Sales and Sales Management Blog

September 21, 2010

Prospecting Lessons from Some of the Biggest, Best Known Sales Training Companies in the World: They Won’t Like What We Can Learn From Them

Filed under: management,Sales Management,sales training — Paul McCord @ 2:31 pm
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“My name is Paul McCord and I’m a recovering sales trainer.”

OK, I’m not to that point yet, but if the prospecting calls and emails I’m getting from some of the biggest and “best” sales training companies in the world is an indication of the effectiveness of our industry, I may be repeating that line soon.

What is one of the most basic prospecting rules that every sales trainer, sales manager, and sales book preaches (even my dogs know this one by heart)?  Never make a prospecting call without having at least minimal knowledge of the suspect you’re calling–and preferably having done thorough research on them. 

I get prospecting calls and emails all the time.  Of course I know a great percentage of salespeople and business owners aren’t adhering to this rule.

But who else isn’t adhering to it?

Well, in the last month and a half I have received one prospecting phone call and two prospecting emails from salespeople for three of the biggest, baddest, most well known sales training companies in the world.  In all three instances the salespeople were trying to sell me—yep, sales training.

The salesperson that made the phone call started the call by giving me their name, the name of their company and then asking me if I’d heard of their company.  I gave a positive response.  Next I was asked if I or anyone else in my company made sales calls.  My response was again positive.  The salesperson then asked me if we were finding the economy tough.  My response was once more positive.  So, the salesperson asked me three questions that they knew I was probably going to give a positive response to, getting me on a “yes” roll.

The next question was a problem.  After a short explanation about what the salesperson’s company does, I was asked if I and any salespeople in my company had ever had formal sales training.  At this point I informed the salesperson that McCord Training was also in the sales training industry and that I probably wasn’t a great prospect for her and her company.

Her response?  She laughed, apologized for calling, and hung up.

The two emails were similar to the phone call.  The sellers gave me background on their company, gave me an idea of how their training could increase my company’s sales, and asked me to respond with a time for the salesperson to call me.  Conveniently I was given the choice of a couple of days and times or I could suggest a better time if I wanted.

These were not untrained salespeople.  These were not sellers who were hired by some rinky-dink fly-by-night company.

Not at all.

These were salespeople from three of the biggest sales training companies in the world.  All three are sales household names.  All three are among the 10 biggest sales training companies in the world.  Two are in the top five, maybe the top three.

These are supposed to be the best of the best, at least that’s what they tell prospects.

Embarrassing for them and their companies to say the least.  Embarrassing for all of us in the sales training industry as these sellers reflect on all of us when they make these stupid mistakes.

So what lessons can we learn from these top tier sales training companies?

  1. Don’t assume your salespeople are well trained.  If the salespeople of the “top” sales training companies aren’t well enough trained to not make the most basic prospecting mistakes, can you assume your salespeople are better trained and not making these mistakes?
  2. Don’t assume your salespeople are living their training.  Even if your salespeople have been thoroughly trained, don’t assume they are living it.
  3. How your salespeople sell reflects directly on your company.  These salespeople didn’t just embarrass themselves, they embarrassed their company—and not just because of the industry the company is in.  When your salespeople demonstrate ignorance, laziness, or any other negative trait, prospects draw the same conclusions about the company they represent.
  4. Once is not enough.  Your salespeople need consistent training reinforcement and follow-up.  A single training session isn’t going to change the behavior of your sales team.  Training must be on going.  It must be consistently reinforced and coached. 

Yes, all of this means you have to invest real time and real dollars in training your sales team—but you just got a free lesson from three of the world’s top sales training companies.

September 4, 2010

Guest Article: “How Great Managers Recognize The Right Opportunities for Coaching,” by Keith Rosen

Filed under: Coaching,management,Sales Management — Paul McCord @ 10:08 am
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How Great Managers Recognize The Right Opportunities for Coaching
by Keith Rosen

Where do you look for and uncover that ‘perfect’ coaching moment? How do you recognize where your direct reports need coaching and could benefit from the coaching most?

Actually, uncovering what you can coach someone on, from a tactical perspective, is actually the easy part. Managers are pretty good at recognizing problems, needed strategies and desired outcomes. However, it’s uncovering the why (the real source of the issue) and the who or the often very elusive and limiting thinking, assumptions or outlook people have which is ultimately preceding and driving their actions and behavior that is the tricky part and why many of the strategies and answers managers share either do not work or work well enough to become the long term solution. (If you’ve ever found yourself delivering ‘repetitive coaching’ or having the same conversation with your direct reports, that’s a sign that you haven’t gotten to the actual source of the issue or you’re spending your time on the wrong issue, digging in the wrong hole with no treasure to be found.)

Demonstrating this ability to get to the core of the right issue that leads to measurable and positive change is a true testament of an exceptional coach. The good news is, you can learn how to more precisely uncover those exceptional opportunities to deliver timely, relevant and powerful coaching. Here are some ideas that will guide you on the path to do so.

Regardless of the topic, skill, problem or mindset you’ve identified as a possible focal point in your coaching, there is one factor that’s always applicable in every coaching scenario. It also happens to be the very thing each coaching opportunity has in common. That is – The Gap.

The Gap is the space that exists between where the person is today and where they want or need to be or what is possible for them to achieve. It’s the void that exists between the person and their goal or solution; and where the coaching opportunity will evolve from that they often cannot see on their own. As a coach, it’s your responsibility to identify and fill in this Gap. The question is, how, exactly, do you accurately uncover this Gap?

There are three primary ways you can identify the Gap.

