Do you miss out on growing sales because your clients’ pigeon hole you?

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Do you miss out on growing sales because your clients’ pigeon hole you?

May 4, 2011 in Attitudes & Behaviours, Coaching, Communication, Sales Assessments, Sales Training, Tips

Do you have trouble introducing your clients to new products and services? Does their memory seem to spring back to what you used to do or your initial offering to them? Do they seem to pigeon hole you in a certain category, unable to see or acknowledge that you offer other products or services?

This is a common problem for many businesses especially when they start out as one thing and evolve into something more than a ‘one trick pony’. For instance, one of our client companies has recently merged their new product business with their service and spare parts business requiring their sales people to promote and sell both offerings. They are finding that their clients are having trouble incorporating the new model in their perceptual bandwidth. Like Pavlov’s Dogs or a rubber band the sales people keep finding that their clients keep associating them with one or the other of their divisions, not both. Now the sales people have a part to play in this as well – they must make sure that they represent the whole business message every time they meet with the client whilst attending to the specific need to the client at that time. Not always an easy task as the sales people can have their own difficulties adapting to the new format with some falling back into their comfort zones. The challenge to get both clients and sales people on board is to have a clear message that is easy to understand and a contextual framework by which all of your products and services hang off. Ultimately the sales people and clients can understand what the whole business is about and where they all fit in.

I, too, have direct personal experience of this when I set out in my own business. Back in 1995 when I launched Barrett I had very little of my own product to sell at the time other than my consulting and facilitation skills – essentially I was the product supported by other people tools, mainly assessments. I happened to be a licensed distributor for the Call Reluctance assessment – SPQ*Gold where I could sell direct and build sub-distribution licenses. The SPQ*Gold was relatively new to the market back then and had a real competitive edge, and I did such a good job selling it, my business became the Number 3 distributor in the world for this tool. However I knew strategically that if I was to grow my business on solid foundations I either needed to secure distribution license agreements or develop my own products. It was in 1998, three years after I started my business, that I made the decision to make my own products, with an aim to have more than 80 per cent of my revenue come from my own products such as sales training modules, sales simulations, sales recruitment kits, sales performance management systems etc. and less than 20 per cent come from other product manufacturers. To build my own products takes time, energy and investment, and 16 years on I now have over 200 items on my IP (intellectual property) Assets Register.

As I began to introduce my Barrett built products a funny thing happened with my existing clients. They couldn’t see my new product offerings. Instead, they kept pigeon holing me as ‘SPQ SUE’. It turned out I had done such a good job growing the brand of SPQ*Gold in the Australian marketplace that people thought it was my product, when in fact it was not. I did not have an exclusive license arrangement and I knew that if I did not rectify this perception problem I would be at risk of being the unofficial sales and marketing arm for the makers of SPQ*Gold and therefore put my business at risk. If they ever came in and took away those licenses I would be left with nothing, yet I would have been the person that would have done all the heavy lifting in the market place.

As I transitioned from majority of my revenue coming from other product supplier sources, I not only had to invest in building good quality products and resources, which takes time, but I had to begin to change the perceptions and mindsets of my clients so they could begin to expand their views about what my business was capable of.

Little did I know how long that would take. They just seemed to hold on to ‘SPQ SUE’ for such a long time and didn’t want or couldn’t see that we were able to offer so much more. There appeared to be a myopia, a near sightedness that existed but they weren’t to blame – it turns out I had done such a good job building loyalty and brand awareness for this tool and my expert use of it that I had inadvertently confused my brand with another company’s key product. In short it took me only three years to get them to think of me as brand ‘SPQ SUE’ but it took me another six to eight years to finally get them to see what else we had to offer that wasn’t just SPQ*Gold, such as sales and sales management training, sales assessments, sales coaching and sales consulting. I had to rework my business brand to represent a Sales Transformation and Sales Mastery Business rather than just an assessment business. Now with careful planning, consistent messaging and persistence we are known in our own right and SPQ*Gold is only part of what we offer.

