Sales Process | A Sales Guy

Bad Forecasts Aren’t a Mistake

The New York Times had a great op-ed piece today about companies missing forecasts. The premise – CFO’s and CEO’s are over confident in their beliefs.

I completely agree with this and think the premise can be extended even further to sales people. You can usually see this “hubris” in sales when sales people are well connected with the customer. The customer gives them their forecast, their expected sales for the next year and the sales person takes it to heart.

They believe their relationship with the customer and their knowledge of their “business” is spot on. This confidence drives faulty forecasts.

The New York Times does a good job explaining this, there is nothing I can add. That being said, I think there is another reason for faulty forecasts — forecasts have never been expected to be accurate.

Forecasting HAS never been an exercise in accuracy. Forecasting has always been an exercise in articulating how much growth is going to be had not an authentic expression of what is really going to happen.

Nobody wants to hear your going to lose money. No one wants to hear business is declining. No one wants to hear that the numbers are falling. Therefore, no one is allowed to forecast the truth. REALITY is something forecasts omit 90% of the time. Sales and corporate forecasts are marketing tools designed to build confidence in the company, the division or the sales person. They are rarely a fair representation of reality.

Know one wants to hear the truth — unless it is good.

An unprecedented number of companies missed 2009 earnings. Why? In my opinion none of them forecasted a decline in business from 2008 to 2009, despite all the economic signs and information suggesting 2009 would be brutal. There was more than enough information in the fall of 2008 that suggested for most companies growth was an impossibility and a decline was most probable.

Rather than embracing the data and building a forecast and plan to minimize the decline, most companies moved forward with completely unrealistic growth forecasts.

This intolerance of negative forecasts permeates all the way to sales. Sales forecasting is rooted in the expectations of growth, not accurate forecasting.

If sales teams want to improve productivity, improve forecasting accuracy and minimize surprises, the culture of forecasting needs to change. It needs to move from telling people what they want to hear to telling people what is actually happening.

If your company or sales team has never forecasted negative sales numbers yet has had a decline in revenue, that’s the first sign your company doesn’t forecast but promotes. If you have sales people or executives who have put forth compelling data based arguments for a decline in revenue or sales and they were marginalized or removed, it’s another sign you don’t forecast, you promote.

Real forecasting uses data, the good and the bad, to determine the most accurate prediction of future revenue. It’s that simple.

If some forecasts are deemed OK and others aren’t, reality is quickly being flushed from the process. When that happens just ask the powers that be, what number they want to see and give it them.

It will save everyone a lot of time, time your going to need to figure out how you can make that completely unrealistic forecast.

There is no such thing as a good forecast or a bad forecast . . . just an accurate forecast.

The Sales Forecast, An “Informed Guess” (customerthink.com)
Sales Forecast Accuracy – The Results Are In (and it’s not pretty) (customerthink.com)
How Important is it to Have Accurate Sales Forecasts? (strategic-business-planning.suite101.com)

August 22, 2010 | Filed under: Business Performance,Sales Process | View Comments |

It’s Not Your Job to Say “No”

Despite your best assumptions, your best conclusions, your gut feelings, you don’t know what your customer wants until you ask.

You may believe the customer won’t accept a price increase, you may think the customer wont give up buying from the competitor, it may feel like there isn’t a chance in the world the customer will implement the beta version of the new software, but you’ll never know until you ask.

It’s not your job to say “no” for the customer.

Too often we assume we know the answers. We draw conclusions, we make assumptions, and then decide for the customer. We assume “no” will be the answer and we don’t ask the question. But, that’s not our job.

Our job IS to ask. Let the customer say no.

When we say “no” FOR the customer we are operating from fear. It’s our lack of confidence, our fear of rejection taking over. It’s our way of protecting ourselves.

The problem is nothing comes from protecting ourselves; opportunities are squandered, conversations are never had, new products are never launched, competitors are never beaten.

Sophisticated sales happens in the difficult discussions. Fear avoids the difficult conversations. Don’t let fear win.

It’s your job to ask the tough questions. It’s your customers job to give you the answer.

You ask the question and let the customer say “no” or . . . “yes.” It’s the natural order of things.

