In all the years I’ve run companies and managed sales forces, not a single prospect ever asked me to send out my best salesperson. If the prospect had an issue, he/she wanted the most knowledgeable person available to solve their problem—a subject matter expert (SME).

When consulting on revenue growth, clients often asked for advice on how to turn their sales teams in more effective salespeople. My advice:

Before you can learn a sales process, you must learn to ask better questions, uncover client needs and become a subject matter expert.

Most prospects see products and services as commodities. However, when a salesperson brings to the prospect a solution others overlooked, he stands out as a subject matter expert.

An SME is an authority in a given field. You earn recognition as an SME with a career-long commitment to continuing education, relevant experience, and creative marketing. Someone who sells is an ideal candidate for SME status. What’s more, SME status makes selling less difficult.

Ian Altman in a Forbes article, The Most Valuable Subject Matter Experts Do This, says “There is a major distinction between your average subject matter expert (SME) and the top-performing SMEs. While SMEs have specific knowledge that makes them valuable to the organization, the most valuable subject matter experts do this: they sell new business.”

Prospects do not see SMEs as salespeople; they see them as go-to authorities on particular topics related to solving their problems. So, what makes one an effective SME?

Right Credentials Impress

Remember, three areas can establish you as an SME: education, experience, and marketing.

The right credentials fulfill the education component, and they are field-dependent. For example, an SME working in healthcare must likely hold a bachelor, master, or doctorate degree.

An SME working in the human resources (HR) consulting sector may not be required to hold an advanced degree. Instead, she may offer years of industry experience as former head of HR for a major company.

Sometimes you can offset limited knowledge or experience. In my early days of executive benefits, I wanted to become an SME in the field. I read every bit of literature I could find. I took courses on taxation, accounting, and law. When I met with CPAs, I knew as much, and more, than they did about the accounting treatment of executive benefit arrangements.

Every salesperson must determine and complete the credential requirements for your field to earn respect and SME status. Review the LinkedIn profiles of current SMEs. What specific degrees and certificates do they hold? Read their blogs and papers to understand industry context, challenges or trends.

Even if you lack a certain credential, you can still deep dive into expert territory. It’s a tougher road to SME status. That’s all. Compensate for it in other areas.

For example, a salesperson focused on selling HR software need not possess an HR degree. You can compensate by earning a subject certificate from a respected HR organization, like the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) or consider a degree in a technical field.

Ask Questions. Uncover Needs.

Research studies have proven that prospects don’t like sales pitches nor pressure to buy.

In a perfect world, it is the SMEs who uncover the real problem, the need, the need behind the need and identify solutions. SMEs build deep and wide knowledge of their products and services.

But they do not lead prospect conversations with that knowledge. Rather, they develop an incisive question process, leading their prospects to their solutions—not with their solutions.

SMEs know the specific problems their expertise solves. They create a list of existing and potential clients/customers who might be facing one or more of those problems and use this research to open up new prospect conversations. They lead with what is important to the prospect and discuss issues.

If you want to develop this skill, look at the CAVP formula for opening more doors under favorable conditions by downloading my eBook, How to Secure Executive Appointments Under Favorable Conditions.

Authoritative Content Builds Reputation

Google a subject you want to learn about. Often, you’ll find an authority on the topic. Top-level SMEs build a reputation for valuable knowledgeable in their field and share it with the public.

A prospect with an issue doesn’t immediately go to the Internet to search for his solution, especially in the early stages of the buying process. He searches to better understand the issue. An example with a wealth of valuable information: “How can we retain key people?”

SMEs develop content strategies. They’re sought out by the media, valued for their opinions, which results in being quoted on the subject. Begin to read articles that address concerns associated with your knowledge.

Learn the identity of the best writers on your subject. Put together a brief press kit and send with your contact information. Then, reach out with stories ideas their readers care about. Let them interview you and be the expert quoted in the piece.

Other ways good content leads to good reputations:  Write a blog. Create white papers. How-to guides. Distribute to editors and your resources, including referral sources. For instance, if you sell financial services, reach out to lawyers, accounts, consultants and other centers of influence.

Time and the 10,000 Hour Principle

So, how much time does it take to become an SME?

For some time now, thanks to Malcolm Gladwell, we’ve accepted the notion that it takes 10,000 hours of “deliberate practice” to achieve mastery of a given subject.

Depending on where you are in your career, you may have already reached this pinnacle. Ten thousand hours working full time is only five years (2,020 hours x 5).

A new Princeton study obliterates this principle, claiming mastery is more than a matter of practice by sharing data examples in sports, music, education and other fields. Then, what else matters?

I’m going out on a limb a bit (supported by decades of field experience) when I say besides knowledge and scholarship, these attributes matter, too:

• Character
• Confidence
• Curiosity
• Empathy
• Generosity
• Intelligence
• Motivation
• Purpose

Frankly, the broader list of attributes to master a given subject is nearly inexhaustible.

Knowledge in the age of IoT will soon begin to double every 11 hours.

Fasten your devices.

The post Want to Sell More? Become a Subject Matter Expert appeared first on PleinAire Strategies.

In a salesperson’s world, one reason they find selling so enjoyable is the opportunity to help prospects solve problems or produce better results.

As professional salespeople, we strive for that final commitment and final signature, so we can build a long-term relationship. Conversely, situations occur when salespeople would do themselves a favor by declining to work with a new prospect. And this is the most difficult decision for any sales professional.

How do you know at what point is it reasonable to cut a prospect loose and walk away?

Watch for These Five Red Flags

1. Prospect Will Not Commit to Action Step

In my latest book, MERGE 2.0, I lay out how to organize an effective meeting plan, called  POINT A. The “A” is action commitment. Every interaction with a prospect should lead to an action commitment by him or her, not you.

Simply saying, “Should we follow-up next week and discuss times to meet again?” is not a commitment by them. Be more specific about why they need to take action. An example: After a solid meeting, ask—“Based on what we discussed today, does it make sense for us to meet next Tuesday, around three o’clock. . .does that work for you?”

