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What’s in a relationship?

January 29, 2009 in Attitudes & Behaviours, Communication, Ethics & Values, Sales Relationships, Self Development


The term ‘Relationship Selling’ is often bandied about by sales managers and sales people without properly defining what it really means.I often hear “We are in relationship selling” or “We need relationship sales people” however what I do not hear being asked is:

  • What type of relationship are we talking about?
  • What type of relationship are we looking for?
  • What do we mean by relationship selling anyway?

Relationship selling happens in any place where relationships are important. Thus when a husband and wife are negotiating about something, they will be more successful if they both consider the relationship as well as whatever it is they each want.

Most people’s intentions are to have healthy viable business relationships, but this does not always happen, just like in our personal lives.

And I see many businesses and sales people in trouble because they have set up the wrong types of relationships with their clients to begin with.

If you do not clearly define what you mean by Relationship Selling then you may end up with client relationships like these:

  • Abusive relationships
    • aggressive clients who bully and intimidate sales people/ suppliers, or the other way round
  • Professional Visitor relationships
    • Calling in for a chat, coffee, etc. In short being paid to have a social life.
  • Master/servant  relationships
    • ‘You are here to serve my every need.’ I see this all too often in business banking where some clients take advantage of the ‘over servicing’ of some business bankers using them a free accounting service.  I am sure the accountants won’t be happy with this loss of revenue.  I know the client is happy but is it a healthy relationship in the long run?
  • Big brother relationships
    • ‘You’ll do as I say or else…”
  • Win:lose or lose:win relationships (someone has to lose out)
  • Friendships at the expense of profitable business partnerships (see professional visitor)
  • Broken promises relationships
    • “I’ll get you in here if you give me this…” but it never comes through despite all those promises
  • Exploitative or Deceitful relationships
    • double dipping or tricking people into something they were not aware of. For instance a course participant on one of our recent sales training programs told of a telco sales person who sold the handset separate to the call plan when in fact the handset was already part of the plan, so the customer paid twice of the handset.  This is fraud and can easily ruin your business’ brand and reputation over night.
  • ‘I work for you instead of my company’ relationship
    • sales people siding with the client by giving away excessive margins, products, etc. at the expense of the company.  This is actually theft.
  • Hostage or Handcuff relationships
    • ‘I have to deal with but you really add no value to me or my business and I really resent that.’
    • ‘I have to deal with you because my parent company says so.’
    • Your payment terms are disregarded by bigger businesses because they only pay at 60+ days (not the 14 or 30 days you agreed to)
  • Relationships under pressure
    • Sales people having to meet monthly quotas hence they may use more pressured methods than perhaps they would like. This is a hazardous practice, as it may seriously damage an ongoing relationship, putting additional pressure on the hapless sales person who falls into the dangerous chasm.  It amounts to selling stuff to make a quota not build a viable relationship.

And so on.

  • Do you have any of these types of relationships in your business?
  • What types of relationships are you attracting to your business?
  • Are they healthy or not?
  • What are they making or costing you?

Some of the relationships mentioned can be particularly relevant for SME’s when dealing with big business where, for instance, your size can be used against you.  I also see sales people in relationship sales roles for big businesses as well as SME’s who over service existing client at the expense of selling and winning in new business thinking this is good relationship selling.  It is not, as it sets up unrealistic expectations and costs too much.

So Relationship Selling needs to be clearly defined or else we are at risk of creating unhealthy, unprofitable relationships.

All relationships change and are continually evolving over time for better or for worse.

I recall a great saying I heard and often refer to which I think gets to the heart of this:

You have friends for a reason, a season, or a life time.

The same is true for business / client relationships too.

First of all consider this:

Buying is a value judgment made in the mind of a person who has the ability to purchase, a genuine need/ want and the capacity to pay.

Selling is understanding that mind set and the accompanying values and priorities, and delivering on expectations through effective communication (such as questioning and listening), ideas generation and collaboration, creative problem solving and relevant solution generation, and gaining commitment to move forward together.

