A great sales culture is made of sales professionals.  One key differentiating factor that separates sales professionals from sales reps is the ability to cultivate long term relationships AND continually grow them.  They also know that those relationships will stay with them as careers and jobs change over time.  Another way to think of this is: “are your relationships truly based on you or are they just dependent on the products and services you sell?”

The ultimate question is simple: can you leverage your existing relationships to act as a part of your virtual sales team even if they are not directly capable or have the ability or need to buy from you as they have done in the past?

What is your relationship portability index – your RPi?  Try this exercise: make a list of all of your business relationships and rate them in this way:

1. Reliable and Available. They will always refer you and believe in you as a selling professional.  They will make it a priority to proactively introduce you to people in their organization without question.  They are consistently available to you and are a strong advocate for you as a sales professional and a business professional.
2. Available but not Reliable. They are available and will take your call and refer you, but not without some concern. Not consistently reliable to be a part of your virtual team.  Personal trust may be an issue.
3. Neither Reliable or Available. They see you as just a part of their business and not at all extendable.
4. Non Existent.

A sales culture is powered by the virtual team and, by extension, your RPi.  The virtual team is powered by your RPi.  Make no mistake – if you can transport and leverage your business relationships with you throughout your professional career, you have a high degree of RP and the potential to be more successful is obvious.  If not you will become stuck as you change and grow and find yourself starting over often.

I see examples of effective virtual teams and sales cultures everywhere I go. I see so many examples, but still not enough to think that the sales culture practices are commonplace and clearly understood by sales organizations. When the sales professionals thoroughly understand what they have to do and know how to engage people, the organizational managers say, “Yes, go to work and be on the team.” No distractions on competing priorities are presented by different levels of functional bosses.

The virtual team members’ biggest challenge might be time management. The balancing of functional responsibilities and virtual team responsibilities to the customer can be tricky. One way to bring clarity to this challenge is to think of the customer and his needs first. What will help to satisfy the customer? How urgent is the customer’s need for my service? What works best for the customer? How can I help to move the sales campaign to a successful close?

Functional managers and sales professionals who are leading the virtual teams can help team members prioritize their work in ways that contribute to customer satisfaction and company success. Whatever affects a customer comes first.

Organizational managers can look at activities in two categories: customer issues and internal issues. If the environment or culture of the company is one that prioritizes the customer before all else, then everyone knows how to manage their time according to these guidelines. The internal issues need to be managed to best respond to the customer issues.

A sales professional should see every situation as a unique opportunity to reinforce a sales culture. The sales professional needs to recognize the different needs in each sales opportunity to build his sales culture and success. Money in the emotional bank account comes first. This account is built by developing relationships with customers and virtual team members, who can help with the customer relationships.

I was having breakfast with my friend Dr. Richard Marcus today and he had the most amazing thing to say.

Richard is a consulting psychologist and is highly regarded in his field – and after our conversation I am again reminded why.  We were talking about networking and how that is truly the lifeblood of how business moves.  Richard asked me if  ”I knew the 5 most important words of networking” ?  The answer is simple.  Get out your pen and get ready…

” I received your name from” and the SECOND most important 5 words are ”  I am giving your name to….”

Networking is all about being proactive. Listening to what people do and making sure that when you have a reason to refer someone to someone else you DO IT.  Too often people think networking is about collecting cards.  Wrong.  Networking is about truly taking the time to “get what someone does and going out of your way to make a referral and when you make it, you add your comments and endorsement.  Period.

When you are known as someone who refers and does it the right way, you then build your sales culture-and you have armies of proxy sales people who will be passionate about returning the networking favor.  Then you will be hearing those 5 amazing words.

Good Selling!

-Todd

I have been a little slow to get my blogging back online, because I have been working on my book  – but I have to share this story of some amazing sales professionals I encountered yesterday!  Are  you ready?  I was in the supermarket and as I was leaving, I was treated to one of the best sales pitches I have ever seen.  It was by a group of adorable 7 year old girls selling Girl Scout Cookies!

Let me tell you why they were awesome.  They asked me if I “had a moment”.  They asked me how I was doing and “did I like cookies?”  They took the time to explain the different kinds of cookies and one of them never took her eyes off me.  She asked me what “my favorite was” and then proceeded to make a recommendation!  One young lady was very concerned that I got my favorite kind ( Thin Mint) and when it seemed like they were out, asked me very politely if she could ask her mother to go to the car and see if there were any left ( there were….whew!)