This action offers a specific time and requires the prospect to do something. If the prospect says no to meeting again, it is a sure sign there is no interest. Or, if you asked the prospect to send you information to analyze by next Tuesday and he doesn’t, that’s a red flag signaling no interest. Why burn up company resources chasing a prospect who may never buy?

2. When a Prospect Brings Up Price in Early Meetings

Often, price is a factor in a ready-to-buy prospect. However, your solution to help the prospect solve a problem goes far beyond price. In my experience, prospects who ask about price early on may have already decided to buy from someone else.

In MERGE 2.0, I discuss the three phases of decision making, according to research done by Dr. J.P. Guilford, noted UCLA psychologist. A price-centered prospect resides mentally in convergent thinking, where he’s already zeroing in on the final solution, the third stage in decision making. Already, another salesperson has invested time to help the prospect shape a vision for a solution, which takes place in the first phase of cognition thinking. That salesperson would have also taken the prospect through divergent thinking, the second phase, to examine alternatives.

So now, the prospect has selected a solution and is focused solely on numbers. The result? A prospect who does not appreciate the expert, high-touch, proven and individualized service you offer. He may not want to revisit alternatives. And if you can’t return his thinking to examining alternatives (divergent thinking) or to reshaping a vision for a solution (convergent thinking), it is time to walk away. An exception to this premise arises if you’ve decided to play the RFP game—when you are already behind.

3. When a Prospect Goes Silent

You can deliver the perfect solution, engage in productive dialogue and questioning, and still end up with no sale. Few situations are more frustrating than a prospect suddenly going silent, failing to return phone calls, emails, and essentially disappearing.

Many reasonable explanations may account for the silence, so don’t jump to the most cynical conclusion. Of course, if a prospect is ready to make the purchase, he or she should have the courtesy to notify you of a sudden change of direction. In. An. Ideal. World.

Whether budgetary or personnel challenges prompt silence, the serious prospect if they want your product or service and value your partnership, will keep you in the loop and allow you the opportunity to make changes to meet any revised specs; that is, if he wants your product or service, and values your partnership.

If you haven’t heard anything for weeks, the sale will most likely never happen, which is why it is so important to establish a champion or coach within the organization. He or she becomes your early warning signal, giving you the chance to regroup. If the prospect is silent long enough, decide to walk away.

4. Prospect Will Not Collaborate or Involve Other Decision Makers

To determine if your product or service is the right fit for a prospect, engage in a dialogue to shape a vision for a solution and discuss how to fix the problem.

Obviously, you need the right information to assess the needs of the prospect. Equally important, the prospect needs the right information, and encouragement to ask questions, to ensure your solution is the right fit for him.

If you are dealing with passive listeners who do not pose questions of their own, most likely they are either unclear about their needs, haven’t secured the necessary budget, are simply “shopping around,” or they do not consider your engagement a true priority.

What’s more, no complex B2B decision happens with one person. If you have identified other decision makers, and your contact refuses to bring them into the dialogue, you may want to insist it at this point.  Or walk away.

5. Prospect Does Not See the Problem as Big Enough to Fix Now

Prospects with no urgency and little vision confound salespeople daily, especially those with strong activity but no results. They may have deals in the sales funnel. However, there’s always a reason why the prospect doesn’t buy, and the closing date continues to push out.

This conundrum happens early in the sales process when the need is uncovered, and the salesperson moves into her sales process. She identifies a need, shows the economics of change, and then demonstrates how her solution fits.

In MERGE 2.0, I call this most important stage of the sales process to “fix or not fix” or “crossing the chasm.” If the prospect cannot answer one basic, essential question at this stage, the prospect is not serious about making a decision. The question: “Do you want to fix the problem and do it now?” If the prospect doesn’t commit here, please do not waste your time going forward. Instead, consider walking away. Here’s a graphic representation of this moment of truth.

Takeaway Message

As a sales professional, your time and expertise carry immense value. Although we are all trained to focus on closing the sale, you want to accept that some prospects may never become qualified prospects, despite our conviction that our product or service is the perfect solution.

Prospects who can articulate their vision for a solution, and are willing to engage in a partnership throughout the selling process, will not only appreciate your suggested solutions and respond to your insights, inevitably they will help you reach your goal of making the sale.

Learn to spot the red flags.

The post Recognize the 5 Red Flags of When to Lose the Sale Fast appeared first on PleinAire Strategies.

At a recent private equity conference, a group of company presidents asked some lively questions after my speech about the challenge of negotiating with procurement.

We’ve all witnessed it. Procurement departments are now more powerful and more sophisticated than in the past. Salespeople tell me procurement managers are bent on commoditizing every aspect of a solution. For sales, the procurement process is an ongoing struggle comprised of negotiations, blind RFPs, reverse auctions, commodity pricing, and high-pressure negotiating tactics.

Let’s say you receive a blind RFP. However, with no strong relationship with anyone in the company, you decide to pass. If you decide to respond, here are some tips from our white paper: Add Brilliance to Your Marketing Strategy – Treat RFPs Like Unpolished Diamonds. Or watch our eLearning video Unseat the Incumbent.

Take a Pro-Active Stance

You must target those companies for which your solution will be a good fit. Then, you need to develop a relationship within the company, long before the procurement process takes a bite out of you.

I want to discuss today how salespeople can prevent their solutions from being commoditized. Begin by understanding the true role of procurement. Then, focus on what this individual, team or department wants to accomplish. When you know their objectives, you’ll be better positioned to work with procurement to reach a successful sales outcome.

Take a moment to study these five common objectives of procurement with corresponding counter tactics you can use in response.

1. Procurement Objective: Neutralize Your Value Proposition

Procurement Goal:  Procurement wants to place your products and services on a level playing field with others so it can easily compare your price with other vendors. Procurement prefers to focus on the product itself instead of the overall solution. That way, it compares the least common-denominator pricing to get the “best” deal.