So to avoid being pigeon holed by your clients here are some tips:

make sure your message is very clear and across everything you do
make regular and consistent contact with clients and prospects to ensure you keep them updated about your service or product offerings i.e. e-newsletters, product updates, face2face meetings, etc.
make sure your new products or services are presented in a way that makes sense to your clients and market place
when meeting with clients make sure you uncover all of their priorities which can give you the opportunity to present your broader capabilities and make them aware that you are more than just one thing
know how to present your complete offering as a system which can work as a whole or in parts

Next week I will write about the decision we made to shift from being mainly a distributor of products to a product manufacturer in our own right and the challenges and lessons we had along the way.

Remember everybody lives by selling something.

Author: Sue Barrett, MD of www.barrett.com.au

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Exceptional Prospecting and Social Media

April 7, 2011 in Call Reluctance, Communication, Prospecting, Self Promotion, Social Media, Social Sales, Tips

With social networking sites and the plethora of online data available, 2011 presents us with better quality prospecting and more qualified prospects. ‘Prospecting and Social Media’ was voted as the Number 4 Sales Trends for 2011. Business networking sites such as LinkedIn and Plaxo, and the emergence of Facebook and Twitter as business destinations, give the discerning business or sales person access to quality data where they can research key contacts with an organisation, as well as business activity. Then, when appropriate, they can use this data to make professional connections.

Smart business leaders and sales people are using social networking sites as tools to engage in better quality prospecting and improve conversion rates rather than just using them to make a list of prospects. These sites potentially make redundant, the concept of Cold Calling and the fear of prospecting and can help people become exceptional prospectors. So how do you get the best out of Social Networking sites when prospecting? Let’s look at the business phenomenon that is LinkedIn.

LinkedIn

For Business to Business prospecting, LinkedIn is proving to be a rich source of information, contacts, suppliers, prospects, referrals and clients. It has exploded in connections and content, and usage has skyrocketed in the last 18 months through its many features helping you get connected to the right people. It is the largest B2B social media networking group in the world. For instance my own LinkedIn profile and network currently can connect me with over 5,200,000+ contacts, imagine how we could all harness the power of these connections. So how do you use LinkedIn to help you prospect more effectively?

Step 1: Develop a sales plan, clear message and profile
Before you set up your LinkedIn profile make sure you have a clear sales plan which identifies who you need to be connecting with i.e. types of clients, suppliers, peers, industry sources and groups. Think about what you want to present by way of image, message and purpose i.e. what do you stand for? What do you do for people? Look at how you would like to position yourself as a business professional. Like websites, your LinkedIn profile is your professional resume online; it represents your professional brand. This is why you need to be clear about who you are, what you do and what you want to communicate to a broad audience. What you do, what your company does, what you represent, people are likely to make up their mind about you based on what they see and read about you. Your LinkedIn profile should form part of your sales and marketing strategy.

Step 2: Join LinkedIn
Get your profile up and live. It’s easy and it’s free – go to www.linkedin.com and get started. There are also various levels you can subscribe to enhance your profile and get you better connected with search features and other options. These extras come with a monthly fee attached. Begin by using the free access option and try it out before committing to upgrades.

Step 3: Join LinkedIn Groups
There are many and varied LinkedIn Groups you can join. These groups provide people with forums to discuss and exchange ideas and opinion, as well as keep up to date on the latest trends, ideas, innovations, etc. It’s also where buyers are increasingly looking to research suppliers before they buy. They are looking for what others say about you and your products or your industry. They can compare you with your competitors’ offerings. In these groups you can listen to what your customers are saying before they even decide to talk to you. Your sales strategy should guide you as to who you should be in contact with. What types of groups would be useful for you to belong to? For instance if you are a Learning and Development specialist, Engineering sales professional, Environmentalist or Procurement Manager then there are groups focusing in these spaces and many more. But do not limit yourself to the narrow bandwidth of your own expertise. Often looking outside your comfort zone can give you access to new ideas and contacts as well. These groups allow you to listen to your community, suppliers, clients and other interested parties. This gives you access to a wide range of people. See Barrett Consulting Group LinkedIn group as an example. A word of caution: Do not blatantly self promote or advertise your wares in these groups; it will not go down well. If you try to blatantly self promote and prospect in these groups you will be shunned and often kicked off the group.

