Retail therapy can be defined as shopping for fun. And there we have it, the evidence, in one short definition for the reason why men do not suffer from the emotional disorder associated with retail therapy… men don’t find shopping fun! So, retail therapy is probably wholly and exclusively practiced by women… and that’s probably why it’s considered a disorder… someone thinks shopping is fun.

Feeling depressed or feeling a little sad then rather than turn to food, turning to drink or turning to drugs then many women will turn to their purse… or perhaps their husband’s wallet… to allow them to partake in something that will cheer them up… shopping. Although I’m not sure if it’s the shopping or spending that makes them feel better, perhaps it’s both, but whatever it is, it seems to do the trick for a short while… that is until they realise how much money they have spent and then the feeling of depression can come flooding back. One way to avoid this feeling is to spend someone else’s money… which reminds me of the definition of success.

I often say that the definition of a successful man is one who can earn more than his wife can spend… and the definition of a successful women?… is one who can find such a man! On these definitions of success I have to admit that neither my wife nor I can be considered a success!

All joking apart, retail therapy is often used as a way of addressing feeling bad and it therefore has the same effect as drinking, eating or taking drugs. It can equally have devastating consequences if the person partaking in therapy is spending more than they can afford.

Would you give an alcoholic a drink? Would you give drugs to a junkie? Would you give a jam doughnut to an obese person? If you answer no to any of these then it should make you wonder if you should be serving a women who is clearly partaking in an excess of retail therapy. Perhaps I should draw this to the attention of the British government (sorry English government… devolved government and all that) because here in the UK the government actively practises the art of the nanny state and this would be a great subject for them to start additional meddling.

Popularity: 14% [?]

This new topic is presentations, which are not to be confused with pitching ideas. There are many things to look at when presenting and I am not going to cover them all, but I will cover what I believe to be the most important part of the presentation… you!

It’s all about you.
Presentations are an opportunity for people to get to know you better. You may think that the purpose of the presentation is to persuade your audience, but in reality the real point is for them to see you ‘in action’, to get to know you and, ultimately, to trust you. Confidence in you and your team will follow.

It’s a mistake to think that the primary function of any presentation is the conveying of facts. Lists of facts and figures belong in an email or a leave-behind document. The presentation is about demonstrating your personality and, by association, that of your team. Knowing the facts is a given. They need to like you and believe in you!

Even though your presentation may be proscribed by the company it still has to feel as if it’s yours; you have to own it and be comfortable with it.  And it has to be focused on the particular individuals in front of you: their needs and interests. The more you work on engaging with your particular audience the more it will take on the dynamics of a successful meeting where everybody is helping to move things forward; even if your audience are only doing that by providing you with energy and focus because they are engaged.

Remember: They might fear that you’re going to be dull, but they’re hoping that you’re not.

When you’re on you’re in charge
When you are presenting you are in charge. In charge of everything. This is the way that the agreement about presenting works. When people accept the role of audience they effectively say,  “ok, over to you. What have you got?” This means you are put in a very powerful position. If it doesn’t feel that way, there are techniques to help build your confidence.

The feeling we usually start out with is, ‘it’s just little old me and all of them’. The journey we make from there is one of ‘ownership’. It is effectively a claiming of territory that most audiences will willingly give up. When you begin to work from a position of being in charge or responsible for everything, you start to realise that you are responsible for what your audience thinks and feels for the duration of the presentation. And it isn’t just about knowing what to say: the messages they receive will be as much to do with how you stand and how you sound. If they are excited it’s your fault. If they are bored, it’s your fault. If they can’t keep up, it’s your fault.

At first glance this may seem more, rather than less difficult. But if you look again you can see that it brings with it liberation from the straitjacket of just doing what you’ve already prepared (the Blue Peter approach to presenting). If you can see that they haven’t understood and it’s your fault, then the obvious thing to do is to depart from the script until everyone’s up to speed. This can bring a gloriously refreshing approach to the preparation of a presentation, where you begin to look at a grab bag of possible routes you may take and possible things you may bring into your presentation.

In Summary

• Presenting is about you.
• People want to meet, like and trust you.
• You have to take control.
• Everything you do communicates.
• The challenge is to keep things fresh.

Popularity: 8% [?]

I have a confession to make… I don’t like the title of this post… it’s not my title, but one that all the contributors to this site have to write a post on. It’s not the word ‘idea’, but the word ‘pitching’ that make be squirm… because for me it sums up the dark side of selling… rolling up and doing a ‘pitch’. For me it has all the wrong connotations.

Sales Definition of the word ‘pitch’ – an attempt to persuade somebody to accept or buy something… unwanted telephone sales pitches at inconvenient times.

