If you are a salesperson, and you need a productivity boost, there are lots of possibilities, such as better meeting preparation, more practice presenting, maintaining your relationships, and working to become more organized.

However, what if your entire organization needs a sales productivity boost? What can an organization do?

Contests and sales training are obvious things that come to mind. However, if these have any effect at all, they are typically short lived.

If your salespeople are already doing the basic blocking and tackling of selling, and you still need to improve sales productivity in an organization, you cannot do it by trying to affect what salespeople do.

That’s aiming at what salespeople do overlooks the sales process itself.

That is, it does not change the flow of activities around leads, opportunities, and deals.

For organizations, productivity boosts require changing the flow of the work. Here are two examples: Lead Generation, and Lead Nurturing.

Lead Generation
In most companies, leads (if there are any) are probably of low quality, meaning most are never going to buy.

Sales contests and sales training do no good if the real bottleneck is lead generation. Neither does asking salespeople to do more cold calling or networking. If salespeople could generate enough leads that way, would you have a lead shortage in the first place? 

This is one of the most common problems we see in sales organizations. Senior leaders usually grew up in the era when it was at least somewhat feasible to “hold salespeople accountable for finding their own leads.”

In the Internet age, when everyone uses their favorite search engine to find information to solve their problems, this is no longer viable. Sure, salespeople need to be able to make cold calls when absolutely necessary, but your business better not depend on it.

Much better to devise some kind of magnetic attraction system via the internet and in trade publications, where you can generate a predictable stream of traffic.

Salespeople are generally not involved in their company’s presence on Internet or in trade publications, much to their frustration.

In fact, entire companies are emerging to tap the market for helping independent sales representatives use Internet marketing to find their own leads and create their own customers. Perry Marshall (www.perrymarshall.com) is only one example of this. Glazer-Kennedy is another (www.glazer-kennedy.com).

The result? The independent sales reps who succeed at marketing in the Internet age gain control: They can find a different manufacturer far more easily than the manufacturers can find new customers or independent representatives!

This sea change in the market hits B2B companies in an awkward spot, because it contradicts traditional departmental functions.

On the positive side, when a company gets its act together and gets good at lead generation, the result is miraculous! 

As proof, I would offer the case examples described by Brian Carroll, author of “Lead Generation for the Complex Sale.”

We conducted a fascinating webinar with Brian in the professional members area of SPIF! in early February. (Members can log in here to watch that webinar: http://www.salesperformance.com/how-to-generate-and-sustain-a-25-increase-in-sales-opportunities-in-90-days-or-less-2)

Lead Nurturing
One of the principal challenges of lead generation is that once you succeed in finding individuals who could buy, they are usually not ready to buy now.

Most companies simply send all “leads” on to their salespeople, which creates lots of waste and negative effects:

• First, customers get frustrated when salespeople try to get them to do things they are not ready to do.

• Second, salespeople get frustrated. After all, their job is to close business and the majority of these “leads” do not want to buy now.

• Third, salespeople end up spending time unproductively.

Of course there are the rare occasions when prospects need to overcome inertia to do something they need, but don’t want, to do. A good salesperson can make a difference then. 

Yet, how often does this happen in B2B, where so many people play a role in buying decisions?  Is it even realistic that sales training can get these prospects to do things they are not ready to do?
 
A company that has its act together not only has a process in place to generate leads, it identifies the ones who are actually ready to talk to a salesperson and sends only those to the sales force.

The rest are hooked up to a nurturing campaign that is designed to benefit the majority of prospects who are not ready to buy now. These prospects get educational information and entertaining communications distributed over time. They are more highly qualified at the end of the campaign than they were at the beginning.

Nurturing campaigns are not difficult or expensive to do. They are not time consuming. In fact, once they are set up, they save loads of time: Salespeople become immediately more productive because they can focus on the right prospects.

And the company as a whole becomes more productive, because it achieves dramatically increased returns on its investment in lead generation. 

How does this work? How can you implement a lead generation campaign for your business, so you can double your salespeople’s productivity?

