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An ideal sales week

April 17, 2009 in Sales Planning, Time Management, Tips

  • Are you finding that you are over servicing your existing clients and not bringing in new business?
  • Are you running out of time each week to do the important sales jobs such as prospecting?
  • Are you at risk of not meeting your sales budget?

In my many interactions with sales people I have found that many find they have problems prioritising their week.  They often get caught up in activities that do not produce revenue, leaving them vulnerable.

Let’s look at the key activities that should feature as priorities in most sales people jobs:

Revenue Generating Activities
Direct

  • Prospecting (phone calls, etc.)
  • New business client meetings (with new prospects and existing accounts)
  • Account management
  • Proposal development, submission and pitch
  • Proposal follow-up
  • Referrals


Indirect

  • Advertising
  • Networking
  • Pipeline management


Support Activities

  • Customer service
  • Sales meetings
  • Internal meetings
  • Administration
  • Professional development

Where are you investing your time?

Without a systematic method of finding clients you will rarely produce outstanding sales results.

In order for a sales person to be successful in their role they need to organise their week and their time.

This concept quite simply is called an ideal week.

An ideal week is designed to help sales people be more focused and more productive by chunking key tasks together.  For example, in many ways it makes sense for sales person to be in the office in the morning followed by appointments with clients in the marketplace in the afternoon.  This means that all administration and prospecting activities are out of the way early, leaving the afternoon to really focus on clients’ needs.

There is no one ‘right’ ideal week, however having a structure and focus in how to set up your appointments, administration, and prospecting time will be one of the keys to you becoming rapidly successful.

Experienced sales people may need to come back every 3 to 6 months and review their ideal week to ensure that it’s delivering a great result.

A Systematic Method

A systematic method of finding clients is critical for a Salesperson’s success.

We need to ensure that time is put aside each day to prospect, so that we can continue to feed our pipeline of new clients.   Importantly, we need ensure that we have a consistent and ongoing focus on finding new clients.

Our ideal week needs to include personal time, finding time, and selling time, so that our time is filled with $ productive activity.

Example of an Ideal Week 1

In this example the sales person has chosen to have three days in the marketplace with Monday and Friday being focused on setting up for the current and coming weeks.  Monday is reserved primarily for prospecting and Friday is reserved for planning, administration, research, and catch up, as well as some sales management support*.

an-ideal-sales-week

Example of an Ideal Week 2

In this example the sales person has chosen to have mornings in the office and afternoons in the marketplace. examples can and will work well. Both of these examples can and will work well. The key is having an ideal week and using this as a benchmark for faster decision making. It’s important to understand that the week will probably never work out 100% like this, but it gives us a benchmark for how to structure our week for maximum productivity.

an-ideal-sales-week2

* Sales Management Coaching and SupportIt is unlikely that an experienced sales person would have a one-on-one coaching session every week, especially highly experienced sales people.  However, do not forget to spend regular time (say once a month at least) with an experienced sales person as they too can benefit greatly from personal development.Whereas, new sales people should be having a one-on-one coaching session every week to get them up to speed as quickly as possible.

Sincerely, your advocate for selling the right way.

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Leading a healthy sales career

April 2, 2009 in Attitudes & Behaviours, Culture, Wellbeing Support Services

It is well documented that being healthy (physically, emotionally, and mentally) is vital to leading an effective and productive life.

In sales your health is a critical factor to your success.  Many highly successful sales people I meet are self disciplined in all aspects of their life ensuring they are fit, healthy and well trained in their profession.

Having a healthy sales career is underpinned by the individuals healthy life style, and a well managed business which includes good sales support, clear goals and leadership.

I have written before in a previous post Healthy salespeople, healthy sales about the issues associated with poor health and inconsistent sales, especially the ‘boozy’ culture associated with some sales teams and sales cultures.  Sadly this stereo type if often the only one portrayed in the media further perpetuating this type of behaviour.   Yet this is not the behaviour we see in healthy sales people and sales teams.

