salespodder: sales blog with musings and tips from inside sales

I had to run through some old notes from a few years ago earlier this afternoon to find something on how seismic shifts in sales strategy can be made to happen.  I came across notes from two Directors, speaking at company sales conventions.  Both were done around the same time in I think, 2003.  One was from Novar, an industrial group now gobbled up by Honeywell, and the other was part of virus scanners MessageLabs.

Both had used the Sigmoid curve to try and show their charges that change was coming, was necessary and needed to be embraced - or else!

I recall having a peak into this at Uni (years ago, mind!) and I realised only one of them (the ex-Novar guy) really ‘got it’. 

Sigmoid in a sales context to me is all about realising where you’ve gone as far as you can, in the manner in which you’ve been going along.   And now a change is needed to keep going upwards.  Classic examples include when you’ve proved yourself somewhere over the long-term, yet performance tails off, as you’re thinking about other things, so now need the new challenge of a different environment.

There’s loads of websites where you can gather more info on Sigmoid - I’ve put a couple of links below - but to me, it’s all about recognising that there is Energy available for Change.  How can you harness how you’ve developed so far to re-invigorate, and keep moving on up?  It’s recognising this optimum point at which to change for which we can thank Sigmoid:

CEO Refresher insight

Charles Handy’s view 

For the past few years I’ve known a fella called Mike Witchell, a sales manager at one of my customers.  He’s one of the good guys, albeit with a dangerous obsession in motorcycle racing at the weekends.  I’ve just come across an old email of his explaining how he runs with a philosophy he calls ”future history”.  It’s about writing down where you desire to be in 5 years (or 1 or 2 or 3 - up to you) and then stating the steps you need to take to get there….. then putting it in your diary and just getting on with it. He then went on about “Goals in writing are dreams with deadlines”.  This reminded me of the famous Wharton Business School survey, when in 1958, all their MBA intake were asked who’d written down their financial life goals.  Only a couple had.  And would you believe it, when re-assessing in 1973, they were worth more than the rest of the class combined.

For the record, here are some more of Mike’s thoughts:

• Change your thoughts and you will change your attitude
• Failure is success if we learn from it
• The ability to ask the right question is more than half the battle of finding the right answer
• Cheerfulness is the atmosphere under which all things thrive
• One of life’s little ironies is that when you finally master a tough job, you make it look easy
• Don’t ever over promise and under deliver, how about under promising and over delivering?
• Nothing makes a person more productive than the last minute
• The problem with waiting until tomorrow is that when it finally arrives it is called today
• Each failure gets us an opportunity to take one step closer to success
• Attitudes are contagious, is yours worth catching?
• Some people are like a wheelbarrow, they don’t go any further unless they are pushed
• You must break the chains of the past to experience the freedom of the future
• There is not a right way to do a wrong thing
• There are many keys to success but one sure key to failure is trying to please everybody all of the time
• A true friend is someone who is there for you when they would rather be anywhere else
• Big mistake - insisting that a thing is impossible because we cannot accomplish it
• Every person is self made but only the successful ones admit it
• Life can be like a really good book, the further you get into it the more it begins to make sense
• Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it, so it is with you, you are in charge of your attitude
• Aggressive behaviour is most often motivated by fear, assertive behaviour is most often motivated by confidence
• The best opportunity for success lies within the person not the job
• There is little you can learn by doing nothing
• The best way of getting to the top is by getting to the bottom of things
• Some people will find fault as if there was a reward for it
• It takes less to keep an old customer satisfied than to get a new customer interested
• A wish changes nothing - a decision changes everything
• The error of the past is the wisdom and success of the future
• Challenges can be stepping stones or stumbling blocks. It’s just a matter of how you view them.

Just watched a reality TV show (Alan Sugar’s Apprentice) pitting two teams against each other to sell cars in an enormous London car supermarket,  They got initial training from an expert sales manager.  His most-used phrase ended up being “End Of”, as he kept having to give bollockings and when the novices tried to answer back, this signified the ‘end of’ the debate!  He gave good insight into something I thought was well put.

He identified 4 stages of a sale.  The one that’s interesting is the second, after the ‘meet and greet’ (when a prospect walks on to the forecourt and you engage in initial chit-chat).  It’s Qualification.

Qualification, according to the expert, is the single most important part of the process.  Why spend time with anyone who’s not really looking?  The phrase “tyre-kicker” springs to mind …  

The Three Big Questions recommended were: 

1  What car are you looking for today? - their answer shows how serious they are, as apparently car buyers that will buy are more likely to if they already know what they want.

2  What you driving at the moment? - think how different it is from what they seek, and if quite a step up/down, understand reasons why.

3  Looking to part exchange? - and this could lead you straight into negotiations…

The message is, that qualification is vital, so work out what questions rapidly qualify a prospect.

I was at a sales meeting of a company with 21 reps the other day.  There’s a legacy battle going on there, as historically many of the reps were actually Agents.  That is, non-salaried employees, paid on a commission-only basis for their specific, exclusive territory.

Now, you’d think that sounds entrepreneurial, and as such, the Agents would be mega-motivated.  Well, the opposite was more often the case.  They whinge, moan and belly-ache, expecting the world to owe them a living.  And quite rightly, the fella in charge was getting rid of all but a couple.

The venomously destructive and miserably negative nature of their comments, reminded me of something I picked up in a sales call a couple of years ago.  They were a printer reseller, with a fairly dynamic owner-manager, yet with an inappropriate person in charge of their 30-strong telephone-based sales team.

The Boss recounted a story he’d come across about a Canadian insurance business.  They could never quite seem to get a handle on the right recruitment policies.  They spent huge sums of money on different approaches, all to no avail.