Counter Tactic: Here, you must be proactive and build a marketing strategy with companies in your target market. Using LinkedIn, for example, you can connect early with those people in the company who stand to be most impacted by your solution. If relationships at the company already exist, and the RFP states: “Do not contact anyone on the buying team,” you can continue to communicate with those you know to get coaching.  Although a fine line, I have found this tactic successful.

2. Procurement Objective: Commoditize and Control All Responses

Procurement Goal: Procurement prefers to control every aspect of the buying process so it can manage the pricing evaluation in an apples-to-apples comparison. But your apples are different. You need to convince the user buyers and technical buyers they’re different in the first place, or you will never move past the comparison spreadsheet.

Counter Tactic: Focus on your value proposition (How to Write a Killer Value Proposition and Win New Business) to quantify the overall solution value. Present a total solution that cannot be dismantled into component pieces, then commoditized.  Educate procurement, the business unit leaders and user/technical buyers why your solution is different and restate your value proposition often.

3. Procurement Objective: Block You from Access to Others

Procurement Goal: Again, procurement wants to control all aspects of the deal including communication with others. Procurement hates surprises, particularly by an executive or business unit leader whose purchase decision could undermine or supersede the procurement process.

Counter Tactic: Build a strong network within the organization. Leverage inside and outside resources to help you get the lay of the land before procurement restricts access to others.

If you are told you cannot contact anyone outside of the RFP process, your decision to proceed carries risks and rewards. Only you can decide if they are worth it. Most business decision makers aren’t aware of these rules and may not agree with them. Also, don’t forget relationships you have with other vendors who service that prospect. Look to their trusted advisor network to see if you have relationships you can leverage. If you’re responding to an RFP and don’t have any other business relationships within the organization, you should seriously consider your chances of success in this deal. Blind RFP responses seldom produce desirable results for the responding party.

4. Procurement Objective: Use Competitors’ FUD or Your Past Performance Against You

Procurement Goal: Procurement covets as much ammunition as possible in their arsenal to use against vendors to drive down prices and negotiate a commodity deal. Procurement managers are trained to research background information on each vendor to determine if information exists that “can and will be used against” the vendor.

Counter Tactic:  Again, you must be proactive. Anticipate issues and concerns before they arise and prepare your responses in advance. Consider a pre-emptive strike to disclose negative information, so you gain control of the discussion. Return the focus to sales negotiation on the deal at hand and reiterate the overarching value proposition your solution brings to the business.

5. Procurement Tactic: Control Information Flow and Minimize Surprises

Procurement Goal: Procurement wants to keep the power and leverage on its side, so it controls the data flow and keeps you on your toes by adding more requirements to meet. This power play strengthens as it continues to learn new information in its buying process. Vendors must play a guessing game, and then they’re often forced to renegotiate the deal late in the game when the clock is ticking to get it done.

Counter Tactic: Work hard during your discovery phase to determine the identity of all decision makers and what buying process they follow. Get your arms around the decision-making process and the anticipated timeline. In doing so, you will highlight any additional steps to address upfront.

Preparation rules.

What’s more, procurement wants to keep all the vendors in the game as long as possible to create leverage against the competition—remember, procurement wants us present. Typically, we have more power in this situation than we acknowledge.

While these five procurement objectives form a brief outline of the whole picture, you, as the sales professional must be prepared to counter procurement’s tactics:  Plan well, leverage your relationships, reinforce shared interests, and communicate your value proposition repeatedly.

Remember, prospects buy for one of three reasons. They want to fix, accomplish or avoid something. You are selling a solution that will help your prospects accomplish their business objectives.

Do not allow your sales mission to be diminished or commoditized by the procurement department.

The post 5 Tactics to Clear Procurement Obstacles in Sales appeared first on PleinAire Strategies.

Sixty Percent of Forecasted Deals Do Not Close.

Not surprisingly, this CSO Insights data also shows that one in four companies are unhappy with their ability to accurately forecast sales.

That means a lot of revenue is left on the table — a huge opportunity I know I’m not prepared to miss.

CSO’s 2018 Sales Operations Optimization Study says “forecast accuracy remains an oxymoron, even though having accurate sales forecast results in operational efficiencies throughout an organization.”  

Sales forecasting is the primary vehicle executives use to manage the expectations of anyone with a stake in the company, including board members, investors, and industry analysts.

Admittedly, it is near impossible to predict the future, but more effective and accurate ways to forecast expected revenue than what I see many sales managers doing today.

Confusion contributes to poor sales forecasting, especially between making your number and making your forecast. It’s a significant difference that can impact staffing, margins, even shareholder value.

As an example, one of my sales reps had an annual quota of $1 million. He needed to sell one deal each quarter worth $250,000. His pipeline contained four deals averaging $300,000 each with a probability of closing at 60 percent.

According to this forecast, he’s on target not only to make the quarter but also to secure his year’s quota. After all, if he hits the 60 percent projection, he’ll book $720,000 (60 percent of four deals at $300,000).

But what does 60 percent mean? Without structure, consistency or ongoing modeling, it simply means it’s better than 50/50 and more cautious than forecasting 90 percent.

As a CEO or sales leader, this conundrum resonates with you. Salespeople want to be optimistic. They prefer to project greater success. However, I learned 60 percent is pessimistic for this sales rep. He always over projected and underperformed.

Add to this, those sales reps who were “sandbaggers”, always under projecting and over delivering. How can you do an accurate forecast?

The CSO study examines the problem through the lens of barriers to accurate forecasting.

The chart below answers the question, “what is preventing our organization from improving our close rate and achieving more accurate forecasts? 

Here are the main reasons (or excuses) for poor sales forecasting. Do you recognize your situation here?

Barriers to Accurate Sales Forecasting

As I look at the study and reflect on my own situation, I adopted few solutions covered in the chart. However, one issue is not mentioned as a possible root cause of the sales rep example.

