesting to them - possibly an article. The letter can be something like this:

Dear Katherine,

It was a pleasure to meet you at the Get Connected event. It sounds like your business is growing and you have lots of things on your plate. I’d love to learn more about your business and any way that I can be of help to you. I will call you to follow-up and schedule an appointment.

Do this within three days of sending out the letter. Then if you do call someone and they don’t get back to you immediately — say, three days — you may think the person never called back because they don’t like you. It’s not true. They’re busy, and you’re not their top priority. They probably even feel bad that they never called you back. So give them another opportunity. Call them again and leave a voicemail:

Hey, sorry we’ve been trying to connect and I missed you again. I would love to connect with you. Let’s get together. I’ll look forward to talking to you soon.

Then three more days go by and you still haven’t heard from them. I’d say give them one more try. Give them another phone call and if you reach them great, if not, leave another message:

So sorry we’ve been having trouble connecting. I know from our conversation you must be really busy with your business growing. I have some ideas I’d like to share with you about how to make that process easier. Give me a call if you’d like to get together. I look forward to that.

If they don’t call you after that, that’s fine. You could put their e-mail into your list and send them a note in a couple of months Or if they were interested, put them on your newsletter list. Make sure you continue to stay in front of them so when they do need something, they think of you. Please be sure in those newsletters that you’re “giving” something and that it’s a short, easy read because when sending a newsletter as part of the follow-up, you really only get one chance. If they read it and there’s nothing there that they’re interested in they are probably not going to open one again or they’re going to ask to get off the list. So really be sure you give them something they can use, and follow-up, follow-up, follow-up.

Home > News > Differentiating Yourself

Differentiating Yourself

Are you selling marketing services, insurance, real estate, financial services, printing, web design, telephone systems, office products, staffing, internet access? How do you stand out in a crowd? With so much competition these days, how are you acquiring new customers and retaining the ones you have? The key is to build relationships, understand, educate, help them choose the best solution and then continue to serve and educate.

In order to differentiate yourself, you have to figure out how you are different from others who sell the same thing and then position yourself that way. So you have to know why people buy from you. Why do people buy from you anyway? You need to know what the reasons are so that you can capitalize on them. Salespeople often have a long list of product features and benefits that differentiate their products. Unfortunately, none of these may be the reason that people actually buy from them. There are usually only two or three key reasons and those reasons are unique to each customer. Find those reasons.

Know why people buy from you, don’t guess. Ask your customers. They can tell you exactly why they chose you over the competition and why they stay. Typically it has a lot to do with you, the relationship you build and the education and service you provide. Since few companies have truly unique products and services, the way to stand out is by understanding the customer and serving their needs.

Once you know why people buy, find more people like them. Target your market. Don’t try to sell to everyone. Find the group that you can relate to, are most knowledgeable about and most comfortable with. This will make selling much easier. Specialize in the product or service that best serves your target market and lead with that. Trying to sell everything to everybody will not help you stand out from the crowd.

Many salespeople bombard prospects with information. Instead, stand out by asking good questions and learning about their needs. Then match the features and benefits of your product with their needs. You will move the sale forward much faster this way and learn more quickly when it is not a good fit before too much time is spent on either side.

If things are moving forward, educate. Remember your job is to help the customer make a good decision on the best solution, which may be yours. Chances are the prospect needs more education on your industry and possible solutions in general. Find sources of information and experts on the topic to help them learn. Your job is to help them make the best possible decision, even if that excludes your product or service.

Know your competition. Who do you compete with? What are their prices? What are their strengths and weaknesses? Do they offer something you don’t? How is their customer service and follow up? Although you want to say as little as possible about your competition and never want to bash them in anyway, you need to be prepared to answer questions from prospective customers. Sometimes the truth is that you have nothing over the competition as far as features, benefits or price but, you can match them and you know the prospect’s industry, understand their needs and are focused on helping them reach their goals. The truth is that sometimes people make their final decision based on the fact that they like you, but don’t take advantage of that. If you are not the best solution to their problem this could backfire on you. Imagine telling someone that your solution is not the best for them and referring them to someone that can provide what they need. The credibility you build will last a long time.

If after educating the prospect your solution is still the best, then follow up and deliver what was promised. Be persistent but don’t be a pest. If you have several competitors, the ones who don’t follow up will be gone. I can’t tell you the amount of business that is lost for lack of follow up. Standing out in the crowd means having excellent follow up. If you are afraid to follow up because you are not sure if the prospect is still interested, then ask. Perhaps they are just busy or need to communicate a different way.

Communicating in their preferred method is another way to standout. If you can’t reach them by phone, ask how they prefer to be contacted. Build great relationships, ask great questions, know your competition, be prepared to educate, follow up and you will find yourself standing out from the crowd.

Home > News > Developing Your Sales Staff

Developing Your Sales Staff

Developing your salespeople is an ongoing process. Unfortunately, many sales managers think their job is done once they have hired and trained someone. After that, they expect performance. They spend time managing and measuring their team members and reporting progress to senior management. They get upset when team members are not hitting their goals, and they have talks with them about their performance and do their best to figure out how to motivate them. Typically this does not work and is frustrating to all involved.

Sales managers with the best sales forces know that salespeople need ongoing coaching to be their best. It is your job to develop your salespeople. To get the desired results you have to spend 80 percent of your time coaching your salespeople. The job of the chief executive officer, vice president of sales or owner is to make sure this can happen.

If you want a team of successful salespeople you have to have a good development plan. In order to make a good development plan you have to know what they are doing, not just from them telling you but from seeing it yourself. There is no way around it: Sales managers have to spend time listening to and watching their salespeople. Otherwise you will be guessing about the reason for success or failure of these people. You won’t know what they need to do to improve or what to encourage and appreciate so they keep doing it.

