Heavy Hitter Sales Blog

Top 7 Critical Sales Trends for 2012

Steve Martin — 2012-01-01T09:53:59-08:00

Top 7 Critical Sales Trends for 2012

What are the top sales trends for 2012? Here’s my list based upon my experience of studying and working with some of the world’s greatest sales organizations last year.

1. Sales Linguistics – For 2012, it’s not only what you say, but equally important, how you say it. “Sales linguistics” is the revolutionary new field of study about how customers and salespeople use and interpret language during the decision making process. If you are in sales, you make your living by talking. If you were a pilot, you would attend years of flight training school before you were allowed in the cockpit of a jumbo jet. If you were a lawyer, you would intensely study law for several years and have to pass your state’s bar exam to ensure your proficiency. If you are in sales, you need to study language and perfect your use of words because your most important competitive weapon is your mouth. Read more about Sales Linguistics here.

2. Sales Force Verticalization – A “specialist” beats a “generalist” every time. Closely related to Sales Linguistics, is the accelerated trend of sales force language specialization based upon the following strategies:

A) Industry verticalization (finance, government, retail, etc.) to promote domain expertise.

B) Technical application segmented by different solutions to promote extremely deep technical knowledge.

C) Business process improvement focus as opposed to the recitation of standard “generic” product features and functions to customers.

3. Sales Force Behavior “Modeling” - Models are verbal descriptions and visual representations of how systems work and processes flow. Models enable repeatable and predictable experiences. More top salespeople will be studied in 2012 to understand how they formulate their winning account strategies based upon customer politics, evaluator psychology, and the human nature of decision makers that are unique to every account. Read further about the Personality Traits of 1,000 Top Salespeople here.

4. Sales Process Ineffectiveness – Many companies have realized that their sales effectiveness didn’t improve even after spending a great deal of money and effort implementing a sales process methodology. The reason for this is because the “black hole” of the sales process is what happens during sales calls. Today, it’s the personal interactions with prospective customers that determines winners from losers, not the internal processes of the sales organization. In 2012 more companies will be studying and categorizing these customer interactions so they can improve sales force effectiveness. Read about 101 Advanced Sales Call Strategies here.

5. Organizational Buying Psychology – If you are involved in selling enterprise solutions, you already know the importance of understanding the inner workings of the various departments within the prospective customer’s company. Your solution might be purchased by the information technology department and used by accounting and human resources. Therefore, it’s critical to map out the interrelationships of the departments within an organization. The essence of successful enterprise sales is understanding not only who to sell to, but how to craft a message that appeals to various departmental constituents. Understanding organizational buying psychology becomes an even more critical topic in 2012.

6. No Decision as the Main Competitor – For sales forces involved with large capital expenditure sales cycles, never before has the mantra “Call High or Die” been so true. You must reach C-level executive decision makers early in the sales process because the default for organizations today is to do nothing and delay every major purchase.

7. Win-Loss Analysis Studies – Most companies are well versed on the logical arguments for selecting their product. However, the decision to make a major purchase is primarily based upon individual needs and desires, how the decision-makers receive information, and internal politics. Unfortunately many companies don’t do any type of win-loss analysis so they don't understand their customers in these regards. Because of the economy and relentless competition, 2012 will be the year that many companies have to re-discover the lost art of win-loss analysis. Read about The Three Critical Win-Loss Objectives here.

One final trend that bears mentioning is the accelerated move from field-based sales to phone-based internet sales. Many companies have quickly transitioned the majority of their field reps to be almost exclusively phone based. Therefore, these reps must now be able to create winning relationships with their voices as opposed how they sold in the past with their physical presence. Never before, has understanding and mastering the art of persuasion been so important.

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Why Year End Deals Don't Close: THE CESSPOOL!

Steve Martin — 2011-12-15T17:27:14-08:00

Here’s one of my favorite year end stories that you do not want to miss… READ BRIAN'S STORY BELOW!

Brian was presenting his forecast in front of his teammates and was explaining why a deal that he had originally forecasted to close in the fourth quarter came in three months later. Here’s his story.

