Sales Force One

It's More Than A Job

I abosolutely love this article from Vern Harnish's blog in connection with the latest Jim Collins book How The Mightly Fall: And Why Some Companies Never Give In.

Job vs. Responsibility -- p. 57 -- this is one of my favorite "how to's" in the book -- notes Collins "One notable distinction between wrong people and right people (in key seats) is that the former see themselves as having 'jobs,' while the latter see themselves as having 'responsibilities. Every person in a key seat should be able to respond to the question "What do you do?" not with a job title, but with a statement of personal responsibility. "I'm the one person ultimately responsible for x and y." Think columns two and three on our People Accountability worksheet. In fact, Collins, when he's hosting executive teams at his research lab often challenges executives to introduce themselves not with titles, but by articulating their responsibilities. As he notes "those who have lost (or not yet built) a culture of discipline find this question to be terribly difficult."

You Decide

One of the most striking attributes of great leaders is their willingess to make decisions...and most of the time to make good decisions.

Do you know anyone who has trouble making decisions?  They struggle with simple decisions (what to order for lunch) as if that decision is going to impact the rest of their life.  From time to time I will simply ask the waiter or waitress to bring me something/anything off the menu just to remind myself of the power in making decisions and to remind me of the importance of distinguishing between important decisions (the God you serve, the friends you choose, the person you marry, etc.) and more trivial matters (what to order for lunch, where to go on vacation, what car to buy, etc.).

Which leads me to the sales people and sales managers I meet in my travels.  Some of them are absolutely terrified to make decisions.  Now I don't mean to even suggest that some of the decisions are not important.  After all, deciding who to hire and who to let go often has a deep impact on the lives of good people.  But if you are a sales manager, that is what you signed up for....so get on with it.  If you know that one of your team members is not going to cut it...if you know they won't be able to sell in the current economic environment...then how are you helping them or your company by hoping things will get better?  As I have written before on this blog, hope is not a strategy.

If you are a sales person, what decision do you need to make?  Is it to finally decide to be 100% committed to your profession?  Is to decide to stop wasting time on unqualified opportunities that clog up your pipeline?  Is it to have the guts to pick up the phone and fire a prospect that you know has no shot of becoming your client?  Is it to finally agree that your results or lack of results are due to one thing only - and that would be you?

I like what Havey Mackay wrote on his web site this week:  "Don't be afraid of making decisions.  Be afraid of not making decisions."

As always, it's up to you to decide.

An Apple A Day

I was in Houston this week on a business trip when I needed some assistance with my iPhone...which by the way is the single greatest technology related purchase I have ever made.  So I made an appointment at the Genius Bar (tech support) inside the Apple store at the Houston Galleria.  Wow, what an experience!  Apple has to be one of the five greatest marketing companies of all time.  What struck me about the Apple store (specifically the Genius Bar) was how incredibly young nearly all of the techs and salespeople were. 

Do yourself a favor and read Steve Chazin's ebook Marketing Apple - 5 Secrets of the World's Best Marketing Machine.  You can get to the ebook by clicking on this link:

http://marketingapple.com

Which leads me to the latest book I read this week by David Meerman Scott.  The title of his book is World Wide Rave and it is a book about using the internet to get people to spread your ideas and share your company's stories.  So back to technology.  So many firms today are still resisting embracing social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.  But do you know who the new decisionmakers of today and tomorrow will be?  They are the same young people and friends of the people who work at Apple's Genius Bar and they are absolutely fearless about technology.

Memo to all you out there who are not using social networking sites:  that is where your customers either are today or will be tomorrow.  Shouldn't you be there as well?

Free Webinar - Sales Managers Only

Are you finding that your pipeline is more like a pipedream?  Are you noticing a trend of more and more stalled opportunities?  Are you interested in learning what the best practices are in terms of pipeline management?

If you have answered yes to any of the above, please join me on May 28th from 12PM to 1PM EDT for a free webinar that I will be hosting titled "Maximizing Your Sales Team's Pipeline."  Here is the link to sign up:

http://blog.anthonycoletraining.com/maximizing-your-sales-teams-pipeline/

So Much for Pain

One of the more difficult things that a salesperson needs to do is to master the ability to differentiate between pain and compelling reasons.  The former is something that your prospect will not always take action on while the latter is something that is generally severe enough that they will always be willing to make changes when they perceive your solution will work.

A business who wants to grow from $25,000,000 in revenue to $30,000,000 in revenue might be in pain to do it...but will they be compelled to make the changes that are required to drive the increase in revenue?  On the other hand, the business that understands if they will go out of business in 2009 unless they grow sales by 20% has compelling reasons for making changes.

Most people do not like making changes and they will only make changes when compelled to do so.  When you have finished probing for pain during your initial sales call, the all time best question to ask (assuming qualifiying the prospect is important to you) is this:  how compelled are you to solve these problems?  Are these issues important enough that you are compelled to make changes in your existing relationships? 

I know from my doctor that one day I will need hip replacement surgery (actually he tells me today is that day).  But my response continues to be "Doc, it does hurt that  much."  What I am really saying is that because I can still play golf, play with my daughter and work around the yard (all without mind numbing pain) I don't feel compelled to go under the knife.

Learn the difference between pain and compelling reasons.  I don't question that the prospects you are working with today have pain.  But here is the question - does it hurt enough?

No Decisions Are Decisions

One of the more alarming trends I see in the sales people I coach across the country is the increased number of "no decisions" which I define as a pipeline opportunity that just sits forever...the sales person was not told "yes" but they were also not told "no."

It is easy (way to easy) to attribute this to the economy and no doubt that shrinking budgets are partially to blame for this phenomena.  But it is my thought that the real culprit is the failure by the sales person to establish a CBC - compelling business case - for their solution.

Without the CBC, the prospect will not have the energy to deal with the internal objection that sounds like this: "can't we hold off on this until we see how our revenue looks later this year?" Without a CBC, the answer to that question is "yeah, that makes sense, let's hold off."  With a CBC, the answer is "no, we need to do this right now and here are the compelling reasons for taking action."

Remember, everything communicates....even "no decisions."  So for those of you need the reminder, when we enter a "no decision" into our magic decoder ring the answer (most of the time) is a no.

The Four Es of Marketing

Brian Fetherstonhaugh has written a tremendous article on the evolution of marketing from the Four P's that started in the 1960's to the Four E's of today.  He suggests the changes are as follows:

1. From product to experience

2. From place to everyplace

3. From price to exchange

4. From promotion to evangelism

The entire article is attached.  It is well worth reading.Download Four E's of Marketing