1. Through Observation. It’s essential that every manager takes the time to observe their direct reports in the field or on the phone, presenting or interacting with their customers and prospects. This is one of the most essential activities any manager can engage in. Otherwise, you run the risk of relying solely on what you hear from your salespeople and while it may be a truth, it’s only a subjective or partial truth or piece of the puzzle based what they see solely through their eyes. Like a great sport coach on the sidelines, observation will help identify the ‘blind spots’ that every salesperson has in order to get a full panoramic view of the most objective truth and what is really going on. After all, it’s very difficult to self diagnose when you’re in the middle of the game.

2. Through Conversation. Whether on the telephone or face to face, regardless if this happens during normal conversation or a scheduled coaching session, the Gap can also be identified in every interaction you have. Creating the safe space that allows people the time to process their thoughts, challenges and feelings on their own encourages a deeper level of self awareness which fosters more accurate self diagnosis and strengthens their problem solving skills. While certain strategic opportunities, skill gaps, assumptions or misconceptions can be identified, keep in mind; any great coaching must be complemented with observation so that you have the first hand evidence of what is really going on without relying solely on one source – the person you are coaching.

3. Through Evaluation and Inspection. While many managers hide behind and rely too heavily on diagnosing problems through inspection and the analysis of reports, spreadsheets and data, it is ironically often the least effective of these three strategies managers count on to uncover the Gap. Even conducting peer to peer or customer interviews to gain further insight about your direct report, while immensely valuable, still only provide you with a portion of the story. However, when used in conjunction with the other two strategies, this becomes another useful complimentary component to identify where certain activities, results and skills may be lacking. Keep in mind, data only shows you what is going on and can also be subjective. It doesn’t tell you why it’s happening. As such, observation and coaching conversations must also be leveraged to get the full story, rather than a small portion of the story to uncover the specific areas you can coach someone on. Remember, you are, first and foremost a people manager, not a data manager.

Instead of sharing what you perceive to be the solution to a problem before understanding the person’s specific needs, challenge or root cause of an issue, rely on deeper questions to assist in recognizing the Gap in every coaching conversation or situation with your staff. Whether the Gap is identified by you or the person you’re coaching, this will elevate your awareness so that you can pinpoint what is really going on with laser-like accuracy.

Any great coach realizes there’s not just one ‘right answer’ when coaching or only one way to uncover a powerful coaching moment. Leveraging these three distinct approaches will ensure that you are precisely coaching to the relevant Gap. Moreover, it will demonstrate the importance of investing the proper time to uncover a meaningful coaching opportunity rather than one that is hollow, inaccurate and ineffective. Improving your accuracy in uncovering the proper Gap to coach on will facilitate the changes in behavior that will lead to improved performance – and masterful coaching.

Keith Rosen is fanatical about increasing your sales and helping you achieve what matters most to you. That’s why almost half of the Fortune 1000 Companies and the top companies in six major industries chose his training and coaching solutions. He is the Executive Sales Coach that top salespeople and managers call first to attract more prospects, close more sales and develop a team of top performers. Visit his website.

August 11, 2010

Guest Article: “If Your Sales Training Department Ran Your Church,” by Charles H. Green

Filed under: Leadership,management,motivation,Sales Management — Paul McCord @ 8:43 am
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While doing a bit of reading, I ran across this older article by my friend Charlie Green that addresses the same subject I wrote about yesterday but more elegantly—and with humor too–than my post.

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If Your Sales Training Department Ran Your Church
by Charles H. Green

What if your sales training department ran your church? (Or synagogue, or mosque; this is meant to be an equal-opportunity religious metaphor).

Suppose you move into a new community, and are looking for a place of worship. The minister (I’m just going to use the one metaphor from now on, please infer your preferred tradition) meets you, and says:

“Welcome. First we’d like you to fill out this spiritual needs-assessment instrument, so we can appropriately benchmark you for your level of sinfulness and spirituality potential.

“Part I evaluates your sinfulness; we prefer the so-called “Ten Commandments” instrument; Part II measures your level of mastery of the behaviors and habits of Highly Spiritual People (HSPs).

“You can fill it out over there in the cubicle; be sure to use only the Number 2 pencils provided.”

You do so. You take it back to the minister.

“Well, let’s see what we’ve got here, let’s pull the quick-scoring answer template. Hmm, only 5 out of 10 on the commandments. Well at least you go the biggies right, didn’t kill anyone lately, am I right, heh heh, sorry my little joke there…”

“You’re also scoring at a “meets expectations” level on your HSP. You probably know the Golden Rule, that sort of thing; but you probably don’t give alms to the poor, right? And tithing, fuggedaboudit! Am I right? Heh heh heh thought so, yup.

“OK, your achievement levels put you into the AIS group; Advanced Intermediate Spirituality. It’ll be a bit of a stretch, but we have some remedial online CBT programs that you can study up on. They meet at 11AM.

You sign up. Your kids are admitted to their own appropriate Sunday school classes. Embarrassingly, at higher levels than you.

You show up Sunday early, to be greeted at the door by a deacon.

“Please fill out this expectations document for today’s service. You can write in your own expectations if you want, but the multiple choice checkboxes are enough for most people.

You go in. You listen to the sermon.

“Today I’ll talk about Daniel and the lions. You will learn the skills and behaviors associated with Advanced Intermediate Spirituality with respect to faith. On leaving, you will be able to recognize faith when you hear it, identify the three main levels of faith, and to be reasonably faithful yourself. And we’ll do some faith role-plays (what we like to call “praying”) to make it realistic. So now let’s get started, shall we?

You sit through the sermon. It concludes with:

“The sermon today has been about Daniel and the lions. You should have learned the skills and behaviors associated with Advanced Intermediate Spirituality with respect to faith. You should now be able to recognize faith when you hear it, identify the three main types of faith, and to be reasonably faithful. And, you’ve experienced the behaviors of faith through role-play (“praying”).

“Please take a moment now to complete your evaluation document that the deacon handed you on the way in.

