the 19 disfunctions of a sales team

Good Morning,

My friend, expert sales recruiter just posted an excellent blog on 19 Ways to make your sales team quit. It starts like this:

If you lead a sales team, here are some simple ways you can make your top performing sales reps leave (Note …I am not quite sure why any sales leader would want their top reps to leave, but I have seen all of these things first hand, so I thought I would compile a list for easy reference):

I really suggest you read the posting and would add that #20 is:

Having your sales managers compete with your sales reps for leads, sales and commissions. Sales managers should be helping their team members close deals. They should not be closing deals themselves and receiving a personal commission.

Dedicated to increasing your sales,

Colleen

Meeting Customer Expectations

Meeting - or exceeding - customer expectations is at the heart of true, lasting success in sales. When we fail to meet those expectations, however, there can be a high price to pay, regardless of how strong the relationship is between you and your client.

When expectations aren't met, trust is broken, opportunities are missed and sales can be lost, all despite the countless hours of hard work that were put in to almost making something happen. That's why it is imperative to complete a full analysis of the customer's situation during the sales process, in order to understand fully what he or she wants - and to be absolutely upfront about your ability to deliver it.

(1) Be clear, thorough - and honest
Shared expectations produce greater harmony and more sales - period. When establishing expectations at the onset of a project, be as thorough as possible, and be prepared to adjust as needed.

For example, if you find the customer asking for something you simply can't deliver, try some of the following to set the right expectations, right from the start:

• “I’m not sure we can provide the program with that deposit schedule. If we can’t, does that mean it’s over between us?”

• “I don’t think we can meet your delivery schedule. Knowing that, does it make sense for us to move forward?”

In addition, be clear about what your customer can expect from you, as well as what they can't. Tell them what you can deliver instead of what they are asking for. Tell them that if ever you are unable to fulfill a request, you will always let them know either upfront, or the minute you realize it yourself.

(2) Set the bar for consistent performance
Remember the old adage, “under-promise and over-deliver?” In sales, this isn't just a falsehood. It also sets an expectation that you might not be able to keep up with in the future.

When you under-promise and over-deliver, you set the bar for what the customer expects you to deliver at a whole new level. What you “over-delivered” becomes the new baseline, and when you aren't able to meet this new standard consistently, your customer will end up feeling confused, disappointed - or betrayed.

To build a consistently profitable relationship, there's no point in delivering better, faster for less investment than your original promise if you know that you can't keep that promise through the relationship. It's better to simply say what you are going to do, and then do it exactly as and hen you said you would.

Dedicated to increasing your sales,

Colleen

What's wrong with Kinkos?

Last night I tried to submit an online order to Kinkos to be printed and picked up in California. I live in Ottawa. I have used this service before with great success!

Since the last order I placed (maybe February of 2007) , they have upgraded their online printing system and while its easy to use.....it does not accept orders from international locations. Does anyone else find it ironic that the company who specializes in shipping internationally can not accept a Canadian credit card online for a $200 print order? Considering they have locations in Canada this seams doubly ridiculous to me.

In our online store at Engage Selling, we are able to accept credit cards from any locations world wide in a secure shopping environment. If I can do this - and we are the size of a flee in comparison - why can't Kinkos?

Colleen

My Number 1 Sales Rule

Good Morning,

My number 1 sales rule is never finish your day without doing at least 1 thing to put new business opportunities in your sales pipeline. This is the most profitable habit you can develop.

So its Monday morning and I know I have a full day. A teleseminar at 10, a flight to California at 1, and 2 hour car ride from SFO to Napa to meet a client. Not a ton of time for new business development.

Its on days like this that discipline is important. By 8am I had 2 proposals out the door and 2 emails sent to clients who likely wants to do follow up training this year, and have not yet booked. That's 4 activities related to new business development.

How many new business opportunities have you developed today? Get into the habit. Your commissions will soar!

Dedicated to increasing your sales,

Colleen

PT Barnum is considered one of the greatest marketers in the world. In his biography, showman Phineas T. Barnum (1810-1891) gives some advice for achieving success. P.T. Barnum's Commandments For Success

1. Avoid running into debt. "There is scarcely anything that drags a person down like debt," Barnum states. He encourages saving money. "There is nothing animate or inanimate that will work so faithfully as money when placed at interest, well secured. It works night and day, and in wet or dry weather." Follow David Chilton's advice from the Wealthy Barber - and put at least 10% of your gross income aside each year!

2. Persevere. "How many have almost reached the goal of their ambition, but loosing faith in themselves have relaxed their energies, and the golden prize been lost forever?" asks Barnum. "Perseverance is sometimes but another word for self-reliance." Stanford University shows that 95% of all sales are made after 5 contacts, yet 85% of all sales reps give up after 4 meetings. WOW....you must persevere

3. Whatever you do, do with all your might. Barnum emphasizes that hard work breeds success. "Work at it, if necessary, early and late, in season and out of season, not leaving a stone unturned, and never deferring for a single hour that which can be done just as well now." he advises.

