Sales reviews, the bane of everyone’s lives. The sales manager has so many to do. The sales professional has to answer so many intrusive questions… and it all takes so long!

As the old adage goes… ‘time is money’… and as so eloquently expressed by the Romans all those years ago… ‘tempus fugit’… so time flies and the problem that causes is amply summed up by another old adage… ’so much to do, so little time’.

So, in the spirit of time is money, time flies and so much to do… then the shorter you can keep your sales reviews the happier everyone is going to be. Therefore, here are the only 3 questions that you need to ask…

1. Show me how you are going to make your number.
Following our pipeline methodology makes asking this question really easy. The sales exec is either going to show you how the number is going to be made, in which case move on to question 2, or not. If not, find out what they are doing to close the gap.

2. Show me how you are going to close your committed deals.
The committed deals make up the forecast and follow the binary method of forecasting – these are the deals the sales exec says will close. So, make sure the close plan is robust for these deals, everything else is incidentally because if these deals close the target is achieved… don’t waste time on incidentals!

3. Show me how you are filling your pipeline.
Lastly, s sustainable pipeline requires a full sales funnel. What is the sales exec doing to proactively fill the funnel? An empty funnel will lead to problems later.

There you are, 3 simple questions to help manage your team… I could have written a lot more, but kept this post short as time is money!

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Deep sea fishing… not my sport, if fishing is a sport, but I have now been out a couple of times by the persuasion of a good friend of mine… and enjoyed it… doing nothing… but I did catch a nice Sea Bass for my tea the last time I went out.

However, one thing, other than the Sea Bass, that I took away from the experience was that deep sea fishing is a good way of explaining what territory management is all about… which is very helpful to me right now because I’m currently in the middle of training a group of pre-sales consultants in the art and science of territory management… these guys have individual sales targets and their management want them more involved in managing their business… helps keep the regular sales guys focused…

…so how to explain territory management?

Deep sea fishing is about knowing where to fish… knowing what fish will be about… knowing what bait to use… and using a little bit of skill to hook the fish. Just going out on the water and dropping your line over the side with any old bait in the hope that you will catch something will not produce the best results.

Within territory management we complete the territory analysis… which is just like knowing where to fish. Understanding the vertical market and current issues is like knowing what fish are likely to be about. Developing your solution discussion points is like knowing what bait to use and the skill required to hook the fish is like developing the entry strategy into the account.

Having hooked the fish requires more skill to land it. The bigger the fish the tougher it’s going to be to land… but that’s an analogy for deal management!

If you want to mange your business… know where to fish… know what to fish for… know the best bait to use… and develop the skill to hook the fish… simple!

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How many accounts do you look after? How many of these require a strategic account plan? Are you based in the office or at the client’s office? What are you looking to achieve from developing a strategic account plan? In my experience, many If not all of, the books on strategic account planning go in to far too much detail for most sales people. In a previous job I had to design and deliver strategic account planning to a number of sales people in a large telecommunication company. My client had read up on the matter and wanted to jointly develop a SAM plan for the company. They saw the implementation of SAM plans as key to getting more out their customer base.

Even with desperately trying to get them to reduce the content of the plan, the resultant program was overkill, the plan was too big and everyone had too many customers to deal with to find the time or inclination for strategic account planning. If you have one account and you are based at the client’s site along with a whole team of people from your company then you probably have the relationship and the account to make strategic account planning worthwhile. Otherwise you need a scaled down version of the strategic account plan. You need something light and manageable and something that is going to add value to both you and your client.

We see account planning as a process of proactively identifying areas of the client’s business that you can add value. The client reads the plan and should be impressed with what you are looking to do for them. Therefore, it needs to be written with that in mind. Our Account Plan template is as light as we could have got – 4 pages plus the relationship analysis map – more detail can always be added. In addition, depending on the number of accounts you look after and what you are looking to achieve you may also need to move above account planning and look at territory planning. Again we have simple tools for this, ones that sales people find easy to use and they provide great benefit to them.

In summary, my experience says be careful that strategic account management is not overkill. The lighter, simpler and easier you can make it the more benefit it will deliver.

If you want a copy of our Account Plan template or Territory Analysis then feel free to contact me and I’ll email you a copy.

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All great salespeople begin as great question askers. Small companies that ask great questions can beat big companies that don’t

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:-

1. Provide you with the opportunity to help crystallise the prospect’s thinking.

2. 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.

3. Allow you to gather vital information about the sale.

4. Enable you to control the meeting effectively.

5. Help minimise harmful misunderstandings that can occur.

6. Help reduce the resistance to the sale.

Here is an example of the power of questioning. This is an exercise we use in our workshops to demonstrate process and the power of questioning. Opening and closing a deal in 4 easy questions!

