THE SALES FORCE PLAYBOOK

SELLING IN THIS ECONOMY

How is your Sales Force doing in this economy?  

Check out this video.

Whether times are great or times or challenging, make sure your activity is at an all-time high  Make sure your salespeople are in constant contact with clients and prospects.

No matter who you are, you have to wake up every morning and start running.

TIME FOR A PIPELINE CHECKUP?

Dave Kurlan recently posted a great blog on sales pipelines.

As we enter the 4th Quarter, it might be a great time to do a checkup on your pipeline. So many companies we deal with tell us, "so goes January, so goes the year."  In other words, they need to get off to a great start to the year or they will never catch up.

If you need a great start to the sales year, doing a comprehensive review of your pipeline in January is too late.  Now is the time to review the pipeline.  If you follow Kurlan's advice, you will get a true measure of where you stand.  You can then take action (on both your salespeople and on your prospects) that will improve your chances for a great start to '09.

SELLING IN TOUGH TIMES

We have clients who are dealing with the impact of Wall Street's current challenges. Their clients and prospects are asking tough questions and trying to justify current and/or proposed relationships.

The challenges these salespeople face are real.  How they respond will determine if they belong in the "major league" of sales.

If your salespeople are effected by these challenges, here are 3 things that you need to coach them to do:

1.  Meet with all top clients face-to-face.  In tough times, clients want to be educated and reassured that they are with the right partner.  Partners do not bury their heads in the sand when times are tough.  Instead, they jump in the foxhole and start fighting.

2.  Meet with as many prospects as possible.  Many of your competitors indeed have their heads buried in the sand.  What a great time to develop relationships and demonstrate your unique advantages.  Great activity now will be rewarded with great results in the future.

3.  Seek referrals.  Ask your Clients and Centers of Influence who they know that is concerned about a current relationship (trust me, many are!).  Tell them, "many people are unsure how the current situation will effect them.  I am finding that many of those people what to talk to an expert to make certain they are doing the right things, yet are not certain that their current provider is providing the proper advice.  Who do you know that I should be talking to so I can provide some guidance or reassurance?"

Times are tough, but selling doesn't have to be.  Make a commitment to be "the" resource for your clients and prospects.

DAILY HUDDLE

I just read a great post from my friends at Professional Outside Sales.  

The post sounds exactly like comments I get almost everyday from salespeople.  Salespeople do not mind reporting their activity and results, but they get irritated when it "appears" the sales manager does not pay much attention to the information.

If the activity/results information is that critical, why not have a brief 5 minute daily huddle?  The manager and salesperson can have an honest dialogue and the manager can use this time for coaching and/or motivating.  For most of us, this would be a 5 minute phone call at the beginning or end of the day.  

What I have seen in companies is tremendous resistance to this concept.  But for those who embrace the concept, they actually look forward to the huddle.  The salesperson likes it because he knows the sales manager is engaged.  The sales manager likes it because it give her a chance to focus on this particular salesperson with no other distraction.

Daily Huddles.  Try it, you'll like it!

COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

Seth Godin had a great post on his blog regarding competitive advantage.

When you are competing for business (and you are not the incumbent provider), why should a prospect leave the current relationship and go with you?  Most salespeople I talk to have an extremely hard time coming up with a compelling reason.

Your compelling reason should come from your current clients.  Go talk to your top 30 clients and ask them the following questions:  "Bob, 5 years ago, what were the reasons you decided to choose me as your provider?  What have I done in those 5 years that have caused you to stay with me?

Assuredly, you will have 3-5 items that are articulated over and over.  Now you have the basis for the compelling reason.  Find prospects who want/need what your clients are saying that makes you special and you will often have the competitive advantage.

EXCEEDING EXPECTATIONS

My MacBook's battery was not charging, so I went on line this morning to schedule an appointment at the Apple Store.

A time was available this afternoon, so I took it.  I arrived a little early.  The "Genius" at the Genius Bar took my computer, ran a test, gave me a new battery and I was out the door.  As we left the store, my son turned to me and said, "Dad we are out of here before your appointment was even scheduled to begin."  Needles to say, Apple exceeded my expectations.

What was also interesting were the 150 or so people who were looking at the iMacs, ipods and iphones. The store was packed!  Apparently, Apple has exceeded a lot of other people's expectations.  My guess is that there was not another electronics store in town that was jam packed today.

Are you exceeding your clients expectations?

STYLE VS. SUBSTANCE

In the recruiting of salespeople, too often we choose style (looks good, has the gift of gab, went to a good college) over substance (has desire, commitment and will sell).

Take a look at this video to find out why substance trumps style.

Who do you want on your team?

THE CONTRARIAN EFFECT

Michael Port (with Elizabeth Marshall as co-author) has released his latest book, "The Contrarian Effect."

The book's premise is to take what you have typically learned about sales and then do the opposite.  Port and Marshall are spot on with their thoughts on cold calling, sales scripts, closing techniques and the impact technology has had on the profession of selling.

The book confirms my thinking that prospects and clients are looking for trusted advisors to help them solve their problems and/or help them achieve a goal/dream.  They value transparency in the relationship and do not want to be waiting for a salesperson to "close" them.

As trusted advisors, we still need to get people to make decisions.  But how we do this is different today than in the past.

COMMON HIRING MISTAKES

The Seattle P.I. had a great column today talking about how to avoid 10 common mistakes during the hiring process.  The column was not specifically targeting the hiring of salespeople, but these are great reminders for those companies hiring salespeople.

An additional common mistake that I see companies making when hiring salespeople is that they do not use a pre-hire assessment tool.  I talked about the importance of such a tool in a recent blog.  

Find a pre-hire assessment that you like.  It will help you eliminate many of the mistakes you are currently making.

RECRUITING

I was talking to a small business owner yesterday and he was telling me how he is going through the process of bringing on his first salesperson.  The business owner told me that he really liked they guy "because he seems like a younger version of me."

This is a trap that many people fall into when hiring salespeople.  They "think" the person is like them, but they really do not "know."  My recommendation is to use a pre-hire assessment so you will "know" if they have the same desire, commitment and skill sets that you have.

During the conversation, the business owner told me, "almost anybody can sell."  I did not disagree, but did tell him that not everybody will sell.  This is a huge difference and one that you must uncover in your selection process.

A pre-hire assessment will uncover if a person will sell.  Make it part of your your recruiting system and it will help you hire superstars instead of super duds.