ToddCohen is updated and refreshed!

I want to invite you to take a tour of my newly updated website.  I have added new content and and take a look at Todd Cohen Talks Sales Culture, my current video.

I hope you enjoy it!

Good Selling!

-Todd

Sales is precise. We have talked in the past that what we do is an art and a science. It is a skill and it takes time to hone it to perfection. Sales is not about the “if”. Let me explain. I have been listening to different sales people lately and I seem be hearing a great deal of:

“If only the economy was better, I could have……”
“If the product was better I could…..
“If the CEO would only take my call….”
“If I could just get in front of so and so………
“If …..and so on.

I think you get the point!  Sales is not about the “if”.  It is about the “I can” and “I will”.  Sales Professionals don’t default to the “if” – you find the way to make it ” its closed!”.

Good Selling!

-Todd

Recently, I have been asked to comment on the viability of a virtual sales team.  In other words, a sales team that is contracted to work on behalf of a company to sell their products and services.  These virtual teams are, in essence, hired guns or outsourced sales teams.  They are hired to do a job for many different companies and have no allegiance or true connection to the company, its credo or its mission.  Now, before I go on, let me make a clear distinction: In the consulting and training work in my area of expertise of developing a sales culture, I often speak of the importance of creating a virtual team.  This means the sales professional who can either be employed by a company or self employed, who is building a committee group of professionals inside (and outside) the company to work together to develop the client solution.  This, as you can see, is a very different concept.

Now, back to the topic at hand.  I am not a fan of outsourcing sales.  I believe this is an effort aimed at solely cutting cost. The value proposition is simple and is one that companies motivated to cut costs initiate quickly. Outsourcing a sales team is a short term response to a longer term issue.  It avoids longer term investment like training and development of people.  It allows the company to play games with compensation and benefits.  Here is another problem as I see it: Sales campaigns are getting more and more complex and they require more resources to bring the sale to closure. It is absolutely necessary for companies to develop, nurture and empower these internal sale teams because to bring these sales campaigns to closure involves a strong network of relationships, both internally and externally, and must be teams that the sales professional can call on to deliver results.  These relationships cannot be developed quickly and will never be as robust when the sales team is outsourced.

Further, when you outsource sales you are putting your future and your revenue streams in the hands of people who have no real connection to the company.  Allegiance is in short supply and the emotional connection that fires the passion of the sales professional is missing.  That same passion and enthusiasm is what has powered some of the greatest companies to success.  When you outsource sales you limit that passion and essentially give your future away to people who are simply not as vested in your success as that strong and well trained internal sales team.  You cannot replace that energy and inertia.

More on this soon and as always let me know what you think!

Good Selling!

-Todd

“So you don’t want to be in sales?  Sales people are full of themselves.  They say and do anything to get you to buy.  They are your best friend until you buy.  Then you never hear from them again.   If you want to really know what a product does or about its value to you, you need to talk with someone else.  Can you even find that other person?  What happens if your product is unsatisfactory?  A nightmare has begun.”

“……As the world changes, so must we all change to accommodate or we fall behind.  Creating  a culture in which all in your organization feel a part of the sales process is what a sales culture is all about.  It is not the sales that matter as much as the needs of the customer.  When all  in your company feel  the customer’s pain and understand his needs, they can offer support to the sales person in meeting those needs.

The  customer relationship is then solidified to ward off the dynamic factors of the 21st century that might interrupt your service to a customer.  You and the customer are partners when you operate from a customer-centric perspective.  Helping all  in your organization understand this perspective and working towards meeting the customer needs describe the essence of a sales culture…..”

More to come and I hope you enjoy!

Good Selling!

Todd

As an added bonus, I will include my companion e-book “Essential Selling Skills” at no charge.

