What do your sales people really need to know and apply?

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What do your sales people really need to know and apply?

September 9, 2009 in Business Acumen, Sales Assessments, Sales Pioneer, Sales Planning, Sales Skills, Sales Talent, Sales Tips, Sales Training, Self Development

In today’s market selling skills training does not equal product training or pressure tactics. If product training or pressure selling (the hard sell) are on the top of your sales training agenda or the only training you offer your sales people then you may want to rethink your sales training strategy.

What is expected of sales people today by way of skillful thought and action goes way beyond the product or the hard sell.

Let’s first look at what clients want. This will then help us determine what sales people need to be able to do.

Clients today have access to more information than ever before. Clients can make product versus product comparisons very easily. And most clients know what they are after even if they don’t know how to articulate it. Clients don’t expect to be coerced, bullied, tricked or intimidated into buying either. They don’t expect to be treated like an ‘idiot’ or a ‘sucker’ by sales people who just talk at them and flash brochures or product sheets, looking for someone to boost their commissions. Nor on the other hand do they necessarily want to make ‘friends’ with sales people.
Clients expect to communicate and deal with a real professional who knows their own business and how they can best serve their clients’ needs with creative solutions and fresh ideas.

So, what do clients want from sales people?

To deal with a real professional
To be ‘helped’ and understood
Business acumen and commercial awareness
A definition of what ‘success’ will look like
A planned approach for change
Conceptual thinking and empathy

In effect, clients are now after ‘business people’ who can sell that think about possibility and take information to the imagination phase. Clients tend to value subject matter and solution expertise which is not the same as product knowledge. They are looking for partners to help them map a pathway forward into the future and integrate a myriad of components, one of which is product.

Skillful thought and action are among some of the most critical skills in selling; diagnosing and solving problems, opportunity questioning, active listening, paraphrasing and verifying; advising clients on the best use of a product or a solution in relation to their priorities; linking the ‘big picture’ to details and strategy; thinking about possibilities; effective alignment of client and company objectives; listening closely to the needs of clients and being able to feed them back to marketing and technical people for product improvement and market relevance; and understanding the financial importance of client retention.

Effective sales professionals truly add value to client relationships well beyond the product. The product is now only part of the sale, not the sale itself.

This approach to selling is seen as a distinct competitive advantage to businesses and any sales person or sales team not putting these skills into practice is at risk of losing sales and clients. Training sales people in these skills has a significant effect on the profitability of a business.

The stereotype of the ‘smooth talking’ sales person whose job is to convince and persuade people to buy a product is outdated and, most of all, ineffective.

The skills we highlighted above are often described by those less enlightened sales individuals as ‘fluffy’ or ‘niceties’ and seen as irrelevant. These people were either unable to extract themselves from the product or at worst only saw their clients as a means to an end, i.e. it was only about extracting as much commission out of the client to serve their own needs – not a real partnership for a mutually beneficial relationship.

It may be worth noting that, both locally and overseas, there is an emergence of a critical skill which is ethical decision making in sales. While not included in most selling skills programs, we are seeing a growing interest in this aspect of selling being included in training. You have probably gathered that this always been a common thread through my writing and our work at Barrett – now it seems for obvious reasons.

Ethical training for all employees is coming through loud and clear. This is also closely linked to ethical corporate culture, code of conduct, brand, reputation, and customer loyalty. As sales people have direct contact with prospects and customers, it would be advisable to have ethical decision making on the selling skills agenda as well. I will discuss this specific topic in more depth in the coming weeks.

It is worth making sure your sales people conduct themselves with skillful thought and action as it may well deliver handsome payoffs.

Author: Sue Barrett is Founder and Managing Director of BARRETT.

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Who’s delivering your sales training?

September 2, 2009 in Education in Sales, Sales Coaching, Sales Driven Organisations, Sales Excellence Acadamy, Sales Management, Sales Skills, Sales Strategy, Sales Talent, Sales Tips, Sales Training

You cannot fake real sales experience and sales wisdom. It is one of the professions that is the hardest to teach and train because without real life sales experience you are at risk of being seen as inauthentic.