Step 4: Start to connect
The best way to build up your network of contacts is to invite people you know to connect with you. This way you can begin to build up direct connections who, in turn, can then give you access to people outside of your direct network. You can often look at your contacts list of connections and you can see who might be good to make contact with. It’s advised that you don’t contact someone you do not know directly without some form of personal connection or link; instead, you can seek an introduction through one of your direct contacts. Sending out LinkedIn requests to people at random will not be seen as good business and will be deemed inappropriate or spam by many and may affect your reputation. It is also wise to be discerning about which connections you accept as well. Don’t just accept invitations from anyone, make sure you find out why they want to connect with and how you can be of best service to each other.

Step 5: Identify and Research Your Prospects
If you are already connected on LinkedIn and you know what types of people you need to prospect to you can look through your contacts lists to see who is there. You can also develop a list of names of people who are in your target market via business websites which often have names of key contacts or business news sites and industry magazines which often feature key decision makers. Your own CRM or client database should have lots of names you need to speak to. And of course you can buy lists once you are on LinkedIn and begin to research your prospects. In the upper right hand corner, there is a search box with a pull down menu. Click on that and you’ll see six options (people, jobs, companies, answers, inbox, groups). Click on “people” and enter the prospect’s name. You can see a lot of information about prospects, the groups they belong to, what they are interested in, their experience and knowledge, etc. You can use a prospect’s background to develop questions that relate to their area of responsibility. It will help you to develop very clear Valid Business Reasons (VBR’s) when calling them. Make sure you know how to get prospects to talk to you.

Step 6: Start Prospecting
Develop a list of 20 to 40 prospects per week and then make contact via the telephone as you would normally do. Use relevant VBR’s to help you connect. Pretty soon you will be making contact with the viable prospects and on your way to making more sales. If you are still not comfortable calling people via the phone you can use Linkedin as a prospecting option however make sure that you still use a VBR in your message or invitation to them.

Summary
Does this mean you will learn everything about a person via their profile or that you take a carte blanche approach to prospecting? NO. We will need to be mindful about how we go about making contact as we will still need to engage in skillful prospecting activities to position ourselves effectively. Remember information is not POWER it is potential power. LinkedIn and other social media networks are not the only sources for prospecting but they certainly can help you achieve peak performance in prospecting.

With clear sales plans and well defined prospect profiles there’s no excuse NOT to prospect effectively. 2011 will be about a Total Quality Prospecting environment.

Remember everybody lives by selling something.

Author: Sue Barrett, MD of www.barrett.com.au

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What are the 3 Sales Essentials that make for effective selling?

March 24, 2011 in Communication, Prospecting, Sales Planning, Sales Skills, Sales Training

When we meet with leaders to discuss their sales challenges in achieving sales effectiveness we find that the source of their problems often stem from three key areas: sales planning, sales prospecting and effective sales communication with clients.

Whatever our vocation, we all need to make contact with and communicate effectively to secure the ongoing custom of members, supporters, sponsors or clients to make a living. Yet too many people still leave selling to chance. They do not have a robust sales process in place that works for them or their business, product or service.

Because this optimal process is not internally articulated, Sales Managers are often left unable to teach and transfer the necessary thinking, skills, knowledge and frameworks needed for effective and sustained sales performance. These processes have not been mapped in a logical and easy to follow process. Instead, they often rely on experienced and successful sales people who sell by intuition and cannot explain what they do that makes them good at what they do.

For 16 years we have been putting Selling under the microscope and have been mapping the knowledge, skills and insights needed for successful selling into three essential processes that set the foundations of much of the work we do with clients:

A Sales Planning process – to create an actionable Go-to-market sales plan
A Sales Prospecting process – to prospect successfully
A Sales Communication process – to have productive dialogues with clients and prospects

When sales people and their managers are provided with these documented processes and taught how to use them competently and confidently, we find a dramatic shift in sales capability and sales performance. These three essential sales processes are the foundations to an effective sales team. They are not everything a sales team must know to be effective but without these three sales essentials in place sales success is left to chance. Delivered to sales teams in an interactive way where they can learn the processes whilst applying them to their business is the best way to get traction. Then reinforcing these processes with follow up sessions and targeted coaching means that these sales essentials have a chance of becoming a ‘way of life’ rather than a fad.

