This next few posts are dedicated to training your different team members. Since there will be an entire series on training, and each group will be covered in detail, I did not want anyone to mistake this for that.
What your plan needs is dedicated time for achieving particular goals. The training goals require looking at particular roles and slicing up the plan.
For hunters, it is important to train to five areas:
1. Organization and time management
2. Segmenting activity
3. Pipeline development
4. Qualifying and objection handling
5. Pitch and cold call communication
Hunters tend to have a short retention span. A good coach does not get flustered at having to repeat training for hunters. If you teach to five points a rep may get one. When the rep gets a couple more the first may be gone. This is what makes for good hunters, the attention span leaves them forgetting the “No’s”.
Plan to have mini individual trainings in your one on one each week. These will focus on activity and time management. Give them tips on how to maximize their efforts and repeat them weekly.
Have monthly trainings dedicated to calls and qualifying. Work on objection handling in every weekly meeting. Let the successful teach their part and work your plan around those who “Get it”. Cycle through your trainings and repeat. It is wise to have a years worth of training and to spruce them up as you bring them around again.
Also, get you hunters reading. There are many books on sales, but what hunters need is books on personal development. The tricks of life will keep them focused, and if you can get them into some leadership reads, they will thrive.
I will give a recommended read list next year, but for now at least get them training. The more they hear, the more they will absorb. The more they absorb, the more they will sell.
The surest sign of a successful plan is the portion that addresses how you are going to build your own team of coaches. While it is always healthy to bring in new ideas when seeking out additions to your team, the brightest players that simultaneously show leadership skills should flourish in your system. Never underestimate the reason you hired a sales rep. Good role models make great leaders if fed the right concepts and encouragement. Designate some time each day to the simple task of thinking about the personality of each of your team members.
Analyze the individual, but never get assumptive. Some of our greatest leaders where discounted early on in life and inevitable are part of a story where they ended up surpassing those that held them down. Create an environment that affords your team members to make amends for their past. Give them the tools and training to become better tasked with leading by example. The harder someone works to climb their way up, the more likely they are to relish in the opportunity.
Drive is a key part in becoming a leader, as are skill and intelligence. However, the key ingredient to any leader is a preference to help those in need. Without this natural inkling to be there for others, one is incapable of coaching. Hunt for this in your employees. Look for those who by habit are there for their peers. They are rarely the ones talking about it, and are more often only thanked by the appreciation they get from the team. Modesty is a rare sales quality, but the humility to aid your peers without trumpeting your endeavors is not the same thing. It is better.
When growth or attrition permits you the challenge of bringing up a new manager/coach, make sure to create an open playing field. If you are already biased and leaning towards a particular candidate, interview them after you have interviewed the rest of the candidates. Keep your ego in check; do not answer questions for them, or curry special favor. Make their interview the toughest, as you already think they are the best, let them prove it. Your team will often surprise you, but only if you are open minded and give all of your potential leaders a chance.
Start with the end in mind. Hire people with the intent of giving them a career path. If they have chosen leadership as a direction, then build a plan that gets them there. Do not dangle carrots, create objectives and your team will reap the benefits.
Well I was going to start this post by exclaiming how excited I am to be using SalesForce again and going to DreamForce to build content for my CRM series next month. Unfortunately they have denied my press pass, and frankly I cannot see why I would spend $500-$1000 to go.
The planning of what CRM to use, how to use it, and how to maximize the tool for increasing sales is relative to your product or service, your market, and your price point. What I can comfortably say is every organization can benefit from a CRM, and On Demand or Software as a Service (SaaS) is the way to go!
