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Sales philosophies and actions are at the core of good business itself
When I was at school I liked the idea of being a businessman, with high powered meetings, traveling around meeting influential people and striking deals. Aside from setting up your own business or running someone else's sales is the profession closest to that school boy's dream. Ultimately, good sales and good business require many of the same perspectives and actions.
Consider the GetAbstract summary of the book The Definitive Drucker. Drucker has often been called the Father of Modern Management, but his teachings on how to be successful in business were remarkably similar to how to be successful in sales. Consider the following 7 points that summarize his advice to business leaders:
- Be customer centric - Customers belong at the center of all business decisions. The purpose of a business is to create and serve a customer. Sales people find customers, discover and develop their issues/problems (create the customer) and then design and deliver a solution (serve the customer)
- Be selective - Decide who is your customer, and who is not your customer -- sales people decide on a target market and then carefully qualify each prospect, hand-picking the opportunities to spend time on.
- Identify and deliver value - What does your customer consider value? Possibly the ultimate question for the sales person to find the answer to.
- Be proactive - Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work; Sales is one of the most active disciplines in the modern business. As IBM's Thomas Watson said, "Nothing happens until someone sells something".
- ...but Don't confuse motion with progress. - it's all about results.
- Ask the right questions Ask probing questions to drill down to the essential issues.
- Look outside of your business -- Strong business leaders focus on the outside world, where customers and competitors are. Just like sales do, day in, day out.
Drucker's perspective should serve as a reminder to us all as sales professionals that we are at the core of the business.
Good business = good sales.
If I asked you to write a brochure for Fortune 500 CEOs, you'd probably keep it at a high-level (one of those terms I despise, but use anyway) and you'd likely use words like competitive advantage, bottom-line business performance, innovation and globalization. All issues that your CEO audience faces everyday.
But let's tweak the assignment a bit. Write the brochure for Jeffrey Immelt. (If you don't know who he is, get out now).
Your bullshit barometer may come down a bit. You won't be quite so patronizing in your language. You'll read your standard CEO-type phrases and realize how pedantic they've become. Why?
Because when you picture someone like Jeff Immelt reading "Today's corporation needs to build innovation into its everyday culture to stay competitive in an increasingly global economy," you might even groan, because you know that's what he would do. After all, you haven't told him anything he doesn't already know (the number one failure of most marketing communications). You've haven't educated him. You haven't even said anything profound. So why should he continue reading?
Our colleagues in User Interface Design create User Personas to avoid this scenario. They already know users want computer-based applications that are intuitive and friendly. They know users prefer simplicity over complexity. Good GUI designers don't waste time on creative briefs that deliver historical analyses of what they already know. They conduct fresh "user research" to intimately understand what their audiences expect, but more importantly, how they behave and how they've changed.
Sometimes the person is real (based on some laboratory style observations) or fictitious. But even if they are imagined, the interface is designed around the known personality and behavior traits of an individual, not a bulleted lists of responsibilities and tasks.
Dave Clark, a user interface designer for TandemSeven explains it this way:
"Applications and portals that are based on user attributes alone often become overwhelmed with too many features as baffled designers and developers cram in more capabilities and complexity. Personas bring the focus back to real people -- with a fresh view that can be a source of innovation. User research typically uncovers insights into unarticulated, unimagined new services and capabilities."
If you write for executives, try to get above the usual cliches. Do some digging and read about executive attributes that are personal and real. For example, read what Executive Coach Rich Gee said about senior executives in our recent interview:
"As individuals advance to executive levels, development feedback becomes increasingly important, more infrequent, and more unreliable."
Or what Eliza Collins, a frequent writer about executive success, has to say in her book Making it in Management:
"Successful executives have the capacity to tolerate ambiguity as well as possess the fortitude to be tough when necessary and to not give in to others' ideas of what is right."
These two observations of people who work with executives everyday show us that it is "lonely at the top" -- not in a cliche sort of way, but with some insight that is based upon their personal experience with executive interaction, not just something they've read or heard.
If you do some deeper homework about your audience using practices our colleagues in GUI development employ, you'll see your communications become more relevant, and more insightful.
Rather than write a brochure for a mass CEO audience, try speaking personally to just one of its participants. Think of an executive you know personally or read one of the many Jeffrey Immelt interviews. Then write him a letter. You'll be surprised at your more
conversational, more personal style.
