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Like exercise, prospect a little each day and stay sales fit

May 26, 2011 in Call Reluctance, Prospecting, Sales Skills, Sales Training, Self Development, Success, Time Management, Tips

Prospecting is considered one of the most daunting jobs in selling.  Many people in sales or other roles charged with developing new business, especially with new prospects, find the task of prospecting anxiety provoking and tend to put off the prospecting task in favour of more desirable or less frightening tasks.  Yet in their desire to escape prospecting they inadvertently set themselves up for greater issues in the future.

Prospecting is the oxygen that fuels the fire of sales.  Prospecting involves a series of sequential activities designed to:

  • Identify your prospect
  • Qualify your prospect
  • Prioritise your prospect

Prospecting is therefore a step-by-step process for identifying organisations and individuals who have a potential need for your product or service, making contact with them to see if you can be of service and then generating a client & supplier relationship.

Having a plan or system is therefore critical to prospecting success.

Without a prospecting plan you cannot sell because you will not have anyone to sell to.  Prospecting is not the most important aspect of selling, but it’s the first thing that has to happen for the sales process to begin.  Prospecting is not just isolated to cold calling either. It’s essential for reigniting dormant accounts and clients or developing new business with existing clients.

Putting off the task of prospecting will leave your sales pipeline anemic and weak and put your job or business in jeopardy.   In essence, if you don’t prospect you will become ‘sales unfit’.

If we’re serious about our physical health and wellbeing and want to be physically fit we know we need to exercise every day or several times a week in time blocks of 30minutes, one or even two hours. We don’t do little bits then stop.  We do not leave our health to chance and instead set aside time in our day to pay attention to our physical wellbeing.  So why leave our sales result and careers to chance?

Yet too many people charged with growing sales and healthy client relationships leave their sales fitness to chance by not prospecting on a consistent and regular basis.

One reason people find it hard to prospect is because they have never been taught how to prospect effectively.  Prospecting is a skill like everything else and it can be taught.  That is why at Barrett we find ourselves doing a lot of coaching and training in our 4 Step Prospecting Process.  It is one of the most impactful training modules in our training program.  Once people learn to master the skill of prospecting the results are fantastic.  “Just wanted to say a BIG thank you to you for your assistance with one of my clients. I got them back! What helped most was omitting that “fear of rejection” like you said. You were right, I had nothing to lose as we had already lost them. In addition, making phone calls with a clear purpose or intention really assisted with this client, which eventually led to a meeting face to face, and it all went swimmingly. This client is now using us consistently since the meeting, and fingers crossed, this will continue. I am not taking chances this time, and will continue to manage this client carefully. Thanks again for all your help, the follow up phone call with you really made all the difference.” Testimonial from Specialist Recruitment Consultant.

Another important reason why a sales pipeline suffers is because people do not make the time to prospect. This can be because they’re either ineffective at prioritising or they’re afraid of prospecting and so avoid it all together.  Either way avoiding prospecting makes matters worse.

If you have a fear about prospecting even if you have been shown how to prospect, you need to address those fears and then make time to prospect on a regular and consistent basis. Practice at prospecting will also help overcome your fears a bit at a time.  If you have difficulty prioritising what is important then you need to make sure that prospecting is made one of your most important priorities.  By doing a little each day you can achieve your sales goals and reduce your anxiety about prospecting one phone call at a time.

Here are some tips For Scheduling Your Prospecting:

  • Schedule specific time in your week for prospecting.
  • Chunk your prospecting calls in batches – maximum of 120 minutes, ideally 2-3 batches per week.
  • Consider doing your prospecting calls first thing in the morning.  This works on two levels, 1) you get it out of the way first thing in the day and, 2) it is often the best time to call people.
  • Ideally make prospecting calls at the same time of the day, each day of the week.
  • Consider when you are at your best. It’s best to be clear headed, listening accurately, awake and alert (this varies for everyone). You are therefore less likely to have negative or self-defeating thoughts and least likely to take rejection personally.
  • Consider distractions – what time of day are you least likely to be interrupted?

Remember follow-up with persistent daily effort
Choosing your state of mind and your attitude is also critical when prospecting and selling. Successful salespeople know that prospecting doesn’t happen by chance as it requires a consistent and persistent effort.  Successful sales people:

  • Diarise follow up calls
  • Use Sales Pipeline to track activity
  • Keep a number of activities on the go
  • Prioritise
  • Persist

Remember everybody lives by selling something.

