Understanding the Sales Force

6th of the 10 Kurlan Sales Management Functions

Dave Kurlan — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 05:01:00 GMT

Understanding the Sales Force by Dave Kurlan

This is the 6th in my series of the 10 Kurlan Sales Management Functions.

#6 - LEADERSHIP

Sales Leadership includes but is not limited to:

Strong relationships with the sales team - more about this in the 7th (next in the series) article
Mutual Respect - you believe they respect you, but do they really? And do you respect them?
Credibility - how credible are you? Have you done what you're asking them to do? Have you done it the same way with the same obstacles and challenges to the same market? How credible is your coaching? How consistent are you?
Mutual Trust - if you don't trust them, how can you expect them to trust you? What should you expect them to trust you with? Your coaching? Expectations? Goals? Personal Issues? Weaknesses? Challenges? Fears?
Presence -When you walk in the room, does everyone stop and listen?
Track Record of Success - Well?
Reputation of Achievement - Same as above.
Tough but Fair - It needs to be both but do you even have one of them? Too many sales leaders are push overs and manage with their heart, emotions, and relationships.
Strategic Thinking - The frequent finding here is that sales leaders are too tactical and not strategic enough.
Leads by Example - Do you? Or are you guilty of limiting the leadership to preaching and motivating?
Provides Direction and Guidance - hands on, in the field, with concrete advice versus in the office, inaccessible with vague comments about what to do.
Sets Expectations (here is some video on setting expectations)
Top grades the Sales Force with A Players
Liaison to the Executive Team
Takes Responsibility for the Team's Failures -vs. placing blame.
Gives Credit for the Team's Success - vs. taking all the credit.
Able to Look Under the Hood (here's some video on looking under the hood)

Some will scan through this list and brag that they have some or many of the credentials on the list but I present two warnings:

You believe you have things like credibility, mutual trust, presence, etc. How do you know if you've never asked the people who report to you through an anonymous survey or a third party? Same goes for Strategic Thinking - how do you know unless you have others to compare your strategies with? Assessments are very helpful here!
It is not enough to have most of the credentials on the list - you must have them all and the list I provided is not a complete list, but the most important credentials on the list.

My guest on this week's edition of Meet the Sales Experts was Sales Development Expert Jim Lobaito, who shared some great sales and leadership advice. Jim further explained this leadership gem on the show but here's the gist of it:

What is your competitive advantage? If you were aquired, would your competitive advantage change? If not, you don't have one. If you asked each of your salespeople would you get different answers from each? If yes, you don't have one.

Jim had some more sales leadership advice. He said, "As we go through the recession, businesses are in one of two buckets:

Your business or industry has been thrown off the path - and it will return - and you simply have to hang on until then;
Your business or industry has fundamentally changed - and it will never return to the way it was - and you must change.

He said, "the answer to this question dictates the future viability of your company."

Click here to listen to the show. Click here to contact Jim.

(c) Copyright 2009 Dave Kurlan

5th of the 10 Kurlan Sales Management Functions

Dave Kurlan — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:01:00 GMT

Understanding the Sales Force by Dave Kurlan

This is the 5th in my series of the 10 Kurlan Sales Management Functions.

#5 - DEVELOPMENT

Development is the ongoing development of your salespeople. It includes - and goes beyond:

the strategies and tactics learned in training;
the accountability for the application of what was learned in training;
the coaching on how to use those strategies and tactics on real sales calls;

Four important components of development that aren't mentioned above are:

raising and managing expectations;
helping your salespeople overcome their weaknesses;
the ongoing process of assuring they are stronger and more effective than last month;
preparing them for more responsibility and higher level role.

Expectations are tough. Raise your own expectations high enough and you are assured to have endure stress, frustration and some failure. Do you believe you already have high expectations but without the three symptoms I just described? Your expectations aren't high enough. I just completed the first day of a two-day boot camp for a company and, almost to a person, their personal goals and expectations were too low. Given a choice between these four goals:

what I'm doing now
what I need to do
what I want to do
what I'm capable of doing

...most of them were comfortable with "what I need to do" - two levels too low. Or you can lower your expectations enough so that you're happy - no stress, no worries, no problems - and along with that, no growth! Here's a video clip where I am discussing Expectations.

