“So, what is going on with this account?”
“Oh, I am waiting for them to call me back. They are interested, but want to talk things over.”
Sound familiar? Well, I hear it all the time, and it is one of the most challenging things to coach out of a sales person’s rhetoric. What most sales people seem to forget is that the primary objective for every communication with a prospect is to progress your sale a little closer to bringing in some revenue. This cannot be done without gaining commitment at every stage and IN EVERY COMMUNICATION!
Here are some basic ways to gain commitment:
1. Ask for it! In “High Probability Selling” by Jacques Werth lays this out really well. Whenever a point is made by either party, you ensure that it is relevent and if terms are met then it moves you forward.
2. Demand it! Make sure that your conditions for commitment are being met. If a prospect does not show you the same respect you are showing them, sell to someone else.
3. Use integrity as your calling card. Too many reps will over promise or not make clear points in fear of losing a sale. These errors early on waste time and cost sales. If you are afraid of sharing something, it is time to lay it out there. If it costs you the sale, you never had it in the first place.
4. Track it! When you get commitment, log it! You can use these points in future connections and if there are discrepancies, see points 2 and 3.
5. Plan for it! Know what commitments you can make and need to move a sale along. These details will speed up your process and weed out the non-opportunities.
This series will have several posts and the next will relate to good questions for the commitment objective.
So now we have the right understanding of how people buy. We have the proper process and analysis to improve our forecasting. The last piece of the puzzle involves rolling up the sleeves and executing on the plan.
Coaches are always chanting their favorite mantra, execution, execution, from sports, to performance arts, to the sales floor. We all know that the most well thought out plans are worthless without the buy in and talents of the players. So how do we get the team to execute.
With these 7 tips I assure you that many new issues will arrive. Meet every challenge head on, and if you are unsure of how to manage something, bring in advisors. An accurate pipeline is by far the greatest tool a salesteam can have. It paves the way for success that us measured and budgeted. Good luck and feel free to “Ask the Coach” if you would like more detail.
While I was asked many questions the first post for Ask the Coach will only address one. The others will be answered in weeks to come, however Mohammed Thiab asked me a question of great import and as a startup strategist, and I need to answer it in length.
Mohammed asks:In your view, do you think it is better to differentiate between marketing and sales functions within the same company?
When it comes to role, this is a question that is relative to the size of the organization. Smaller companies may not be able to afford a sales strategist/executive and a marketing strategist/executive. In this case the functions may fall into one person’s lap. Whether this is the case or not, the responsibilities of this person or these people are to foster interdependence on sales and marketing that is measurable and viable to proper lead cultivation.
There are specific functions of marketing and sales, and it is imperative that they are separate. The sales person may evangelize and in turn market, and the marketer may pitch and thus sell, but the roles are distinctly different and they should be considered as such. A marketer’s primary function is to communicate the value of their offering to the masses and sow the seeds to building a name brand. The primary function of the salesperson is to communicate the value of their offering to the sales ready prospect, ONLY AFTER determining that it is the right time.
Sometime in the next week I will review Brian Carroll’s book “Lead Generation for the Complex Sale”. This tome is an inexhaustible resource for those that want marketing to pass leads to sales that sales utilize and sales to return critiques to marketing to improve the process. What I will share here parallels many of Brian’s thoughts, but I want to start by quoting an early post from this blog. I am not a big fan of having someone click back and forth, so I will paste the pertinent part here. This post outlines the primary responsibilities of a marketing department.
In a post on Building a plan:
The pitfall of many a sales plan is to expect marketing to generate leads. In my opinion, and I am sure this one will create arguments from many camps; marketing’s primary role is to create three things:
1. Product or service (BRAND) awareness
2. BRAND knowledge
3. BRAND value
Now before any gets too upset with this comment, this is a primary action item of their role. I am in no way belittling the myriad of responsibilities of marketing. If they have done their job well, in some arena’s they can get the phone ringing (BRAND value). Other roles including, value, media selection, target demographics and target audiences all fit into one of these three categories.
