Category: Sales

The Ivory Tower Vs. The Customer

On By Joe DeRosaIn Business, SalesLeave a comment

ivory tower

Throughout my career I have observed a significant disconnect between C-Suite executives and the customer. I have often wondered why the people with the most power to influence change seem to go to extremes to avoid direct contact with their customers. Meetings are held, strategies are developed, and plans are made all in the name of doing the right thing for the customer – responding to their needs. But how do these executives know what their customers want? They haven’t talked to their customers, met with them, or corresponded with them. They gather input from their key lieutenants, assuming they know. But have they met directly with their customers? No. I have found this phenomenon quite intriguing and have developed some insights as to why this happens.

Television shows like Undercover Boss highlight the disconnect between the Ivory Tower and the customer. The CEOs, COOs, or Presidents go “undercover” to see how things are really working in the field…which is a technical term for real life. My only hope is that most of what is seen on television programs like this one are fiction, to at least some extent. If not, we’re all in big trouble if our executives are that disconnected from the real world.

I believe there are 3 reasons many executives avoid meeting or interacting directly with their customers preferring to take refuge in their Ivory Tower. These reasons tend to be driven more by the executives emotions that tangible difficulties of scheduling time to be in the field. My observations of why these senior executives avoid direct customer interaction include:

1. Already paid dues
2. Fear of not being able to solve the customer’s problem
3. Fear of embarrassment in front of sales or service representatives

Some executives feel they’ve paid their dues and spent enough time in the field as they built their careers creating an imbalance between these aspirations and being truly customer-centric. I’m not saying that focusing on building a career is wrong. What I am saying is that as long as you maintain a genuine focus on the customer career progression usually follows. Once the focus on the customer is lost, in favor of  bigger and better executive perks, an attitude of entitlement develops.

Another reason executives keep out of the field is their fear of not being able to solve the customers problems. Your product isn’t working as advertised, it costs too much, your service is terrible. These are all real life comments I have heard when in the field. They are not easy to deal with especially if the complaint is focused on an area of the business outside of your control. If the Sales executive receives a complaint about service they may feel helpless in providing a satisfactory resolution. But why? One way to eliminate this fear is to build strong relationships with your peers across the business. A simple call to the head of Operations – providing there is a strong and trusting relationship – can quickly provide the resolution necessary to save a client. Many times however these relationships are overlooked or get sidelined in favor of other activities. Life and business are all about relationships. No matter what your level, take the time to foster good relationships at work. You never know when you’ll need them.

Finally I’ve seen first hand how many executives seem to “freeze” when they are in the field with a sales or service representative. Because of the disconnect that exists between the executive and real life, they lose touch with the customer and their ability to empathize is impaired. This impairment becomes visible to the customer and the sales or service representative creating an awkwardness during these encounters. The key to a successful executive field visit lies with the executive’s ability to blend humility with a genuine focus on learning about the customers wants and needs. Showing the sales or service person respect in their arena creates an environment that fosters trust and allows for learning to take place.

How often are your executives in the field? When was the last time your CEO, President, or head of Sales went on a customer visit with you? What do you think the right frequency is for executive field visits? Let me know.

5 Ways to Get the Most Out of Your CRM

On By Joe DeRosaIn SalesLeave a comment

CRM

Sales people everywhere share a common complaint. Regardless of industry, product, service, or company, all sales people feel they spend too much time on administrative tasks versus selling. In fact a recent data point suggests that the average sales person spends less than 20% of their time selling while the remaining 80% is spent on tasks such as recording sales data, completely expense reports, submitting weekly activity reports, or worse attending meetings.

