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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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Should you be a distributor or sell your own products?

May 12, 2011 in Uncategorized

‘Should I sell and distribute my own products or another company’s products?’  This is the question I really needed to answer back in 1995 and should have answered by 1999 however, it took me a further two years to understand what I really needed to do if I was to achieve my goals and fulfill my ambitions.

When I launched my consulting business in 1995 I had no actual product to speak of, other than myself.  I didn’t know much about the world of distributorships nor did I know how long it would take to build my own product portfolio.  In hindsight I had many lessons to learn. Lessons about being a product distributor, lessons about being a product manufacturer, and lessons about trying to do both at the same time.

Back to 1995 with no tangible product of my own to speak of but with the intention of building my own product range, I was approached by the SPQ*Gold assessment creators who asked me if I would like to become a distributor of their product.  As a new business it seemed an offer too good to refuse, especially as I had experience using their assessment before.  I knew that this product was a quality product and would give me a competitive edge. I also felt that it would give me the revenue boost I needed to get further more quickly and buy me some time to build my own product content.   So I signed the distributor license even though it favoured the product manufacturer more than it favoured me.

Because Barrett did such a great job distributing and selling SPQ*Gold we were approached by other assessment providers to sell their products too. So in and around 1998 I was faced with the opportunity of being specialist in assessments and becoming a distribution business.  It seemed attractive because money was coming in, and we knew a lot about assessments which our clients and sub-distributors valued. Yet something didn’t feel right for me. While everything seemed to be going well I revisited business goals i.e. the desire to build my own product and brand. I then looked at my distribution arrangements and agreements and realised I was trying to be both and it wasn’t working.  The demands of being a distributor had certain obligations while the demands of being a product developer had other requirements.  I then had another realization.  I could be both.   I also realised that in my haste to sign those distribution agreements I hadn’t protected my future earnings because at any time these product suppliers could come in and take over my distribution channels and I would be left with nothing.

What would I have to show for my efforts if I went the way of distribution or product development?  While harder in the short term and less profitable I chose the path of product development.

The challenge of productising knowledge

Like many consultants before me, my challenge has been to productise my knowledge, processes and experience, making them tangible, salable and able to be transferred and taught by others.  My experience in doing this has proved to be a very time consuming and difficult task, although well worthwhile.  Many consultants before me and many since have achieved this and captured their wisdom in the form of books. In 1995 there was no such thing as online learning, blogs, apps and other ways to capture content so I began building my own product content in the form of sales programs and sales management training programs which then expanded into things like Australia’s very first Sales & Service Competency dictionary (2006), Sales Recruitment Kits (2006), Sales Performance Management System (2007) and many more products since.  Now Barrett has an IP assets register with over 200 product items. However this has taken me 16 years to build and refine into salable and commercially functional products.

I still use other people’s assessments but not as a distributor.  I use them to supplement my work but not BE my work.  As it turns out in 2006 one of those assessment companies did what I predicted; they came in and took over mine and other licensed distributors territory.  It was a bitter pill to swallow. I’m glad I trusted my instincts and began building my own product portfolio because if I hadn’t, Barrett would not be the business it is today. I would have been left empty handed with nothing to show for my 11 years of hard work.  It may not be fair but in business things like this happen every day. So what lessons can we learn from this?

Some questions to consider and lessons learnt

  • Being a Distributor: If you’re selling and distributing other companies’ products make sure you check your licensing agreements and contracts. Also check the type of people you are dealing with and make sure you know what you are getting yourself into.   Some questions to consider about distribution licenses and arrangements:

o   Does the licensing arrangement allow the product owner to come in take over your licensing and sublicensing arrangements without warning?

o   Can they secure your client base off the back of your hard work with no compensation?

o   Are they set up so they can access your client data base?  If so, can they make direct contact with your clients to try to win them over?

o   Does the distribution license fairly balance your needs with their needs?

o   Can they guarantee supply and quality?

o   Are they open to new ideas and suggestions and are they willing to work with you in your market space?

o   Are they open, consistent and easy to deal with or difficult, inconsistent and secretive?

o   Is pricing clear and easy to work with or overly complicated or subject to change without notice?

o   Is the product supplier competing directly with you in the market place?

These are some of the questions I wish I knew to ask when I first went into distribution arrangements.

  • Building your own product: don’t underestimate the time it takes to build new product, especially in the knowledge space.

o   Create an IP assets register from the start and make sure you keep a log of all the products, ideas, and processes you develop.  I wish I had done this from the start as it’s much harder later on to recall everything and document it.  Truth be known I probably have 500+ items that could be on my IP assets register.

o   Create employment contracts that ensure you protect your IP.  I did do this from the start and this has been worthwhile.  They can’t protect you completely but set the expectation with employees from the start.

o   Be wary of constantly innovating – you have to get something to market and it will never be perfect.  Develop different versions as you upgrade just like they do with software.

o   Know how your product can be made to work across various applications i.e. online, physical product, publications, apps, etc.  You need to learn a lot about how products can be made in different formats especially in the consulting and learning space.

o   Know that it will take some time for your product to get traction and become a standard or benchmark. This is especially true if you’re up against international brands. They may not be as good as yours but have the cache or brand presence.