Here are some keys to successfully developing your salespeople:

Hire right: As Mac Anderson says, “You Can’t Send a Duck to Eagle School.”

New-hire training: Provide excellent new-hire training, give them the product, sales and company culture training they need.

Development plans: Make an annual development plan for each salesperson with their input.

Ongoing training: Provide excellent ongoing sales and product training; don’t assume they don’t need it, shouldn’t need it or that they should know how to do their job.

One-to-one meetings: Hold one-toone meetings with a set agenda on a regular basis. A chat won’t do it.

Coaching: Spend 80 percent of your time coaching, listening and watching their behavior directly, then ask questions and make a plan.

Encourage and appreciate: Most employees do not feel appreciated by their boss and therefore may not do their best.

Fire right: We are always too quick to hire and too slow to fire. Mac Anderson wrote about one of the best lessons he’s learned in his book, “You Can’t Send a Duck to Eagle School”.

“You can’t teach someone to want to serve; you can’t teach people to smile; you can’t teach personality but you can hire someone with those qualities and teach them your product and your culture.”

Hire people you can develop. Look for desire to learn, great attitude, ability to solve problems, intelligence, initiative and confidence. Anyone with these characteristics who wants to work for your company can learn to sell and learn your product. If you hire otherwise, you may have difficulty developing the individual to meet and exceed goals.

When you’re training new hires, don’t stop at product knowledge. Make sure you review sales skills and teach the culture of your company. We are always in such a hurry to get people started selling that we do ourselves and them an injustice. Rushing salespeople into the field can create many problems down the road that can be difficult to deal with. Later development depends on initial training. Give the salesperson a chance to learn the importance of each department. Have them visit with and shadow employees who will directly work with sales. Be sure they meet people they will interface with at other locations, if possible, or at least introduce them by a conference call and make sure they have each other’s photos. Assign them a mentor. It is easier to develop people who are well grounded in your company culture and have relationships with their colleagues.

Every year each salesperson should have input into a development plan. Start by asking what they plan to do this year to improve in their field. Ask what help they need and then tell them a few areas you would like to see improvement in. Make a plan that includes shadowing others in their field, learning more about the competition, reading industry journals, reading books and magazines about sales, attending product and sales training, trying new things, receiving coaching from you and learning new computer skills to enhance their ability to serve customers. Plan individual and group sales and product training for your team. No one learns it all on the first go-round. There is some training that your team should do together every year to help them develop. Information that all of them need, things they all need to review, projects they can do together, team building and sharing sales ideas. There are some things that only individuals need that can be provided one-on-one or by outside training groups. Attending these trainings should be part of the development plans.

Scheduled one-to-one meetings also are a must. Having an agenda keeps you on track and on time with your meetings, which is good for everyone involved. Be sure the agendas have an item to review the development plans. Always develop an action plan with dates and review actions and their completion at each meeting.

Spend 80 percent of your time coaching. Are you wondering how you are going to do that with your current workload? You are going to have to manage your own time very well and talk to your boss to make this a reality. You need to have the time to listen to your salespeople during every step of the sales process. If you have inside salespeople this is easier. The ideal ratio of salespeople to sales managers is 10:1. In this case you need to find time to spend several hours with each salesperson every month. This is on top of the one-to-one meetings. Is it possible? Let’s do the math.

If you meet with each salesperson one-to-one for one hour every two weeks, that uses 10 hours. Then add 30 minutes for prep and follow up for those meetings and that adds five hours. That is only 15 hours out of the 80 in a two-week period (assuming a 40-hour work week – ha!). So you should have plenty of time. If you spend 80 percent of your time in a two-week period coaching that means you have 64 hours for coaching. You just used 15 hours so you have 49 left to split between 10 people. That’s 4.9 hours each every two weeks.

That is not much time but I will guarantee it is probably more than you are spending now. Of course life gets in the way and you may have more than 10 salespeople but it will be worth every minute of time you spend because your salespeople will become more successful.

Changing behavior is not easy even when people want to do it. If we don’t receive any feedback or positive results we will have little motivation to continue to change. Development is change. You are asking your salespeople to learn and continuously improve. Why would they do that if they can keep their job and get the same pay and not do it? Why would they do it if no one seems to care whether they do or not? Encourage your salespeople to work on their development. Appreciate their effort and appreciate their change in behavior even more. They will start reaping the rewards when their results increase, but the fact that you appreciate their effort may mean even more. As we all know, people don’t usually leave their job, they leave their boss. Most people leave their job for another job that is similar in hopes of finding a boss that will appreciate them.

If you do all of the above and the salesperson still does not perform, then it is time to make a bigger change. Firing someone should never be a surprise. If someone can’t do their job, it is frustrating for them and everyone around them. If you made a good hiring decision, the initial training was good, you helped them plan and execute their development plan, you coached, encouraged and appreciated them and you reviewed their progress in biweekly one-to-one meetings and they still can’t do the job, then they need to be coached out of that position. Everyone wants to succeed and feel good. Help them find a place where they can do that at your company or at another.

Home > News > Compensation, Prospecting Linked

Compensation, Prospecting Linked

“Why won’t my salespeople prospect? All they ever do is complain that they don’t have enough leads.”

It is well known that people will do what you pay them to do. That is why as managers we must be very careful to be sure we are asking for the right behaviors.