Helping your salespeople overcome their weaknesses is challenging too. You must have already identified the weaknesses using Objective Management Group's Suite of Sales Force Evaluations. You must be familiar with their weaknesses, how those weaknesses get in the way, and they must be overcome. Finally, you must be able to coach and develop them in such a way that the weaknesses no longer have an affect. One of the powerful tools you can offer them to overcome those weaknesses is a very cool CD Set called Salesmind. It's like development in a bottle! Have them work with the weakness that is getting in the way most often (just one at a time), twice per day, for three weeks, and watch the improvement!

Good managers promote good people. Enough said!

4th of the 10 Kurlan Sales Management Functions

Dave Kurlan — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 10:36:00 GMT

Understanding the Sales Force by Dave Kurlan

This is the 4th in my series of the 10 Kurlan Sales Management Functions.

#4 - RECRUITING

The most important things to understand about consistently recruiting strong, successful salespeople are:

You must have a process - not just any process, but a world class, effective process that consistently yields great hires. Watch this video where I discuss the sales recruiting process.

You must use an assessment - not just any assessment, but a world class, sales specific, predictive, customized assessment that will consistently identify people that will be top performers for you, in your business, calling into your market, with your pricing model and competition. Watch this video where I discuss the use of assessments when hiring salespeople.

You must be able to attract a large enough pool of quality candidates. The best assessment in the world is only as good as the candidates being assessed.
You must know how to screen and interview salespeople - it's not the same as interviewing for non-sales positions. Watch this video where I give a preview of how to interview salespeople.

You must have an effective orientation - a 90 day program to on board and ramp up your new salespeople
Sales Management must be effective at coaching, motivating and accountability.
Always Recruit - not just when you need someone.
Each hire must be stronger than your best salespeople.
Make no exceptions to this process.
Have realistic expectations about how long it should take before you receive consistent results from a new salesperson.

Of course I have written about this before. This was my take on the top 10 steps to recruit strong salespeople about 18 months ago.

Here is a link to request and download my famous White Paper on the Science of Salesperson Selection.

Here is how recruiters react to the use of our assessments in the process.

These are the fact based reasons why new salespeople fail.

Here are my 10 Tips for Getting More Hirable Salespeople.

Here is my article on the comparison of sales hiring to baseball expansion.

3rd of the 10 Kurlan Sales Management Functions

Dave Kurlan — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 07:21:00 GMT

Understanding the Sales Force by Dave Kurlan

This is the third in my series of the 10 Kurlan Sales Management Functions.

#3 - MOTIVATION

Motivating your salespeople comes down to getting them to:

Do what they won't do on their own;
Change their behavior;
Do more of what they are already doing;
Have more of a sense of urgency;
Over Achieve

The methods for motivating your salespeople include:

Fear - This is much more powerful than you know! They are afraid of losing their job.
Consequences - What will happen if they don't do what you need them to? Develop some consequences today and follow through. You won't have to follow through more than once!
Their Need for Approval - If they have need for approval, they have it from you and you can use that to your advantage. Use words like, "I am really disappointed by..."
Their Dreams - What they want more than anything, as in, "how close are you to getting that new boat in the water?"
Compensation - They are money motivated, right?
Incentives - If you structure an incentive program correctly - no more than 90 days, they pick the prize, many categories and many winners - this can be quite powerful.
Public Recognition - for some, nothing is a greater motivator than being recognized throughout the team, region, company, or industry.
Awards - There is a spot on a bookshelf just waiting for that trophy...
Praise - Especially if you don't give it out very often, what they will do just to hear a positive word from you...
Growth - Often overlooked, some salespeople are there for the growth opportunity and career path. Think promotions.
Sales Meetings - The most under-utilized, misused, opportunity to motivate, ever!

I have written about Motivation quite often and have devoted an entire series of articles to it.

Here's a video of me talking about Motivation.

Finally, there is nothing more powerful than finishing every conversation, meeting and interaction with some kind of call to action.

Why not comment below with your favorite motivational success - the thing that motivated you to do something special or the thing that motivated one or many of your salespeople to do something special. You'll get recognized for it...

2nd of the 10 Kurlan Sales Management Functions

Dave Kurlan — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 05:31:00 GMT

Understanding the Sales Force by Dave KurlanThis is the 2nd in the series of the 10 Kurlan Sales Management Functions.