Unfortunately if a marketing department starts to get the phone ringing, or the web registrations flowing, or the tradeshow sign-ups delivered, as sales organizations we tend to get lazy. THIS IS FOLLY! MARKETING’S CONTRIBUTION TO LEAD FLOW SHOULD BE CONSIDERED GRAVY, NOT THE STEAK. The best thing a marketing department can do for a sales department is assure that every person contacted is in the proper demographic and has BRAND awareness. Beyond that, lead generation is our job as coaches.
O.K. so how are we going to do this? Well there are several ways to generate lead flow, but they all involve the same principles:
1. Build a network within your target industry or market.
For my current role and this blog, I use Linkedin and spoke. When I was at WorkMetro, we would have our reps join the local chamber of commerce and the local HR organizations. At SurfControl I joined every security network forum and IT forum I could find. The bottom line, I KNEW WHO TO TALK TO AT RELEVANT COMPANIES FOR WHAT MY COMPANY WAS SELLING. Use multiple resources, everyone is not on the same list, get the relevant information and know who to approach.
If you can build a network then your next job is to:
2. Build a reputation within your network.
If you can show people that other people they know trust you, the lead will listen. Get write ups, permission for referrals, case studies. Do not leave this to marketing; it is not solely their job to create an image for the company. The BRAND is their job; the company’s reputation is in the hands of every employee. If one can build equity within your industry, they can elevate the organization.
3. Know who your next prospects will be.
This is one that most people know, BUT RARELY DO. If you are setting appointments, who are the next 50? If you are trying to build your prospect list, who are your next twenty customers going to be? This type of focus is required and can be promoted in weekly one on one’s. As a coach we should know these target lists, and we should help make them malleable. THE LIST IS AN EVER GROWING COMPONENT OF A SALES PERSON’S REPERTOIRE, if it is not utilized; they are not maximizing their efforts.
4. The Company is not the Lead, the Contacts are.
Knowing all the players in the game is essential. If you stop at a gatekeeper, or a department head, or just talk to a C-level decision maker, you not approaching all of the leads in an enterprise. If there is one person in complete control, great, but this is rare.
Now to add Brian’s point. Marketing can get things to happen, and they can generate many inbound leads.If they do not take action on the lead process, sales will almost always ignore their efforts. A marketing department must:
1.Follow up on leads they generate and rate them.
2.Determine from these ratings which are sales ready and should be passed to sales.
3.Manage the lead pipeline from inbound or cultivation sources in a CRM
4.Utilize this CRM to get feedback from Sales.
For sales our responsibility is to follow up on every lead delivered by marketing. It is also our obligation to give marketing constructive feedback on leads in an effort to improve their delivery mechanism. Marketing wants to deliver good leads, so tell them when they succeed and also when they fail.
From another post on building a plan:
One of the great pitfalls of the overambitious sales person is making the assumption that every lead/contact is a potential prospect. Leads by definition are anyone and everyone in a specific demographic. To build a prospect, one must develop a lead. So what do I mean when I write develop a lead? What is the difference between a lead and a prospect? There are two important factors to consider in elevating a lead to a prospect, and as coaches we should ask these questions whenever building prospect lists:
1.Does the contact potentially have a need for what I am offering?
This is the first phase of qualification, and one neglected more often than not. It is important to uncover some challenge that your product/service overcomes early on. If this is manufactured, meaning the sales rep determines the need instead of truly hearing pain and pain that your offering alleviates, there is little chance the prospect will convert into a viable opportunity. A product/service should fit a need of the contact that removes some difficulty in their immediate responsibly, or helps with a problem they were asked to solve. If the contact is not helped, find a more appropriate contact. If your solution does not fit anyone in a company, then you are contacting the wrong company.
At this point some of you may be thinking this is not new information. Perhaps, but how often do you plan to this phase of lead development? When you are building prospect lists, do you ask what your solution can do for the contact? A good plan will include specifics detailing the flow of a lead to a prospect.