To help you make the best choice when it comes to selecting the right sales trainer let’s consider the following:

What capabilities do you need to be a good sales trainer?
What attitudes and mindsets can makes sales people and sales results worse?

To sell or not to sell

Without real life sales experience, you will are likely to lack empathy and real insight for the daily challenges of the intricate world of sales. Those who talk about selling but have never had a sales budget to achieve, prospecting calls to make on a daily basis, or need to meet new people and quickly adapt to their styles while trying to understand their needs, will not be as authentic as someone who has been out there and experienced selling for real.

You can have certain knowledge about selling processes, sales figures, or selling strategy but talking about selling and actually living and experiencing a long-term sales career are two very different things.

Over the years of building my own business I have seen my fair share of good facilitators and trainers, but when it comes to training in sales those trainers who lack genuine sales experience find it hard to tackle sales training. They often don’t stack up when it comes to feedback from participants.

The overwhelming feedback from participants on sales training programs, based on research both locally and internationally, shows they want to be trained by a real sales person who understands them on all levels: the thinking and skills required to sell, the resilience needed to keep going, empathising with the challenges and setbacks and how to overcome them, the ability to deal with different people who are not always welcoming, and the business knowledge and street smarts that come from being in the field earning your way as a sales professional.

Based on this information you may well think that all you need to do is put a great sales performer up the front of the classroom and press play.

Wrong!

Many companies do follow this line of thought without the proper consideration for the other skills involved in being a competent sales trainer. Here are some of the common traps companies often fall into when trying to deliver sales training:

Trap 1: Motivational speeches

Many companies think that all sales people need is a bit of motivation to make them sell more so they get in a pumped up motivational speaker with a bit of sales experience to tell war stories and how you can be like them if you only do this or that. The effects of this approach are short lived. It soon wears off. This type of approach is like a hot bath that soon gets cold.

We get a lot of salespeople saying they are sick of these types of approaches to sales training because they are left with little to show for it – they are given no real skills or tools they can use in the field. Here is some feedback from one of our training participants, “Your program was very down to earth and engaging. A wonderful contrast from the loud music, gimmicky motivational speakers we often get. A very effective style, we learnt real skills and took away real tools we can use.”

Trap 2: Promoting your sales person to sales trainer

Another trap can be promoting your sales people to sales trainer with very little support to become a good sales trainer and program designer. As a result we have seen plenty of disasters when you let good sales performers loose on sales training.

If your sale trainer has not been properly trained in adult learning principles, classroom facilitation techniques and strategies, and is unaware about how to create practical learning content that works based on good instructional design, then you are likely to get a good sales performer up in front of the participants telling war stories about their experiences and telling everyone to be like them. That is not training or educating people – at best it may be entertaining but that is about all you can hope for.

This is a recipe for disaster.

Just because you are a great sales person or great motivational speaker does not make you a great sales trainer.

Being a Competent Sales Trainer

The latest research shows that there are 5 competencies encompassing 18 separate skills, associated with being an effective sales trainer. These include business acumen and communication, instructional planning, effective selling skills and experience, talent management, and teaching capability.

The sales trainer is one of the key factors that can influence the effectiveness of the sales training program. Sales trainers perform many different roles including talent developer, coach, mentor, sales talent evaluator, sales skills evaluator, and training program design and implementer.

As facilitator lead classroom training is still a key component of sales training we would do well to examine the competencies and skills required to effectively run these sessions. Barrett have developed a sales facilitator/ trainer competency model that helps us determine and identify skills and performance expectations for new, as well as experienced sales trainers.

Some of the main categories of competencies we look for in a competent sales trainer are:

Sales

Planning and Organising
Prospecting
Building Relationships and Networks
Consultative Problem Solving
Results Focus
Self-Management
Quality Orientation
Comprehensive communication skills
Business acumen and Common Sense

Facilitation

Create Collaborative Client Relationships
Design and adapt course content for an effective learning outcome
Plan Appropriate Group Processes
Create and Sustain a Participatory Environment
Guide Group to Appropriate and Useful Outcomes
Build and Maintain Professional Knowledge
Model Positive Professional Attitude

Within these main categories of competencies there are also several subsets of behaviours and capabilities. Being an effective sales trainer takes more than you would expect.