#1 - ACCOUNTABILITY

In its simplest form, sales accountability consists of the following:

Holding salespeople accountable to something measurable - metrics - on a daily basis
Being more demanding - being firmer and tougher
Eliminating Excuse Making - people take responsibility for their results
No more under achieving - everyone achieves and over achieves or else...

Here's a video of me discussing Excuse Making...

Accountability is an ongoing function and takes place on the following time line:

in a daily huddle
no more than 5-10 minutes
with your entire team (in person or by teleconference)
using the power of peer pressure
everyone reports on the metrics on which they are being held accountable (it isn't necessary for everyone to be reporting on the same metrics)

Yesterday, on this week's edition of Meet the Sales Experts, my guest, Bob Waks, not only talked about passion and commitment, but his theme throughout the show was on building strong processes and systems and using them to hold people accountable. Click here to contact Bob.

I have written on accountability before.

Read this article to learn how you can quickly change behavior by using my four-step accountability method.

Read this article for a case history of a client using accountability to change performance.

This article illustrates where in the sales process accountability must be used.

Read this article for an example of executive excuse-making for not using accountability.

Read this article to see how much time sales managers are spending on accountability (hint - not enough!).

This article discusses the role of accountability in why new salespeople fail.

And finally, read this article to understand the importance of accountability in the context of training, coaching and development.

If you are going to focus on just one of the 10 Kurlan Sales Management Functions and hope to realize an improvement in sales, Accountability is the single function that will help you accomplish it.

1st of the 10 Kurlan Sales Management Functions

Dave Kurlan — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 05:52:00 GMT

Understanding the Sales Force by Dave Kurlan

This is the 1st in the series of the 10 Kurlan Sales Management Functions.

#1 - COACHING

In its simplest form, sales coaching consists of the following two activities:

Pre-Call Strategizing - coaching prior to selected calls to make sure that the salesperson has a good reason for having the upcoming call, a desired outcome, a game plan or strategy, and the appropriate questions/dialog to achieve the desired outcome.
Post-Call Debriefing - coaching after selected calls to discover the true outcome of the call, why the salesperson got that outcome, and what they could have done differently or more effectively

Coaching should be performed on the following time line:

daily
10-15 minutes
with each salesperson
pro actively not passively

Coaching has the following hierarchy:

facts
strategy
role-play
lesson-learned
action plan

Here's a video of me discussing coaching....

I have written about coaching before. You can read this article that briefly discusses the "how of coaching" and then you must read this great example of the "how of coaching" in this article that examines a real scenario through a marked up email thread.

I wrote this article about coaching salespeople beyond happy ears.

The most important tools for effectively coaching salespeople are:

standardized formal sales process so we can talk specifically about where we are in the process with this specific opportunity;
world-class listening and questioning skills so that we can ask the questions to go deeper and wider in role-plays;
the ability to role-play the salesperson's part of the sales call - no matter where it is or what it is;
the ability to poke holes and question everything you hear;
the ability to remain in the moment and not become emotionally involved;
No Need for Approval so that you can say, ask or do whatever is necessary to get your salesperson to the next level;
Patience - you can only take baby steps;
Experience - you need to have been there;
Wisdom - you have to just know!;
Sense of Humor - keep it light;
Respect of your Salespeople;
Trust of your Salespeople;
Relationship with your Salespeople.

Top 10 Kurlan Sales Management Functions

Dave Kurlan — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 08:36:00 GMT

Understanding the Sales Force by Dave Kurlan

As I did with the 10 Kurlan Sales Competencies that are Keys to Building a Sales Culture, over the next two weeks I will detail My Top 10 Sales Management Functions. The list, in no particular order:

COACHING
ACCOUNTABILITY
MOTIVATION
RECRUITING
DEVELOPMENT
LEADERSHIP
Relationships
Tactics
Strategy
Systems and Processes

The following competencies, which are NOT sales management functions, do not appear on my list:

Personal Sales
Account Management
Closing Deals for Others

If you have been reading my blog for any duration over the last four years, the list should not be much of a surprise. Come back as I detail each one over the next two weeks.