You might actually knock your copy up a notch or two with something like, "Several leading executives recently shared the techniques they use to burn their visions into the minds and spirits of their boards of directors. And you know what? They don't use board meetings. They don't depend on golf. And not one of them has ever engaged PowerPoint."
That might inspire a CEO to keep reading more than recounting something he or she already knows. By doing some audience homework, you'll become a source of insight, not a history lesson.
"We need a culture that values selling," is a phrase bantered about when organizations are perceived to be getting in the salesperson’s way. But how do you change an existing culture (whatever it may be) to a sales culture?
Most organizations believe that if the CEO and VP of Sales communicate the importance of selling with enough conviction it will convince the rest of the organization to rally around anything sales related. In short, they hope the culture will adapt.
While some of this may work, today's organization simply doesn't have the time. And it's never a good idea to bet your future on hope. While something like a “culture of sales” may lie in the abstract, it is ultimately linked to discrete sales processes.
Demystifying Culture
In their book, Execution, authors Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan, define culture as the sum of an organization's shared values, beliefs and norms of behavior. It is the goal of GE, for example, to be either first or second in each business they operate. That translates into behaviors that make up GE's culture, or "way of operating."
When Do Cultures Need to Change?
CEOs set out to change cultures when their renewed vision for competitiveness is inhibited by the values and beliefs of their people. Hence, GE's CEO Jeffrey Immelt believes that, in today's global economy, the key to being number one or two is more about innovation, versus the existing culture, which believes it's all about grinding costs down and increasing share through acquisition. Immelt's new initiatives reward behavior differently. Sure, costs and margins are hugely relevant, but an executive's ability to innovate has taken on a much different level of appreciation in Immelt's new GE.
The Intersection of Culture and Process
Getting people to behave, in a style that supports an executive vision takes more than posters, town meetings and pep talks (which is what most companies try). With every desired cultural attribute, such as "we're sales oriented" lies a series of processes and behaviors that need to be deliberately put into place.
Having worked at both Digital and HP I speak from my own experience. Digital had a strong cultural value of "making your numbers" and missing them wasn't tolerated. Near the end, when executives were presiding over dwindling numbers, the culture didn't change. And neither did the numbers (except that they went down). The pressure on numbers encouraged sales people to sell - including products that customers often didn't need.
At HP, satisfied customers was an overriding cultural value. If you blew out your numbers, but had unhappy customers (or co-workers that disliked working with you), you received a bad performance review. If you delivered happy, loyal customers, but missed your numbers, you didn't necessarily get a bad report card. You got advice and guidance on how to get more happy customers.
So before you roll out an internal communications campaign to rally the troops around a new set of desired values, identify the behavior (and processes) that connect your idea of cultural nirvana to a working engine with the cogs and wheels it needs to properly deliver. Redefine reward structures. Map processes around your new vision of what it means to be competitive. Then get the communications campaign rolling. Without process, you have nothing to communicate other than a nice dream.
For some additional insight on the relationship between culture and execution, I highly recommend the aforementioned book, appropriately titled, Execution, by Bossidy and Charan.
There are essentially three reasons why we find it so challenging to adhere to our schedule or complete our to-do list:
1. Not being realistic with our timeline and as a result, have too many activities scheduled into our day.
2. Not engaging in right activities that support our goals or objectives.
3. Not planning for the unplanned. Also known as, “Externalities.”
These externalities or things that we don't necessarily plan for often go unnoticed and fly under our radar screen when attempting to map out our week. They have tendency to eat up our days.
These externalities can also take on the form of errands or household chores, the kids' carpool, time on the phone, traffic, a doctor’s appointment, a project or proposal that you’re now responsible for which has a rapidly approaching deadline, a conversation with a co-worker, television, web surfing, meetings, emails, solitaire, etc. Many of these things come along and blindside us because they’re outside of our direct line of vision. Then we wonder why we’re often unable to finish everything that’s on our plate for the day.
Now, since we don’t have a crystal ball to inform us about the imminent things that would unknowingly consume part of our day, imagine if you were actually able to plan for these things; these same tasks that often go left unplanned.
One of my clients was a bit resistant to this idea. She shared with me that, once a new client hires her company and procures her services, the unplanned begins happening immediately. Irate customers calling in and people wanting things addressed and handled immediately.
This client happens to be in the emergency restoration business. So, the only time she does get a call is when people have experienced a major or minor disaster in their building or in their home, such as a fire or a flood. As you can imagine, it’s probably hard to plan exactly when she would be receiving these calls.