These are some of the lessons I have learned and I am sure there are experts who can advise you more than I can in this space.  However if you do want to make your own product from scratch you really need to believe in what you are doing and remember that it takes about 15 or more years to be an overnight sensation and excellence doesn’t happen by chance.

Remember everybody lives by selling something.

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

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Do you miss out on growing sales because your clients’ pigeon hole you?

May 4, 2011 in Attitudes & Behaviours, Coaching, Communication, Sales Assessments, Sales Training, Tips

Do you have trouble introducing your clients to new products and services? Does their memory seem to spring back to what you used to do or your initial offering to them?  Do they seem to pigeon hole you in a certain category, unable to see or acknowledge that you offer other products or services?

This is a common problem for many businesses especially when they start out as one thing and evolve into something more than a ‘one trick pony’. For instance, one of our client companies has recently merged their new product business with their service and spare parts business requiring their sales people to promote and sell both offerings.  They are finding that their clients are having trouble incorporating the new model in their perceptual bandwidth. Like Pavlov’s Dogs or a rubber band the sales people keep finding that their clients keep associating them with one or the other of their divisions, not both.  Now the sales people have a part to play in this as well – they must make sure that they represent the whole business message every time they meet with the client whilst attending to the specific need to the client at that time.  Not always an easy task as the sales people can have their own difficulties adapting to the new format with some falling back into their comfort zones.  The challenge to get both clients and sales people on board is to have a clear message that is easy to understand and a contextual framework by which all of your products and services hang off.  Ultimately the sales people and clients can understand what the whole business is about and where they all fit in.

I, too, have direct personal experience of this when I set out in my own business.  Back in 1995 when I launched Barrett I had very little of my own product to sell at the time other than my consulting and facilitation skills – essentially I was the product supported by other people tools, mainly assessments.  I happened to be a licensed distributor for the Call Reluctance assessment – SPQ*Gold where I could sell direct and build sub-distribution licenses.  The SPQ*Gold was relatively new to the market back then and had a real competitive edge, and I did such a good job selling it, my business became the Number 3 distributor in the world for this tool.  However I knew strategically that if I was to grow my business on solid foundations I either needed to secure distribution license agreements or develop my own products. It was in 1998, three years after I started my business, that I made the decision to make my own products, with an aim to have more than 80 per cent of my revenue come from my own products such as sales training modules, sales simulations, sales recruitment kits, sales performance management systems etc. and less than 20 per cent come from other product manufacturers. To build my own products takes time, energy and investment, and 16 years on I now have over 200 items on my IP (intellectual property) Assets Register.

As I began to introduce my Barrett built products a funny thing happened with my existing clients. They couldn’t see my new product offerings. Instead, they kept pigeon holing me as ‘SPQ SUE’.  It turned out I had done such a good job growing the brand of SPQ*Gold in the Australian marketplace that people thought it was my product, when in fact it was not.  I did not have an exclusive license arrangement and I knew that if I did not rectify this perception problem I would be at risk of being the unofficial sales and marketing arm for the makers of SPQ*Gold and therefore put my business at risk.   If they ever came in and took away those licenses I would be left with nothing, yet I would have been the person that would have done all the heavy lifting in the market place.

As I transitioned from majority of my revenue coming from other product supplier sources, I not only had to invest in building good quality products and resources, which takes time, but I had to begin to change the perceptions and mindsets of my clients so they could begin to expand their views about what my business was capable of.

Little did I know how long that would take.  They just seemed to hold on to ‘SPQ SUE’ for such a long time and didn’t want or couldn’t see that we were able to offer so much more.   There appeared to be a myopia, a near sightedness that existed but they weren’t to blame – it turns out I had done such a good job building loyalty and brand awareness for this tool and my expert use of it that I had inadvertently confused my brand with another company’s key product.  In short it took me only three years to get them to think of me as brand ‘SPQ SUE’ but it took me another six to eight years to finally get them to see what else we had to offer that wasn’t just SPQ*Gold, such as sales and sales management training, sales assessments, sales coaching and sales consulting. I had to rework my business brand to represent a Sales Transformation and Sales Mastery Business rather than just an assessment business.   Now with careful planning, consistent messaging and persistence we are known in our own right and SPQ*Gold is only part of what we offer.

So to avoid being pigeon holed by your clients here are some tips:

  • make sure your message is very clear and across everything you do
  • make regular and consistent contact with clients and prospects to ensure you keep them updated about your service or product offerings i.e. e-newsletters, product updates, face2face meetings, etc.
  • make sure your new products or services are presented in a way that makes sense to your clients and market place
  • when meeting with clients make sure you uncover all of their priorities which can give you the opportunity to present your broader capabilities and make them aware that you are more than just one thing
  • know how to present your complete offering as a system which can work as a whole or in parts

Next week I will write about the decision we made to shift from being mainly a distributor of products to a product manufacturer in our own right and the challenges and lessons we had along the way.

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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