However, if I take the ‘pitching ideas’ to mean focusing your efforts and resources on proactively helping the customer solve their business issues then this has some legs. It’s the word proactive that I like – means you will be identifying potential issues and offering help maybe before the customer has had the opportunity to identify the issue themselves. You are therefore at the beginning of the customer’s buying process and you will be best placed to influence the decision making process. All well and good, but how should one approach the subject?

If we think of the idea as a solution then as we all know… we need to identify the problem. It was as Bertrand Russell, that English Logician & Philosopher, once said…

“The greatest challenge to any thinker is stating the problem in a way that will allow a solution.”

and just to add another view I’ll quote G K Chesterton the Novelist & Poet who also said…

“It isn’t that they can’t see the solution. It’s that they can’t see the problem.”

Therefore we need to help our customer explore their need. We need to get them to understand they have a problem and that we have a solution and for me there is no better way of doing this then using the Business Imperative. I wrote about this in a previous post – Motivating the Buyer – and suggest you have a quick gander at that post because it has everything you need for pitching your idea… oops… I mean presenting your solution to a problem that they don’t yet know they had!

Popularity: 7% [?]

Your value to your customer is not measured by what you know, but by the questions that you ask. You add value by making your customer think. The way that you ask questions will differentiate you in the way that you sell. In the ever competitive environment that we are in, when products and services are becoming commodities, the way that we sell can be our biggest differentiator. Add value during the sales process. Ask the right questions and your prospect will be only too pleased to give the time that you need to make the sale.

Knowledge is power and the more you know about your prospect’s company, business needs, decision matrix, personal needs / wants, problems / opportunities and your competition then the more likely you are to get the sale. Effective questioning, probing and listening will enable you to get the critical information you need to qualify the prospect, plan your sales calls, produce presentations and close the deal.

Asking questions of the prospect also puts them at the centre of attention and show that you care enough about them. You are looking to learn more about them, more about their problems, more about their opportunities and most importantly, you are getting the prospect to think. By asking questions, you move forward.

Generally, you should aim to speak no more than 30% of the time in a meeting, unless of course you are giving a formal presentation.

Effective questioning can:-

Provide you with the opportunity to help crystallise the prospect’s thinking.
Help you build rapport and trust by showing that you understand and show that you value the prospect’s opinion. Questioning also allows you to use their language, which in turn helps build rapport.
Allow you to gather vital information about the sale.
Enable you to control the meeting effectively.
Help minimise harmful misunderstandings that can occur.
Help reduce the resistance to the sale.

Rules to Apply when Asking Questions

Label the Question
Labelling a question before you ask it positions the question in the answerer’s mind. Labelling means that you first tell the answerer that you are going to ask them a question on a certain topic and then you ask them the question. The ‘label’ gives the answerer nanoseconds notice and this is enough time to allow them to formulate a deeper response. Labelling also tends to make it safer to ask the question as you have explained why you need to ask the question in the first place. Asking pertinent questions without labelling, the answerer may be taken aback and start wondering why you have asked the question and therefore may avoid answering it.

General Questions before Specifics
You need to understand the territory on which the sale is going to be conducted. You need to understand where the borders are before moving into specific detail. There are three steps to this process. First, ask broad open questions about the areas of possible interest. Then determine the priority areas. The third stage is to ask probing questions about the important broad topics in which the prospect is interested.

Time to Answer
Avoid multiple questions and allow enough time for the answerer to respond to your question before you move on to your next one. If you do not allow enough time for the answerer to respond, you are saying that the question was not that important in the first place.

Avoid too many Closed Questions
Asking too many closed questions will come across as if you are interrogating the answerer. Most people do not like to be interrogated. If you need to gather facts quickly, which means asking a series of closed questions, then tell the answerer what you are going to do.

Use the Person’s Name
People enjoy hearing their names and therefore use their name throughout the discussion while taking care not to overuse it. Without the use of the person’s name the discussion can come across as being very impersonal and therefore this does not build rapport.

Avoid Negative Questions
Negative questions may well put the answerer on the defensive and if so, rapport will not be built or rapport will be broken. Negative questions may well make the answerer feel stupid, incompetent, guilty, wrong, etc. Such feelings will not help the relationship. Avoid negative questions.

Allow the Answerer to Answer
Avoid asking a question and then answering it yourself before the answerer has been able to respond. If the answerer is taking time to think, then allow them the time. If they seem to be floundering, then help them get in a more resourceful state.

Allow Warm Up time
At the beginning of a meeting take time for a chit chat. Chit chat is not work related and therefore a more relaxed environment can be formed. Chit chat time will help build rapport and it will give you an opportunity to calibrate the answerer’s preferred sensory channel and perceptual filters.

Be Flexible
It is always good to plan your sales calls and plan how you would like the meeting to go. However, you will need to remain flexible and change if things are not going to plan. Avoid ploughing through your ‘pitch’ if it is no longer appropriate.

Be Confident
Be confident when asking questions. You deserve and should expect an answer. Do not allow your voice to trail off at the end of the question. Make sure your question is not asked half heartedly. Do not hesitate or show doubt. A lack of confidence may well allow the answerer to avoid the question.