Many sales people are reluctant to use a sales CRM tool. They view it as just one more thing to clog their day of wasted time. Early adoption rates of these tools is low, often times taking more than 18 months for the sales people to embrace and use consistently. Given the cost of these tools how can businesses reduce the ramp time and begin to turn a positive ROI? Here are 5 things you should be doing to accelerate adoption of your sales CRM tool and improve your team’s sales performance:

1. Learn the tool yourself. No you don’t have to be a power user, but know your CRM’s capabilities. If possible hire an expert. An internal resource is one of the best investments a business can make in maximizing their CRM’s power. Too often a business views the cost of a CRM system as “all in”. If the dollars are there and you have a choice between hiring another sales rep or hiring an analyst dedicated to running your CRM, hire the analyst. Like having an airplane without a pilot, a CRM is useless unless you have a skilled operator running it.
2. Have a point of view on how a CRM will improve sales results on an individual level. Remember, WIFM? What’s In It For Me? Sales people don’t really care how this tool will improve team performance. What they really care about is how it will help them. Without a clear picture of how using the CRM will help them be more productive, sell more and make more money, it’s likely that introducing a CRM tool will fall flat. Show people how they can accomplish their goals using it and they will embrace it. Make it clear, make it simple, and provide the training and support to educate.
3. Build a dashboard. Identify key metrics for your business. How many calls, appointments, referrals, sales, etc. Identify required sales activity levels such as how often to contact a prospect or referral source. Set up your dashboard to provide you with a clear and instant snapshot of your sales team’s activity and their associated results. Make these dashboards available to the entire sales team. People by nature like to know where they are, where they’re headed, and if they’re on track. Dashboard’s provide a simple way of keeping up to speed.
4. Modify your regular sales management and coaching meetings to include a CRM review. The saying, “inspect what you expect” couldn’t be more appropriate when it comes to ensuring compliance with sales people inputting their activity and results into a CRM. If you conduct weekly 1:1s with your sales team make sure that some portion of that meeting includes a review of their numbers. Require the sales person to provide you with a print out of their results directly from the CRM itself. Do not accept a handwritten report. Some things are simply not negotiable.
5. Establish regular reviews with Finance. One of the more common complaints about CRM systems is the quality of the information contained within. Meet with your Finance counterpart to bring them into the process when implementing a CRM tool and for the ongoing management of it. By working together on a regular basis you will be able to identify data discrepancies and work together to correct them. The inclusion of Finance will help build trust between Sales and Finance and the integrity of the data produced.

Channel Sales – 5 Ways To Make it Work

On By Joe DeRosaIn SalesLeave a comment

lesson

For years businesses have sold their products direct to the end-user. Going direct required staffing a sales force large enough to cover the geographical area that the business operated within. If it was a national enterprise it would recruit, hire, and build a national sales force with hundreds, if not thousands, of feet on the street. Direct sales has been the typical way to reach the buyers that fit the business’s buyer profile. Remember the Kirby vacuum salesman? Or how about the Tupperware lady? Or the milkman, or the Schwan’s salesperson who came to your door to sell grocery items from their trucks? Times have changed.

Today a more efficient, effective, and economical way to reach large groups of prospects involves developing and building a strong channel sales program. During my career I have built and developed a number of different channel programs across a variety of industries including; financial services, insurance, and business/professional services. Regardless of the product being offered, or the service being promoted, there are common characteristics to establishing high performing channel sales programs. Here are 5 things every successful channel program must include:

1. The right partner. Finding the right partner takes time, patience, and clarity of the objective. But the most important element in finding the right partner boils down to shared values and culture. Most channel sales programs die on the vine because the two partners do not align culturally. As you are seeking partners to work with be sure to inquire as to their company values. Many organizations post these values online. It’s a good place to start to be sure you are both operating from the same vantage point.
2. Clear value proposition. The essence of channel programs is to create a partnership that delivers more value when combined than either partner could deliver separately on their own. Whether it’s combining payroll with workers’ compensation insurance, or Hershey’s chocolate syrup with Betty Crocker brownies, the point is that the new product created is better than either solution sold separately.
3. Easy access. The customer has to be able to access your channel program with ease. Make sure you create a clear sales path for the buyer. Having well-defined roles and responsibilities for each channel partner is critical to ensuring a satisfied buyer. If the new program created by two channel partners is difficult to obtain or access, the program will fall under its own weight. Today many channel programs utilize technology solutions that provide easy access to their offering.
4. Reporting. A dashboard should be created that tracks, records, and reports key metrics agreed upon by both channel partners. Implementing a Quarterly Business Review (QBR) with each channel partner is an important element to growing and maintaining your channel programs.
5. Escalation Process. The best time to talk about what to do if problems arise is before a problem exists. Having shared vision between the channel partners as to how problems should be escalated including roles and responsibilities must happen as the program is being developed but before it launches.

