“How do you make an orange?”

When I ask business owners and groups of sales professionals that question, I get a lot of different responses (as well as the occasional mystified look):

“I buy them at the store.”

“I pick them off a tree.”

“I start with a seed.”

“So what you’re telling me,” I reply, “is that you have no idea how to make an orange.”  After a few nervous glances around the room, everyone usually admits that, in fact, they do not.  I’m sure you feel the same, but don’t worry: neither does anyone else.  Even an orange farmer will tell you that all he can do is plant the seed and water the tree, then step back and let nature take its course.  That’s a bit of an oversimplification, obviously, but you get the point.  Unless you have access to a genetics lab and several million dollars, making oranges is impossible; all you can do is initiate and support the process that enables oranges to grow.

The same is true of sales: a sale (a new contract, client or other piece of business) is the result, the fruit, of a process.  And, as with oranges, you can’t make the sale happen; all you can do is initiate and manage the process.  That may be a little different from what you’re used to hearing from your sales manager.  After all, the majority of sales managers and executives are concerned with only one thing: trying to make the sale happen. They talk about “closing the sale”, “getting the yes” and “making the deal”.  Those are all different ways of implying that you can somehow learn the magical art of making oranges.

I’d like to challenge you stop trying to make oranges.  You can’t do it, but don’t feel bad: neither can your manager.  I want you to shift your focus, instead, to the science of planting seeds and watering trees and let the oranges, the sales, come as a result of a well-managed process.  What is the process?

First, you have to plant seeds.  If you want to harvest a good crop, you have to be careful about how you do this.  You need the right kind of soil, and you have to give attention to planting in a location that will get the right amount of sunlight.  The same is true with selling.  You want to be careful about how you plant your seeds through your prospecting efforts.  Make sure that you are prospecting in the right places and in front of the right people.  Just casting your seeds far and wide is wasteful; focus your efforts on your target market and watch your results soar.  Take your cue from the orange farmer: the planting phase is well-thought out and highly organized.  Your efforts to plant seeds should be, as well.

Second, you must water the tree!  This is really where you have the most control over the outcome of your harvest.  Again, you have to understand what the right amount of water is for the kind of crop you want to see grow: too little water is not good, but neither is too much.  You want to find the “just right” level of watering and stick with it.  The same is true of your prospects: too little follow up isn’t good, but neither is too much.  You have to find the “just right” combination of amount and content of follow up and stick with it.  Take your cue from your prospects on this one; if you have a properly developed sense of awareness, you should be able to sense when a prospect is feeling either neglected or smothered.

This phase of the process is where you begin to develop a relationship with your prospects.  You do this by asking the right questions, questions that not only help you identify the needs of your prospect but that begin to build rapport between the two of you.  This rapport building is essential to the success of your process; without it, the likelihood of your gaining a customer is significantly diminished.  This is also where you will be presenting solutions that meet the needs of the prospect and doing so in a way that makes sense to their particular way of processing information and making decisions.  Properly executed, these two steps, coupled with carefully planned prospecting will almost always lead to a bumper crop of sales.

All of which brings us, logically, to the next step in the process: your harvest, the legendary “closing of the deal”.  First of all, I prefer to think of this as conversion, not closing.  “Closing” carries a note of finality that is inappropriate to most selling situations; what you are actually doing is converting a prospect into a client, and hopefully one that will buy from you (and refer other business to you) for years to come.

After all the work you’ve put into the process, this should actually be the easiest step, much like picking a ripe orange from a healthy tree.  You simply ask the prospect, “Does this make sense to you?”  If you’ve followed the process correctly, the answer will almost always be “Yes.”  At this point, all that remains to be done is the paperwork…after which you can enjoy a well-deserved taste of all those oranges!

Happy selling!

By Jerry Kennedy

Inside Out Business Solutions

Check out my Motivation 101 blog!

I also have a fantastic Motivational Audio Program.