August 3, 2010 | Filed under: Sales Process,The Chase | View Comments |

Order Takers vs Order Makers

In sales there are order takers and order makers.

Order takers are reactive. They listen and respond to customers requests. They respond to RFP’s. They give the customer what they ask for. Order takers sell in the now. They focus on what can bought today. Most sales people are this way. Order takers don’t realize they are order takers. They see themselves as being responsive to the customer. Order takers defend their selling style by using the customer. They say it’s what the customer wants. It’s what the customer is asking for. The problem with this is, they are not comfortable pushing the customer, or making the customer uncomfortable. Order takers don’t like to disrupt the apple cart. Order takers are insecure. Fear is a constant theme. They operate from what the customer wants. Despite this, order takers are very good at what they do; taking orders. They are an advocate for the customer and what the customer demands. Order takers are controled by the customer. The customer drives order takers. Where the customer goes, the order taker is not far behind with their order pad.

Order makers are remarkably different. They aren’t focused on what the customer asks. They focus on what the customer needs. Order makers are comfortable making their customers uncomfortable. They are secure. Order makers are proactive. They are not driven by the products in their bag or requests by the customer. Order makers have conversations. They engage customers in business discussions regardless of a solution or product. Order makers measure themselves not only by quota but by customer ROI and business impact. Order makers sell 6 to 9 months in advance. They are looking down the road. Order makers aren’t controlled by the customer. Order makers control the customer. Order makers are driven by data, by the market, by the industry, by their customers strategic goals. Order makers are invaluable to product and the rest of the business, as they provide visibility to where their customers are going, not where they are. Order makers are provocative. Order makers don’t have order pads, they know they have the sale long before the customer is ready to order.

There is a big difference between an order taker and an order maker. Order makers are indispensable to their customers and to their company. Order takers take orders and when the orders dry up . . . you hope you have an order maker.

July 1, 2010 | Filed under: Leadership,Sales Process,The Chase | View Comments |

What Am I Supposed To Do With This?

It’s funny how we can experience things on a regular basis, but it’s not until someone points it out that we see it clearly. This just happened to me.

I am reading Jill Konrath’s new book Snap Selling. You can see a copy of it in the sidebar. It’s a great book. I’ve read a lot of sales books in my days. What makes this good, is it is timely. Jill does a good job of assessing how today’s selling environment has changed.

Selling has changed and it’s important sales people recognize this.

In Jill’s book she talks about today’s frazzled customer and how the messages we send have to be on target or they will be deleted, (her opening letter from a customer is just brilliant, I wrote about it here.) I’ve been reading it from a sales person perspective looking for ways it could be relevant to my team. However, lately I’ve been in the “customer” position and her points are ever more clear to me.

I’ve been getting a lot of sales calls, and inquiries to meet, to review books, look at products, etc. Between this blog and my position at work the amount of requests for my time and help have grown 10 fold. Most of these requests come in the form of an email. Almost all of them were very difficult for me to figure out “WHY” I should take the time.

This email I got the other day triggered the point for me — I’m still not sure what to do with it, so I deleted it.

Dear Jim,

Trust all is well at your end

I take care of Technology and Communication Practice at XYZ Systems based in Atlanta

My responsibility is to help Communication Technology enablers and Service Providers like you take control of your Product Development, Support and Transformation cost.

Recently we co-developed a Service Assurance Application for a major OEM that currently has been implemented by a large number of Communications Service Providers (CSPs) across the Globe

Some of the Critical Success Factors of our solution include:

- Reduced Churn by 40%

- Increased First Call Resolution by 40%

- Reduced Total Cost of Ownership by 45%

- Enable consolidated view at device, network, service and customer layers

- Perform end-to-end intelligent root cause analysis

With over 19 years of expertise we have been able to help our customers successfully deal with their Application transformation, Quality Assurance, System Integration needs through our global delivery end-to-end IT Services model

Some of the Communication Service Providers and OEMs that have benefited from our expertise include Bell Canada, Telus, Allstream, Nortel, Alcatel-Lucent to name a few

I would like the opportunity to update you while sharing some of our results. The purpose of the call is to introduce Kumaran and also understand some of the current challenges in the IT Services space we might help you succeed.

