Building a sales plan: Making Change – Stop and THINK

Well, I kept my word and posted every day since coming back to the blog. How fitting that my last post in the series of building a plan would come on the last day of 2007. Even more fitting that it is about making change. At a time when everyone is resolving to make improvements or adjustments in their life, I warn you against making them rashly. When you build a plan for the sales arm of your organization, or for your small corner of it, APPLY IT BEFORE ABANDONING OR ADDING TO IT! A bad boss, but a great reiterator of insight once told me something that stuck, “You have to run the play the way it was written, and when it fails, run it again. If it fails again, run it again. Each time you can study what happened and analyze why. Was it the players, the timing, the execution? If it was none of these things, then you examine the play.”

It is important that you believe in your talents. If you have what it takes to build a plan, and have the buy in of your partners, peers, and superiors, then you should run the thing before making adjustments. If you do not know the why behind a failing or non performing plan, then you cannot fix it by making abrupt changes.

To compound things, most Sales reps abhor change. Even when they move to a new company the systems, rules of processing orders, e-mail tools, all cause some frustration. When you enlist them in your plan for successful selling you have to let them first get their legs under them, then help them address their challenges, then watch them run. If you have the right people, and treat them properly, your plan should shine.

Finally, no matter how great a new idea is, it can wait. Weigh the risk of initiating something new over the fallout of what was left behind. You can always make a change later; you can never undo one you have made without losing the respect of some if not all of your team. You have worked too hard to get to this point to become your own greatest challenge.

HAPPY NEW YEAR AND GOOD LUCK IN 2008!

Building a sales plan: Making Yourself Available – Be there or fail

With only two posts left in the series on building a plan I wanted to pause and stress these final posts’ importance. Making yourself available to your team AT ALL TIMES is imperative to successful coaching. Without belief that you are there to help them in times of need, your team will not buy in to your philosophies. A great deal of being a successful coach is letting your team members manage themselves and grow into their roles. If you are going to promote a healthy environment for this growth then you must ensure that they understand that if they work within your system, you will always buy in to their needs and help them achieve.

If you are managing a team, or leading an organization, you cannot help but scoff at me and think, “Easier said than done.” With team meetings, individual meetings, shadowing calls, ride-alongs, plans to generate, trainings to prepare for, pipelines to study, forecasts to develop, individual sales plans to write, reports to review, CRM’s to maintain, e-mails to answer, calls to take, customers to assist, and executives to report to, problem reps to work with, absent reps to cover for, and all of the little fires to put out on a regular basis; how does anyone manage to find time to stop what they are doing and help a team member? Especially when they come charging into your office with an, “I need you now!” attitude.

Well, first of all you do. Period, end of statement! Even if you are working with someone else, you stop and at least listen to their crisis. The reason, you have properly coached your team on the parameters of bursting into your area and demanding immediate attention. And if you have not, then after you help them it is time to retrain them on these guidelines for getting your assistance. The way to do this is to set up different forms of communication for different types of needs. List out a process as follows:
1. If it can wait more than 24 hours, I.E. an idea for our next training, or how to better sell our product, or a question about next month’s quota, or a buddy who might be a good fit, or even a mistake on some report that has you in second place in a contest, SEND AN E-MAIL!
2. If it is something of an important nature, but the response is not needed immediately, use the phone or send an instant message. I.E. You need help strategizing on a call next week, or are having trouble figuring out an application, or need some help roll playing an objection, or have forgotten part of a training.
3. If it is regarding a sale on the line, an irate prospect or customer, systems are down and you cannot work, a violation of HR policy (harassment), or something that is immediately effecting your ability to do your job, BARGE ON IN AND WE CAN TALK!

If you properly set these parameters and coach to them, only the obstinate will ignore them. Chances are that these people will eventually work their way into the system, or by sheer disdain of their co-workers, move on to another job. If not, you may have to get a little harder on them, but always show your support by helping them with an immediate need.
Now some of you may not be into typing out guidelines; I am in your camp. What I do is train as a group in the generals, then as people struggle to grasp what is urgent I coach them with these questions:
1. Is the answer to your question going to affect something you are doing this week? If the answer is no, write an e-mail.
2. Is the answer to your question going to affect something this week, but not something today? If the answer is yes, pick up the phone or send an instant message, knowing it may take some time to get a response. The beauty is that if available an answer is going to come.
3. Is the answer to your question hurting your ability to accomplish something RIGHT NOW? If the answer is yes, then get over to my desk and let me give you a hand. If I am in the middle of another emergency, wait for me at your desk, AND I WILL BE RIGHT THERE!
This attention to needs will garner respect from your team. Whether they ever say anything about it, I guarantee that you will have their respect as a team player who supports what you teach. Try it, you will not regret it.

RSS Hugger – A review for a new idea

I have found a site called RSS Hugger and am quite excited. I believe their idea will help bloggers and avid blog readers find more obscure blogs with important content. For those of us who just want to write about our passions, and not get encumbered with advertising gimmicks, this seems cool.