Brian was excited that the account he had worked on for nine months had selected his software solution. After several weeks of ensuing price negotiations, a $300,000 purchase order was submitted into the customer’s capital expenditure software system (referred to by the customer internally as the “CESS system”). Since several weeks were left in the quarter, Brian expected that he would receive the purchase order well before the quarter’s cutoff.

In Brian’s mind the deal was done. The purchase order would be printed and signed and he forecasted the deal accordingly. However, Brian was quite surprised to learn that the rules-based CESS system required that a purchase of that magnitude be approved by twenty-one different people. The purchase order had entered the “CESSPOOL of Purchase Order Approval”.

Because of this elaborate sign off procedure, it would take another three months before all twenty-one signatures were gathered. In the meantime, Brian embarrassingly had to explain to his manager why a deal he had absolutely, positively, guaranteed would close wouldn’t.

His assumption about the purchase order turnaround time was dead wrong. If only he’d had the foresight to ask about the details of the procurement process with the same diligence that he spent qualifying their decision making process before he committed the deal on his forecast. During tough economic times like today, you should expect every purchase approval to take two to four times longer than normal. Because, every organization exercises another excruciating level of diligence to ascertain whether or not the purchase is absolutely necessary.

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IT Sales Strategy: Software, SaaS & Hardware Sales

Steve Martin — 2011-11-25T17:30:37-08:00

If you are involved in selling an enterprise software or technology solutions, you already know the importance of understanding the inner workings of the various departments within the prospective customer’s company. Your solution might be purchased by the information technology department and used by accounting and human resources. It might be selected by engineering (with the IT department’s help) and used by manufacturing. Or it could be selected by finance and bought by the IT department. Almost every enterprise software purchase decision requires multiple departments to become involved. Therefore, it’s critical to map out the interrelationships of the departments within an organization.

Over the past decade, I have performed win-loss sales analysis studies for a wide variety of software and hardware technology companies ranging from start-ups to companies with sales billions. To complete these studies, I conducted blind surveys of the senior IT executives, mid-level managers, and low-level technical evaluators who had selected or rejected the software from the company for which I was completing the study. While the purpose of these studies was to improve the sales force’s effectiveness, interesting patterns of IT organization behavior became apparent. These patterns supersede the standard hierarchical organization chart that salespeople and marketeers have grown accustomed to studying.

Four models can be used to define the information technology’s departmental interrelationships that will influence their buying behavior: departments are either consolidators, consulters, responders, or bureaucrats. These departmental types (consolidators, consulters, responders, and bureaucrats) have different orientations toward the operation of their departments. Most importantly, they buy software, technology, and Softwaree as a Service (SaaS) in different ways and for completely different purposes.

1. Consolidators. Consolidators are IT departments that seek to increase their power, authority, or control within their organization. To grow their sphere of influence, they launch grand initiatives, major companywide projects that affect the operations of other departments.

The planning and creation of a grand initiative are at the direction of the department’s executive leadership (CIO, CTO, and VP of IT). This type of project does not percolate up from lower-level personnel through the chain of command; it is driven down from the top and out to the rest of the company.

The underlying motivation behind grand initiatives like this one is always power, whether it’s to gain more, consolidate it, or decrease that of other leaders and their departments within the organization. In the example above, the information technology department is exercising its power over engineering and finance.

2. Consulters. Consulters are IT departments that take on the characteristics and attributes of a consultant to their organization. They seek to understand the problems of other departments and offer recommendations on how those problems can be solved using their services.

They proactively share their proprietary knowledge and departmental expertise or offer unsolicited advice to other departments in an attempt to show how they can improve efficiency. Therefore, they are continually polling the other departments, seeking opportunities to promote their services, and pushing out their ideas, philosophies, and opinions.

Like a consultant hired on an hourly basis, consulters seek to continually validate their benefits and justify their existence to their customers. Selling to consulters differs from selling to consolidators because consulters enjoy the company of other consultants.