Train to the expectation and have a healthy kit of qualifying questions. In my opinion common qualifying questions are too specific. We get caught up in determining how our product can be a fit. It is better to start with questions that pertain to the contact and their role. Uncover needs with questions that get them talking about what is good, and what is not. If they are using competitive products, do not start with why your product is better. Someone decided to buy this product, and it may have been your lead. Some good first questions:
What are your responsibilities?
(I personally ask people, “What do you do?”, but this is such a vague open ended question it can be interpreted in many, many ways. I like it because the lead starts to talk about what they want and from that point I am only steering. It is a tough question that is met with uncertainty and one to practice before applying).
What do you like most/least about your job?Dig into this one. Be careful, the contact will usually steer these answers towards your niche. If they have a competitive product, they will talk to the product. Steer them back to the job itself. If they do not like getting to work on time, this is important to know.
What are the challenges that you have had to live with? Again, try and make this about more than your product or a competitor. If their boss is a challenge, this is good to ferret out early; you or a colleague may be working with that person some day. If they have trouble getting non-budgetary items approved, this is something to know early.
Remember, this is phase one of qualification and you are just painting the picture. Train the team to go for enough information to determine if this is a prospect. We do not need all the answers immediately, and too many set questions will turn a lead off not on.
2.Does the opportunity to sell to this contact fit within my timeline?
All too often, we see that we have a solution for a contact’s problem, but are unwilling to accept that they cannot do anything about it today. I had a boss once, and while she was fantastic, she never believed that budget was an issue. She could not understand why I had opportunities forecasted out as far as I did, when they were completely qualified, and had bought into my value proposition. I learned, with her, to not place those prospects in my pipeline until it fit her vision.
If someone has potential value, but it is outside the scope of your timeline to close, your energy is better spent on other prospects. This may seem confusing so let me give some examples:1. You are selling enterprise software and the company is too small. It may be a fit but they do not have the resources to maintain it.
2. The company runs on a strict budget, and while they have uncovered a need, it is not going to get addressed until it meets budget review and is approved. This process is over six months away.
3. They have just bought an inferior product.
4. There was an acquisition and the other company had a competitive product.
All of these examples share the same challenge. It is not the right time to engage in opportunity development. This means it is the wrong time to engage in lead development. It is important to keep in touch and be on their mind, but passing this lead through the system is a waste of energy. So often, when I share this philosophy, the first question I am asked is, “How much time is the right amount of time?” I always use a 2X the average time from lead to close. If your sales cycle is four months, a lead cannot become a prospect until they are eight months from a decision. If it is 30 days, then you do not want to move them until they are 60 from a decision (Although with extremely short sales cycles I tend to increase it to 3X).
If you gather this information properly, you will be adding an insurmountable amount of aid to the marketing department. Do not be shy, sharing this information and share it as often as possible.
Delivery: 10
I have often been accused of being too complex a thinker.Admittedly, I prefer a robust and word novel to an easy summertime read. About half way through Jeb Blount’s short but powerful diatribe, I had to stop and think. I was not enjoying this east read, although the message was strong and clear. What I realized was that my craving for complexity was not being met. The ego of the book reader was getting in the way of the sound nature of the book reviewer. The moment I let that go, I rampaged through the pages with a hunger for his easily told message. THIS BOOK IS AMAZING!
Jeb’s storytelling and easy to follow directions make this book an ideal accompaniment to your sales journey. It lays out the basis for achieving goals in a frank manner. There may have been a time in my life when I would have tried to poke holes in his 5 principles, but there is no doubt today that if I did not do the things he suggests, I would not have grown to the success I experience today.
Concept and Message: 9
The book is short, succinct, and to the point! The concept and message are one in the same. This is not a book on sales techniques, but on effective principles. It has a Coveyian flare, yet does not sound like him at all. It is approachable reading by the youngest of sales rookies, yet not insulting as a review to the greatest of champions. The way he simply breaks down implementing incremental goals takes any fear from his principles. There is nothing fallible in his five principles:
Write down your goals
2.Take care of your mind, body, and soul
3.Do a little bit every day
4.Get a coach
5.Be Proactive
If you heed to this advice, you cannot fail. Things will not always be easy, but what great things in life are? I owe Jeb a serious thank you for helping me sharpen the saw.