The first thing I did was to step back and evaluate my company’s sales process, our systems, our people and strategy. Using OMG’s sales evaluation tool I knew I could get to the bottom line.

Here’s what I found:  First, my reps feared telling the truth about current opportunities. Most salespeople do not have enough quality opportunities in their sales pipeline. And they continue to drag poor quality, unqualified opportunities along, including them in forecasts to avoid being hounded by their managers for an insufficient volume of qualified prospects.

Second, I adopted a formal sales process, with a common language, that was repeatable and enabled us to strategize all opportunities.

With this step, we used a “scorecard” to look at past successes against which to measure.

This insight gave our managers the tool needed to discuss opportunities and understand where they were in the sales process.

Real Reason for Poor Forecasting

Finally, we discovered in the OMG sales evaluation (not discussed in the study) one of the main causes for poor forecasting, which led to failure to close business, sat squarely on the shoulders of the salesperson. And the whole pipeline process stalled or disappeared because he or she did not possess solid sales skills and sales DNA.

By example, the sales evaluation identified certain weaknesses inherent in some salespeople, like not being comfortable talking about money or needing approval from prospects, that were causing deals to stall in the pipeline. They were allergic to the two-letter word “No.”  And were chasing deals which died long ago.

The salesperson I mentioned earlier developed extensive experience with a competitor. He sported a great image, earned many professional designations, and exhibited an outgoing, friendly personality.

However, upon testing through OMG, his sales DNA pointed to his issues with hunting for new business, closing pending business, and asking for money over a certain dollar amount.

If you met him, you would not think that was the case. So, not amount of sales forecasting with this rep could ever be accurate.

Yes, there are certain data you need to accurately sales forecast such as:

• Sales rep metrics: the historical win rate
• Stages in pipeline: opportunity stages unique to your business
• Sales cycle: time it takes to close and win opportunities

But data only goes so far.

My takeaway message today:

Do not waste time frustrated over missed forecasts until you establish with certainty the sales credibility (or fears) of the person doing the forecasting.

The post Accurate Sales Forecasting—An Oxymoron? appeared first on PleinAire Strategies.

Stalled opportunities plague salespeople. They clog pipelines, ruin forecasts, and cause untold frustration.

From CEO to sales reps, everyone scrambles for ways to close deals at the bottom of the sales funnel and shorten the sales cycle. After all, you have spent months with this prospect and forecasted this revenue to close this quarter.

I sit on the board of a certain company where the CEO asked me to work with the sales team to understand why deals were not closing within the projected time frame.

So I asked one sales rep: “As I look at this one big opportunity sitting in your pipeline, what is the next step with this prospect?”  He looked surprised and said, “I’m calling them back next week.”

“What day and time are you calling them back?”, I asked.  The sales rep replied, “She just said to call her back, she didn’t specify when.”

I continued to probe to pinpoint where the sales rep and prospect were in the buying process. “So what was the reason she said to call her back?”  The sales rep replied, “She seemed to have interest in getting a proposal from us with the pricing of our products and services.”

I looked at four other deals in this rep’s care. All were projected to close in the next 90 days. All bore the same problems. In his mind, he had qualified prospects ready to buy, but he didn’t have full commitment from them. Most of his prospects had been stalled for months.

The rep called and called, just to check in.

When I am called in to help free up pipelines, I find two most common issues hold organizations back:

1. Poor quality prospecting (not getting enough well-qualified opportunities in the pipeline)
2. Pipeline congestion (not closing the deals that seem to be qualified)

Generally, the root cause is almost always the same: salespeople fail to consistently ask and get a commitment from the prospect on the next step.

Crossing the Chasm

When sales organizations experience longer sales cycles and more opportunities fall to no-decision, I become fixated on finding the breakpoint.

From my experience, the break down happens early in the sales process in what I call the moment of “fix or not fix.”  At this stage in the buying cycle, you assist the prospect to become aware of a business issue that needs to be fixed. The prospect moves into cognition thinking where he wants to understand his situation and analyze his current position. During this stage, he shapes a vision for what the solution should look like, and then the core moment arrives. Is he committed to fix or not fix his situation?

Too many salespeople cross this mental chasm without getting the commitment needed from the buyer. Instead, they dive right into the possible solutions for fixing the problem.

In my opinion and experience, this premature leap causes most of the no-decisions we see today. The salesperson assumes the prospect sees the need and wants to fix it now.

And why not? If the rep shows the prospect how to save 30 percent on utility expenses, why wouldn’t she want to lower that cost and look at alternatives?  The truth is, there was never a deal to begin with, but the salesperson continues to pursue this prospect as if she is in the buying mode, blinded by ambition.

Get an Action Commitment

Another important reason sales opportunities die—the sales rep’s failure to ask and get a next step from the prospect. Getting more micro-commitments along the way not only tests engagement but keeps your deal moving steadily forward.

You should never end any prospect interaction without securing a specific kind of promise of action to move the sales process forward. By committing to some action, and only by committing to such action, your prospect demonstrates her interest in moving the buying process forward. That commitment signals to you that you are not alone and working in collaboration with your prospect.

This step is logical, once you spell it out. But it is amazing how rarely getting-an-action-commitment is put into practice.

I urge you to take all your current prospects and write down an action commitment to end your next sales conversation.

This effort does not come naturally to most salespeople. I see sales reps end meetings by promising to send more information or complete some work for the prospect. Let’s face it, if you asked a prospect, “Can I send you a couple examples of where our product has helped others save money?”

What do you think the prospect would say?

What commitment have they made to continue the sales process?

The commitment cannot be vague. It must be specific.

A prospect that says “I promise to review your proposal” is not committing much.

You need to define who will do what by when. The prospect’s commitment must be measurable, help move the process forward, and be realistic to precisely where he exists in the sales process.