I was working with a client in San Francisco several years back. They had sales representatives on the phone prospecting. The sales manager was puzzled as to why he was not seeing better results. I asked him several questions and then I went to observe the sales reps. The sales reps seemed to be on the phone and busy. As I observed more closely I started to understand the problem. The measurement for how the sales reps were compensated was by number of dials and entries into the database. So what they were doing was dialing the phone as many times as they could and not worrying about reaching anyone. They would enter the info into the database and move on. What the manager wanted them to do was talk to people and find out if they were interested in the product and get them to make an appointmant with the salesperson. The salespeople were all complaining that they weren’t getting any leads. Seems way too obvious, doesn’t it?

What was needed was a clear understanding of the desired behavior and a way to measure it. The sales manager wanted the sales reps to contact people and make appointments. This did require dialing the phone and entering data, but that was only a small part. The sales reps needed to be measured based on how many appointments were actually set. I added one more piece which was the quality of the lead. If they set an appointment with someone more likely to buy they would be further rewarded with a bonus on any lead that turned into business. Not only did they start setting many more appointments, they took the time to qualify the prospect.

I worked with the sales management team to put new measures in place. Then we retrained the sales reps. This is a very important step. We made sure that everyone understood how they would be measured. We monitored very closely for the first week, making sure to be very encouraging. We praised and rewarded those that quickly changed their behavior. At the end of the first week we met with all of the sales reps and asked them to tell us what was working and what was not. Those who had been more successful shared their ideas with the others. We worked through all the questions and suggestions and then started on the next week with a fun contest that lasted a month. This helped to motivate those who had not changed their behavior as quickly during the first week. At the end of the month we evaluated the progress against the measures put into place. We again checked in with the sales reps to find out what was working and what wasn’t. At that point we asked what additional training they would like and provided that. After about six months everyone was either on board and doing well or had decided to leave on their own to find a more suitable career.

Another company I worked with wondered why the salespeople were not bringing in more new customers. It didn’t seem to matter how many times this topic came up at sales meetings, nothing changed. Remember: People will do what you pay them to do. I interviewed the salespeople and had the manager gather information. I listened carefully and then took a look at the compensation plan. There it was in black and white. The salespeople were being paid a much higher commission to maintain and grow existing customers. There was not much incentive for them to prospect, on top of the fact that marketing was not generating leads for them. Prospecting is hard work if you don’t know how to make it easy, so the salespeople spent the majority of their time with their existing customers. I brought this to the attention of the management team and worked with them to create a list of what it was they wanted their salespeople to do. Then we went down the list and discussed the percent of time that should be allotted and compensation for each. We then took this draft to the salespeople and asked them for feedback. They all liked the work we had done but several were very concerned about having to prospect (because they were equating it with cold calling). We worked through this and discussed ways to prospect without cold calling. There were two that were still very reluctant so we made a special plan to help them. One of them finally left the company because he didn’t want to prospect. He only wanted to manage his accounts. Since this company required both, he decided to leave which was the best for everyone. Keeping this in mind, it is important to have these lists ready when hiring so that the candidates have a very clear understanding of what the job entails and how they will be compensated.

If salespeople are not directly rewarded for prospecting most of them won’t do it. For most salespeople there is no instant gratification in prospecting like there is with solving a current or prospective customer’s problem or closing business. Remember that it takes an average of six contacts before someone will buy and most salespeople give up after three. Don’t let prospecting be the most neglected part of selling at your organization. Keep these things in mind:

Prospecting skills are different than other selling skills. When managers hire salespeople they often look for someone who has a history of meeting or exceeding quota, a good closer. After hiring a heavy hitter, many managers scratch their heads wondering why this heavy hitter is sitting around waiting for leads. • Most salespeople do not like to prospect.
Many equate prospecting with cold calling and associate it with rejection. This is very unfortunate. According to my definition cold calling isn’t even a type of prospecting.
Many salespeople do not know how to prospect. Neither do their managers, especially if prospecting is not synonymous with cold calling. It is hard to manage something you are not good at yourself. There are a variety of ways to prospect; remember, cold calling is not one of them.
Salespeople don’t balance their time well. Since most salespeople like prospecting the least of all their duties, they leave it until last and don’t give it the attention it deserves. Prospecting is not a good thing to do when you are tired, frustrated, and it is too important to be left for last. Once salespeople understand how to really prospect they will enjoy it and it will rise to the top of the list.
People do what you pay them to do, so make sure that your salespeople are compensated to for the things you really want them to do.

Home > News > Coaching Can Change Sales Culture

Coaching Can Change Sales Culture

No matter what industry you are in, generating revenue profitably is likely the most important aspect of your company. With that in mind, the most important job for sales managers is to coach salespeople to close business. Unfortunately, most sales managers can only spend about 20 percent of their time doing that. If companies want more business, they need to make sure managers have time to coach their salespeople to close business.

So why don’t they? It might be that they don’t know how to coach or closing has not been set as a priority. But most likely they just don’t have the time. Every chief executive in America should change their sales culture to make certain sales managers can spend 80 percent of their time coaching their salespeople to close business.

If your company wants more sales, the quickest way to achieve them is to focus on sales.

To determine what is preventing a manager from having time to coach, have them log everything they do on a daily basis for a business week and decide what percentage of that time is spent coaching salespeople to close business. Then, determine what percentage of time was spent doing other things; particularly noting tasks that don’t generate revenue. (Hint - that is nearly everything else unless the sales manager is also responsible for selling.)

Most sales managers spend 80 percent or more of their time doing work that doesn’t generate revenue. So what are they doing with their time? They are doing paperwork, writing reports, e-mail, attending meetings, putting out fires along with many other things. Instead of proactively managing salespeople, managers are doing a long list of other things required by senior management.

