Over the past year we have noticed 7 devastating mistakes that sales organizations are making. The 4th mistake that we observed was a lack of systems. Systems are everything that does not deal with people such as a sales process map, pipeline and recruiting process.
Here is the link that I discuss in the video: http://
First, all of these suggestions assume you have a “closable” opportunity. That means you’ve established trust and rapport, you’ve explored all of the issues and have identified six to eight (6-8) compelling reasons for the prospect to take action, you understand the consequences (from the prospect’s point of view and in their words) of NOT taking action, you have qualified the opportunity (that means you understand their budget, their timeline, their decision making process, who your competition is, etc.), and they have agreed to make a decision. If you cannot say yes to all of these conditions, you do not have a closable opportunity and these tactics will not work.
1. Tap unused budgets – if you are selling to larger organizations, chances are pretty good that they have budgets they have not used in 2009. For example, did they cut back on the number of trade shows they attended? Are there unspent marketing dollars available? Do they have money set aside for new office furniture they never purchased? Be creative and explore all potential funding sources that may be available. In larger organizations, their budgets are typically “use it or lose it” and can often be used to start a project.
2. Start now, bill in 2010 – if they have not budgeted for your product or service in 2009, you can get them committed by starting in December with the understanding that you will not bill them until January. Why not position it as a “head start” and get their commitment before the end of the year?
3. Bill now, start in 2010 – maybe they have unused budgets, but they don’t have the other resources available to get started (people on their team, etc.). Can you get the signature now, invoice it and then start it in January?
4. Be persistent – make extra calls, ask follow up questions, keep the conversation going, and focus like a laser on your closable opportunities. The sales person who can push through the initial resistance they encounter by asking for their commitment and finding creative ways for them to get started, will usually get the order. Don’t give up.
5. Last tip – DON’T discount. Carefully monitor the temptation your sales people will face to offer last-minute discounts to close the deal and get it on the books this year. It sends the wrong message to your clients and will reduce the lifetime value of these customers.
Follow this advice and you can still close some opportunities this year. And staying in front of your closable opportunities can only help you. Even if they don’t buy in December, you’ll enter the new year with a stronger pipeline. Good luck and good selling!
"Talent alone won't make you a success. Neither will being in the right place at the right time, unless you are ready. The most important question is: Are you ready?" - Johnny Carson
When companies and consumers begin spending money again (and they will spend again), you could be in a significant windfall. You may even have some record breaking revenue months if - and it's a big if - you have your sales team doing all the right things even while companies and consumers aren't spending money.
We are at the beginning of an enormous opportunity to seize business as the economy gathers strength. There may never be a better time to grab market share! Are you ready? Right now you can:
We are Intelligent Conversations, the leading sales force development firm in Southeastern Wisconsin. We specialize in maximizing the sales growth and profitability of companies.
The decision you make and actions you take today will determine whether or not you are ready for the bounce - Are you ready? intelligentconversations.com/bounce
Sales success is something every sales person is striving for. But in an environment where the resistance to buy is higher, decisions take longer, and the competition is fierce, the goal of achieving sales success can be elusive – which can lead even the most level-headed sales person to reach for ideas, tactics and techniques that will not serve them.
There is a tremendous amount of sales training material available. If you are the type of person who believes in continuous learning and are always looking for ways to improve your skills or gain an edge, you’ve probably already purchased many of these books, tapes, DVDs and other programs. Have you ever purchased a sales program that sounded great when you bought it but once you received it you discovered you are not able to implement the ideas and tactics it recommended?
Before you spend another penny on a sales training program (whether it’s your money or your company’s money), make sure it is based on these four principles that will provide an infallible road to your professional development and sales success.
Know your strengths. If you’re serious about improving as a sales professional, it pays to have a detailed understanding of your strengths and the skills you’ve developed. Many sales training programs take a “one-size-fits-all” approach. What would happen to your results if the program you used was designed to help you build on your strengths (rather than just assume everyone is starting at the same place)?
Understand your weaknesses. Half of being smart is knowing what you’re dumb at. What weaknesses are holding you back? More importantly, do you have any hidden weaknesses that can neutralize your strengths? Do these weaknesses get in the way when you try new sales moves or tactics? What would happen to your results if you could have a sales training program tailored to help you address your specific weaknesses?
Blended learning delivers better results. Getting new information into your brain multiple ways will help you increase results. Repetition is critical to learning and it is even more powerful when you receive the same information in a visual setting, reinforced with audio, and then reinforced again with live learning. What would happen to your results if you had access to a training program designed to deliver information in a blended learning environment?