However another issue we see more often now is overwork, especially with some high achieving sales people and teams.

We Australians are known for working excessive hours and for not taking our quota of annual leave.   This is not a good recipe for ongoing success as I can attest to myself, having burnout a few years ago from over work.

It is very tempting in these challenging times to work longer and longer hours and one could be (almost) forgiven for not taking time off, feeling the need to work more than ever before.

The problem is if you are already overworked and now further distressed by the current business climate then you could be setting yourself up for bigger problems in the future namely your health.

However the issue of overwork is being further exacerbated in some business sectors by excessive cost cutting, which is leaving sales teams under resourced.  A number of sales people are reporting that they are losing the support people from their teams, or worse still being asked to pick up larger and larger territories when sales people leave and are not replaced.

The conscientious ones will try to pick up the slack and put in more hours trying to make up for the lack of resources.  This then leaves them tired and eventually vulnerable to burn out.

One person I met now has to manage over 300 clients, up from 100, with a full service offering in a complex sales environment which they admitted was impossible. This person is a good operator and takes pride in doing a good job but now they cannot deliver to the standards expected and are left feeling overwhelmed, distressed and demotivated.

While I know we may have some sales people who are not and may never pull their weight and need to go, penalising those who are doing their best to keep sales coming by not resourcing them properly is a recipe for sales and business disaster.

Overwork and lack of support are not recipes for a healthy life, a healthy career or a healthy business.

Burn out due to overwork can be an issue for some high performing sales people in the good times, but let’s not make it worse and create a burnout epidemic by cutting vital sales support such as administration, marketing support, etc. or overburdening our sales people because  we feel the pressure of tough times.

The one thing you cannot afford to lose in this climate are your effective sales performers.

In these challenging times it may seem counter intuitive to take time out, however regularly taking time out to rest, relax, exercise, socialize, be with family, have a small holiday, gain perspective are important to our wellbeing.  This coupled with a healthy diet, and being around people with health mindsets and ‘can do’ attitudes are vital to keep us going.   I would encourage you to encourage your sales people to look after themselves.

And you could look after them by providing appropriate support and being realistic in your business expectations.

These approaches are vital to leading a healthy sales career and team.

Sincerely, your advocate for selling the right way.

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The Hard Sell

March 27, 2009 in Culture, Ethics & Values, Negotiation, Sales Relationships

I declare right up front that I am not, and never have been a fan of the Hard Sell.  You have probably guessed that from all my previous posts.

And if you ask most people about what they think about the profession of selling they will often describe something akin to the ‘Hard Sell’.   Of late  I have also noticed a rise in ‘hard sell’ stories where people are being unnecessarily pressured to buy or sales people being pressured to sell at almost any cost.

The hard times may be pushing some people to do things they wouldn’t normally do like the “Hard Sell”.

The Hard Sell can also be described as:

  • Boiler Room Techniques
  • High pressure selling

To put it into perspective, the ‘hard sell’ is not a common sales strategy employed by many businesses today and for most people it is not their preferred way of selling or buying.  Most people revile from being asked to sell in this way.  And I would question whether it is deemed ‘selling’ at all or just a form of bullying or intimidation.

Given the escalation I have seen in ‘Hard Sell’ stories this prompted me to have a further look at what the Hard Sell is and if it has any legitimate place in our world of business and selling today.  Here is some of what I found.

Hard Sell
(definition from www.businessdictionary.com)

Applying psychological pressure (by appealing to someone’s fears, greed, or vanity) to persuade the prospect to make a quick purchase decision. This approach is justified on the ground that most people are lazy and will postpone making a decision—even if it were in their best interest to make the commitment. This practice is, however, reviled when its sole purpose is the salesperson’s gain at the customer’s detriment. Also called high pressure selling.

