Climbing the Value Ladder™ – Part 3
Don’t be disposable – become indispensable (Part 3)
To read this series from the start go to: Climbing the Value Ladder – Part 1
Statistics from AllBusiness.com indicate that eighty percent of new sales are made after the fifth contact, but the majority of sales people give up after the second call.
When your sales people make cold calls, the primary goal of the person on the other side is to get them off the phone as quickly as possible. One of the first thoughts going through a prospect’s mind when they pick up the phone and hear a salesperson on the other side, is: “How long is this going to take?” or “How can I get rid of this person as quickly as possible?
Help your sales team by teaching them how to deliver messages that will move them up the value ladder.
 |
Teach your sales team to find out as much as they possibly can about the company or individual going to cold call in advance. This gives them the advantage of being able to talk to the client about their business and their needs. Understanding the client’s key challenges, pains, and obstacles will help your team to formulate a message that has true value. |
|
During sales meetings, most sales managers ask, What was your biggest success this week? I also encourage you to ask your sales team this question: What was your biggest failure this week? Then, creatively brainstorm how to turn the failure into success. Come up with creative solutions. That’s how they learn to make better sales calls. |
New technology is opening a multitude of creative avenues that can spark immediate interest with your prospects – webinars, text messaging, and personalized gifts. However, a well-directed, thoroughly researched cold call with valuable content will always be a key component of an excellent sales kit and help your sales team to become an indispensable part of your prospect’s business.
Sales Growth Question: How are you helping your team to broaden their vision and look at alternative ways to communicate a value message to your clients and prospects?
Sales Growth Lesson: Explore how to turn failures into successes through creative brainstorming.
© Copyright 2011, Danita Bye Sales Growth Specialists, All Rights Reserved.
Climbing the Value Ladder™ – Part 2
Don’t be disposable – become indispensable (Part 2)
In our previous posting, we established that it’s critical for your sales team to move from a disposable irritation to an indispensable part of your client’s value ladder. However, in order to become indispensable, your sales people may need your help.
No-one likes to fail. It feels good to succeed, but some sales people have perfected doing the wrong thing well. What do I mean?
Let’s say your sales team’s target is to make twenty cold calls in a specific time-frame. They make the calls. Do they get any appointments? No. Do they feel they have failed? No, because they reached their target of making twenty colds calls within the set time-limit. They feel successful because they’ve checked the 20 calls off their ToDo list. So, how can you help them turn this apparent failure into opportunity and success?
Your salesperson only has a few seconds to grab the prospect’s attention. Here are some steps you can share with your sales team to ensure they communicate a message to your prospects that delivers results.
Your sales person can create value by using a client-specific message that makes prospects feel they want to spend time with him. (They believe has a solution for their problem.)
Listen to your salesperson’s pitch. Does it sound as if he is reading from a brochure or has he researched carefully what he’s going to say to the clients/prospects, taking their unique situation into account?
If your team can’t get a strong message to your prospect, they will never get the first meeting. Conduct regular brainstorming sessions with your sales team to explore non-traditional ways of communicating your message.
In our next posting I will give you some more examples of how you can help your sales team to make the most of their sales message.
Sales Growth Question: What are you doing to ensure your sales team understands the importance of the message they deliver to their prospects?
Sales Growth Lesson: Client specific messages that are well researched add value to your sales strategy.
© Copyright 2011, Danita Bye Sales Growth Specialists, All Rights Reserved.
Climbing the Value Ladder™ – Part 1
Don’t be disposable – become indispensable (Part 1)
As a business leader, president or VP of Sales, do you often hear your salespeople say it seems everybody has what they’re trying to sell them? Well, it’s generally true that most people really don’t enjoy talking to a salesperson that’s focused on their own agenda. However, I also know that every person has problems that need fixing. So, your sales staff’s goal is to make sure they are adding value to their prospects and clients lives, becoming their indispensable problem solver.
It’s critical that we teach our sales teams to climb the Value Ladder™.
