Each week we meet and speak with a variety of prospective and/or existing clients who have problems they need solving in our area of expertise.  It is more than likely we will deal with a mix of clients: some with little or no understanding about what we really do and those with previous experience, knowledge and opinions in our area of expertise.  And then there are those clients who are in between.  Whatever their level of sophistication, how well we understand and identify our clients’ key priorities and problems, and what they value about working with a credible business partner is crucial to developing, attracting and retaining healthy client relationships and growing sales.

However, most businesses tend to view the world from their own perspective and not from their clients’.  This means:

• They often produce marketing and sales materials that talks about themselves and their products using company jargon rather than talking about their clients’ priorities and problems in language the clients can understand.
• Their sales people tend to still drift toward product discussions, not solution discussions.
• And when a sales person is put on the spot to validate their credentials with a new prospect they usually get lost in a sea of product information and company spin, not client centric information and clear Value Propositions.

I learnt a long time ago that it doesn’t matter what I say, it is what others do with what I say that is the most important thing.  Therefore I learnt that whenever I communicate with a prospect or client I need to speak to them in language they can understand, about things they can relate to.

Here is an example of what I mean.  And it works every time.

Whenever a prospect asks me “What do you do?” I answer them by initially saying “We are best known for our work in building high performing sales and service teams”.  And then I go on and hand them a checklist titled:

‘People and business problems we help you solve’

which has the following headings and their corresponding problems:

• Sales & Service
• Self, Values, Culture & Communication
• Selection, Training& Performance
• Management, Coaching & Leadership

and then say “What we really do is help people fix things like this..”

For instance under the heading Sales & Service I have these items listed

o    Sales people making more excuses than sales
o    Losing clients to competitors
o    No sales plan/ strategy, too reactive
o    Discounting prices to win business
o    Adhoc or reactive sales approach
o    Lots of client visits – few sales
o    No prospecting for new business in new or existing accounts
o    Not meeting sales budgets/targets
o    Unaware of value & potential of clients – hitting wrong targets
o    Plateau in sales production
o    Team of Professional “Visitors”
o    Talking too much & missing needs
o    Too busy having a ‘chat’
o    Poor interviewing & problem solving skills & no follow up
o    Relying on CRM – team of sales clerks instead of sales people
o    Too product focused not solution
o    No understanding of financial impact of their decisions
o    Too ‘nice’ or too ‘rude’
o    No proactive sales & service culture
o    New sales recruits taking too long to get productive

Now when most business people read this checklist they say they can immediately relate to the statements mentioned.

When our prospects read the checklist they begin to nod their heads and start to tick those items which are most important to them.  This helps direct the conversation where the client wants to take it and establishes their priorities.

In approaching the question “What do you do?” in this fashion I have answered the question legitimately and succinctly.  I have also validated myself without a product or benefit being mentioned.  That will come later after I have properly understood how my client sees the world and what they deem to be important.  It works every time.

However, this approach has not been well received by several, so-called, advertising and marketing experts who say that I’m nuts doing this. ‘It’s so negative” they say.  And all I say is “This is my client’s reality and this how they see their world.  They are looking for someone to help them fix their issues and prevent them from happening again, so I will keep telling it like it is.”

What I have found is that we all need to understand that our products and services sell because they solve problems for our clients. A ‘problem’ can be interpreted as an issue, opportunity or priority a client wants to address.  By understanding this, you can deliver value to your client rather that just selling to them based on price and product.  So to ensure that you do not miss valuable business opportunities, always think about your business in terms of problems you solve for your clients.

If you have a little bit of spare time over the next few weeks you may like to take stock of your marketing and sales materials and ask yourself:

“Who’s your brochure written for?  You? OR Your clients?”

And then make adjustments if necessary.  It might just help you make more sales.

Final note for 2008.

Thank you for reading my blogs over the year, it has been a pleasure writing them for you.

New topics: If there are any topics you specifically want me to cover in 2009 please drop me a line at http://www.barrett.com.au/AboutUs/ContactUs.html?ONEPAGE=TRUE#void.

I wish you all the very best for the New Year and look forward to contributing to your ‘sales fitness regime’ in 2009 and beyond.

Keep sales active. Keep prospecting.  Keep positive.  Be persistent.
Happy Selling

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.

I can honestly say I did not enjoy the early years of my sales career. I initially found it hard, relentless and sometimes really distressing. I was asked to do things I didn’t always understand that significance of. I often felt overly scrutinised by the constant monitoring of activity and performance by my managers. I worked in tough markets in tough times and sometimes wondered if it was worth it. I felt under pressure and sometimes wished I didn’t have to sell at all, however I came to realise that this tough introduction to selling was what I really needed to prepare me for the future. In the words of Robert Louis Stevenson “Everyone lives by selling something’.

Over the years as my sales career evolved, I began to learn a lot more about myself and came to really appreciate the lessons I had learned in how to lead an honourable, successful career in sales.

Would I trade my experiences and tough lessons for something easier, more enjoyable? No not at all. I am glad I stuck with it because now I have a range of life skills that are serving me very well under many situations especially right now.

Make no bones about it Selling as a profession is a tough job because it requires self discipline, quick thinking, creativity, persistence, resilience and regular self reflection. As I have often said ‘Selling is not for the faint hearted’.

In pursuing a professional sales career, there is a lot to consider and integrate over time. You cannot learn how to do it well in 5 minutes. That is why I resonated with the article “Properties of the ideal global citizen” by Bernard Salt, which featured in The Australian 20 November 2008. In particular the final paragraphs of the article focused on what I would describe as a test of character.

As Bernard states in his article, an HR Director of a Paris-based financial institution was lamenting the flightiness of Generation Y wishing they would sometimes trust the organisation. This HR director went on to say that “sometimes professional and personal development is best advanced not by doing what individuals want but by doing what the organization wants them to do.”

He continued, “Personal growth isn’t always about doing what you want, or doing what is easy. It’s sometimes about doing what is hard, by enduring, by overcoming, and by persisting. This is how true expertise is gained.”

Like Bernard, I agree completely.

Over the next few years we need ourselves and our people to sell consistently and competently. This may not go down well with everyone in your business, but it is the reality – they all need to help with the sales initiative. Selling is one of the fundamental business functions we need to ensure is not left to chance

Making ‘selling’ a part of your business skill set is critical regardless of your job title in today’s busy and competitive world. I truly believe ethical, trust based selling skills are life skills you can use and apply anywhere in any role – personally or professionally.

While you cannot acquire someone else’s sales experience and use it as your own, you can learn a sales process to accumulate your own experiences. To learn it well requires you to stick at it and persist. The current market conditions present a real opportunity to hone your selling skills and acquire this experience and you can only acquire the experience for yourself and it may be a test of character.

Enjoy it. Happy selling.