There is plenty of wisdom and advice out there about the three main segments in the life of an engagement with a customer:  Targeting and making contact to get engaged; deepening the engagement, establishing trust, agreeing to mutual goals, etc.; maintaining the engagement or nurturing the relationship after the “sale”.

Much technology has been introduced in recent years to make the “getting engaged” stage more efficient.  “Attraction marketing”, web search optimization, etc.  Today a smart organization can structure things such that the sales person’s first one to one contact with a prospect comes only when the prospect is ready to get engaged and after they’ve proven themselves “worthy”, in the sense that they’re “qualified”.

Of course, a smart sales organization can also employ social networks to get connected with hard to reach prospects and to perform pre-call research on prospects.  Again, the idea is that when you first get on the phone with the prospect, you know very much about them at a business and personal level.  Ultra-busy executives expect sales people to have already figured out what their company needs from them and why before there’s ever a meeting.  When I was still wet behind the ears and plying my trade in the energy business, I’d spend weeks and weeks talking to engineers, geologists and mid level managers to get the entire picture before meeting with the VP.  Now making all those connections and putting the big picture together takes far less time.

And then we can leverage email marketing, newsletters, online events, etc. to maintain engagement with customers after the sale.

But in my humble opinion, while all this technology can certainly save time and increase “connections”, it will just lead to more “pseudo-relationships” if the sales person does not then take advantage of the opportunity to REALLY engage with the customer.  In other words, we’re using our web based crm software, LinkedIn connections, website offers and conversion forms and other technology to filter through many possible prospects and find the few that are a good match for our companies.  That’s keeping us separated from one to one contact with customers (phone, in person) until we’re confident our investment of one to one time will be profitable.

So, when that phone appointment or in person meeting comes around, we have to work even harder to truly connect with the prospect.  Just having done your research ahead of time isn’t enough either.  After all, that’s expected.  You won’t be seen as unique or special just because you know what you’re talking about.

The word engagement is more commonly used to refer to a commitment marry.  Well, short of a love relationship, we do desire a very close relationship with our customers don’t we?  Don’t worry, this isn’t going to get weird…

I’m just pointing out that the most loyal customers are those that respect you and your company and have a high level of trust in you.  These are things that no amount of technology can create by themselves.

I’m a big fan of the Og Mandino classic, “The Greatest Salesman in the World“.  If you haven’t read it, you’ll be glad you did.  It’s more of a story than a self help book and it’s very brief.  Two qualities I admire in a book!  The theme of The Greatest Salesman in the World is that the person who puts the needs of others before his own will in turn see his needs and dreams fulfilled beyond his wildest dreams.

And that is how I believe you get engaged with customers and stay that way.  You show up ready to help them.  Of course, you should be ready to help through your company’s products and services but, you should be equally, and perhaps a bit more-so, willing to help in non-business related ways.

First, you have to listen and learn what they need.  This is where your research and preparation can help.  Not everyone is willing to open up and share their most painful and pressing needs on the first meeting.  Smart questions based on your research can earn respect and your willingness to listen and show empathy will earn trust.

Then its about closing the deal on respect.  If your conversation has illuminated some what that you can help, then offer it and be sure to over deliver.  This is where it really can be best to find non-business needs of the prospect.  Are they chairing a fund raiser?  You could offer money but, even better to volunteer to help out with the preparations or the event itself.  Is their kid starting to investigate colleges?  Offer to contact your alma mater and arrange a personal tour.

This may sound calculating and certainly could become so.  The real idea is to open your mind and your heart to hearing what each person really wants and needs.  The right way to be there for them will appear.  You’ll know if you’re doing it right.  Just like you know in your first couple of dates if this could be “the one”.  You’ll know that the feeling of genuineness between you is real and that it is invaluable and everlasting.

That’s going to depend a lot on what industry you’re in a what part of the world you’re in isn’t it?

For me personally and for SalesNexus Web Based CRM, my day job, 2009 was our best year ever.  2010 is already on track to be even better.  That’s not bragging, but more to illuminate the fact that we’re in a somewhat recession proof industry.  Many small businesses see hiring new sales people as the simplest path to growth in good times.  During tough times, the perspective changes to finding ways to get more with less.  Of course, a web based CRM can help a sales organization sell more without hiring new sales people.

