The bait and switch is when a company advertises a particular product at a particular price, then when the customer shows up to buy, they don’t have the product at that price. The price is now more expensive OR it’s a cheaper product at the same price.

I travel to Brazil about every month. It is a 10 hour, red eye that leaves Chicago at 8:30 p.m., arriving Sao Paul at 10:00 a.m. the next day. The return flight is also a red eye. It leaves Sao Paulo at 9:20, arriving in Chicago the next morning . Because I go straight to work when I arrive or return, I like to upgrade to business class using miles to ensure I get some rest. A typical upgrade costs 12,000 miles and 300-500 dollars each way.

So, where’s the problem?

United flies two types of planes. One where business class is updated with lay flat seats (they lay flat like a bed), flat screen TV’s, on demand entertainment, power outlets, and more. The other, older, non-updated planes don’t have lay flat seating. The seats recline with a footrest. Think a LazyBoy in the sky. They don’t have on demand entertainment, they don’t have large flat screen TV’s and they don’t have standard power outlets. The experience is entirely different.

Business class in the new upgraded planes is a substantial “upgrade” from economy. The lay flat seats allow me to get a fairly decent night sleep. The power outlets let me charge my phone, iPad and my computer through out the night. Combined, it’s worth the price of the upgrade.

With the old planes I don’t get a good nights rest, as I am sitting up the entire time and my phone and computer are dead when I arrive. The experience isn’t worth the price of the upgrade to me. Therefore I will pay for an upgrade on the new planes, but not on the old ones.

Here is where things get tricky. United switches planes. When I book my flight and request an upgrade on a new plane, there is no guarantee, it will be a new plane on the day of my flight. These plane changes can happen as late as the day of travel.

I buy an upgrade on a new, updated plane and then, on the day of the flight, for the same price, get the old outdated plane. A plane that is NOT worth the price of the upgrade.

I am burned by this “switch” at least 50% of time. I have now resorted to checking at the gate just before boarding to ensure its a new plane. If its not, I won’t take the upgrade. Unfortunately, the other night, on my way back, I forgot to check and I ponied up a shit load cash and miles for an experience that wasn’t worth it.

The two experiences can’t even come close to each other. Therefore charging the same price is ridiculous. By charging the same price and not doing a better job at informing customers of the type of experience they are going to get is bullshit. Especially when I booked the flight based on the premise that it will be the new plane.

I shouldn’t have to check to see if I’m going to get what I bought. I shouldn’t have to walk on a plane to find it is one of the old ones, when I bought the new plane experience. That is a bait and switch.

Give me what you sold me. If you can’t, adjust the price or notify me of the plane change before hand. You already update me on flight changes via SMS.

Changing planes and therefore the experience with out notifying your customers is just dishonest and as my grandmother would say; “not on the up and up.”

Come on, you can do better than this United!

How you structure your sales organization can be the difference between a successful strategy and a failed one.

A brilliant sales strategy won’t amount to a hill of beans if you don’t build the best underlying sales structure to support it. An old boss of mine used to say; “Structure follows strategy,” and he is right.

If you have 3 types of sales or products that target very different customers, how would you structure your organization to attack those markets?

What if each of those products had different buyers internally? Would that change things? If yes, how?

There is no right answer to these questions and the hundred others we can be faced with, the key however, is to make sure you are asking them.

All too often we focus on sales strategy, people and process. We spend time trying to identify the best go to market strategy we can. We coach and train our people. We create new processes. But it is rare we evaluate our structure. Structure can bring substantial return with very little investment. In many cases structure is simply taking what you have and using it in a different way.

Recently, one of my clients identified an opportunity where restructuring lowered the cost of sales, as they were able to reduce a management layer and increase sales as they segmented the team into two groups, each targeting a different layer of the market. No additional costs, no additional sales training and not additional sales tools.

When does it make sense to evaluate your sales structure?

1. When there are large gaps between performers and non-performers – when you have large gaps between performers and non-performers or large differences in average deal size it could be that the market is split. The performers are having success targeting the higher end of the market, while the non-performers or those with lower average deal size are targeting the lower end of the market. In this case split the market, develop two sales teams, one targeting the higher end of the market, the other the lower end. The key here is to adjust compensation to align with the sales cycles and products. Don’t pay high-end, sophisticated sales people to sell to the low end of the market. Conversely, don’t expect lower end, less sophistacated sales people to sell upstream.
2. When all products aren’t moving equally – when your sales team is successful with some products and not others, it may not be a product issue. It might not be a sales person issue either. It may be a sales cycle issue. When a product isn’t moving, while others are, evaluate the selling motion. Does the product that’s NOT moving require a different sales process? Do your customers buy it the SAME way they buy your other products? Are there different selling needs for the product that isn’t moving that need to be in place? If the answer is yes to any of these, considering restructuring along product lines. It may be the answer your looking for.
3. When you get top heavy – Why have so many Managers, Directors, V.P.’s, etc? Take a look at the organization and ask is it flat enough? Do I need this many layers? Do I need any layers at all. What am I getting from each layer. Multiple layers of management can suffocate a sales team. It can create bureaucracy.
4. When the market shifts: -Shifts in the market can mean tremendous opportunity or destruction. When markets shift, when competition increases, when threats arise, the best response could be restructuring to align with the changes. Knowing when the market is changing and ensuring your organization is properly aligned to meet the shits can be all that’s need to keep revenue up, costs aligned and morale high.