What is challenging is writing this article without Bias, so I will talk to my favorite CRM, and then move into why it is not ideal. There are four that I am really familiar with, and they all have unique abilities. They are:
Netsuite – My favorite for flexibility and dashboards. Reporting is a bit weak, especially for activity tracking. It hangs a bit at times, and there were(are) some minor bugs. My favorite item is that you can set a KPI (Key Performance Indicator) for ANYHTING! Great for small business and startups – everything is editable from every screen! Every screen has drag and drop for changing around views. It also does everything from lead to quote, quote to order, order to cash, order to ship, AP, AR, and GL. This means one service can run as a miniature ERP for your whole company. If you are not clear on these processes, it just means you can do everything from enter leads, to quotes, to orders, to inventory, to shipping, to billing, to collections, to closing your books. It also manages marketing campaigns and tracks cases for support and service.
A great benefit is reps can see transactions, get quote and orders approved through the service. You can see if an order was approved, shipped, back-ordered, paid for, etc… If you are small and growing, or have a need for a complete system, this tool is amazing.
SugarCRM – You cannot beat the open source price of free. It has a great core product, and if you spend a little you can add on some amazing modules. It is a bit quirky in its queries, things sometimes do not appear. If you are a small company, or you have a small number of prospects, this is a great tool. Out of the box the reporting is abysmal, but there are some four star dashboard and report add-ons. It can also be difficult to customize cells and pages, since the back-end codes and db configurations take some computer language knowledge.
Right Now! – Hands down the best tool ever designed for customer service! Also Right Now has some of the detailed reporting available, and it is out of the box. If you are an analyzer to the Nth degree, this is the tool for you. I would recommend it for anyone that has a more inbound sales model that requires online customer service portals. It gives you amazing FAQ features and online support. It also tracks communications via e-mail and online submissions. You will have faster response times to issues, and a minimal amount of unresolved cases. I will say it again, customer support LOVES IT!
SalesForce – The industry standard, and overall a solid tool. I have many complaints about SalesForce’s limitations, but admittedly am using it for the third time and quite comfortable with what it can do. My number one and two complaints:
1. SalesForce does not do quotes, quote to opportunity, or anything even close. This is a real drag, as you have to have a completely different quote engine. This makes it challenging to match quotes to pipeline and activity to sales goals. SalesForce, please do this soon!
2. SalesForce does not have edit capabilities from the home page, the main account page, the activity views, etc… This feature makes EVERYONE more efficient. If SalesForce could do this, I would never look at another CRM. Well, maybe if it did quotes and edits…
Now that we have listed four tools and some basics, let me share that there are many more out there. I do not want to limit this post to my personal knowledge, but I am not doing CRM’s reviews. If you have some input on a different CRM, send me an e-mail @ newoptions2006@yahoo.com. I will look at your thoughts and add it to the following benefit to need section.
The next thing to determine is why you need a CRM in the first place.
• If you are like my current company and you have a high outbound call volume, a large lead base, and low cost product, you need a CRM to keep your head above water. Use it for Account, Contact, and Activity management. Forget pipelines and forecasting as the sales cycle is too short. More time spent on focusing on sales to close and activity will drive the needed revenue. Set up your system to allow for quick noting and call tracking through a dashboard or reminders.
• If you are like my last organization and you are selling high dollar services/products, and have a long sales cycle. Focus on the note taking aspect of activities and pipeline to forecast. Your CRM needs to have strong forecasting tools and allow for several people to view the long term pipeline. Notes should be detailed and systems for listing objectives and goals should be implemented.
• If you are selling products/services that allow for repetitive deals, like advertising, medical supplies or clothing, you should set up your CRM to forecast and remind for calls/visits based on a timeline. Notes are not as critical, but maintaining visibility into sales vs. expectations is immense.
These are the basics to setting up the CRM plan. I will go into several more detailed CRM posts in a series on applications and each unique scenario for adding value to particular industries. It will start in December or right after I finish the next series of posts on training. There are eight more posts coming in the series titles Building a Plan, and I will do my best to get them out in the next couple weeks.
This post will be short and to the point. Something you should be prepared to do when letting someone go. There is nothing wrong with giving someone a chance, but it has to correlate with a strong possibility of success. If a team member cannot live up to expectations you MUST remove them from the team.