I think the last sentence in this definition is key here. I highlighted this in Think you can get away with it. Think again.   If a person is willing to be convinced and happy to take part in the process fine.  However, many people who may not know what they are getting themselves into or may feel intimidated and do not know how to say ‘No’ may be caught up in the moment and buy something they do not want or need.  For example if we look at the following technique you can see what I mean.

Boiler Room techniques

Outfit where salespeople use hard-selling (often dishonest) techniques to peddle (often fraudulent) offers to unsuspecting prospects (referred to as suckers) over the phone or face to face.

These techniques have often been attributed to Insurance or Car Sales industries i.e. used car salesman,  e.g.  …extremely aggressive behavior by an Insurance Agent to convince a Prospect to purchase the insurance product without due regard for the prospect’s ability to pay the Premiums and/or needs for the product.

Just think of the Subprime market in the USA and you know what I mean.

Let it be said however that I am not proposing that all sales people in Insurance or Car Sales are selling this way.  In fact more and more businesses in these industries are consciously training their people in more sustainable and honest selling practices.   See A car sales story with a difference

Some industries like Time Share and certain personal development courses still mainly employ Hard Sell tactics bringing people in for 90 minutes pitch fests coupled with a lunch or some small incentive.   Prospects are often pressured to sign up before they leave and can be intimidated to do so as described above.

I have had experience of this myself some years ago and my advice is this: walk away and think about it before you buy unless you are really certain and have done your homework.  If the salesperson says you can’t walk away and think about it outside of the venue or call them the next day then in my opinion it’s likely to be dodgy.   A colleague described one such situation happening to her earlier this year.  The salesperson in question was charming and positive to my colleague up until she said that she needed to think about it and would get back to him.  He tried to convince her to part with $1,000 upfront but she would not do it.  It has to be said that my colleague had nothing against time share she just didn’t want to be pressured to part with her money just yet.  When she did not cave in to his demands and asserted herself, the salesperson’s attitude turned from one of charm and positivity to disdain and frustration in a split second.

By contrast, the term Soft Selling is to describe the opposite of Hard Selling and is often defined as where:

Sales philosophy oriented toward identifying the customer’s expressed and tacit needs and wants, through probing questions and careful listening. It contrasts with hard selling which promotes application of psychological pressure to generate a relatively quick sale

I do not like the term  Soft Selling, what they are really describing is Consultative, Diagnostic or Solution Selling.  Soft implies weak and insipid to me.  Those people how engage in healthy, trust based, transparent  Consultative/ Diagnostic/ Solution Selling are assertive positive and very helpful to customers and understand that not everyone is in a position to buy now.  By treating people with respect and working in partnership with them then you set yourself up for a better future.

One of my clients said just that the other day.  They employ a Consultative sales approach and have found to be far more sustainable and professional.  He said it really cements them as a preferred supplier or partner, especially up against competitors who employ ‘Hard Sell’ or price gouging tactics.  He should know because his business is a much smaller player at present up against much bigger businesses with a much larger sales forces. He said his sales people are well respected, well regarded, and are making good sales despite the competitions’ tactics.   He has held firm and not resorted to the ‘hard sell’ and it is paying off in more ways than one.

I understand it is tough out there for many businesses but desperate times do not call for desperate sales measures. (Desperate times don’t call for desperate measures)

While the ‘Hard Sell’ has always been around and is likely to be around for some time in the future I would encourage you stay true to what you know is right.

Sincerely, your advocate for selling the right way.

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Who’s in charge of your sales recruitment?

March 19, 2009 in Recruitment, Sales Assessments, Sales Talent

1.      How much is a good sales person worth to you?
2.      How much is a good hiring manager worth to you?

Speaking about recruitment in these current economic times may seem foolish, however in the area of selling, this is where you could make great strides by picking up highly effective sales people who have found themselves on the job market or are looking for a better business to work in.   I know of a few highly competent sales people and sales managers who have been let go along with other staff as part of large staff reduction strategies.

