salespodder: sales blog with musings and tips from inside sales

Anyone taking more than a passing interest in the Gordon Brown inspired gloomy UK retail expectations will know that among others, M&S are experiencing less growth than many analysts consider achievable.

Cognisant of this terrific commentator Jeff Randall devised the Pants Index.  In an allied style to the Economist’s Big Mac Index (they should really do one based on Heineken too though!), it demonstrates the alarming fortunes dip can be traced to their slashing of men’s underwear prices.

The columnist states that prices for M&S goods overall are dropping around 5%.  So, what do you do if you’re in a deflationary marketplace and have previously positioned yourself as a quality provider?  As the author so wonderfully opines about their under-performance:

“This is what happens when management elects to fight in the trenches on price, rather than moving to the high ground of quality, where John Lewis has just enjoyed another solid Christmas.”

I reckon this is going to be hugely relevant to B2B solution sales people in 2008.  Five years ago I worked alongside 150 sales people selling into the construction arena.  Their management forecast probable market shrinkage at 6% for the coming year.  So what did they do when formulating negotiating strategy?  They added as much extra value as they could muster into each deal, crucially maintaining their margins by providing bigger bangs for the client bucks.  And the results?  Well, suffice to say sales out-stripped targets leading to promotions all-round, especially for excellent boss Mark Kelly, currently pulling up tree-trunks for IMI.

It is indeed a struggle to see how M&S can make money out of enticing customers from the Primarks of the world through 60pence boxers.  But it is possible to see how solution sellers can reach targets by thinking carefully about what extra services/products they can bundle up into creating a deal…

So a choked tear replaces her husband’s focus on the Economy 15 years previously, to conjure a mass-pundit defying victory for Hillary Clinton in the second American presidential candidate eliminator.

The evolution of 24 hr new stations really does no justice at all to their potential.  They all, even today focus on the ‘chicken news’ style of first-to-market CNN.  And the sport ones are even worse.  Not even the business ones have managed to avoid the rolling-headlines malaise.  Oh for a proper news opinion and analysis channel….

Anyway, despite my belief that we should have practically zero coverage of American news in England, all London-based media outlets have gone potty over this Primaries process.  So we got to see Hillary’s Croak.  And now that such an unexpected bounce has come her way, with nothing else to chew on, the pundits so wrong before, now point to this as the turnaround clincher.

This whole panto got me thinking that salespeople rarely use emotion.  Not even the ladies.  Some of the best examples of ‘turning deals around’ I’ve been party to were because of rare insights into the soul.

• in an interview when closing, a rebuff of ‘good closing, but we’ll let you know’ was met with a job-awarding ‘it’s not interview tactics 101, I really want to know for me’
• when faced with an indecisive prospect, with head in hands, ‘I’ve put this on my forecast, wasn’t that a good idea?’
• being told the competition is gonna win on price, ‘I’d be gutted if that happened, as don’t we both agree my bid’s the best for you long-term?’ as the lower lip quivered

Every single salesperson must, at some point in their career, pick up the phone and try to persuade people that don’t want to speak to them, to do something we suggest.  The most common such discussion is probably geared towards gaining a face-to-face appointment, but several other sought outcomes exist.

I once sat in an office as a 19-year old on work experience whilst doing my first degree.  I complained that I was expected to, in effect, waste so much of my time making calls when the processes around me should be better managed to allow greater productivity from me.  Was I a touch precocious at that young age?  The top rep was sitting in the large open-plan office next to me.  He laughed at my protestations and quoting him exactly, he simply said “I’ve two fucking degrees and I still have to make [worthless] phone calls”.

I struggle to find any rep that genuinely enjoys cold-calling.  Many of the sales teams I come across acknowledge this in some way.  They put mini-incentives in place to help team-calling sessions, they wrap training and other rewards around such bouts, and they call it something wierd.  The latest name I’ve heard is ‘profiling’.  Incredible.  Cold Calling is best called cold calling, surely.  Canvassing, appointment-making, prospect research, pipeline building and I’ve even heard of warm calling.  The euphemisms are endless and ultimately (maybe even more so today given such voicemail culture predominance) irrelevant.

Just witnessed a brilliant sales lesson delivered by an old hack called John Torode (wow, tan/orange/white tie, burgundy shirt and browny school master jacket!), now of the Spectator on Sky News’ review of tomorrow morning’s papers.

Major UK energy provider npower are the first in their market to hike 08 prices already, given all sorts of contributory factors.

The headline in The Independent mentions “15% price rises”.  Dear old John scoffed at such shoddy journalism.  In his day at the paper, he’d have made sure the headline used another figure, one strangely hidden within the article prose.

“Average energy bills soar to over £1,000″ is along the lines of what he wanted to see.  I cannot believe how many times I see sales people present percentages.  Often the only real impact is from hard factual financial amounts.  Period.