Selling Power Blog

What's your V.I.T.A.L Vision for Success?

This guest blog post is by Donal Daly, CEO of the TAS Group. He shares sales insights, hindsight, and a little foresight on his sales and technology blog, Dealmaker365. 

 

I recall when, back in 1989, I was a few years into the growth of my first software company. Having bootstrapped the business and eked out survival through the first year or two, things were beginning to take shape. Each year I grew revenue levels over the previous year – but not by a lot. I used to approach planning from a position of "Where am I now, and how can I improve on this?" The result was steady-but-not-spectacular growth.

As I was entering my fifth year, I was struck by the realization that with this growth curve, it was going to take me a long time to create a company of any real mass or substance. I was in my twenties and obviously still had a lot of time, but I was impatient. I didn't know a lot about much of anything – though I didn't appreciate that at the time; however, this blissful ignorance enabled me to think about things in perhaps nonconventional ways. I read Drucker, Townsend, Peters, McCormack, Kotler, Sun Tzu, Machiavelli, Porter, De Bono, Iacocca, and other topical and nontopical tomes of business development, strategy, corporate lore, thinking, leadership, etc. I was struck sometimes by how insightful some of these authors were, and in the haze of boundless self-belief found only in youth, I favored those whose views echoed mine. I must have learned something along the way, however, as I still remember the day my growth-challenge epiphany occurred.

When I changed the question from "Where am I now, and how can I improve on this?" – which invariably translated into 20 percent increase in revenue – to "How can I achieve 200 percent growth this year?" a fundamental change happened. In hindsight, with the benefit of many years' experience, I now know, as you do, that this goal-oriented or vision-oriented method is well understood. As a paradigm for growth strategies, it is a method by which you can stimulate creativity, momentarily suspend reality, and remove constraints or guardrails to release your unfettered potential, untrammeled by the stifling boundaries of "What's reasonable?" or "What do other companies do?" or "What's acceptable?"

I was reminded of this recently when I was speaking to Tom, a successful salesperson, who, when planning for 2010, asked my opinion on his sales plan. He had closed about $2,000,000 in 2009 and was among the top performers in his company. His plan was well structured, clear, and very focused – and his personal target for 2010 was $2.2 million. When I inquired as to the basis for that number, Tom cited 10 percent growth on his previous year's achievement. We got to talking about potentially taking a different approach. We discussed what he would do differently if he had to achieve $4 million.

I had little value to add to the conversation, as I did not know Tom's business, but he took a "I think that's crazy, but let's brainstorm it a while," approach. The following hour was peppered with such phrases as, "But I'd need help from...," "There's no reason why that shouldn't happen," and "I wonder if...," "No, I knew you were crazy," and finished with, "Now that I've thought about it that way, I think maybe $2.8 million is achievable."

As I said, I didn't add any value to the planning, but Tom, who, to his credit, was open enough to indulge my questioning, stretched his own thinking and created more of a vision for success than a plan for incremental growth.

I've tried to put some structure around this approach for myself and others with whom I work. To make it easy to remember, I use an acronym: V.I.T.A.L., which goes something like this.

• V – Vision – This needs to be very ambitious but not ludicrous and is a quantifiable statement of the ultimate goal for the time frame in question.
• I – Implications – These are the things that would need to fall into place, the activities required, and the resources needed to support the vision.
• T - Test Reality – While still keeping the bar quite high, exclude elements that are entirely impossible, but keep those that are merely a real stretch.
• A – Aggregate – As if the goals remaining from the reality check are the baseline objective, figure out how to achieve each of those, aggregate the identified initiatives and associated resources required, and create a two-dimensional, high-low map of reward versus effort so that you can prioritize your efforts.
• L - Laser Focus – Now put your new ideas into action. Stop things you were planning to do –because that’s what you always did – but that don't bring high return. Keep on doing the things that you know work very well, and start doing those new things you've identified that can add significant incremental value.