By taking the time to work through each of these steps you will increase the probability of success for your channel programs while minimizing any risks that come with lack of clarity.  Let me know what you think!

How well do you know your customer?

On By Joe DeRosaIn SalesLeave a comment

question

One of business’ golden rules is to know your customer. What exactly does that mean? How well can you, or do you, really know anyone let alone a customer? How far do you go to know your customer? What can you ask or should you ask? What’s off-limits? How much information is too much?

Many businesses stop short of really understanding their customer. Perhaps that’s the key. To understand someone is often times different from “knowing” them. Think about it. Many relationships fail because one person can’t understand why the other says what they say or does what they do. Friendships, marriages, partnerships, and relationships often end, not because people didn’t know the other person, but because they could not understand why they did what they did.

If you have a customer who has done business with you for 10 years, do you really know them? Does the length of time you’ve known someone really mean anything? I’d propose, only if you’ve invested in getting to know them deeply enough to understand them. Many businesses lose customers who have been with them for years. They leave to go to competitors who cost less and, or, offer more. Perhaps if you understood them you’d still have them. So what’s the dividing line between knowing and understanding?

I’d propose that understanding someone requires far more work than knowing someone. How often do we say we “know” someone simply because we had the same class together, worked in the same building or department, or went to the same SPIN class for years? Think about how often you say the words “I know him/her”. But do you know them well enough to predict how they will act or behave? Having that level of insight requires a deep understanding of the person relative to a specific set of circumstances. How will they act if they can save a lot of money? How will they act if provided something for free? What will they do if presented with an opportunity to try something new and unproven but interesting?

Gaining customer insights is a tricky business. You need to ask enough of the right questions that provide you with the appropriate level of understanding but not too much where the customer feels exploited. So where’s the line?

Asking your customers’ how satisfied they are, or how willing they would be to recommend you is just a piece of understanding. Someone can be completely satisfied and recommend you within a given set of circumstances, but change those circumstances and their position shifts. So in addition to asking those questions, I would suggest adding the following:
1. If you lost your largest client what would you do?
2. If sales increased more than 15% in a year what actions would you likely have to take?
3. If overall sales dropped significantly what actions would you likely have to take?
4. What level of savings would interest you enough to perpetuate a change in vendors or partners?

These “what-if” questions will offer insight into how your customers may act when faced with certain situations. Of course no one knows for sure how they will act until they’re faced with specific challenges but these questions can provide insight into their possible actions. Beyond your employees, your customers are your most important asset. Take the time to get to know them…understand them. Make sure they know that you have their best interests in mind and at heart.

5 Steps to Reducing Sales Turnover

On By Joe DeRosaIn SalesLeave a comment

turnover

Employee turnover is a normal part of every business.  People leave companies for a variety of reasons that are either voluntary or involuntary –  a better opportunity elsewhere, a bad boss, poor performance, or compensation issues.  In the Sales profession there are other elements that impact turnover including disagreement on goals or quotas, not enough leads, poor quality of leads, no brand awareness or credibility, and few if any sales tools and resources.  High turnover within Sales can typically be linked to why a company failed.  Recent data suggest that an average sales force experiences somewhere between 20 – 40% turnover each year.  But of course that begs the question…what is average?  And should you care what average is?  Are you really striving for average?  If you are the Sales Leader, will the law of averages protect you and your team from involuntary turnover issues?  In most companies the answer is, average doesn’t matter.