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

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What can women and men learn from each other about selling?

May 19, 2011 in Attitudes & Behaviours, Communication, Culture, Success

The world of selling is transforming before our eyes and there are many lessons for the taking.  The latest focus is on the emergence of social media and the internet and its impact on customers’ purchase decisions. However, to date little light has been shone on lessons learnt by men and women about gender differences and selling.

I recently had the opportunity to present my latest project focusing on women in sales at an AMCHAM event which, to my delight, was sold out.  Attended by men and women, although the weighting was in favour of the women, the 2.5 hour interactive workshop presented some of the latest research from around the world on women in sales as well as findings from my many interviews with Australian women in sales careers for my upcoming book, ‘Sell like a woman’.

As part of the session we discussed the various lessons women and men have learned from each other in the world of selling and there were some interesting findings.

Many of the lessons have been learned through trial and error; however with many more women now participating in the paid workforce there is more evidence to work with.

The workshop highlighted the following from both men and women in sales:

What have women learnt about selling from men:

  • We need to realise that men often treat it as a game
  • We shouldn’t take things so personally
  • We need to make sure we dress sensibly for the obvious reasons, and for practical reasons given some of the   environments we may need to go into. i.e. worksites, factories, etc.
  • We need more agility and have the capacity to move on quickly
  • More assertiveness; not aggressiveness, but a calm, positive confidence to hold our own in various situations and speak our mind clearly and firmly.  NB: when women behave assertively they can often be labelled as ‘aggressive’ which is not the same, so we would like to be assessed correctly when being assertive
  • We cannot be hesitant to ask for a sale, and be more direct when doing so
  • We need to have greater self belief and stand up for ourselves
  • We need to not be intimidated and hold our own. See assertiveness
  • We need to have more confidence to ‘wing it’
  • We need to make sure we know how to do a proper hand shake; no “wet fish” handshakes

What have men learnt about selling from women:

  • We need to show more empathy
  • We need to give ourselves permission to drop the ‘game face’ and be more real
  • We need to recognise that softness is not weakness
  • We can catch more clients with honey not vinegar
  • We need to learn how to sell more with emotion and combine it with fact
  • We need to take a closer look beneath the surface because women seem to take on challenges that may look too hard initially, but are actually quite simple when they go beyond that first glance
  • We need to be able to listen more effectively which will build our authenticity and genuineness
  • We need to be a lot more enquiring – we need to ask more questions
  • We need to pay more attention to the finer details and look at customers as a whole
  • We need to be more researched
  • We need patience
  • We need to be better organised.  Organisational skills = time management
  • We need to bring more creativity to our solutions
  • We need to have conversations, not monologues

As you can see there are some key lessons we can all learn from each other to really make the most of our selling capabilities in the 21st Century.  We welcome your feedback as to the lessons you have learnt from men and women in sales.  Contact us at feedback@barrett.com.au

To see how the world of selling has changed, view our YouTube video, The Evolution of Selling.

Remember everybody lives by selling something.

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

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How satisfied are you with your sales incentive plan?

April 28, 2011 in Coaching, Strategy, Success, Tips

A good sales incentive plan rests on a fundamental set of design principles that reward the right behaviours, optimise sales effectiveness, and maximise the return on incentive dollars.

Specifically, a good sales incentive plan design:
•    uses performance metrics that are aligned with the company’s overall strategy;
•    supports and is consistent with the overall sales force strategy — its job roles, available skills, selling processes,    internal culture, etc.;
•    is mechanically sound in its design elements; and
•    can be administered efficiently

If not well designed however, there may be issues or challenges within each principle which could limit effectiveness, waste new investments or lead to unforeseen consequences that would limit sales growth, especially during these volatile times.  According to the 2010 Deloitte’s Strategic Sales Compensation Survey less than half of over 250 participating sales leaders (only 43%) were satisfied or very satisfied with their sales incentive program.  The remainder were, somewhat, unhappy with their current plans.

