THE SALES FORCE PLAYBOOK

WHO ARE YOU RECRUITING?

I was talking with a group of managers this week regarding recruiting. The question was, "do we hire only A players or take the best available candidate?" To me, the answer is easy. For one of the managers, he felt I was living in a dream world to think the organization could attract, recruit and hire only A players.

I am convinced that whatever bar you choose, you will attain. Mike Krzyzewski (Coach K) went to Duke when their basketball program was in the dumps. He set a standard that he would recruit the best basketball players in the country, who also had to be great students and great kids. People thought he was crazy to think he could set the bar so high. Guess what, Coach K did not settle for the best available players. He only went after A players. His success speaks for itself.

Set your standards to hire only A players. If that is not your current standard and/or you do not have a system to accomplish this, the transition will be challenging. But once you make this part of your culture, great things will happen.

MOTIVATING

One of the critical plays that Sales Leaders must execute is motivating their sales team. Are you and/or your Sales Leaders extraordinary in this area?

Many people equate motivation with a leader who constantly gives "fire & brimstone" type of speeches. However, some of the most effective motivators and leaders are just the opposite, they are incredibly "soft spoken."

Tony Dungy has led both the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Indianapolis Colts to phenomenal success. Yet he rarely raises his voice while executing his coaching duties. I believe two keys to his greatness (and others like him) are (1) he truly cares about the players on his team and they know it and (2) he understands each player's dreams and goals.

Don't confuse "dynamic personality" with motivation. Instead, look for a Sales Leader who truly understands the dreams and goals of the members of his/her team then works feverishly to help them accomplish them. For it is not the words of Sales Leaders that motivate salespeople, but rather their consistent activities and actions. As the saying goes, "actions speak louder than words." Never is this more true than in the area of motivation.

MARKET DOMINATION

Thanks to Vern Harnish for sharing a list from Phil Ruthven regarding the 12 keys for business success. Phil is the Founder and Chairman of IBISWorld Business Information. Here is Phil's list for operating an industry dominating business:

* Stick to one business and one business only
* Aim to dominate
* Forever innovate -- product, process, marketing, sales, etc.
* Outsource non-core aspects of the business
* Don't own hard assets
* Have good and professional financial management
* Think and plan outside-in -- have great external intelligence
* Anticipate industry life-cycle changes
* Build strategic alliances
* Learn and implement world best practices
* Strong unique cultures
* Leadership is first; management is second

RECRUITING

If you want to upgrade your sales force, the first place to start is in the area of recruiting. Far too much time, effort and money is spent on trying to turn C players into sales superstars.

Check out Dave Kurlan's blog on 10 steps to recruiting sales superstars.

WHO SETS THE APPOINTMENT?

I was talking to a very successful Sales Executive recently. Our conversation centered around his success at building sales organizations using "inside salespeople."

The sole role of the "inside salespeople" is to schedule appointments for the "outside salespeople." He told me that his outside salespeople were incredible qualifiers and closers. He did not want them out of the field researching prospects and making prospect calls.

His results? They have continually exceeded goals and have pipeline that is full of new opportunities.

Will this work in your company? Only you know the answer to that. But you might want to consider if one or more of the following is a recurring theme in your company:

* Production is erratic or below goal
* Salespeople have far to few appointments
* Woeful pipeline

FIRST APPOINTMENT

What happens during the first meeting with a prospect?

Too often, salespeople launch into an "oral brochure" of their company's products, services and pricing. Unfortunately, it usually comes at the expense of asking great questions of the prospect to help determine if their is a basis to do business.

It is critical that we help our salespeople become Sales Professionals. Sales Professionals do not "show up and throw up." Instead, they are incredibly prepared, ask great questions to get the prospect emotionally involved in the conversation and come to a mutual decision on how to move forward.

Are all of your Sales Professionals armed with great questions for the first appointment? If not, do a brainstorming session to come up with the most effective questions your people use. During your post call briefings, find out which ones are having great success and which ones are not. Continue to fine tune.

Your prospects should leave the first meeting with your Sales Professionals thinking, "Those guys are different. Nobody has ever asked me the kind of questions that they did."

THE TRICK QUESTION

You were persistent in your phone calls. The prospect has finally agreed to meet with you. You have done your pre-call planning. You are finally in front of him and after some chit-chat he asks, "so, what have you got for me?"

That is the Trick Question that almost all prospects ask. How do your salespeople handle that question? Too many launch into an "oral brochure" of the company's products and services, making all kind of claims about bringing in a better price.

Teach your salespeople to handle the Trick Question this way. "I am happy to tell you about what we do. But before I do, can I ask you a couple of questions?" The prospect never says no.

Now they can ask the questions to determine if this person is truly a prospect. Find out if she has pain or compelling reasons to take action. Find out if the pain/compelling reason is severe enough that she has to fix right away. Find out if she has the money to pay for the solution.

If your salespeople screw up on the Trick Question, rarely do they do a masterful job of qualifying the prospect and getting a agreement on a clear next step.

Make sure you role play with your salespeople so they are ready the next time they are asked the Trick Question.

URGENCY

I was working with a group yesterday and one of the salespeople was discussing a prospect she has been working with for 6 months. After reviewing the situation with the group so we could all ask questions and offer advice, she basically solved her own problem and stated, "I guess I need to move on."

What she self discovered was that she never took the time to discover the sense of urgency for her prospect to make a decision. She now realizes there was zero urgency for the prospect to make a decision. Unfortunately, she has wasted an incredible amount of time courting the prospect.

Many times we engage a prospect who has a compelling reason to make a change. He also has the time, money and resources to take care of the problem. Make sure you find out two things:

1. Is it urgent that the problem be solved?
2. When is she committed to making the decision to solve the problem?

These answers are critical to you as a sales professional. Without definitive answers you enter a guessing game as to when a decision can/will be made. With definitive answers, you can dedicate the proper time, money and resources to help the prospect solve the problem within the time frame he wants to solve it.

NO MORE COLD CALLING (SPEAKING)

As we continue our journey towards no more cold calls, our second stop is Public Speaking.

Public Speaking is a great way to establish yourself as an expert in your field and have people seek you out to help with their problems. It also allows you talk to multiple prospects in one setting. Assuming you like to present to groups and have at least one compelling message, here is how to get started:

1. Identify the groups you want to speak to
2. Develop a mailing list for the groups. You can get contact info and addresses from the organization web site or purchase a list from www.marketingsource.com/associations/.
3. Schedule a post card mailing campaign to the associations. To get started, schedule one post card per month for 6 months.
4. Create the post card. It does not have to be elaborate. It should include your topic(s) and a brief explanation of what the attendees will learn. The more creative you are with the titles of your talks, the more intrigued the recipient will be.

If you have the time, you can follow up the mailings with phone calls. This will certainly increase the speaking invitations you will receive.

Obviously, this should not be your only method of acquiring new prospects, but it can be an effective and fun way to create new opportunities.