Finally…..they asked me to buy!  They put the close on me and I did!  They earned the right to close me because they were patient, passionate and made me feel like they wanted to make sure I had the cookies I wanted.  These young ladies educated me, listened to my needs and asked me to buy!  Wait, then they asked me to send my friends – a referral!  True sales professionals creating sales culture.  I love it.  Lessons to be learned for all of us.

Good Selling!

-Todd

In some ways this is my favorite newsletter to write.  It’s the one where I put my Sales Culture work aside and express a few simple thoughts to you.2009 has been a challenging year.  It can be tough to keep a perspective on things and remain upbeat and positive.  It’s at times like this I keep reminding myself what I am deeply grateful for.  So with your permission, here is my list:

• I am eternally grateful for my health.  I will never take that for granted.
• Thank you to my friends for your unwavering support and loyalty.
• Thank you to my colleagues and clients for your enthusiastic support of my work.  I learn from you every day.
• Thank you to my virtual team for everything you to do help me make Sales Culture come alive.
• Thank you to the readers of my newsletters and those of you who have been passionate supporters.
• Thank you to the Pittsburgh Steelers for last years Super Bowl victory!

What are you thankful for?  Write and let me know.

I am looking forward to an exciting 2010 and sharing more Sales Culture thoughts, writings and goodness with you!

Have a Safe, Joyous and Peaceful holiday season.

-Todd

I am exhausted! I have heard enough excuses this past week why people are not closing deals!  I think that the time of year makes sales reps and some sales professionals a bit crazy and this year is not an exception!  We are all in the mode to work to do everything we can to get the deals closed and invoiced.  So, here is the deal -do you want to close more deals?  Do you want to raise your close ratio and your profit ratio?  Then get it right the first time!

I have taken the time to look at more proposals and listen to additional sales calls these past few weeks and the one thing that has become glaringly apparent is that mistakes and omissions are being made and they are completely avoidable!  When these mistakes are made the entire sales campaign is delayed and your credibility is lowered in the eyes of your client!

Get it right the first time!  Its simple.  Listen to your client.  Do the right amount of discovery and propose what makes sense and what is based on the needs of the client!  Don’t get tripped up on the small stuff!  Please take your time and be a great sales professional.

Get it right the first time!

Good Selling!

-Todd

But now, things have changed.

The economy is bad, clients are pulling back and business is simply not growing.  In short, Dave and Janice are faced with essentially the same dilemma.

They, like you, may be asking these questions:

• What can I do to sell differently?
• What can I do to develop new and profitable clients?
• How can I do a better job ferreting out new opportunities in this economy?
• Is there something that I’m missing in my sales toolkit that others are profiting from?

Do some of these questions sound familiar to you?

Face it – we’ve all read a lot of “quick fix” selling articles that start with “10 Tips” or the “7 Keys” or the “21 Secrets” that promise success selling in a recession. While each starts out promising, they all say essentially the same thing with nothing really new.

Let’s go back to Dave and Janice. By now, they are probably frustrated and under tremendous pressure to perform.  As time drags on, both decide to act – but they take very different paths. Dave continues to make more cold calls, write more proposals, ask more questions, collect more business cards and send more emails.  Now, please note that there is nothing wrong with more activity – sales is about your numbers and keeping your activity high but Dave is going it alone and is determined to dig out of the slump by himself. Janice, on the other hand, has begun to create new client relationships by leveraging the skills and passions of ALL the people around her – both inside and outside her company. Both in the sales department and outside of it. She’s tapping into ideas from customer service, R&D, and marketing. She’s working with the accounting department to follow up on big deals from past clients. She’s reaching out to her vendor and partner network to see where money is being spent – and by whom – to identify juicy new prospects. Janice is also keeping her activity high but she is taking a much different view of what it takes to develop and close deals.

In short, Janice is identifying new opportunities through sound sales processes AND she is not going it alone. Janice is creating and using her virtual sales team and creating her own sales culture that will accelerate her success in these challenging times and set her up for longer-term stability. Creating a powerful sales culture – an environment where everyone is in sales and where the sales process is transparent to the entire company – is the vital connection to accelerating your sales results!