Incentive programs are very important retention strategies; however we have noticed a shift in the configuration of incentive plans in recent times. A number of our clients, in addition to their monetary incentive plans, are now including professional, external one-on-one coaching as an incentive offering to their sales people and leaders.  We are seeing a shift from purely monetary reward as the whole incentive offering to an incentive plan that also includes professional development.

So is your sales incentive plan sound?

If sales incentive programs are to be effective, all the factors that affect behaviour must be recognised, including: motivators, values,  skills, recognition, an understanding of the company and teams goals, and the ability to measure progress. So, consider this:

1.    Do your metrics help drive the company’s strategy?
2.    Is your plan a good fit for your sales organisation?
3.    Is your plan “mechanically sound”?
4.    Can you administer the plan with existing people, processes, data, and technology?

Companies often turn to sales incentive programs to counter failures in meeting targets, poor behaviours or performance issues, unengaged employees, poor morale or attitude, high turnover or loss of talent, or increases in expectations from management.  Many companies mistakenly assume that what works for one organisation will work well for all organisations. Companies often attempt to create incentive programs without thinking in detail about how each program feature will best suit their targeted audience.

For example, one software manufacturing company had a sales incentive plan whereby its salespeople could earn twice as much commission selling old solution than if they sold the new software solution, yet the manager wanted to increase sales of the new product.  You can see where the sales team were going to give their attention to.  Issue: company wants sales growth from new product but sales people are selling something else.  Fix: rearrange how the salespeople are incentivized to achieve the behaviour and results you want.  It looks so obvious, however companies make these mistakes every day.  This is an easy fix if you are selling product in a transactional climate.

However, given these ever changing times and the significant shift from transactional product selling to more complex value added partnership selling, especially when many businesses are looking for more profitable relationships, many sales teams’ incentive plans are not keeping pace.  Often based on simplistic transactions and volume, previous sales incentive plans do not account for the many B2B (business to business) sales results which are now based on the efforts of a team not the individual.  Selling in complex B2B spaces are often the result of collaborative efforts, so how do you reward results often as the result of many?

The 2010 Deloitte’s Strategic Sales Compensation Survey identified that ‘effectively executing today’s more complex sales approaches requires key sales team members to work together; this could be a key success differentiator for companies in the next five years. But the right compensation plan balance between individual and team-based rewards remains hard to strike.’ Deloitte reported that around two-thirds of respondents are using some form of team-based selling as part of their sales model. But respondents still have concerns about how well their incentive plan is driving team selling.  Only 41% feel their plan is driving team behaviour “well” or “very well.”

The “messages” the sales incentive plan design delivers about the company’s strategic priorities should not be contradicted by other sales elements the company has in place — for example, if there are unfocused role definitions within the sales team or little emphasis on attracting or retaining the right sales team members.   This is why getting your sales force design right is critical.

The Survey also reported that sales incentive design must be structured so that its metrics, targets, commissions, bonuses, eligibility rules, etc., all interact sensibly and with as little complexity as possible. Poorly set quotas in a fast-moving and unpredictable marketplace can create either overpayment “windfalls” for sales team members – based more on market dynamics than their own efforts – or unrealistically high expectations that can keep morale at a low level.  Moreover, the risk is exacerbated by the increasing popularity of building estimates of “potential” into territory or account quotas. While the idea may make good business sense, it is difficult to create estimates with precision, and therefore increases the chances of significant errors in quota levels. The following advice was highlighted as a result of the survey findings:

Take a step back. Evaluate plans against the four principles. Invite practitioners from Sales, Finance, IT, Sales Operations, and HR to look at sales compensation from all perspectives. Think through how investments in sales expansion and support should be productively deployed.

Consider retention. Think about which sales performers the sales team needs to retain — not just the current top performers, but also the “up and comers” who will make a difference to your company in the long-term. Perhaps create longer-term pay structures to keep them motivated.

Something more than Money
Consider offering coaching support to your sales team as part of your incentive plan. This will work especially well for high performers who are looking for something more and those “up and comers” who can really accelerate with the right guidance and support.

As mentioned we are seeing a shift from purely monetary reward as the whole incentive offering to an incentive plan that also includes professional development. So it’s true, even for sales people money doesn’t buy you everything.

Remember everybody lives by selling something.

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

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Can a sales manager be an effective sales coach?