When the calls came in, you can imagine how the customers would sound. Harried, upset, fearful, angry or uncertain of what could happen or would be happening. And every time my client received a call like this, she would react surprised, as if it was the first time she’s ever experienced it! “I can’t believe this is happening again,” would be a typical reaction.
When I asked her how long this has been going on, she said for fifteen years, ever since she started her business. This would be similar to a doctor who works in the ER and is continually shocked at the number and degree of emergencies that come through the door. As such, this doctor reacts accordingly by saying, “What, another emergency?”
The solution for this client was apparent. Instead of resisting the truth she began to embrace the truth, and the truth was this is her business! She is in the business of providing not only solutions to her customer’s restoration nightmares but providing support, guidance and reassurance that it will all work out okay.
Instead of being continually shocked at how her customers’ react when calling her, by embracing this as part of her business and accepting the truth, she was able to more effectively plan for it. She began to make the shift from being highly reactive to responsive and service oriented by anticipating these situations rather than being shocked when they occur.
Here is my plea to business communicators everywhere -- please take another look at your corporate descriptor. Would your grandmother understand it well enough to tell her friends "what you do?"
Consider this descriptor from an up-and-coming software company:
"We market enterprise mobility solutions that let you capitalize on the powerful new advantages of the real-time enterprise - accelerating revenue growth, productivity, operational efficiency and profitability, helping you make faster, better decisions."
Yikes. I challenge anyone to tell me what this company does (in words my grandmother would understand).
What's Your Seven Word Blurb?
Ilise Benun mentors business executives and marketers in the art of self-promotion. Her seven-word blurb exercise has you express what your company provides in seven words or less. By keeping it this short, you're not tempted to throw in a bunch of words that don't add value. For example:
Good: We sell retirement plans.
Better: We assure you retire comfortably.
Good: We offer vacations the whole family will enjoy.
Better: We market family leisure and fun.
Good: We make movies.
Better: We market entertainment
I know what you’re thinking. Consumer communicators have it much easier than we B2B types and you’re not entirely wrong. Business is complicated. And IT companies, in particular, are challenged. Here are some that are good, but could be even better:
Good: M5 Networks outsources IP phone systems.
Better: We relieve you of managing telephone systems.
Good: GEInsurance sells a wide range of insurance products
Better: We protect people, property and reputations.
Good: IBM helps small companies get on the Internet.
Better: We help small companies do business online.
If organizations as big and complex as IBM can do it, so can you. Remember, it's hard to write short so give yourself a break. Just keep asking yourself if grandma would get it.
Nobody wants to buy your product, service or solution. Nor do they even want to hear about it - unless they're desperately in need of a solution.
So what do most sellers do to remedy this situation? They try to convince prospective customers just how wonderful their offering is. As I repeatedly mention in Selling to Big Companies, this self-serving pablum actually turns customers off.
Six months ago, David Meerman Scott, in partnership with Factiva, wrote The Gobbledygook Manifesto. This blog post analyzes business terms used in over 388,000 press releases sent in 2006. Like me, David has a real aversion to companies who describe their offering as flexible, robust and world class.
When you use these types of terms, you may think you stand out from the crowd. Instead you sound just like everyone else - including all your competitors. You'll be shocked when you take a detailed look at his Gobbledygook Volume Analysis.
If you want to be successful in sales, use value propositions. Focus on the tangible business results your product or service offers. For more info on this topic, check out:
• Making a Difference
• Stop Sounding Like a Self-Serving Salesperson
• Developing Strong Value Propositions
You might want to also check out David's follow-up article to his initial gobbledygook post on "Online viral thought leadership works - here is the proof."
There are huge ties that bind sales and customer service together. It encourages companies to make sure they deliver great customer service. It knows that it costs five times more to bring in a new customer than it does to sell additional services to a client you already have.
Hmmm, with figures like that, you'd think that more companies "got it." But you don't need to spend much time waiting on hold for "customer service" departments, or desperately searching "Contact Us" pages to find even one phone number, to realize that far too few companies get it at all.
I remember seeing some great research years ago, showing that four broad factors influence which stores or businesses we choose to visit. Those factors are: 1) the specific situation surrounding this actual purchase; 2) the general environment in which we’re shopping, stretching from our own “chemistry” that will determine our tastes and styles, to the overall economy in which we’re shopping; 3) the presentation and promotions from competing stores or services; and 4) each store’s own presentation and promotions.