If you think about what it takes to close a deal, it is very much dependent on you, as a sales professional, to harness and leverage the skills and talents of everyone around you – your virtual sales team!  This is how people like Janice are raising the bar and seeing increased success not only because they have increased activity, but because they understand that a sales campaign is the same as a movie script needing a powerful cast.  Janice is not a one-woman show, but instead the director and choreographer of a cast of talented and skilled people all playing a selling role. She is taking the responsibility to engage and inspire them to be part of her virtual team and to become part of a sales culture.  She is proactive – collaborating with her “cast” to help close more and better deals. Janice also figured out one very simple truth.  The people around her were all pleased to be asked to be a part of solving the sales challenge and get more deals in the door, thereby ensuring job security for all.  Janice is making her sales culture work for her.

Your job as a selling professional allows you the exciting opportunity to use the networks that you have developed both internally and externally to create and mobilize your virtual sales team. You can get more done and close more deals by engaging those around you. You’ll also serve more clients and satisfy more needs.  You’ll generate more referrals and create a sustainable enterprise to grow your business.

What successful sales professionals have figured out is that if you adopt a sales culture, you’ll sell more and sell smarter because you’ll never sell alone!

Shhhh, don’t let anyone hear me tell you this, but  you are IN sales!  It’s OK, don’t panic. Take a few deep breaths.  Its true. It does not matter what you do, whether you are employed or in a career transition.

Intriguing to me is when people think that sales is a “5 letter word” and we all sell.  In my work lecturing helping companies build their Sales Culture, the one consistent thing is that when we show people how much of what they do has a selling component to it, its easy to see how we all sell.  It’s exciting to then understand how your role in a sales campaign enhances your ability to impact the bottom line and increase professional security.  In other words, when you help a sales campaign to be transparent to all in an organization, you are selling and are on the “A” team.

So, if sales is a 5 letter word, I would like to suggest that that word is ” success”.  Ok, that’s seven letters- and I am sure you get my meaning!

Good Selling!

-Todd

Do you remember the person who hired you for your first job?  I do and today I had the very great pleasure of having lunch and a wonderful time with my first manager, Joel Mickelberg.  I have not seen Joel in 15 years and it was amazing to reconnect with him and talk about my days at Xerox and most importantly be able to say “thank you”.

In 1984, as a senior at Temple University I was in the hunt for a job and Joel was on campus representing Xerox. I interviewed with Joel and still remember it vividly.  I also remember a question he asked me during the interview when he handed me a pencil and told me to “sell it to him”!  Evidently I did OK, because he moved me along and I stayed with Xerox for almost 13 years.

As I was talking to Joel at lunch, I was reminded of why he was the type of sales manager that people remained loyal to after many years.  Joel knew how to connect with people because he deeply and genuinely cared for us.  He cared for our well being as people and as sales professionals in development.  He defended us, made sure we knew when we were doing the right things and gently and firmly coached us when we strayed.  He protected us against bad advice and direction  and kept us honest and growing.  People loved working for Joel and it showed.  He opened his home to us on several occasions and his heart as well.  Joel was a coach and a mentor and a good one at that.

Joel is recently retired and when I pulled up to his house I was delighted to see that he looks great and is now a proud grandfather and is still the same guy I knew 25 years ago.  We reminisced about people we knew and worked with and it was fun to hear his perspectives on selling after all of these years.  I really felt like time had not passed and we had not been out of touch all these years.  What a great day today was.

The best part was when I was saying goodbye to Joel, he looked at me and said ” I am proud of you”.  That meant more to me than I could ever express.  I would be lying if I said I did not still have a lump in my throat as I am writing this.

So,  Joel  now I can say “thank you” for everything you did for me.  You are a big reason I am who I am today as a sales professional.  I am honored to have had you in those very early years and I am a better man for it.

I hope that all of my readers have a “Joel” that they can say “thanks” to as well.

-Todd

Lately much of my speaking and training has been focused on the (vast) differences between sales reps and sales professionals. They have two different modes of operation and styles of work.  Sales reps are focused on the present, the here and now of a specific sale.  They are fully engaged in providing product information and getting a contract signed.  There is usually not too much complexity in this task or role, except when you need your organization behind you, which is all of the time.

Sales professionals are focused on the sales campaign and the virtual team of supporters who contribute much expertise to the close of the sale.  They deal with more complexity and a collaborative sales process.  They are focused, passionate, and genuinely interested in the best results for the customer.  It shows!

Both roles are needed depending upon the sales situation.  The culture of the company, as well as of the customer’s company, dictates when to be a sales rep and when to be a sales professional.

This is just a brief snippet from my full day workshop “Solid Sales Rep and Genius Sales Professional”.

Let me know what you think!

Good Selling!

-Todd