Jim Keenan is a Senior Sales Executive, Enterprise 2.0/Web 2.0 Connector, an Entrepreneur still trying to get it right, and a PSIA Certified Ski Instructor for Vail Resorts. Husband to Big E and father to four great kids. In a nut shell, I'm a Sales Guy. Life is good!
The Weather Channel said it was 40 degrees out. That is too cold to play outside. I decided to take the girls to an indoor play place.
Outside we went, coats and all. As we stepped out into the sun, it became clear. It was warmer than 40 degrees. It was more like 55 and felt like 60 plus. We left the indoor play area after an hour and played outside.
Sales has it’s Weather Channel. It’s the CRM systems. It’s the pipeline. It’s the dashboard. It’s the metrics watched, and fretted over everyday. Like the Weather Channel, sales systems and metrics only tell part of the story. They take all the data, add it up and tell you what’s going on.
But also like the Weather Channel, sales systems can be wrong. The only way to know what exactly is going on is to get outside and see.
To know what’s happening with your sales team, you have to get outside. Dashboards, CRM, sales processes, and spread sheets only tell us so much. The rest comes from experience, and that only comes from feeling the rain drops, the sun, the wind and the snow. It may or may NOT be what the Weather Channel is telling you.
Sales teams need to be fixed; they stop performing, the market changes, the company launches new products, the team becomes complacent, the organization grows too fast and becomes beauracratic. There are a number of reasons why sales organizations need to be fixed.
If the sales team is broken, there are two places to look to fix it, the environment or the people. How to determine where the problem lies traditionally escapes sales leaders. Sales management culture almost always makes it a people problem.
The three areas were sales organizations break are the systems and processes, the people, and the activities the team focuses on.
If you want to fix your team assess what is hapening in these areas.
Systems and processes is a situation problem, not a people problem. People are people problems and the activities the people focus on could be either.
To get it right evaluate all three.
Does the CRM System make it easy to manage an account? Are good training and educational systems in place? Does the sales process enable sales? Are the systems the problem?
Are the right people in place? Do they have the skills necessary for the job? Is there a talent gap? Is the sales team hunters when it needs to be farmers? Does the team have the right people on it?
Is the team doing what it’s supposed to? Is it making enough cold calls? Is it spending more time doing admin work than selling. Is the team partnering or playing lone wolf? Is the team engaging in the right activities?
To fix a sales team the right levers have to be pulled. Evaluate each of the areas independently. Sometimes it’s a people problem,sometimes it’s a behavior problem, sometimes it’s a situation problem. Sales leaders need to know which it is. Not knowing makes it a people problem.
In Ancient China Confucius praised filial piety; the dutiful attention to the needs of ones family elders, especially parents and grandparents.
The Han Dynasty (200 BC-200 AD) took filial piety to a new level. Those who had the greatest reputations for filial piety were awarded choice government appointments. To gain a reputation worthy of such appointments men would perform exaggerated acts, such as refusing to end their mourning of their parents. Getting to the court of Han and getting a job of stature meant performing the virtues of filial piety at tremendous heights and this is exactly what the men of Han did.
The Han dynasty rewarded filial piety and that’s what they got.
Sales is no different. You get exactly what you reward for. The problem is most organizations don’t reward the actions they want.
Companies offer commissions, or “choice appointments” but they don’t align. They pay commissions on sales to all customers, when what they need are new customers. The result; no new customer sales. They pay the same commissions on all products when they’ve just launched a new product. The result; no new product sales.
Sales people follow the money. They are not going to read between the lines. They will move in the direction of reward.
What are you trying to sell? How do you want people to act?
Rewards and commissions are how you ask people to do things. Reward the behaviors that are important. Commission the things you want the team to sell.
You will get exactly what you ask for whether it’s what you want or not.
My friend Jen Ward wrote a post the other day about how to change behavior. It had this great quote in it;
“sales reps need to become comfortable with making others uncomfortable.”
I agree with her.
Someone also agreed with her and left this comment.
“This makes sense. I rarely ever push for a sale from a client, yet I routinely see companies who do a lower level of quality take sales away from me because they push the clients really hard. I’ve ended up with many clients who went with someone else to build their site and then a year later came back to me to fix what the first company did. Pretty much, all of my business comes from recommendations from previous clients or people I have already worked with.
