I was running a ‘train the sales trainer’ session with some experienced, professional Sales Managers the other day.  The session I ran is designed to equip these managers to run mini sales training modules of as part of our sales fitness programs.  Many manages are not trained facilitators and so we make sure we give them the information they need to set up an effective learning environment.   All was going well until we came across the content entitled “Creating the right learning environment” which is a practical guide about what you need to prepare and take into account when setting up your room environment.

I happened to mention (and wrongly assumed) that this was pretty straight forward and was familiar to most professional people and we could do a quick scan and move on.   However, one of the Sales Managers informed us that this was not always the case as the previous sales manager, whom he had recently taken over from, used to run some of his sales meetings and one-on-one performance reviews at a restaurant chain known for its scantily clad, big breasted waitresses.   And occasionally he decided to run these sessions at the local strip club as well.  Needless to say the sales manager in question did not last very long in his role.

I had thought (and hoped) we had progressed somewhat as professional business people, but clearly some people are still stuck in the 70’s and 80’s where similar stories were more common place.  I really didn’t think it happened today but clearly I was wrong.   I would be interested to know if this still goes in some industries today (I hope not but may find that it happens more than I had expected).

So rather than assume everyone knows how to set up the right environment I thought it might be prudent to remind us all of the key things we need to consider when setting up:

• A training session
• A coaching session
• A performance review
• A  sales meeting

For learning, feedback or a meeting to take place effectively you need to create a comfortable and safe environment. For this to occur you need to plan and arrange the environment and resources you will need for your session or meeting.

Whether you are training or coaching on-the-job or in a training room, giving feedback or holding a meeting, there are a number of things you should consider before you start (most, if not all, will be relevant):

• How many participants will be involved?
• Is the size of the location adequate?
• Is the location available?
• How will tables and chairs be arranged?
• Does the area have adequate lighting?
• Is the area quiet enough?
• Is the temperature comfortable? Is there adequate ventilation?
• Is the location accessible?
• Is the location private? (able to be closed to the outside world)
• Do you know where all the facilities are, for example, the toilets?
• Does the location have enough power points? Do you know where they are?
• Are training aids available?
• Are there any OH&S requirements you will need to consider?

As a sales manager, even if you are providing coaching advice to a salesperson in the car after a client meeting (which often happens) please consider the advice above.  For instance having the radio on while giving feedback or giving very specific feedback on a difficult area for development while the person in question is driving is probably not a good idea.

The manager, coach or trainer who is committed to accelerating the learning process of their people must attend to creating an optimal learning or meeting environment which also includes it being safe on all levels.
Sincerely, your advocate for selling the right way.

In the sporting world it is expected that athletes make the time to practice, practice, practice and then go and compete or play the game.  Through regular practice they hone their skills, behaviours and attitudes to ensure they are ‘match fit’ and ready to compete at the highest standards.

A sports team needs to make sure that when they are in the thick of the game they can draw upon those skill drills and practice sessions to perform well as a team and perform well under pressure.

When an individual athlete is neck and neck with a competitor racing for the finish line they need to know how to dig deep and draw upon their experiences, skills, and mental and physical reserves to cross the finish line first.  This cannot happen without lots of conscious, purposeful  practice.

I know this to be true.  As a former competitive swimmer we constantly practiced our starts, turns and finishes as well as doing lots of race practice and skills drills to prepare us for competition.  This was in addition to doing the km’s of laps to build up our fitness and stamina.

Sadly, today in the business world, and especially in sales, all we seem to do is play, play, play the game and rarely put in the time to regularly review, practice and refine our skills.

What we are left with are salespeople who are given little time to reflect on how they went and what they need to do to build their sales capability.  They often lurch from one customer sales meeting to the next.

While they will know whether they won or lost a sale, very few will know ‘why’ or ‘how’ they won or lost sales to how to get fitter and be more effective.

In our experience fewer still take the time out to work on their sales businesses to create viable ‘Go-to-Market’ action plans which keep them focused and on track.

For instance we are in the process of training over 300 sales people in sales planning, prospecting, selling and sales communication process.  Many of them have said that this is the first time they have had to really work on themselves and their business.

For instance, as part of the program we run a sales simulation exercise which tests the robustness (or not) of people’s sales skills, behaviours and attitudes. It gives sales people real insight into how they actually perform as sales people.   For many people this is the first time they have ever had the chance to reflect on how their skills measure up to what is consider effective sales performance.

Simon Madden, former VFL/AFL Essendon player, qualified teacher, experienced sales person and one of BARRETT’s sales facilitators lamented that businesses are very poor at letting our salespeople take time out to practice and apply the skills, behaviours and attitudes they need to use in the real world.  All they do, he says, is play, play, play.