Have you ever wondered why a salesperson doesn’t hit his quota? There could be many reasons, but it may be because no one is coaching him to do so. Just as every tennis player needs a good coach to win tournaments, every salesperson needs a good coach to win sales. They might have plenty of potential, but with no coaching, they can’t win. Who is coaching your salespeople? I believe that salespeople can and should be coached to improve performance and increase their success.

What can be done to change this situation? First and foremost, senior executives need to understand and believe that sales managers should focus their attention on coaching salespeople. Next, the senior executives need to make it possible for the sales managers to focus on their salespeople. Then the sales managers need to be trained to focus their attention on coaching salespeople. Why? Because managers may not have been afforded the time to coach and might not have the know-how. Sales managers need to learn to be successful coaches.

What does a coach do? Let’s take an example straight from sports. A football coach takes his team to victory one game at a time. He sets the strategy and then helps his players understand how to execute that strategy. A coach never plays the game, but he will demonstrate proper techniques. When a player is performing poorly, he gives him a pep talk. When the game is over, he helps the team analyze the results so it can continue doing what the team did right and learn from the mistakes. The coach is constantly providing training experiences that improve the players. He keeps the players and team motivated.

Coaching salespeople is no different. A manager helps his salespeople reach their quota one sale at a time. The manager sets the strategy for the territory and helps the salespeople execute that strategy. He never does the selling work for them, but demonstrates sales techniques when needed. If a salesperson is having a tough time, he gives that person a pep talk. Whether a salesperson loses or wins a sale, the manager helps him analyze the results. The manager constantly provides training in the area that the salesperson needs improvement and keeps his sales team motivated.

In order to do this successfully, a company must have one manager for every 10 salespeople. Sales managers need to be taught to be good coaches and also need to be rewarded for coaching to success. Every ten salespeople should be able to pay for the “coach” ten times over if the “coach” is doing the job properly. So, do you want more business? One sure-fire is to make it possible for sales managers to focus on sales.

Home > News > Coaches: Not Just For Athletes Anymore

Coaches: Not Just For Athletes Anymore

Roger Federer dominated professional tennis last year with an amazing record of 92 wins and just five losses. Even with this astounding record, this unbelievable athlete has a coach because he knows he needs help to bag the one title that has eluded him so far in his career—winning the French Open.

Federer’s belief that a coach can help him achieve his long-term goals is exactly the same reason many high-performing Nevada business professionals have hired their own personal coaches. They understand that having someone focused on their personal or professional development helps them achieve their goals and improve their performance.

Both professional and personal coaching involve a recognized process provided by a trained professional to clarify vision and values, set goals, implement strategies for success, resolve challenges as they arise, maintain focus on the tasks, refine personal and professional skills, maintain motivation, and evaluate outcomes. Sounds like a lot of stuff, doesn’t it? But it definitely demonstrates the value a coach can bring.

Deciding you would like to work with a coach to improve your performance is the easy part—finding an appropriate coach is a little more difficult. While the quality of training for coaches varies, there is universal recognition of the importance of training in communications and human behavior as a cornerstone to the profession.

There are some certifications for coaches, but I know many fabulous coaches who are not certified. A good coach knows about skills, structure, support, and how to motivate people to attain their goals. Coaches don’t necessarily need to be experts in any particular field, but they must be adept at helping people stay focused and making things happen.

Effective coaches have experience and wisdom and, most importantly, they are neutral. They just want YOU to succeed and are truly looking out for your best interest.

Here are some steps you can take to find the best coach for you and your situation:

1. Ask people you trust to recommend coaches. Be sure to get several names. You want to find a coach that has a track record of delivering results.

2. Look up the local chapter of professional coaches for a list of certified coaches. (In Nevada, try Nevada Professional Coaches at http://www.nevadacoaches.org/NPCA_Contact.htm.)

3. Interview the coaches and ask the following questions: How long have you been a coach? What kind of training do you have? What makes you a successful coach? What are your fees? How will you measure the results of our work together?

4. Ask for three to five satisfied customers as references and call them. Make sure one of the references has been a client for a year or more and that another has been working with the coach for at least three to six months.

5. Meet with the coaches you have chosen to learn more about their approach and to see if they are a good fit for you.

It’s important that you not only like a coach’s personality, but also the way the coach organizes and communicates. Ask each coach to give you one coaching session so you can experience what it will be like. The first task you and your new coach will undertake is to work out a plan that includes the results you can expect from the coaching. Then, choose a time period in which you will work together, usually about four sessions to start. Be sure to check in at the end of that time period to determine if you are getting what you need.

If you’re dissatisfied or feel the coaching is not working, let the coach know immediately by saying something like, “I don’t feel like I’m getting results from the coaching. I would like to discuss this with you.” The coach should make the needed adjustments or let you know it’s not a good fit and help you find another coach. Finally, understand that following a coach’s advice can become habit forming. You make progress so much more quickly, and success at each level leads to the desire for more coaching to get you to the next level!

Home > News > Coach to Create Top Performers

Coach to Create Top Performers

Manager: “Jay, how did that sales call go?”

Salesperson: “Great!”

Manager: “Did you close the deal?”

Salesperson: “No, but they love me and they want the product.”

Manager: “When will it close?”

Salesperson: “Probably this quarter.”

Sound familiar? What does this sales manager now know about the sales call his salesperson just finished? The answer, not much. Coaching salespeople when they return from a sales call is important business. It needs to be done routinely and consistently. Way too many salespeople “wing it"and others may try to prepare but just really don’t know how to do so effectively.

Successful sales calls have several ingredients:

Pre-call preparation
Execution
Post-call assessment
Follow up on commitments

Salespeople will do a much better job if they know they may be asked for very specific information after a sales call. In fact, having a post-call report format is a good idea, but a quick email or phone call with the right information can tell you exactly where the salesperson stands with that sales objective.