They will definitely grow from viral marketing as all of us continue to talk about them, but hey good ideas can come from anywhere.

Anyways, here is there link, http://www.rsshugger.com and now back to the blog…

Building a sales plan: Competition – Taking the high road

Your sales rep is in a groove. They have a hot prospect, actively interested in your solution, asking questions that scream “SALE”. They pick up the phone or walk into their office and WHAM, the prospect has questions that can only be planted by the competition. Their competitor, another sales rep touting the superiority of their solution, is busily trying to undermine the efforts of your rep. The instinctive reaction, and one that all too many of us engage in, is to start bashing the competition. This manner of handling the competition tends to wage a competitive struggle that slows down the sales process as the prospect tries to decide which is the lesser of two evils.

If your team works the sales process properly, and from the beginning expects competition to enter the arena before they close the deal, it is easy to avoid these situations. As coaches, it is our job to prepare our team for any situation they may face, while simultaneously giving them the tools to close sales quickly and efficiently. If your rep is prepared, they have:

1. The ability to talk about the unique offerings or variables associated with your solution.

2. Can demonstrate how vital these unique features or benefits are vital to the prospect’s needs.

3. Can take the high road by not pointing to the flaws in the competition.

By doing so, the competitors that try and attack your product look like politicians slinging mud.

So how do we get there? We have to gather data, and back it up with customers. Here are the things that can help you win most competitive situations:

1. As many unique characteristics of your product, service, company, people, that can address different value or pain points. If you are the best priced product, it does not speak to having the fastest or strongest solution. If you are the strongest, it does not help in a budgetary situation. Make sure you can tailor each data point to your prospects particular needs. Go to engineering, R&D, product marketing, and anyone else who is busily trying to make your solution better. Learn from them why they work for your company, what they take pride in. These are usually the value points that make them proud of what they do. These things should be what help sell your product.

2. Get customers to speak to these particular variables. If you are in a competitive battle, nothing helps more that having a current customer back you up. If you have won a competitive deal, or even better, have converted a customer form a particular competitor; get them in front of your prospect. Yes, you should take the high road, but there is nothing wrong with one of your clients talking about their problems with a competitive solution.

3. Train your team to start presenting the uniqueness of your product from the beginning. If you plant the right seeds early, and get the prospect attached to offerings only your company can offer, you will already have a leg up on the competition. Usually, when a particular need is met in the right way, anyone who cannot address this need is dismissed.

4. Keep in touch with all of your competitors advancements. There are always going to be improvements and advances in your competition’s solutions, and if you are winning deals in competitive situations, be prepared for them to catch up. Knowing what the other product does can help you strategize on how to counter.

When we start with the end in mind, and build value that cannot be denied, we win sales. Ensuring that our team members can overcome anything competition throws at them is a vital part of any sales plan.

Building a sales plan: Planning to Train – Collaborators

Collaborators are easy to spot; they get the fancy titles that really just mean sales person. Director of Business Development, Vice President of Strategic Alliances, all of these great names aid them in getting in front of high level executives.

They dress in suits, are always carrying their laptop cases/briefcases, and are glued to their blackberries. They have little time for traffic safety, let alone meetings that will not turn into more opportunities for their high dollar, low volume, and long sales cycle deals. While many of us in the coaching and leadership roles have worked to this level before crossing over, some of us have never had that opportunity. If you are not a collaborator, or have never been one, you CANNOT COACH ONE. This does not mean you cannot have them on your team. It does not mean you cannot manage their work, pipeline, work habits, and mental state. It means that if you want them to grow as individuals, and blossom into consistent closers, you must have outside help. It can be other executives in your company, your CEO or another sales head with the experience. The key is, the person has walked the road of brokering with the top tier. Personally, I prefer to bring in trainers for this group, even if I can do the job myself. Why? Collaborators have worked hard to get where they are; they consider themselves experts, and need the voice of other experts to get them to stop and listen.

This may sound contradictory to what I mentioned earlier about good coaches training their teams, but when you get to higher level sales members, it is important to treat them as leaders. Know your limits as an educator. This does not mean you can skip the training. You should learn the curriculum ahead of time, and try and be an active participant in the studies. Train by their side, and meet with them over lunch a few weeks after your sessions. Share ideas and experiences based on what you have learned. This will strengthen the message, and if executed well, continue to foster a level of trust between you.

Finally, a critical element to training Collaborators is energy. Your training and trainer (you?) must be dynamic and engaging. Look at it like a cold call; you have about 10 seconds to grab ‘em, 10 more to get them interested, and 10 more to get their buy in to continue listening. Do not bring them into training just for the sake of training. If that first 30 seconds does not get them to open their ears, you may as well send them out on their next appointment. Frankly, if they are not going to get anything out of the training, they have better things to do.