I have to agree.  The number of times we meet sales people attending our sales programs who have never had any formal sales training is staggering. And even those who have been on sales training programs before, comment on previously attending ‘training events’ which either did not reflect real life situations and were more ‘rah’rah’ in spirit and as it turns out a waste of time, or had no follow up back in the field which meant much of the training content was lost and not applied.   If they have had any form of regular training it was usually product based which is not the same as proper sales training.

Given Selling is such a critical function in any business, even more so now, we cannot leave our sales people’s fitness to chance.  If you are going to invest in anything this coming year invest in your sales people’s development.

Please do yourselves and your sales people a favour, and take the time to give your sales people some time to practice their sales skills in proper learning environments.  It doesn’t take much time or money to give them the proper processes and training around the essentials such as sales planning, prospecting, selling and sales communication process.

Any sales training you choose should be logical, easy to follow, feel natural and easy to apply for your people and uses a behavioural competency based approach.  It should be spaced out over a minimum period of 3 months to allow for behaviour change and growth.

If you are looking for effective sales training I recommend it follows these guiding principles:

• Interval Training: When training is implemented over a period of time is facilitates behavioural change and skill development that become habitual and the new ‘ way of life’.   This approach progresses in incremental stages and helps to maintain a focus on manageable tasks, ensuring earlier stages are successful before the latter stages are attempted.
• Discovery Learning: Results from an interactive environment where information is given, principles are practiced, questions are asked and real-life situations are created to enable people to learn for themselves.
• Evidence Based Competency / Behavioural Learning Outcome Approach
• Responsibility and ownership for embedding a sales culture is given to the management team:  Sales managers should be trained in in-field sales coaching methods and be taught how to run mini sales skill drill sessions they can implement over time to keep their sales people fit and focused.
• Relevant content: make sure the program is relevant to your sales team and your customer markets.
• Documentation of requirements: sign-offs and quality controls that define objective measures for assessing quality throughout the development process.

Investing in the right sales training can give you much greater returns very quickly:

Sales Manager of a division of a Financial institution comments after targeted 3 month sales fitness training program:

• My team sold $55m in the half I arrived as Sales Manager. This half we are on target to sell $150m.
• My 2 lowest performers when I arrived finished last half 3rd and 7th in Australia out almost 200.
• 80% of my Sales People made budget last half when traditionally less than 20% achieved target.
• The combined ages of my best 3 performers is 154.

Many people can learn how to lead successful sales careers.  Just give them the chance to learn and some time to practice.  And while not everyone can be the ‘’Ian Thorpe of Selling’ many can learn to apply successful sales processes, skills and strategies which will keep them sales fit and producing sales results.

For many industries, other than retail, the next few months are a little quieter on the sales front and are the perfect time to do some sales training and practice, practice, practice.
Happy selling.

Here is the second of two articles about recruiting top performing sales people and daring to do so from outside of your industry.

Even though I have not worked as a traditional recruitment consultant for more than 14 years many of my long standing clients still talk about those ‘out of the box’ placements we made. Was it just the recruitment approach that made the difference. Well NO. What these savvy mangers is did was make sure the culture and the business could accommodate these ‘new’ types of people.

They took their current team along on the journey to the new as well. Sure it wasn’t all smooth sailing but they knew what they needed to do. As we know when we bring in difference we can often cause the current people to feel uncomfortable and if not addressed they can kill off the ‘new’ way.

So be aware.
If the overall culture of your business is not set up for excellent sales performance, all your efforts could implode. Here is an example of what I mean. A key client came to us saying they didn’t want to hire people from their industry because they just weren’t competitive in the current market. They wanted to refresh the gene pool and bring in fit sales people who were not tarnished by the industry and its way of doing things. They knew that in this over commoditised marketplace that their sales people where their competitive edge. They were on the right track but didn’t know where and how to start. So here is what we did to help them find elite sales performers:

• Reviewed sales strategy and path to market
• Defined Sales DNA & ‘ideal’ role/person specification
• Built a structured sales recruitment process and kit
• Targeted the industries the new breed of sales people could come from
• Built and implemented the induction company sales training process
• Implemented a sales management support system
• Mapped & measured sales metrics

The results were fabulous from a sales initiative perspective:

The new breed of elites sales performers achieved a sales closing ratio of 4:3 within 2 months and sold annual sales budget within 5 months.

Now wouldn’t you think everyone would have been jumping for joy? You’d like to think so but sadly the new team was a small part of a very large business that had been operating in an entirely different manner (i.e. slow, internally focused, transaction product selling). Rather than embrace the new ‘fitter’ sales way of life and find more success across the board, the broader business killed off the team because it was too successful just so they didn’t have to change.