To improve turnover you must first understand what’s driving it in the first place.  This requires thick skin, an open mind, and a willingness to recognize and confront reality.  Diving into a turnover study for most people is scary.  What will I find?  Will I be able to change it?  What if I am the reason for the turnover?  Too often these questions prevent sales leaders from digging in, and taking action, to understand why their sales force is leaving on a all too frequent basis.  However, if you want your company to grow, you need to take a deep breath and begin to assess.  Here are 5 steps to help identify and reduce your sales turnover:

  1. Get in the field.  Every sales leader, up to and including the head of the Sales team, should be in the field…or on the phone if it is an Inside Sales team.  Being in the field allows the leader to see first-hand what the prospect is experiencing.  It also provides critical insights into the sales representatives behaviors.  How well prepared was the rep before making the call?  Did they know their product inside and out?  Do they have the level of business acumen that is required to establish trust and build rapport?  How was their energy level?  Did you feel their passion or were they running through the motions?  Spending time in the field is the perhaps the most important first step you can take to get a handle on your turnover.
  2. Know your numbers.  I’m often amazed at how many sales leaders don’t know their numbers off the top of their head.  Knowing your numbers should be as important as knowing how much gas is in your car.  If you get in your car without checking your fuel gauge you risk running out of gas.  Likewise if you’re not constantly checking your sales numbers you will likely experience a dry pipeline and poor performance results.  Determine what numbers are important to your specific selling process.  Establish definitions for a lead, prospect, or suspect.  Develop sales stages that identify how close a prospect is to committing to a purchase.  Track and record the number of calls made, presentations made, and sales.  Create ratios:  Call-to-Presentation, Presentation-to-Sale, etc.  Ratios are a great way to provide visibility into the effectiveness of your team.
  3. Ask for help.  This is perhaps the most difficult step for a sales leader to take.  There is risk associated with this step depending upon the type of culture that exists in your workplace.  Asking for help can be perceived in one of two ways:  a strength or a weakness.  Having built and led several large sales organizations I find strength in sales leaders that have come to me to ask for help.  Understand there is a difference in engaging someone for their thoughts and ideas as opposed to expecting them to solve your problem.  While I am very willing to offer insights, perspectives and ideas, the sales leader reporting to me still owns fixing the problem.  Think of it as a fitness trainer.  The trainer provides the workout and diet but you still own lifting the weights, running the miles, and eating the right food.  It’s your problem but you have the assistance and guidance of the trainer to make the improvements needed.  If you find yourself in a workplace where asking for help is equivalent to signing your death sentence then you need to decide if that’s the right place for you to be.  One person does not hold all the answers.  That’s why there are executive teams, and board members, because most companies realize and understand that the power of success and growth is dependent upon the combined intelligence and drive of the team…not just one person.
  4. Evaluate your compensation plan.  This can be a time-consuming and emotionally draining effort.  Much has been written about the correlation between sales results and the compensation plan in place for the sales team.  Is it filled with too many carrots?  Is it too much stick?  Is it balanced in a way that provides a win for all stakeholders?  Determining whether or not you have the correct compensation plan in place depends on your company, your product, your margins and a variety of other variable inputs.  However, at its core, a sales compensation plan should provide the sales representative with stronger earning potential the more he or she sells.  If you feel you’re not in a position to complete a thorough assessment of your compensation plan you may want to consider bringing in an outside compensation consultant who specializes in variable compensation plans.
  5. Improve your training.  The age-old debate is what to train first…product or sales.  My belief is that product training must come first.  Without an intimate knowledge of the product or service being sold it is nearly impossible to teach someone how to sell it.  I have seen many companies spend large amounts of money on sales training in the absence of product training resulting in poor sales results and, extreme disappointment.  A well-trained sales professional exudes confidence.  That confidence will ultimately translate into stronger sales results as they will have a better handle on their offering and the value it provides to the buyer.  So before you spend a dollar on pure sales training, look at what exists for product training first.  If nothing, start there and begin to develop product briefs for the sales team.

Buyer Personas. The Key To Sustained Growth.