You read the document. It asks:

“The sermon for today met my expectations” (1 definitely, 2 mostly, 3 sort of, 4 not really, 5 not at all)

“I am now able to recognize basic faith” (1 definitely, 2 mostly, 3 sort of, 4 not really, 5 not at all)

“I now have a moderately high faith level” (1 definitely, 2 mostly, 3 sort of, 4 not really, 5 not at all)

“The minister trained well today” (1 definitely, 2 mostly, 3 sort of, 4 not really, 5 not at all)

You leave the church; the minister greets you on the way out the door. “How’d you like the service?” he asks, sneaking a glance at your evaluation document.

“Well, I’m still not sure I feel like I really have faith,” you say apologetically.

“That’s OK,” says the minister. “Just fake it ‘til you make it. You’ll get the hang of it. Continue to meet your metrics, and everything will work out—just have faith in the process.”

————

Hopefully you enjoyed that. In case it’s not clear, I’m trying to suggest that when it comes to certain “soft” subjects, the traditional management-by-numbers and train-by-behaviors can feel inadequate to the task.

How is this relevant? In training, I hope it’s clear. Different techniques suit different subjects.

But I think it speaks to issues of management and leadership too. Do you believe in values, missions and belief systems? If you’re trying to manage a values-based organization, what approaches work?

Managing through behavioral metrics doesn’t quite do the job when it comes to motivating people to higher-order beliefs.

Or, to put it nakedly, if still metaphorically: what’s the ROI on believing in a God? And what’s wrong with that question?

Charles H. Green is founder and CEO of Trusted Advisor Associates LLC; read more about Charlie at http://trustedadvisor.com/cgreen/

August 10, 2010

Mark Twain Was Right–Numbers Lie

Filed under: hiring,management,recruiting/hiring,Sales Management,team development — Paul McCord @ 10:54 am
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I’m a numbers guy.  I break everything in sales and management down to numbers.  I know my numbers backwards and forwards, as I do those of my coaching clients.  I firmly believe that if you don’t know your numbers you can’t possibly make sound decisions about how to spend your time, where to find new business, where to invest your marketing dollars; and if you’re a sales leader, who to hire.

Even though I am a firm believer in numbers, I’ve noticed something of a distressing trend over the past couple of years—an emphasis on numbers to the point that intangibles are virtually ignored.  I see more and more books and hear more and more presentations arguing that numbers should determine every decision, that management and sales can be broken down to a numerical formula. 

I believe that is a huge mistake. 

Numbers are extremely important.  They can tell us a great deal about our company, our customers, our market, our product, and our selves.  They can point out strengths and weaknesses.  They can give us direction.  They can reveal great opportunities and help us avoid great pitfalls.

But as helpful as numbers can be, they ignore one critical factor about management and sales—we are selling to and managing human beings, not machines.  Unlike a machine, humans do things they’re not supposed to.  They don’t always act according to the numbers. 

I can think of no better example of numbers lying than the NFL draft.

Almost all football players are human (there are a few that I really do wonder about).  All the players who are considered for the NFL draft have a long history of playing the game—generally from grade school through at least a couple of years of college ball.  That history can span as many as 12 or more years.  That’s a long time, a lot of football games.

Over that span of years each player has developed habits and expectations.  Some have learned how to win; others how to lose.  Some have learned how to work within a team; others how to perform despite the team.  Some have learned their limitations; others have learned they have no limitations.

Almost all of the players who make the grade to be considered by the NFL come from winning teams.  They all are used to winning, but not all know how to win.  They all enjoy the perks of winning, but not all know the sacrifice required to be a winner.  They all expect to win, but not all are willing to pay the price to win.

They all have a set of numbers.

Those numbers become critical when they show up for the NFL Combine.  The combine is where numbers come to the forefront.  There are numbers for everything: height, weight, speed, agility, vertical jump, quickness.  The NFL has managed to quantify everything.  There are the numbers from the physical evaluations and the numbers from the mental and intelligence evaluation.  Everything is evaluated and every evaluation is put into a number.

The Combine has a tremendous influence on whether one gets drafted or not—and if they are drafted, in what round.  The difference is between tens of millions of dollars and zero dollars; between a career as a professional football player and just an ex-college football star.

Every year teams invest huge sums of money drafting players who blew out the numbers at the Combine; players that had the perfect combination of physical and mental scores, who outperformed all of their competition.  These are players who came from winning teams, who were stars in high school and college, who put fantastic numbers up at the Combine.  And who failed miserably in the NFL.  Who never started a game.  Who were out of the league within three or four years. Nevertheless, they are the ones who made tens of millions of dollars because they had good numbers.

Contrast that with the men who were drafted in a low round—or who weren’t drafted at all but were invited to someone’s training camp for a tryout—and ended up in the Hall of Fame.  These are men who came from winning college teams, who were stars in high school and college, who put up average or worse numbers at the Combine.  Indeed, these are the Combine also rans; the ones who made the early round draftees look good.

Every year the numbers lie.  Every year there are a ton of big number guys who bomb and a number of also rans who become NFL stars.

Sound familiar?  Recognize the same thing in your sales team?  If you’re like most sales leaders, you do.

What’s missing in the Combine evaluation of players?  The intangible.  How do you measure a winner?  How do you differentiate the players who play on a winning team from the player who is a winner? 

How do we recognize the intangible in a seller?  Will an assessment do it?  Can we spot it in a resume? 

We can certainly say what it isn’t. 

It isn’t personality or charisma.  We all have hired charismatic salespeople who flopped—and shy people who have become stars. 

Is it a commitment to hard work?  Nope.  We’ve all hired sellers who work hard all the way to the day we have to let them go.

Is it a sharp intellect?  Not at all.  We’ve all hired incredibly intelligent men and women who didn’t make it.