Overall score: 9.5
“Power Principles” is an absolute masterpiece in its simplicity! It is a frighteningly fast and easy read, yet one that will force action every time you pick it up. Go buy this book and start seeing how easy it can be to attain even the most challenging goals.
It is Tuesday evening in Memphis Tennessee and I just finished presenting to a great group of Regional Managers at Henry Schein. This is the first moment since my fantastic and kidless weekend with the Wife that I have had a chance to write.We are picking up where we left off on pipeline, and hopefully you have downloaded the Focus tool from firstborder.com. If not, here is the link:
http://www.firstborder.com/sales-tools/#download
Let’s now get granular and dig into what this tool and its simple methodology are all about. Colin’s wisdom is outlined in a great whitepaper that accompanies the Focus tool. It is the “15 second sales review”. You can download it here:
http://firstborder.com/pdf/15_second_sales_review.pdf
This is a fantastic read, and it parallels almost every bit of how I used to manage my own pipeline. I managed my funnel of leads, my pipeline, and my deals won or lost by adding in the subject in or out. In meant I was currently in control and providing data points to my prospect. Out meant I was currently stuck in a holding pattern as the buyer controlled the process. My out’s were glossed over on a weekly basis and it made it much easier for me to address the viable opportunities at hand. I was able to review my pipeline and determine my real opportunities in a matter of minutes.
If I had Focus back then, with its ability to splinter off the deals by sales or buying process, I would have easily shrunk that review down to seconds. What I called in and out, Colin calls upside and commit. What I saw as my control or the buyers control, he sees as who is in charge of the process.
I would use my pipeline and the status of my in accounts to determine what I needed to do to be successful in any given period. If I had a meaty group of deals in my pipeline and expected most of them to close, I would focus first on getting those deals locked up, the prospect for new opportunities. If I had a slew of those deals in jeopardy, I would make saving these opportunities my focus. Every once in a great while, my pipeline would look thin, that is when I got my fingers in shape and DIALED, DIALED, DIALED!
It was easy for me to direct my attention the activity that would keep an even flowing pipeline from funnel to deal. If I was struggling, or my pipeline was getting clogged in any one stage, I could get the help or training I needed to continue the process effectively. What always surprised me was how much time my counterparts spent trying to figure out what stage each of their prospects was in. Often they spend more time chasing the unknown than actually managing goals and objectives. I also watched as my colleagues spent their time focusing on opportunities that they had no chance of closing, or at least no chance of closing soon. They did this and kept their pipeline flush with these opportunities to avoid having to make the calls in the early stage of the process. They looked and acted busy, but never hit their numbers.
As a Coach, I struggled initially with my first team’s ignorance to pipeline development. It seemed so obvious to me, yet even to this day, I probably spend 40-50% of my initial work with a rep teaching them how build a strong and consistent pipeline. Usually there is an expectation that things come with hard work and they neglect smart work. The things to teach your reps are:
1. Prospect and cold call every day. Generate more leads than you can manage.
2. Create objectives for communication. Deliver to these goals and objectives as often as possible.
3. Build a pipeline of viable and interested prospects. Weed out the fluff now.
4. Three slips equal a lost sale. Start over with someone else, because too much time has already been spent with this account. Unless it is work 30+% of your annual quota, move on! If you have run the sales cycle properly, if the opportunity is really there they will come back to you. When they do, enjoy the extra revenue.
5. Ask for help. The ego has no place in the pipeline. Make it very clear to your team that you are 100% committed to their success. If they do not come to you for education, and you continue to offer, you may have made an error in hiring judgment. The greats want to learn to get better.
For all of the promoting of his methodologies, Colin owes me a pint when I hop over to his Island. Seriously, he has a solid system that compounds and simplifies a lot of my own philosophies. Salespeople need a path, and if they learn how to pave, it makes the entire process smooth.