Maintain Eye Contact
As part of the being confident process, you need to maintain direct, yet comfortable, eye contact after you have asked a question.

Use Sensory Language
Calibrate the answerer’s preferred sensory language and then construct your questions around this. Visual people see the world. Auditory people hear the world. Kinesthetic people feel the world.

Popularity: 11% [?]

The title of this post may lead you to believe I’m against sales process which couldn’t be further from the truth… I’m all for sales process and what’s more; I earn a living out of helping companies implement sales methodology and sales process.

The problem that I often see is that most companies use and abuse sales process for reasons other than selling. How could they do that? They need the sales don’t they? Surely the sale process is to help get sales?

A process is a series of steps, tasks or actions. A methodology is the guiding principles underlying the art and science of selling. The problem with sales process is that it is often regimented so tightly that it stifles sales. For example a company will implement a pipeline management system to help load the factory. A customer may order 1,000 units to be delivered at 200 per month over 5 months. The sale is not the delivery of the 200 units each month, but the 1,000 unit order. However, the process is set up to track the 200 units. From a sales view point this is daft. Equally a number of companies set up their sales pipeline to track revenue and will pay the sales team on revenue. So sales now not only have to mange the sale, but also the delivery. It takes their eye off the selling ball.

To help manage the ‘process’ they provide data reporting tools to the sales team; these tools are often referred to by the acronym CRM. CRM systems that have been implemented in a sales environment stifle the sales effort by sucking in irrelevant data for the benefit of management. These tools and the data within them are often so political that the sales professional has no choice but to play the political game in order to keep their job.

What needs to be done?… Put a proper methodology and process in place that helps the sales professional to plan how they are going to make their number, provide the tools for developing the opportunity and provide the sales management support that adds value to the process and you will find that more people will hit target. Show me how you are going to make your number is all about good pipeline management which is not to be confused with CRM pipeline reporting.

Popularity: 7% [?]

If you haven’t noticed already the approach of the Sales Bloggers Union is to write every two weeks on a different topic concerning sales. Every day during each two week period a different member of the group puts up their post…. well we are supposed to… and mainly we do. The interesting point about the union is that although we have the same topic to write about we each invariably take a different approach. We don’t get to see each others posts until they go up and it’s very interesting to see the variety we create. So in true SBU fashion I’m going to take my own approach to the current topic of Sales Motivation.

If I look at the dictionary definitions of the two words that form the current topic I come up with something like…

Sales (noun) The transfer of something to the ownership or use of somebody else, or the provision of something, e.g. a service, in exchange for an agreed amount of money.

Motivation (noun) A feeling of enthusiasm, interest, or commitment that makes somebody want to do something, or something that causes such a feeling.

So the approach I’m going to take is how to motivate the buyer to buy.  I actually think that the current economic climate is responsible for a number of buyers lacking the enthusiasm to buy which will often knock the motivation of the sales professional – “How can I sell when there aren’t any buyers!” which as I’ve written it, it is not so much a question but a level of exacerbation. The problem is, and this is my contribution to the motivation of sales professionals, if the seller is not motivated by what are they doing then why should the buyer? If the seller is not enthused by what they are doing, then why should the buyer? So if you are selling and you are not motivated then boy do you have a problem! Hopefully you will find a number of my colleagues have written ways to help get your motivational juices going, but as I said I’m writing on how to get the motivational juices of the buyer going.

The good news is that companies are still spending. The bad news is that they are not spending so much and what they are spending has to be justified even better than it was before particularly if it’s discretionary spend. They don’t have to change the computer system just yet. They don’t have to invest in the latest gizmo that is claimed to bring untold savings. They don’t have to subject themselves to the latest consulting advice that will help them ever improve their business. They just don’t have to do it… and unless the motivation is there… they won’t do it.

So you are a seller – how do you get the buyer motivated? And who is the buyer? What I mean by this is that you could motivate middle management, but unless they motivate higher management then the sell won’t go ahead. In fact the one thing all CEOs have in common at this moment in time – cash preservation.

The motivation to buy is an extension of need. There has to be a need, which we all know, and the motivation is the juice that determines if the need is going to be met now. Motivation is an emotional quality and it has to come from within. The good news is that we use the emotional quality to help motivate the buyer by using a technique we call the Business Imperative.

The Business Imperative Analysis
Defining the business imperative is a question of research. Research can sometimes be both intimidating and long-winded, however, so to give your research the degree of focus that will be most beneficial for documenting your customer’s imperative, we (www.firtsborder.com) have created a framework in which to record the relevant information.The framework is a simple matrix of nine cells which, as you work through them, will lead you to an understanding of your prospect’s need. To make your results even more powerful, consult with your prospect at each stage and get them to help you with the answers. This will make the answers more accurate and also give you the wording for a large part of your proposal’s executive summary. Better still, your executive summary will be in the exact language your prospect uses to describe their situation and their need.