April 14, 2011 in Coaching, Performance Management, Sales Leadership, Sales Management, Sales Talent, Sales Training, Success

Coaching usually focuses on two areas of development to achieve excellence: skills and performance. Excellence in performance is knowing the right processes to apply in the right situation, coupled with the personal insight to know how to apply them wisely.  An effective sales coach is there to help people achieve excellence and realize many more benefits.

However to be an effective sales coach your people must experience you as a support in helping them achieve higher performance and not a hindrance.  Often people experience performance improvement initiatives as ‘threats’ or ‘aimless chats’ leaving people feeling negative, intimidated or that their time has been wasted.

For coaching to work at its best the relationship between coach and coachee must be one of partnership with trust, safety and minimal pressure.  The pay cheque, promotion and performance axe have no place in a coaching relationship.  Often, sales managers  don’t know the difference between managing and coaching and find it hard to change hats when required. So can a sales manager reconcile the roles of manager and coach and can a manager really be an effective coach especially given time pressures and other competing priorities?

Barrett’s newly appointed Head of Coaching, Robyn Creed says ‘Yes, managers and especially sales managers can be fantastic coaches, however coaching demands the highest qualities of a manager.’

“Qualities include active listening, empathy, integrity, honesty, detachment and effective questioning. Coupled with this is a willingness to adopt a ‘performance enhancing’ mindset to staff development along with the skillful use of best practice coaching tools and frameworks.  True coaches help people liberate their talent to realise mastery.   Being able to set yourself a part from your managerial duties i.e. the KPI agenda, delivery of strategy, results, and firefighting and instead, approach each staff member as an individual when coaching, allows you to build a genuine coaching relationship.  Creating a coaching climate can be a challenge for many managers mainly due to time constraints, competing priorities which often relegate coaching to  ‘nice-to-have’ status, and the lack of proper training in effective coaching tools and strategies,’ Robyn said.

So how can a sales manager reconcile the roles of manager and coach? Knowing the difference helps. Review the following checklist on Managing and Coaching and see where you fall in relation to these roles.

Managers:
•    Do most of the talking and directing
•    Tell people how things should be done
•    Fix problems – sometimes preventing staff members from developing necessary skills
•    Presumes and makes assumptions (not having delved deeply into what is going on for an individual)
•    Seek control
•    Order people, provide directions
•    Works on
•    Keep distant
•    Assign blame

Coaches:
•    Spend most of the time in a coaching discussion listening to their staff member
•    Ask people how they think things should be
•    Prevent problems – when appropriate, skill people up to develop skills to manage situations effectively
•    Explore, providing staff with in-depth insight around a particular situation or what is going on with an individual)
•    Empower team member and seeks commitment
•    Allow people to develop their own path, but challenges when necessary
•    Work with (partnerships to develop skills and improve performance)
•    Make contact
•    Take responsibility (those who understand the importance of coaching appreciate the direct link between their coaching of their staff and their staff’s performance)

Many sales managers we work with have reviewed this list and realise they are not coaching at all.  At best they have chats over coffee which is not the same as coaching.  Yet they are ever concerned that their people may not be performing to the standard they require.

In 2005, the Sales Executive Council conducted a survey of over 3000 Sales Professionals and their sales managers. Some of their findings clearly demonstrate the difference in sales professionals’ performance based on the effectiveness of coaching.  In this study there was at least 19% improvement in sales performance as a direct result of one-on-one coaching which meant the difference between people achieving their sales quotas or not.

Recent results from ICF Consumer Global Awareness Study reported that more than 42.6% of the respondents who had experienced coaching chose “Optimise individual and/or team performance” as their motivation for being coached.  This reason ranked highest followed by “Expand professional career opportunities” at 38.8% followed by “Improve business management strategies” at 36.1%. Other more personalised motivations like “Increase self-esteem/self-confidence” and “Manage work/life balance” rated fourth and fifth to round out the top five motivations.

Coaching is key to performance improvement in any role.   So why isn’t coaching prevalent in the daily lives of sales leaders and managers?

Lack of time is usually the issue.  Finding time to coach is a real issue for these managers. Too many managers find themselves firefighting, unable to devote sufficient time to long term planning, visioning and most importantly coaching and developing their people. The paradox here is that if they coach their staff properly the staff will be capable of shouldering more responsibility, freeing the manager from firefighting and allowing them to be available to manage and coach their people and grow and develop the business.

