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Making Decisions

July 9, 2008 in Attitudes & Behaviours, Sales Leadership, Sales Planning, Sales Relationships, Sales Skills, Value Proposition & Value Add, Wellbeing

Several years ago I read a great book called ‘Kids Are Worth It – Giving Your Child the Gift of Inner Discipline’ by Barbara Coloroso.

This book has served me very well as a parent giving me guidance in how to raise self-aware and self-disciplined children. In particular, I learnt by heart the following questions which I ask myself whenever I make decisions and in turn, have taught my children to ask whenever they make decisions.

The 3 Decision Questions are:

  • Is it life threatening?
  • Is it morally threatening?
  • Is it unhealthy?

For instance, when my then 7 year old son asked if his 2 year old brother could get up on the cubby house roof with him I suggested he ask himself the 3 Decision Questions. He did so and decided it wasn’t a good idea for his brother to get up on the cubby house roof after all, for all the right reasons you would come up with. The good thing was that I didn’t have to tell him what they were, he came up with the reasons by himself.

The aim of the 3 Decision Questions is to give children ownership and control of their decisions. As they get older I will have less and less control over how they choose to live their lives and what paths they take so I hope that the 3 Decision Questions help them make the right choices and decisions. As we all know they may be pressured by peers to try drugs or do other things that may cause harm to themselves or others. My hope is that they can stand up for themselves and choose wisely and well. While what they do when I am there is important, it is what they do when I am not there that is most important.

So what has all this got to do with business or making sales? How can these questions apply to our roles in business? I happen to think the 3 Decision Questions can serve us very well especially when all of us could be tempted to do things that are potentially life threatening, morally threatening or unhealthy. Just think of some of the recent business and financial collapses. Or the sub prime fiasco in the US. Maybe if those in charge of sales and the businesses concerned had applied the 3 Decision Questions we may not be in such a state today.

Now I know some people may be bristling as they think ‘what’s wrong with that? It’s a free market. They can sell to whomever they like. Buyer beware and all that’. Sure these people are entitled to their opinions, however I just happen to think that deliberately going after victims instead of prospects and making money at someone else’s expense is wrong, that’s all. It’s not life enhancing, moral or healthy for anyone.

As a sales person, leader and business owner I choose to apply the 3 Decision Questions to my business dealings and found them to be very helpful when choosing who to do business with and how to do business with people. My team and I also use the 3 Decision Questions to review our product offerings and work practices to see if they meet ethical and environmental standards.

Do we get it right all the time? Of course not. However, I have found that by using the 3 Decision Questions it makes things very clear about where we stand, what we stand for and how we like to operate.

The 3 Decision Questions support findings from around the world that more and more people want to work with others (suppliers, partners and customers) in a spirit of cooperation, consultation and respect not competition or deceit. They want to know that you are not potentially life threatening, morally threatening or unhealthy to deal with.

In a world that is now asking for each of us to stand up and be counted and declare our position on sustainability at all levels maybe the 3 Decision Questions could serve us well in helping us choose the right path for us and our businesses and in turn help us be more successful and profitable for all the right reasons.

But rather than me tell you what to think I’d rather you decide for yourself.

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Preparing for your 2008-09 Sales Year

April 24, 2008 in Business Acumen, Sales Management, Sales Planning, Sales Strategy, Value Proposition & Value Add, Vision, Mission & Purpose

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

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Making the most of Up Selling & Cross Selling

December 11, 2007 in Sales Planning, Sales Results, Sales Skills, Up-selling & Cross Selling, Value Proposition & Value Add

Do you sell one thing and one thing only? Probably not. I suspect your business has a range of things it can offer. And I suspect that many of these things can be integrated together to make an end-to-end solution or various combinations that lead to much larger sales.

If this is the case, then how well are you selling in the size and scope of your business offerings?

Too many times sales people get fixated on the immediate sale in front of them not really seeing the potential of that sale now or into the future. If they would only ask the right questions and get a bigger perspective to work from they might get more and bigger sales for less effort.

If you do not ask the questions you will never know. I learned that if you ask, at best, you can get a lot more back in return and, at worst; they can just say ‘no’. At least if you ask you never die wondering.

So I thought I would share a personal story about one of my up selling and cross selling experiences and what I learned from it. I share this story because it continues to remind me not to settle for second best.

A while back I made a presentation to a large group of people from large Australian corporation. My topic was about the ‘Huge Cost of Hesitation’. This was my first entrée into this business and I really wanted to do a great job for all the obvious reasons. Whilst the topic was challenging, the presentation was well received and my sponsoring client was very happy. I knew this could lead to great things.

Well within three days, I received a phone call from one of the senior managers who attended the presentation. He wanted to know if he could use an assessment tool I referred to in my presentation for the recruitment of new sales staff. I replied ‘yes of course you can’. He then said ‘OK so how do I go about using it?’

Now at this point, I could have set him up to use the tool and only sold in that tool, instead, however, I asked him to tell be more about what he was trying to achieve. To which he replied that he was setting up a whole new business area and wanted to hire a different type of sales person than they had traditionally employed in the past. He thought the assessment could help him do that. I asked him if I could ask him more questions to which he replied ‘yes’.

I wanted to see how open minded he was so I asked him had he defined what this new type of person would look like. He said ‘no’. I suggested there were a number of ways he could approach this and I proposed two options to him:

  1. At best we could develop and map the ideal sales person profile for his business model, build a recruitment kit he and his managers could use to properly assess the candidates, supply the right assessment tools and then provide feedback.
  2. At worst he could just use the tool and we provide feedback as originally requested.

He was very happy to explore this further. I committed to getting him a detailed proposal that day. Which I did. Besides everything mentioned previously, I also included 2 bullet points outlining sales and sales management training which could form part of their induction training. (you just never know)
After I sent the proposal, I received a call the next day asking me to elaborate on the 2 bullets points around the sales and sales management training piece as well. Which I did.

They then rang back the following day and asked me what my best price was. I said what they had was my best price. They said they were used to working in markets that always bargained on price. I said that was fine but that I didn’t do that in my market. My price was my price. It was transparent and they knew what they were getting piece by piece. They said ‘OK, that was fair’ and then asked when could we get started on the project. We agreed a date and that was the beginning of a very fruitful relationship.

So what did I learn? If you take things at face value that is all you are likely to get. By asking a few more questions, getting an understanding of their bigger picture and knowing how my products and services worked in concert and separately I was able to turn a $1,000 sale into a $90,000 sale.

Did I do anything special? No not at all. All I did was ask more questions and tried to understand their whole issue. Oh and I knew how my products and services all worked together.

By the way, whilst they paid more, it was worth it to them because their new ‘breed’ of sales people achieved:

  • Achieved a sales closing ratio of 4:3 within 2 months ·
  • Sold the annual sales budget within 5 months.

My client was very happy and said he and his team had learned a lot about how to select in and develop sales people; skills they hadn’t had before and could now take with them anywhere they went. In turn, he referred me on to other areas within the business and so the journey and sales continue.

Here are some handy hints to help you up sell and cross sell:

  1. Product Knowledge: know all your products well
  2. Product Associations & Combinations: Know how your products integrate with each other and how they form a bigger picture. This goes with this goes with that, etc.
  3. New topics: know how to introduce relevant new topics and products into the conversation.
  4. Education: Don’t underestimate your value in terms of the education you bring to clients
  5. Pricing structure: know how your pricing works: the structures, bundling, unbundling, volume pricing, various product pricing combinations, etc


For more information try this research site: www.findarticles.com.

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