Trap 3: Not passing on the right attitudes and beliefs

Besides skill, experience, and capability, you should also assess for the right beliefs, attitude and values needed for being an effective sales trainer. Poor or inaccurate perceptions about selling passed on by the sales trainer can damage your sales training efforts on a grand scale.

If you hear a sales trainer say the following:

“Oh we don’t call ourselves sales people here”
“We don’t have to sell – we consult”
“The product sells itself”
“All sales people are pushy and rude and we aren’t like that here, are we?”

Stop the sales training and find yourself a new sales trainer.

Do your internal and external audits:

Be wary of sales people coming to you offering to be your sales trainer. Check their motives. Are they struggling with sales or ashamed of being called a salesperson and looking for an excuse to get out and find another role? Are they overly addicted to self help books and motivational pep talks which pump them up to feel positive, only to be in need of more when the effect wears off? Do they look for or talk about getting ‘quick fix’ answers to theirs or other sales people’s emotional issues about selling?
Be wary of external consultants or sales trainers who are unable to accept that they, too, are sales people. Ask you prospective sales trainer or consultant: “Are you a good sales person?” If they say anything that indicates an emotional denial of their sales role like “I’m a consultant not a sales person’ then that say goodbye fast.

You do not want people like this near your sales teams as they often unwittingly pass their negative, jaundiced views about selling on to their unsuspecting peers and course participants.

Think of the saying ‘watch who you let near your mind’ and remember that includes your sales trainers.

So, who’s delivering your sales training?

Author: Sue Barrett is Founder & Managing Director of BARRETT Pty Ltd

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Testing times when recruiting ‘good’ salespeople

August 6, 2009 in Recruitment & Sales Recruitment, Sales Assessments, Sales Research, Sales Talent, Uncategorized

When I consider how I spend my time professionally, I find it is often devoted to demystifying two things:

1. What is ‘good’ selling?
2. The proper use of psychometric assessments, especially in sales recruitment

Having written on the former on many occasions, I would like to dedicate this space to the latter – the proper use of psychometric assessments in sales recruitment.

To put this into perspective, my business has psychometrically assessed 40,000+ people in sales, business development and leadership roles using a variety of purpose built assessments. This has provided us with valuable insight into what assessments work best in sales recruitment. Over the years we have been exposed to many test publishers promoting their various assessments, claiming this and claiming that. We are constantly scanning for new tools.

We have discovered that there is no one single assessment that can measure everything you want to know about a sales person. Some test publishers have made this claim, however upon investigation we have found that they have often compiled several different assessments (measuring different things) into one offering. In doing so, they reduce the number of items measuring each area; therefore limiting the laser effect you need in sales recruitment.

This brings me to the major issue at hand: sales recruitment is one of the most challenging jobs around. It is fraught with ambiguities because of the very nature of trying to assess ‘soft skills’ such as attitudes and actual versus perceived capability. Given this complexity, as a sales recruiter it may be beneficial to partner with a qualified and experienced organisation to support you when using assessments.

There is not one-quick-fix to getting this right. To assist you in your sales recruitment, let’s look at three important questions when it comes to using psychometric assessments:

1. Why use assessments?
2. What assessments should you use?
3. When should you use assessments?

Why use assessments?

While you don’t have to use assessments when recruiting, when used in conjunction with a robust sales recruitment process they can add real value to your decision making. The problem arises when assessments are used in place of a multi-pronged recruitment approach.

Recruitment, especially sales recruitment, can be very time consuming, therefore there is a tendency for people to take short cuts and replace the other steps in the recruitment process with a ‘quick’ psychometric assessment to base their hiring decision on.

This ‘assessment only’ approach is not how psychometric assessments are designed to be applied (reputable test publishers will always tell you this). This approach is not best practice; it does not give you all the answers and could get you into trouble with recruitment and anti- discriminatory laws. In fact, best practice states that assessments should account for no more than 20% of your decision making process in recruitment, especially sales.