3. Responders. Responders are weak IT departments that operate under the direction of other departments. Whereas consolidators seek power and consulters seek to proliferate their services, responders are just trying to survive. Many times, IT responders are literally under attack from other departments that are unable to meet their objectives because of the IT department’s ineffectiveness. In some cases, the other departments have been disappointed by the past IT blunders. As a result, IT responders tend to be treated disrespectfully and suffer from a lack of departmental esteem.

When selling to a responder, you must sell to the business unit as well as IT, whereas with consulters and consolidators, your main sales effort should be directed inside the IT departments. For example, let’s assume a powerful accounting department at a company is complaining about escalating phone costs and your company provides phone bill audit software. You need to make both the business unit (accounting department) and the responder (IT department) aware of your services.

4. Bureaucrats. The final category of IT departmental buyer is bureaucrats, faceless departments whose most important priority is to maintain the status quo through rules, regulations, and delaying tactics. The features of a bureaucrat department are secretiveness, a response system that reflexively rebuffs demands made upon the department, and administrative centralization around the departmental leader, the arch-bureaucrat.

The structured environment, similar to a military command-and-control environment, stamps out innovative thinking within lower levels of the department and hinders the free flow of information from other departments. Instead, the bureaucratic monarchy considers other departments outsiders and issues edicts that must be complied with for fear of consequences.

Final Thoughts: Because IT executive leaders of consolidators, consulters, responders, and bureaucrats have different motivations, they have different perceptions of a product’s true value. The perceived value of a product depends on the psychological, political, operational, and strategic value it provides the executive decision makers. Every enterprise IT sale involves consolidators, consulters, responders, and bureaucrats. You must determine a project’s wellspring in order to know to whom and how to sell your solution.

The essence of successful enterprise technology sales is understanding not only who to sell to, but how to craft a message that appeals to consolidators, consulters, responders, and bureaucrats. And, this is the reason my new book (Heavy Hitter Sales Linguistics: 101 Advanced Sales Call Strategies for Senior Salespeople) focuses on language-based strategies to secure face-to-face meetings and convince skeptical customers to buy. You can learn more “Sales Linguistics,” the revolutionary new field of study on my web site at http://www.stevewmartin.com/

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Best New Sales Book of 2011

Steve Martin — 2011-11-03T08:58:37-07:00

I am excited to announce that the newest book in the "Heavy Hitter" series is now available. HEAVY HITTER SALES LINGUISTICS: 101 ADVANCED SALES CALL STRATEGIES FOR SENIOR SALESPEOPLE is the first book that truly explains "sales linguistics," the revolutionary new field of study about how customers use and interpret language during the decision-making process. Heavy Hitter Sales Linguistics provides communication strategies that enable salespeople to rise above their competition and impactful psychological suggestions that compel customers' rational intellect and emotional subconscious to buy. Here’s what sales leaders have to say about Heavy Hitter Sales Linguistics:

"Steve Martin's writing on sales dispenses insights of value to sales leaders up and down an organization. His considerable experience in the field and foundations in research give his recommendations heft and yet they're delivered in an inherently readable and easy-to-understand way.--Eric Hellweg, Editorial Director, Harvard Business Review

"This book explains the complex concepts of sales linguistics in ways that are actionable and will help senior sales professionals become more successful."--Tom Furey, President, Standard Register Industrial

"Heavy Hitter Sales Linguistics lays out key (and often overlooked) components of winning versus losing that even the most seasoned sales professional should stop and consider."--Gary Staley, Vice President of Sales, Americas, Fluke Networks

"Steve Martin has captured the essence of the sale in so many ways--how to say the right thing, do the right thing, and react to the customer's concerns. A must read for the professional salesperson."--James G. Ellis, Dean, Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California

"Steve Martin addresses every step of the sales cycle and provides a paint-by-numbers process to approach, engage, and persuade prospective customers."--George Bennett, Senior Vice President of Worldwide Field Operations, Isilon Systems division of EMC

"Understanding sales linguistics will help you map out all aspects of interacting with customers—how to get the first meeting, what to say to differentiate yourself, and strategies to close the deal." --Scott Raskin, CEO, Mindjet