Consider these simple examples:

• Based on our meeting today, you mentioned two others who participate in the decision-making process. Can we set up a time next Tuesday afternoon so I can spend some time with then? Can you arrange that?
• Based on where we are, can we set up a time next Wednesday for you and your team to visit our plant to learn firsthand how the process works? How does 1:00 p.m. Wednesday work for you?
• “Based on our discussion, it sounds like our next step is for me to review your documents. Can you forward them to me by next Tuesday?”

Nothing mysterious about getting an action commitment. You are doing your due diligence. However, don’t shortchange this technique. It will save your peace of mind moving forward.

Develop your ability to see, hear, sense signals from the prospect. Refine your sense of timing. Also, cultivate some creativity so you have ready a selection of various action steps to apply on demand in any given situation. And make it sincere and authentic. Manipulation is transparent and a put-off.

To help you truly master the art of un-stalling deals, I invite you to learn as much as possible about landing prospect commitments. Take a few minutes to review this targeted video at https://pleinaire.digitalchalk.com/dc/learn/commit-to-crossing-the-chasm-and-recommend-a-process.

Your time will be well spent.

Even better, it will lead directly to solving your prospect’s issue, our ultimate purpose as salespeople.

The post Here’s How to Un-Stall a Deal appeared first on PleinAire Strategies.

Most CEOs and sales leaders ask me how to grow revenues with the right sales training or the right bizdev tools or the right CRM system.

Few ask, “How do I know if I even have the right people on the team?”

I often ask them, “If you do training, how do you know if it’s successful?”

“How do you measure your success?”  Silence lingers.

Like the medical profession, I want to start with a diagnostic sales review:

• Do I have the right people?
• Do they possess robust sales DNA?
• Do they operate with the right skill set?
• Do they perform at max potential?

Now, you wouldn’t agree to major surgery without doing an EKG, blood work, x-rays, and the full spectrum of tests to ensure your body is in top condition to withstand the surgery, would you?

Of course not.

So why jump in to change your sales process, systems, or training programs without knowing if the sales talent foundation is solid in the first place?

Once you’ve identified and hired the right sales talent, you can conduct an intelligent diagnostic to answer these questions and more:

• Can we be more effective at revenue growth?
• How much more effective can we be to move the top line?
• Exactly what will it take to accomplish that?
• And how long will it take to reach the goal?

But be clear about the talent search. It isn’t about basic personality traits within salespeople; it is about their sales skills, desire to sell, commitment to sell, and sales DNA.

For more than  20 years, Objective Management Group (OMG) sales force evaluation and sales candidate assessment has effectively identified the 21 Sales Core Competencies that lead to world-class sales performance.

I strongly urge you to consider making OMG’s assessment tools a centerpiece of your hiring practices. Its team continuously improves, updates, enhances and perfects the science of evaluating sales forces and candidates unlike any firm I’ve ever encountered. Even better, the OMG evaluation goes well beyond the hiring process; it analyzes your company’s sales processes, systems, people, and strategy.

I define sales DNA as the core combination of strengths (or weaknesses) that support (or sabotage) the execution of sales process, sales strategy and sales tactics.

Four Attributes of Top Salespeople

Five factors must be in place and measured so sales managers know their start point and what demands improvement moving forward.

If your reps do not ignite from within in the following areas, your investment in training or tools will be squandered:

1. Desire: Intrinsic desire is the driving force in top sales reps because it tell you how driven they want to succeed in sales. Your salespeople need that burning desire. Think of the marathon runner who dives across the finish line, battered and bruised, but feels only exhilaration. When desire is not strong, salespeople justify mediocrity and won’t do what you need them to do. Don’t invest in sales reps with low desire.

2. Commitment: Commitment is the single most important finding when evaluating a salesperson’s likelihood to succeed—his or her willingness to do whatever it takes to make the sale (within ethical standards, of course). It’s not about showing up early and staying late; it’s about going the extra mile.

You may think your salespeople are committed, perhaps they talk a good game. But if you do not see the results, their commitment level is only skin deep. A low commitment score means their commitment comes with conditions. Will they do what you want them to do on the condition that it is not too scary or not too difficult. The last thing you need is a sales rep who chokes when the going gets rough. Never invest in a sales rep who isn’t fully committed.

3. Outlook: In studying outlook, you learn how salespeople feel about themselves, the market, the industry, and their company or business. If the salesperson experiences negativity about even one area, it can taint activities and behaviors, especially in conversations with prospects or clients. Think of a time when one of your top performers suffered through personal problems. No doubt, he lost motivation. Momentum stalled. Outlook is like attitude: to sell successfully, you need a positive outlook.

4. Responsibility: The opposite of responsibility is excuse. Make a note of every conversation with a sales rep that doesn’t start with I. If you own responsibility, you own your mistakes and use the experience to improve. You’ll hear someone say: “I should have . . .I could have done better with . . .”

In an interview last season New England Patriot quarterback Tom Brady said after losing a game: “I could have done a better job getting the ball to my receivers.” He didn’t blame them.

Sales reps who lack responsibility find excuses like “They said they didn’t have the budget.” “They said they liked us and, if they decide to buy at all, they will buy from us.” “They said our product was too expensive.” “They said the economy is bad.” Excuses.

These four factors—desire, commitment, outlook, responsibility—equal the incentive to change.

To achieve the growth you want, these four factors must be in place in your sales team.

Rockstar salespeople exude desire, commitment, positive outlook, responsibility, plus the incentive for continuous improvement. Without these attributes, the average salesperson will find it difficult to grow and go through the necessary changes required for top performance.

Five Weak Behaviors to Avoid in Sales Candidates

Equally important in your sales talent search, before you make any hiring decision, you must understand your candidates’ weaknesses.

Here are five metrics to tell you what you need to know:

1. Buy Cycle: The way you buy products or services is likely the way you expect people to buy from you. For example, do you need to think it over, comparative shop, price shop, or do research first. In fact, research tells us, a 100 percent mirror image ties the way salespeople buy to the behavior they’ll tolerate from their prospects such as stalls, put-offs and objections. The higher the candidate ranks on OMG’s buy cycle score, the less likely he will be vulnerable to those objections.