But, if you sell Health Insurance in the U.S., 2010 is probably turning out to be a very bad year…

If you sell parts, materials or services to automotive manufacturers, 2009 probably was a very rough and 2010 is probably showing some improvement for you.

I think Leanne’s post made a great point.  It’s more important to look forward and ensure you have a solid plan based on the realities of your industry, economy, etc.

However, there’s no doubt that the turmoil in the global economy over the last two years has changed the landscape for sales people of all stripes, in all industries, for good.

Government bailouts, vast increases in regulations and uncertainty about future tax and regulatory regimes are making business planning more difficult.  This means purchases will be made more slowly and may be driven by regulatory directives or loopholes.  The fortunes of entire industries will swing back and forth based on political whim.

Example – imagine if you were the top producing sales rep for a company that provides safety training to offshore drillers in the Gulf of Mexico!  Things have got be very tough in that world, even for the top dogs.

Of course, there will be big winners in various niches too.  And that’s really my point… Going forward, Q2 and 3 of 2010 and beyond, sales people will need to be highly nimble and informed.

Gone are the days when you could understand your customers’ business model, your company’s value proposition, then prospect, qualify and close.  It’s just as important now to understand the recent or coming changes in tax law, regulations and investment trends that directly affect your customers.  These factors are likely to weigh just as heavily on their decisions as competitive pressures.

Understanding these trends can enable you to position your company and its products and services to help your customers avoid or minimize the impact of the changes or take advantages of opportunities created.  You may also be able to identify entirely new markets for your products and services created by government incentives, etc.

Throughout most of my sales career, I found it prudent to avoid talking about politics with customers.  Generally, you have a 50% chance of creating distance between you and your customers vs. trust.

Today’s sales person must learn to be conversant in the effects of politics – regulations, taxes, grants, etc. and there effects on customers without venturing opinions.  After all, regulations and taxes are facts of life.  Your customers are dealing with them more than ever.  Recognize it and empathize with them.  It’s likely that for a few years to come there will be much hand wringing and complaint about the changes underway.  You can be a beckon of opportunity and separate yourself from the competition by finding the opportunities for your customers.

Both are extremely worthy concepts and in my experience, the two most valuable and timeless ways to multiply selling results.

Allow me to attempt to take these two concepts to a philosophical plane please.

Selling is a profession that has taken its share of lumps over the years.  Mostly due to the manipulative techniques oft employed.  Don’t get me wrong… I love selling and I love sales people but, I believe that the failure of many sales people to raise their game and adopt the many tried and true techniques available to them right here on this blog and in countless books and training programs is that they can make the sales person feel manipulative.

What if we see the profession of selling as an act of kindness?  We are helping customers find solutions to problems or paths to opportunity!

Your sales manager may not want to hear it but, if you go into each and every conversation with customers with the objective of identifying that customer’s greatest and most pressing need and helping them meet that need, good things are bound to happen.

I’m not just putting new, more altruistic labels on the same old tactics of asking leading questions to help the customer realize that they need what you’re selling.   I’m suggesting that we’ve all been trained by society to think of what we do as manipulative but, it’s not.

So, if you want to sell more, leave all your preconceived notions about ABC (Always Be Closing) at home open your mind when you enter a meeting with your prospect or customer.   Try making your sole goal to serve as a friend, trusted advisor or mentor for your customer.

Each and every core sales tactic can be re-imagined in this light and not much changes about the techniques but, everything changes in terms of the simplicity and attitude that you’re able to bring to the table, which leads to far more effective execution.

Such as bonding with the customer – we all know we should take time in the beginning of a conversation with the prospect to “get to know them”.  How’s the wife?, kids?, etc.  Of course, sometimes you get more than you bargained for.  The sales person, knowing that they’re expected to report meaningful progress forward in the sales pipeline to their management, eventually feels compelled to cut the personal conversation short and direct it toward the potential purchase.  Actually, the fact that the customer feels like talking about the wife or whatever indicates that they NEED to talk about that subject.  Maybe they have some frustrations, fears or recent successes that are dominating their thoughts.  What better way to establish a relationship of trust and respect with a customer than to just talk with them about what’s on their mind.  Let them share their pride in their kid’s success.  Listen to them if they just need to vent.  You may run out of time before you get to talk about business and you won’t be able to tell your sales manager that you’re any closer to getting the order but, you’ll know that you can expect honest answers based on their trust in you from this customer in the future.  That’s truly valuable.