You will need a volunteer to work on….

a) Ask your volunteer what they would like to own that they do not already have. (use the word own, not buy)

b) Ask them what owning this product would do for them. How their life would be improved by owning this product. (they are telling you the benefits to them)

c) Ask them how much they would be prepared to pay for this product – name their own price (they set the price point)

d) Ask them – that if you had this product and you could sell it to them for the price mentioned would you have a deal (the close – and they should say yes)

The power of this simple set of questions is that you have conducted a successful sell. You have achieved it by only asking questions. The customer has done most of the talking. You have sold the product and not mentioned anything about it… you just asked questions - it’s what good selling is all about.

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This was a question that was posed by Jeff Blackwell of www.salespractice.com in his forum. It related to an upcoming book on selling by Paul McCord. Shown below is my initial response to the question. Paul McCord had something to say about my response! If you follow the link to the forum then you will see the full thread.
My answer…

In order to answer the question correctly we need to define the context of the strength and weaknesses and also the environment in which the selling tales place. For example, retail sales versus the complex sale. Someone with fantastic retail strengths won’t find a process that takes advantage of these that can be effectively used in the complex sale. In order to survive in this environment the retailer would have to pick up additional processes that they have not used before and therefore by definition they won’t yet be strengths.

To keep things simple, let me answer the question in terms of the complex sale.

There are basically two types of sales approach required – hunting (new business) and farming (account management). You will find people who are good at both, but mainly you will find people who prefer one or the other. Their strengths are in either hunting or farming. At the macro level the processes for these types of selling are different and therefore, in this context, you can have processes that take advantages of ones strengths.

However, within any salespersons remit are three basic elements to the job. They have to Fill their pipeline, they have to Manage their pipeline and they have to Close their pipeline – Fill, Manage and Close. Everything they need to do summed up into three words! Now if we look at strengths, I’ve known sales professionals who are fantastic closers, but useless at finding new opportunities. Equally I’ve worked with sales people who are incredible at getting in and opening new business opportunities, but absolutely could not close an open door to save their lives. In one case I’m thinking about, I split the sales role. One person opened and others closed. It was far from ideal, but we did use the strengths and only allowed them to use part of the process that matched their strengths. However, this was a one-off and I would not like to do it again as it caused too many problems… so overall, you can’t have weaknesses in the sales process and to be effective all three areas have to be strengths. You can’t really on being a good closer if you have nothing to close!

Within the sales role there are also different styles. The first one I’ll talk about is Reactive selling versus Proactive. I’m sure all sales professionals can do reactive, but many can’t do proactive. Proactive is about filling the pipeline. In a buoyant market most people will only have time for reactive selling and this may well hide their weakness of not being able to fill their pipeline. It may also hide their weaknesses in managing and closing… as they are basically oreder taking. So the strengths may be that the person is good at talking to people, good at treating them well, good at making them feel welcome – all good traits, but these strengths without the strengths in Fill, Manage and Close will not be enough when the market gets tougher.

The final part I would like to cover is Product Pitching versus Consultative Selling. You can follow a process for pitching products. You can also follow a process for consultative selling. Product pitching will be primarily aimed at the user, whereas consultative selling should be aimed at the CxO. Consultative selling will involve talking business benefit, results and what you will be doing to help the customer meet their corporate objectives. Product pitching will cover features and options of the product. Product pitching has no place in the complex sale, yet so many professionals engaged in this type of selling can only do this – this is their strength, their sales crutch and unfortunately this strength is not an advantage. What they need to do is address their weaknesses and turn the weakness into a strength – they have no option if they want to be a top performer.

So, in some long winded way what I’m saying is that in certain context there are processes that take account of ones strengths, but only in the narrow context of hunting and farming. For all other aspects of selling you have to be equally strong and if you have weaknesses these will need to be addressed. As I mentioned it is no good relying on fantastic closing skills if you have nothing to close!

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Selling is a profession and like all other professions it has a public image. Unfortunately, the public image of selling is often not good. Most people do not see selling as a good profession. They do not feel it is an honourable profession. Most of us will have heard people say this or similar things about salespeople. However, the entire well being of a company is dependant on sales ability to sell. The nation is dependant on businesses ability to sell… it’s how the governments generate tax income. Therefore, the wealth of the nation is dependent on selling. All our jobs are dependent on selling. Should we therefore not start seeing selling in a better light?

