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CREATING THE RIGHT ENVIRONMENT

Are the company culture and environment hospitable to a high-performance sales team?

The right environment requires a properly designed compensation plan that is attractive to top performers, rewards the right activities and results, is challenging (but still achievable) and, above all, fair.

To attract and keep top-performers, the compensation structure has to be just right – give great weight to creating the best plan possible. Research your market, get input from your peers and discuss ideas with top-performers regarding what works best in their respective areas.

Since competitive and independent high-performers spend most of their time in a volatile marketplace they have to be part of a supportive team internally. How is the internal support staff viewing your sales team? Is there any evidence of the “we-they” syndrome? If so, it is imperative to find what causes it and eliminate these factors as quickly as possible. The marketplace is tough enough without internal battles.

To find out what works, and what doesn’t, interview existing staff. What do they like most about their job and their working environment? What do they like the least? What have they heard as reasons that people have left the company in the past? What seems to be preventing them and others from performing their best?

Very helpful of course would be to conduct exit interviews with those that are leaving the company. The knowledge you’ll gain will go a long way in improving the environment.

Feedback from your own team will produce the best list, but generally the environment that top-producers and top-performing teams are looking for has the following characteristics:

Productive, Positive, Rewarding, High Energy, Growth oriented, Collaborative, Learning culture, etc.

ONGOING DEVELOPMENT

How does a high-performance team continue to operate at such a high level at all times? Ongoing development is the key, and a most important task for the sales leader. It is as challenging a practice as it is a rewarding one.

The trap sales leaders fall into, is to believe that a “good performer” does not need any guidance, input or additional improvement. Contrary to what some might think, high-performance sales teams and top performers do welcome a sales leader’s involvement. The different perspective of an interested observer (sales leader) serves to enhance their performance well beyond what they could do on their own.

The wholesale approach to development is just not good enough for this team though, so it is important to recognize individual needs.

The issues the sales leader has to deal with are quite diverse: refining processes to make it easier for the team to sell, strategizing on next steps needed to acquire or grow key accounts, arranging for training to overcome identifiable shortcomings, and dealing with conflicts are but a few.

The development effort entails setting clear expectations, monitoring results, providing feedback and, most importantly, working with individuals to clear obstacles and give them the tools or skills they need to continue succeeding.

It cannot be overstated how important the right amount of ongoing involvement from the sales leader can be for the team. It is a lot easier to manage an average performer or an average team. The issues are easier to resolve because the individuals involved most likely have not considered many of the options prior to getting to the sales leader. With top performers that is not the case, they have already considered and even tried the most obvious solutions… they are looking for advanced level collaboration.

Are the five steps we have covered challenging? Yes, but helping these individuals perform at their best turns a group of good sales people into a formidable high-performance sales team.

Click here for “Building a High Performance Team” Part 1

Click here for “Building a High Performance Team” Part 2

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John Kypriotakis is the President of Lysis International,
a Tampa based Sales and Management consulting firm,
specializing in B2B Sales, Management and Leadership.

www.SalesAndManagement.com
813-792-8500

Visit the Lysis Blog Connect on LinkedIn Follow on Twitter

The post Building a High Performance Sales Team (3 of 3) appeared first on Lysis.

… and then I found myself unable to talk for a few days.

(I will not bore you with the details but it had something to do with laryngitis and damaged vocal chords.)

Anyway, here’s what I’m getting at:  Even though I believe that I am a good listener and conversationalist – always making sure to engage others, ask questions, and be mindful of not taking over discussions – a strange thing happened when I lost my voice… Given my forced silence, people around me seemed to have a lot more to say all of a sudden.

When I would normally be offering the next topic of discussion or asking that one question that would, supposedly, light up the conversation, now I just stayed silent for a bit longer and then… MAGIC!

Even my otherwise shy, introverted, quiet counterparts appeared more than willing (and quite capable) of filling the gaps. Granted, not every interaction was an oratory masterpiece, but more often than not it was quite relevant and intriguing.