Admittedly, those are very broad factors. But they drive home one very important point. Of the four factors that influence us, each business only has any influence at all on the last one — its own presentation and promotions. That means that companies had better be really good at understanding those other factors, and at making sure their own presentation and promotions respond to them as impressively as possible.
That’s not hard to get. But, incredibly, far too many companies spend far too much time figuring out what they want to say, instead of paying attention to what their customers want. Customers want to know they’re important, and appreciated, and cared for. They want to know companies see them and listen to them and respond to them. They want to know that companies “get it.”
But many companies simply don’t. And, sadly, there are more things that those companies probably simply won't get. They won't get your business. Or my business. Or the business of others who like to be treated with respect and gratitude for the dollars they leave behind.
How about you? Operating a business or not-for-profit? Maybe "just" operating a family? Try smiling and saying thank-you with every interaction. Try listening hard to feedback, and correcting any things that bug people. Try "service with a smile" that actually does have a smile. You might be surprised at the smiles that pop up in return. And the rewards that come with them.
Don't think of it as customer service. Think of it as sales. Because that's exactly what it is.
Hosting Brain Carroll's webinar reminded me of the importance of lead nurturing. It's clear from Brian's research that companies that stay-in-touch with target buyers greatly increase their revenue (one piece of data: leads that are not ready to buy today are 77% of all leads coming in to your company.) But lead nurturing is another way of saying farming. So companies that utilize only hunting techniques will do far worse than companies that farm.
If we want our sales outcomes in the future dramatically improve, perhaps we need to think of our human history in agriculture. Once upon a time there was only hunting - no farming. Many companies still run their lead generation efforts like early man, foraging in the forest for wild berries and boar.
Here's a very brief history of agriculture I found on a Rice University website. The beginning seems to have many parallels to how sales and marketing works in many companies:
Before agriculture, people lived by hunting wild animals and gathering edible plants. When the herds were plentiful and the plants flourishing, life was good. But, when the herds migrated elsewhere, people had to follow them and often discover a whole new set of plants to supplement their diet.
This "feast or famine" lifestyle had its definite drawbacks including starvation.Eventually, people decided that life would be a lot easier if they always had the animals with them and if edible plants or their produce were always available.
So are farmers so uncool?
Add to this the fact that many firms are unhappy with the sales people they already have (one of my consulting partners states that from his research as many as 50% of the people working in sales should not be and another 25% should be selling a different product!)
So my advice for owners and senior managers: if you have good sales people, treat them really really well. Don't skimp on the support you give them and realize that paying them a little more is likely to be a lot cheaper than going out to the marketplace. Do not fall into the trap of thinking of sales people as "second class citizens".
There is a talent war going on for sales people. Mind the (talent) gap!
He keeps contacting me and the other decision-makers asking to send us a proposal but there's one major problem - he did not get us interested in his product in the first place!
It's odd to me that so many sales people (and business owners) want to send out proposals. Proposals take time to write (even with templates or proposal generators). We are all extremely short on time. As a sales manager and business owner, I don't care how many proposals you "have out". I care about how many deals (and dollars) you close.
From what I have seen too many sales people beg clients to receive a proposal from them when they have not sold the decision-makers on their proposition.
In the situation I encountered the sales person conducted a very mediocre sales presentation that was very light on probing questions and way too heavy on him being a "talking head". The decision-making team would never had said "yes" if the seller had asked "are you interested?" but he did not ask, he said "I would love to send you a proposal".
Well, what do we lose as buyers by allowing him to send us a proposal? We don't have to spend any time on writing the proposal and hey there might be some useful information in there (maybe we could use some of it in a discussion with his competitors)!
Your objective is to sell everyone in the decision-making process. You can use documents to help sell these people but you should aim to "co-author" these documents with the decision-makers not guess what they want and write up your guess in a proposal.
If you guess what people want, you will usually be wrong. They will not call you back and you won't get a deal. Your proposal will have gone to "Neverland".
I hear this quite often when companies are hiring sales people. What does it really mean? The description the companies give usually goes like this:
• Must have made, or exceeded quota, for the last five years
• Must have a great Rolodex of contacts in [our niche]
• Must be high-energy
• Must be a team player
• Must be comfortable with large amounts of cold calling
...plus several other characteristics...