4. Depend on your own personal exertions. "No man has a right to expect to success in life unless he understands his business, and nobody can understand his business thoroughly unless he learns it by personal application and experience," Barnum writes. Understanding what you do is more important to your success than "luck." Create your own luck by being great at what you do and doing it often!

Dedicated to increasing your sales,

Colleen

Why should I do business with you

How can any business expect to outperform the competition when its own employees can’t explain—simply and convincingly— what makes them different from the competition?

That is the question behind a recent posting at Harvard Business Review Online

Here is an exercise to try. Ask yourself "Why should I do business with you?" and document all your answers as short 1 sentence statements. Next, announce the answer out loud followed by a blunt "so what!" Make sure you keep asking yourself "So what!?" until you have a strong quantifiable answer that shows the customer how you can help. Lastly, add an example of how you have done this for other customers. For example. If you drill down your "so what's to "I can double your cold calling ratio's and help you sell more faster",

add;

"for example at XYZ company we increased their cold call success from 2 out of 10 to 6 out of 10 and as a result they had a record sales month."

Example will make your USP real for the customer and also help to boost your confidence and conviction about your features and benefits.

Dedicated to increasing your sales,

Colleen

Outsourcing sales

I have been bombarded with questions regarding outsourcing sales. Generally I hate the idea. Why outsource the one piece of your business that brings in the money? Regardless of my advice to avoid outsourcing, people still do it. So....if you must, at least listen to this:

There are hundreds of companies who will outsource for you and regardless of who you pick make sure you manage them tightly. I believe that a profitable outsourced relationship requires more management than bringing someone inside. Most outsourcing relationships fail because companies think they can ignore the outsourcer. The opposite is true.

A badly managed outsourcer will produce bad results. So please make sure you set aside regular time and energy to meet, measure, review and plan with whatever team you chose.

Dedicated to increasing your sales,

Colleen

Achieving your sales targets - Question from a reader

Dear Colleen,

We have only one quarter to go this year and I need to motivate my team to sell more in the last 3 months. We are a bit behind so far and I want them to make up for it before December 31st. Any thoughts on what I can do?

Thanks - Mike

Dear Mike
Here are three tips that can help you to help your team improve their sales results, increase their revenues and exceed their sales targets for 2007.

Tip #1: Love the one you’re with.

Many companies invest far too much time chasing new customers, and far too little making sure their existing customers are happy. Research tells us that selling to an existing customer is between five to fifteen times less expensive (and takes far less time) than acquiring a new customer. Why risk losing something you worked so hard to secure in the first place? One sure-fire way to increase your customer retention rate is to create a monthly newsletter or other program that lets you stay in touch with them on a regular basis. Newsletters can be easy to create, inexpensive to produce and can even be distributed instantly by email. Most importantly, a newsletter can help keep you in your customers’ top of mind, so whenever they need to buy again, they think of you first.

Tip #2: Get some feedback.
A satisfied customer is predisposed to purchase more, purchase more often and even purchase something different than a customer who is less than satisfied with your product or service. So what are you doing to ensure your customers are satisfied customers? The most successful companies poll their clients immediately following a purchase in order to gauge their level of satisfaction and make any necessary changes to their sales and service programs. If you haven’t gotten any feedback from your customers in a while, pick a day this month for you and your team to sit down, call your customers and find out how they really feel about you. Ask them specific questions like how they would like to be served by you, what their experience has been like with the various departments in your company and what they would like to see you do differently. You can then use this information to craft a sales and service strategy that puts what the customer wants, first.

Tip #3: Get connected.

According to a recent Gallup study, emotionally connected customers spend 46% more than customers who are simply satisfied. How do you create emotional connectedness? Start by being personal. Have your sales reps send handwritten thank-you cards after each first-time sale. Keep track of and contact your customers on important dates such as the anniversary of the day they started doing business with you, their own company anniversary, family birthdays or anything else you can use to build a personal relationship. Plus, make a point of connecting with customers on holidays throughout the year. And always, always be on the lookout for any opportunity to refer someone to your customers. If you can help your customers grow their business, believe me, they’ll be only too happy to take you with them.

Dedicated to increasing your sales,

Colleen

How to become Successful

Over the past 15 years I have worked with and observed many successful sales people. And by successful, I mean they are pulling in at least $500k or more in personal income per year. Many success traits I have observed have been written about in my secrets of the top 10% booklet available at our store and we discuss success habits at least once per year is a popular web class.

I do this because I believe strong that Behavioral Congruence is the answer to the following question

"How can I become a successful sales professional?"