Salespeople should prepare for sales calls. At a minimum they should look at their call notes from the last call, determine how to make the best use of the time, determine their objective, write down the questions they need to have answered to move the sale forward, and determine the action the customer would need to take to move the sale forward. The preparation will improve their execution and help ensure they don’t forget anything. It will also make the customer feel like their time is valued and used wisely.

The post-call assessment is critical to ensuring your salespeople will be top performers. You won’t be able to assess every sales call but intermittently working with salespeople on this is crucial. These post-call assessments can be very quick and painless.

Here are some questions you could ask:

What did you do to prepare for the call?
What was your objective for the call?
What did you do to make good use of the customer’s time?
What questions did you get answered that tell you where the customer is in the sales process?
What are the next steps?
What action did the customer commit to take?
What action did you commit to take?
Did the customer give you a close-date?
What will you do in follow up to this sales call?

Far too often salespeople get way ahead of the customer. As in the conversation at the beginning of this article, they predict a close date based on their quota instead of on the customer’s needs. The end of the quarter comes and the business doesn’t close and many times the salesperson doesn’t understand why. The only way to know when a deal will close is to ask the customer. To avoid missed quotas, managers need to debrief with their salespeople using questions similar to those above. This will help insure that the salesperson is moving along at the same speed as the customer.

Another thing this process will help is overcommitment on the part of the salesperson. Salespeople are quick to promise the world if they think it will close a deal. That is why questions about the actions to which the customer and salesperson committed are so important. By asking those questions you can determine if the commitment of the salesperson is comparable to that of the customer. If it is way beyond it may be a sign that the salesperson doesn’t understand where the customer is in the sales process. If the customer doesn’t commit to do anything to move the sale forward, the salesperson may need to change the strategy.

Managers will have fewer surprises if they make these questions a part of their daily coaching routine. Benefits will be a shorter sales cycle, more efficient selling and better close ratios. In the long run this will lead to more accurate forecasting.

Home > News > Closing The Deal: It Shouldn’t be so Hard

Closing The Deal: It Shouldn’t be so Hard

Sales managers are always asking me to come and teach their salespeople some closing techniques. I’d love to, but the problem is I don’t know any “closing techniques.” Anything you could do to make a prospect buy who doesn’t want to would cause buyers remorse or cancellation anyway.

Closing shouldn’t be hard; it is just another part of the sales cycle. Closing the deal only becomes hard when the prospect is not ready to buy. Sounds simple enough, so why do sales that were supposed to close stall or never close? Why do salespeople think prospects are ready to buy when they are not? How do the salespeople get all the way to the end of the sales cycle with a prospect and not know whether or not the deal will close? It is because the salesperson has moved forward in the sales cycle and the prospect has not.

In these circumstances the salesperson may be thinking: “I’ve done everything I can, given you all the information I have, answered all of your questions and provided for all of your requests. Why won’t you buy now?”

The prospect may be thinking one of the following: “I am not ready to buy, so I don’t know why you expect me to.”

“You have overwhelmed me with information that I now have to explain to the others involved in the purchase and they are all too busy.”

“This was a priority for others in my company, so I rushed to get everything they needed and now it is on the back burner and I don’t know what to tell you.”

“Although I understand your product’s bells and whistles, I still don’t really know if your product is the best solution for my needs.”

“Our priorities have changed and I don’t have time to call you back, or, I feel bad so I don’t want to call and tell you our decision.”

Effective closing starts with getting commitment. Commitments need to be made in each step of the sales cycle by the prospect as well as the salesperson. Typically, salespeople don’t think about getting the prospect to commit until the end at closing time. Salespeople are very good at making commitments and giving information to their prospects. They know everything about the product or service they sell and are enthusiastic to share that knowledge. They feel their solution is the best and of course the prospect should choose it. We want our salespeople to feel this way and the reality is that the prospect may not. We want our salespeople to get good at getting commitments and information from the prospects. This should be easy if the salesperson is seen as a problem solver and not someone who is pushing their product or service whether it fits or not.

When approaching a prospect, salespeople need to start by asking questions to understand the situation and determine if their solution is a good fit. Once they have done that they should share only the information that shows how the product fits and educate the prospect in any areas needed. If the interest continues they should ask for a commitment from the prospect.

Answering questions like the ones below, making introductions, reading or reviewing material for the next conversation, scheduling another meeting or trying a product and rating it are examples of commitments a prospect could make. Sales managers should help salespeople come up with commitments that are appropriate for each step in the sales cycle.

In order to move a sale to the close, good questions need to be asked in the beginning.
Here are some examples:

What is your budget?
Who else besides yourself will be involved in making the decision?
What is the best way to include everyone involved in the decision making process?
What is your timeline for implementation?
What is your timeline for making this decision?
How will our solution meet your needs?
What other solutions have you considered?
When should I get back to you to learn of your decision?

One of my clients who sells audio visual equipment to the hospitality and retail industry was working with a small restaurant chain. They had been talking to the general manager who said he had the decision making authority. They got him all the information he needed and gave him a quote but couldn’t get him to commit to a demonstration which was necessary to close the deal. This took three sales calls and some phone calls and email over a twomonth period. It felt like the sale was moving forward because he asked for a quote and gave every indication that he would buy from them. After he received the quote the salesperson called to review it and the general manager told him he would get back to him. After a week the salesperson tried to follow up and left a message. The general manager didn’t return the call. The salesperson emailed, no reply. Two weeks went by, still no reply. The salesperson was sure this deal was going to close as soon as the quote was received.