So how do we get managers to engage in coaching?

Help sales managers see the real value in coaching including the dollars and sales it can return to the business.  We need to help  managers see that coaching delivers far more than the effort put into coaching however, if you have never experienced effective coaching you are unlikely to value it.  One solution is for managers to experience professional coaching themselves and see how it helps them achieve excellence in their own role.  Engaging an independent coach to work with a manager i.e. a ‘coach-the-coach’ experience has great benefits.  Ideally sales managers would be trained in best practice coaching tools and strategies to give them the confidence and competence to coach.  Another solution some managers are resorting to is outsourcing the coaching of their team members to independent coaches or internal people specifically trained and assigned to a coaching role thus leaving managers to manage.   This is a trend in some industries such as call centres.

Robyn Creed says that outsourcing  authentic coaching can really help people experience an agenda free environment helping them to shift and move to higher levels of performance without the complicated relationship of their managers.  However, she does warn that abdicating coaching responsibilities as a manager is dangerous.  ‘Managers should not avoid coaching’ says Robyn, ’The skills and mindset of coaching need to be ever present in a manager’s tool box, especially in sales. The opportunities to coach present themselves at any time and you have to be ready to seize the opportunity and know what to do.’  Robyn’s advice is to adopt a blended approach: ‘train your sales managers and other managers how to be effective coaches and then, when needed supplement this with highly trained external coaches.  These coaches are best used to coach the managers who are coaching their own teams as well as for high performing sales people who need that to move to a higher plain.’

Remember everybody lives by selling something.

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

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Should ‘Selling’ be studied at University?

March 30, 2011 in Coaching, Education, Sales Research, Sales Training, Self Development, Success

Barrett Research invites you to express your opinion about whether ‘Selling’ should be an applied academic degree.  Please complete our Graduate Degree for the Sales Profession’ survey and voice your views.

With the profession of Selling becoming increasingly more complex involving many more variables and the shift from product being at the heart of selling to strategic relationships, collaboration, true value, sustainability and transparency now on the agenda we believe it’s time for ‘Selling’ to step out under the shadow of Marketing and MBA’s to have its own degree status.  Recently I was invited to speak at the Melbourne Business School’s MBA Entrepreneurs program on the topic of Selling.   This was a great opportunity to put the topic of Selling on the agenda.   The feedback was phenomenal – the mostly young students had many questions that needed answers to ranging from how to sell effectively, prospecting, what it the right way to sell, and the right sales mindset to name a few.

The emphasis was on the practical as well as the theoretical. Their concerns about having the Sales function and Sales Processes operating effectively in their start-ups and growing businesses were along the same lines as the questions many seasoned business owners and leaders ask every day.  They were quite unaware just how much you need to know, learn and apply when it comes to selling, running a sales team and keeping up or ahead of your market on the sales front, especially now that social media is now making such an impact on sales and marketing.

While selling strategies have been around for years the actual function of being a sales person and sales leader have been poorly regarded and understood, however in recent years there has been a growing body shining light on sales as a complex and skilful profession with most of the academic work emanating from overseas.  In Australia, there are currently topics or short courses (i.e. up to 7 hours duration) on the topic of selling at some Australian universities, however, they are not very comprehensive and do not cover all the aspects of Selling a skilled professional needs to know.  There are certainly no Degrees in Selling in Australia.  We understand that knowing how to sell effectively doesn’t happen until you get out in the field and start applying it, however, being well trained in the science of selling and understanding its many variables would help most people and businesses make a much better start.   At last count there are 42 universities in the US with graduate and undergraduate sales courses on their curriculum.

At Barrett Research we view Selling as an applied science where it fits perfectly well into a business school framework and so do not see it on the pure end of academic education.   I believe we need more accredited courses or at least dedicated business courses where people can properly study the science and art of Selling.  Having tertiary trained sales professionals would certainly raise the standards of the profession.

We can take a leaf out of the procurement industry which is the fastest growing business profession. CIPSA has worked tirelessly to professionalise ‘purchasing’ and rightly so, given the enormous complexity facing the profession. There are now tertiary qualifications including degrees and post graduate programs in procurement.

To complete the survey, go to: ‘Graduate Degree for the Sales Profession’ survey

We will publish our survey findings soon.

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

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