Would it be possible to connect over a call to further present the expertise in greater detail – I will be able to work my schedule around yours

Look forward to hear from you

Great, I have no clue what to do with this. As a company we don’t measure churn. We do have a call center, but it’s not within my responsibility. Reduced TCO, great where? I’m responsible for sales strategy and operations, TCO isn’t a metric I manage. “Enable consolidated view at device level,” cool, but we make a product that does that. Finally, “application transformation” and “our global delivery end-to-end IT Services model.” Uh?

This email was so confusing that rather than deleting, I reread it, thinking maybe I was missing something. I wasn’t. I deleted it.

I’m getting more and more of these types of emails. I’m deleting most of them, not because I don’t want to help out, not willing to meet or don’t have some need that could be fulfilled, but because I can’t figure out “WHY?”

Jill does a great job in her book breaking down how to engage today’s frazzled customers. I’m not frazzled, but I wish the people who reach out to me would read her book. Then maybe I’d know what to do.

If you have recently sent me an email asking for my time, to review a book, to meet, or to sell something and you haven’t heard from me, I apologize. You’re email didn’t help me understand why I should.

——–
UPDATE: Honestly, if I didn’t get back to you try again. But, this time tell me what you want, why it matters, and when you want me to do it. Even if I can’t I’ll at least know why and write back letting you know. Oh, yeah if you had your admin or assistant ask for you, forget it. If you don’t have the time for me, I don’t have it for you.

June 10, 2010 | Filed under: Sales Process,The Chase | View Comments |

Going Golfing

It’s 6:30 a.m. and I’m getting ready to go golfing. This is my first time out this year and only the 3rd time in the last year.

I used to be a good golfer, OK decent. My lowest handicap was a 12. Now, who knows. Besides having 3 kids under the age of 4, the reason I don’t golf as much anymore is it’s not part of my sales stack.

Golfing used to be a big part of the sales process 10-15 years ago. There was a time when I’d have two or three client golf outings a month. It’s how business got done and even more important, it’s how relationships were managed.

Today’s selling and business worlds have changed. I haven’t had a customer golf outing in 5 years. People are just too busy. They don’t have the time or inclination to spend a day on the golf course in order to get things done. Jill Konrath‘s new book Snap Selling talks about this very issue.

Now that golf has lost it’s grip as a customary sales tool, my game has gone to crap. I’m looking forward to playing this a.m. It’s going to be fun. I’m playing with a friend and former employee. He’s still a good golfer, I don’t know how he does it.

Business no longer subsidizes my golf. I’m going to have to find a new way to get out on the course more often. I do enjoy golf. It would be great to make the goal I set a long time ago — to have a single digit handicap.

I took my daughters to the driving range twice last week. Maybe that’s my ticket. We’ll see.

Is golf still part of your sales stack?

June 6, 2010 | Filed under: Sales Process,The Chase | View Comments |

Account Governance — Reporting

This is part 7 of an 8 part series on Account Governance

A saying of a good friend of mine is “we’re at the blunt end of the stick” and when it comes to sales he’s right. Sales is on the tip of the spear when it comes to the company. They have the relationships with the customers. Sales has access to what is going on. Sales is responsible for making the revenue happen.

Knowing this, sales owes it to the organization and to themselves to communicate what is going on. To keep the company informed and abreast of what is happening sales needs to deliver robust, simple, reporting schemes to the organization.

When it comes to reporting, I don’t think there is one size fits all. However, there is certain information every company needs to track. The baseline sales data that needs to be collected, and believe it or not ISN’T in all companies, is funnel or pipeline data, closed business, and revenue.

Beyond the baseline data every sales person and company needs to have their own set of metrics and reporting.

To build a good reporting structure it’s important to know what you want to measure. Far too often sales organization measure the same things; revenue, profit or gross margin, and funnel. As I said earlier these are must haves. But, sales organizations need to go further. Good account governance adds it’s own set of KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators) to the standard metrics.

Choosing what to measure will be specific to each account and each sales organization.