Ownership. Nobody else is responsible for the results you produce. It’s up to you and only you. The decisions you make today will have a profound impact on the results you produce tomorrow. Are you doing everything you can to improve your skills and upgrade your sales knowledge? Do you want to improve your results and are you willing to do whatever it takes to get better? What would happen to your sales results if you really took ownership of your destiny and made the commitment to build on your strengths and address your weaknesses once and for all?
Now that you know these four bedrock principles, take ownership of them and apply them when you make the decision to be committed to sales success.
Six weeks ago I was as big of a “social media” skeptic as you could find. Even though I had used them, it was hard for me to imagine LinkedIn or Twitter as serious business-to -business marketing tools. I thought of these platforms as interesting diversions, but not serious business development tools. The target market for my sales force development consulting business is comprised of Presidents, CEOs, and Business Owners of companies with $5-$50 million in annual sales that have a direct sales force and are located in Southeastern Wisconsin. There are about 400 such people that fit this description and I highly doubted I could reach them through these channels.
What I’ve learned over the past six weeks is that I was wrong, but not in the way I expected. Let me back up. I started my B2B sales blog over two years ago and while I’ve had a lot of fun writing it, and I believe it has helped establish my expertise in the B2B sales arena, it never generated any business opportunities. However, six weeks ago I made the commitment to step up my writing and set the goal of writing one new post a week. Additionally, I decided to engage the community on LinkedIn by also posting this information to various groups and asking questions related to each.
The results have been remarkable. I’ve received many messages and e-mails asking me for more information, offering more ideas and wondering if my company offers individual training programs for sales people and sales managers. Currently, we don’t. Our approach is customized based on what we uncover when we evaluate sales organizations. I’ve never really thought about taking what we do for our corporate engagements (high-end custom programs) and provide something similar for individuals. That is, until now.
The question I ask myself is: How can I deliver a program that is tailored to the individual needs of a sales person or sales manager – based on his or her unique strengths and weaknesses – at a price point that would allow an individual to buy it on his or her own, without asking his or her company for permission?
I have some ideas, but I would love your input. Right now I’m thinking of two separate courses. Each would be a series of web courses, one for sales people and another for sales managers, where the curriculum could be tailored to address the specific weaknesses of each participant (based on an assessment we would provide). I believe each course should include some basic “blocking and tackling” content that everyone can benefit from reviewing and then the rest would be personalized based on the areas an individual needs to focus on to improve. I would then host a series of webcasts reviewing the sales or sales management content, addressing individual questions, role playing, discussing how to apply the general lessons to specific sales situations, and so on.
Is this a program that you would be interested in? How much would you be willing to invest in this type of a program? What else would you like to see in it? Please let me know your thoughts because you are changing my business!
Executive Breakfast – In 90 minutes you'll learn:
If your existing salespeople have what it takes to grow your company;
To see the difference between salespeople who might sell and those who actually will sell;
Whether your salespeople have the crucial elements necessary for sales success;
The top five things on which sales managers should be spending 85% of their time; and,
Real world case histories that will shed light on lost opportunities, slipping margins, rising cost of sales, complacency, and more.
Milwaukee Event - Thursday, October 30th
Time: 7:30 am breakfast, 8:00 am seminar
Where: Crowne Plaza Hotel, 10499 Innovation Drive, Wauwatosa, WI
Cost: $50 per person
Chicago Event - Thursday, November 6th
Time: 7:30 am breakfast, 8:00 am seminar
Where: Westin Hotel, 70 Yorktown Shopping Center, Lombard, IL
Cost: $50 per person
Take a look at Dave Kurlan's post today documenting the statistical differences between men and women in a sales role.
The statistics support Tom Peters recent assertion that "Women are better salespeople than men."
Great stuff! Thanks Dave!
There is tremendous fear in the air right now as business leaders across the country prepare their sales forecasts for 2009. And here’s why: It’s difficult to know what their customers are going to spend. It’s difficult to know what their competitors are going to do. And it’s difficult to know how their sales people – many of whom were top performers in a strong economy – will handle the increased pressure of eroding margins, greater resistance, delayed decisions, and irrational competition.
Now more than ever is the time for clear thinking and decisive actions. Business leaders who make the right decisions over the next 12-18 months will still be around when the economy recovers. Those who take a “wait and see” approach may not be.