On By Joe DeRosaIn Business, Marketing, SalesLeave a comment

Who

In my prior blog, 3 Philosophies of a Great Company, I wrote about the importance of knowing your customer.  We’ve all heard this expression before but many companies still struggle with the essence and simplicity of its meaning.  Knowing your customer involves having a thirst for knowledge, the ability to confront reality, and dedicated resources including time and dollars.  Those that embrace this strategic component are those that excel and succeed.

Using a buyer persona process is a great way to get to know your customer.   Companies like Sirius Decisions and HubSpot have invested countless resources in the development of creating a buyer persona process that drives new customer growth while improving the retention rate of existing customers.  When used effectively, buyer personas can become a powerful P&L management tool.  How?  Buyer Personas help to:

  1. Improve target marketing by aligning your product or service to the right audience.  If your product is geared toward SMB (Small-Medium-Business) or enterprise-size companies, your buyer personas will provide critical insights into the buyer behaviors of these specific segments.  Having a deep confidence in knowing your customer helps to avoid wasting precious time, and money, spent marketing to the wrong prospect group.
  2. Provide granular detail around how your prospective buyer thinks and gathers information.  How do they make their buying decision?  This information helps improve your ROI on marketing investments by knowing what to say, where to say it, how often to communicate your message, etc.  Keep in mind that each business could have more than one buyer persona.  A CEO, CFO, Office Manager, General Manager, all make decisions differently.  Why?  Because each have their own perspective from which they process information.  This becomes extremely important when determining where each of these individuals go to find information.  Sirius Decisions concept of “watering holes” illustrates the importance of knowing where to place your message – where your customers and prospects spend their time.
  3. Convert your value proposition into a high-impact message.  The strength of your value proposition is dependent upon how well your message aligns to the needs of your customer or prospective buyer.  You cannot succeed if your value proposition is disconnected from the buyers needs.  Therefore, having a completed buyer persona allows you to take your value proposition and craft it into a specific message that addresses the needs or pain points of that buyer.  Being able to demonstrate to the buyer your understanding of their needs, builds their confidence and, ultimately leads to their conviction to select you as their provider of service.

Think about the companies that really seem to know what the customer wants.  Companies like Apple, Toyota, Cadillac, Samsung, Proctor & Gamble, and Victoria’s Secret are all companies that have taken a buyer persona approach to growing their market share.  They invest heavily in knowing their customer.  They understand that what worked yesterday may not work today given internal or external influences to their market.  The key is change.  Seek it, drive it, embrace it, demand it.  Change is what drives innovation and innovation, if done correctly, drives growth.

3 ways working out can improve your career results

On By Joe DeRosaIn SalesLeave a comment

We all know being physically fit improves your overall health, helps to lose weight if that’s a goal, improves heart health and overall cardiovascular activity.  But there’s another element to being physically fit that transcends the health benefits and provides another incentive for us to hit the gym, streets, basements, or where ever you can engage in physical activity.

Over the years doctors and scientists have studied the effects of physical fitness and the impact it has on your professional results.  You heard right.  Being fit can actually improve your performance on the  job.  Whether you’re a sales rep, surgeon, statistician, seamstress, or scientist, being in shape will drive better results in nearly everything you do.

In Exercise: 7 Benefits of Regular Physical Activity, the Mayo Clinic sites 7 benefits or reasons to exercise.  Benefits #3 and #4, detail how exercise improves your “mood” and gives you “energy”.  Clearly those are two critical elements in successful selling.  Who wants to talk to someone in a bad mood, let alone buy from them.  What about the sales rep who comes in like Eeyore?  What a downer.  Of course you don’t want to walk in bouncing off the rooftop, but clearly you need to have a little giddyup in your step.  A good mood mixed with energy throws off a very positive vibe which translates into confidence and demonstrates strong self-esteem.

Finally, Benefit #5 discusses how regular physical activity promotes healthy sleep patterns.  Sleep is an essential part of restoring the brain and keeping it functioning properly.  The Franklin Institute study, Renew:  Sleep and Stress, cites many benefits to “normal” sleep patterns including your ability to learn accompanied by improved memory.  Again, two things every sales professional can benefit from.  On the flip side, lack of sleep, according to the study, results in increased risk of diabetes, Alzheimer, stroke, and depression.