When the salesperson described this to me I asked a few questions and then encouraged him to do a little research and then call the general manager with the new information in mind. It turns out that the owner had delegated the decision to the general manager and then decided that he needed to be more involved. This stalled the process and was probably a little embarrassing for the general manager. I helped the salesperson figure out how to make it easy for the general manager to bring the owner up to speed and look like a genius, but it took some time. This could have been avoided if the salesperson had gotten a commitment early on to meet the owner even though he originally was not involved in the decision. If the prospect won’t answer the questions or make any commitments it is a signal that the sale is not moving forward. Either find out why or go work on some prospects that are ready to buy. Follow up with that prospect in a couple of months when things may have changed. And even if they have purchased from someone else, follow up and see how that worked because it may not have. Here are my tips for getting commitment.

1. Develop a relationship with all the people involved in the decision.

2. Ask good questions and listen so you can gather information to understand their needs.

3. Give them the information they need.

4. Ask for commitments at appropriate times.

5. If you can’t get a commitment, this is a signal that the sale is not moving forward and you need to do something different.

Closing the deal is really about getting commitment, and the final commitment is making the purchase.

Home > News > Rethink Employee Roles

Rethink Employee Roles

Have you ever heard someone at a company say, “Oh, no, I am not in sales.” Everyone who comes in contact with the customer has the opportunity to make or break that relationship. That is sales. Every one of your employees should be a walking advertisement for your company. In other words, they should be focused on what ultimately comes down to sales. Why would you want anyone working for you who wasn’t?

What is the single most important thing a CEO can do for sales? Create a culture of sales, one that lives and breathes sales, one that supports every sales effort.

First, everyone needs to be reminded that without sales the company will go out of business and they will be out of a job. Without customers there is no company. That may be a little harsh but it is the reality. If the salespeople don’t have the support they need from marketing, accounting, customer service, manufacturing and elsewhere, it will be difficult for them to do their jobs and unfortunately, they may speak poorly of these other departments for not giving them the support they need. That is never good. If everyone in a company is focused on sales and how what they do affects sales, the culture will begin to change and sales will increase. If sales are already great, then chances are you have a working sales culture. Unfortunately, I usually find that is not the case and if sales are good, they could be even better.

Often I hear employees complaining about the salespeople at their company. They say things like,“All those salespeople do is play golf and take people to dinner.” I think that very few people understand what sales is and what salespeople do. Part of sales is building relationships and golf and dinner can help with that. But that is only part of it. Sales is a lot of hard work; it takes a lot of energy and planning. Salespeople have to be in a good mood, they have to be exceptional listeners and they have to be patient and persistent at the same time. They also often have to battle against negative views that customers may have from problems caused by customer service, accounting or another department in the company. That is another reason everyone has to understand how what they do is related to sales. Repeat business is critical. Every customer touch has to be satisfactory — if not outstanding — so that not only do you retain that customer but that customer becomes a source of referrals. I had this wild idea for hiring the right people, only it is too wild for most. I am going to put it here and you can decide if it is too wild for you or just right.

In hiring for any position some of the questions would be:

In your past positions how have you been involved or interacted with sales?
How would you promote this company to your friends and family?
When networking how would you promote this company?
Take a look at this product.What would be some of your ideas for selling it?
How do you see your role in assisting with sales and interacting with the sales team?

Let’s say you are hiring an accountant. Accountants may not think they know much about sales. But in actuality, selling is collecting and analyzing information so you can solve a problem and so is accounting. However, a bookkeeper, accountant or financial person may not be thinking that way. They may think they know nothing about sales. But what if they did know this and could relate to it? You might find some incredible and unique ideas. Not only that, but by asking those questions you are setting the expectation that they will be doing their job with a focus on sales and that you expect them to represent your company in the community.

I wonder what would happen if all 100 or 1,000 of your employees loved and understood your company so much that they became walking advertisements for it. They were proud to tell people they work for your company and were well-versed in what your company does so they could discuss it. They knew just what your company sold and the target audience for those products and services. What if each employee, each year, brought in just one additional sale because they talked about your company with those they met? Let’s face it. Everyone knows about selling because they buy. They know what sells them on something and they know how they choose what they buy. So in essence they are experts in sales from the buying end. Building a sales culture takes time and focus.

Here are some things to get you started:

Do an employee satisfaction survey and find out what your employees think about your organization, the other departments and sales.
Start hiring with sales in mind. Use the questions above or ask your sales team to give you some questions to use.
Make sure that every employee (even the custodian) understands the mission,vision and goals of your company along with some general understanding of your products and services and who your target audience is. Review all of that information with them annually.
Have volunteers from all departments shadow your salespeople to learn more about sales.
Have your salespeople give your employees a presentation on what they do and how they do it.
Make sure sales and marketing are working together and that marketing is generating leads for sales.
Have employees participate on support teams for sales.
Move towards performance-based pay where employees pay is tied to sales success.
Reward employees for sales leads.
Send employees from all different departments to networking events with your salespeople.

If you already have a great sales culture, remember to appreciate it publicly. Give kudos and rewards to acknowledge it. Building a sales culture will definitely increase your company’s sales. Try one or two ideas and see what happens.

Home > News > Building Your Coaching Skills

Building Your Coaching Skills

Are you a better coach or manager? As a sales manager you are directing, supervising, managing, delegating, appropriating and reporting. While these are important tasks, they may not lead directly to sales. In some of my previous articles we discussed how important it is to coach your salespeople and how little time and training you may actually have to do that. This article will give you some tips on how you can build your coaching skills and spend more time coaching. Let’s start by defining coach.

“A coach is someone who tells you what you don’t want to hear, who has you see what you don’t want to see, so you can be who you have always known you could be.” — Tom Landry

Coaching is an interactive process that helps individuals and organizations develop more rapidly and produce more satisfying results.

