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Are you letting online leads go cold?

June 30, 2011 in CRM, Social Media

Middle of last year I wrote about sales training and social media and in particular the impact on car dealerships and their sales teams. In particular, their tardiness in responding to online leads.   Well it seems this is still a problem – only the other week one of my coaching clients told me about his dealings with a prestigious car brand where he contacted a dealership to arrange a test drive only to have someone get back to him 7 weeks later, well and truly after he had bought another car from another brand elsewhere.

The feedback I received from car sales industry sources in 2010 was that if a warm online lead was not followed up within 6 hours they were lost to that dealer.  Well how things have changed. This isn’t just   an issue for car dealerships, it’s now an issue for any business who is generating online customers leads. Harvard has highlighted this issue in their article – The Short Life of Online Sales Leads.

So are you confident that your company is effectively handling potential customers’ online queries? Think hard. Harvard research shows that most companies are not responding nearly fast enough.

This issue is not just a problem for automotive sales; it seems to be an issue for software, health care, banking and financial services, professional services and many other industries.  With many companies now using the internet and other associated technology to generate warm customer leads via ‘push and pull’ prospecting strategies such as direct and targeted online advertising, discussion groups, community forums and the like, as well as online brokers offering consumers group buying opportunities and access to a range of companies in the B2B and B2C space, warm lead generation has never been hotter.  New businesses are emerging that help other companies turn leads into sales by providing technology and services that help maximize this space.

However despite all of these wonderful sales opportunities, the sad news is that many of these warm to hot leads never get followed up by the sales people and companies who seek them out in the first place.

Harvard’s research showed that many organisations are too slow to follow up on these leads. Here are some of their findings:

“We audited 2,241 U.S. companies, measuring how long each took to respond to a web-generated test lead. Although 37% responded to their lead within an hour, and 16% responded within one to 24 hours, 24% took more than 24 hours—and 23% of the companies never responded at all. The average response time, among companies that responded within 30 days, was 42 hours.

These results are especially shocking given how quickly online leads go cold—a phenomenon we explored in a separate study, which involved 1.25 million sales leads received by 29 B2C and 13 B2B companies in the U.S. Firms that tried to contact potential customers within an hour of receiving a query were nearly seven times as likely to qualify the lead (which we defined as having a meaningful conversation with a key decision maker) as those that tried to contact the customer even an hour later—and more than 60 times as likely as companies that waited 24 hours or longer.”

This was a big wakeup call for Barrett as well.  This research has certainly put us on notice because we are seeing a steady increase in the number of enquiries we are getting from the web.  Have we missed the boat because we were too slow in responding to online leads? Probably in some instances, especially if we have been out on assignment and working on other projects and do not get to back to people quickly enough.  Working out what is the right time frame to follow up on is challenging and responding immediately can be problematic, for instance receiving an overseas inquiry overnight and not having a 24 hour helpdesk or customer service line.

So what do we need to do to capture these important sales opportunities?

If companies are making big investments in order to obtain customer queries from the internet and the expectation is that they should be responding at internet speed then why aren’t they? Harvard states: “Reasons include the practice of retrieving leads from CRM systems’ databases daily rather than continuously; sales forces focused on generating their own leads rather than reacting quickly to customer-driven signs of interest; and rules for distributing sales leads among agents and partners based on geography and “fairness.”’  Harvard states it is conducting further research to more fully understand the causes and identify possible solutions. But it’s already evident that most sales organizations need new tools and processes to meet the demands of the online age. With companies making huge investments in online marketing and lead capture we need to work out how we need to respond.  Watch this space.

Remember everybody lives by selling something.

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

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CRM as a business strategy

June 23, 2011 in Communication, CRM, Procurement

‘CRM as a business strategy’ was voted as the Number 6 Sales Trends for 2011. Looking at your Customer Relationship Management systems (CRM’s) as a piece of software? Think again. While CRM’s are getting better, easier and cheaper to use, this year more companies are positioning their CRM’s as a marketing channel to map the true value of their clients to aid their competitive edge.