The framework is based on a simple consulting model and the emotional buying model. Management consultants use the ‘As Is’ and ‘To Be’ model as the basis of their change management approach. In our Business Imperative Model the ‘As Is’ is the current situation and the ‘To Be’ is the desired situation. How you get from the ‘As Is’ to the ‘To Be’ is the ‘What Needs to be Done’ cell.

The emotional model is the second set of cells describing the pain, pleasure and the stoppers. As humans, we only have two strategies for change; we want to move away from pain or we want to move towards pleasure. Most selling is based upon moving away from pain. For example, in the run up to the year 2000 most, if not all IT companies were out selling new hardware and software based on the fact that the incumbent systems would not be able to handle the dates in the new millennium. They sold on the fear that if systems were not changed then they would crash the second we move into the new millennium and severe business disruption would follow. Many bought into this approach, but some did not. The ones that did not were probably motivated by pleasure (benefit) and even though they could understand the ‘pain’ argument, they did not emotionally get it. As all buying is based on emotion – it has to feel right – these people were not motivated to change. Therefore, if you are selling to someone whose motivational strategy is unclear to you or you are selling to a group of people then you need to make sure you cover both the pain and the pleasure in your approach.

The final set of three cells helps augment your primary value to your customer. Asking your customer questions that make them think is by far the greatest value you can add. The I Wish I Knew (IWIK) cells are for you to compile some tough questions that help to quantify the pain, pleasure and stoppers in the customer’s mind. If the customer makes the connections themselves, in their own mind, then the business imperative becomes stronger and more real.

Complete each cell using short paragraphs of one or two sentences. The tool works best for reference or review if it can be kept to one side of A4/Letter paper.

That’s the gist of the tool. You can download an eBook that provides more information on how to complete the Business Imperative. If you are interested in an online workshop on how to use the Business Imperative then please contact me.

Our customers inform us that the Business Imperative has helped them secure millions of extra revenue because it allows them to have a business discussion. The format of only one page allows easy digestion of information as the whole motivation for progressing is laid out on a single side of paper.

Popularity: 9% [?]

Sales; the life blood of any and all organisations; and if the act of selling is not diligently pursued then the organisation will be in trouble. Therefore, most organisations will employ and pay a handsome price to those who can – sell. In sales lexicon we call these creatures, who accept the company’s shilling, Sales Executives; Salesmen; Saleswomen; Account Executives; Account Managers; Business Development Managers; Business Development Executives; etc. For those with egos, and there are many, the word ‘Senior’ will often precede the sales role title… as if the customer is going to be impressed that they are dealing with a ‘senior’ salesperson… for whose benefit is the word ‘senior’ added? Same goes for the VPs of this world.

The company’s salesfolk – the collective noun – are responsible for ensuring the company has the sales it needs to pay its way. All companies need a certain level of sales, often called a sales target, which will make them happy. If the salesfolk attain the target then the company does well. Sales Management will ‘divvy’ up the target and give each their own target; well, most do. Therefore each salesperson – the generic singular noun for all salesfolk – will have their individual sales target to attain. In most companies good things happen if over attainment is achieved – the commission payments accelerate; meaning the salesperson’s pay increases at a higher rate of accumulation after the target is attained. Therefore it is in their interest to overachieve their target.

So, there we have it; a common goal. The company wants sales to attain target and will pay even more money if they over attain. Each salesperson wants to attain target and most will want to over attain. Unfortunately there is often not enough focus on those wants. The ‘want’ is so basic – achieve target – it is frequently taken for granted that is what everyone is focused on. Sales management is in place to herd the salespeople to achieve the common goal – attain target.

I often wonder what it would be like if email was taken away from everyone, I wonder how productive people would become. They would have to find something else to do with their time. Equally, I believe spreadsheets should be taken away from sales management. This will give them the time to focus on the one fundamental thing they should do… get each and every member of their sales team to ‘show how they will be making their number.’ By showing; the salesperson has to name the deals that will close. None of this hiding behind pipeline factoring malarkey; but real forecasting: naming the deals that will close. The sales manager then tests the plan to make sure it is real and by so doing adds value. If there is a gap between forecast and target the sales manager discusses how the salesperson will be making the gap up.

Sales management is really that simple – make sure every member of the team can show how they are going to make their number – and everything else flows from there.

Popularity: 8% [?]

I was asked to write a post on pipeline management and I seemed to have written the best part of a book! So those with a low threshold for reading long posts be warned… but as I was bemoaning to Nesh earlier today he sympathised with me by saying… “if you are asked to write on a subject that you are passionate about then it is sometimes difficult to write a little”… and so to steal a phrase that has been attributable to various famous people over the years… “I wanted to write a short post, but I did not have the time”… so here it is in all its glory…

Pipeline Management… there we go… it’s the title of the post and I’ve started with the same words… must be important then… pipeline management… well yes it is… it’s the fundamental skill, process and methodology that all field based sales reps operating in the complex sales environment need to know, understand, master and conquer… but how many can say they achieve this?… actually not many… in fact pipeline management is often treated very much as an anathema!