2. Approval: If a salesperson needs approval or needs to be liked, he or she will be compromised and weakened. You must profile them to determined they do not need approval. When they need to be liked or approved of, that need from the prospect may take precedence over landing a meeting or closing the sale.

When salespeople continue to follow up on long-silent prospects instead of securing a “no” early in the sales process, managers cannot forecast accuracy of the pipeline correctly. Better for salespeople to earn respect than approval.

3. Emotions: When salespeople control their emotions, they’re less likely to panic if caught by surprise during sales call. Panic leads to self-doubt, stress and worry in the middle of a sales conversation. They’ll listen to the negative tapes in their heads and not to the prospect. When your salespeople learn to manage and direct their thoughts and control feelings and emotions, their close ratios can improve by as much as 20 percent.

4. Money: When salespeople discuss money comfortably, they can dive deep into a conversation on finances to learn money sources, budget limits, and spending restrictions. Even better, they can fight for more money when shortfalls exist.

When salespeople score low in money talk in the OMG assessment, it reveals a weakness that leaves them unable to go beyond asking a simple question like, “is there a budget.” Poor responses to prospect questions such as “how much will this cost?” become normalized. I worked with a client whose sales team easily sold products and services in the $10,000 to $15,000 range; however, they struggled with big ticket sales at $150,000. They struggled with low money tolerance.

5. Record Collection: Records drive behavior. They’re a powerful but subconscious collection of self-limiting beliefs, automatically playing in the salesperson’s minds. And they predetermine actions and outcomes.

Take an example from the buy cycle. A salesperson who is a price and comparative shopper believes that although his prospect wants to think it over, he will eventually buy because he’s the same way. When asked about the sale, he will blame the no-results status on other factors like the competition. These will be the salespeople who think your products are priced too high or blame the economy for the lack of results.

When these records-in-the-mind contradict basic selling techniques, the salesperson experiences paralysis and fails to execute because of his learned behavior

The 21 Core Competencies

Can you name 10 core competencies of a great salesperson, besides prospecting, qualifying and closing? What if I give you 21 proven, field-tested competencies developed over assessing thousands of salespeople for decades; they’re measurements you can trust to guide you in your hiring practices:

21 Core Competencies of Successful Salespeople

The eternal question:

Do natural-born, rockstar salespeople exist? And where do you find them?

Or can your turn average salespeople into top performers with training and tools?

Yes to both questions.

But why not give yourself the competitive advantage of testing for the core competencies of sales success before you ever think of offering anyone a sales position?

Makes smart business sense. And consider all the time, headache, and lost opportunities you’ll spare yourself and your company by knowing what you need to know before you act.

The post Find Your Sales Rockstars Once and For All appeared first on PleinAire Strategies.

What if you could increase revenues by 87 percent, increase EBITDA by 81 percent, triple sales, and double productivity in three years?

“Impossible,” you say.   Uh, not so fast, my friends.

Lodestone Global Private Company Board Survey, along with other reports, claim these outcomes are likely by adding an independent Board of Directors. “Private companies can drive this type of performance through the strategic use of corporate and advisory boards,” according to the Private Directors Association at its March conference.

Best decision I ever made in my business career was to set up advisory boards for my four companies.

Advisory boards gather together professionals who can provide insight into marketplace complexities, gauge future trends, facilitate funding, make introductions to buyers, and suggest strategic alliances.

I benefited from all that and more. My advisory board built credibility for my firm, which I was able to leverage, and the members regularly introduced me to key prospects under favorable conditions.

When people searched my website, they were reassured by familiar and trusted faces, giving them the confidence needed to extend their attention to my services.

On one occasion, I met with the CEO of a large bank. I offered my firm background and mentioned those notables on my advisory board. He asked, “Are you a publicly traded company?” He said, “You have a more powerful board than I do.”

Although we were in growth mode, we employed only 10 or 15 hand-picked people. Over time, we grew to lead the market in our space, which resulted in our ability to sell the firm to a NYSE company. I am convinced my advisory board carried weight in the transaction.

An excellent, brief article from American Express Open Forum, “Why Your Small Business Needs an Advisory Board,” is worth your read.

Establishing Your Advisory Board

When setting up your advisory board, stay open and focused. I recommend these four actions:

1. Objectives and Expectations: Ensure you establish clear objectives for and expectations of the board members. Your board serves in an advisory capacity dealing with all or part of your business, say to formulate strategy. Or you need their marketing expertise, share your objective upfront so there will be no surprises. Be upfront; these are big boys and they will know how the game is played.

2. Select the Right People. Diversify the composition of your board—a lawyer, accountant, professor, marketing leader, or banker. for example. These influencers should be current and active in their fields. A retired professional who still sits on other corporate boards is ideal. The value of an inactive former head of a law or accounting firm endures only for his first two years in retirement. Remember you want quick-study, critical thinkers. Surprisingly, you can attract excellent candidates at a reasonable cost. More on compensation later.

On one of my advisory boards, I attracted a former vice chairman of the big-four accounting firms, an active CEO of a public company, an investment banker, the head of the local chapter of the National Association of Corporate Directors, and a former dean of the business school of a major university.

Many of these active leaders did not want “retirement” to halt their ability to contribute back to business, especially the gratification gained by helping young firms grow. Not about the money. More about helping people accomplish something of value—paying it forward.

I enjoy helping many businesses make the right connections to form their advisory boards. Once you attract the first and right person, the others follow.

3. Stay Focused; Keep Members Informed: An advisory board is a superb working asset. You must treat it as such. If a member makes an introduction to a coveted prospect, follow up with the member on your success or failure. Ensure that your board continuously thinks about your firm.