For those unfamiliar with CRMs, it’s time to familiarise yourselves or be left behind. A CRM is a strategy to manage your company’s interactions with your customers, clients and your prospects. Long gone is the old trustworthy little black book. Today, CRMs use technology to streamline and automate information, enhancing your business processes. CRMs allow you to measure and record your interactions and keep your sales, marketing and business development system streamlined and efficient.

Not too long ago, surveys reported 70-75% of all CRM initiatives failed. That was yesterday. This is today.

Smart companies will position CRM as a strategy and corporate asset from the outset. This dynamic communication system will be your corporate memory and tactical delivery channel for targeted campaigns and will be used by everyone across the organisation, not just by the sales team.  Positioned and used correctly with all this valuable information tracked and mapped, your CRM can be valued as part of your asset register and eventually sold for premium.

How do you create the strategy/vision, manage expectations, organise around the customer and implement CRM best practice? And what are the latest trends in CRM?

According to www.CRMtrends.com the Top 5 CRM Trends for 2011 are:

  1. Branding is more important than ever. Brands are increasingly becoming a surrogate for value, making brand more critical as generic features continue to propagate in the brand landscape.
  2. Value is the new black: Consumer spending, even on sale items, will continue to be replaced by a reason-to-buy at all. The era of “because I said so” is over. This will more than likely challenge most companies.
  3. The rise of the Datarati. Google’s Chief Economist, Hal Varian once said that “Datarati are companies that have the edge in consumer data insight…Data is ubiquitous and cheap, analytical ability is scarce… The sexiest job in the next ten years will be statistician.” How true. There has been and will continue to be an increased focus on data analysis as companies continue to invest in measuring social media, understanding customer value and modeling customer behavior. If you don’t use your data to talk to your customers, others will. The investment in data aggregation and the hiring of “sexy” statisticians is a major trend in 2011 and will be for years to come.
  4. Customer Experience: Customers have more choices than ever, and are more frugal. This affords them the luxury to demand more. This is the year that the CRM Marketer will be charged with offering a consistent experience across all company touch points and developing the infrastructure to allow knowledge sharing and smart communication. Smart marketers will identify and capitalise on unmet expectations. Companies that understand where the strongest expectations exist will be the companies that survive and prosper. The customer’s mobile and online experiences will begin to evolve and rival the customer’s offline experience – attentive assistants and all.
  5. Personalisation and customisation: In order to be effective in 2011 and beyond, companies will seek to increase customer knowledge and use this insight to talk, engage and interact with their customers more often and more meaningfully in new and innovative ways (including dynamic content, blogs to other social networking). 2011 onwards will be up close and personal, like it or not.

So what is CRM Best Practice?

  1. CRM is about putting your customer at the centre or heart of your business
  2. CRM is about building better relationships with your customers
  3. CRM can give you a 360-degree view of the customer which enables you to improve the quality and satisfaction of each customer interaction and maximize the profitability of your customer relationships… a win/win for both you and your customers
  4. CRM can be practiced across all levels within a business from the ‘C’ Suite to customer service, product development, procurement, distribution, marketing, and of course sales.

So…

  • Do your senior managers, sales people and your broader business know why you have a CRM?
  • If so, do they know how to use it and why it will benefit them to do so?
  • Do they know what information needs to be captured and how it will be used?
  • Do they know how it will help them grow, develop and retain viable clients?
  • Does your CRM strategy and subsequent software make life easier for your sales people to make sales or not?
  • Does your CRM strategy and subsequent software support everyone in your business to make life easier for your clients and each other?

Your CRM needs to be a business strategy and a way of life not just a piece of software.

Remember everybody lives by selling something.

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

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Why we should manage & measure Sales Inputs rather than Sales Results

June 9, 2011 in Coaching, Communication, CRM, Performance Management, Prospecting, Sales Training, Success

Do you leave your sales results to chance?  Well you might be if you are like most businesses that are too fixated on Sales Results – the Outcomes. Managing by numbers, sales managers can get blinded by measuring the number of sales made and revenue and profit margins achieved rather than focusing on the vital activities that produce these outcomes in the first place– The Sales Inputs.

Every outcome is the result of its inputs.  Every effect has its corresponding cause(s).