I have a client today that is struggling with the decision to rebuild his 8 year old simplistic website (and poor artwork) with a well designed site able to handle all of the features he wants. Money doesn’t seem to be a factor. He is nervous with change. It’s summed up with “The unknown is scary”.
There are tons of “opportunities” in this comment. My coaching side just wants to take over. I can see a bunch of ways “Toff” could improve the way she sells.
Sales can’t be commoditized. Sales isn’t paint by the number. There isn’t a one size fits all.
Sales is a giant “if then” statement.
Every sales is a series of questions. Each question taking you down a different road, until you come to the end; with a sale or with out a sale.
Every customer has different needs. Every customer has a different environment. Every customer has different objectives.
Creating one size fits all in anything leaves out the unique, those with special circumstances. In sales; everything is special circumstances. Sales lives in this space, thriving on the uniqueness.
Sales is not a paint by numbers profession. It’s “if then.”
“If this, then this” tells you what to do in a particular, specific situation and that is exactly what your customer is looking for.
Innovation in sales was the topic during this weeks Sales Smack event. The question was; “Does sales need innovation?” It was suggested that we have been doing the same old things for the past 50+ years and little has changed.
I look at sales in 3 stages; access, influence and delivery. I think there has been a fair amount of innovation in the first and last stages. With the advent of tools, like social media, CRM, and the productivity gains from the internet, computing etc., there has been tremendous innovation in gaining access to prospects and decision makers as well as improving our delivery capabilities. Where I struggled with innovation in sales was in the meat of sales; the influence.
Influence is where sales happens. The influence stage is where we “influence” the buyers decision. Those who are best at influencing the buyer win.
I didn’t see any innovation in this area. To me, the methods hadn’t changed in a long time. Influence had always been, build the relationship, solve problems, understand the issues etc. To me, it’s always been an information, problem solving game. That is until Sales Smack.
During Sales Smack Jill Konrath and S. Anthony Iannarino threw out a few things that got my attention. Jill said, sales has lacked a culture of “thinking” and organizations who provide training around thinking are seeing results. Anthony suggested it’s no longer OK to “pitch” (which I have always agreed with) but sales people have to be diverse in their expertise. Beyond being sales people they have to be engineers, CEO’s, finance people, marketers etc. To be a great sales person your skills have to be far more expansive than just being a magnanimous, articulate, jovial personality.
I think they are on to something. Sales Smack has altered my opinion a little. Innovation in the influence stage of selling needs to target the behaviors of the sales people. Innovation in the influence stage is going to come from the psychology of buying habits and decision making coupled with training to instill new selling behaviors in sales people.
Critical thinking skills and broad skill enhancements are for sure two ways sales is innovating. Organizations that leverage these innovative approaches in their organization through training will have a competitive advantage.
I struggled to see where sales has been innovating, especially in the influence stage. Sales Smack gave me a smack and it’s a little more clear. Now, I’d like to see more.
Do you see more innovation in sales?
Check out the entire discussion, folks were throwing down some good stuff:
Sales has an interesting legacy culture. It’s a “tough guy” culture. I still see it lingering around.
It works like this. You get your quota and you make it. Period.
The “tough guy” culture doesn’t allow for business discussion on the reality of the quota or how it was derived. It’s not open to industry or environmental impacts. It basically says; if your a real sales guy, if you’re a good sales guy then you’ll make your number and if you can’t, you aren’t and we’ll find someone who is.
The “tough guy” culture celebrates the person who makes their number, regardless of how they make it.
The problem with the “tough guy” culture is important information doesn’t make it back to home base. Customer feedback is buried, for fear of not looking tough. Product enhancements are not shared, because a “tough guy” can sell it anyway. The impact of a competing product is dismissed, because a “tough guy” can sell against his competitors. An unsatisfied customer . . . who cares, I sold them something.
“Tough guy” cultures are aggressive and cut throat. They aren’t a fun place to work. Little emphasis is put on the customer, or the product. It’s all about pushing sales.
It’s an old culture. It seems to be dying, but it’s a slow death. There are fewer companies with a “tough guy” culture today, but many companies are still holding on to parts of it.
The “tough guy” culture creates a big wake. A wake of unsatisfied customers, inconsistent sales, and high sales turnover.
The “tough guy” culture used to work when information was hard to come by. When those who controlled the information had an advantage. In today’s open, social internet world, a “tough guy” wake can kill you.
How much of the “tough guy” culture is in your organization? Get it out.