What does this value ladder look like?
|
STEP ONE – Disposable The prospect/client literally throws in the trash – or sends to the recycle bin – what your salespeople are sending. Either it’s not what they want or need. Or, it’s outdated. |
|
STEP TWO – Usable The prospect/client listens to what your salespeople have to say, and they are mildly interested. They even tell you, Well fine, send me a quote, I’ll take a look at it. |
|
STEP THREE – Valuable Your sales person is doing something for the client that solves a problem very few people can. Your prospect/client isn’t wasting his time with your company’s proposal. In fact, the they believe that you will deliver on your promises. |
|
STEP FOUR – Indispensable You’re salesperson and your company is the only one in the client’s life that can solve the problem. Your team is able to deliver on a consistent basis because of your support system. |
So, if the goal is to go from disposable to Indispensable, how do you lead your team in that process? One of the key components that I have found in my work with growth oriented companies, is that they have formulated a client-specific message prospects want to listen to.
In our next posting, l take a closer look at this message and how it can help you to make more sales.
Sales Growth Question: What can you do to inspire your team to think creatively about adding value to your clients’ sales experience?
Sales Growth Lesson: We need to learn how to become indispensable to our clients, so that we are the first person they call when they have a problem.
© Copyright 2011, Danita Bye Sales Growth Specialists, All Rights Reserved.
How can hiring a sales manager be a growth strategy? (Part 2)
We invite you to complete this Hiring Sales Manager Best Practice Survey. It will take 2-3 minutes to complete. We’ll be interacting with the insights gathered at EcSELL Institute’s next webinar on September 23rd, “When Hiring a Sales Manager, Avoid These 5 Common Mistakes.”
In a recent report, CSO Insights revealed some telling statistics that relate to the sales management function. More than 90% of companies have raised revenue targets – in many cases by over 25%. This requires sales reps to be fully engaged in the extra effort that it will take to make successful sales. It also requires that the VP of Sales from growth-oriented companies know how to hire sales managers that can grow a sales team that will flourish during these economic conditions.
Yet, studies continually show that only 1 in 4 employees of the average company are fully engaged. We would like to think that this malaise doesn’t impact the sales team. However, in many sales teams, a status-quo approach is tolerated. The result? A rollercoaster sales team that rides the ups and downs of the economic and market whims. As the studies indicate, 75% of the sales team is often putting in the time – but with little or no passion or even undermining the positive effort of engaged employees. 
So what does it mean to your company when an employee is fully engaged? At its core, it indicates the level of commitment that your team members have to the success of the organization and how hard they will work in future to take care of customers and revenue production.
As CEO’s and business leaders, you already realize the competitive advantage that a fully engaged employee can bring to your company growth. An Acceleration Team, that’s 100% engaged can take market share. How is an Acceleration Team created? It starts with a strong Sales Manager. Marcus Buckingham in The One Great Thing, concurs. He concludes that the process of guiding individual team members to the top level of engagement is in the hands of the immediate supervisor, the Sales Manager.
Getting your entire sales team to perform at this top level of engagement will require dedicated guidance and motivation from an exceptional Sales Manager. This is one of the reasons why the hiring of the right Sales Manager is so critical to your continued success and future revenue growth. In an ideal skill set, the right Sales Manager should be a motivator, mentor, performance master, recruiter and coach.
Sales Growth Question: Is your sales manager bringing out the best in every team member?
Sales Growth Lesson: Ensure your sales manager has the right skill set combination to inspire financial growth in your company.
We’ll be interacting with the insights gathered at EcSELL Institute’s next webinar on September 23rd, “When Hiring a Sales Manager, Avoid These 5 Common Mistakes.” Hope you can attend. If not, let me know and I’ll share the results to the national survey with you. Or, you might be interested in doing your own analysis of your sales systems, processes and people. Check out Sales-Centric Assessments.