Is it a hunger for success?  I don’t think so.  Again, we’ve all hired people who desired success more than anything; yet failed.

Is it luck?  Again, no.  I know of some unbelievably “lucky” people who failed at every sales job they had.

Is it being at the right place at the right time?  Naw, it isn’t that either, as we’ve all seen two “equal” sellers go in different directions—one skyrockets while the other dies on the vine, both in the same “right place at the right time” market.

So, what is the intangible that takes the least likely to the top and leaves the shoo-in in the ditch?

I don’t know.  I do know I’m not going to find it in the numbers.

I’m still a numbers guy.  I’m still going to boil everything I can down to numbers.  I’m still going to be using numbers to help make decisions.  But I’m not going to take numbers as Gospel because I know they lie, they’re unreliable on their own. 

I’m looking for that intangible.  I know it exists because I see its reflection in too many salespeople.  If you find a way to discover its existence prior to hiring someone, please let me know.

July 28, 2010

Guest Article: “The Busness Executive’s Dilemma: Should I Promote My Top Sales Person to Sales Manager?” by Lee B. Salz

Filed under: management,sales,Sales Management,selling — Paul McCord @ 1:46 pm
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The Business Executive’s Dilemma: Should I Promote My Top Sales Person to Sales Manager?
By Lee B. Salz

Early Greek mythology tells tales of sailors lured by Sirens. Their sweet music mesmerized the sailors and led them to believe that the illusion was reality. Ultimately, those sailors who blindly followed the tunes crashed their ships on the rocks and their boats sank.

Sirens lure business executives and small business owners too. The song that the Sirens sing has one line… “Promote my top sales person, put six people underneath them, and generate six times the sales.” And, like the sailors, many business executives and their companies have been led into harm’s way.

A promotion? The first issue with promoting your top sales person into sales management is that it’s not a promotion at all. The promotion perception is the first way the Sirens get you. Sales management is not a job elevation, it’s a job change. If you consider this move as a promotion, you probably send a congratulatory email and hold a luncheon for the new sales manager. A nice handshake is offered and the new manager is sent to achieve grandeur. This approach delights the Sirens and your ship is sunk!

If you handle this as a job change, your approach is completely different. Since this is a new job, you provide training and mentoring as well as monitor their performance. As the manager of the new sales manager, your role is to help them successfully assimilate into their new role.

Top Seller = Top Sales Manager? Before we go any further, we need to take a step back. The second way the Sirens trick you is they lead you to believe all great sales people can become great sales managers. Some certainly do. And, some pretty good sales people become rock star managers. And some great sales people fail miserably at sales management.

Before moving your top sales person into the sales management ranks, consider the ramifications of this move. You are taking your rainmaker out of the sales game where they’ve generated millions of dollars for your company. While your hope is that your theory of “disciple selling” (placing six people underneath the new manager and getting six times the sales) becomes proven, that is rarely the case. If it was so easy to clone a rainmaker, every company would do it. Quite frankly, the “disciple selling” dream is flawed. Again, you’ve been duped by the Sirens. The sole reason to place someone in the role of sales manager is that you feel that they have the potential to succeed in that capacity.

What does all of this tell you? You need a process and methodology to evaluate sales management candidates…just like you evaluate sales candidates. And, even though the rainmaker got on your radar screen because they blew out their quota, their sales management candidacy should be handled the same way you would if you were considering an external sales management candidate. Don’t skip any steps in the evaluation process!

Profile the Role. This evaluation starts with the development of your profile of the ideal sales manager for your company. Think about what it takes to succeed in the role and document those elements as part of your profile. Once you’ve prepared your list, identify each element as either required or desired.

With your profile developed, the next step is to develop a screening process that allows you to compare and contrast the candidate with the profile. It is critical during this process that you ascertain why this successful seller aspires for a management role and ensure that you set clear and accurate expectations of a day in the life as a sales manager in your company. In addition to interviews, you may want to consider tools to help identify a synergistic match like personality and proficiency assessments.

If your rainmaker succeeds in the evaluation process, you’ve found your sales manager. If not, don’t lose the revenue! Keep this seller selling!

Positioning Your New Sales Manager to Succeed. With your new sales manager hired, there are four keys to making the venture successful.

1. Support. The first is dealing with the sales team. Yesterday, she was a peer. Today, she is the manager. The new manager needs your help in developing managerial respect. The reaction to the new manager will be mixed.  Some will be fully supportive, but there will also be some on the team who are jealous and attempt to undermine her efforts. The key message for you to deliver to your new sales manager is that she has your unwavering support.

2. Mentoring.  Your new manager needs a resource to guide them through the neophyte status…a mentor. Don’t just look within the organization for a mentor candidate. Many sales management consultants mentor and develop new sales managers. The role of the mentor is to bridge the managerial knowledge, skills, and experience gap.

3. Training. Chances are that your new sales manager has never been taught how to hire a sales person, have a difficult conversation with an employee, or develop a sales compensation plan. These are all skills that can be taught. If you aren’t will to provide the new sales manager with skills training, don’t put them in the role. They will fail!

4. Expectation Setting. Your new sales manager should be provided with a scorecard that tells them how they are going to be measured. In most companies, sales managers are measured on revenue…but that is only one component of the scorecard. Based on the role and responsibilities of the sales manager, the scorecard could include metrics like profitability, cost of sales, turnover, sales cycle, forecast accuracy, etc.

Sales is one of the few professions where moving into management isn’t always the best path for the sales person or the company. Make sure the person you put in this critical role is the right sales manager for your company. After all, while this person may not be directly generating sales, they are the one responsible for the company achieving its revenue goals. Don’t let the Sirens lure your business into trouble. Develop the systems to help you make the best decisions.