The other main issue that arises out of this ‘assessment only’ approach is that the ‘assessment’ can get blamed if the sales person doesn’t work out. Assessing in isolation is the issue here, not the assessment itself.

Psychometric assessments are best used to back up and cross reference the current data you have gathered via other means. Depending upon which assessments you use, they can corroborate what you have already gathered and give you additional information to further investigate areas of concerns.

Tip: Psychometric assessments should compliment a multi-pronged sales recruitment process rather than be the recruitment process in entirety.

What assessments should you use?

I have seen anything from the CLEO quiz, numerology, star signs, and simplistic 4 quadrant models through to purpose built psychometric assessments used in sales recruitment.

Essentially there are thousands of so called ‘psychometric assessments’ out there, many claiming to test for sales effectiveness and predict sales performance.

So what to use?

First of all, it depends on what you want to measure. There are a variety of purpose built assessments which are designed to address the following important questions about a candidate:

•  Will they sell?
•  Why will they sell?
•  How do they sell?
•  How well can they sell?

In our work we use a range assessments which have been purpose built to measure different areas including:

•  Personality
•  Motives and Values
•  Prospecting fitness- sales hesitation and call reluctance
•  Leadership potential
•  Cognitive Abilities – i.e. abstract, numeracy, and verbal reasoning, etc.
•  Coping strategies under pressure
•  Emotional Resilience and Emotional Intelligence (EI)

Tip: Depending on the level and complexity of the sales roles you should match the psychometric assessments to the required competencies and areas of capability.

When should you use assessments?

As assessments should not be used as the sole determinant, it is often advised to use them after the first interview but prior to the second interview and reference checking. This is recommended so that the assessment results can be used to verify and check gathered candidate information and then incorporating the results into interview questions and reference checks.

While there are some assessments you can use prior to the first interview or even at the resume submission point, the decision to assess earlier is often based on costs to the business. Obviously, it would be great to test everyone who applies, however this would not be economically viable or recommended in most recruitment situations.

Tip: Use the insight gained through assessments for the second interview questions and reference checks.

Conclusion

Whether you currently use assessments or are considering (recommended) incorporating them, the important point is:

Providing structure and using a multi- pronged approach are the two techniques most likely to help improve the reliability of your sales recruitment process and placements.

Remembering that sales recruitment is one of the most challenging jobs around; the average increase in output resulting from improved selection is approximately 2.5 times greater in sales jobs than in low-complexity, non-sales jobs. This is why is can also be important to partner with an organisation who has a sound understanding and working knowledge of recruitment and assessments.

I wish you happy and successful selling and sales recruitment.

Sue Barrett is Managing Director of BARRETT Pty Ltd. For more information please go to www.barrett.com.au.

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4 valuable life skills that make for success in sales and any other role

July 22, 2009 in Attitudes & Behaviours, Brain Science, Business Acumen, Communication, Emotional Intelligence, Mindful selling, Prospecting, Sales Excellence Acadamy, Sales Skills, Sales Talent, Sales Tips, Self Development

There are many things written and said about effective sales people, effective leaders, successful entrepreneurs, great teams and so on.

Many descriptions are in circulation. There is an overabundance of experts recommending this approach one day and that approach the next.

Those of us who want to be effective and successful often follow the advice of those experts however we are at risk of turning ourselves inside out and losing sight of what we are really here to do if we keep trying to bend to the winds and whims of the latest management trends, fads, findings, research, etc.

I am not against reading widely, continuous learning, adopting new ways and adapting to change as you have probably realised by now.

However, in recent times I have been feeling overwhelmed by too much information and instead found myself opting for a ‘less is more’ approach to life.

As I always do, I have been sifting through a lot of information and finding that I am beginning to distill some fundamental truths that hold true whatever the fad or trend of the day.

On my most recent distillation process I have found that I was able to identify four valuable life skills that work very well for me in every situation I have found myself in. You will recognise that these skills are essential to effective selling, and I am sure you won’t miss their relevance to all other roles we play, personally and professionally.