As my dad used to say; “It’s not about being the toughest, but the smartest”
Build a “smart guy” culture, it’s what today’s information world demands.
Jay Leno’s new show isn’t working. They want to move him back to his 11:30 time slot. Maybe they should just fire him. He’s not making his numbers after all.
But wait, Conan O’Brien is in Jay’s old slot and his audience is smaller than Jay’s was. Jay had twice as many viewers when he was host of The Tonight Show. Maybe they should fire Conan. I think that’s what they are going to do. Unless Conan agrees to give Jay his spot back. Conan’s not making his numbers either. Maybe NBC should fire them both.
Is Jay Leno bad goods? Is Conan not worth having around?
Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien are good. They are valuable assets and NBC understands this. They made a mistake putting Jay into a prime time slot and got themselves in a bit of pickle, but if they play their cards right they will keep two very valuable people.
Just because Jay couldn’t make his numbers in prime time doesn’t mean you don’t want him on the team. Just because Conan couldn’t match Jay’s Tonight Show numbers doesn’t mean he shouldn’t be on the team either.
Firing people because they don’t make their numbers is a weak, lazy way to manage a sales team. I’ve watched and listened to more than my share of weak sales leaders berate and threaten sales people who weren’t making their numbers. I’ve watched sales leaders stack rank sales people solely on their number. I’ve watched top performers get promoted into roles they couldn’t handle. I’ve seen good, solid sales people get fired after not making their number in the first 6 months.
It’s easy to use the number. Either they did or the didn’t make their goal. You don’t have to focus on the environment. You don’t have to evaluate what the sales person is doing. You don’t have understand how they are doing it. You just focus on the number. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple.
Watch the number. Then dig deep. Why is the number missed? Are poor decisions being made? Does the sales person lack product knowledge? Are they not asking for the close? Are they incapable of crafting solutions, uncovering customer needs or overcoming objections? If so, you’ve got a problem. If not, dig deeper and don’t be so quick to get rid of what could be a great rep in the wrong spot.
Jay Leno isn’t making the his number. But, I’m not firing him, are you?
You want to make your sales number next year? Plan for it!
This is the plan I use. What makes it good? It has the 4 most important elements of a plan; Assessment, Understanding, Direction and Accountability.
I shared my thoughts about this back in June: Why Sales Strategies Don’t Work, or Do They? Being the end of the year, with most of us beginning to thing about 2010, I thought I’d break it out again.
Most sales plans lack one, if not more of the key elements of a good plan. They are missing accountability and are collecting dust. They lack solid, in depth analysis and assessment. They lack buy in and understanding as no one truly understanding what needs to be done, why it’s important and how it’s going to happen. Most sales plans are a check box exercise that wastes everyone’s time and effort.
If you want to make your number next year, build a plan, a real plan. Execute to it, make it accountable, provide a real assessment, and bring it to life. This one has worked for me.
I’m sure many of you have figured out, I’m not your typical process guy. I’m not a big fan of process, but, there are a few places where process works. The sales cycle is one of them.
After all this Sales Process talk, I had to jump in. I love fricking sales processes. This is where I agree with David. They work. BUT, I don’t measure activity and this is where I agree with Anthony. Measuring activity does nothing but constrict the sales team.
I measure results.
Every sales cycle has a series of customer events or triggers that almost always happen before the deal closes. In almost all cases they happen in a linear fashion, ie one happens before the next one happens. These events are customer driven not vendor driven. They are based on how the customer buys. They could be the combination of signing of an NDA, the approval of budget, a pilot, the creation of a evaluation team, a solution assessment and contract signing (a six stage sales process). It could simply be a face to face meeting, a trial and approval from the CEO (a three stage sales process). What it is doesn’t matter. Knowing what it is matters.
Most sales processes focus internally and are activity based. They don’t work. Activity management doesn’t guarantee results. A sales process needs to map to the decision process of your customers. How does your customer buy? What steps do they take before they agree to buy? What support must be had? What processes must be followed? Who’s approvals must be gained? What must happen before money goes out the door? Figure out these questions and you have your sales process.
Every company has a process for buying new stuff. Go figure it out. Then build your sales process around that. Don’t make it activity based. Make it results based. Let your sales people figure out for themselves how they are going to get their prospect to “create an evaluation team” or get “the CEO’s approval.” That’s their job. Just don’t let them move past that stage in the sales cycle until they figure it out. Because, that’s your job.
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