Consider the following questions:

  • Do you know how your sales people actually achieved their sales results?
  • Do you know how well they are identifying real opportunities with their prospective clients and current accounts?
  • Do you know how well they are planning and managing their sales portfolio and their time?
  • Do you know how well they are utilizing the CRM to help drive sales and manage relationships?
  • Could there be more opportunity in these accounts that is otherwise being identified by your sales people?
  • How easy is it for a new comer to learn and replicate what your top sales performers do?

These are just some of the questions that if examined for their content, would make the lives of sales managers and sales people that much better.  Sales people would know the vital activities they need to perform and to what standard and what knowledge they need to apply to add real value.  And sales managers would yield much better sales results all round if they devoted more of their time coaching and managing their sales people around these input activities rather than only looking for and reporting on their sales results.

Do you want to increase your sales team’s effectiveness and boost sales results?

Pay attention to the details because excellence is in the details.  Look at what you put in to see what you get out in terms of sales results.

Sales managers, sales people and business leaders could learn a lot from observing the Quality and Quantity of their actions each day.  We call these the Input Measures which are made up of Type & Quantity of Activity and Quality of Activity.   These are the areas that people can be trained and coached in.

Type & Quantity of Activities – the following are examples of types of activities:

  • Leads developed
  • Prospecting calls
  • Client meetings
  • Proposals developed
  • Deals in the pipeline
  • Up / Cross sales discussions
  • Customer inquiries
  • Account management calls / meetings
  • Account reviews had
  • Referrals requested

Quality of Activities – the following are examples of competencies or standards of activities:

  • Business acumen
  • Sales Planning skills
  • Prospecting skills
  • Selling skills
  • Communication skills
  • Relationship building skills
  • Negotiation Skills
  • Product knowledge
  • Company  and market knowledge
  • Problem solving
  • Client proposal development
  • Self-Management

Sales Managers can really make a significant difference to their sales results and the lives of their sales people if they invest the time in coaching, training and working with their people on the Input Measures rather than pointing out the results week in week out.  Results are important and need to be acknowledged but they can only be as good as the inputs. Once we understand the Input Measures then we can see their effect on the Results or Output Measures.

Output Measures / Results can include:

  • Overall Sales made including sales with new clients and existing clients
  • Sales revenue
  • Sales profitability
  • Sales growth
  • Sales quotas
  • Sales by product or region
  • Average deal size
  • Market share & growth

Let’s make sure that sales results are not left to chance; work on the inputs and get them right.  It will make a difference to your results.

Remember everybody lives by selling something.
Author: Sue Barrett, MD of www.barrett.com.au

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Noise Reduction part 2: Is too much information making you miserable and losing you sales?

May 12, 2010 in Attitudes & Behaviours, Call Reluctance, CRM, Sales Planning, Sales Research, Time Management

With information comes choice and without proper guidelines and filters in place, too much information and too many choices can lead to indecision.  Indecision can then lead to paralysis making us unhappy, unproductive, and at worst, ineffective.  In sales careers, or any role for that matter, too much information and the subsequent indecision is a real killer – in fact, making no decision is far worse than making the wrong decision.

Barry Schwartz, professor of social theory at Swarthmore College in the US and author of The Paradox of Choice states “too much choice is paralysing us and making us miserable”.   I can’t help but agree.  At times I feel I am drowning in a tsunami of information and feel increasingly confused as I try to work out what to focus on and what to discard.  I am not alone in these feelings; many people I speak to are also reporting feeling overwhelmed and anxious by all the ‘noise’.  Some are even checking out of mainstream information and news sources and choosing to dramatically reduce their diet of information.

In our haste to keep up, be on top of things, be seen as the one with all the answers, and be ahead of the pack, are we inadvertently creating a climate of confusion, indecision, and unnecessary distress by exposing ourselves and our teams to too much information?  I suggest the answer is ‘Yes’.

For instance, there is a learned behavioural syndrome called ‘Overpreparer’ which can account for 40%+ drop in sales productivity for sales people with Overpreparer tendencies.  It is often caused by  organisations placing undue importance on the need to be overly prepared and knowledgeable. Being prepared takes precedence over getting out and selling.  For instance, in banking and finance where compliance is important, Overpreparing is often systemic creating a culture of indecision and paralysis by analysis where sales people use it as an excuse to not prospect and sell.