"Steve Martin provides practical everyday advice on how to take professional selling to the next level."--Monty Carter, President, TELUS Enterprise Solutions

"I see it every day. Salespeople come up with a product pitch and drop it on anyone who will pick up the phone. Spray and pray. This book outlines the correct approach to selling. It's about making a personal connection by truly understanding prospects' needs and speaking their language."--Michael Nelson, Vice President of Sales, ON24

"If your activity levels are high but your closing rates are low, it's time to change your thinking! By mastering the concepts in this book, you will learn to speak in a language your customer understands. Learn the art of harmonious communication and watch your sales and income soar!"--Mike Viola, Executive Vice President of Sales, Oasis Outsourcing, Inc.

"Another Steve Martin book that I couldn't put down. A truly different book that translates linguistics to the real world and will give you an edge."--Joe Vitalone, Vice President of Sales, Americas, LifeSize Communications, division of Logitech

"When it comes to sales, there are a lot of resources that teach selling. Only Steve Martin teaches SELLING and developing salespeople beyond the customary sales skills!"--Frank Maylett, Executive Vice President of Sales, inContact

"Salespeople reflexively fixate on demonstrations and presentations. Their companies also reinforce this behavior. Heavy Hitter Sales Linguistics focuses on building winning relationships by structuring interactions based upon individual linguistic profiles. It includes entirely new sales concepts based upon the latest neuroscience, which make the book not only interesting to read but highly valuable to even the most experienced salesperson."--Peter Riccio, Vice President of Mid-Market Sales, Taleo

Ckick Here to Read The 60 SECOND SUMMARY OF HEAVY HITTER SALES LINGUISTICS

If Sigmund Freud Was Your Sales Manager

Steve Martin — 2011-10-04T15:25:11-07:00

Here's an excerpt from my book Heavy Hitter Sales Psychology: How to Penetrate the C-Level Executive Suite and Convince Company Leaders to Buy.

Sigmund Freud is the most famous figure in all of psychology. If he was your sales manager I think he would ask you one very important question, “Why are you in sales?” While your conscious mind might rationalize that you got into sales through a calculated career move or even happenstance, Freud would probably argue that your decision to become a salesperson was made many years ago. This is because your subconscious mind has had a plan for your entire life. You are simply fulfilling your destiny.

Your subconscious mind knows you better than yourself. It remembers how you sought acceptance and recognition since the earliest days of your childhood. Today, it understands you crave adventure and excitement and that you could never be happy working a routine nine-to-five desk job. It also recognizes that you work in sales not because you have to, but because you have to be free. And this fundamental drive is at the core of the human spirit.

Sigmund Freud would acknowledge that you are a very rare type of individual. Most people don’t have the capacity to intentionally endure the emotional and mental stress that is a daily part of a sales career. They don’t have the self-confidence to attempt to accomplish difficult goals or possess the inward drive and perseverance to reach the pinnacle of success. In reality, most people can’t deal with uncertainty and don’t have the propensity to take risks. They are satisfied living average lives working at ordinary jobs because they are afraid to know the truth about themselves. While they shirk from the limelight because they fear their lack of courage will be exposed, you are on a continual mission to prove to the world you’re right.

Sigmund Freud would say your subconscious mind is smarter than you think. It recognized way in advance that sales was the only profession that was right for you. It determined that you needed to be surrounded by people like yourself—modern-day warriors who embark on daily battles to vanquish evil archrivals. It also realized how important it is for you to have earned their respect and admiration.

Even though your conscious mind may occasionally daydream about doing some other profession, your subconscious knows that you are very fortunate to be in sales. While others have chosen life’s mundane path, sales provides you the opportunity to fulfill your deep-seated drives to leave your legacy and become the hero who was able to make the family’s dreams come true. You should be thankful it selected a career that increases your self-worth and net worth at the same time. Most importantly, your subconscious mind purposely chose this line of work so you could measure the significance of your life. And as your subconscious mind already knows, you are destined for great things.

Other Steve W. Martin Articles You Might Enjoy:

Sales Linguistics: The Seven Languages C-Level Executives Speak

Personality Study of 1,000 Top Salespeople - Harvard Business Review

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Are Top Salespeople Born or Made?