So why is pipeline management so often greatly disliked, detested and shunned?… good question I hear you say… and would you believe there are several reasons. However, before I delve into the dastardly reason for shunning such a noble skill I will first put into perspective the importance of pipeline management. I should point out that unlike ‘safe bank’… ‘pipeline management’ is not or more importantly – should not – be thought of as an oxymoron. The operative word of our 2 word, 18 letter, 5 syllable phrase is management and to underlie its importance… it accounts for 3 of the 5 syllables and 10 of the 18 letters. It will also give you 15 points on a scrabble board as opposed to 12 for the mere pipeline.

There are only three main sales strategies that all sales people, no matter what they sell, have to do. They need to find some customers, they need to manage those customers and then they need to close some business. For our intrepid field sales guys working in fields of complex sales that means… filling the pipeline, managing the pipeline and closing the pipeline.

Why Is The Pipeline So Important?
It’s because we have targets to meet… and there has never been a better time to meet your target… and it’s no longer just about earning money… it’s no also about keeping your job… who do you think the company will let go first… those that hit their number or those that don’t?

Pipeline management is about managing your portfolio of opportunities to meet your target. As a sales rep this is your primary focus… to meet target. Meeting target means you get paid… but to keep your job you also need to take religion out of selling… this is the bit where your sales manager puts his hands together and prays you will be making your number! In this economic climate religion can play no part of selling… you need to be predictable… you need to be able to forecast and mastering pipeline management will help you achieve this.

The diagram below shows the pipeline management process following the buying phases and the different relationships that are in play depending where an opportunity enters the pipeline and then the competitive advantage at entry point. The pipeline needs to be time bound and therefore there ineeds to be a different set of phases for each sales period.

If you are running a quarterly pipeline – and if you are not, then you should – you need to fix your forecast by the end of week 5… and by the close of quarter after 13 weeks you need to be greater than 95% accurate… and yes it is achievable and yes we do have many customers achieving this level of accuracy. The sales pipeline is your planning tool to… Show How You Are Going To Make Your Number. Showing how you are going to make your number means naming the deals that will be closing… yes binary forecasting. There are only two outcomes in selling… you win the deal or you don’t win… there is no other outcome. ‘Gone away’ is not an outcome. Anyone who puts the reason for not winning the deal because it has ‘gone way’ is doing so to make themselves feel better… “It’s not my fault… the customer no longer wants to do it… it’s gone away”. Sorry to disappoint… it’s not gone away, you lost it… it probably was never there in the first place… your qualification is suspect… and yes it is your fault.

Is Qualification Important?
Yes, qualification is an important part of pipeline management. It is there to be used as a tool to help, but the tool must not use you. There are far too many systems around that try and automate the qualification process… answer the qualification questions and our tool will tell you where that deal is in the your process and provide you with a probability of winning. If you are happy to put your car on cruse control and take your hands of the wheel and then hope you will get to your destination safely… then these systems will be right up your street… unlike your car which will be right up someone else’s backside and suddenly you are in a car crash. Qualification is not there to make you feel good… quite the opposite it’s there to make you feel uneasy… uneasy enough to put a plan together to win the deal. Although this post is not on qualification… I will share with you the most important qualification question I always ask any sales rep when I am doing a deal review with them… any idea what that is?… well the answer is at the end of this post… along with the second most important qualification question.

Top 5 Tips For Pipeline Management.
It’s not an exhaustive list, but I just wanted to provide an insight to avoid Einstein’s definition of madness… well this definition has been attributed to him… and others… “You can’t keep doing the same input expecting a different output.” If you haven’t achieved 95% forecast accuracy already, then no point continuing doing the same thing expecting it to improve… you need to do something different.

So, my top five tips for doing something different…

1. Sales pipelines are in the very first place personal tools… not corporate. All those running a corporate pipeline and just a corporate pipeline are unlikely to achieve the forecast accuracy required for these challenging times… make it personal before corporate.

2. Follow the buying process, not the sales process. Most corporate pipelines have the sales activities (not even process) as the pipeline stages. This is the equivalent of ‘fools gold’. Understand where the customer is in the buying process and measure your pipeline against these stages. If you need some insight into what I mean then go to http://www.firstborder.com/sales-ebooks/buying-process.php#download to download a free ebook.

3. Put the responsibility of forecasting squarely on the shoulders of each and every sales rep. get them to show how they are going to make their number. Fix the forecast at the end of week 5 of the quarter and measure their forecast accuracy at the end of week 13. Publish the results.