KPI’s I’ve found valuable in the past:

Wallet-Share
Forecast/Outlook
Key Programs
Competitive Wins
New Product Wins
Losses
Product % of revenue (what % of revenue comes from what products)
Key Deals
Dependencies (things the sales team depends on to make or close a deal that another functional group is responsible for)
Linearity (the consistency of sales, does sales come in evenly or in major swings?)
Forecast accuracy (does the team actually meet their stated forecast goals, what is the % of forecast accuracy?)
Net New Customers
Lost Customers
Upgrades
Customer Satisfaction
Demo’s

When it comes to reporting the thing to walk away with is; it’s extremely important to identify the critical components of your sales environment and business and report on them. Build a dashboard that allows a quick snapshot of where you are. This should be done at the management level as well as the account level. The most successful account managers I’ve seen create their own account dashboard and KPI’s. They act as a guide, a benchmark, allowing management and account managers to see where they are going and what needs to be addressed. It allows for proactive management.

In addition to a dashboard and KPI’s, there is an internal reporting cadence that is a must have. It’s the quarterly business review or account review. To me there is only one way to execute a QBR. Each member of the team has 3 hours each quarter to update the entire team on what they said they would do, what they did, what they didn’t do, what they learned and what they will do next quarter. This approach to quarterly business/account review drives tremendous accountability into the process. Traditionally, QBR’s waste everyones time while the presenters regurgitate the same old information of what they did, regardless of whether or not it’s what they said they were going to do, they avoid calling out failures, or missteps, they don’t address what they will do moving forward etc. Traditional QBR’s lack accountability. I make them as simple and straight forward as possible. We only address what it is we said we were going to do, what were our goals and objectives, did we make them or not. Why? Where does that leave us? Can we make up the losses? If so, how? What are we going to do different? How do we know that’s going to work? What are next quarters goals and objectives? etc. The QBR’s are solely focused around the goals, initiatives, and tactics committed to at the beginning of the quarter.

Reporting is two things, what is being reported, the information and how it’s being reported, the cadence. Successful sales teams and account teams pick the right things to measure and have an internal reporting cadence of accountability. It’s that simple.

June 3, 2010 | Filed under: Sales Process,The Chase | View Comments |

Account Governance — Strategy

This is part 6 of an 8 part series on Account Governance

What I like most about strategy and account management is, it’s like a window into how the goals are going to be accomplished. Earlier I talked about the account plan. In the account plan there is a goal section. The goals are the things to be accomplish with in the account. The strategies are the approach to making those goals a reality.

The best strategies take into consideration the unique elements of the account. This is where the analysis phase of the account plan becomes so important. By focusing on exactly what is going on in the account, where the account is going, who the key influencers are, what the market is doing, what is happening with the competition, etc. the strategy will be successful.

I’ve found, based on the account assessment, there is almost always more than one strategy. Most good account governance plans have multiple strategies for each of their goals. Another way to look at it is if you have 4 goals, you would probably have at least 8 strategies, 2 for each goal. In some cases you may have 3 strategies for each goal. This is the template I’ve used with my teams, again feel free to use it. This would be one strategy for one goal. You would use an additional one for a different strategy for the same goal.

Strategies are absolutely critical to success. To create good ones, a strong, robust, thorough assessment has to have been done. Strategies rely solely on information. Imagine trying to create a strategy to capture Osama Bin Ladin with out knowing what he looks like, where Pakistan and Afganistan are, who the leaders of those governments are, what the geography is, etc. Strategies are only as good as the information that made them. A good account strategy needs a good account assessment.

Account assessment is the greatest weakness in sales. Sales people aren’t known for assessing environments up front. They are excellent at reacting. Unfortunately, reacting is what creates pricing wars, and RFP responses. Reacting does little to allow sales to “manage” an account. This being said, the assessment section of the account plan is absolutely critical to creating good account strategies.

To be successful, strategies need execution. To execute on a strategy the initiatives and tactics that will be deployed need to be called out. For instance, if a goal is to increase revenue by 10%, a strategy may be to sell a new product to the account. To sell that product a set of initiatives must be determined. An initiative could be to demonstrate value of XYZ product to accelerate the customers stated strategy of increasing customer satisfaction. Notice this initiative gives life and purpose to the strategy of introducing a new product to increase revenue. Once all the initiatives have been identified, the details need to be ironed out. These details are the specific tactics required to ensure the initiatives happen. Using the example above, a tactic could be to work with product marketing to establish the specific impact XYZ product can have on the accounts customer satisfaction goals. It could be meet with account VP to determine how they measure customer satisfaction etc. The tactics are very specific steps that will be taken to drive the initiatives, that support the strategies, that get you to your goals.