So in the spirit of ‘less is more’ here are my 4 valuable life skills which continue to serve me very well:

The ability to ask good questions
The ability to actively listen
The ability to receive and give honest feedback
The ability to reflect on my actions

I hope they serve you well too. Enjoy your sales week.

Remember everybody lives by selling something.

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How we can learn MasterSales lessons

July 16, 2009 in Attitudes & Behaviours, Coaching, Performance Management, Sales Culture, Sales Leadership, Sales Talent

Like many people in Australia, my family and employees have been captivated by MasterChef Australia.

What I love about MasterChef is that it can be seen as a metaphor for expressing our talents and being the best we can be. Given my interest in everything to do with sales, personal mastery and performance, I particularly love the parallel I have been able to draw about what it takes to be an elite master chef and an elite sales person and elite sales leader by the observation I have made in MasterChef.

As lessons for people wanting to master the sales profession,MasterChef works on many levels:

It’s about acquiring and honing a range of skills, often difficult to master skills individually and even more so in concert with each other
It’s about receiving and dealing with real feedback about real results
It’s about learning from your mistakes – practice, practice, practice
It’s about resilience – being able to get back up when you are down and face a new day whatever it may bring
It’s about personal insight and self-awareness
It’s about humility – letting go of the old to embrace the new
It’s about listening to and understanding what needs to be achieved
It’s about operating under pressure, sometimes extreme pressure (internal and external)
It’s about finding your own character and what you stand for; your values, your purpose
It’s about friendship and community even in a competitive environment
It’s about skillful learning – including learning how to be coached and mentored
It’s about personal responsibility
It’s about respect – for self, for peers, your leaders, and your profession
It’s about process – following the recipe, the fundamental rules of chemistry that work
It’s about personal leadership and being true to yourself
It’s about potential, opportunity, creativity, innovation and achievement

In my opinion, the real heroes of this program are the judges and guest chefs who have shown leadership and clarity of purpose in their mentoring and managing of the various contestants.

As leaders they display and model:

Their skillful leadership as masters in their own profession – they know what it takes to be a master craftsman in their profession. There is something magical in watching a skillful person create something wonderful.
Their respect for the discipline of training, learning, constant practice and continuous improvement
Their respect for process and quality – the foundations, the recipes, the ingredients. As leaders they leave nothing is half baked (pardon the pun).
Their love of and passion for what they do and the expectation they have for each contestant to reach and push beyond their own potential and what they thought they were capable of. Their encouragement and desire for excellence in each person is outstanding.
Their coaching skills – from running the master classes to their observations and feedback at the contestants work bench as they work through real life challenging situations is nothing short of text book.
Their constructive and honest feedback at judgment time as well as their ability to drill down to the fine detail to show where contestants did well and where they could improve makes for fine example of performance management conversations at their best.
Their care, respect and concern for each person and each person’s special gifts and talents.
Their regular referencing to and questioning of the real intentions of each person to make sure each contestant was in it for real.
Their knowledge about how to run a viable business – from cost of ingredients to the true value of a dish.
The standards they set. There is nothing mediocre aboutMasterChef.

My hope is that we as Sales Leaders can aspire to be role models in the same way these leaders are for their people.

We each could learn lessons from how all the people on this show have managed their part in it – the good and the bad.

MasterChef inspires me to continue to live by our motto at BARRETT, ‘excellence through purposeful action’.

Excellence means giving our best to whatever we do and giving our best to relationships. Setting noble and realistic goals and remembering to plan and practice. We don’t try to do everything; instead we focus on developing our special gifts.

Purposeful Action means having a clear vision of what we want to accomplish. Knowing why we are doing what we are doing. Having a clear goal and getting back on track if we get scattered or distracted. Finishing what we start and persevering until we get results.

As author William Arthur Ward quotes “The price of excellence is discipline. The cost of mediocrity is disappointment.”

I commend MasterChef for its devotion to excellence through purposeful action. Thank you.

Remember everybody lives by selling something.

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