4. Use the grown up forecasting technique – binary forecasting. You are either going to win or not. Only those scared and out of control use factored forecasts. Factored forecasting is for wimps who don’t want responsibility. If the sales rep names the deals that they say they are going to close, then guess where they put their focus. This one action alone improves the chances of winning those deals… because the deals get the attention.

5. Sales managers need to add value to the team, not by helping them on specific deals, but helping them make their number. Manage the team by looking at how each sales rep is going to make their number. Don’t get seduced by the ‘dark side’ – focusing on the big deals – focus on how each person is going to make their number using binary forecasting.

6. And because I can’t count here is number 6. Make sure each and every sales rep has a full funnel. The sales funnel feeds the pipeline. With personal pipeline management you will be amazed at how full the funnel can become. With just a corporate view… your funnel, if indeed you use one, will invariably be underground… and underground is out of sight and out of mind.

7. If I’ve done 6, I may as well add another… and so here’s number 7 of my top 5! Commission. Sales reps are motivated to sell more and earn more commission… in theory anyway. However, very few companies use the commission plan to motivate. Sure they will tell you how much you will be paid, but not how much you could be paid if certain deals close… it’s called commission forecasting. Not many sales reps need to be told that deals need to be closed to make target, but if they could forecast how they could earn by closing certain deals then this motivates them. So, top tip number 7, forecast commission.

Why Is Pipeline Management So Often An Anathema?
The answer to this question lies somewhat with the top 5 tips listed above, but looking at the 3 main aspects I shall start with the biggest problem… Management… it is the all important word in our dualistic phrase – pipeline management, however, in this context I’m referring to sales management… those responsible for “the organising and controlling of the affairs of business”.

Management needs to add value and sales managers are no different… but how do they do that you may ask… well… ask questions about your big deals… ask lots of questions about your big deals… the big deals are important… right? Maybe they are maybe they are not. If they form part of your plan to make your number then they are important… and if they are not part of that plan and you have identified other deals that will make your number than they are not that important.

Sales management often become misguided by focusing in on nig deals. They get seduced by the dark side… focusing all their effort on the big deals that don’t have a hope of closing while smaller deals are passing you by and being snapped up by the competition. A clutch of small deals will make your number just as well as a large deal and are often easier to close.

However, if the sales manager is looking just at deals and not how each member of the team is going to make their number then they get disorientated. Think about it… if you have 20 opportunities in your pipeline and your manager has 5 people, then he has to look at 100 opportunities. If the Sales Director has 5 sales managers then she needs to look at 1,000 opportunities. So, how do they select which ones to look at?… it’s often the big ones.

So, they ask questions and sales people don’t like answering them as we get distracted and most questions in our opinion are unwarranted and so to keep them off our back we are reluctant to put too many, or any, big opportunities in the pipeline as it just gets management too excited.

Meanwhile due to the lack of big opportunities, management find other ways to get excited… they have an inside belief that there needs to be 3x the value of the target in the pipeline and so messages go out saying fill the pipeline… so the pipeline gets filled… filled with anything… to get management off our backs.

The other problem with putting large opportunities in the pipeline, particularly when they are likely to cut across target setting session… is that we don’t want to get lumped with a big target based on what we have in the pipeline… so bets avoid the temptation and not put them in.

The other thing management get excited about is the lack of activity… and so we need stuff in the pipeline to show that we are doing something… even if the stuff is dead… it gives us breathing space to recover.

Corporate pipeline management is a game based on wits and cunning where sales management are trying to catch you out and find the truth… and therefore you can’t be trusted to forecast because if you are wrong the manager takes the hit… therefore when it comes to putting the forecast together you will be consulted and then the manager weaves their magic on the numbers and adjusts them to get to the right number. Some deals you call are not included and some deals you have not called are included… it all becomes a sticky mess outside your control… and it’s no wonder you keep your own private pipeline to monitor what is really going on… and if only management could get their hands on it!

Customer Relationship Management systems are sheep in wolfs clothing. For field based sales teams they generally add little value, yet they demand so much data and give little in return. The clue is in the name Customer Relationship Management… the name is not Sales Management. CRM systems are content free databases that do nothing more than aggregate data. In fact they do worse than that… they claim they add value by doing nothing more than aggregating data. If you think I’m being unreasonably hard on CRM then they should not be making these fanciful claims that CRM adds value to field sales people.

The problems start with Pipeline Management… yep they have a pipeline, but it can’t be used to manage anything… it just provides a list of deals by sales stage… yes, sales stage, not buying phase. Managing the pipeline by sales stage is akin to getting an alcoholic to manage a pub… not a good idea. However, there is also aiding and abetting going on with the way the forecast is cobbled together using factoring techniques. Each sales stage has a corresponding percentage chance of winning and this percentage is multiplied to the value of the opportunity and hey presto you have a value for your forecast… add all the different opportunities together and you can see where you will finish the quarter… your pub manager with the personal problem is now drinking your profits… and the factored pipeline is as much use as the bar manager after a day of profit sharing!