Account strategies are more than a high-level approach that sits on a bookshelf somewhere. Good account strategies are born out of the account plan. They leverage the well researched account and organizational assessment. They have specific initiatives and tactics to ensure they are achieved.

Successful account governance wins or loses on the ability to execute against an account strategy. Keep them linked, be specific and attach them to the Approach section of the account plan and they will be achieved.

June 2, 2010 | Filed under: Sales Process,The Chase | View Comments |

Account Governance –Cadence

This is part 5 of an 8 part series on account governance

Cadence is a powerful tool for managing an account. Unfortunately, when I ask sales people about their cadence strategy or approach a get a lot of weird looks.

Cadence is how you drive an account. Cadence has the greatest impact in influencing the customer. It allows you to manage relationships, track progress, drive accountability, and engage all the stakeholders on a regular basis.

A good cadence consists of a few critical elements:

1) weekly progress meetings
2) quarterly business reviews
3) specific, regularly scheduled stakeholder meetings
4) clearly defined agendas and objectives
5) stakeholder commitment to participate

Cadence structure is not complex. I use this template your welcome to use it as well.

(I’ve filled in the table for info purposes only, you will need to determine the appropriate cadence structure for your accounts)

The complexity and value of cadence comes in the execution. To build a highly effective cadence think in terms of your account vision, your account plan and the account relationships. Notice in the one above, a regular cadence has been established between the customer CEO and the Company CEO, the IT department and the company CTO, both account teams, Marketing and more. The cadence is specifically designed to connect many different functional groups at multiple levels in an organization. Its purposely not intended to be horizontal. Its meant to be both horizontal AND vertical.

Ask, who should be regularly communicated with? Who influences the success or failure within the account? How can they influence the account plan and the ability to be successful? Once this is determined cadence brings it all together.

To make the cadence fly and get the most out of it, be proactive. Gain support from your relationships to engage on a regularly scheduled basis. Build weekly, monthly, quarterly and semi-annually events to monitor progress, set strategic direction, provide insight, address problems, deliver updates, identify challenges and reset direction. Set specific agendas and actionable objectives for all the meetings. The meetings need to have value. They need to be seen as worth the investment for both parties. If this part isn’t set up correctly, they entire process falls apart.

When a cadence is firing on all cylinders the account is being managed holistically. The right relationships are not only in place but engaged, from the executives on both sides, to the those accountable on a day to day basis, everyone is engaged. Issues are ferreted out early and addresses quickly. New products, services, and offers are introduced early and feedback can be provided by the customer strengthening the probability of adoption. Hiccups in the account business are identified earlier minimizing unforeseen drops in revenue or orders. This improves forecasting accuracy. Issues and challenges rarely blow-up as they are identified and addressed before they can get out of hand. And, one of my favorite benefits is the ability to ask for favors. If you’ve been in sales for awhile you understand the importance of being able to go to your customer and ask for help, to take a shipment early, to accelerate an order etc. When a strong cadence is in place, those important favors are much easier to ask for.

Cadence is about being proactive. It’s about managing an account from top to bottom on a regular basis. It’s about avoiding the reactionary approach most account manager find themselves in. Cadence gives the customer and you a platform to manage everything and anything associated with the account in a effective, proactive, way.

A good cadence brings to life the vision, the plan and the relationships.

May 27, 2010 | Filed under: Sales Process,The Chase | View Comments |

Account Governance — Relationships

This is part 4 of an 8 part series on account governance

Relationships are the hardest element of account governance to write about. It’s hard because it’s difficult to measure. It’s not objective. There isn’t a paint by numbers process to create relationships, to know if you have the appropriate ones etc. Relationships are critical to good account governance, but it’s hard to put them in a box. Later in the series I will talk about account cadence. A good candence can help you manage the relationships, but it can’t build them.

This being said, understanding the critical nature of the relationship to an overall account governance is critical.