Place your order here

Description~

Everyone is in sales! This audio and e-learning course describes the skills necessary to manage effective sales campaigns.  They are personal, professional, business-related, and innovative in nature and ensure that you will achieve exceptional sales results.  These skills also enable your organization to build and benefit from a sales culture.  Creating a sales culture ensures that your organization will sustain itself through these exceptional sales results.  These sales results are created by everyone in the organization, since it takes the expertise and knowledge of all company members to ensure sales success.  Therefore, everyone in the organization must develop essential sales skills, as led by the sales professionals.  The sales professionals should be the most competent in mastering and using these skills with both with external customers and everyone in the organization who will contribute expertise as part of a virtual team to the sales campaign. Everyone understands customers and their needs and is prepared to serve those needs, just as the sales professional routinely serves.  Everyone is in sales!

You are in a big company and most likely there is  a hierarchy that exists.  You need help.  What can you do?  Well,  the first thing you should be doing is building your virtual team to deliver the client solution.  Your Sales Culture demands it!  You need to ask people to help and lend their talents and expertise.  That’s the essence of the Sales Culture!

I want to use this blog entry to create a conversation around the hierarchy which you need to expect and your right to work in the matrix ( the flat organization)or an organization where you can pick up the phone and engage anyone!  You are accountable to inform all relevant parties of someones involvement, but make sure you engage the right people!

Confused?  Don’t be.  When you are building your virtual team, you have to be able to reach out and across the organization.  People sit in silos and you need to feel empowered to engage people and not feel stifled and that you need to get levels of permission from the hierarchy first.  You need to understand that the hierarchy needs to be understood and respected and at the same time I will say that you can work the matrix and engage directly.   Your client is counting on you to deliver quickly.

As always, let me know what you  think.

Good Selling!

Todd

Join Todd for a stimulating and exciting conversation about how you can create an effective sales culture in your organization.

To listen, Please click on this link 5 minutes prior to the show.

To call in: 646-929-1341

In response to you requests, here is my list of  the “Top Reasons why Sales Reps don’t close the deal”

1. Failure to ASK for the Order. (ASK! You have earned the right.)
2. Failure to create and leverage a Virtual Team (a.k.a. your own Sales
Culture)
3. Taking a “NO” as a NO instead of  needing to “KNOW” more.
4. Poor negotiation skills-failure to find a “win-win”.
5. A mismatch between your offering and the clients pain points.
6. Making it about price and not about value.
7. Not getting all the “cards on the table”.
8. Missing the BIG Picture and the client feeling under served9. Not reviewing the contract early enough.
10. Rushing the deal and not building rapport.
11. Lack of confidence in yourself or your products.
12. Wrong decision maker.

The  good  news  is that as a Sales Professional you can  handle all of
these areas by being aware, taking your time and leveraging your Sales
Culture!

Good Selling!

-Todd

Coaching.  It is continuous and ongoing.  Right?  Of course you know this.  As we continually evolve our sales culture, coaching is the center point for you as a sales leader to do correctly.  Coaching happens in both a planned and serendipitous manner.  It happens all the time and as a sales leader you are accountable to coach when you see the opportunity.

Here is a fact for you to think about: it takes between 6 and 15 times for someone to hear a coaching message before it takes root and grows into actual behavior change.  It takes multiple times and venues for you to coach to the same topic before you will see some change.  This means that you have to be consistent in your message to your sales staff.

How can you make sure that you are coaching the behavior that we need to see?  Here is simple suggestion that has always worked for me. Make a short list for each rep with 3-5 mutually agreeable points that need to change.  Put those on a sticky note or a pad or whatever you choose to so that it is close by and front and center when you have your plan and review with the reps.  Refer to that and make sure that you coach to those objectives in the course of your conversations and check for the desired behavior. Ask the questions that reflect whether there is actual comprehension.  This simple suggestion ensures that you are consistent and that the rep hears the same message.  Make it obvious that you take it seriously and your reps will respect and get that.

As always, let me know what you think and…

Good Selling!

-Todd

Share it with my listeners on the next episode of my Radio Show “Let’s Talk Sales Culture” on BlogTalk Radio. My guest will be Eric David, President of Team-David Associates.

We air at 4 p.m. EDT on April 16th.  To listen, visit BlogTalkRadio/ToddCohen

To call in with your funniest sales story, call 646-929-1341

The winner will receive a special prize!