So, what is the lesson to be learned? There are plenty of great ideas to go around, so allow them to be heard. Don’t be so quick to fill the silence void with the sound of your voice… give it another second or two. Most likely, someone else will fill the gap with something exciting and new to say, perhaps something that most likely would have been lost forever had you been talking instead.

Ok, time to be quiet again… what say you?

Image(s): FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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John Kypriotakis is the President of Lysis International,
a Tampa based Sales and Management consulting firm,
specializing in B2B Sales, Management and Leadership.

www.SalesAndManagement.com
813-792-8500

Visit the Lysis Blog   Connect on LinkedIn
Circle on Google+   Follow on Twitter

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Here are the next two steps: Evaluating your existing team and bringing new players on board…

EVALUATING EXISTING TEAM

Once the job responsibilities, personal traits and professional competencies are defined and agreed upon by the management team, this next step becomes much easier.

It’s time to evaluate the existing team… How closely do they fit the profile that is needed to succeed in the marketplace? This is done in a variety of ways:

• Reviewing Performance
  • Sales Trends, Profitability, New Account Development, etc.
• Personal observation
  • Making joint calls, debriefing accounts and strategy, evaluating their ability and willingness to learn and adapt, etc.
• Utilizing Assessments
  • Evaluate skills, attitudes, and behaviors relating to selling. Many such instruments are available from organizations like Assess Systems, Caliper, Target Training, etc.

This evaluation will lead to the determination that perhaps the right people are already on board, that some or all of the team members need additional training to meet high-performance standards, or that some new members have to be added to the team to replace or complement the existing staff.

It’s time for some difficult but necessary decisions to be made… Who from the sales team should remain (meaning that they either already perform as expected or have the ability to do so with the right development efforts) and who should go?

The sooner such a decision is made, the better for all involved. Not enough organizations err on the side of making this decision too quickly. Most often, non-performing employees are allowed to stay on board much longer than is acceptable. Having well defined performance standards makes the need for taking this action much more visible and forces the decision much sooner – and that’s a good thing.

Once you have identified the “openings” the next step is to bring on the next generation of top-performers for the team.

BRINGING NEW PLAYERS ONBOARD

This is an ongoing process – recruiting does not begin the day one realizes the need to add a new member to the team. It starts well before then, by getting to know and keeping in touch with potential candidates early on so they are available to discuss the possibilities when an opportunity arises.

The objective is to bring on board highly qualified, potential top performers. To do this, a systematic and selective approach works best – develop task requirements and an ideal candidate profile, then match traits and competencies to the skills needed and corporate culture.

Utilizing a team approach is advisable when assessing potential candidates. Recruiting is a process that is best carried out by a team of key players with an interest in the success of the sales organization. In essence, these should be people that will be working with this individual when he or she comes aboard (e.g.: president or owner, sales executive, marketing executive, customer service manager, representatives of the sales team).

The interviewing team needs common objectives and tools to evaluate the agreed upon traits and competencies. This eliminates “gut feel” decisions and allows the team to provide the sales leader with specific feedback on strengths and weaknesses instead of “I think she’ll be fine” or “He seems to be a good guy” or similar generic and often wrong assessments.

Finally, utilize assessments to compare the strengths and weaknesses of potential employees to your own, industry standards or sales process-specific norms. This is an effective and unbiased way to receive invaluable insight into potential candidates.

What’s next? Creating the right environment and providing ongoing development. Stay tuned…

Click here for “Building a High Performance Team” Part 3

Click here for “Building a High Performance Team” Part 1

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John Kypriotakis is the President of Lysis International,
a Tampa based Sales and Management consulting firm,
specializing in B2B Sales, Management and Leadership.

www.SalesAndManagement.com
813-792-8500

Visit the Lysis Blog Connect on LinkedIn Follow on Twitter

The post Building a High Performance Sales Team (2 of 3) appeared first on Lysis.

