THE SALES FORCE PLAYBOOK

TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT IN 2009

For those of you who do not get Vern Harnish's weekly update, here is a great snippet from last week's edition.

Tim Keenan, CEO of HPTi notes "I am on a panel for SmartCEO on February 4th that addresses the subject of how to succeed in a bad market to 250 CEO's. The heart of my advice is educate your team, give them tools to fight through this market. Cutting education is like cutting your business throat. In hard times it is ever more important to seek education and insight."

You cannot cut your way to greatness.  Determine the salespeople that will be able to execute your sales strategy in these challenging economic times.  This may mean that you exit some and add some.  Once you have your team, do as Keenan suggests and get them the training and education necessary to capture market share.

SALES 2.0 - DELIVERY

I must admit, my antenna are up for Sales 2.0.  I am hearing from more and more people who are using 2.0 techniques to make their practice be more effective and efficient.

I was talking to an insurance broker this week who was excited about using webex tools in delivering services after the sale.  As an employee benefits specialist, one of her deliverables is to have annual open enrollment meetings with employees to explain benefit options.  Typically she has gone to each site the employer has to deliver the news face-to-face.  Her challenges are obvious, time and expense of conducting multiple meetings.

A new client had small offices located in several locations in the Western U.S.  The revenue on the account could not support traveling to all locations.  She told her new client that she will be glad to conduct open enrollment meetings, but she would have to do it via webex.  The result, one on-line meeting, no travel time and no travel cost.  The client was ecstatic because all employees could hear all questions that were asked, not just those by people in their local meeting.

Many of you are using webex services in the delivery of your products and services. Others of you may be like this insurance broker who is just discovering how effective technology can be.

I am not here to advocate that webex is the panacea for sales and sales delivery.  What I am suggesting is that you explore opportunities where this may be a solution.  A solution that results in a great client experience and a great use of your time.

SALES 2.0 - QUALIFYING

In a recent post, I highly recommended the book Sales 2.0 by Anneke Seley and Brent Holloway.  A central theme of theirs was the use of technology in the lead generation and qualification process.

Yesterday I had a conversation with a salesperson from one of our clients.  She is a Baby Boomer.  She revealed to me that she recently discovered how she could use webex (generic term used to describe all the great services out there), to help her save time in the qualification process.

Instead of fighting Southern California traffic, she is turning to webex services to conduct initial prospect meetings to determine if there is an agreed upon next step.  She went on to tell me that many of her prospects are Generation X and Generation Y and they love this approach.  She admitted to me that two of her strengths are her personality and ability to read people.  She believes that meeting prospects face-to-face is important.  But she also realizes that in many cases it is far more effective for the face-to-face meeting come after the initial webex meeting.

For some of you, this is "no brainer" and you are already doing it.  For those of you who are not, what would be the impact on your time and effectiveness if many of your "first interviews" were webex vs. face-to-face?  What does it take to make this happen?

• You must have access to a service such as Webex or Go-To-Meeting
• You must have a good visual presentation to guide your discussion (remember ask questions, don't present)
• You must be very good at using the service you choose 
• You must be confident in asking for the "webex" appointment

We have all heard the saying, "work smarter, not harder."  Adopting Sales 2.0 in the qualification process is a step in that direction.

SALES 2.0

Sales 2.0 is a must read book if you are looking for ways to effectively increase your pipeline and your revenue.  Anneke Seley and Brent Holloway will give definitely open your mind to new ideas.

My copy is "dog-eared" with pages that I will be continually referring back to.

ADVICE FOR SALES MANAGERS

Here is great advice from Sales Development Experts.  Check out the article.

These comments go hand-in-glove with my recent post, Window of Opportunity.

QUESTIONS

I read a great quote the other day.  It is attributable to David Yoho.  David said, "asking the right question is more valuable than knowing all the answers."

Too many salespeople are loaded with technical information and knowledge and cannot wait to get in front of a prospect and start "throwing up" all that they know.  Unfortunately, the prospect does really care about most of what is being said.

What do prospects care about?  Early in the engagement, they care about their current situation and the problems they are dealing with.  They do not care about how big you are, what great service you give, how happy your clients are or if you are the low cost provider.  Those are issues that may need to be addressed further into the sales cycle.