Lee B. Salz, Founder and President of Sales Architects, is a leading authority on sales management. He specializes in helping companies identify and hire the right sales people, on-board them effectively and efficiently, and align their sales activities with the objectives of the business. For over 20 years, Lee has helped companies build high-performance sales organizations that sell to consumers, corporations and the government; for companies ranging from the Fortune 1000 to small firms.  Visit his website

July 1, 2010

7 Signs Your Sales Team Is In Trouble

Filed under: management,team development — Paul McCord @ 7:45 am
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We all want our sales teams to be happily and enthusiastically engaged in bringing in quality business.  We want to believe that our team has bought into the company vision, that most if not all team members are busting their butts to succeed and that we and the company are respected by all.

That’s what we hope for.  In fact, that’s not reality for a great many sales teams.  What’s the situation with your team? 

Here are 7 signs that indicate you may have serious problems within your team:

  1. Meetings start late because team members wander in when they want.  Is this a sign of a lack of discipline within the team or a sign that the team members don’t care?
  2. Meetings are manager monologues because team members only speak when forced.  Are team members afraid to voice their opinions?  Are they disassociated and don’t care?  Do they feel that their views won’t be seriously considered?  If any of these are the root cause, you’ve got serious problems to deal with.
  3. Your team experiences a significant decrease in sales in a stable or growing market.  A sudden and significant decline in sales in a stable or growing market demands immediate action—but not the shouting, the threats, and the demands for sales which are the actions most managers take.  Instead of ratcheting up the pressure, take a step back and dig for the root cause—which may very well be within management, not the team members.
  4. Cliques and rivalries within the team become more intense.  Small cliques and rivalries occur naturally in every group.  Although we might wish these things didn’t happen, it’s natural for some people to be drawn together while others are drawn into close relationships with other people.  Some individuals prefer to go it alone.  It’s also common for some individuals or groups to develop good natured rivalries with each other.   But when serious issues arise within the team, the cliques become more isolated and the rivalries become more intense, the backstabbing and blaming tends to be more open, and a feeling of hostility pervades the office.
  5. Conversations are short and business oriented only.  When your team members are “too busy” to speak with you other than when necessary but production isn’t increasing, you have issues to deal with.  Unless you are seeing real growth in production to accompany the too busy to talk claims, your team members are telling you they have such serious issues with you that they simply refuse to interact with you unless absolutely necessary.
  6. Team members show little or no respect for company rules and regulations.  As with #1 above, you may simply have chosen not to instill discipline in your team (you’re just asking for big problems down the road but many managers believe they’re making the workplace “fun” and “creative” by running a lunatic asylum).  More likely, you have a team in rebellion and that no longer cares what management thinks.
  7. You need an ice pick to chisel your way through the pack ice to get to your office.  Hard as it may be to believe, some managers don’t even recognize they have serious issues even when the ice in the office is so thick they can’t break through it no matter what.  If your office is coated in permafrost you have a dysfunctional sales team.

Problems don’t arise in the sales team from nowhere.  There is always a root cause—often more than a single cause.  From a dissatisfied, disruptive, corrosive salesperson to new restrictive office rules and regulations to changes in compensation to a dictatorial manager, there is always a catalyst.  But once the disease catches hold, time becomes its ally, making it increasingly more difficult to eradicate the longer it festers.

I’ve worked with sales leaders who have ignored the above signs.  Others have argued that these were nothing more than idiosyncrasies within their team.  In virtually every case they have eventually had to deal with a seriously dysfunctional sales team.

What about your team?  Are any of these signs beginning to appear?  If so, before you do anything, make a close examination searching for root causes.  But whatever you do, don’t ignore them as they become more destructive the longer and deeper they work their way into the heart of the sales team.

May 14, 2010

Guest Article: “Build a Sales Team Your Customers Love to Buy From,” by Colleen Francis

Filed under: management,sales,Sales Management,selling,team development,Uncategorized — Paul McCord @ 11:14 am
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Build a Sales Team Your Customers Love to Buy From
by Colleen Francis

When customers enjoy working with you, you improve your chances of making a sale. Here are seven skills CEOs and business owners should insist on developing in their sales teams to create a more positive customer experience:

1. Show empathy and compassion

You have to care about your customer (no matter how good an actor you are, faking it won’t work). Ask questions, take notes and lean in to show that you’re engaged.

2. Make eye contact

Eye contact lets people know you’re interested in their well being. Make eye contact when you walk into a room full of strangers, and especially after you get to know people – it helps cement existing relationships. So few salespeople ever look their prospects directly in the eye. By simply smiling and making eye contact, you can set yourself apart.

3. Give first

Don’t expect prospects to give you their business without you giving them something first. This doesn’t mean that you should give away free product in the hopes they will buy more. Rather, look to give away things that increase your value. Perhaps they need a referral to a partner; perhaps you can solve their business problem by sharing an idea you heard from someone else.

4. Express your true intent

Tell customers upfront: “I don’t know if there’s a fit between what you need and what I have right now, but I’m hoping we can explore that in more detail during this meeting. Then we can mutually decide if there is a reason to move forward.” This advice runs counter to 90% of the approaches used in the field today, but you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the response you get.

5. Don’t rush the client

All too often, salespeople jump way ahead of their prospect’s buying curve. When the sales person is trying to close while the prospect is still evaluating options or determining risk, trust is broken, the prospect feels pushed and the sale can disappear. Get approval from the customer to move ahead in increasing increments. The first approval might be just to agree to speak openly with each other, as outlined above. The second could be an agreement on a follow-up call or meeting date. The third might be gaining agreement on the decision-making criteria, then a commitment to have the “big boss” present at the demo, followed by an agreement to a purchase decision date.

6. Be colloquial

When you use simple language, people respond better and trust you more. Never try to impress prospects with your extensive vocabulary – you may end up just sounding fake.