Sadly this is not an isolated incident, many a successful competent sales person or sales manager with new ideas, a healthy can-do attitude have been passed over for promotion or eliminated from the team because they were too different and too good. They did not fit the often buttoned down, compliant thinking, follow-the-rules-or-else culture that many larger business can have.

And what I still see, all too often, are senior managers and sales mangers recruiting from within their own industry sector recycling the same old people getting the same old ideas and the same old results. Relying on ‘industry experience’ as a major determining factor in your sales selection process can severely limit your potential to develop a competitive edge in your industry and find elite sales performers. This strategy has left many businesses vulnerable today as they now struggle to transform existing transactional product focused sales teams to savvy business people how can sell.
Which raises key questions:

• How we can we find top sales performers to refresh our gene pool and revitalise our culture, our bench strength, our results, etc.?
• How does an organisation create and the promote transparent sales performance in the field and at leadership level?
• How do we encourage diversity, innovative thinking and outsiders into our thinking, our team and our business?

I encourage you to challenge the prevailing views and attitudes of your business and industry and really examine what your sales strategy needs by way of talent now and into the future and select and develop those people how meet your business needs accordingly.

If you do it can really pay big dividends.

Here is the first of two articles about recruiting top performing sales people and daring to do so from outside of your industry.

When it comes to assessing sales and sales leadership capabilities in your business do the lines blur between the cultural morays, views and perceptions, gossip and politics and the real capabilities needed to be assessed against your actual sales strategy?

In my line of work I am often requested to sit on senior management interview panels for clients because of my background and expertise in assessing sales leadership and sales performance and the issues around of internal and external assessment of sales people and leaders. They request my presence based on the following criteria:

• My 15 years working in the sales competency, assessment and development space
• My eight years as a recruitment consultant interviewing approximately 8,000 sales people and managers face-to-face.
• My independence as a 3rd party
• My willingness to speak up and challenge prevailing views and attitudes as I am not likely to carry the internal company prejudices and paradigms that influence current thinking and culture into the interviews.

Sales recruitment and assessment is not for the faint hearted and is one of the hardest areas to get right in any business, and it doesn’t help if politics, nepotism and inaccurate perceptions of what constitute effective sales and sales leadership performance prevail. I get to see this, especially when we are looking at internal candidates.

Just recently I was in shock at the extreme contrast between two internal candidates who were two of several internal candidates vying for sales leadership roles on a newly formed senior management team:

1. One sales leader was rated highly be their manager and endorsed by certain peers in high places but in interview it was clear they had no idea about sales leadership, strategy or process and no substance what so ever. They were a ‘fraud’ as far as the role was concerned. Yet their manager and other allies were clearly trying to position this person as a top performer which they clearly were not.
2. Next rolls up the complete opposite. Clearly a highly competent candidate. They had the complete package, it was obvious from our investigations and we were impressed yet they had been previously rated poorly on key criteria and the lobbying by certain internal stakeholders to deposition them was astounding. His comment, when asked how he felt about being invited to participate in the interview process, was very telling. He said ‘Relief. Relief at being actually able to present his capabilities honestly, clearly and fairly without bias or prejudice.”

My client, relatively new to this division and whom I shared the interview panel with, had very little direct dealings with any of the candidates which was good on one hand, however, most of his information about the candidates was coming second hand via comments and lobbying from peers and managers and performance data ratings which may or may not have been accurate depending on who had assessed the individuals. He wanted a transparent, evidenced based approach used which is why he called me in. And our approach unearthed a whole lot of issues and raised questions around:

• The formal performance assessment criteria and process of sales individuals (not just $ sales results)
• Those who were doing the assessment ratings on staff and what perceptual filters they are using in addition to the standards provided i.e. biases, prejudices, etc.
• The political lobbying in place to keep top performers from making it to influential positions
• The actual criteria used to assess effective sales performance and leadership. Is it up-to-date and able to deliver our sale strategy?
• The consequences of political, inwardly focused, biased culture and its effect on the organisation’s success in sales, staff performance and retention.

If the sales capabilities and performance requirements needed are properly assessed against sales strategy then what we can go looking outside of our comfort zone for top performers who can thrive and deliver I our culture. What is good for one industry may also be good for another.

I can honestly say for a fact that my best placements were people outside of the industries I recruited for. The clever sales managers recognised this and took a risk. So dare to be different.

Part 2 next week.