(c) Copyright 2009 Dave Kurlan
(c) Copyright 2009 Dave Kurlan

The Magic of the Sales Force Evaluation

Dave Kurlan — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 11:05:00 GMT

Understanding the Sales Force by Dave Kurlan

Companies that evaluate their sales forces benefit from the insights, predictions, and findings that come from the wealth of relevant information. In addition to the many surprises, including problems they weren't aware of, they learn of many opportunities too. These opportunities appear in the form of "what ifs", where if they make certain changes or modifications to the current people, systems, processes and strategies, they can have a major impact on revenue and profit. Most executives view these opportunities as magic because where before there were only challenges and frustrations, they come to realize that with a different perspective they can achieve their desired growth and profit. This is pretty magical stuff!

But the real magic happens months later when the findings that were discussed on an enterprise, group or team level, have worked their way down through sales management to the individual salespeople. While the salespeople probably had their individual results months earlier, they may not have fully understood and bought into the impact of their skill gaps and weaknesses. Through the power of hindsight, the struggles of failed sales opportunities, the discomfort from living with their assessment results, the discipline of sales management coaching, and the reinforcement of training; salespeople finally take ownership of their personal sales challenges. Rather than resisting, disagreeing, or discounting; instead of excuse making or denial, they come to fully understand why they get the results they get and what they must now do in order to significantly improve their results. It is at this point that they devour sales training and take advantage of all of the available tools, strategies and tactics to master their abilities and grow their revenue and income. That's when magic really happens. They say that lightning never strikes twice but in sales force development, magic does.

For a short, related post on how long it takes to develop salespeople, read this popular article.

If you have evaluated your sales force, what was magic to you?

If you haven't evaluated your sales force, what would make it magical?

Top 25 Prerequisites for Successful Sales Training and Sales Development

Dave Kurlan — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 06:03:00 GMT

Understanding the Sales Force by Dave Kurlan

Before an inside or outside expert can help you develop your sales force, there are at least 25 milestones that must take place or the initiative will probably fail. Development has much less to do with content, curriculum, and methodology than it does with the person, or people who will do the developing. I am not saying that content, curriculum and methodology are unimportant! They are very important. I am saying that much like everything else you do, the people have more impact on the success or failure of the initiative than the tools being used.

When I, or members of my team are involved in developing a client's salespeople and sales managers, we make certain that the following milestones take place very early on - in our very first session. We must:

Help them feel safe

Get them to believe we can help

Get them to want the help

Develop credibility

Understand their challenges

Be viewed as a resource, not a threat

Develop a relationship

Add value through the effective strategies and tactics we share

Encourage them

Challenge them

Question them

Demonstrate, through role-play, exactly how a strategy or tactic plays out

Entertain them

Engage them

Make them want more

Provide them with several perspectives

Give them assignments

Be committed to their success

Get them to commit to their success

Poll them often for their lessons learned

Make sure they understand their assessment results

Prepare sales management to coach to the training

Have systems and processes in place to support the training

Create a no excuses environment

Get them to practice.

There are many more things that take place along the way, but when these things don't take place day 1, it's an uphill climb.

Key Account Sales - More Than Just Important Accounts

Dave Kurlan — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 08:33:00 GMT

Understanding the Sales Force by Dave Kurlan

Over the last several months I have engaged in several on line disagreements about the importance of asking questions early in the sales process. More than one sales expert has claimed that asking questions violates trust. More than one marketing expert has claimed that asking questions is offensive. My position is that unless your salespeople are asking lots of good, tough, timely questions, they won't uncover their prospects' compelling reasons to buy and buy from you instead of your competition. In addition, you won't create the urgency you need to move the opportunity forward and prevent delays, put-offs and ambivalence.

My guest on last week's edition of Meet the Sales Experts was Sales Development Expert Hal Thorsvig. We were talking about psychology, the art of asking questions and listening and he said that "when people are sharing their emotional reasons for buying they are into the highest level of rapport there is!" He added that you should "ask questions with a true sense of wonderment and curiosity".

Hal also had some interesting thoughts on Key Account Sales where, according to Hal, there is much more to it than just identifying important accounts and assigning account managers to them. He said you must have:

strategy to ward off competition
ability to deal with multiple buying influences
great control/understanding of the needs of each of those influences
ability to maintain the account (maintain should be interpreted as retain)
ability to grow the account

Are you or your salespeople struggling with ways to justify pricing that is being attacked with unrealistically low prices from your competition? Listen to the show for the great Uncle Charlie story that Hal told. Hal's story is bound to put an end to that problem!

Click here to listen to the show. Click here to contact Hal.