There are ways to prepare that can cause minimal impact. First make sure you set parameters for underachievers. This is when you should start to dig in and get detailed in the plan. The objectives should be based on activity/metrics and closes. Make solid numbers and do not waver for any reason. Stay consistent and people will know what to expect. If you tell someone they have to make 50 dials, send 20 e-mails, or go on 4 appointments a day and they do not, they have fired themselves. If you instruct them to have a certain number of sales by the end of the month and they miss, they know the verdict.
When you let someone go, make sure it is a private conversation and you have exactly what you are going to say prepared in advance. Do not get caught up in their emotional reaction. If they yell, stay cool and maintain your composure. If they cry, do not give in and lend support or sympathy. The most important part of your role at this point is to maintain professionalism.
Take people directly to their belongings and escort them out yourself. Do not hand them off to HR or someone else. DO THIS PERSONALLY. It is important that you close the loop on the relationship you started, and make sure that nothing distracts you from this task. This is a person’s life you are effecting, turn off the cell phone, make sure your superiors know to leave you alone, and anything else can wait.
I want to reiterate something from the previous post. Young coaches will want to save everyone. If someone cannot perform to the necessary expectations, this attitude will cause personal failure. We are not life coaches, trying to help everyone live better. While this is a benefit of our success as sales coaches, we have to remember that our goal is to increase the sales of an organization. Without this in the front of our mind at all times, we have drifted from our own performance expectations.
Before we dive into this topic I would like everyone to take note of the title. It stresses the less successful, not the less willing. I will break down the difference between those you work with and those you weed out by splitting verbal hairs; I will capitalize and place in bold print these dichotomies in this post. There are several fine lines that determine whether someone can be mentored. It is the folly of many young coaches to think they can save everybody. This is why we build performance expectations. If someone does not live up to the expectation, their presence is dangerous to the unity of the team. This can pertain to the most talented, the most willing, and the most likable of employees. A successful coach should mentor for success and never have to babysit (manage).
So what do we do with those that ARE not successful? First we have to determine if they are WILLING TO DO the things necessary to BE successful, and do they HAVE THE ABILITY to achieve success. This is an important combination.
We can motivate through communication and behavior. We can single out the champions and work with the challenged. We can learn ones behaviors and coach individuals at their level. What we cannot do, is force someone to come into work on time, or to stay focused on their work day. We cannot create character where there was none before. We are not tasked with making dishonest people honest. We cannot change the mental fortitude of the mundane, the bitter, or the resentful. You are a coach; people on your team should manage themselves. WHEN FACED WITH THE UNWILLING, TERMINATION IS MANDATORY.
At the same time, the most willing of participants cannot overcome challenges is they lack the aptitude or experience to build a solid foundation. We are educators, but we cannot be expected to teach English or Math. We cannot be expected to teach the quick minded skills for objection handling, or the patience to listen to a prospects needs. We can advise, but if someone lacks those abilities, it is hard to keep them around. After all, in building this plan, our objective has to be to deliver sales consistently. This means the plan should have a measurement of success for those not meeting expectations. Typically there is a three to four month “plan” that people are placed on. I think this is A WASTE OF TIME. If you think someone has the right attitude and character, and it drives you to want to mold them into an achiever, then DEDICATE THE TIME TO DO IT NOW! Spend entire days working with them. Give them every chance to make change now. If you do not see improvements on a daily basis, you have to let them go. It may seem harsh or unfair, but believe me, people who want to do well, but lack the skills are not happy people. By letting them know they are not right for the job, and helping them seek other opportunities, YOU ARE DOING THEM A FAVOR.