That’s what you’ll learn in the SPIF! webinar on Thursday of this week:

How to Double Salespeople’s Productivity
by Building Nurturing
into Your Sales Process
An Interview with Jim Cecil
Thursday April 2, 2009, 3:00pm Eastern Time
http://www.salesperformance.com/member-services/april-2-webinar

This webinar is free to Professional Members of SPIF! Guests may register and receive access to the recording of the webinar for 30 days for a fee of $47.

I look forward to talking with you on Thursday.

Michael Webb
March 31, 2007

Last week’s blog post “Why People Are NOT Your Most Important Asset” created some strong reaction.

Here is an example:

Michael,

I was recently fired from my sales job, because I wasn’t on the road “cold calling” enough …

Instead, I had been working to set up Google alerts for research as well as trigger events that Jill Konrath (www.sellingtobigcompanies.com) refers to. I was trying to set up an automated way of attracting and nurturing contacts through email, phone follow up, etc. They told me I was being fired for not doing the sales.

It is frustrating enough to be told to do things you know don’t work any more. But, to get fired for trying something you know could work! It is just incredible.

Your article touched all those things that companies still either don’t understand or don’t want to do…Do the research, create the value … all they want is more cold calls or send that proposal out …

You pointed out the reasons why the sales process is messed up and how it needs to improve … that the whole company must organize around researching the market, creating value, etc. It must deal with the “whole process,” not just what salespeople do.

It really gave me hope that maybe some of the old ways will be flushed out with this recession.

By the way, I got lucky: I start a new job in two weeks.

But I’ll be careful not to bring these new ideas to my new employer too soon…I need a job…

Bob Smith (not his real name)

The exact same thing has happened to me, Bob. More than once, actually.

Many employers today are stamping their feet, unwittingly trying to get their salespeople to do more of what does not work.

My employers assumed the problem was me. They felt that way for a bunch of reasons:

For one thing, they succeeded when they were in the field! (They didn’t realize how much things had changed.)

For another, everywhere they turn they are told “People are the most important thing. Get the right people and everything will be alright. If the numbers aren’t coming in, there must be a problem with the people.”

Bullshit.

The greatest people in the world cannot overcome a broken system. And most managements today are not even aware that they are part of a system. Instead they assume the solution to their problems is for the marketing department to market better, the sales department to sell better, and the service department to service better.

It has been said that “The last thing a fish discovers is water.”

Bob’s message is evidence that these managements are unwittingly damaging their companies. They are running off talented salespeople like him: people with the initiative to create new approaches that respond to today’s environment and technologies.

These management teams need to come up for air. They need to take a look at the world from a broader, more accurate perspective.

There is a widely held belief that an organization would have few problems if only their employees would do their jobs correctly. As Dr. Joseph Juran pointed out years ago, this belief is incorrect.

As Bob and I can attest, most of the problems companies have in sales and marketing can be resolved only by improving the sales and marketing “system” (which is largely determined by management). Few of the problems are under the employee’s control.

Only when a management team understands this can they can begin to leverage the people they do have to their best advantage.

Michael Webb
mwebb@salesperformance.com

Why Prospects Don't Understand Your Value - And What You Can Do About It

All too often businesses launch products, promotions, and proposals that do not achieve their goals.

When that happens, cost of sales goes up and confidence goes down. Everybody has to work harder.

Years ago I saw that happen multiple times at a company I worked for, and figured out how to solve the problem. Initially, it helped me tailor sales training materials to the specific environment clients needed. Then, it expanded to an organizing principle for value propositions that was needed by product managers and marketing managers. I wrote a popular article about it:

"Customer Value Mapping: A Key to Making Sales Easier"
(You can read about that article if you have opted in to the new website at http://www.salesperformance.com/sales-process-basics/free-spif-sign-up) 

I even wrote a guidebook about it. Now, on Thursday this week, I'll be conducting a Webinar that will provide you with a step-by-step approach for uncovering what your customers value, and show you how to turn it into a powerful selling value proposition. Customer value mapping is acrucial component for designing any sales process, especially in a B2B environment.

