Sales | A Sales Guy

There is Fear in Them Buyers

Buyers are afraid today. They are afraid of spending too much money. They are afraid of making the wrong decision. They are afraid of making a mistake. They are afraid of screwing up. Fear is a prevalent emotion in todays selling environment.

Buyers are afraid because things are uncertain. There is less room for mistakes. The economy is tight. There are fewer resources to go around. People are expected to do more with less. With fewer resources, the costs of mistakes are much higher and no one wants to be “that guy.” The one who screwed up.

Selling in an environment of fear takes a lot more effort than selling in an environment of optimism. Buyers don’t take risks, they want guarantees, prices have to be rock bottom, they don’t want to hear about the conceptual, they want to feel it and touch it and it better have a meauserable, quantifiable return. There is no such thing as a pet project in fear based selling environments.

To make progress in a fear based environment requires, knowledge, trust, relationships, information and gumption.

When buyers are afraid, the more you know about their environment, their goals, their motivations, and their needs the better off you will be. When buyers are afraid, they need to trust those around them more than ever, being in the inner-circle is critical. It’s almost impossible to sell without the relationship. When buyers are afraid, information is critical; information about the market, the competition, government regulation, creative use cases and more. You can’t have too much information when buyers are afraid. But, more than anything, when buyers are afraid YOU can’t be afraid. When buyers are afraid, they are looking for a leader. They want someone to make them feel safe. They want someone with confidence, someone who can do what they can’t — look the challenges right in the eye and not shudder. Selling to buyers who are afraid takes a sales person who is fearless.

Buyers are afraid. They are afraid of losing and to the fearless sales person that’s a huge opportunity.

Don’t be afraid, your clients are afraid enough already.

September 2, 2010 | Filed under: The Chase | View Comments |

When It’s Time for a Startup to Hire a Sales Guy (Gal)

Hiring a professional sales person can be a stressful event for a start up. Hire too early and waste lots of money on a sales person who is unable to drive any revenue, hire too late and risk leaving money on the table or worse losing to the competition.

To figure out if a start-up is ready for a sales person or team depends on 3 simple questions.

1) Is the product or service ready for prime time, can it create a market or can it create demand for itself?

2) Is there market demand? Does the market want the product or service?

3) Does the organization have the sales expertise to execute on the above?

Determining if it’s time to hire a sales person or team is a simple if/then.

If the product is ready and can create demand for itself and you don’t have the sales expertise, It’s time to hire sales.

If the market demand is there, if the market wants what you sell and you don’t have the expertise in house, then it’s time to hire sales.

If there is market demand AND the product or service is ready for prime time and can create demand for itself, then hire a shit load of sales people and fast.

If the product is not ready for primetime yet there is market demand then try to develop the expertise in house, use the CEO, founders etc. It’s a business development process until the product is ready.

If the product is ready and can create demand for itself, but the market demand isn’t there then hire a REALLY, REALLY good Maverick.

If the product or service isn’t there, and the market doesn’t know it wants your product or service yet then don’t hire anyone. Get the product out the door.

There are only 3 things that can sell a product or service, the product itself, market demand or sales. That’s it. Nothing else can move the needle.

To determine if its time to hire a sales person figure out what if/then statement fits, then go.

August 24, 2010 | Filed under: Entrepreneur,Hiring/Firing,Sales Leadership | View Comments |

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 |

In Sales Reality Doesn’t Matter

Focusing on reality just doesn’t matter. All that matters is what your customer thinks.

It doesn’t matter if you’ve won JD Power customer service award 10 years in a row. If your customer thinks it’s terrible, it is. It doesn’t matter if your product has more features than your competition, if the prospect doesn’t think so, it doesn’t. It doesn’t matter if you implemented the project one week early, if the client felt it was late, it was.

In sales, what you think doesn’t matter. It’s what the customer thinks.

In sales there are two choices. Sell to perception or accept your customer is wrong and walk away.

What you can’t do is convince them they are wrong. That’s a fools errand.

In sales perception is reality. Address the customers perception, regardless of how different it is from yours.

When your food sucks it doesn’t change your mind to hear Wolfgang Puck prepared it with fresh seafood, flown in today, using the best cutlery forged by hand.

All you know is your food sucked.

Addressing the fact your customer thinks their food sucked will get you somewhere. Addressing why it doesn’t will get you somewhere too, just not the sale.

August 17, 2010 | Filed under: Customer Service,The Chase | 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 |

It’s the Connections

In sales, knowledge is important, knowledge of the products, the customer, the industry and more.

The relationships are important too. The trust we build, the breadth and depth of those we know in the organization, and the partnerships we create help us sell.

Together they are powerful. Without them sales won’t happen. Most sales people get this. They work hard to have the knowledge and build the relationships.

The real action however, is in the connections. The connections between the information and the relationships. It’s the connections between the data and the requests. The connections are where the sale happens.

Everyone has access to the same data. Everyone as access to the same people. It’s the connections that represent a sales persons value. Each sales person draws their own conclusions, creating their own connections between the data and the relationship.

Get good at creating powerful connections, it’s what your customers are looking for.

July 30, 2010 | Filed under: The Chase | View Comments |

It’s the Connections

In sales, knowledge is important, knowledge of the products, the customer, the industry and more.

The relationships are important too. The trust we build, the breadth and depth of those we know in the organization, and the partnerships we create help us sell.

Together they are powerful. Without them sales won’t happen. Most sales people get this. They work hard to have the knowledge and build the relationships.

Get good at creating powerful connections, it’s what your customers are looking for.

July 30, 2010 | Filed under: The Chase | View Comments |

The “Ators” of Sales

There are two types of “ators” in sales; manipulators and facilitators.

Manipulators manipulate the information, the people, the process, and the environment to make things work for their benefit of themselves. They work the sale for their own benefit.

Facilitators facilitate the use of information, the people, the environment, and the process to make things work for the benefit of the customer. They work the sale for the customer.

Both can drive revenue, but only one is selling.

July 25, 2010 | Filed under: Customer Service,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 |

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 |