Professional coaches are trained to:

Listen and observe
Customize their approach to the individual’s needs
Elicit solutions and strategies from the individual

As a result of coaching, salespeople:

Set better goals
Take more action
Make better decisions
More fully use their natural strengths

Coaches believe that the salesperson is naturally creative and resourceful and that the coach’s job is to provide support to enhance the skills, resources, and creativity that the salesperson already has. While the coach provides feedback and an objective perspective,the salesperson is responsible for taking the steps to produce the results he or she desires. (This is modified from the official ICF — International Coaching Federation — definition.) Are you a better manager or a coach? What types of activities are you engaged in daily?

Coaches:

Help salespeople set goals and then make a plan to reach those goals.
Ask salespeople to stretch more than they would have on their own and give them the encouragement to do so.
Focus salespeople on productivity, not activity, so that they produce results more quickly.
Provide salespeople with tools, support and structure to be efficient and effective.

Many sales managers feel they only have time to tell their salespeople what they want them to do and what they expect. Most sales managers need to have more time to show salespeople and plan with them. This will change behaviors,which will increase results rapidly. Too many times managers assume that salespeople can get the expected results, but in reality they are not sure how.

Let’s say you tell your salespeople to increase their sales by 20 percent. They all agree. The next thing you know several of them have increased sales but the rest of them have not. In fact, sales have decreased for some of them. How can this be?

Most high performers respond to a challenge and have the natural ability to increase sales. The majority of salespeople will try to increase sales but little of their activities will pay off because they are already doing the best they can. The ones that have had a decrease in sales are probably already struggling and demotivated by the expectation to increase sales when they can’t even keep their sales steady.

When you set an expectation to increase sales, your salespeople will benefit from specific instructions on how to do so. Part of this can be done in a sales meeting and the rest in one-on-one coaching. For example, explain at the sales meeting where you expect the increase to come from. It could be that the increase should come from a mix of new business and existing customers. If that is the case explain that they should start with existing customers because the easiest business to get is more business with satisfied customers.

Have each salesperson choose 10 customers with whom they feel they can increase business. Ask them to create a plan for increasing business with each customer. Discuss some of things that will need to be done, like checking on current satisfaction levels, asking questions to learn of needs, educating the customers on ways you can serve them and closing the deal.

Then meet with them one-on-one to determine how they will execute their plan and how that will be measured. Check in with them weekly to see how their plans are working and give them coaching if they are stuck.

Once they feel they have exhausted getting more business from current customers help them make a plan to get new customers. Since the easiest way to get new customers is through referrals, develop a referral process with them that they can all use. Put a timeline in place for implementing the referral process and coach them to stick to it by helping them prioritize their work. Of course, there are many other ways to get new business and they should not be penalized for those, especially if they work, but do reward them when they implement the plan you have coached them on.

Closing is a crucial area where salespeople need coaching. How many of your salespeople have deals that are stuck? What type of coaching do you give them to help them move the sale forward? Each week, provide time as a team or one-on-one to help salespeople close business.

Definitely spend time coaching your less productive salespeople but don’t let them consume you. You will get the most results from coaching your productive salespeople because even the best salespeople get better with coaching. So how will you find the time to do more coaching? Make a list of all the things you do in a week’s time. Then “check”whether they are revenue-generating activities or not.

Weekly Activities

Revenue Generating? Yes No

Now examine what percentage of your time is spent taking actions that do not directly generate revenue.

What percentage of your time do you currently spend coaching your salespeople to close business? What would have to change in order for you to have more time to coach? Many times it is a matter of becoming more productive and doing a better job at time management so that sales managers are more efficient and effective.

If you put coaching on the top of your priority list and schedule time to do it, then it will happen. You also may need to get some help from your boss so that perhaps less important things can be delegated elsewhere. The result will most certainly be more sales. And that should make the changes worth it.

Home > News > Are your Sales People Engaged in Their Work

Are your Sales People Engaged in Their Work

Are your salespeople as efficient as they could be? Are they engaged in their work? Are they looking for another job? What about you? Are you as efficient as you could be? Are you engaged in your work? Are you looking for another job? Before you can get others engaged in their work you need to be engaged in yours. The best way to generate revenue is to have a sales team that is happy where they are and engaged in their work. If they love their jobs, they keep their customers happy, and their customers continue to buy and become great referral sources. Executives agree that people are their most valuable assets yet typically don’t know how their employees feel about their jobs. When the budget gets tight the first things to get cut are training, bonuses and rewards, things that make salespeople more productive. When the budget needs to be cut it is even more important to be sure your employees are engaged and productive. Show them how important they are and motivate them to pull together for the company.

It is the job of the sales manager to know how the salespeople feel about their jobs and to make changes based on that knowledge. It is also the job of the sales manager to be sure the salespeople have on-going development opportunities to learn new ways to approach their jobs and have a means for continuous improvement. Good salespeople always want to be better. Without the learning and without a challenge they may get bored quickly and do less than expected. Why do people leave their jobs?

Harvard Business Review states the following as the top 5 reasons.

Job content
Level of responsibility
Company culture
Caliber of colleagues
Salary

Note that salary is not the first reason. It isn’t even the second reason. It is fifth and it is not the reason most people leave or stay for that matter. Let’s examine these five reasons more closely.

Job content – This is the No.1 reason why people leave. It covers a wide variety of things. It could be that the work is not challenging, the job doesn’t use their strengths, or the work is not interesting. These people may be underutilized or undervalued. If you want to keep people, work with them to make their job more interesting or find other work that is challenging and interesting. Ask them what would make the job content more appealing. A sales manager’s job is to figure how to get the most out of each salesperson. Learning what they enjoy doing and how to best utilize their strengths will go a long way.