What about qualifying or disqualifying?  Well, if your goal is to listen carefully, ask probing questions and really understand what your customer needs the most, then you may find that they don’t need your product or service that badly.  Fine.  Give them your best recommendation for a solution that will fit their needs.  Now you can spend more time with prospects that do need what you’re selling and this customer now sees you as someone they can trust.  If things don’t work out with the solution you recommend for them or their needs change and your solutions are a fit for them, they’ll know it and they’ll truly want to do business with you.

So, you’re not a salesperson anymore are you?  You’re just a very kind, understanding and helpful person.  Trust me, people like to buy from those types of people.

A core thesis of Cluetrain is that the web democratizes marketing and allows truth to be distilled by customers more easily.  Corporations can no longer rely on overblown claims broadcasted from on high to attract customers and must engage in more honest and open “conversations” with customers  on a one to one level.

In addition, I’ve been diligently doing my social media bit and have lately noticed a number of “discussions” on LinkedIn and other sites heralding the end of the sales person (Gasp!) as a result of the new ways customers shop and buy online.

The idea put forward is that due to the vast resources of information, reviews, opinions, etc. available to customers on the web, the role of the sales person in conveying this information to customers is obsolete.

Of course, this misses the true role of sales people fundamentally.  As Tibor Shanto so rightly pointed out in his recent post, 70% of sales people may see their role as the purveyors of product information – sort of a human product catalogue.  However, it’s the other 30% that really drive most of the revenue for companies.  This group of real sales people understand that their role is to solve problems for customers.  To build relationships with customers, by understanding them and finding opportunities to improve their world.

So, could it be that the web has brought on the death of the 70 percenter?  As all the product knowledge that these sales people see as their primary asset is commoditized on the web, sales people have no other value than that they can act as problem solver, interpreter, translator and match maker.  The abundance of information makes this role of greater value in fact.

This is indeed good news.  But there is another, darker element of the sales game that’s being overturned by the web and all of this information and connectivity.

Most sales people are also negotiators for the companies they represent.  This is where the stigma inexorably attached to the sales profession of manipulative, lying, double talker, etc. comes from.  I believe that those that perpetuate this perception also happen to fall into that 70% population and are on their way to pasture.  But this is not just coincidence.

Just as customers are bewildered by all of the information, options and solutions they can easily find in a quick search and therefore greatly need a trusted guide, the web and its ability to distill the truth makes false posturing during negotiations far more difficult.

If you offered a low price last month and someone posted it on Twitter, you can bet customers will be bringing that price up for months to come.  But not only will the seller be kept on the moral high road by the potential hazard of the Internet exposing the lie, so will the customer.

Let’s face it.  Customers lie.   Everything from white lies to darker ones is standard practice when a buyer decides it’s time to get the best deal they can get.

The sales person asks “What’s your budget for this project?” and the customer responds with a number 20% below the actual budget.  And so the posturing goes, often on both sides.

But customers will bend the truth about your competitors too.  “ABC is offering me 10% better pricing, paid out in 6 payments and next day delivery.”

Not so fast Mr. Customer.  Not anymore.  You too will be held to a higher standard by the forces of the Net.  As a sales person, has recently stopped offering next day delivery due to supply problems.  Or I’ll know they never offer payment plans AND a discount and if I don’t know, I can find out almost instantaneously.

So now whether we wanted to or not, we’re all going to have to be much more honest with each other.  Well that’s a good thing of course.  And as it happens, another element of change in the connected, networked marketplace of tomorrow that will cause the cream of the sales profession to rise to the top and the rest to find alternate employment.

So you’ve got your goals for explosive growth this year all mapped out.  Good for you!  Now the hard part….

Are your sales people on board?  Have they bought in and accepted ownership of their portion of those goals?  Have they looked closely at what will be required of them to reach those goals?

This is where most sales organizations fail.  In the board room, the strategy sounds brilliant and the numbers seem reasonable and achievable.  But somehow the certainty at the corporate level doesn’t translate into enough additional opportunity when the sales feet hit the street.

And that’s where the sales compensation plan comes in right?  Well, if that means you use some formula to increase each salesperson’s quota so that the sum total of the quotas matches your overall corporate sales goals, then you’re missing the most crucial aspect of sales compensation.