It was a GREAT idea and a brilliant sales strategy.

More impressive however, was the ability of Hyundai to executie on the idea. It started with someone in the company saying; “I have a great idea.” and no one saying; “Yes, but.”

Too often great ideas are met with “BUT!”  Yeah, that is a great idea but . . . The “but” stops ideas in their tracks. “Buts” treat ideas like inconveniences. “Buts” create uphill climbs for ideas. “Buts” say, I’m not too interested in working on this idea. “Buts” suggest, alternative ideas aren’t welcome.

Ideas that work are followed by “And!”  ”And” adds to the idea. “And” opens the door to exploring the idea further. “And’ says I’m interested in participating in this idea. “And” says new ideas are welcome. “And” says its OK to explore this idea further and see where it goes.

Offering a job assurance guarantee isn’t a novel idea. It wasn’t that hard to come up with. An idea like that however is EASY to follow with “buts” and buts kill ideas.

What happens in your organization when an idea is put on the table. Is it a great idea BUT . . .

or is it a great idea AND . . .

It matters.

What did we talk about?

We asked them how things are going, what they are seeing in the market and what they are focusing on. We asked about their strategy to achieving quota. We asked HOW they came up with the strategy and how it’s working. We talked about the challenges they were seeing and how they were addressing them. We asked what they would do with the sales organization if they could change anything? We asked them a lot of questions about their day to day and how THEY go about their job.

The conversation was impromptu, light and engaging. We genuinely wanted to understand what the selling experience was like from their individual perspective. Like always, it was hugely valuable. We learned a lot.  So much as a matter of fact, we are considering a structure change to capitalize on a few identified opportunities.

No one knows more about your selling environment than the people in the field. The frontline sales people hear the objections first hand. They have built unique strategies for making their number and to overcome the selling challenges. They know what the customers are dealing with. They are familiar with your companies sales prevention department. Frontline sales people are in the middle of the action. No one has more data on what is going on than those in the field.

When was the last time you sat down and had an open conversation with some of your sales people? If you’re like most head of sales it’s been a long time.

We look at data from the CRM everyday; average time to close, pipeline, win loss, average deal size, and lead conversion rate. We look at quota attainment, customer buying habits, lead scoring and lead generation. But, the best data goes beyond the numbers. The best data rests not in your CRM but in your sales people and it can’t be put into a dashboard.

Sit down with the people who do the job everyday. They know a lot more than the CRM, I promise you.

The NFL draft is coming up soon and the talent identification process of NFL teams is unmatched.  To identify talent for the draft, NFL teams go through countless hours of video, in person game attendance, personal interviews, tests, and of course the NFL combine, where prospective players work out for the coaches and scouts. The combine is a day of physical tests that measure speed, strength, vertical jump, agility, etc of potential draft picks. At the end of all this analysis, NFL teams make their choice and draft the best players available to them. This is the NFL’s talent or player identification process. It’s good.

So what’s your’s?

If it’s like most, it’s a series of interviews; a couple of interviews with you, one with someone from product, one with someone with marketing, maybe one with an HR representative, maybe one with a couple of the team members, and maybe one with CEO, or COO or head of sales, if that’s not you. But, unfortunatley, for most companies and most sales organizations that’s the extent of the process. Making matters worse, the interviews are rarely nothing more than handing the candidates resume to the interviewer and asking them what they think.  The entire approach usually ends up being a rubber stamp process and the hiring manager makes a decision based on their gut.

The traditional approach to finding talent is a matter subtraction not addition. Candidates are sourced and evaluated on what they don’t have. If they don’t have 20 years of experience out. If they do something odd in the interview they are out. If they haven’t been in the industry, they are out. If they haven’t been a manager before, they are out. We subtract then hire who is left. Not the best way to go about things.

The key to finding the best sales talent is to have a process that identifies the best talent for the role you trying to fill.  It’s to figure out who can do what you need the better than anyone else. The key is to focus on what the person does have and how that fits into what you are trying to achieve in the positon.  The NFL is VERY good at this part. Teams know what type of running back or cornerback or lineman they need. The know the difference between a 3 down back vs a blocking back vs. a receiving running back. They know which type of back they need to become a better team.

In order to be as precise as an NFL team you need a process like theirs. You need a measurable, identifiable, repeatable process that gets you the best person to do what you need done, to make your organization better.

There are no rules on what the approach should look like. However, what ever your approach is, it should include the following elements;

1. A clear and documented description of the hard AND soft skills you are looking for and why
2. A clear understanding and documentation of what the role needs to be successful. (Don’t tell me it’s 10 years of success selling software, cause it’s NOT.)
3. A clear understanding of what you will be measuring in the role
4. A clear understanding of how the role fits into the overall sales and go to market strategy
5. A documented approach to scoring and measuring the candidates ability to kill it
6. An interview score card listing EXACTLY what you are scoring the candidate on, so other interviewers know what you are looking to assess, so they can provide feedback in those areas
7. A measurable way to evaluate the skills you are looking for. (It’s important to know HOW you are testing for the skills)
8. Have a list of red flags, things that stand out and could be signs that despite what might be a good candidate, there could be hidden problems

Identifying talent is critical. It’s a leaders job to be able to identify the best talent; not the best resume, not the best interviewer, but the best person for getting the job done.