Steve Martin — 2011-09-09T15:05:20-07:00

Harvard Business Review is arguably the most prestigious publication for business leaders and management thinkers. Here’s one of my recent Harvard Business Review articles titled “Are Top Salespeople Born or Made?”

My last article on the "Seven Personality Traits of Top Salespeople" was based on personality tests administered to 1,000 top business-to-business salespeople. The test results indicate that key personality traits directly influence top performers' selling styles, and, in turn, their success. However, the study also raises the perennial question, "Are top salespeople born or made?" In other words, must top salespeople be born with the prerequisite sales instincts, or can someone learn to become successful in sales without them?

Based upon my research, experience, and observations, I estimate over 70 percent of top salespeople are born with "natural" instincts that play a critical role in determining their sales success. Conversely, less than 30 percent of top salespeople are self-made — meaning, they have had to learn how to become top salespeople without the benefit of these natural abilities. In addition, for every 100 people who enter sales without natural sales traits, 40 percent will fail or quit, 40 percent will perform at near average, and only 20 percent will be above average (These figures vary by industry and the complexity of products sold).

Based on the figures above, the real question that should be asked is, "What determines whether or not a self-made salesperson will become successful?" While it's easy to recite a laundry list of general reasons for success (hard work, persistence, intelligence, integrity, empathy, etc.), my experience in the field and the research I've conducted indicates four key factors that determine the self-made salesperson's destiny. They are language specialization, "modeling" of experiences, political acumen, and greed.

Language Specialization. The first differentiating factor between the success or failure of the self-made salesperson is language specialization. While all competent salespeople can recite their product's features and business benefits, very few are mavens who can conduct intelligent conversations about the details of daily business operations. Every industry also has developed its own technical language to facilitate mutual understanding of terminology and an exact meaning of the words used throughout a business. The technical language consists of abbreviations, acronyms, business nomenclature, and specialized terms (for example RAM, CPU, and flash drive in the consumer electronics industry).

Successful self-made salespeople possess domain-area expertise and speak the corresponding business operations language, or have deep knowledge of the industry's technical language. These languages are the yardstick by which customers measure a salesperson's true value and greatly influence their purchase decisions. Lesser-performing self-made salespeople are not as fluent in these languages, so they tend to focus on likability and friendliness with prospective customers.

Modeling of Experiences. Modeling is the mind's ability to link like experiences and similar data into predictable patterns. Salespeople continually learn through the ongoing accumulation and consolidation of information from their sales calls and interactions with customers. From this knowledge base, salespeople can predict what will happen and what they should do in light of what they have done in the past.

Modeling can be thought of as the engine that drives sales intuition. For example, let's say a salesperson is asked by a skeptical, analytical, financial-oriented prospective customer how his product is different from his major competitor's. His answer would be based on previous experiences with similar circumstances. Modeling can be thought of as trying to find the what, when, where response — what you should do when you are in a particular circumstance where you have to act.

Successful self-made salespeople have an effective methodology to store and retrieve all the verbal, nonverbal, factual, and intuitive information that occurs during sales calls and sales cycles. This results in a greater proficiency to win business than less-successful self-made salespeople who do not learn from their past mistakes and instead repeat them.

Political Acumen. Unfortunately, many under-performing self-made salespeople take a textbook-type approach to sales and concentrate solely on the procedural aspects of the sales cycle. They don't take into account the human nature of sales and how people and politics determine the outcome.

Politics are based upon self-interests. Therefore, customers do not readily reveal the internal machinations of their decision-making. Political acumen is the ability to correctly map out each decision maker's influence and motivations. Successful self-made salespeople consider this their top priority. Political acumen drives winning account strategy whereas strategic planning without political acumen is a losing proposition.