If you haven’t already it may be worth your while to hold a formal review and business/sales strategy planning session with your team before the new financial year kicks in.  Many markets have and are going through major changes and this requires us to be on our toes and ready for action.

The challenge for any business, especially those of us who run a small business with limited man power and resources, is to take the time out to work on our business and plan for the future rather than stay stuck in the day to day  of our businesses.  This is a vital part of our job and can set us up very well for the future.  If we stop and look to review and reassess our strategies, plans and actions and take into account what the market is doing, we in a better position to note the vital signs and opportunities that can help us secure our business future.  Ideally this type of process should be done on a regular basis at least formally twice to three times per year.

So with that in mind my team and I are putting aside Friday 2 May to come together and work on our business strategy for the next 3 years and our sales strategy for 2008/09 and beyond.  My business has gone though many iterations over the years and my long term goals are now coming to life.  I now what to ensure that we are on the right track and I thought I would share with you the process we are going through to help us put in place the best and right strategy for us to realise our goals and fulfill our market potential and expectations.

Now I confess that I am not the most detailed person and ‘planning’ is one of my challenges so to keep me focused and on track here are some of the questions we will be preparing to address and answer as part of our planning and strategising. Ultimately our aim in going through this process is to make sure we have a profitable and viable business.
Our vision and mission for being in business

• WHAT do we stand for?
• WHY are we in this market space?
• WHAT do we want to best known for?
• WHAT are the values the guide us in our work?
• WHAT are our goals for the next FY, 2-3 years, 5+ years?

Our Customers

• WHO are we specifically targeting?
• WHY are we targeting them?
• WHAT does a viable ‘ideal’ customer look like?
• HOW do we find them?
• WHAT do they specifically want or need now?
• WHAT problems do we currently solve for our customers?
• WHAT products/services to we use to solve their problems?
• ARE our products/ services/ solutions solving their problems effectively?
• WHAT might they want or need in the future?
• WHAT can we offer them in the future?
• HOW do they want to buy?
• HOW do we need to sell to them?
• HOW do they want our products / service delivered?
• WHAT is our customer acquisition & retention strategy?
• WHAT are their expectations of us?

Our Competitors

• WHO is our competition?
• Current Competition
• Peripheral Competition
• Emerging Competition
• WHAT markets are they operating in?
• WHY are they in this market space?
• WHAT is their primary objective / goal?
• WHAT do they do well?
• WHAT don’t they do well?
• HOW are we positioned against them?
• WHAT is our competitive advantage?

Our Value Proposition & Service Standards

• WHAT is our unique selling proposition (USP)?
• WHAT is our promise?
• WHAT is our sales expectation?
• WHAT is our service level standard?
• HOW effective are we?
• WHAT do we do well?
• WHAT do we need to be better at?

Marketing & Product

• HOW effective have our current marketing activities and tools been? (i.e. PR, SEO, Brochures, Events, etc.)
• WHAT marketing activities and tools do we need to keep on using? & WHY?
• WHAT marketing activities and tools do we need to stop using? & WHY?
• HOW effective is our current product mix? What are the most profitable areas? What are the least profitable areas?
• WHAT is the $ value of our average sale?
• WHAT product mix do we take to market?

Steps to ‘Yes’  (Sales Process)

• WHAT is our current sales cycle? (how long does it take to make a sale?)
• WHAT is our current ‘prospecting : sales’ ratio
• WHAT are our current sales activities and HOW often did we do them to achieve our current revenue? (Prospecting, Sales Meetings, Account Management & Networking)
• HOW effective have they been?
• HOW often do we need to prospect to make enough sales appointments with viable prospects to make enough sales to meet our goals?
• HOW effective is our current sales process?
• WHAT do we need to change to be more effective as sales people? (Structured sales communication process & skills, human relations, motivations; values, behaviours & attitudes; problem solving & decision making; self management, planning, etc.)

Sales Inputs & Outputs

• WHAT are our current Performance Expectations & Rewards
• HOW do we need to allocate customers? (by territory, industry, size, etc.)
• HOW do we set targets? (revenue allocation, profits, phasing, etc.)
• WHAT levels of responsibility and authority do each of us need to have?
• HOW do we currently manage revenue & profit?
• HOW do we forecast?
• HOW effective is our current CRM system in terms of capturing the right customer, marketing and other sales data?
• HOW effectively are our people at putting in the right data into our CRM?
• HOW effectively do we use the data we capture?

I hope this helps.

As many of you may be aware, putting together a business strategy and associated sales / marketing/ operation plans is all well and good, however they will remain intellectual abstractions until  we put them into action.  Good luck with your business and sales planning process.

If you want a Sales Planning template for your business call us on (+61) 03 9532 7677