There are at least nine components to successful sales compensation design. There is a post (9 Key Steps to Sales Compensation Design) that lists these steps for your reference. In this post we will examine Key Step #3 “Define the sales reps’ role” in greater detail.

As you approach your new sales plan design, and before any percentages are assigned or incentives are in place, take inventory of where you stand by asking these questions first.

What roles do your sales people play in the sale?

What roles do they play in addition to selling?

How involved are they in administrative tasks such as running quotes, estimating, proof runs, monthly billing, etc?

What do these tasks cost directly (e.g. salary, expenses, benefits) and indirectly (e.g. missed opportunity cost, inappropriate use of resource and skills)?

Do you want to encourage them to do more or fewer of these tasks? There isn’t a right or wrong answer really, as it depends on your objectives. Just an illustration of how thoroughly you need to understand the function of your sales team before you can design a fair compensation package. Fair to them and to the company.

A well-designed compensation program encourages and rewards the right activities. What do you want your compensation program to accomplish? Do you want to encourage them to perform more administrative tasks? Find new accounts? Find profitable accounts? Increase margins?

The marketplace is much different than a few years ago and as such, it is a component worthy of serious consideration in the design of your sales compensation plan.

Do you know what your customers want from the sales process? They ultimately choose how and with whom they want to do business, so why not ask them?

Once you have identified the optimum sales channels for your existing and prospective customers you can begin to reshape your approach to the marketplace (brokers, agencies, inside sales, direct sales, national or major accounts, corporate vs. agency, e-commerce, etc.) and design appropriate compensation.

What role do you want to your sales team to play in their interaction with existing and prospective customers?

This is a key question to ask before designing the compensation plan to ensure that the plan encourages the proper activity and consequently achieves the desired results.

Are all of your sales people asked to focus on the same objectives? Are some more specialized than others? This is a serious consideration, as the sales person “maintaining” existing business would most likely need a compensation plan that is different than the sales representative who is “developing” new business. Especially if the new business was to come from strategic accounts that might have longer sales cycles.

To be more effective, the sales compensation plan should reward more than just revenue. It should take into account accomplishment of activity that would lead to long-term success for the sales person and the company. A list of these activities needs to be compiled, given priorities and then shared with the sales team. Once it is agreed that these activities positively contribute to achieving company objectives, they should be included in the compensation plan.

Another consideration would be whether all products and services your sales team is asked to sell are compensated at the same level. Keeping it all the same, when it is better not to, is a trap we sometimes fall into in an effort to keep the plan as simple as possible.

Products and services that make greater contribution to profitability, or to market penetration, or to meeting predetermined strategic objectives, should be compensated differently than the low margin, easy to sell, tough to produce alternatives.

So, do customers influence the way you compensate your sales team? Should they? Does the marketplace you compete in influence their compensation? Should it?

The answer to these questions is a resounding YES. The challenging part is to design a plan that will take these issues into account without at the same time being an administrative nightmare.

How do we convince the sales compensation plan administrator to accept the additional complexity such an inclusion could introduce?

The first, and very important, point to be made is this. If as a result of a more “sophisticated design” the desired results are achieved, it would be worth the effort.

The second point, equally important is this. The plan does not have to be overly complex. Just thorough on the metrics it uses to compensate. The mantra of sales compensation design has always been “keep it simple”. And it is good advise. The plan should be simple but not to the detriment of its effectiveness.

So, instead of just looking for simplicity, let’s make sure that the plan is Clear, Concise, and Effective. And this should meet everyone’s objectives.

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John Kypriotakis is the President of Lysis International,
a Tampa based Sales and Management consulting firm,
specializing in B2B Sales, Management and Leadership.

www.SalesAndManagement.com
813-792-8500

Visit the Lysis Blog Connect on LinkedIn Follow on Twitter

The post Compensation Design: Define the sales rep’s role appeared first on Lysis.

The process of building new content management systems is becoming very complex so as a consequence, metaphorically speaking, companies go back to the old habits of sucking the thumb rather than confront change.