7. Use people’s names – in good measure

There are just two rules to follow. First, be aware of whether your client is most comfortable with first name only or title plus last name. Second, never overuse their name – this only sounds corny and false. Although Dale Carnegie said, “nothing is so beautiful to a person as the sound of their own name,” you have to use your discretion.

Selling is about results! As the President and founder of Engage Selling Solutions, Colleen Francis has succeed in building Engage from an idea to company that delivers focused, customized programs to 100′s of sales teams internationally. Companies such as Semiconductor Insights, General Dynamics, Future Electronics and the Government of Canada have improved their sales processes by implementing Engage’s Selling System.

May 10, 2010

Now Is Not the Time to Let Down Your Guard

Filed under: business,Economy,management,sales,selling,Uncategorized — Paul McCord @ 4:26 pm
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The stock market is climbing back to eleven thousand, jobs were created last month, President Obama says the worst is over; many are beginning to heave a sigh of relief.  I encourage you not be one who does.

I’m not an economist but I have eyes.  I can read.  I’m old enough to have lived through a recovery or two.  I’m not buying the worst is over pitch. 

It’s not that I think Obama is lying.  It isn’t that I think some giant scheme is behind the increase in the stock market.  And it isn’t that I don’t think almost 300,000 jobs were created last month.  I think Obama believes what he says about the economy—I just think he’s wrong.  I believe investors are buying stocks—I think they might rethink those purchases shortly.  I believe jobs were created, even if some 60,000 were short-term government jobs.

But I also see a significant lack of confidence in the economy by some pretty important groups—energy companies for one.  Living in the energy patch (no longer is West Texas just the oil patch– it is a major source of natural gas as well as wind and solar energy) and being friends with many oilmen, I’m exposed to a number of concerns oil producers have such as what impact the healthcare bill will have on them and if a carbon tax is imposed what impact it will have.  Until they have answers many are reluctant to invest huge sums and commit to a large hiring program right now.  The executives and owners of many small and mid-size companies I speak with have the same concerns and the same hesitancy to hire and expand.

With the concerns producers have, combined with the loss of production in the Gulf of Mexico, four dollar or even five dollar gas is not out of the question—in fact, the surprise will be if gas doesn’t balloon out of control.  We saw a couple of years ago what four dollar gas does to the economy and if it comes, it will have the same impact this time around.

Our housing issues are far from over.  Fannie lost thirteen billion last quarter and Freddie lost eight billion.  Many economists and real estate analysts think we’ve not really seen the worst of the commercial real estate meltdown.  If we haven’t, we’ve got another round of bank issues to go through. 

The mess in Greece is, according to many economists, only the beginning of Europe’s financial meltdown, with numerous countries facing the very real potential of bankruptcy and the subsequent potential depression.  The EU put together a trillion dollar fund (with no telling how many billions of our taxpayer dollars thrown in) to bailout countries as they come close to defaulting on their debt.  Certainly, the international markets are so closely intertwined that if there were a collapse in Europe, it would pull North America down along with it; just as if one started here we would take Europe with us.

Our debt crisis won’t begin for several years, but some are predicting it could start as early as 2013—and there is no reason to believe that Congress is anywhere close to stopping the outlandish spending spree they’re on.  Apparently Vice President Biden is not the only one in Washington who believes “we have to go spend money to keep from going bankrupt.”   Don’t blame Joe; logic and reason have never been the strong suit of either party in Washington.

We live in economically dangerous times.  We are far from solid economic ground.

What does this mean for business owners and sellers?  Do we crawl in a hole and hope the big bad economic wolf goes away?

No.

But we can’t let our guard down either.  We can’t think that we are entering anything remotely resembling a normal economy.  Restraint and well thought out investment in our business must be our focus.  We cannot afford the luxury of thinking that we can spend dollars willy-nilly and that by doing so we’ll book some business. 

Although we all hope for the best, we must prepare for a potential reality that none of us want.  If the worst doesn’t come, halleluiah, we’ll rejoice.  If it does and we’ve prepared well, we will be among the few who are prepared to thrive even in the worst of times.

What actions should you be taking?

  1.  Solidify your client relationships.  You should have done this prior to the current recession, but if you haven’t, do so now.  In a weak economy, your existing clients will likely be your primary source of new business, either through new sales or through word of mouth and referrals.
  2. Evaluate Every Expenditure.  Don’t waste money.  But don’t be penny wise and pound foolish.  In tight economic environments it is common to see companies cut those things that can help them increase their financial stability while not cutting expenses that contribute little to the bottom-line. 

    Examples are plenty such as cutting training for the sales department while not re-evaluating the dollars spent on shipping and communication.  One company I visited with recently had eliminated their entire training budget for the year ($775,000) but had never even evaluated their shipping expense ($6,300,000) or phone, fax, and other communication expenses (about $11,000,000).  They quickly quashed what they felt was an unnecessary luxury—training the people who bring in revenue, but didn’t question the expenses that produced nothing in and of themselves.  Of the 17 million in shipping and communication expenses how much could they save?  I don’t know.  5%?  That would pay for their training expense.  10%?  More?

    Don’t shortcut your business by depriving your critical functions, and certainly don’t throw money out the door because you haven’t thought to evaluate the expense.

  3. Prospect Aggressively.  Don’t let business slide by.  Out hustle your competition.  Get out and build relationships now—you may very well need them in the future.  Every minute you sit in the office is a minute you could be in front of a prospect.  If your primary prospecting method is through the phone, have the phone stuck to your ear.  If it is face to face, get out of the office.  The relationships you begin to build now will be your new business in the future.
  4. Sell Value, Not Price.  In a tight economy the temptation is to slash prices.  Selling price is a deadly game.  Unless you are one of the three or four biggest players in your industry and market, trying to sell on price is a losing game because you cannot continually be the lowest priced.  If you commoditize your product or service, price becomes the only criteria in determining who gets the sale.