Greed. We normally associate greed with a corrupt character or miserly scrooge. While this may be society's definition, in sales, "greed" takes on an entirely different meaning. In sales, greed and self-respect are closely intertwined. Greed can be thought of as the desire to be fairly paid for one's time. Time is a salesperson's enemy because time is finite. Time is the governor that determines how many deals can be worked and where effort should be focused. Salespeople are on a mission to learn the ultimate truth, "Will I win the deal?" Greed compels the successful self-made salespeople to push themselves beyond their comfort zone and ask difficult qualifying questions while continually pushing for the close. Conversely, the lesser successful self-made salespeople do not possess this inward drive.

Are top salespeople born or made? The true answer is that the overwhelming majority of top salespeople are gifted with innate talents. However, many others are self-made successes who have learned how to apply their language specialization and build their intuition. They know what accounts they should spend their time on and always navigate to powerful decision-makers in order to create the opportunity to persuade them to buy.

Four Critical Sales Kickoff Meeting Success Factors

Steve Martin — 2011-08-13T07:47:11-07:00

Regardless of whether your company calls it the annual sales meeting, yearly sales conference, or once-a-year sales rally, the annual sales kickoff meeting is the most important sales meeting of the year. Let’s assume you are in charge of planning your company’s annual sales kickoff. You’ve picked the best location, chosen the right hotel, and are in the process of finalizing the meeting plans.

There are four critical factors that impact the success of the meeting. You have to have the right theme for the meeting, build the best agenda, select the right keynote speaker, and capture the event so attendees can review critical sessions after the event.

1) Selecting the Meeting Theme

The first step toward conducting a successful sales kickoff starts with choosing the right theme. With this goal in mind, here are important points to consider when selecting your sales kickoff theme. One of the most important factors to keep in mind as you choose your theme is the level of the sales force’s morale. All sales forces go through periods of high and low morale. When morale is high, you can be more creative and take bigger risks with the theme you choose.

Conversely, I wouldn’t recommend such an over-the-top theme during tough times. In this situation the theme should be more commonsensical like “Better, Stronger, Faster,” which provides a platform that meeting presenters can use to talk about changes and upcoming improvements. Click here for a detailed article about selecting a sales kickoff theme.

2) Agenda Structure

The structure of the meeting’s agenda is one of the key factors that will determine the meeting’s overall success. The main objectives of the sales kickoff agenda are preparation and renewed motivation. Remember, there are three objectives your agenda should reinforce: first, a renewed sense of pride in the company they work for; second, honest enthusiasm to get back into the field and ramp up the new year; and some positive thoughts and pleasant memories about the good time they had celebrating a career that is difficult and demanding but, ultimately, extremely rewarding. Click here for an article of best ideas on how to structure the sales kickoff agenda.

3) Select the Right Keynote Speaker

There are four main types of keynote speakers to choose from: celebrity, motivational, industry mavens, and sales experts. Celebrities (such as entertainment stars, sports heroes, business icons and politicians) will speak mainly about their personal experiences. Conversely, industry mavens are analysts and consultants who talk about current issues and future business trends. Meanwhile, motivational speakers exuberantly try to touch listeners’ emotions. And, finally, there are sales experts who share their specific sales-related wisdom and knowledge with the audience. So, how do you decide which one is right for you?

There aren’t any two sales forces that are exactly alike. Every sales force is unique in three different ways: complexity of the sales process, the average level of sales experience, and the state of morale. Perhaps the biggest mistake when selecting a sales kickoff presenter is picking one whose main message doesn’t apply to the products you sell or resonate with the sophistication of the sales force. For instance, even though a keynote speaker has successfully presented to Midwestern real estate agents in the past, he or she would not be a good fit for a Silicon Valley software company. Click here for a complete article about selecting a sales kickoff keynote speaker.

4) Capture the Meeting for Future Review

Based upon my personal experience, I strongly recommend that every sales kickoff be captured for future review. Let me explain why. The average person speaks about 125 words per minute. So, it’s nearly impossible for meeting attendees to fully absorb the more than 60,000 words they hear each day. A post-meeting review of critical sales kickoff presentations should be available so the sales teams can revisit the key takeaways and important discussions at their own pace. In addition, some salespeople might not have been able to attend the meeting. Also, there will be new hires throughout the year who can view the sales kickoff recording as part of their on-boarding process.