Level of responsibility– People like having some responsibility. There are many ways to let salespeople take on additional responsibility in areas of interest. Their first responsibility is their customers. Make sure there is a process in place to allow them the autonomy they need keep their customers happy. This does not mean rampant disregard for the rules. It means that all salespeople know the processes and have the authority to operate within those. There is nothing worse than responsibility with no authority. If you put someone in charge of a project, that person needs to have the authority and the responsibility over that project to make it a success.

Company culture – What is your company culture? Can you explain it? Do your salespeople understand it? Typically departments within an organization each have their own mini culture. Departmental cultures are often misunderstood by other departments. Does your company have a “sales culture”? Does everyone sell? Does everyone understand that without sales they would not have a job? Or are they complaining about the salespeople, making statements that all the salespeople ever do is play golf and take people out to dinner? In order to really build a strong sales culture everyone has to be supportive of sales. The results of this kind of culture shift are amazing.

Caliber of colleagues – This includes you. Personality differences are abundant and people need help learning to work together. Ongoing team building exercises are a must. Sales managers must figure out a way to keep their team cohesive. Salespeople tend to be more independent workers but in this marketplace it is important that they work together also. What are you doing to build your team? And just what do salespeople think of their sales manager’s performance? According to the March 15, 2004 SellingPower.com Sales Management Newsletter:

Your on-the-job performance might not get as high a ranking as you think you deserve — at least not according to your employees. According to a survey of more than 6,000 sales professionals from Charlotte, North Carolina based consultants Sales Performance International, only 17% of respondents reported that their sales manager’s overall performance was superior. Here’s how the rest of the participants rated their managers:

45% said their sales manager was performing satisfactorily
26% gave their manager a fair rank
7% said their manager’s overall performance was poor
5% chose not to answer the question

Keith Eades, CEO of SPI, says the study’s results are a reflection of the job requirements facing managers.“Being an effective sales manager is more demanding than it was 10 years ago,” he says. Even so, it doesn’t look like today’s sales teams are going to cut their managers any slack. We know that poor management can result in high turnover. The obvious corollary is that low turnover is the result of good management. All I can say is “Don’t be the reason your best salespeople leave.”

Salary- Many studies have shown that compensation is usually way down on the list of reasons why good people leave. If the only right thing in a person’s job is the pay received, no amount of money will keep that employee. We all agree that people are likely to stay at their job if they are engaged in their work. How do you find out if your salespeople are engaged in their work? Ask them. The Gallup Organization developed these 12 questions to determine our level of engagement in our work.

1. I know what is expected of me at work.

2. I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work.

3. At work, I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day.

4. In the last seven days, I have received recognition or praise for doing a good job.

5. My supervisor, or someone at work, seems to care about me as a person.

6. There is someone at work who encourages my development.

7. At work my opinion seems to count.

8. The mission or purpose of my company makes me feel my job is important.

9. My associates or fellow employees are committed to doing quality work.

10. I have a best friend at work.

11. In the last six months, someone at work has talked to me about my progress.

12. This last year, I have had opportunities to learn and grow at work..

It is becoming more and more important for companies to retain their best people. According to the authors of “Impending Crisis: Too Many Jobs, Two Few People” by Herman, Olivo & Gioia, by 2010 we will face a labor shortage of 10,033,000 people. In many parts of the country, such as Reno, this is already starting to happen. What will you do to help insure that your salespeople are engaged in their work so that you can retain them?

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The BizTalk Blender™ is a Great Event!! I was able to make many quality contacts directly relevant to my business.

Darrin Maddox, Economic Impact Analysis

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How to Make the Most of Networking Events

Figure out the best places to meet your ideal prospects & get there early.

Set goals for each networking event.

Dress for success.

Attend new events with a member who will introduce you.

If you’ve been the association meetings before, make it a point to meet all of the people in the room that you don’t know.

Have plenty of business cards with you.

When you approach someone, make conversation by asking questions about them and their business.

Be prepared with a great answer to “What do you do?”

Ask for the type of business you want and be specific.

Follow Up.

Learn more about sales & networking:

Business Leaders Spend the Day in Principals’ Shoes

Reno Gazette Journal

Alice Heiman, LLC receives U.S. Chamber of Commerce 2010 Blue Ribbon Small Business Award

Alice Heiman, LLC receives U.S. Chamber of Commerce 2010 Blue Ribbon Small Business Award

Press Release: Alice Heiman Wins Sparks Chamber of Commerce Community Spirit Award

Press Release: Alice Heiman named Marketer of the Year

People You Should Know

Why Is Your New Salesperson Not Selling Anything

When Deals Stick in the Pipeline

Walking Advertisements

Time Management Critical in Sales

Selling is About Listening, Not Presenting

Prospecting Without Cold Calling

Making a Good Hire

Interviewing, Hiring Top Sales Candidates

How to Gain Advantage in a Down Market

How Much Are You Leaving on the Table

Hiring Key to a Good Sales Staff

Handling Objections: Its Really Not All About the Price

Goal-Based Selling Motivates Salespeople

Give Bad Customers a Pink Slip

Generating Leads Without Creating Conflict

Your Follow-up Falls Short

Differentiating Yourself

Developing Your Sales Staff

Compensation, Prospecting Linked

Coaching Can Change Sales Culture

Coaches: Not Just For Athletes Anymore

Coach to Create Top Performers

Closing The Deal: It Shouldn’t be so Hard

Rethink Employee Roles

Building Your Coaching Skills

Are your Sales People Engaged in Their Work

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