Despite feeling out of control we can regain control over how we process, use and manage information.  Having a clear head and removing clutter from our lives is critical if we want to be productive and effective.  As promised in Noise Reduction part 1, here we will explore some strategies that may help us reduce the ‘noise’ and recalibrate our signal-to-ratio (SNR).  So in the spirit of less is more, here are some simple principles we can follow as a guide to effective noise reduction and decision making:

Step 1: Set clear goals

  • Clear goals help you determine what to focus on and what information you need to have at hand to help you achieve your goals.
  • Clear goals help you prioritise your thinking and actions, assisting you in planning each step of the way.

Step 2: Determine what you need to know

  • Put in place filters that will help you determine what information you want to focus on: Does this information help you get closer to the goals that are important to you?
  • Work out what is ‘essential’, ‘desirable’ and ‘nice-to-have’, and prioritise in that order.
  • Cultivate a scientific mindset – scientists begin by defining a hypothesis then look specifically for data or information that either corroborates or refutes that hypothesis.
  • Determine what information and networks your business and your sales people need to be aware of in order to make good decisions (i.e. market trends, competitors, product innovations, changes in legislation, etc.)
  • Find out what your clients are interested in reading and hearing.
  • Find sites and networks that keep you up to date with the latest trends and are quick and easy to read.
  • Make sure your CRM is collecting useful client and market information that is aligned to your goals and can be applied in a meaningful manner (i.e. creating client buying patterns report, etc.), then ignore the rest.

Step 3: Determine effectiveness

  • What information (blogs/references/forums/publications/social media sites/networks, etc.) are proving to be useful to you (your customers, your business and your communities)? Why?
  • Check why you originally chose this information or network sources and ask if they are still relevant.
  • Determine how often you use these information sources.
  • Check how you apply these information sources in your job or in your communication with each other and clients/suppliers (tangible outcomes, practical solutions, etc.)
  • Verify what is ‘fact’ and what is not.  Is it evidenced based?  Is it supplied by a reputable source that can be validated and checked?
  • Check how quickly it takes you to gain a quick and concise understanding of the content.

Step 4: Prioritise and don’t be afraid to limit your options

  • Count how many subscriptions you currently have or networks you belong to; check for duplications (i.e. similar blogs, sites or networks offering the same information) and irrelevant sites or networks (not aligned to your goals) then cull.
  • Reduce your ‘daily’ alerts to ‘weekly’ alerts.
  • Don’t check your emails every time they arrive, make time to check every 15-30 minutes or so.
  • Create a new email address exclusively for your subscriptions so your working email is not cluttered up with low priority data.
  • Synchronise your bookmarks.
  • Create a filing system that allows you to reference your information quickly and easily.
  • Link new information to what you already know.  Drawing concept maps is one such way that helps you to build knowledge over time and draw links between ideas and knowledge sources.
  • Allocate specific time twice or three times per week to review your subscription information sources rather than being constantly interrupted by incoming alerts.
  • If you need to surf the web, make time to do so when it doesn’t interfere with your work priorities.

Step 5: Find some quiet time

  • Allow your mind and your senses to rest and switch off.  Being overly anxious narrows your focus and limits your ability to sort through and process information effectively.
  • As strange and boring as this may sound, find time to do mundane tasks that do not require you to process complex information.
  • Do some regular exercise like yoga or go for a run to get in touch with your body, breath, heart and nature.
  • Meditation requires effort to achieve single pointed focus, however the daily practice of meditation quiets the busy mind and gives you the space you need to recharge and recover from information overload.

As you can see, even discussing reducing noise creates noise, and the signal-to-ratio spiral continues… Without running away to live in a cave, my best suggestion is to take on board a couple of things; stop reading about reducing noise and get out there and sell.  By staying focused on a few keys things and taking action we might just find that the noise fades into a faint, background murmur and we are happier and more productive as a result.

Remember, everybody lives by selling something.

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

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Are you ready for the phenomenon of Social Sales?

April 15, 2010 in Communication, CRM, Social Media, Social Sales, Strategy

Social Sales was voted by you as the number 4  Sales Trend for 2010.  Arguably, social media is contributing to the democratisation of information and, armed with this information, customers will demand different things from sales people and companies. Customers are tuning into online communities, blogs, forums, and social networks to gather information and make buying decisions.