The objective of a sales compensation plan is to drive appropriate behaviors.  In some businesses commission rates vary depending on the profitability of various products or services.  i.e. We want to encourage sales people to sell the most profitable things we produce.

From the salesperson’s perspective, these things are completely arbitrary and generally dampen motivation considerably.

Salespeople tend to be pretty ego-centric and see things through the lens of “what’s in it for me?”

Whatever your company goals and expectations for your sales team are, you’d better take time to figure out how you can show the salesperson what’s in it for him.  “Hey, you’ll make an extra $50k in commissions if you hit these increased goals I’ve set for you…” won’t cut it.  The salesperson just perceives the increased goals as additional work for him.

There are two indispensible aspects of selling a comp plan to your sales team:

1. You have to help the salesperson understand the things that you’re going to change that will help him sell more – increased marketing spending, new, more competitive products, more leads, new accounts, etc.
2. You have to help the salesperson look at how they spend their time and maximize the effectiveness of their efforts.

Selling your sales team on what the business is doing to help them should be straightforward.  Most businesses just fail to spend much time on it at all.  It’s worth spending half a day putting together a briefing or a few slides to walk them through.  With salespeople, the old saying “You can’t bullshit a bullshitter” is a good thing to keep in mind.  Be very specific.  Quantify things as much as possible.  “We’re going to go to the big XXXX show this year!” is not good enough.  Tell them how much that is expected to cost and how many new leads you’re hoping result from being there.  In fact, if you’re able to present all this in contrast to actual spending levels, numbers of leads, etc. for the previous year, that’s even better!

Showing the salesperson how to more effectively leverage their own time and effort is a taller order.  Salespeople are very much into freedom and doing their own thing.  It’s easy to be perceived as trying to micro manage.

This is where setting the goals and actually achieving them meet.  You and your salespeople have to be able to identify the part of your sales process that needs to change to meet the new goals.  Did we not generate enough new leads? Then how many new ones do we need and how are we going to get them? Did we lose too many deals to a competitor?  Why?  What will we do differently to beat that competitor more often?

These questions MUST be answered.  The more specific you can get, the more likely your success becomes.  The two factors that keep people from achieving their personal goals most often are –

• Inability to be specific and clear about where you want to go and when you want to be there.
• Inability to identify the daily behaviors that will lead to the achievement of those goals.

(here’s a good resource on goal setting – http://www.pauldeburger.com/downloads/articles/step-up.pdf ; )

Think about that!  It’s no wonder a salesperson that consistently beats their quota is so rare!  Most businesses aren’t able to tell them how to meet the goals they set for the salesperson and the salesperson is unlikely to have that ability either.

Examples of daily goals for a salesperson would be –

# of cold calls; # of potential prospects identified; # of new qualified prospects generated; # of presentations/proposals to qualified prospects; # of calls/meetings with existing customers; # of calls/meetings with people of a certain role within an organization

The fact is that when you and your sales team are able to identify the daily objectives that, using realistic expectations for results, will lead to the sales goals you’re after, you’ll find that surpassing your goals becomes more likely than failure!

In my work with businesses implementing CRM to improve efficiency and effectiveness of their selling efforts, one of the most shining examples of setting goals I’ve encountered was a company that competes in a narrow niche and their sales focus was mainly maintaining relationships with existing contacts for repeat business.  They found were able to show a direct correlation between sales success and number of “touches” with customers.  The more the salesperson made contact with customers, the more they sold.  So, they changed their entire commission and bonus structure so that it is based now entirely on the number of customers touches and not actual sales!  I know, it seems like a wild leap but, I can tell you that since implementing that change, they have vaulted from one of many to the dominant player in their industry.  My belief is that the change they made had the simple and extremely powerful effect of focusing sales attention on the one crucial behavior that leads directly to sales.

In your business, if it’s cold calling or generating prospects of a certain type or making contact with decision makers or whatever, you might want to think about tying sales commissions and targets to that objective.

Bottom line – the more clearly you can connect the dots between what your salespeople do each day and the results you are expecting, the more likely you and your salespeople are to succeed.  Whether you tie their compensation to them or not, if you all agree on what your salespeople should be accomplishing each day, week and month, you will all be agreed that you expect to reach your goals this year!