Whether it is business to business or retail to consumer selling, this definition holds true.

Therefore Relationship Selling is an extension of this where the primary objective is the building of long-term viable business relationships with customers from which repeat and/or additional business will flow and a win:win outcome is achieved for both parties whether it is for a for a reason, a season or a life time.

In my research for this piece I also came across an article ‘How to have a healthy relationship’ which, while referring to personal relationships, was quite pertinent to business relationships and in particular Relationship Selling.  It referred to the following steps:

  1. Do not expect anyone to be responsible for your happiness
  2. Make and keep clear agreements
  3. Use communication
  4. Approach your relationship as a learning experience
  5. Tell the unarguable truth.
  6. Do not do anything for your partner if it comes with an expectation of reciprocation.
  7. Forgive one another
  8. Review your expectations especially attitudes towards money
  9. Be Responsible
  10. Appreciate yourself and your partner.
  11. Admit your mistakes and say sorry.
  12. Spend some quality time together

You can find the full article at http://www.wikihow.com/Have-a-Healthy-Relationship

In addition I would like to add the following tips for sales people and their respective businesses.

Make sure you:

  • Clearly define your level of service/products offerings and pricing.
  • Know what you are good at and clearly communicate and deliver that.
  • Create a network of businesses who are experts in allied fields to you so you can refer your clients to them when a needs arises you cannot fill.
  • Learn to say ‘No’.
  • Stand up for yourself, just because you are small doesn’t mean you can’t be a professional, well regarded business in your market.
  • Don’t take it personally.
  • Know the line between friendship and professional business relationships

So in closing I wish you all the very best with all your relationships both personal and professional.  May they be healthy, happy and prosperous for all.

Happy selling.

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Leadership, Sales and a Clear Message

January 16, 2009 in Communication, Ethics & Values, Marketing, Prospecting, Sales Leadership, Sales Training, Strategy, Success

Welcome to 2009.

Over the summer break I was talking with a number of friends about what 2009 will hold for us, our families, our communities and our businesses.  Without exception, we discussed the current and possible effects of the GFC (global financial crisis) on our markets and especially on our thinking and our actions moving forward.   We discussed the importance of open, clear and honest communication and decisive leadership, clear goals and defining what we stand for.

We discussed the fact that it would be very hard for people to make ‘easy’ money this year  i.e. playing the stock market, etc. No more making money by just moving money around.  And that people now needed do some real work to get real revenue coming in the door.  (not that some of us weren’t doing that already.)

It was mentioned that the current market conditions call for people to draw upon the ‘real’ money making skills of ‘Selling’ and any businesses relying solely on:

  • Blanket Advertising, or
  • Their technical capability, or
  • Passive referrals, or
  • Brand or reputation. or
  • SEO alone (depending on your market model)

will suffer as a result.

And those people and businesses who haven’t integrated their sales and marketing initiatives and invested in developing their sales people’s prospecting and sales skills will be left wanting this year as well.

We acknowledged that this is the year where leadership and people’s real sales fitness levels and skills will be put to the test and further developing our leadership, sales and business development capabilities skills is critical to not only survive but thrive.

Many of the conversations reminded me of the late 80’s and early 90’s markets when I was working as a recruitment consultant and the lessons I learnt in how to really make the most of tough times.  I wrote about this on 4 February 2008 in Watch who you let near your mind

In my opinion, this year calls for focus on 3 key areas:

  • Clear and decisive Leadership
  • A clear market message of intent
  • A proactive, disciplined, ongoing sales effort

This is the year where people and businesses need to prioritise and focus on these core areas that will help them make 2009 work for them and their customers.

The SmartCompany.com.au webinar (15/01/09, download the audio file here for free) featuring IBIS stated about 65% of a business’ success will depend on leadership effectiveness and how honestly and ethically you face the challenges ahead.

I can’t agree more.

My friends and I discussed our leadership approaches and what messages we are putting out to our staff, our clients and our markets.  How we are communicating our intentions to participate in the business world.