    As Tom Reilly points out in Crush Price Objections, price is not the primary concern of the majority of buyers.  Sell value, knowledge, service–not price.

  5. Focus on Your Primary Markets.  Concentrate your time and money on your primary, most profitable markets.  Certainly if you see opportunities elsewhere, take a serious look at them, but don’t become distracted from your primary markets.  When you’re fighting for your life is not the time to take a flier on a ‘maybe.’ 

What if you do the above and the economy continues to show signs of recovery?  You still win.  The above suggestions will produce just as well in a strong economy as in poor one.  You’ll have lost nothing but have gained much.

Times are dangerous and no one knows what will happen two weeks from now, much less two years.  Use your time and money wisely; prepare for the worst while hoping for the best.  Take the necessary precautions to thrive when your competitors are dying and you’ll be prepared no matter what’s ahead of us.

May 7, 2010

Guest Article: “Nine Barriers to Coaching a Sales Team,” by Keith Rosen

Filed under: Coaching,management,sales,Sales Management,selling,team development,Uncategorized — Paul McCord @ 7:21 am
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Nine Barriers to Coaching a Sales Team
by Keith Rosen

For any executive sales coaching initiative to be effective and long-lasting, there are important obstacles that a manager or internal sales coach needs to address.

Barrier One: No Coach the Coach Program

One of my clients recently called me with questions about building an internal coaching program. It seems the person who was spearheading the initiative was having a difficult time putting the processes and procedures together as well as getting the managers to embrace the new philosophy and approach. Since the company felt they could build the internal coaching program on their own, they didn’t hire an outside expert or consultant. The person in charge of the initiative wasn’t even a coach but someone in HR. Without a coach training program to develop coaching skills and competencies, you can change your managers’ titles, but not their essence, their thinking, or their skills.

Barrier Two: Coaching Is a Choice—Not an Obligation

The coaching relationship is a choice, not an obligation. The relationship between the coach and the people who are coached is a designed alliance, a collaborative partnership, and more. As such, remedial or sanctioned coaching is often met with resistance rather than with open arms. How is coaching being offered to your team or to your employees? As a perk, an incentive, an option, an obligation, or a remedial response to under performance? Are you offering it to your entire team, to a select few, or to just one person?

Barrier Three: Surrender Your Agenda When Coaching

What if your boss walked up to you today and said, “Your career, your bonus, your position in this company, and your salary will depend on how well your team performs. That said, I want you to start coaching all the people on your team, one on one. Hold them accountable and be unconditionally supportive, while surrendering your agenda and maintaining objectivity.” Could you do it?

My clients consist of a myriad of companies and professions, all shapes and sizes, selling products and services in practically every industry and profession. Yet, the one truth I share with them is this: “When you work with me as your coach, this will be the only relationship you have where it will always be 100 percent about you.”

If you’re an internal coach, this may be a stretch to fully surrender any agenda or attachment to your sales team’s performance, especially since their performance directly reflects on you. In such cases, there’s an inherent challenge for you, as the business owner or manager, to separate your agenda from theirs and have no personal expectation from the relationship other than your unconditional commitment to their continued growth and success. It’s going to take some adjustment on your part to develop an unconditional and authentic relationship with your salespeople.

Barrier Four: You’re Coaching People, not Changing People

There’s a big difference between coaching people and changing people. However, for executives or front line managers who are commissioned to hit some aggressive sales numbers, coaching is the last thing they want to talk about. The real distinction is that coaching is a process of discovery. A coach cannot push for results or attempt to change people overnight. The traditional scenario to facilitate change is typically a stressed-out manager who lays the same stress on his salespeople that his boss dumped on him. “Work harder; get focused; our jobs can be on the line; just bring in some more business.” This hollow approach seldom drives change.

Barrier Five: Connection—It Has to Be the Real Thing

In coaching it’s critical for unrestricted, honest communication in the coaching relationship. It’s extremely challenging to connect with your salespeople at a deeper level, the type of connection necessary between the coach and the person being coached. Many employees are afraid that if they disclose too much, it will be held against them in the future. So they limit their vulnerability level to what is absolutely needed to perform their job function. This restricts safe and open communication, limiting the chance to connect with your people in a way that allows coaches to get to the real issues and barriers;—barriers that are preventing improved performance.

Barrier Six: Confidentiality and No Judgment? Sure, Boss!

Lets get right to what you’re thinking. Your role as supervisor or boss presents some inherent problems with coaching that need to be addressed head on.

Given the parameters, guidelines, and principles necessary to be a masterful coach, trust is critical to make the connection. After all, if your employees can’t trust you as their manager, forget even trying to coach them. Coaching requires an elevated level of trust that transcends the superficial trust between employees and management.

And what if some of your salespeople already have a problem with you as their boss and now you’re going to try and coach them? How does that get handled? Do you think any of your employees are going to just come out and say that? Think again.

As a result, this relationship could quickly turn into more of a mentoring rather than a coaching relationship. This is a major reason why companies bring in an expert coach from the outside who doesn’t have any direct ties to the company as a manager would.

Barrier Seven: Anyone Can Manage, Not Everyone Can Coach

“I’m really not cut out to be a coach.” The hard fact is there are managers who want to be coaches, managers who need to be coaches, and managers who shouldn’t be coaches, and probably shouldn’t be managers, either.

Companies that force all managers into a coaching role make a costly assumption that all of their managers would actually make great coaches, just like every college athlete should automatically make the pros. The rules work the same. Desire, attitude, ability, and skill will always be the formula for becoming a successful coach, or athlete. Then there is the mistake of pushing managers to do something they don’t want to do. Managers can easily sabotage their own coaching efforts, and in the end, corporate may learn the wrong lesson: “I guess our internal coaching program didn’t work.”