In my opinion, the last people I would let go in this market would be highly competent and high producing sales people.

Which leads me to the contentious issue about who makes the decisions to hire and fire sales people. In particular, who hires sales people.

The financial and personal impact of the Hiring Manager in any organisation is enormous.  They  decide who can and cannot be hired.  We know that the attitudes, preferences and prejudices, of the person responsible for recruitment will affect the quality of the people hired, even if that person is not the direct line manager of the new recruit.   If we reflect we can see how our own emotions, behavioural preferences, prejudices and ideals impacting on who joins our company.

There is a direct financial impact on any business when it comes to hiring new sales staff.

Sales Managers are directly accountable for the success or otherwise of the salespeople they manage – their own performance is critically judged by the performance their team and sales managers live or die, career wise, by how well their sales people perform.

So who is in charge of the selection criteria and recruitment decisions of your sales people?

Realistically it should be the people how are actually leading the sales team, i.e. the Sales Managers.  Many sales managers intuitively know what they want and need however, I often see two issues arise which can dramatically affect the quality of the sales recruitment decisions made by sales managers:

  1. Many sales managers do not know how to clearly articulate and define the qualities they need in terms that can be assessed and measured objectively
  2. Many sales managers are not well trained in effective, structured recruitment practices and often rely on gut feel, resumes, unstructured references and the ‘personality’ of the candidate which are the least predictive of sales performance.

This leaves them vulnerable to poor hiring decisions and means then that recruitment processes and decisions are often left to those people who are not directly responsible for managing the sales team.

When another person is in charge of recruiting sales people and is not the line manager responsible for the new sales person, it is often very hard to appreciate the qualities, knowledge and skills that are required to perform successfully in a sales role, especially if they have never been in a sales role themselves.

This can lead to other major issues, for instance I was told this story recently by a frustrated sales manager:

HR Manager (who owns the hiring decision) tells Sales Manager after a sales candidate interview, “You can’t hire this sales person because they are too sales focused”.

The sales manager asked what the HR manager meant and they replied that “I think this person is too pushy and we want ‘nice’ people who are friendly and helpful’.  The sales manager was so annoyed because what he saw in the candidate was the assertive, proactive, professional behaviours and skills necessary for a B2B sales person and now he was going to have to deal with the consequences of this hiring decision, i.e. another ‘nice’ person who won’t get out and sell.  He confessed he already had too many of these people.

If sales managers cannot be well equipped and in charge of the hiring decision or cannot clearly express what they need to another, then those people who are in charge of recruitment, in my opinion, need to be held directly accountable for the performance of the sales people they select because:

Cost without Accountability leads to

  • Hiring people who do not produce or stay
  • Failing to hire people who would have produced and stayed

To impact positively on the successful recruitment of sales people I recommend that non line management recruiters do one or more of the following:

  • Relinquish control of sales assessment, selection and staffing if they do not wish to be accountable and allow their sales managers to be trained in effective recruitment practices so they can best manage the process
  • Be required to accompany salespeople on prospecting activities and sales calls for at least 14 days per year to better appreciate what happens in the role
  • Share results accountability for sales revenue by participating in a base salary plus commission incentive measured on the performance of the sales force they have recommended.

Simply put, the right thing to do is to train up our sales managers in how to properly define, assess and select the right sales people for their teams and business and give them control over the sales recruitment process.   Then they can be held truly accountable for their team and their results.

In sales you hire results not potential.

Your advocate for selling the right way.

FYI Structured Sales Recruitment Kits available at www.barrett.com.au or call (+61) 03 9532 7677.

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Professional Services firms are feeling the pinch

March 12, 2009 in Culture, Prospecting, Strategy, Success

Take note: Lawyers, Accountants, Engineers, Marketing Consultants et al

Professional Services Firms are struggling when it comes to keeping and finding business.  This on top of the fact that many have to come to grips with the fact they need to sell.   The market has definitely changed.  You cannot sit there aggressively waiting for the phone to ring anymore.