Why? Because Behavioral Congruence = Results Congruence.

What does that mean?

Find a successful sales person - better yet, find 5. Take note of all the things they are doing that are the same. Yes, there will be some differences, there always is. You want to take note of the similarities. Keep in mind that the people you model must be people whose results you admire in business, and in personal life. If you can figure out what they are all doing, that is similar, to be successful AND you commit to doing those things, you too, will be successful.

Do what they are doing and you will reflect their results. Many successful sales people are modeled in our e-booklet "The secrets of the top 10%". If you don't know any successful sales people to model, this booklet is a great start because it will provide the clues of how to identify success as well as providing concrete ideas on how you can be a success.

Typically what we find is that top performers are:

* They are focused on value not cost
* They are focused on ROI not activity input
* They take immediate and decisive action, and make decision quickly
* They implement, rather than thinking about what to do next
* They associate with others like them, who are supportive of new ideas
* They are all breaking the model of how business is being done traditionally in their industries.

Often, successful people are the ones with the most outrageous ideas. Starbucks was considered outrageous when they opened their first store - I mean really, who thought there would be a market for $7 coffee? With hindsight….wouldn't you have liked to be a first investor now?

Here is an exercise I can't wait to start, and I encourage you to o it as well. One the left hand side of a piece of paper, right down all the things your competitors do. What is considered normal business practice for your industry. Then, on the right side, list all the things you can do, to break these norms and stand out.

Remember - you can't make a sales and win a customer for life until after you do something different. Find those things that your competition is unwilling to do, and do them. If you treat your prospects differently, they will treat you differently and you will be differentiated from your competition forever.

Dedicated to increasing your sales,

Colleen

Voice Mail

Voice mail is a problem for all of us and its not going away anytime soon. Here are some of the best tips I know to handle it effectively!

1. Never leave a voice mail on the first attempt you call. An Engage best practice is to call at least 3 times randomly during the day. If on the 3rd time you still don’t get through, leave a voice mail

2. Never leave a voicemail message for someone who doesn't know you. To the prospect, you're an anonymous caller. The chances of this stranger ever returning your call are, at best, about one or two percent! The only time you should ever leave a voicemail for a prospect is when you have been referred to them.

3. Voicemail should only be used as a last resort. Too often, we give up as soon as the voicemail kicks in on a call, either leaving a message (bad idea) or simply hang up (better, but not great).

4. If you do leave a message make sure you have a reference. Use a testimonial or reference to breakdown the skepticism barrier between you and the prospect. Make sure that the referral sources name is used up front in your message.

5. When in doubt, hit zero

You owe it to yourself to try everything you can to either locate them, or at least find out something about them. One way to do this is to hit zero when a voicemail message kicks in. You’ll likely get bounced to a receptionist, an executive assistant or a co-worker. Try asking the following question:

“I was hoping you could help me. I'm trying to reach Jane Smith, and her voicemail picked up. Do you know if she's in a meeting, or out for the rest of the day?”

Depending on the response you receive, you can then try one of the following strategies:

Strategy one
Them: “She's in a meeting.”
You: “Thanks for your help. Do you happen to know when she’ll be available?” “Maybe it's best to call back then?”

Strategy two
Them: “She's away today.”
You: “Thanks for your help. Do you know if she will be back tomorrow?”

Strategy three
If you speak to your prospect's personal assistant, ask if it's better to schedule a call in advance, and then have them set a fifteen-minute appointment.

6. Hit zero and ask for the sales or customer service department. Ask “I’ve been trying to reach Bob to speak to him about X and I notice he is difficult to reach. Do you know if he is the right person?” Generally customer service team and sales teams will help guide you through the organization and give you insight into how best to reach your contact and whether they are in fact the right decision maker.

Dedicated to increasing your sales,

Colleen

...Speaking of listening

I just remembered.....

When we train sales people to listen we teach them to look at their prospects in "listening mode". This means, sitting straight, making eye contact, pen in hand ready to take notes and mouth closed. Having your mouth closed is important because it signals to your prospect that you are listening - not getting ready to talk - AND that they have your full attention. Its a sign that you are ready to take direction from them.

Interestingly.....Chris and I are in puppy training classes with our 4 month old puppy Conrad. We are learning how to get their attention and the trainer said: "You will know when you have the puppies full attention when they lock their eyes on you and close their mouth. A closed mouth is a sing that they ware waiting for your next direction".

....now if I could only train Conrad to take notes!

Dedicated to increasing your sales,

Colleen

A lesson from a client

On Friday during a sales training class a client told me:

"when a sales person opens his mouth there is a chance he will make a mistake. Better off to let the client open his mouth instead".

I thought this was a great lesson in listening, so I just nodded, agreed with him and let it sink in for the class. Point taken Bob!