Then they pyscho-analysed all their top performers.  They discovered that they all shared one trait; Optimism.

They then experimented by recruiting on this one characteristic alone.  And would you believe it, everything improved.  Wonderful.

Came across this technique during the week which I think’s got legs.  A fella called Dylan Jones was the only guy out of his 20-odd strong team that wasn’t pitching the new wonder-product they had by mere unique features and benefits.  All the other guys are saying ‘look at this great thing it does, no-one else has this’ and so on.

Without needing to go into detail about a potentially technical product, suffice to say Dylan used a tool called the ‘wheel of productivity’ to focus on where in the process a customer goes through, the new product makes impact.

So, if you’ve got a product that impacts on someone’s productivity, draw a huge circle, and plonk 2 diagonal lines across it to give 4 quarters.  Then write in all the ways your super-product helps in terms of 4 key, separate areas.  Examples include:

1. Ease Of Use
2. Quality
3. Throughput
4. Reliability

I’m really enjoying some work I’m doing with a tool company at the moment.  From a seemingly remote North Welsh town, they make and distribute anything from pliers, trowels, padlocks and the like.  And they’ve made market leader into electrical wholesalers, so have clearly done things pretty well.  Their newest range has a TV ad that was filmed in Cape Town, above Long Street incidentally, and is fantastic.

In speaking with over a dozen of their reps, I’ve noticed a few are still ‘old school’.   When they go into a customer (or prospect store), they often talk about how wonderful a particular new widget is.  Yet there’s a hard core of reps there, that actually don’t talk about individual products at all.  They go in talking about things like:

• Merchadising (display) stands
• Packaging colour
• Range breadth and depth
• Service level superiority
• Simple ordering and maintenance
• Overall quality/reliability

And for one product group in particular, one guy has latched onto this, and does half the entire firm’s business in that area.  It’s a lovely demonstration that you must remember to back away and pitch the bigger picture once in a while.

Working on improving the communication around a global sales team earlier in the week, I was reminded of a terrific story from a former sales guy.

The current President of this €150m business, a winner called Mark Kelly, started out life selling plumbing equipment.  He took particular pleasure in beating one specific competitor.  They were not only his biggest threat, but also the nastiest.  You’ll know the sort; ethics fly out the window, bully customers, lie about their product and yours.  Anyhow, he knew where their regional office was.

A vital aspect of his personal motivation to beat them, meant that he would often rock up to their place, once his daily rounds were over, and simply park outside.  He’d have his then favourite tunes playing volcanically loud on his car stereo.  Specifically Run Riot from Def Leppard (there’s no accounting for taste).  

If there was someone still working there, lights still on, he’d be wound up to work harder over the next few days, until he’d arrive to see in fact it was he that’d worked later.  And would you know it – he displaced the competitor from nearly all his accounts….

The lesson for me, is that this shows a particular passion and drive.  I try to identify these traits in every sales guy I take on.  It’s something that really has to come from within.  You can be told that this is what sets sales people apart, but how do you start to live and breathe the philosophy?  If you do, then you too will undoubtedly become a winner.

The start of salespodder’s jargon-buster. 

There is a paucity of reading matter for the dedicated sales enthusiast.  Rags aimed at reps tend to veer towards one of two extremes; either they’re peddling the American self-help religions, or dumb-down to talk about gadgets and motors.

So it is a pleasure to find that the best magazine for sellers in America, is also online.  Add this to your Favourites, and every now and then click onto Selling Power.

Registration is free, and this gets you all the latest issue’s articles.  If you don’t want to do this, then there’s half-a-dozen items that change daily you can still view that I quite like, including tips for the day and cartoons.

When it comes to the pieces themselves, some are indeed of a high, broadsheet calibre.  I dip in now and then and tend to read the sales strategy ones which are pretty decent.

All in all, it’s got good info and I’d recommend a visit.  Enjoy

Have A Dedicated Person at Helm

It is essential you have someone who’s primary responsibility is to oversee daily maintenance and use of your system. This person need not be as high as the Chief Exec, what is important is that they understand why the system is going in and what’s wonderful about it.

You should be aware that you may well be creating a new role here. Apply some thought to exactly which person will do this for you. Unless someone is super-keen or related to Clark Kent, giving the role to a quota-carrier would probably be too onerous a burden. Equally, a Sales Support role from administration ranks could find rapid encroachment from the pressures of other tasks that crop up daily.

Think carefully about the precise nature of the tasks this person would need to perform. These tell you the kind of qualities you should be on the look out for:

Teacher

They will need to learn the software inside out and be able to field calls from forgetful salesreps asking which buttons to press to do a particular task.

Motivator

They will also be required to inspire use of the system. Their passion for what it can do must come across. They will have to advocate the many merits of the system, as they will need to motivate reluctant salesreps to tinkle the ivories. The truth will be many salesreps cannot set their Video Recorder Timers, so are bound to feel intimidated by new software at work. Also, many may suspect the breath of Big Brother frostily blowing on their necks. Surely the kit was bought for more than merely policing potential slopers?

Diplomat

Many projects can stall because no-one tries to move a particular issue forward. The person you need will note that a log-jam has occurred and gently nudge the relevant people (usually from other departments) to help everything along.

Dog Catcher

Amazingly, nobody ever uses new software. In fact, my personal experience is that the take up of software is remarkably similar to the proportions of salesrep-success-o-meter; where 10% of your salesreps will be over target, 20% not far off, 50% average performers and 20% no-hopers. IT history is littered with huge purchase failures because no one has actually used the software bought. So it is the person’s job at The Helm to round up all the strays and makes sure they behave themselves in the pound!

My advice would be to re-arrange your support staff to create the ’space’ for someone to do this job. The best person for it being someone who hopes to move into sales themselves one day.