At the very least your sales people should be able to:

Develop a Go-to-market sales action plan that tells you:
- Who you need to be in front of
- How you need to get in front of them
- How often you need to do it to make it all worthwhile
Know how to make an effective prospecting call and prospect on a daily basis. It’s the first thing that has to happen if you want to make a sale.
Communicate effectively by asking people about their priorities, problems and objectives before you talk about yourself and what you have to offer.

When you give people what they need they start to get traction and grow. Do yourself a favour and make sure you and your sales people are well equipped with the three sales essentials.

Remember everybody lives by selling something.
Author: Sue Barrett, MD of barrett.com.au a Sales Training firm.

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Why selling is now a team sport

March 17, 2011 in Collaboration, Communication, Customer Service, Marketing, Procurement, Sales Relationships, Sales Training, Teamwork

Subjected to marketing and sales monologues for the better part of 40 years in the form of blanket advertising, product brochures and ‘your call is important to us’ busy signals, customers have taken the lead and are way ahead of us when it comes to having sales and marketing dialogues. Far more informed and sophisticated, and posting blogs, Facebook ‘Likes’, Tweets and reTweets, customers are engaging in their own sales and marketing dialogues about our products, our sales people, our promise, our customer service proposition and our brands, and they are affecting how we are perceived and valued in the market place.

At its very best, customers can be our finest sales team, advocating our products, services, people and brand with their endorsements. Customers can drive more sales and business to our door or, in this day and age, our online shopping carts. By contrast, the impact of their disapproval of our brand, products, customer service and sales people can be swift and devastating, sending people away in droves with their digital complaints and jibes in cyberspace.

It is apparent that Marketing is no longer in complete control of the brand and how it is represented in the market place – customers are taking our messages, tuning and translating them to suit their own needs while some tech savvy people are even manipulating brand images, emails, websites, Facebook pages and Tweets to their own advantage to potentially misrepresent companies, brands and products for good or for bad. Marketing is no longer static, one way or bullet proof.

Coupled with this, Selling has now become a social enterprise where everyone (employees, customers, suppliers, communities, etc.) can be, and often is, involved in the sales and customer service processes, and in some instances, the procurement process. Smart sales people are using their advocates to engage with their prospects and customers, encouraging and influencing them along the buyer’s journey. Linkedin in the B2B space, Facebook in the B2C space, and in some instances the B2B space, along with Twitter are rich in group conversations which need to be listened and responded to, monitored and used as signposts for new innovations, satisfaction levels and collaboration.

It’s like the Wild West and this new age of selling and marketing is really challenging the way businesses control and represent their image, values and reputation. Like pioneers forging new frontiers, Sales and Marketing teams need to rethink their strategies and start working together if they are going to effectively influence and communicate with their valued customers and advocates. It’s now time for Sales and Marketing to collaborate. For too long, too many organisations have had a standoff between sales and marketing: an ‘Us versus Them’ finger pointing culture of one-up-man-ship to the detriment of customers and businesses alike.

Sales and marketing need a new partnership.

Is everyone in your business on the same page or are your sales and marketing teams still operating in silos?
Do you really speak to and actively engage with your customers and relevant communities or is marketing still producing marketing material that is too product centric and the sales team still engaging in product monologues?
Are your sales people trained in the fundamentals of marketing skills and strategies?
Are your marketing people trained in the fundamentals of selling skills and strategies?

Get everyone in the same room

Why not involve your marketing team in your next sales training program or at the very least get the sales and marketing teams together for 1 day and discuss what needs to happen to ensure you are all on the same team and working for the betterment of all. Look at your key messages, advertising strategies, discussions groups, websites, social media, product mix, direct and emerging competitors, and your everyday public presence.

Why not go one step further and include all your staff in the discussions: get your customer service, finance, production/operations, IT and procurement teams in the same room and map your customers’ buying journeys. Explore how everyone in your business can affect your brand, customer experiences, sales results and overall business performance.

One thing is clear: Successful selling now requires new and more meaningful collaboration between sales, marketing, customer service, operations, finance, IT, customers, suppliers and communities. We’re all in it together.