But where do you start? What can Presidents, CEO’s and Business
Owners do to make sure their sales organization is positioned to succeed in a
down economy? Here are three things to focus on as you prepare to lead your company in this tough economic environment.
1. Trim the Fat
The first thing senior management must do is trim the fat. We may be entering what one client of ours described as a category five financial hurricane. If that is true, it is imperative that you make the tough decisions to eliminate anything that is not moving your business forward. This may include people, systems, product lines and anything else that is weighing down your balance sheet or eating into your profit margins. Let’s focus specifically on your sales organization by considering the following questions:
In this uncertain time, what can you do to make sure you fully understand the strengths and weaknesses of your sales organization? What actions can you take to conduct a thorough review of your sales organization to make sure you have the right people on the bus? Is there any fat to trim on your sales team?
2. Align sales and operations with your most profitable markets
Do you know which products or services produce the greatest margins in your business? Will those products or services continue to be in demand in a down economy? If not, which products and services do you offer that will be critical to your customers and prospective customers? What are the things your company offers that your clients must spend money on even in a down economy? Focus on those products and services and make sure everyone in sales and operations understands and is aligned with this strategy.
3. Raise expectations
Now is not the time to lower expectations. As the leader of your company it is your responsibility to set the course by raising expectations across the board. If you allow yourself to lower expectations or use the economy as an excuse, what makes you think the people in your company won’t do the same thing? This is important across your entire company, but is especially important when it comes to your sales organization.
Leadership starts at the top of the organization. It is up to the President, CEO, or Business Owner to set the tone for the decisive actions required to successfully navigate through these economic times. Trim the fat (not the muscle), align your organization with the most profitable segments in your market, and raise expectations across the board and especially within your sales organization.
Sometimes there are exciting things happening around us. Here’s one of those things.
You’ve probably heard more than enough economic doom and gloom in the media these days. And maybe you’ve even heard other business people saying that business is down because no one makes any decisions before a presidential election.
Just imagine the self-fulfilling prophesy that is being created. Business people everywhere doing nothing because they are “programmed” to behave that way.
Yet, opportunity abounds for those who remain open to it. I am part of a teleseminar series designed to help business owners kick back at the economic rumors.
This seminar series is designed to get real results, real information into your hands and head, steps to take to move forward. There are a total of 7 business experts assembled. Each will talk to you for one hour on a different day. Each hour will be jam-packed with good information.
The entire series, seven hours of education, is priced at only $99. But right now, I can provide you with a VIP code that saves you $79 off that price. That’s right, the final price is only $20 for the entire teleseminar series. Even if you can only listen in to my session you’ll find it worthwhile.
As you absorb this information you will see how taking steps now can move you ahead of your competition. The series begins August 26. Access is limited so please sign up now.
Click the link below. Be sure to use the promo code, kte2008, to get that big discount.
www.kicktheeconomy.com/go/MikeCarroll
You’ll enjoy this!
What I love about Dave Kurlan's Baseline Selling philosophy is its simplicity. You gain tremendous clarity and focus by thinking one step at a time as you work around the bases using Dave's baseball diamond metaphor.
If you don't have a defined sales process, this approach works great because it's so simple and easy to understand. If you already have a sales process, this approach works great as an overlay that will help clarify your thinking no matter what sales system you currently use. If you haven't read the book yet, go buy it and start reading right away.
We use this approach quite a bit in our Sales Force Development practice at Intelligent Conversations and have recently added a little wrinkle that has produced strong results for a client. The first thing we needed to do is get our client to slow down between first and second. Rather than rushing off with the first compelling reason (or pain point) they discovered, we've asked them to slow down and keep asking questions. We told them they cannot recommend a solution until they have at least six issues or pain points identified. And they need the prospect to review the list, prioritize them and quantify the cost of not solving the issues on the board (in terms of hard costs, opportunity costs, reputation risk, etc.).
But before going to Third Base, we now have our client selling a "Blue Print" meeting to the prospect for $995. This is a technology company and the Blue Print meeting is basically a requirements gathering step that will enable them to deliver "The Exact Solution" when they get to Third Base. Adding this step has produced several strong results.
As you consider your sales process, is their a similar opportunity for you to provide value at Second Base before moving onto Third Base? Can you help your prospect sort through the different options available to them and think about the problems you've identified in a different fashion? What would happen to your sales results if you found a way do this? Could you charge for it? Would it be valuable enough for the prospect? Let me know your thoughts.
President of Intelligent Conversations and Sales Force Development Expert
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