Meet face-to-face at least four times per year. Develop crisp, actionable meeting agendas. Intersperse these meetings with monthly conference calls. Invite your advisory board to your annual meeting, including spouses, and make the group part of your business family. They will enjoy being part of a fast-growing organization where they can make a difference.

4. Compensation: Board member compensation can take several forms. You need to pay the member for his involvement and time. Caveat: a percentage fee of the transaction may be prohibited by certain industries. My best suggestions:

• Meeting fees. Pay an annual retainer such as $2,500 to $5,000 per quarter. You could also pay a profit-sharing bonus at year-end.
• Pay per meeting. If the member lines up a high-level meeting, pay $250 to $500 per success with either shares of stock in your company or an annual profit payment. The company stock could be phantom stock.
• Give your member something special. Consider buying hours in a fractional jet service; award them with hours. When I did this, my beneficiaries loved it, regardless of their financial stature. You can also offer a medical expense account or pay for medical insurance.
• Stock in the company and a small fee. Again, consider phantom stock, which focuses the member on your company’s success. When I sold to a public company, many of my directors enjoyed six and seven-figure payouts based on our success.

Promote Your Board

Be sure to promote your advisory board everywhere possible. Issue a press release announcing formation; list their profiles on your website and in your corporate brochure; refer to your board often in your presentations, consulting conversations, and networking.

Leverage this working asset as the jewel that it is in your business crown.

The post Your Not-So-Secret Sales Weapon — An Advisory Board appeared first on PleinAire Strategies.

Do you believe it’s not what you sell, but how you sell that makes the difference?

I do.  For years, I’ve operated in a very competitive industry with just a handful of providers servicing a limited number of large buyers.

Little differentiation existed between me and my competitors. And what differentiation there was I built around our sales process and how we approached and worked with clients.

CEB, now Gartner, cited in a buyer study that the sales experience (53%) was the difference. Not the firm or brand name (19%), or price-to-value ratio (9%) or the service capabilities (19%).

Think about it. More than half of client loyalty is built on how you sell, not what you sell.

One of my competitors often used the FUD factor against us. Of course, you know this as fear, uncertainty, and doubt. Quite frustrating because it weakened budding prospect relationships. Once a competitor infiltrates prospect thinking with FUD, your prospect will wield it against you.

FUD works well with people who hate change. Change means risk. Risk could mean loss. If you’re the incumbent, the best way to beat your FUD-driven competitor is to raise the stakes on his game.

Help your prospect see change as unsafe.

I hated it when competitors FUD-ed us. However, it was effective for them. It forced us to dig deep and work extra hard to land an opportunity. By sticking to our well-structured sales process, we succeeded in defeating the FUD factor often.

Wielding Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt

As you learned in my first book MERGE, companies compete on price, product or service. When it comes to price, the incumbent will win every time. All he must do is match the price you propose. No company wants to rip up the sidewalk to replace a vendor solely on price.

When it comes to products, there isn’t enough differentiation to distinguish one from the other, especially in certain vertical markets like financial services.

If you do offer a product with a truly meaningful difference, you need to maximize your leverage. Product differentiation is not sustainable over an extended period. In most cases, the incumbent can match it or come close to matching your difference.

You can sell with a new product, but don’t base your marketing and sales strategy solely on that product when attempting to unseat the incumbent. New products play a valuable role only when you’re not selling head-to-head against the incumbent.

If you’re offering a new product without a solid track record of performance, the incumbent will use the venerable FUD strategy against you. After all, change is unsafe. It’s a tactic incumbents use to discredit  competitors—a clear and strategic attempt to influence perception by disseminating negative, dubious, and sometimes false information.

Two Ways to Use FUD to Your Advantage

1. Reduce the FUD Factor

Prospects tend to experience a high degree of FUD when considering whether to do business with a new or emerging company about which they know little or nothing. The more innovative and costly the product or service, and the less well known the company, the higher the degree of FUD in the buyer’s mind.

Ray Smilor from Beyster Institute for Entrepreneurial Employee Ownership contends that salespeople face two choices. The first choice is to reduce FUD in the buyer’s mind in these ways:

Do the buyer’s homework for him. Research the company’s needs, so you understand buyer issues and challenges even better than he or she does. Gain insights on such topics as the company’s competition, competitive advantage and purchase-decision process before you talk with its representatives. It’s one pillar on the foundation of MERGE─do your homework.

Justify product/service costs to buyers. This effort may require a cost-benefit analysis to justify your product or service with the substitution cost of replacing what the buyer currently uses.

Encourage project teams.  Pull together company employees to participate with you in defining the problem to be solved, clarifying needs, and testing the product or service. This teaming can be critical to helping buyers gain a sense of ownership when adopting a product or service.

Stress product/service benefits rather than features; that is, how it helps the buyer, rather than what it does. Show how the product or service meets a buyer’s need or solves a problem, instead of describing how the product or service operates.

Provide support. Reinforce a purchase decision with guarantees, warranties, and training.

Demonstrate. Offer a realistic demonstration of the product or service to remove any doubts about what it does and what you say it does. The ability to prove a product, visualize a value and illustrate intangibles, catalyzes FUD reduction.

2. Increase the FUD factor

In the buyer’s mind increase the FUD factor to persuade him to change and buy. Smart salespeople alert buyers to the negative consequences of not using their products or services in many ways:

Indicate the buyer will fall behind the competition. This strategy requires an understanding of competitor activities, then show how your product or service will enhance the buyer’s competitive position.

Prove how the buyer’s operation will be less efficient. This effort requires insight into his distribution, manufacturing, marketing and selling processes, and a demonstration of how your product or service will streamline those processes.

Provide data showing that productivity will decline. This move requires explaining how your product or service functions as an employee productivity tool that maximizes the ability to get work done.

Remember People Buy, Not Corporations

Wrapped around the FUD factor is the human factor. Ultimately, it is about people who struggle to make progress, solve problems and fix their situation. The smart way to defeat FUD is to fully understand the buyer’s vision for a solution. Know how he or she will personally benefit from your solution.