I remember early in my career a peer gave a presentation about two types of relationships. He talked about the person at your customer that would always answer your calls, who would accept your invitations to lunch and could always be counted on for a good game of golf. This relationship would always invite you into deals and could be counted on for support, BUT when it came to the really big deals or the core business affecting opportunities they would be conspicuously quiet.

This peer of mine then went on to talk about another type of relationship. He talked about the customer who called you and asked for advice. This relationship wasn’t always available for lunch or golf, but always invited you to the strategic business discussions. This relationship made few decisions without getting your insight. This relationship always made sure you were not only part of the big deals, but asked for your help in crafting the RFP and setting the strategic direction.

It was during this presentation, I first heard the term; Trusted Advisor.

There are clearly different relationships when it comes to managing accounts. It’s not good enough just to have a “relationship”. You have to have the right relationship, with the right people across many aspects of the organization.

The “relationship” I’m referencing in this pie chart is the second one. In an account management environment it is critical to develop a trusted advisor relationship or partnership where you’re seen as an information source, as an influencer.

Getting to this point requires a perspective AND an approach that is not product centric. I’ll say that again. It’s not product centric. If the conversations tend towards product you are not headed towards the influencer position.

To become an influencer requires a different perspective. It takes gambits, not transactions. It starts with your customers perspective and works out from there. It takes a tremendous amount of information about your account, the things your products and services enable and more. It’s more conversations than presentations. Most importantly, its having information your customer doesn’t have. It’s being smarter than your customer.

Being smarter than your customer is no small order. I rarely see people with this skill. Its magic when it happens.

The right relationships, with the right people, on the right level are a critical part of account governance. Build them on value. Build them on substance. Become an influencer. There will be plenty of time for golf, after they’ve called you to ask how to . . . ?

Tomorrow: Part 5
I’ll talk about cadence and how to manage the killer relationships you have.

May 27, 2010 | Filed under: Sales Process,The Chase | View Comments |

Account Governance — Account Plans

This is part 3 of an 8 part series on account governance.

If the account vision is the compass of account management, then account plans are the ship. Account plans are where the execution happens. It’s the engine to successful account management.

I’ve talked about the importance of account plans here before. The post is pretty complete, so I won’t go too far into how to build a good plan here. But, I do think they are critical to a good governance plan. This is the plan I’ve developed and use with my teams. Feel free to use it if you’d like.

Account Strategy Template

View more presentations from Jim Keenan.

Account plans must have a few things to be of value. They must have goals and objectives. It’s critical to know how you are going to measure success. They need to have a robust account assessment, including what is happening in the industry, the customers financial environment, the political landscape, the clients market positioning, major initiatives, the culture, their buying habits, the key players etc. A full fledge, relevant assessment is key. A good account plan should include an organizational assessment, outlining the team responsible for managing the account. It should include the resources, their ability to execute, the relationships, strengths, weaknesses etc. A good team assessment can determine how well the team is positioned to execute on the plan. The plan also needs to outline the key opportunities at the account. Where do you have the greatest opportunity for success? A good account plan also needs to include your approach. The approach is where the rubber hits the road. It outlines exactly what you’re going to do and why. In addition, an account plan needs to include the risks to meeting your goals, a contingency plan should something change and a resource section outlining what you need, that you currently dont have, to be successful.

Once all this has been written down into a cohesive, compelling plan for the year, do it again for the first quarter. It’s critical that your plan for the year be broken down into quarterly chunks.

I can’t emphasize enough the importance of a well crafted plan.

Finally, and in my opinion the most important component of the sales plan is plan accountability. At the end of each quarter, it is imperative to review the quarterly goals in these terms; what did you say you were going to do? Did you do it? What went wrong? What went right? What do you need to change? What are your quarterly goals for the next quarter. By managing to outcomes, you keep the plan relevant. The plans become working plans, not dusty books on a shelf. I can’t emphasize enough the importance of getting this part right. A good plan requires management. It’s not enough to just write them down.

Plans ensure execution. They outline the delivery mechanisms to strong account governance. Get a good plan in place. Make sure it aligns to your account vision and you are well on your way.

May 26, 2010 | Filed under: Sales Process,The Chase | View Comments |