Since when did sales come down to the fine art of improving your quarterly performance?  To improving your quota by that 4% margin of victory. Since when did we start looking back (on the worst sales year of 3 generations) to decide whether we were getting the right results. Since when did we fool ourselves [...]

Everyone wants to differentiate themselves in the eyes of buyers. Yet they often pick the most conventional, beige, bland and predictable ways of demonstrating it. They pick the latest fads or are forced to do something that once worked, 15 years ago, for their manager and is now labelled as a “methodology”.

There are some great suggestions out there, for example sending hand written notes to prospects and clients as a means of standing out in the digital age. Another maybe connecting with all your prospects and clients on LinkedIn. There so many great things one can do, but I think the real differentiator is not what you do, but how consistently you do it.

What happens with a lot of these initiatives, is sales people see an idea or a practice, they say “Wow, I’m gonna do that and make some more money.”  For the next two three weeks or so they stick with it, then the newness fades, it’s another thing to do, it becomes work, and they stop doing it.  What also fades along with the new habit, is the enthusiasm you had, the spark that something new brings, and the way you look at your work, customers, and selling.

So while you try something new every couple of months, your customers see another sales rep who moves from one trend to another, and just as he is getting hand written thank you cards from everyone all of a sudden, they all or most seem to stop at the same time.  The one that gets noticed as being different is the one that sticks with it.

So if you want to be different focus on two things.   The first is to be selective and thoughtful about the things you do that are visible to the buyer or impacts them.  While shock and awe have their place in sales, their impact is temporary, like a sugar high, clients will not remember or take into account at the time of decision.  However something as mundane as a pre-planned call schedule for the year, say a regiment of calling your top 20 clients at least once every six weeks, and then actually sticking with it and not using everyday things that should be anticipated as an excuse as to why it didn’t get done, gets noticed.  The goal is to have buyers say “Now, I don’t see others do it like that”.

Second, once you have selected these things, the real differentiator comes by sticking with it, do it as planned consistently and across the board.  Again, I want to stress, this is not doing things for the sake of doing them, they should add to the sale, but if you focus on the right things and keep doing them, you will be seen as different.  As you may have read in my other postings I have a clearly laid out contact strategy for prospects; a combination of touch-points that include e-mail, calls, voice mail, and now a few other medium for messaging prospects.  Based on predetermined rules and factor, they get a regularly scheduled contact from Renbor in the process of nurturing.  I regularly get feedback that one of the reasons I finally get the appointment and subsequent deal, is that I was consistent, respected the buyers timeline, but did go away like my competitors; not only do clients like that, they want their teams doing that.

If you start a blog or other interaction with the market, stick with it.  I see a lot of people start a blog, at first posting a couple of times a week, once a month, every six weeks, last May,…  So what ever it is you are going to do, the real difference is are you going to do it consistently and long enough to matter to the buyer.

Popularity: 11% [?]

A lot of sales people and organizations talk about a sales process, but many really don’t get it, and as a result end up doing more harm than good through the motion of implementing one.

A good sales process is a series of logical steps, executed in sequential order that help the buyer and seller go from point A – current state to point B – desired state.  Each step of the process needs to have specific attributes, specific actions tied to specific objective, with clear measures and rules for advancement to the next stage.  I guess you can say it is a discipline, and I guess you can say that discipline is the key reason why implementation is difficult.

Study after survey shows that the number one concern for sales and corporate leaders is the lack of a clearly defined sales process, or adherence to it by their sales teams.  My experience has taught me that the lack of adherence is to some degree a lack of understanding of the function and benefit of having and executing a sales process, but more frequently the lack of discipline needed and involved in consistently executing it and well.  Putting in terms many in sales can relate to, it is one thing to be able to swing a golf club, it is entirely different to do it well consistently, from how you address the ball to the follow through.

There are a number of reasons for this, I’ll touch on a couple.  One thing is that it takes time not only to develop the right process for your type of sale or product, but to then translate it in a way that can be transferred clearly to others.  Again, the key phrase “clearly defined sales process”, which is different than something that loosely fits the definition or just looks like a sales process.  I was once interviewing a VP of Sales at a prominent information provider, and I asked him if they had a clearly defined process that their teams can follow and execute?  He responded “Sure, we use Salesforce.com!”  Don’t get me wrong, I think Salesforce.com is a great tools, but it is not a process, it took me several meetings to get this VP to see the difference and the complementary nature of the two, I showed him several different sales processes our clients have integrated into SF.com, but the tool is not the process.  In fact one the common set back for sales organizations is when they roll out an application, CRM, in the hope of dealing with the problems a lack of process had brought on, only to discover that their issues due to a lack of process have now been automated but not eliminated.