Old habits die hard, but maybe there is an approach that might not be that disparate from past practices, a mix of both old and new.

Today’s target audience is (very) diverse, ranging from baby boomers who like the old tactile delivery methods associated with print to millennials who sometimes like the old but more often prefer the always-on digital world.

One thing is for sure, “the one size fits all model” is dead.  Organizations must seek omni-channel providers that understand their industry and the respective content challenges. .  The supplier who understands the complexities of delivering relevant content, analyzes data, creates personalized content, and delivers using the appropriate medium is a true and valuable partner.

How about your organization? Are you sucking your thumb or building a relevant content management business model?

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Steven Schnoll is the Managing Director of Schnoll Media Consulting,

a firm dedicated to developing strategies for delivering relevant targeted content.

www.SchnollConsult.com

steven@schnollconsult.com

 Image courtesy of Angie M. Photography

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Are sales meetings in your organization seen as a necessary evil or a real opportunity to make a difference with the sales team? Unfortunately, there is but a thin line that separates these two outcomes.

What follows are a number of ideas of what to do and what not to do to make your next sales meeting a success.

PURPOSE

First things first… What is the purpose of the meeting? Why hold this meeting at all? The vaguer the answer is regarding the objective, the greater the likelihood of a failed, boring, wasteful meeting.

A well-run sales meeting is often your best opportunity to communicate with the sales team, discuss the strategy and tactics that will make the company vision a reality, clarify your expectations, and listen to their views about the marketplace.

The purpose of sales meetings is not to reprimand any one individual or the whole sales team, nor is it a substitute for one on one coaching.

In general, your main objective for these meetings should be to educate, inform, and motivate. You are the one who knows the reason(s) for your meeting but for reference here are a few examples: outline and review strategy, gather and provide market intelligence, improve technical and sales skill, problem solve, highlight achievements, recognize efforts, introduce new products and services, share successes, discuss promotions and sales campaigns, etc.

Independent of the specific objective(s), the most important outcome of any sales meeting is to help your team be more effective and sell more!

When each and every member of your team steps out of the sales meeting, they should be more excited about representing your brand than before they walked into it. Every single time… No excuses, no exceptions!

PREPARATION & PLANNING

Decide on an objective and a theme for each meeting. This will help you with crafting the agenda to follow.

By the way, if a topic could be adequately covered by merely distributing a report or memo, then it should not be included in the agenda.

Prioritize the order of what will be presented to be sure you begin and end on time without fear of not covering the most important items on the agenda.

Each meeting needs to address the needs of the team, the organization, and you the manager. In preparing content, it’s important to look at meetings three to six months into the future so you can have a well-planned comprehensive agenda.

The content will be much more relevant if you elicit input from the sales team as to what would help them the most.

Find the right person to deliver the message (whatever the topic may be) but be sure to control the delivery so it flows properly. Have a sales person, or someone from another part of the company, talk about something specific they are good at or have great ideas about that will be useful for the rest of the team.

Be mindful that these meetings don’t turn into “beat up the sales team” sessions… someone from accounting complaining about receivables, an estimator complaining about accuracy, a production supervisor complaining about turnaround demands, etc. All these may be valid issues, but giving someone open access to your team purely to complain is not productive. Focus any such presentations into providing tools and methods to make the team more effective.

Be sure that whatever is planned for the meeting includes practical tactical elements that the team will be able to use right away! This is crucially important.

LOGISTICS

Use meeting time wisely. At the risk of “stating the obvious” keep meetings fast moving and exciting by taking the least amount of time possible to cover the most important content well.

If a meeting is projected to last longer than an hour, always allow for a break. This will make it easier for the team to focus on the discussion since they know they will be able to take care of business shortly.

Be respectful of your team’s time. Discuss and reach consensus as to the best time for these meetings. Provide dates and times well in advance to minimize interference with other scheduled activities, customer appointments, trips, etc.