Visit the page below and sign up now: 

How to Map Customer Value
So Customers Will Buy Now and Pay More
Guidebook Launch Webinar

Thursday March 19, 2009, 3:00pm Eastern Time

How the voice of the customer can reveal
the right value propositions throughout
the customer’s life cycle

http://www.salesperformance.com/member-services/mar-19-webinar

I look forward to talking with you on Thursday!

Michael Webb
mwebb@salesperformance.com

B2B Sales executives often believe that hiring the right people and training them well is the most important success factor in their business.

Unfortunately, believing this is a serious mistake.

Want proof? Consider:

You would probably agree there are a LOT of great people in companies like GM, Ford, and Chrysler.

Yet, Toyota, Honda, and Mazda have been kicking their asses in the market for decades.

Would you say these landed Japanese automotive companies are winning because they’ve hired the right salespeople, or because they’ve trained them better? Is it because they use Sales 2.0?

Of course not. The greatest salespeople and the best sales training in the world will not save the American car companies.

The caliber and training of a company’s people are no match for the larger forces in play here. Yet, these same forces are pressuring every businesses all the time, especially in today’s market.

So, why are the landed Japanese companies winning?

They are winning because they create more value. The proof is in the market’s reaction: they sell more.

Clearly, the sales process is only one component of their success.

Unfortunately, many, many talented sales leaders are trapped in corporations that view the world in ways similar to American automotive companies.

It is high time for B2B sales executives to stop being so myopic about their trade.

I’m not saying people and training aren’t important, they are important. But they are not the most important thing.

The most important things are as follows:

1. Find a starving market (i.e., what customers want)
2. Develop a system that finds, wins, and keeps customers (i.e. a sales process)
3. Develop and continuously improve the organization to execute that process (i.e., the people, training, machines, materials, systems, etc.)

Businesses need to grow out of the false assumption that the sales process is “what salespeople do.”

This error causes B2B organizations get their sales process completely wrong. It is the reason salespeople only give lip service to the sales process. Salespeople know better, though they are usually unable to articulate why.

The fact is, processes that work create real value. Not only that, people follow them. In sales and marketing, the sales process is what causes customers to:

• become aware of their problems,
• interested in your solution,
• convinced of your value relative to your competitors, and
• committed to your products and services

Companies must recognize it takes more than just salespeople to do all those things, especially in today’s market.

It is irrelevant whether the customer’s actions are caused (or enabled) by copy-written ads, social networking, web pages, or the words of talented, trusted salespeople.

If something your company did got the customer to take one of those steps, it created value.

If your competitor did a better job of it, they deserve the customer instead.

If your prospects are now looking for information they need on their favorite search engine, and you insist on hiring and training more salespeople to make cold calls, that is your problem, not theirs!

Further, consider all the things your company does that cause no customer actions, such as generating tons of brochures no one reads, spending millions on branding exercises customers care less about, consuming thousands of hours on proposals that are never purchased, or asking salespeople to pull out picks and shovels to turn over more rocks in their territories looking for leads by hand.

All these are mostly waste.

It is high time that B2B sales executives stop being so myopic about their trade.

They need to learn to think of their business as a system for creating value. Value is created when customers take the steps listed above: it is called the “customer’s journey.” Every one of those steps is measurable with hard data. That data is the only proof you will be able to deliver revenue to your company in the future.

If is to work properly, your company’s system for getting customers to act needs to be designed. It requires the best selling savvy you can muster. It must be as automated as possible. Your salespeople need be able to implement the portions of the process that cannot be automated.

Executives who cling to old-fashioned notions about selling (hire the best people! make more sales calls! twist more arms! work harder!) are riding the Titanic to the bottom and will be looking for bail outs, just as the American automotive companies are doing today.

The quality of your people is important, but it is not the most important thing.

The most important thing is the quality of your business process.

Michael Webb
http://www.salesperformance.com