Selling has a bad name because we can all stereotype poor sales people. These people try and sell us something we don’t probably need. Many of us may well think of the second-hand car salesperson, trying to sell us a car that either does not meet our needs and / or is sub-standard. This is selling’s equivalent of the drug takers in sport. They are out to cheat. However, often when we see them, it does not feel right; something about them does not ring true. Our subconscious is at work picking up the signals, we find ourselves walking away, and our experience is stored in our memory, which we use to generalise about the image of salespeople. Generalisation is good, it’s how we learn, but like most things it can also be bad.

We may like to generalise about salespeople, but what we often don’t realise is that all of us are salespeople. Everyone sells. Even if we do not do it for a living, we still sell. Going for a job interview is selling, you are selling yourself. Every time you share your views, your beliefs you are exerting influence and influencing is selling. You are selling your ideas. Therefore, we are all salespeople in one form or another. So give those beleaguered sales people a break, you do it, they do it for a living and the wealth of the nation is dependent on them!

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Research.

Research - the one thing will make the biggest difference. Research your customer and show them the respect they deserve. If you don’t understand their business you won’t have much luck selling at the CxO level. Of all the CxOs, by far the most influential is obviously the CEO – so your research has to be focused on this person.

Subjects that are close to the CEO’s heart… it’s what I call the CEO Creed.

C - customers. Retention, development and acquisition. How to get more, how to sell more into existing customers and how to keep out the competition.

R - revenue. What’s stopping them generating more? What opportunities are there? What are the threats? Look at customers, markets, products, competition and the economic and political landscape.

E - effectiveness or efficiency. What can be done to improve effectiveness or efficiency? Are there any current blockers?

E – expense. What can be done to cut unnecessary expense from the organisation?

D – disaster. What disaster could befall the organisation and what can be done to lower the risk of such happenings? Business continuity is an important aspect of business planning.

If you are selling to a public quoted company then many of the answers will be found on the organisation’s own web site. Look at investor relations pages.

Research the CREED and identify the potential issues. For each issue make sure you have the evidence. Now list all the problems that could arise from the issue. Look at these and decide how you can help. Generate a list of great questions that will get the CEO thinking. Now decide if you want to pursue a meeting – will your effort result in a sales lead that could turn into a real opportunity? Finally, if you get that far then decide how you are going to progress.

If you follow the above you will have plenty to talk to the CEO about and you may even find that it is not that difficult to do.

Research, the difference that will make the difference!

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I was in conversation with my mother earlier today… she’s in her early 70’s… and she asked how the business was going and so I told her about the new orders we had just landed. “Wow”… she said, and obviously wanting to show genuine interest she followed by saying in all innocence… “… and did they just give you the business or did you have to beg?” She was serious about the begging sales technique, although I don’t think it’s what she meant, although it’s an interesting thought. Bless her!

So, after careful consideration, you may find that if what you are doing to drum up business is not working as well as you had hoped, try begging!

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I’ve just got back from a coaching session with one of my customers. I have some one on one coaching time with their sales execs. One of the directors was saying when they run their sales meetings they get each sales exec to talk about their up and coming actions for the week – it’s to let everyone in the team know what they are doing, showing they are busy… and basically that’s what they are doing showing they are busy, rather than talk about what they are going to achieve. The actions are such things such as posting proposals, making calls, reviewing deal plans, etc. However, what are these actions achieving? It’s not really discussed and the meetings just don’t feel right… this is an easy fix.

From now on we agreed they are going to talk about outcomes – not just any outcomes, but customer outcomes – what has the customer agreed to do. So, now instead of talking about what you are going to do, tell the team about what you aim to achieve – tell them… “These are the half dozen outcomes I am going to achieve this week…” – all customer focused.

Action – what you agreed to do.

Outcome – what the customer has agreed to do.

So, do you want actions or outcomes? – Your choice.

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I have to admit, I find it surprising at just how many companies are now looking at their green credentials and making it an essential part of their corporate policy. It’s not that they should not be, it’s just that there seems to be quite a few ‘coming out’ as one may say. These companies are clearly looking at and working towards making their organisations carbon neutral. These policies are very much on the chairman’s and CEO’s agenda.

So what are the savvy sales executives doing?… looking at how their solutions can contribute to helping their customers become carbon neutral. If you can do this you can certainly grab the attention of most people in the company. It is also surprising at just how some solutions can contribute to reducing carbon emissions. For example, if you provide solutions that help people work from home – then you are reducing carbon emission. If you can help reduce any form of travel then carbon emission is surly reduced?

Now, I have to admit I’m not sure just how working out your carbon footprint really works. Sure, work at home and you reduce carbon emission from your car, but if you travelled by train, how much carbon emission can you claim to reduce? Also, if you stay at home during the winter you will probably need the heating on and more electric, etc. However, at the end of the day whatever carbon you do or don’t reduce, the more people that look into this subject the greater the awareness – and that can only be good.

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