Barrier Eight: Full Accountability

If you want to become powerful, hire a powerful coach. It’s a simple, yet highly effective strategy. If you want your salespeople to be powerful, you need to be a good role model for them. As you evolve, so does your team. Consider this truth: Your team is a reflection of you. If you’re not prepared to be 100 percent accountable for the success and failure of your team, if you skirt accountability in any way, if you lack professionalism or proficiencies in certain areas, your team will reflect these weaknesses. If you choose to evolve, so will your salespeople. If you want a world-class sales team, you have to become a world-class executive sales coach.

Barrier Nine: Competitive Managers

The most effective leaders develop other leaders. They encourage their people to perform as well as they do—even better. That is the sign of a true master and the real testament of a great manager. But what if the manager perceives his coworkers and subordinates as a threat? What if the manager is driven strictly by ego, the need to prove himself and his worth? What if this manager thinks he has survived only by keeping a competitive distance from his peers and salespeople? I’ve known managers who don’t share their tools and best practices with their salespeople for fear their salespeople will outdo them. These are likely to be inferior managers who will seek to selfishly leverage the coaching relationship in a way to better themselves and their position rather than for the betterment of their sales team.

Now that we’ve listed the barriers that can get in the way of implementing an effective internal coaching program, do not be disheartened. With greater awareness comes choice. The good news is, you possess the power to make a difference.

Keith Rosen is the executive sales coach that top managers, sales professionals and executives in many of the world’s leading companies call first. As a prominent, engaging speaker, Master Coach and well-known author of many books and articles, Keith is one of the foremost authorities on assisting people in achieving positive, measurable change in their attitude, in their behavior and in their results.  Visit his website

April 21, 2010

Is This How You “Discipline” Your Sales Team?

Filed under: sales,Sales Management,Sales Meetings,selling,team development,Uncategorized — Paul McCord @ 10:14 am
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A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post on why sales meetings are a waste of time.  My complaint about most sales meeting is they waste the sales team’s time because most managers don’t really have a good reason for holding the meeting and even when they do, so few managers thoroughly prepare for the meeting so that it runs smoothly, have value for the attendees, and everyone gets out quickly.

I received many emails and calls from readers saying how much they appreciated the post—but I also received several letting me know that I really had no clue what to use sales meetings for.  Here is one sample:

“I agree with much of what you say but I cannot begin to tell you how disappointed I was with your article about sales meetings.  I don’t know of anyone in my company that would even begin to consider canceling a meeting just because we didn’t have time to prepare or because according to you we didn’t have a good reason to hold the meeting. 

First, our meetings are for more than just relaying company information or doing some light training.  We use them to help discipline our salespeople. 

We hold meetings every Monday and Friday morning at 8AM sharp and everyone must be in the meeting room on time or they get fined.  They show up on time, they pay attention, and they come prepared.  If they are late, if they are not prepared, or if they’re caught not paying attention, they’re fined. 

I can assure you that our sales team knows what’s expected and the consequences. 

Maybe you haven’t tried using it, but sales meetings are an excellent tool for instilling discipline in the troops, and discipline is critical in sales.  And they are here at the company’s pleasure; the company isn’t here at theirs.”

I might have thought this email was something of a joke, except I received a couple of more in a similar vein.  And before you guess that the manager who sent the email works in some high pressure, one-time close sweat shop, he doesn’t.  He is a manager for a mid-sized firm that sells a fairly sophisticated service to businesses in the healthcare industry.

Sales meetings as a discipline tool? 

Now, I’m not naïve; I know sales meetings are used by many managers as a tool to ensure salespeople show up on time and to try to keep them in line.  But the idea that there are people who believe it actually works is amazing to me, although I guess I really shouldn’t be   

The last line in the portion of the email I cited above is the key to understanding the management philosophy that would see sales meetings as a disciplinary tool—salespeople should be grateful the manger is gracious enough to let them come in and toil for the company.  Salespeople aren’t human beings, they are things, just as the copier is a thing, to be used to produce an end result and if they don’t, they’re tossed in the trash, just as the copier would be if it failed to live up to expectations. 

Is this a sales force problem or a management problem?

If the problem really is the salespeople (which I sincerely doubt), the root problem is that the company is hiring the wrong people.  If you have to drag people in the office twice a week to insure they get to work on time, if you have to fine your salespeople to get them to pay attention during a meeting, if you feel compelled to micro-manage your team members, there is a chance you have hired the wrong people.

Chances are great, however, that the root problem isn’t with your team members but with you and the management philosophy of the company.  Micro-management is a management disease, not a salesperson issue. 

More to the point, managers who feel the need to discipline, who view salespeople as cogs in their sales machine, who must resort to fear and intimidation certainly aren’t sales leaders, but they aren’t managers either.  They are little despots who rule with an iron hand and who will likely face a general uprising within the ranks at some point.  Like any good despot, he or she will try force to put down the uprising and if that doesn’t work, resort to bribes and milk and honey.  With luck, they’ll put down the insurrection but will have learned nothing from the experience—other than they were just too soft, too nice, too accommodating.  The iron fist comes down even harder.

Sales leaders lead by example and by empowering their sales team members to excel, to thrive, to reach their goals.  They know and trust their team members, just as their team members trust them.  Discipline, fines, and cogs in the machine aren’t part of the sales leader’s world.

Sales meetings can be important not just for what they can do to help build and strengthen your sales team but what they can tell you about yourself as a manager.

What is the purpose of your sales meetings?  If you’re using them to insure your team members show up; if you’re having to threaten and fine because they don’t pay attention or come unprepared; if feel compelled to micro-manage, you need to examine not your team members but yourself because the deficiency is probably with you, not them.

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