© Copyright 2011, Danita Bye Sales Growth Specialists, All Rights Reserved
Sales Managers Coach & Cultivate Sales Talent
Companies that invest in cultivating their salespeople develop higher performing sales team. That is a key finding of the 2010 Miller Heiman Sales Best Practices Study. In 70 percent of world-class sales organizations, managers spend time coaching the sales staff, versus 18 percent in other sales organizations. Moreover, 94 percent of these leading organizations directly 
engage executives in the sales process, providing further support to the sales team.
In the Leadership Shift, I take this world class approach to developing sales competencies one step further. When performance assessments are used in tangent with sales coaching and training programs, sales performance is boosted even more. Assessments help us to pinpoint performance gaps at each stage of the sales process. The Sales Force Impact Analysis from Objective Management Group, an diagnostic tool I use, provides a comprehensive assessment that sheds light on the unique mix of strengths and weaknesses in each salesperson as well in as in the sales processes and systems.
The days of hiring sales people based on personality assessments alone are behind us. Behavioral assessments that go “wider and deeper” are helping us to decode the Sales Gene (link to ebook) and develop sales people that excel in our unique sales environment. World-class sales organizations are “four times more likely to spend time coaching their teams in behaviors that drive results,” according to the Miller Heiman study.
So, if you haven’t already, download Measuring Sales DNA: Knowing which salesperson will succeed or fail requires an understanding of selling mindsets.
Does your sales training develop the sales motivation to thrive on adversity?
Sales training should develop the sales motivation to take on challenges
Build adversity management into your sales management process
I’m hooked on Wii Fitness Plus and the balance games. As an entrepreneur, I’m particularly competitive as I attempt to navigate the pool balls, despite numerous obstacles, to their sink hole targets. The result? In addition to improving my balance, I’m also exercising my creativity.
So, how does Wii Fitness Plus relate to our challenging leadership and sales management environments?
As business leaders and sales managers, we are navigating new obstacles every day. As we reach an obstacle our fight-or-flight response kicks in. It is tempting to avoid the challenge and place our energy in another market or product area, one in which results are easier to achieve. According to Brain Creativity, if we stay and fight and think up innovative ways to overcome the obstacles we will become more creative. This, in turn, will sharpen our business skills and make us more effective sales people.
Sales leadership today is full of opportunities to choose fight over flight. A sales culture in which the sales team does not take responsibility will lead to a lower sales ROI. A culture of accountability, in contrast, will lead to a high ROI. With the right sales discipline, sales vision and sales direction, your sales team will choose to stay and fight and overcome obstacles. It is this commitment to overcome adversity that leads to high sales performance.
The Sales Lesson: Capitalize on the energy of adversity. When used as sales motivation, big problems are the stepping stones to bigger successes.
The Sales Question: What is your organizational attitude toward adversity in your sales performance? Do you hide from it as long as you can?
Sales Management Coaching – part 3
Coaching Rules for Sales Managers.(18 – 25)
As mentioned in my last post as well as a post last fall, I’ve been coaching a number of sales managers to improve their sales coaching with their sales people. Here are a few more sales coaching rules that I’ve picked up from my friends and colleagues, experts such as Terry Slattery, Steve Montague, and John Condry over the years. I trust that you’ll find these helpful also.
18. There’s no such thing as a salesperson handling stalls and objections. There’s only one person qualified to do that, and that’s the prospect.
19. Don’t surprise your prospect in a presentation. Use your professional selling skills to address only the prospect’s pain that’s been discussed. Ensure everything’s been covered verbally prior to the presentation, even the price.
20. Don’t work too hard. Let the prospect give you the responses to work with. Remember the most effective move in sales, “Tell me more.”
21. If it starts to stink, bury it. Don’t waste your time on a prospect that’s dead.
22. No wimping. Follow your strategic sales plan, not the prospects.
23. The sale is complete when the check clears the bank and you get referrals to their friends and business associates.
24. Understand and accept the worst-case scenarios. In fact, be preemptive. Be the first one to bring up the worst-case scenarios.
