The art of cultivating business relationships – A must have for a sales evangelist

So the direction of this blog and my newsletter will now official head in the direction of my expertise. We will focus on the startup sales person and what I define as the Sales Evangelist.

Sales Evangelist – One who shares the good news of a new offering without pandering or preaching; a salesperson with deep seeded beliefs in the value that their organization and its offering bring.

Today I was on a call for one of my clients. It was a simple discovery session that involved learning more about a reporting system. My client has a strong relationship with our contact and led off the call. When I was introduced, I mentioned that long ago, I had interviewed with his VP of Sales, and that a couple of my old co-workers were employed there. One, he knew well, as she worked closely with his team. This little back and forth took around 5 minutes, however in that short amount of time my stature with this prospect grew tremendously.

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Book review: Topgrading for Sales by Bradford Smart PHD and Gregory Alexander

In Topgrading for Sales, we have for the sales focused hiring manager a playbook for bringing in the overachievers needed to maintain ongoing success. Gregory Alexander has aided Dr. Smart in translating his already well known methods into the sales community.

This book is an aid and tutorial for the sales manager that needs what they refer to as A players. There is no doubt that if you leverage these practical suggestions in your day to day hiring practices, the shape of your sales team will change for the better. Now to begin:

Delivery: 6 

As you will soon discover, this is the only place I had real issues with the book. While the appendix and layout of how to use their system is fantastic, I felt that too much time was spent on selling the concept to the reader. After the first example of why this system works, only a fool would not get it. In that sense, I did see the book as not realizing the audience is already hiring sales people and is probably utilizing some of their suggestions.

That said, the language is plain and frank. It would be hard to get lost in their explanations, and the data comes in straight forward packages that are easy to digest and equally as simple to look up and reference.

Concept: 10

I will minimize this explanation for a 10 because it is as basic as the book. THIS BOOK IS 25 YEARS OVER DUE! The need for a process in hiring sales people that covers all of the best practices, I mean, why did it take so long to think of that? While I have been hiring for years, and many of these ideas came to me naturally, to create this blueprint. Gentlemen thank you!

Message: 10

Again, brilliant and obvious. If you are not hiring the best, you are doomed to fail. If you do not use the best practices, you cannot hir the best. They spoon feed us these practices and make it easy. I have already adopted what parts were new to me into my hiring system. Beware of my pre-screening documents and virtual bench, I am even more dangerous than before I read this book.

OVERALL: 9

While a  6 for delivery should have brought this score lower, the concept and message should have rated above the top 10. Since this book should be on every bookshelf for its sound advice and strong documents, the delivery is easily excused. Frankly if you are not using this system, and your competitor is, quit and start working for them today.

Organization: Focusing on selling activities

One of my favorite sales trainings relates to the understanding of selling vs. non selling activities. It is a common theme and an important skill for high level sales people to master to stay at the top of their game. On ki work, I have listed a 7 part full cycle sales training for startups. The third lesson I give reps relates to this focus. Many wonder why this is so important to outline it in a training to sales evangelists at startups. Well, if there are two things a sales evangelist have to deal with is an abundance of expectations and an even great landscape of unkown opportunity.

So much of this day to day can get lost in non selling activities, for distinctions read this post on selling and non selling activity. It is easy to get lost in the long list of tasks that are outside of selling activites, but in a startup, where so many have to where multiple hats, the sales people on the fornt lines should focus on one. SALES!

If we burden the sales evangelist with non selling activities they will fail. Why? Because they have to work harder at crafting the perfect sales opportunity. They have less resources, fewer customers, no long lasting case studies, no peers, new ideas, and if good interested prospects. So, teach them to focus on the things that make sales and put on a hat and help them with those things that do not. Whether you are their manager or the CEO, take off that ego hat and get your hands dirty. Yes, you can do some of their administrative tasks, yes you can help them with their pipeline, I mean you take out the garbage and clean up the kitchen….right? How much revenue does that bring in?

When I was at Demandforce, one of our failings was not supporting our sales team enough. The person I took the sales team from, then eventaully and willingly gave it back to, had a superiority complex that inhibitied him from really helping his team. He thought my willingness to do so was a weakness. I feel that it is a strength to be willing to help your sales team succeed, no matter what it takes.

So, the next time a rep can lose an hour doing some menial task that will not bear fruit, walk on over and get them back on the phone or out the door. Believe me, they will not only appreciate it in the moment, but when they get that extra sale, also on payday…and so will you.