Of course exercise takes commitment and discipline.  As a life-long student of fitness I hit the gym 6 days a week for 60 -90 minutes.  I do something different each day to keep it interesting.  I mix single work-outs with class settings like SPINNING.  Exercise for me has given me the ability to hold my focus for long periods of time during the day in critical business situations.

So if you’ve found your sales results to be flat, think about adding exercise to your day.  If you’re already exercising daily try something different.  There are so many different options available today it’s unbelievable.  Whether it’s Yoga, Pilates, Crossfit, or a simple walk around the block, take action and drive your performance to the next level.  It’s all you.

The anatomy of a great Sales presentation

On By Joe DeRosaIn SalesLeave a comment

Over the years I’ve read hundreds of sales books.  I’ve attended countless sales training sessions with various philosophies from Spin Selling to Solution Selling, and Relationship Selling.  As I’ve sat through these courses as both a rep and ultimately as the head of Sales I began to watch expressions and reactions to the material being presented.  I have seen the excitement, and the hunger, in people’s eyes as they listened intently with the hope that “this will be the training that changes everything” for them, and that “this class will provide the silver bullet” that has eluded them throughout their career.   Most often times they’re wrong.

A recent article on training cited a statistic that 87% of sales training was forgotten within the first 30 days.  This begs the question, why?  Is it because the philosophies being taught are not good?  Are the different sales processes wrong?  Is it just bad information?  Is it because the rep tried it and it didn’t work?  I would offer that all of these sales methodologies have great aspects to them. They all offer tremendous insights and perspectives on various sales situations.  But there’s no such thing as one-size fits all when it comes to Sales training.  Why?  Because all people are different and as such react in different ways when they are being sold to.  That means it’s incumbent on the sales rep to be savvy enough to know what elements to apply in any given situation.

No Sales training methodology will work 100% every time.  The key is knowing what pieces to take from each perspective and incorporate them into your own style and process.  The best sales people know what to say, when to say it, when not to say anything, what questions to ask, how to ask them, and when to ask.

Recently I participated in a discussion on “What makes a great Sales Presentation?”  Some of the responses were very classroom-ish.  The fact is, the more complex you make something the less likely it will be tried, let alone followed.  As such I put together my own step-by-step recommendation for delivering consistent, high-quality sales presentations.

To get the most out of every Sales presentation follow the steps below:

1. Prepare – know the buyer persona you will be meeting with, your competition, your own products and services.

2. Be early. If you’re on time you’re late.

3. Dress the part. I can’t tell you how many sales presentations I’ve sat through where the reps tie was not straight or a blouse had one too many buttons undone. Attention to the small details says a lot about you.

4.SMILE – no one wants to spend time with a grouch or scary person!

5. Listen twice as much as you talk – that’s why we have 2 ears and one mouth.

6. If your product requires a formal presentation use an iPad and get theSlideshark app. It is a powerful tool and demonstrates your ability to “integrate” various tools into a process…the sales process.

7. Boil your presentation down to 3 salient points…be clear and concise but have back-up and detail should the buyer want to dive deeper.

8. Gain continuous buy-in. Throughout your presentation make sure you check in with the buyer to gain their continued approval and agreement. When you get to the end you can sum up your presentation by saying, “we agree this solution makes sense for your business so lets talk about next steps”

9. No matter what the outcome, shake hands, smile, thank them for their time and let them know you will keep in touch…then do it!

Give this a try for a month, or however long it takes you to do no less than 25 presentations.  Then let me know what your results were.  Remember, to be successful in Sales you MUST be a continuous learner, broadening, and deepening your perspective each and every day with each and every presentation you give.  Not even the 9 steps above are a silver bullet but they can certainly help you improve  your overall sales effectiveness.

Like this if it helped.

Happy Selling!