Be like the NFL and create a comprehensive talent identification process. It will make all the difference.

If you have one, share it. We’d love to see it.  (hit me up if you’d be interested in being doing a guest post on it.)

When we rush to get something done because we don’t have enough time, we risk making things worse. Convincing ourselves that getting it done quickly is more important than doing it right is a shell game we play with ourselves. We play the game to give us more time. It allows us to do things at the last minute.  We convince ourselves that we can get it done, but we almost never do.

If you don’t have time to do it right, you don’t have time to do it over.

Save yourself and everyone else a lot of hassle , slow down and do it right or just don’t do it at all.

The path to the end is predictable. It requires smaller wins. Smaller wins are the successes that get us to the big win. It’s the critical accomplishments along the way. It’s getting to the impossibly elusive CEO. It’s saving a deal from the clutches of a loss. It’s making the 100 cold calls a day for a week and STILL getting the proposal done. It’s getting the speaking gig. It’s nailing the VC presentation. It’s building the pipeline to 5x instead of 4x. It’s implementing the new cadence. It’s hiring the killer new sales person. It’s letting your seasoned veteran go because you knew it was time.

Getting to the end goal requires a lot of little wins. Little wins are like wind to our sails. They propel us towards our goal. They give us momentum. We can’t get the big wins without the little wins.

Get a 3 little wins a day.  It’ll get you the big win.

When we we’re not making quota, when our numbers are down, when prospects don’t call us back, when the pipeline is getting thin, we believe the problem is the sales team? After all, it’s their job to sell.

But, are the sales people really the cause?

Could the cause be a new competitive threat? Could it be a leading indicator of a declining economy? Could it be the marketing approach is no longer effective? Could it be the product has become stale. Could it be pricing? Could it be new technology on the horizon? Could it be the customer problem you solve no longer exits or is rapidly disappearing? Could the cause be something else?

When we assume the cause of declining revenue is the sales team, we start to fix the sales team.  Unfortunately, that doesn’t necessarily fix the problem. When we fix the corollaries we aren’t fixing the problem. We only want to fix the sales team when we KNOW they are the cause.

Problem solving is being able to find the cause of a problem and fixing it. When revenue is down, the best sales managers find the cause and don’t focus on the correlation’s. When working with clients, the best sales people help customers get to the cause of their problem and keep them from fixing the corollaries.

The only way to fix a real problem is to know the difference between causality and correlation.  Do you know the difference?

Over the weekend I launched a website for A Sales Guy Consulting.  I’m very excited about it.

The site is designed to teach as much as it is to attract. (here is a screen shot. You can check the entire site out by going to www.asalesguyconsulting.com or by clicking on the screenshot)

My favorite part of the site is A Sales Guy U.  A Sales Guy U will be a complete sales resource destination with videos, ebooks, white papers, blog recommendations, upcoming event/conference lists, infographics and more.

The objective of A Sales Guy U is to create a place where sales people and sales leaders can go to get good content and information on selling and growing sales organizations. It will be dynamic, with new content constantly added.

We’ve launched the site as an MVP (minimal viable product), therefore current content is light. However, new content is being added weekly.

In the end, A Sales Guy U is a resource for you!  If there is something you want to see let me know and I’ll add it.

Check out the site and let me know what you think. It’s a work in progress, but I’m excited about where it’s going. It’s going to be sick!

I hope you like it.

I know T-Mobile doesn’t have a better network. I know they don’t carry the IPhone. I don’t know if they are cheaper or not, but they might be. So what is it? Do they have better Android based phones? Do they have better customer service? Why chose T-Mobile? I’d really like to know. I also wonder if T-Mobile knows why.

As a company, knowing WHY your customers buy from you is key. I’m not sure most companies KNOW why their customers chose them over the competition. I think there is a lot of guessing going on, but I don’t think they know exactly why!

Why care to know why your customers buy from you, as long as they’re buying right?   I guess, if you want to wake up when day when they stop and not know why the store is empty. Knowing why your customers buy from you helps with a couple of things.

1. When you know why customers buy from you, you can make sure you do it better and do more of it. It allows you to focus on the things that matter to your customers.
2. By knowing why your customers buy from you, gives you insight into your competitive differentiation. It tells you what you do better than others in the market and your competition.
3. When you know why your customers buy from you, you don’t end up wasting time focusing on things that don’t matter to your customers.
4. Knowing why your customers buy from you allows you to be progressive and proactive, creating new products and services targeted to your customers and why they choose you.
5. It allows you to create a stickier environment, with greater loyalty.

It’s not enough to have your customers buy from you, you have to know why they buy from you. That’s where the action happens.

Do you know why YOUR customers buy from you?