None of this is easy, and while it's important to plan and question and question your plan once you've done it, you need to commit to it and follow through. As Jack Nicklaus said when asked about his incredible shot-making ability:

"I start by assessing where I am, looking at the lie of the ball, figuring out the terrain, gauging how far I am from the hole, and thinking about the wind and other elements of the weather. Then I decide where I want the ball to land so that it ends up near the hole or at the right place on the fairway. Next, I visualize the flight path of the ball and see in my mind the kind of swing I’m going to have to make to get the ball to travel on that flight path. Then I commit to that swing."

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Pricing Optimization in a B2B World: Value-Based Pricing Comes of Age for Sales

Today's blog post is by Steven Forth, CEO of LeveragePoint, the leading SaaS platform for value-based pricing and sales.

 

 

The economic climate is tough: financial uncertainty, wild fluctuations in commodity prices, global competition, and rapid commoditization of products that we all thought were safe. Business buyers are paying a lot more attention to the economic variables in a purchase decision, and this is putting new pressure on sales to execute with an emphasis on value-based selling. This is something with which most of us have little experience. We know how to build relationships, uncover customers' needs and pain points, and translate features and benefits into solutions. But most of us are not very familiar with translating those solutions into economic impacts. And yet, that is precisely what we need to do today to capture an unfair advantage in the market.

One approach is to estimate the return on investment (ROI) for the customer. Many buyers, especially financial buyers, insist that the sales team provides ROI calculations as part of their proposal. In fact, though, ROI is not a very useful tool for sales. It is an important approach for the chief financial officer (CFO), who often needs to make decisions between very different options – apples-to-oranges kinds of decisions.

But in sales, we are more often comparing apples to apples – the buyer is trying to decide between two similar solutions from competing vendors. Or, in some cases, it is apples versus going without ("I haven't been eating apples, so why should I start now?"). How does one make the economic sale in this case? 

Over the past two decades, pricing experts have been developing an approach called value-based pricing, which depends on the creation and subsequent use of value models to set price ranges for different segments and hone value message. (There are many articles on this available on the Resources section of the LeveragePoint Website.) Value-based pricing is based on a few key principles:

1. The customer always has an alternative (known as the Next Best Competitive Alternative), and the price of this alternative sets the market price.
2. Your solution will have some positive economic impact for the customer that your competitor’s does not. By working with the customer, the scope of these can be estimated.
3. Your solution will have some unique costs or shortcomings compared to the competitive alternative, and it is important to acknowledge these.

These three principles are combined to create a value model. A value model is a collection of value drivers for a specific customer or segment relative to a competitor. A value driver is a mathematical equation that shows how a customer derives value from your solution.

One common objection to value models is, "We can't get data for the value driver functions." Our experience is that, as long as the value driver makes sense and the initial numbers are reasonable, customers are willing to discuss them and share information in the sales conversation, especially if the salesperson understands value and acknowledges the competitor and the positive and negative value of his or her company's own solution.

Like sales, pricing is a conversation, and it needs to be collaborative. In the current economic environment, we need to be able to sell the economic value of our solutions as part of an honest conversation with our customers.

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Setting Sales Goals and Targets: Step 1 to Creating a Winning Sales Plan

Today's blog post is by Dan Hudson, President and Co-Founder of 3FORWARD. He has a B2B sales and sales leadership background of more than 30 years.

  

 

Sales planning for 2012 is well under way, and most sales teams are facing quota increases for the coming year. The fact is, every sales leader will have to do more in 2012, often with limited additional resources. Even best-of-class sales programs (with average win rates of greater than 30 percent) need to continue improving their year-over-year performance. It's one of those indisputable laws, like paying taxes and getting older.

This reality is what makes formal sales planning so important. It's main the difference between making it happen and hoping it happens. The fundamental goal of the sales plan is to put on paper specifically how the sales team will make next year's revenue target. We recommend your sales plan cover (at least) the following areas to make sure the fundamentals are addressed:

1. setting goals and targets,
2. building the revenue model,
3. filling the sales funnel,
4. building a dynamic sales process,
5. executing and measuring.

By focusing on these five core areas, you can build a sales plan that is reasonable, measurable and, most important, achievable. Each section is vital, but let's take a closer look at section one, since it sets the strategic direction for the tactical elements that come later in the plan.