In speaking with one partner from a well respected law firm, he vented his frustration at the lack of action being taken in his firm by partners and their teams in terms of driving the push to find new business in current and new accounts.  He stated that some teams were just sitting around with no work to do and no one knows what to do about it.

“It’s so frustrating, they just don’t even know how to pick up a phone and call clients and prospects.  They are just sitting there saying they have no work to do all the while our business is struggling to meet revenue targets.   While I know some service areas have been hit harder than others there is still work to be done and if we could only just get talking to customers we would be ok.  All I know to do is to get out and have coffee with as many clients as I can and even though I haven’t been trained in how to sell well am finding business.  Although I would like to know how to do it better for sure”.

Despite the tougher market, there are market opportunities are out there.  There is money to be made.  There are clients to be won!  However, many professional services firms are not realising their true potential.

Relying mainly on passive referrals for new business leads and glossy marketing materials, most professional services firms are not securing their current and future revenue streams.  They have left themselves vulnerable and weak.  In many cases they are not even accessing their existing client data bases to see what new business opportunities exist there.

And don’t even talk to them about cross selling and up selling other service lines – many remain trapped in the silo mentality.

Through our work and observations in the professional services sector, it appears many managing partners and principals are wanting more from their partners, directors, managers and associates when it comes to proactively building sustainable and profitable business relationships with their clients.  The problem is many of them do not know where  to start or how to do it.  They have tried to make a start by putting on a Business Development Manager but it’s really the partners and managers themselves that need to be out there selling as part of their job.

Our research shows that no longer is it good enough for these people to rely solely on their technical competence i.e. being only a lawyer or accountant.  Now and in the future, these people also need to effectively self promote and prospect for new business using professional and ethical sales strategies, demonstrating real value for money.

However, the sales function does not come naturally to most people in these professions and often they don’t possess the relevant tools necessary to make it work.  They certainly weren’t taught this at university.  In fact many were fed derogatory myths about selling and many still believe them to be true today.  Which is one of the reasons they are in trouble.

We have found that many professional services staff have not been shown the right way to sell or taught the behaviours and skills necessary to put them in a position to win quality business.  Often the sales function’s importance is undermined, underestimated or left to too few people, usually the most senior partner or “rain maker”, possibly leaving the business vulnerable to missed market opportunities, hidden revenue and competitor erosion.

Many firms lack the foundations to create a viable professional sales culture e.g.:

  • Inaccurate or poor perception of what good selling really is and its importance to business
  • Very poor skills in the sales area
  • Partners and directors lacking direct accountability for new business and revenue growth
  • Mixed messages: “I’ve got to find more business but if I don’t do my  6 billable hours I won’t meet my performance standards”.  Partners are being caught in the billable hour performance trap and not using putting the time to get out and grow business they can then pass on to their teams to deliver.
  • No use of client data bases and a silo mentality limiting up sell and cross sell opportunities
  • No new business sales strategy or plan
  • No client retention strategy or plan
  • No sales model for people to learn, follow and apply
  • Sales limited to ‘pull’ prospecting strategies such as brochures, website, etc. at the expense of proactive prospecting and real professional relationship sales strategies
  • No Key Performance Indicators and Key Result Areas linked to sales, new business growth etc.

To name a few.

Given that professional services firms are operating in an increasingly competitive market place with more sophisticated clients expecting higher levels of service and value and some of their services are at risk of being commoditised:

What are firms doing to differentiate themselves?
How are they ensuring their future viability and success?
How are they making sure they are sales fit?

The ones who get it right NOW will set themselves up well now and in the future.   Those that don’t will either be reduced to shadows of themselves or be out of business all together.

So to all you lawyers, accountants, engineers, and consultants out there, if you are not already, it’s time to get sales fit and learn how to sell the right way.

It will be worth it.

Sincerely, your advocate for selling the right way.

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