I am a big believer in the ‘Stockdale Paradox’ of
balance. To learn more, click the link
below to read the story from Jim Collins book, ‘Good to Great’, on Admiral Jim
Stockdale’s experience as a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War: http://www.jimcollins.com/lib/goodToGreat/ch4_p83.html

As a sales manager, do a self evaluation to determine if you
are more of a hugger or puncher. Ask
your trusted advisers both internally and externally to get their feedback on
your management skills. Then push your
personal comfort zones. If you are in
your face person, work on your listening and compassion skills. If you are nice guy, work on making both you
and your sales executives feel uncomfortable when doing your next deal or
forecast review.

As sales managers, we are in the people business. At my company, we are a software company but
in reality we are a human resources company.
It takes people to sell, develop, install, and support the
software. Being a sales manager is very
rewarding, exciting, and challenging position.

About the Guest Blogger:

Shaun Priest is Vice President of Sales for an eHealth
Vendor.  Shaun has over 15 years of sales and sales management
experience.  His business blog, www.closerQ.com,
is where readers submit sales and business oriented questions.  If you
have a business question or feedback to an existing post, please email Shaun at
closerq@gmail.com.  Shaun recently
published, ‘Decisions‘, a novel about
a sales person with personal demons by Small Dogma Publisher.

Sales organizations today are faced with the challenge of reducing costs while improving results. So in a climate of trying to do more with less, your first inclination as a VP of Sales is probably not, “I need to buy some software!” But what if the technology not only looks cool, but appears to be exactly what you need to hit your number?

I recently attended the Sales 2.0 Conference in San Francisco, which was billed as an opportunity for “forward-looking sales organizations” to “improve lead management, accelerate the sales process, improve sales effectiveness, decrease costs, and enhance the customer experience.” It was a great show, with many informative customer presentations, interactive panels, and networking opportunities. (You can read some of the blogs and tweets about the show here.)  But does Sales 2.0 represent a real opportunity for sales management and reps to become more productive, close more deals faster,  better align with customer buying behavior and [insert your benefit statement here], or does it potentially represent a case Shiny Object Syndrome for your sales organization? (What I call Sales SOS.)

Sales 2.0 is defined as “bringing together customer-focused methodologies and productivity-enhancing technologies that transform selling from an art to a science.” But with so many innovative new software-as-a-service (SaaS) tools and applications to consider, which ones will really add value and where do you start? One VP of Sales I spoke to after the Sales 2.0 show, referred to the conference as, “Disneyland for sales.” While this was meant as a compliment, it did get me thinking about Shiny Object Syndrome (SOS).

Karyn Greenstreet defines SOS this way:

“It’s not quite ADD/ADHD. It’s more that a new idea captures your imagination and attention in such a way that you get distracted from the bigger picture and go off in tangents instead of remaining focused on the goal.”

So where do you go with Sales 2.0 technology? How do you move from vendor and analyst buzzwords to real productivity benefits? And how do you avoid Sales SOS when it comes to your technology investments?

Greenstreet recommends that you always begin by asking some of these SOS questions:

• Is this right for my business?
• Do I have the time, resources, energy, and money to put into this to make it successful?
• Do I have too many open projects sitting on my desk that need to be finished before I begin something new?
• Do I have the ability to finish this new project, plus implement and maintain it?
• What has to drop off my radar in order for me to start something new?

While sound advice, these questions are primarily focused on prioritization, time management, and the tried and true 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. They’ll definitely help you avoid Sales SOS, but when it comes to the right Sales 2.0 investment, you need to go further. When determining whether or not a Sales 2.0 technology or service will help your sales organization not only survive but thrive in this difficult economy, be sure to also ask the following questions:

• Will it make my sales team more effective, not just efficient?
• Will it help me focus my resources on the right opportunities? (As @gerhard20 likes to say, “Are they chasing Brinks Trucks or Garbage Trucks?”)
• Will it help me improve the accuracy and predictability of my forecast?
• Will it help us achieve our overall business objectives and improve results?

As Greenstreet concludes in her Shiny Object Syndrome article, “there’s nothing wrong with loving innovation. Just make sure you don’t lose focus on what’s most important for you, your business and your customers.”

To read more articles by Darren besure to visit the Licidera Blog.