25. When asked, a prospect will always clarify and add depth and detail to his question. This is important as once you understand the real pain, then you can determine if you can provide a real solution. 
Here are a couple of other helpful coaching resources:
Professional Sales Coaching, Manager’s Workbook
The Optimal Salesperson, Mastering the Mindset of Sales Superstars and Overachievers by Dan Caramanico and Marie Maguire
Sales Management Coaching – part 2
Coaching Rules for Sales Managers, 8-17
I’ve been working with a number of Sales Managers recently, providing them with Sales Management Coaching, and thought would be helpful to compile a list of some of the coaching insights that I’ve picked up from my colleagues over the years. When you’re coaching your sales people, here are some “rules,” some bits of advice to share with them that will increase their success in the field.
Rules 1-7 were covered in the previous post. Here’s the next section: 
8. You can’t lose what you don’t have. So, take the risk.
9. Decisions to buy or change behavior are made emotionally. People buy emotionally; however, they make decisions intellectually.
10. Agree on the rules before starting the game. It’s critical to be crystal clear on the prospect’s decision making process before your play their game.
11. Presentations come after the prospects have qualified themselves. Making proposals and presentation before the prospect is qualified results in wasted time, thought and attention for you and your company.
12. Understand other people’s subconscious need to feel “OK.” Always keep the prospect (and your sales person) in the OK Chair.
13. True sales professionals maintain their objective detachment, even under pressure.
14. Spend no time with jerks.
15. Set a strong process agreement that requires a decision be made at the end of each meeting. A “yes” is good. A “no” is good. A “think it over” will only result in wasted time, thought and energy.
16. Deal with all problems early.
17. Use the same intonation you would use with your best friend.
For more insights on how to coach your sales people to develop a strong selling mindset and improve their selling skills, download a complimentary copy of my Professional Sales Coaching, Manager’s Workbook.
Sales Management Coaching: Part 1
Coaching Keys for Sales Managers: 1 – 7
I’m in the process of actively coaching a sales manager as part of our Turnaround Sales Management Program. These are some “mantras” that I’ve learned from some of trusted colleagues (Jill Konrath, Dave Kurlan, John Condry, Terry Slattery, Steve Montague and Hunter Byington) throughout the past couple of years that I’m sharing with him…..and thought I’d share with you.
- Don’t educate a prospect, educate a client.
- When you are talking, you aren’t selling. Selling happens when you’re asking- a critical sales skill to master.
- When your prospect goes negative, so do you.
- Every time a prospect asks you to do anything that involves an expenditure of your time or resources, make certain you know before you do it EXACTLY what happens afterwards and that you like it.
- Take no vague words – practice your sales techniques.
- If you’re not last, you lose.
- You can’t lose what you don’t have.
Plus, you’ll love these Sales Paradoxes by another Top Sales Experts colleague, Keith Rosen.
I’ll have more for you next time, so stay tuned.
Sisu: From Conforming to Courage
If you’ve been following me, you’ll know that I’m stuck for at least for one more post on the Finnish work SISU.
Conforming requires a norm in order to conform. But what is a norm for a sales management leader but a line in the sand drawn by someone else? While some norms are useful, objective and needed for the management leaders, such as those determined by sales metrics, others are products of subjective – and often deeply buried – groupthink. 
While the leaders values teamwork, the sales management leader with sisu in their backbone rejects group-think and this sort of sheep-like behavior. Confronted with an excuse, they’re not afraid to challenge the excuse-maker’s assumptions, just as they’re not afraid to challenge anything else. The leader does not go along to get along; they blaze their own trail – not foolishly but in recognition of all the facts in hand. A SISU leader has the courage to stand up when those around them threaten to pound them back down. SISU sales management leaders break the steel of the old groupthink and forge a sharp and strong sales culture that stands accountable for its sales results.
For more information on SISU, go to Filling your Sails and Making More Sales – with SISU
To learn about how SISU, in contrast to fear, impacts spirituality, go to www.Marketplace-Ministers.com.
 |
 |
 |