Publish the agenda in advance of the meeting so everyone knows what to expect and has time to prepare (even if just pondering a topic or two before the meeting). For anything that requires more in depth thought or preparation, assign homework for what will be discussed. This activity will result in more productive meetings for everyone involved.

Once the meeting date and time are agreed to, no changes – this shows respect for the team’s time and effort to be available. This is not a “prima donna” issue by the way. Their time is your time and the company’s time… waste it and you are wasting everyone’s resources.

Start and end on time. Avoid delaying the start of the meeting because one or more people are late. Start with whomever is there and the message will be loud and clear soon enough.

Be a good example. If you are unable to attend, or are running late for some reason, have someone else step in on your behalf. The meetings happen, on time, every time.

Utilize technology to accommodate those unable to attend in person or operating at remote offices. Phone, web, and video conference tools abound so be sure to employ readily.

Be a good “host” and, especially in longer meetings, provide light refreshments or food to set the right tone.

Include “non-sales” staff when the agenda will cover topics of interest to them. Anyone who has interaction with customers will likely benefit from some parts of the meeting and their inclusion is good for everyone on the team (think customer service, technical support, production, account receivables, etc.)

CONTENT

Sell the (value of the) meeting to the team. Treat it no different than a presentation to, or a meeting with, a valued customer. The same rules apply; you want a positive outcome, a buy-in to the objective, and commitment to taking action.

Reinforce and promote the company’s vision at every meeting. It’s important to have the big picture in focus and clear in everyone’s mind.

Prioritize content! It’s not possible to cover all the topics you would like, so pick the most relevant and cover them well. Place the rest in a “pool of topics” for another session…if they make the cut.

Whenever possible, allow for an “outside” perspective – whether it comes from another part of the organization, a supplier, a trainer, subject matter expert, or a customer, it will be a welcome break to the “sales manager’s perspective” routine.

Meetings are not meant to be monologues. Encourage group interaction such as brainstorming, discussing research findings and best practices, sharing stories and lessons learned.

Don’t keep talking about, and reframing, old problems. Identify issues quickly and focus the balance of the time on discussing solutions instead. Repetition may be the mother of skill but in sales meeting terms it’s the mother of boredom and indifference.

Consider audio, video, online access, and other visuals to keep things interesting. The more senses and emotions that are involved, the better it is! Use PowerPoint? Sure, but only if it adds to the message.

The most effective meetings include actionable items that prepare the team for when they are in the field. As an example, introducing a new product or service without working with the team to identify the ideal prospects for it, or assisting them to effectively present its benefits, or provide them the knowledge needed to answer questions about it, is a waste of time.

FOLLOW-UP

Not long after your meeting, follow-up by distributing highlights of what was covered, providing answers to questions that came up, and listing action items the team needed to attend to. This type of follow up will make the content memorable and will reinforce the takeaway points that are so critical to the success of every meeting.

# # #

This article was first published in:
Printing Industries of America 2014 Forecast Part 1, Trends & Tactics

Stop by the Lysis website — www.salesandmanagement.com
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“Decision makers don’t talk to sales people until 67% of the buying process is complete”

But, that’s just not true at all. So, we need to set-the-record-straight, again!

According to SiriusDecisions, the originator of the study, the data showed that “67 percent of the buyer’s journey is now done digitally” and that’s a far cry from the oft quoted “sales people not consulted until later in the process” or that “buyers don’t want to talk to sales people until more than half of the decision process is complete” or… one of the many other versions.

Here is a link to a SiriusDecisions blog post, written in July of 2013, addressing this and offering additional insight…
http://www.siriusdecisions.com/blog/three-myths-of-the-67-percent-statistic 

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John Kypriotakis is the President of Lysis International,
a Tampa based Sales and Management consulting firm,
specializing in B2B Sales, Management and Leadership.

www.SalesAndManagement.com
813-792-8500

Visit the Lysis Blog   Connect on LinkedIn   Follow on Twitter

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