It seems like the company is hoping that this sales "rock star" (a.k.a. "sales god") will walk through the door and solve all their problems in one single "bolt of lightening". To me, this seems like an abdication of responsibility.
Why should a company need a "rock star" when they understand how sales works in their business? If they understand their sales process, could they not just hire an "ordinary sales person" (or even "an ordinary person") and train them to do the job really well?
Shouldn't a company take the responsibility to nurture relationships into leads in their own market niche? Why should the sales person have to bring a "golden Rolodex"? Shouldn't the company be building that over its years of existence?
If this sales person is so successful over so many years, is the company so great at what it does that this “rock star” is going to want to join? Does the company really dominate its market or have the next iPod as a product?
Is your company really in the position to pay "mega bucks" to Bruce Springsteen or Bono (and would Bruce or Bono even want to come to work for you at any price) or do you need to hire some "ordinary people" and turn them into great sales people?
By Brian Carroll, InTouch
Many things with lead generation seem easier than they are. Take sales lead follow-up for example, research shows that sales people do not fully pursue around 70% of leads generated by marketing. That amounts to literally billions of wasted marketing dollars. The speed of lead follow-up is a major contributor to this problem.
KnowledgeStorm and The Artemis Group just completed a benchmarking study of best practices for pursuing online leads (registration required). They concluded, "Leads get cold quickly, so it is vital that vendors implement prompt, effective lead follow-up processes."
I’ve closed-the-loop on thousands of leads with clients and unquestionably, the speed of follow-up and the degree of lead acceptance by the sales team has a major impact on ROI.
One of my clients; centrally qualifies all their leads (via phone) against their universal lead definition with in 2-hours, distributes and requires their field sales force to follow up on those that are sales ready within 8-hours. They generate 12,000 inquiries per year, mostly via their website.
If a qualified sales lead is not followed up by the assigned sales person with in 24-hours, they can count on a call from their sales manager. If a sales lead goes more than 48-hours before being touched, that sales person risks having that lead assigned to someone else – someone with more selling time capacity.
Does that seem a bit too militant for your taste? Perhaps. For them it works. They have an amazing lead conversion rate, which is triple the amount of their industry peers. They are successfully beating three Fortune 500 competitors who are 50 times their size.
One final thought, If your sales team cannot turn leads back over for additional lead nurturing you are just throwing a lot of your budget on the scrap heap.
We have discovered that 30% - 45% of leads that were not considered viable opportunities by the sales team actually became sales ready opportunities within 12-months. This client re-captured a $1.2 million dollars per quarter in revenue by simply giving their sales team the ability to hand the baton back and recycle their leads.
By Brian Carroll, InTouch
A dilemma faced by many senior executives is whether to put more money into sales or into marketing. Often, they feel it is better to hire more sales people to increase sales than investing more money into lead generation programs.
Contrarily, my research shows that for the complex sale, it is far more effective to support proven sales people with good lead generation than hiring additional sales people.
A new white paper by CSO Insights supports my research and shows that companies that support their sales teams with lead generation programs have higher conversion rates and increased sales effectiveness than those who don't.
I interviewed Barry Trailer, Partner of CSO Insights about their White Paper, "Optimizing Lead Generation - What's the Payback?" He said, "Our findings support that improved lead generation positively impacts sales team effectiveness and revenue. When companies increase the quantity and quality of their leads, they increase the odds of winning sales."
Among other things, CSO Insights data from 1,275 companies shows that those excelling in lead generation gain the following advantages over companies that do not:
- Win rates are 7 percent higher
- Number of sales representatives making quota is 9.3 percent higher
- Conversion rate from leads to first calls is 16.5 percent higher
- More than 10 percent decrease in ramp up time for new sales people
I expect there will be more research on this very important subject.
You can download the white paper here (registration required).
Sales people work so hard to "get in the door" with key buyers and influencers that they owe it to themselves not to blow the critical time in front of the prospect. Here is some research that supports what I have seen over-and-over again in the field...many sales people do not spend enough time preparing for meetings with prospects.
My "rule of thumb" is that you need to spend at least the same amount of time preparing for a meeting as being in the meeting itself, often more if it's an important meeting. So if you have a one hour meeting scheduled with a prospect you need to spend at least an hour preparing.
Prospects will not react well to sales people who have failed to do their basic "situational" homework. Your meeting with the prospect should be about asking questions to stimulate a conversation that reveals the prospect's needs. You cannot waste time asking questions that could have been answered by basic Internet research or by reading the prospect's annual report. Failing to review your prospect's website and running the prospect him/herself through Google is now considered to be plainly sloppy by most prospects.