The virtual sales kickoff should be accessible by topics and presenter as opposed to a lengthy rebroadcast that is watched in one long session. This requires that a virtual platform that provides intelligent on-demand access be used. Both the speaker and his or her slides should be shown simultaneously. Important presentation materials, slides, sales collateral, and training documents should be accessible for download. Viewers should be provided with interactive functionality so they can submit questions to meeting presenters long after the presentation and be able to chat with colleagues who might be watching.

Providing on-demand access to the sales kickoff is an extremely economical way to reinforce the meeting messages, maximize the training investment, and extend the motivational afterglow. It typically costs 2% to 5% of the total meeting costs to record and post the meeting to a commercially available online virtual platform. You can expect ten times the number of meeting attendees to visit an online kickoff on average. For example, a meeting with 500 attendees would average 5,000 post-meeting visitors.

Want to learn more? Please watch this free webinar:

The Virtual Sales Kickoff Meeting: Strategies that Produce Results

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Understand Why You Lose Deals: The Martin Curve

Steve Martin — 2011-07-19T16:47:17-07:00

I once gave a presentation to a group of executives following the brilliant economist Arthur Laffer, former economic advisor to Ronald Reagan known as the father of supply-side economics and the creator of the “Laffer Curve.” The Laffer Curve explains that when tax rates are raised to create more tax revenues, after a certain point the revenues collected actually decrease. Therefore, taxes should be fair.

The Laffer Curve

In honor of this worthy idea, I would like to present to you the “Martin Curve.” The Martin Curve explains a curious aspect of human behavior that I have experienced as a salesperson, vice president of sales, and professional speaker. I have come to realize that in every audience there are people who simply cannot be sold. Even if you walk on water or levitate an elephant in the air, these people will not follow you. Perhaps it’s because of their neurological wiring or maybe the result of some childhood trauma. There’s no way to tell where their close-mindedness came from. Conversely, a similar group of people will fall in love with you instantly, say all the right things, but never buy. They seemed to be enamored with what you have said but don’t follow up with any discernable action. Both of these groups are fatal for salespeople.

The Martin Curve explains that 10--15 percent of everyone you try to sell to will not buy, regardless of the effort you put into winning the deal. Another 10--15 percent will give you all the buying signs and tell you that they love you but never buy anything. Therefore, you will never close up to 30 percent of the deals you are currently working on.

The Martin Curve

We may admire persistent salespeople and respect the underdog who will fight with passion and battle against the odds. However, sometimes it’s impossible to win. Such is the case when your competitor holds such a tight grip on the account there is no way to pry it loose. In some accounts, although they may not say so directly, the customer simply doesn’t want to buy from you.

Facing these circumstances, some salespeople believe the customer is just playing hard to get or treating every vendor in this way (which they aren’t). These salespeople mistakenly believe they can turn the situation around by sheer willpower and determination. Recognizing when to abandon an account is as important as knowing what accounts to pursue. Ultimately, you will only win deals where you are given the opportunity to build personal relationships.

Personality Study of 1,000 Top Salespeople-Harvard Business Review

Steve Martin — 2011-07-01T09:49:36-07:00

Harvard Business Review is arguably the most prestigious publication for business leaders and management thinkers. Here’s one of my recent Harvard Business Review articles about the Seven Personality Traits of Top Salespeople.

If you ask an extremely successful salesperson, “What makes you different from the average sales rep?” you will most likely get a less-than-accurate answer, if any answer at all. Frankly, the person may not even know the real answer because most successful salespeople are simply doing what comes naturally.

Over the past decade, I have had the privilege of interviewing thousands of top business-to-business salespeople who sell for some of the world’s leading companies. I never grow tired hearing their stories of how they win extremely competitive six- and seven-figure deals. I’ve also administered personality tests to one thousand of them. My goal was to measure their five main personality traits (openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and negative emotionality) to better understand the characteristics that separate them their peers.