Remember everybody lives by selling something.
Author: Sue Barrett, Sales Training at Barrett at barrett.com.au

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Knowing your business

March 10, 2011 in Business Acumen, Communication, Procurement, Sales Relationships, Sales Research, Sales Skills, Sales Training

‘Knowing your business’ was voted as the Number 3 Sales Trends for 2011. With business becoming more complex it should come as no surprise that clients want to work with business people who can sell, think about possibilities and create a work partnership with their businesses. However, our studies with hundreds of sales professionals and middle management sales leaders reveal that the level of business knowledge and commercial acumen is poor or non-existent in many cases. Often trained on product but not on business practices, many sales teams are falling short in delivering value to their clients.

More and more is being asked of sales people and sales managers when it comes to business knowledge and commercial acumen. Gone are the days of just being a product expert. Sales people need to be competent business people too. Being able to understand strategy; how businesses, markets, and communities function; and where we, our products, services and business works in concert with our clients should be on our agenda in 2011. Today, clients expect to communicate and deal with a real professional who knows how business functions. They want to have business discussions not product discussions.

Our studies reveal that there is little if any discussion about the big picture or business strategy, or innovation or supplier integration. At best, supply and distribution are on the agenda along with product. A surprising finding was the low level of business knowledge and commercial acumen with sales managers in the technical product sectors – very focused on product quality, distribution and service they are not working at the required level to make business decisions and work strategically with clients.

What does business or commercial acumen consist of?

Using the Barrett’s Sales Competency Dictionary, here are some definitions of business competencies relevant to sales people:

Business Acumen: Demonstrates an understanding of how business works; understands the business’ commercial drivers and makes commercially sound decisions.

Financial Awareness: Develops strategies in order to optimise the potential profitability of sales and to measure the financial value of the customer-organisation relationship.

Market and Industry: Keeps up to date with relevant business, technical and professional knowledge and uses this information to understand market trends, customer needs and buying patterns.

Rosenbaum’s 2001 research into elite sales performers reveals that they are focused on the business of business as a key part of their sales strategies. Here are the key competencies they display that other less effective sale people do not:

Listen beyond the obvious product needs
- Presses for more information to identify the business issues underlying the customer’s needs
- Creatively draws on the full resources of the firm / business
- Introduces customers to other suppliers and potentially valuable support resources
Orchestrating internal resources
- Treats company resources with the same degree of importance and creativity as their prospects
- Invests time building collaborative, customer focused relationships inside their organisation
Aligning customer and supplier strategic objectives
- Looks to further the interests of their customers’ firms as well as their own
- Keeps current on developments that affect customers’ business strategies including emerging trends and customers’ competitors
- Welcomes opportunities to customise products or services and has a long-term perspective on the way they do business with customers
Establish a vision of a committed customer relationship
- Expands the customer’s understanding of what a business relationship can be
- Builds a flexible relationship that is responsive to marketplace changes
- Communicates achievable objectives for the relationship while challenging the creativity of both organisations
Understanding the financial impact of decisions
- Adept at understanding the financial impact of decisions
- Uses internal resources in ways that are appropriate to the potential profitability of serving individual customers
- Looks for ways to contribute to customers’ profitability

So what’s the solution?

How do we ensure that this competency is alive, well and fit in the sales force? Should everyone have an MBA? The answer is ‘No’. Without some domain expertise, MBA’s do not make you a great operator either. It’s about combining experience, thinking and creativity with theory. Getting real life hands on experience allows you to see how the real world operates. An interesting article on Radio National highlights the problem of having an MBA without real life experience and the serious issues this has created in business: MBA – Mot Bloody Awful

The answer lies is giving our sales people access to information or introductory training on the fundamentals in business, and the opportunity to review true-to-life case studies about how their business integrates with customers’ businesses is a good start. Including sales people in strategy development and business planning is also useful. Our ’5 Step Sales Planning Process’ that is part of our sales training and Go-to-market training sessions have also proven to be a big hit with sales teams. It allows them to develop their own sales strategies and do the thinking and analysis on their business and that of their customers and markets.

Having business and commercial acumen is also becoming a prerequisite for Human Resources and Procurement professionals. We all need to know how businesses work and function. The warning is if we continue to lead with product, we and our sales teams will be left behind in 2011. Like anything, it’s about blending theory with practice. Making sure our sales people can understand businesses’ commercial drivers and make commercially sound decisions in line with ours and our clients’ business strategies is key in 2011.

Remember that everybody lives by selling something.
Author: Sue Barrett, MD of barrett.com.au a Sales Training firm.

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