Without a process things like forecasting, resource allocation and other critical things are always out of alignment.  A sales process allows an objective approach to a an area usually over run and mired down in subjectivity.  The A types always forecast from the gut and ego, and everything “gonna close boss, I got it under control” to the conservative rep who looks at the same scenario and forecasts it at 10% till the contract is signed.  Having clearly defined steps, attributes, actions and rule for moving from one stage to the next, with predetermined probabilities, removes this tribal dance and allows you to focus on the one important thing, what do you have to do to move or close this thing and when will that happen; no stories no lies.

Once you can do that you can evolve to where probabilities can be eliminated, and forecasts are based on the state of things as they are not a finger in the air.  I have worked with one organization in the States, that had such a tight t discipline that they had no weightings in their forecasts, everything was based on actions completed and time frames.  Sort of like Zen and the Art of Forecasting.

The lack of discipline comes from two factors.  First is a lack of accountability, not just from the front line, but management.  After all, good sales people are like the “last cowboys” the “real entrepreneurs”, managing them is like “herding cats”.  Some managers are reluctant to enforce a process for fear of offending their stars or pressuring some of their weaker reps, “who are nice guys, you know”.  Bullshit.  Would Phil Jackson tolerate that from Bryant or anyone else that wasn’t following the plan?  The opposite is true, when you have a clearly defined non-negotiable sales process, all the reps do better, and if a super star doesn’t want to line up trade him, because all it takes is one to buck the process and the other will follow.

The second reason is that most organizations tend to promote from within, “hey Johnny, you’re a great salesmen, let’s ruin your life and make you a manager” (See Sales Management: Reward or Punishment?).  With that they ensure another generation of people who have not been trained to adhere to or manage a process.  I would argue that successful managers manage the process not individuals, no process, and the whole thing falls apart.

To the defence of the sales organizations out there, they often do not get much help or support from other parts of their company.  They are allow if not encouraged to just go out there and drive revenue.  Other departments in the same company would not be allowed to function without a process, there would certainly be some intervention, or a large engagement by a consulting firm to ensure everything was document, and just right.  Not so for sales, big consultancies, comment, but they rarely deal with or help in the development or implementation of a process, but they do for procurement or logistics or other groups in the company.

That’s my rant, according to my process, I must wrap up now, but in closing I will say that most sales people and managers are intelligent and want to succeed, and once they are shown a proper process, and its positive impact on their income vis-à-vis the effort involved, they do make an effort to get on board.

Popularity: 10% [?]

Far too many salespeople turn to their boss or company for their personal motivation to be successful in sales. This is a huge mistake, as salespeople need to be responsible for their own motivation if they want to become successful.

You might have had a sales manager or boss that was an excellent motivator in your past or you might even have one in the present. While there is nothing wrong this, you can never count on it or expect it from your management team. Just like your success, you must own and be responsible for keeping yourself motivated.

A lack of motivation is usually the result of not having goals. If you have been planning goals for your sales career and still find yourself not having the proper motivation, chances are that your goals are either too obtainable or they are not very realistic within the timeframe you have given them. Perhaps it is time that you access your current goals and put some time aside for goal setting.

Having a career in sales is a difficult. Anybody who has worked in sales capacity knows that very well. Even the most optimistic and successful salespeople wake up to days where it is hard for them to get motivated. But make no mistake; these same sales superstars understand that their motivation is their own responsibility.

Putting your own success, motivation, or happiness in the hands of others is always a bad idea. It is like the voter who relies on a politician to bring them economic prosperity within his or her term. It could be the husband or wife who relies completely on their partner to make them happy. In the real world it just doesn’t happen, that same voter, husband, or wife will always be disappointed with the results, if there are any to speak of in the first place. When we decide to own responsibility for ourselves, we take action. And action will eventually lead to the success we are on the path to finding.

Popularity: 12% [?]