If David Yoho is correct, what process or methodology does your sales force have to be extraordinary in the fact finding or discovery process?  Do they have set questions?  Do they have a written fact finder that they go through?  Are they skilled enough to accomplish through casual conversation?  I do not believe there is only one way.  But I do believe your salespeople need to be consistent in their approach to insure they ask the right question, the right way at the right time.  This will help the salesperson and the prospect determine if there is a basis to move the relationship forward.

Asking great questions can help the salesperson determine that the prospect really isn't a current prospect, but rather a prospect for a future time.  Great questions can also help the salesperson determine the agreed upon next steps in the engagement.  You do not uncover this information by "giving all the answers."

I have always contended that salespeople establish credibility not by what they say, but the by the questions they ask.  So, what questions are your salespeople asking?

WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY

Are your salespeople excited about the current economic environment or are they hiding under their desks hoping the "storm" will blow over before they lose their jobs?

I was visiting with a prospect yesterday and he told me that his firm is excited about the window of opportunity that has been created by challenges in the economy.  He doesn't know when the window is going to close, but he understands his firm has to act now and his salespeople have to be better than ever.

Here a few things your company can do to take advantage of the window of opportunity:

Have the Right People:   Now is not the time to hire "long-term projects" or hang onto under-performers.  You need salespeople who can meet and exceed goals even in tough economic times.  Put your efforts and resources into these sales superstars and don't waste time and money on the others.

Increase Activity:   Salespeople don't want to hear this, but it is exactly what needs to happen.  Many of your competitors are the ones hiding under their desks.  As a result, they are not providing extraordinary service to their clients (your prospects).  These prospects are experiencing the same tough economic times as the rest of us and are looking to their partner providers for help and guidance.  If they are not getting it from your competitor, now is the time to step in and be a resource.  This can only happen if your salespeople are "on the streets."

Hold Salespeople Accountable:   It is not going to be easy.  Some of your salespeople will want to hide under their desks.  Talk about the opportunities, set the expectations and hold them accountable. They will be glad that you did.

Become Masterful at Getting Introductions:   Referrals and introductions are more important than ever.  Some of your salespeople are very good at this activity.  For those who are not, or are inconsistent, get them the necessary training and resources to execute a dynamic referral strategy.

Be Unique:   Don't "show up and throw up."  Develop a process that will allow you to discover your prospect's problems and provide unique solutions to the market you serve. This unique process can set you apart from all your competition.

Companies need to have a sense of urgency because the window of opportunity is closing a little more everyday.

RECRUITING SALESPEOPLE

Over the last 30 days, I have been informed of numerous people I know (some well, some casually) that have lost their jobs because of the challenging economy.  Many of those people are in sales.

If you are looking to upgrade and/or grow your sales force, this is a fantastic time to be recruiting.  The available talent pool hasn't been this abundant in a long time. Additionally, candidates with no job, or candidates who fear they are going to lose their job, do not have the leverage they have had in the past. They are not in a position to make demands of their prospective new employer.

How do you take advantage of this opportunity?  Make a commitment to contact all your Centers of Influence (COIs) and current clients in the month of January and tell them you are looking for sales superstars and would appreciate an introduction to anybody they believe would be a good fit for your company.  Depending on numbers, you can do this face-to-face, via e-mail or send a letter.  That will prime the pump. 

The next thing you need to do is to establish a consistent method and plan to continually reach out to these people.  By continually "touching" them, you can turn many of them into your "recruiting department."

Establish good recruiting habits now and you will be rewarded with an abundance of candidates in 2009.

BE COMMITTED

For most, today is the first "work day" of 2009.  Many salespeople are looking forward to making the prospecting calls this week to get the year started off right.

I know that many of these calls will go well because of the preparation and enthusiasm that will go into the calls.

But I also know that the economy is going to impact the results of all salespeople.  Some prospects will be downsizing.  Some prospects will be going out of business.  Some prospects will delay spending money. The key for all salespeople is to be committed to the goals they set at the close of 2008.  Fight through the initial wave of responses from prospects like "we are still thinking about it, "we can't spend any money in that area," or "no."

Continue making the calls, continue asking for referrals and introductions and continue providing phenomenal service to current clients.  Many of your competitors are going to give up.  Stay the course and the results will follow.

Be committed to your success!