While my next post is about letting people go, I had to preface the parts of the plan related to mentoring the challenged, with who not to mentor. Your time is valuable, and should be utilized each day in a manner that can best promote the individual, the team, and the organization. It is important to take the willing and the capable and make them stars. It is not automatic that good people equal great sales people. It takes work to keep the bottom of the stack rank at a respectable level. So now the go back to the question and change it a bit.
What do we do with people that are not successful, but ARE WILLING and ARE ABLE? There are several areas to focus on, but to dig deeply into the situation you have to start in three main areas:
1. The behaviors exhibited when they were last successful; what has changed?
2. The challenges they are facing in the sales cycle; where are they lacking competencies?
3. The mental obstacles created; what have they created and put in their own way?
What has changed? Your best reps almost always hit a peak and a valley before consistently selling at a high level. The complication comes when one is unable to adapt and determine what caused their difficulties. New hires will sometimes struggle longer than expected and not experience the wins of their last job. In both cases you have the challenge of a bruised ego. Good sales people are hard on themselves by nature. They want to win all the time, and while they are used to hearing no, they are uncomfortable if they do not create the required number of yes’s to shine.
Start with getting them back into the mindset of success. Talk them through their best month at this job or the last. Ask them what they did and how they performed so well. Compliment the areas that they uncover and get excited about it. Now, translate that excitement into ideas. If they said they were more active, ask them how you can help them increase activity. If they said they were feeling hot, dispel the theory of being cold and work with them on their attitude. If they were more familiar with their last offering, get them trained on their current one. Whatever you uncover, use it and make sure to get their buy in that it was a driver for past success.
What are they lacking? Often this will correlate to a new hire’s changes, but this can happen to everyone. Sales skills need to grow and training people is essential to maintaining champions. Even the best reps need tutelage. The main reason for this, is there are great reps working for the competition, and if they are consistently improving their skills, your team’s job gets harder. The more your company and team grow, the more you are in other companies sights. They create competitive sell sheets, they attack your character, and THEY TRY AND WIN YOUR DEALS! Keep your team sharp by educating them regularly, and KEEP THE INDIVIDUAL SHARP BY EXAMINING THEIR SALES PROCESS. It is quite common when a good rep slips, they have started to cut corners on the sales process. Sales people have a habit of eliminating redundancy, and using knowledge to their advantage. This habit can turn a listener into a talker, and a seller into a teller. This habit can turn a closer into a softie. This habit can be poison if you do not address it week in and week out. Take at least two deals in the pipeline each week and examine every aspect of the process.
What have they put in their way? I have a STRONG BELIEF that cold spells are a mental state, not an outside factor. The superstition of hot and cold in sales is ridiculous. The best sales reps NEVER GET COLD, because they always see themselves as hot. Even when they have not sold something in a while, they know that they are about to. In the best reps this confidence is scary. The “cold” rep, is really the beaten rep. The “cold” rep has become afraid, and forgets their abilities. They have challenges that they create. Uncover where these hang ups are. It is not hard. Look for excuses of a consistent nature. Ride along with them and study their behaviors. Look for a willingness to get put off, a loss of excitement in their routine, or an unwillingness to ask for a sale or move a sale through the process. There are obstacles in removing these obstacles. Most reps do not realize they have created the environment and have a tendency to blame others. When you point out these issues, often you become the focus of blame. It is BENEFICIAL and most times ESSENTIAL to have them think they discovered these changes in behavior on their own. It is an art form to get people to see things by having them uncover what you already know. It takes a lot of practice. It also becomes more complicated as your relationship gets stronger. Just think about the last time your spouse told you about one of your hang ups. If you are like me, it stings and puts you on the defensive. In every situation, my wife is always right. I just am unable to hear her in the moment. When I was younger I would claim discovery of a character defect and how I planned to triumph over it. She would just roll her eyes and give me a look that said, “I have been telling you that for a long time.”
Plan for the times when you need to rebuild the abilities of a rep. Make sure a part of every one on one meeting is designed to keep the successful consistently delivering, and help the willing and able become champions.