In MERGE 2.0, we refer to this as the prospect’s buying vision. It is not what solution you see; it is what the prospect sees. The prospect’s vision for a solution is inside his head. At the early stages of his buying process, his vision of a solution has nothing to do with your products or services.

Prospects buy to make problems go away. They see a discrepancy between where they are and where they want to be. If they think you can eliminate the discrepancy, they’ll think about buying. If not, FUD will kick in and the competition will seize this opportunity with pleasure.

The Human Factor Challenge

Most salespeople I meet hope to help B2B prospects reduce costs, improve profitability, reduce turnover, reduce cycle time, et al. Each result is important as you work to match your products and services to the buyer’s vision for a solution.

But truth be told, I lost many a sales opportunity by presenting a better product or solution to meet a prospect’s needs. That was not my prospect’s win.

I started winning more opportunities when I applied something I learned many years ago from Miller Heiman:  focus on the buyer’s win and the results. This shift pushed me closer to the decision makers,  and closer to the reason they wanted to buy. Once I understood the reason, I was able to make it much more difficult for the competition to use the FUD factor on me.

Wins and results are distinct yet interrelated. Learn how to understand the linkage because it is a crucial part of sales strategy.

Results are the impact that your product or service has on one or more of your prospect’s business processes. Results are objective, tangible, measurable and corporate. That is, they affect many people in an organization at the same time, although they may affect no two people in exactly the same way.

Wins are the fulfillment of a promise made to oneself to serve one’s own perceived self-interest. Wins are subjective, intangible, difficult to measure and highly personal. Even when two buyers get the same result, they don’t win in exactly the same way.

The post How to Conquer the FUD Factor appeared first on PleinAire Strategies.

You finally reached your ideal prospect.
Took a lot of emails and phone calls. But you landed his attention.
The call went well. He was engaged, answered questions, and was receptive to a proposal.

Then, deafening silence.

Ever happen to you? Of course, it has.
Anyone in professional sales has experienced the great-prospect-brush-off.

What is going on here?

Most salespeople conclude their proposal was off target or the price was too high. They second guess themselves. They believe they lost the deal; the prospect moved on; his priorities changed.

Not necessarily so.

Slow Down to Succeed

To me, radio silence indicates I tried to sell too fast. And my sales process misaligned with how the prospect wanted to buy. We know we can’t sell every opportunity. Nonetheless, utter silence shocks the brain.

When the sound of silence strikes you, recognize he or she did not perceive your value. At least, not yet. Did you overwhelm them with information on products, services or solutions? If so, the prospect thinks he has everything he needs from you. In his mind, no need to engage further.

So, slow down. Position your value to the prospect. It’s not what you sell; it’s how you sell. Communicate your value proposition upfront and with tangible clarity.

Worse yet, prospects don’t always know how to buy. Nor do they know how to buy your particular products or services. Don’t take for granted that they do. To avoid this mistake, examine similar buyer personas or buying cycles. Look for patterns and clues to their buying process. What were the obstacles to overcome?

Sell the Problem First

To shut down the possibility of prospect silence, salespeople must bring worthwhile perspective and tangible value to the prospect.

As Steve Jobs said: “you have to start with the customer experience and work backwards to the technology.” Jobs understood that when you try to reverse-engineer the need statement from the product, it’s too easy to lose touch with reality.

When salespeople launch into a product discussion before selling the problem, prospects get confused. It’s like playing Reverse Jeopardy. You give people the answer without understanding the question.

In my MERGE process, this backwards approach occurs before your prospect recognizes the problem and, with your help, has had an opportunity to form his vision for a solution.

Happens all the time. You target a potential opportunity. Do your homework. And identify an opportunity to which you can bring a solution. You gear up your presentation materials, launch into who you are and how you helped similar companies fix the issue you uncovered.

In fact, you even go one step further and perform an ROI analysis to demonstrate to your prospect substantial savings with your solution. Yet he goes silent.

Regrettably, you are treating this prospect as though she’s already in the buying mode. Wrong.

She’s still in cognition mode, thinking about her the status quo, analyzing her predicament to grasp a better understanding of the situation. She wants to satisfy herself that her problem is big enough to address and whether to do it now. Or wait.

Crossing the Chasm

Silence happens when you blow past one of the most important decision points your prospect makes during her buying cycle:  the decision to “fix or not fix” an existing problem. This chasm or decision point hangs up most prospects. And salespeople.

If you leap over the chasm and continue the sales process as if the prospect already decided to change, and she has not, you’re going to fall into that good, dark hole, stumped.

Take a moment to study this chart.

Instead, secure her commitment to change, cross over the chasm together, with helping hands all the way. How to do?

As explained in the Explore module in my eLearning course, you need to use a close-ended question to confirm that this decision point has been crossed. Here are a couple of examples:

“Ms. Prospect, do you want to fix this issue now?”

“Do you think it would be worthwhile looking at some alternative solutions?”

You cannot avoid this commitment question, no matter how you word it.
If the prospect says yes, the green light to move forward is yours.
Now, you can roll up your sleeves and help the prospect find a solution to the problem(s) faced.

If the prospect says no, it’s not all bad. At least you know where you stand for the moment and have not wasted his valuable time or yours. Step back and learn why this person does not wish to move forward. In all likelihood, you did not fully form a vision for the solution or make the status quo unsafe.

Crossing the chasm is a liberating exercise. You’re given a near real-time peek into the prospect’s mind as he or she commits to fix the problem. Until this commitment is made, any discussion of solutions is a waste of everyone’s time.

Best of all, on the other side of the chasm, the vista of unlimited opportunity lies.

Your prospects will begin to see you as a trusted advisor who’s committed to fixing their problem by exploring the best possible alternatives.

Notice, too, you left the competition on the other side, sitting bewildered in the sounds of silence.

It’s a beautiful thing.

The post The Sounds of Silence — Where in the World is My Prospect? appeared first on PleinAire Strategies.