So look at your calendar for this month and schedule in time to prepare for each upcoming prospect meeting. Preparation may seem boring to some sales people but true sales professionals know it's time very well invested.
By Richard Fouts, Comunicado
in·no·va·tion (from dictionary.com)
"the act of making a change or a new arrangement; doing something new or different; the act of starting something for the first time"
If you're not selling your solution based on its ability to innovate, perhaps you should start.
Through 2010, business innovation will remain a top 10 business initiative among Global 1000 companies. In fact, 90 percent of executives from this esteemed body say innovation is key to their survival (Gartner research).
By 2010, products representing more than 70 percent of today's sales will be obsolete due to changing customer demands and competitive offerings. (2005 Global Benchmark of Manufacturers, Deloitte and Touche).
54 percent of CEOs surveyed by IBM expect to radically change their companies over the next two years. These execs also plan to innovate operational and business models to drive business growth.
Participants in the 2006 World Economic Forum said innovation in creativity and design will make 20th century structures obsolete, replaced by new models and more flexible business processes that serve more diverse, more global audiences.
Selling the ways your product and solutions deliver innovation, can take place at several levels and in various discussion frameworks, starting with the CEO or members of the CEO staff. Senior executives are clearly the ones putting priority on innovation - and they are the ones that can fund it.
Focus not just on business strategy, but process and culture. Our good friends at futurethink have tools and techniques for making innovation part of an organization's everyday culture. You'll get attention if you can show how your solution drives long term innovation, versus incremental improvement. Check them out at getfuturethink.com
Focus on people, not just technology. The enabler of change is most often identified in technology terms, but be careful not to let technology inhibit your efforts. If you have to choose, go for process innovation that is not dependent on big involvement from IT.
Find the person accountable for innovation processes, practices or learning. Many organizations have put such a person in place -- and it won't hurt to ask. The owner of innovation ensures that people remain engaged in the ongoing process, not just the occasional brainstorm.
Sales people use the telephone, marketing people write...but either way both have the same goal - leads.
When I talk to sales people about prospecting they immediately think "telephone". When I talk to marketing people about lead generation they immediately think about writing something - letter, email, website etc.
But actually over time I have come to believe that the best way to generate leads is by using a "multimedia" approach. By combining the telephone with letters, email and multi-dimensional mailers (books, gifts etc.) you increase your chances of finding the "medium" that appeals to that particular executive.
During my sales career I have found that some prospects regularly answer their telephone, some never seem to answer their phone, some people respond instantly to email (and carry their Blackberry or Treo everywhere), and some people need to receive a good old-fashioned letter before they respond.
I have personally experienced several situations where sending executives something creative like a gift basket with customized contents and then following up consistently by phone finally landed a meeting with a very hard to reach CEO, CFO or CIO.
Several other sales experts have written about the need to use "multimedia" in your prospecting. You can read more from Jill Konrath, Brian Carroll and Jim Logan.
So when prospecting don't put all your eggs in one basket...go multimedia!Ask most executives and marketers what sales people need and they will say, "more leads." Your sales people don’t want more leads actually, what they want is "more effective selling time."
A recent report by Aberdeen Group, “Sales Effectiveness: Helping Sales Sell” concludes, “The number one issue for most CEO's and Marketers is lead generation - getting more leads to their sales team." The number one desire for sales people however, is MORE selling time with “sales ready” opportunities.
Don't get me wrong, lead generation is still extremely important to sales people (it was actually number 2). You must realize that the extreme time pressure sales people face – especially those with a complex sale - requires them to ignore what is not immediately relevant and highly likely to produce revenue. Why? They are not paid to do anything else. Quality is more important than quantity.
A study of 1,535 professionals by CSO Insights in cooperation with CRMGuru.com, uncovered a wealth of insights in to the challenges sales forces are encountering today. Top 10 Trends in Sales for 2004.
I found this post on Jim Berkowitz's CRM Mastery Blog highly relevant, "Is Your Sales Force Selling?" Jim links to Proudfoot Consulting's annual sales force effectiveness study; most salespeople spend only 10 percent of their available time actually selling, according to the latest figures from Proudfoot Consulting's annual sales force effectiveness study.
I disagree with Proudfoot's 10% figure but, think their premise is on point. Simply put, sales people don't get to spend enough time actually selling!