The personality tests were given to high technology and business services salespeople as part of sales strategy workshops I was conducting for their company. In addition, tests were administered at Presidents Club meetings (the incentive trip that top salespeople are awarded by their company for their outstanding performance). The responses were then categorized by percentage of annual quota attainment and classified into top performers, average performers, and below average performers categories.

The test results from top performers were then compared against average and below average performers. The findings indicate that key personality traits directly influence top performers’ selling style and ultimately their success. Below, you will find the main key personality attributes of top salespeople and the impact of the trait on their selling style.

1. Achievement Orientation. Eighty-four percent of the top performers tested scored very high in achievement orientation. They are fixated on achieving goals and continuously measure their performance in comparison to their goals.

Selling Style Impact: Political Orientation. During sales cycles, top sales, performers seek to understand the politics of customer decisionmaking. Their goal orientation instinctively drives them to meet with key decisionmakers. Therefore, they strategize about the people they are selling to and how the products they’re selling fit into the organization instead of focusing on the functionality of the products themselves.

2. Curiosity. Curiosity can be described as a person’s hunger for knowledge and information. Eighty-two percent of top salespeople scored extremely high curiosity levels. Top salespeople are naturally more curious than their lesser performing counterparts.

Selling Style Impact: Inquisitiveness. A high level of inquisitiveness correlates to an active presence during sales calls. An active presence drives the salesperson to ask customers difficult and uncomfortable questions in order to close gaps in information. Top salespeople want to know if they can win the business, and they want to know the truth as soon as possible.

3. Modesty. Contrary to conventional stereotypes that successful salespeople are pushy and egotistical, 91 percent of top salespeople had medium to high scores of modesty and humility. Furthermore, the results suggest that ostentatious salespeople who are full of bravado alienate far more customers than they win over.

Selling Style Impact: Team Orientation. As opposed to establishing themselves as the focal point of the purchase decision, top salespeople position the team (presales technical engineers, consulting, and management) that will help them win the account as the centerpiece.

4. Lack of Gregariousness. One of the most surprising differences between top salespeople and those ranking in the bottom one-third of performance is their level of gregariousness (preference for company and friendliness). Overall, top performers averaged 30 percent lower gregariousness than below average performers.

Selling Style Impact: Dominance. Dominance is the ability to gain the willing obedience of customers such that the salesperson’s recommendations and advice are followed. The results indicate that overly friendly salespeople are too close to their customers and have difficulty establishing dominance.

5. Lack of Discouragement. Less than 10 percent of top salespeople were classified as having high levels of discouragement and being frequently overwhelmed with sadness. Conversely, 90 percent were categorized as experiencing infrequent or occasional sadness.

Selling Style Impact: Competitiveness. In casual surveys I have conducted throughout the years, I have found that 90 percent of top performers played organized sports in high school. There seems to be a direct correlation between sports and sales success as top performers are able to handle emotional disappointments, bounce back from losses, and mentally prepare themselves for the next opportunity to compete.

6. Lack of Self-Consciousness. Self-consciousness is the measurement of how easily someone is embarrassed. The byproduct of a high level of self-consciousness is bashfulness and inhibition. Less than 5 percent of top performers had high levels of self-consciousness.

Selling Style Impact: Aggressiveness. Top salespeople are comfortable fighting for their cause and not afraid of rankling customers in the process. They are action oriented and unafraid to call high in their accounts or courageously cold call new prospects.

7. Conscientiousness. Eighty-five percent of top salespeople had high levels of conscientiousness, whereby they could be described as having a strong sense of duty and being responsible and reliable. These salespeople take their jobs very seriously and feel deeply responsible for the results.

Selling Style Impact: Account Control. The worst position for salespeople to be in is to have relinquished account control and to be operating at the direction of the customer, or worse yet, a competitor. Conversely, top salespeople take command of the sales cycle process in order to control their own destiny.

Not all salespeople are successful. Given the same sales tools, level of education, and propensity to work, why do some salespeople succeed where others fail? Is one better suited to sell the product because of his or her background? Is one more charming or just luckier? The evidence suggests that the personalities of these Heavy Hitters (truly great salespeople) play a critical role in determining their success.

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