For instance, the retail car market is undergoing significant changes with customers firmly in the driver’s seat.  With the emergence of the information age consumers have far more knowledge about what to buy and where to buy it.  On the whole, customers are doing their research, checking with their networks and peers groups, reading or viewing the latest comments online, and have potentially even made a buying decision before they step into a store.  This is fast becoming the norm in car sales.  No longer is the sales consultant one of the first to engage with the prospective buyer, today they may be near last when the customer walks through the door.   Smart businesses will realise that engaging with the customer has changed and to speak with and meet viable prospective buyers they need to migrate to a new level.

In the B2B (business to business) space buyer behaviours are changing too.  The buyer is either a purchasing agent or decision maker and they are armed with far better information well before they interact with a sales person.  This will demand a different relationship.

If sales people see their role as only being ‘educational’ they will be unable to match the requirements and expectations of customers. People are getting tired of the old sales model of ‘shut up and listen’, especially if the information they are getting is patronising, know-it-all, we’re the best, readily available on the web and in some cases incorrect or outdated.

It is important that sales people recognise that customers are likely to be as informed about the product as they are (or at least believe they are).  Customers are influenced beyond the boundaries of traditional businesses and long held relationships.  We, the sales person, are unlikely to be the first person the customer will go to, even with established relationships.  The long held tradition of key account management where every person of influence in a customer account is mapped on a ‘blue sheet’ and armies of account teams are marched to surround the customer are numbered. In many cases, they are now surrounded by social media.

Customers are using social media to build up independent knowledge, and compare and contrast information and opinions. This knowledge gives the customer power, and that power fundamentally changes the dynamics of the sales relationship. The web has also opened up communication channels which has changed the landscape forever. The old model is magnified; where in the past consumers used to tell 5 others if they were happy with an experience and 11 or more if they were unhappy, they can now communicate, positive or negative, in real-time with other consumers on a massive scale.

B2B customers are demanding a different relationship.  They want to interact with a sales person that legitimately questions, challenges ideas and innovations, and can clearly articulate how they will work to bring value beyond the product.

Rather than go and talk to buyers alone, sales people and businesses need to go to the social networks to listen to, observe and interact with customers to help find a footing and take note of the consumer voice.
Social Sales will also demand that the sales team work in collaboration with the marketing group to help seed the right information about their offerings into their markets and networks where their customers look to for information and to exchange ideas.  Customers want to see your work in action and get feedback from the sources they trust.

Entering into the Social Sales world also requires sales people to put aside their reluctance and adopt new technology.  Social Sales is the dawn of the new salesperson that doesn’t shy away from using information and systems to their advantage.  The Social Salesperson will make the most of CRM (Customer Relationship Management) systems interlinking CRM functionality to connect with social media, marketing, campaigns, networks, etc. to track the threads of customer conversations, opinions and ideas.  CRM can no longer be ignored or treated as a telephone directory by sales people and businesses.

The responsibility for Social Sales doesn’t just reside with the sales team either, it needs to go all the way along the whole sales chain and beyond. At a recent leader’s conference, a speaker asked the 500 heads of business in the room whether they use social media including twitter, facebook and the like. Somewhat alarmingly, only 5 raised their hands. We need to use CRM and social media tools to make strategic calls – the CEO, CFO, COO, and CIO will be asking ‘Tell me what you see behind the numbers’.  This request is referring to the patterns of information, customer comments, buying decisions, influences, customer experiences, emotions, and feedback that will influence what we make, how we interact with our markets and much more.

In 2010 and beyond, leaders, sales teams, and businesses will need to invest time, resources, and money to learn how to interact in these emerging social spaces. Why? Because the traditional channels to the customer such as email marketing, trade shows, and face-to-face meetings will be less effective.  In some cases you may not even be interacting with the customer directly but with their ‘recommendation network’. The real challenge for sales will be to identify and engage with these new networks. Social Sales involves different skills, leadership, and a culture values a collaborative model of free knowledge exchange.

Social Sales is likely to change selling fundamentally – so are you and your business ready?

Thanks to Mark Parker and Charni Cargill for their collaboration on this piece.

Remember everybody lives by selling something.

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

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