Clear plans, goals, honesty, ethics, values and trusted relationships all featured heavily in how we would and should communicate where we stand and what we stand for and how we wanted to be communicated with ourselves.

We didn’t want more hype and ‘promises’ that can’t be backed up by evidence, transparency and trust.  We want to give our people a reason to step up and be counted.  We want our people to be clear about what we do for our customers and confident and competent to get out there and genuinely connect with our market place, our customers.

Having a clear market message your sales people can communicate to customers in a way they can understand, relate to and action is vital in uncertain times.  To illustrate the point, one of my close friends was in New York and London in October 2008 when the GFC was in one of its first full free falls and said the difference was clear.

In New York the atmosphere was distressed, disturbed and directionless, a real helplessness seemed to prevail.  People were complaining that there were no messages being broadcast or communicated at all by the US President or his Administration.  They bemoaned the lack of leadership.  Where as in London, love him or hate him, Gordon Brown was communicating with the media every day about what he and is Administration they were doing.  While people were rightly concerned about the GFC, the atmosphere was somewhat different.  My friend said people were resigned to the fact they needed to deal with the GFC.  Instead of feeling helpless they were already looking for solutions.

In my experience it is better to know if it is good news or bad news than no news at all.  This way you can take action and keep moving forward.  Therefore in uncertain times it is even more vital that our leadership is evident and our market message is being heard and understood with the best intentions and right outcomes.

Here are some questions you might like to consider regarding your key market message:

  • What key message(s) are you giving to your prospective market about how you intend to operate this year?
  • How is the message(s) being received and understood by your sales people?
  • How is the message(s) being delivered by your sales people and received and understood by market?
  • How can your customers take action and work with you?
  • Can your customers  trust you to be a valid business partner with them in 2009?

Now take your key message and couple this with a Proactive Sales approach.  If you haven’t already, you need make sure you and your sales people know and understand the message and can then get out there to connect with, listen to and understand your customers and prospects so you are in a position to really understand how they think and feel and what decisions they want to make this year and where you will feature in that relationship.

Unlike advertising, selling is the vehicle that gets you in real and direct personal contact with your market, your customers and your prospects.  This is where you have real conversations about real business, real priorities and possible solutions.

If you are not already talking with your customers, referrals and prospects you need to be NOW.

I encourage you to make sure you call as many customers, referrals sources and prospects as possible because, if my 25 years+ sales career is anything to go by, there are a lot of changes happening out there and it’s not all bad news.

In fact when I returned from leave on 12 January I spent the better part of that week calling as many clients, past clients, referrals sources and leads as possible and will continue to do so this year.  The amount of changes, information, leads and opportunities I unearthed as a result of making these calls in one week alone was fantastic.

And if you not convinced, take a leaf out of one of our larger clients who, despite the GFC and really tough market conditions, have prioritised sales fitness as one of their Top 3 business priorities.  The other two being clear leadership and clear market messages.  They have invested heavily in training and up skilling their regional and rural business sales teams in sales vision, planning, sales prospecting and selling process.

Despite the drought and tough times these sales people are out there selling and communicating that they are there to do business and its working.  Even though it is still early days they are finding viable deals and good clients to do work with despite the challenging markets.  They are being supported by their managers, who in turn are trained to deliver effective sales coaching and provide sales leadership to make sure this in a ‘way of life’ not a fad.  They all know this a vital life skill.

By focusing on:

  • Clear and decisive Leadership
  • A clear market message of intent
  • A proactive, disciplined, ongoing sales effort

They have also found there is greater team unity, better cooperation and collaboration with each other and with customers, greater sales results and better margins.

So don’t hesitate!    Get clear, get focused, get active.

There is business to be done and business to be won.

I wish you happy and prosperous selling in 2009.

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Seeing the world from your client’s perspective can make for easier sales

December 17, 2008 in Communication, Value Creation

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

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Practice, Practice, Practice then Play

December 12, 2008 in Sales Management, Sales Training

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.

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A Test of Character

December 4, 2008 in Attitudes & Behaviours, Self Development, Success

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.

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