All sales reps know that factoring is not a good idea and yet CRM in the whole forces them into it. However, they now have a system that provides a list of opportunities to the manager and an even greater list to the sales director. Where do they focus their time?… on the big ones… but know they want you to update all the actions, meeting notes and strategy and… it goes on. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all in favour of sales guys planning to win deals… but filling in CRM data has nothing to do with winning deals… it’s about feeding data to a beast for no return and so sales reps don’t like doing it.

Now look at my top 5… which seems to have morphed into 7 and ask if CRM does any of them and you will be hard pushed to find a system employing the outlined principles. So change the management view and focus on the magic 5 and then change the system to allow personal pipeline. The personal pipeline will allow the sales rep put all their leads and opportunities in one place. They will have full view of their whole sales effort. This one view will follow the same methodology and therefore will allow everything to be in sight and in mind. Allow the corporate system to be fed by the personal systems and as long as each rep is showing how they are making their number and showing a healthy funnel then let them hide what they want… it means they are in control… but following the magic 5 also means they can’t hide… and point 3 means they will look pretty slipshod if they sandbag.

The diagram below provides an overview of what should be in a sales system. Note the different phases are based on the pipeline as outlined in the previous diagram. You follow the buying process and different tools come into play. There are a set of tools that are used to involve the customer and a set of tools that are used to manage the opportunities that you need to close to meet your number. You will see qualification as one of the tools used to manage if you remember… and it’s many words ago… I promised to share my first qualification question.

The initial qualification question I would ask when starting a deal review with a sales rep is… “when is the deal going to close?” Pipelines need to be time bound and the close date is the most important piece of information that you need for accurate forecasting… therefore that leads me on to the second most important question… “does the customer agree with the close date?” This question is so important as it is the first indication that the customer is prepared to commit. If they don’t agree then there is no commitment and if there is no commitment then something is wrong… they may not like you… they may not have authority and therefore you are speaking to the wrong person… they may not want you to win and therefore will not commit to you… there may not be a deal… whatever it is there is something wrong and you need to find out. However, if they do commit then you have a date to work towards and the customer will know this, but they have made a commitment and as you know, selling is all about getting commitment from the customer and therefore sales qualification is testing this commitment at various points along the customer’s buying phase. If you don’t get commitment it doesn’t mean that you are not going to win, it just means you are not in control… and if you are not in control… how can you forecast?

Popularity: 19% [?]

Those were the immortal words of my wife a few years ago… thinking about it, it was probably around 2004 that she decided I was wasting my time putting any effort into the web. She is (or was) a total technophobe and saw no point in a service that was obviously not going to be used.

The same outlook also applied to computers… she never used them at work and could not understand why people spent so much time on a computer when she could easily achieve more with a paper filing system… and as to a database of names and addresses… she often poor scorn on the idea of firing up a computer to delve into a database just to find a telephone number when she could achieve the same in a fraction of a second with her rolodex.

I could live with the jibes, but then one day I made a fatal mistake. I really thought I was safe with the introduction, but as it turned out it became a serious financial error on my part… I introduced my wife to eBay!

That was it, she was hooked… soon she took over my account… goods poured through the doors and the bank balance diminished. I then had to buy her her own computer. She began to type and produce letters. Excel had its uses and th internet was explored. Perhaps it has its uses after all.

Over the last few years she has also started developing her hobby into a business and insisted that she had her own web-site. Knowing I was very busy she investigated her options and signed up for a website – www.hookfarm.net – and then signed up to develop her website using a series of templates that the hosting company provided. Go and have a look at it, it’s not a great site, but she loves it because she can control everything and therefore regularly updates it. Since the first day it went up she has been getting a minimum of two calls a day from people enquiring about her chickens and training courses. Her exposure from this little self made site has been amazing.

So you see, if my wife can create a web presence using her own very limited skills then anyone can do it. She is now firmly hooked to the web and sees it as an essential part of her sales strategy… she has added another site – www.chickenkeeper.co.uk – which is a tad better, well actually a lot better, then her first site. She has also decided to self publish her first book and will be putting it up on her site and several other sites. She sees this as the quickest and most cost effective way of becoming a published author.

The point is… the internet has brought down the barriers to entry… the cost of having a web presence is minimal. You don’t even have to be a web expert to start making sales. Now, just think what you should be achieving using the web if you are a proper business.

Oh… and yes… she does now believe it is here to stay.

Popularity: 10% [?]