In my experience, the average sales force spends around 20% of their time actually doing productive selling (upto 40% if you're great) based on research done by the Huthwaite, Inc. -- Creators of SPIN Selling.
As marketers we can do a ton to help improve sales effectiveness. So before you invest any more money in lead generation ask this question, how can we give our sales people more selling time? Then write down your thoughts and meet with your sales team and ask them the same question. How can we help YOU get more selling time? Now shut up and really listen... The key is to communicate and then collaborate.
Here’s a short vignette on how 3M increased their sales teams effective selling time by leveraging Six Sigma.
One of the most popular is "sales is a numbers game" The dangerous part about this expression is how it gets used: "we don't need to be smart [about our prospecting]...it's just a numbers game"
This is where I disagree. Sure prospecting is a numbers game but the "numbers" in question, how many meetings you get or how many sales you make, are strongly determined not only by the number of calls you make but also by the quality of what you have to say.
Executives all over the world are bombarded by sales people with badly crafted pitches. They absolutely don't have time to respond to these badly thought out propositions. If you want to get a meeting, or sell a product directly, you need to spend the time to come up with a truly strong value proposition.
You need to do your homework on the prospect's company and the prospect themselves so you can hit one of their hot buttons with your voice mail (let's be realistic here, we get voice mail 70% of the time or more) For more on crafting quality voicemails see this previous post based on a great piece by Jill Konrath.
So I agree that "sales is a numbers game" but it's up to you to decide if you want your numbers (a.k.a. chances of success) to be 1 in 10 or 1 in 1,000.
Most buyers aren't ready to buy when we're ready to sell. This trite but true observation has significant implications when it comes to lead generation. It means that we must continue to nurture viable prospects until they are ready to buy. But what about the prospects who are not in your nurturing database yet?
This dilemma has led me to think about how trigger events are related to one of the basic laws of physics. Newton’s first law of motion (also called the law of inertia) is often stated as “an object at rest tends to stay at rest and an object in motion tends to stay in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.”
The first law of motion can act much like one of your potential prospects. Unless there is an “unbalancing force” acting on them that is sufficient to move them away from the status quo (as rest), then they will not change their direction. In this context, trigger events can be seen as the sufficient force or event that moved and changed the status quo.
So in the context of lead generation, what’s a trigger event? A trigger is a happening associated with a consequence so significant that it causes new behaviors, new ideas and new opportunities. One of my clients found companies with their key trigger events was 400% more likely to buy than companies without those trigger events.
When InTouch conducts an ideal customer profile workshop for a client, we help them understand favorable trigger events and related implications. The above trigger event mind map figure (Click Image to Enlarge) shows just some of the possible trigger events that you can track.
Trigger events matter for two key reasons. First, they may indicate the status quo in an organization is changing and secondly, they can contribute to the development of timely and relevant sales and marketing messaging. Relevance is one of the most difficult things to achieve with lead generation programs but trigger events can help a great deal.
Messaging that addresses (in a personalized manner) a specific problem that your prospect is having is more relevant and thus will be more effective than a generic features and benefits message. What’s better is that the problem can often be tied to a specific event or events.
There are three basic steps if you want start using trigger events:
1. Review 10 - 15 recent sales "wins" and look at what business pains or events were present. (See the above mind map for examples)
2. Develop an intelligent system to identify when your trigger events happen.
3. Understand trigger event implications and what to do once they happen.
You can research new business opportunities based on trigger events, for little to no cost, by leveraging press releases, websites and news wires. If you have a corporate librarian or local business library they can help you find what you need.
To begin collecting trigger events, I'd start with using free tools like the following:
- Technorati watchlists
- Google news alerts via email
- Yahoo! RSS feeds & via email
Don’t try to do everything at once. Start with some basic trigger events and then build upon your foundation over time. Remember it’s an iterative process… you want to first crawl, walk and then run. As your sophistication grows, you will be ready to look into third party tools that specialize in tracking trigger events.
Trigger event are a great way to change the physics of the buying process and yet another way that we marketers can to go beyond the lead.
Are you using trigger events? I'd love to hear your comments or experiences.
BTW - You can read more about trigger events in Chapter 5 of Lead Generation for the Complex Sale or search my blog archives for "trigger event." Also, Jill Konrath has some great information on trigger events (geared for sales people) in her book Selling to Big Companies and her blog too.