A curious word, ‘objection’, the noun that is used to express opposition… and it is a word that is often used in at least two professions that immediately spring to mind. I can see a court room drama where one lawyer is standing up questioning the witness and all of a sudden the other lawyer, who was sitting down while listening intently, suddenly, but not unexpectantly (by the standing lawyer at least), jumps to his feet and shouts… “Objection… objection my lord…” The until now quiet lawyer sitting down has shouted his expression of opposition to the questioning of the witness… and having expressed his opposition the lawyer has to quickly follow up with his reasoning for the objection, otherwise the judge will express his curiosity in a manner that befits his position. Having listened to the reasoning the judge will give his verdict… he will either allow the objection or dismiss it… and if only it was just so simple in that other profession I was thinking of… sales.

In sales, the objection predominately comes from the Buyer and the Seller has to arouse their full curiosity in order to effetely deal with the objection. Unlike the example with the judge the Seller cannot dismiss the objection… the objection has to be accepted… it is real and it is valid, no matter how trivial the objection appears to the Seller, no matter how ultimately the objection is of little relevance, it is real to the Buyer and cannot be dismissed by the Seller if he wants a successful outcome. There has been plenty written about how the Seller should handle the Buyer’s objection, but not so much written about how the Seller should themselves use the objection process.

The ‘objection’ is not for the exclusive use of the Buyer… the Seller can also use the process to their benefit. The Seller objection is mainly used to test the commitment of the Buyer. The worst thing a Seller can do is ‘flog a dead horse’, not literally of course…obviously metaphorically speaking… and so the meaning of this idiom… to flog a dead horse is to waste time trying to do something that will not succeed. Sellers must not waste time with potential Buyers who… will not be… will not be buying that is. As Sellers we know that we want Buyers who are committed to the process and who will be buying.

The first way to use the Seller’s objection is right up front in the initial meetings. After you have done your preliminary chat, built rapport and started exploring their need you find the opportunity to discuss the reasons why the deal may not go ahead…

“Mr Buyer, in our experience deals of this nature often don’t proceed because… there is not enough budget… the risk is seen as too high… Buyers are just looking to keep incumbent supplier in check… the risk / reward is not understood… the imperative to address the need is not compelling… etc, etc”

You are giving the Buyer all the objections and you are waiting for him to confirm or deny them. If he confirms them then you have the objection right up front and enough time to hopefully deal with it. If he denies them and denies them convincingly then you probably don’t have to worry about that one. You finish the process by asking…

“Is there anything else that could stop this deal going ahead?”

What you are looking for is the Buyer to convince you to stay in the deal… and if he is not convincing then what does that tell you about the likely outcome for you?

Another use of the Seller’s objection is at the end of the process. You want to test the commitment of the sponsor to the deal… you want to find out if they are prepared to fight for the sign-off and obtain the necessary authority to proceed to closure.

The Seller opens the conversation… “Mr Buyer, I understand that you are going to the board to obtain the sign off”

“Yes, tomorrow” replies Mr Buyer.

“Good… however, I was wondering what your back up plan would be if you don’t get the go ahead?” replies Mr Seller.

“I don’t need one because I will get the sign off” replies the Buyer in a confident tone.

“ah”, replies the Seller, “but what would happen if it does not go your way?”

“It will go my way” replies a slightly irritated Buyer.

“I understand that, but just humour me… what would you do if you don’t get the go ahead” responds the Seller in a quiet, but determined and measured voice.

“I will… get… the sign off” replies the Buyer, who is clearly becoming increasingly irritated by the consistent questioning of his ability to achieve the sign off.

“I know you will, but just hypothetically, what would you do if for whatever reason the board doesn’t agree… what would your plan be then?” retorts the Seller in a calm, but inquisitive manner.

“I’m not telling you again” replies a very angry Buyer, “I will get the sign off, and if you push any more the deal is off” fumes the buyer by now is red in the face and blowing steam out of his nostrils and ears in clear indignation of the further constant questioning of his ability.

“Ok, I believe you will” replies the happy and smiling Seller.

What’s happened here is the Seller is using a type of objection by pushing the Buyer to the point of anger to test his desire and motivation to get agreement at the board. If for whatever reason the Buyer is not given the go ahead at the board meeting, what do you believe his commitment will be to push back?… after all, he has fumed and shouted at the seller not to question his ability to get the sign off… and if he goes back and says he did not get it, then it is egg on face while eating humble pie… not pleasant… and so the Buyer has no choice but to fight his corner!

If however, during the questioning process the Buyer capitulated and agreed that he had a back up plan then the Seller knows the Buyer is not going to fight for the ‘yes’ decision as he has a plan to fall back on… and after hearing the plan the Seller would say…

“I understand the plan, but you know what?… I don’t think we are fully ready to take this to the board yet… we will probably only get one chance and we need to be fully prepared for all outcomes… let’s work on this deal a little longer to ensure when we do go we will get success”

Clearly the Seller needs to work on the Buyer to make sure he is fully committed to achieving the ‘yes’ decision.

So, there we go… two different ways the Seller can use an objection!

Popularity: 8% [?]