Setting Sales Goals and Targets: Section 1 of the Sales Plan

Whereas the B2B sales plan establishes the playbook for a successful sales year, the initial section of the sales plan, "Goals and Targets," is the foundation of the written plan itself. Following are the three main topics for this section, with examples of where to focus.

1.  Making Goals and Targets Specific and Measurable

Too often, sales goals and targets have a case of the "warm and fuzzies" – a feel-good tone that is vague and undefined. To be clear and actionable, goals and targets must be specific (numbers and dates are best) so that you can measure your progress throughout the year. 

Example of "fuzzy and feel good" targets:
"Establish new relationships for our outsourcing practice."

Example of specific and measurable targets:
"Establish two new relationships per quarter in the US Financial and Accounting Outsourcing practice. The targeted annual contract value of each new relationship is $2 million."

When setting your goals and targets, try to strike the sweet spot between "go big or go home" and the reality of your market situation. Every company faces its unique challenges, but if you are prepared, then it's easier to overcome them.

2. Prioritizing Challenges and Creating Defensive Strategies

Consider your last couple of sales years, and list those challenges that kept you from achieving your sales targets. Think in terms of the key areas of the selling process:

• lead management
• account management
• opportunity management
• territory/area management
• pipeline process
• metrics and reporting
• team skills development
• rep and manager recruiting
• compensation

Prioritize your list of challenges and identify your strategy to minimizing these sales barriers. Use a template, such as the following, to identify, rank, and address your challenges.

Preparing for Sales Plan Risks and Challenges

Challenge	Not enough qualified leads from marketing's lead generation program.
Impact	The sales pipeline and ability to make the annual revenue target.
Severity	High
Recommendation	Meet with marketing to jointly define what constitutes a qualified lead. Increase quantity of target accounts by X and identify Y key contacts in each target.
Assigned to	Joe King, Director, Marketing Lead Management
Complete by	March 1, 2012

3.  Define Investments Needed to Achieve Success

You are likely in the same boat as most sales leaders heading into a new year: you're getting a quota increase! In the old days, we might have grumbled a little, played around with territories and headcount, and then told the CEO we needed another seven sales reps to meet the new number.  

More Effective Approaches to Investing in Sales Success

Yes, headcount is still a critical success factor for a sales team; however, benchmarking of best-in-class sales teams demonstrates several process-level improvements that consistently improve win rates and increase a team's ability to hit its numbers. These enhancements allow both the current team to perform better and the improvement of new-hire success rates. Here are some areas to consider:  

1. Establishing a formalized sales process, including targeted account planning
2. Sales manager effectiveness training and industry-specific rep training
3. Lead management process and marketing automation
4. Sales leaders dashboard and sales knowledge management
5. Sales intelligence, prospect profiling, and industry monitoring

Additional Resources for Setting Sales Goals and Targets

There you have the outline of "Setting Sales Goals and Targets," the first section in creating your new sales plan. You can clearly see why getting this on paper creates the foundation for everything else in your plan. If you'd like some help getting started, 3FORWARD provides several complimentary templates to help sales leaders develop their 2012 sales plans. 

• Sales Revenue Forecasting
• Do I Have Enough Leads Calculator
• Do I Have Enough Pipeline Calculator
• Finding Your Best Prospects Success Kit
• Target Account Plan Success Kit

Give them a try and let us know if you have any questions. Remember, the most important takeaway is to realize that your team WILL have to sell more in 2012 than in 2011. Hope isn't a strategy! Having a plan is the only way it will happen.   

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Seven Steps to Sales Transformation

There is a parallel between biology and business. Our biology is largely influenced by our DNA, our genetic makeup, which contains a set of instructions vital to our ability to function, adapt, and transform over time. Our business is influenced by two DNA-like sets; one is the DNA of the economy, and the other is the DNA that's expressed by our decisions. The quality of our decisions impacts our customers and ultimately shapes sales success.

Below is a brief overview of the steps that can lead to ongoing sales transformation. No matter what chaos or challenges we are facing today, we can at any time choose to transform and move ahead of our competition. Here are seven steps to consider:

1. Diagnose. Define the current level of sales effectiveness. Assess all internal resources (people, process, and technology) and measure how effectively they align with external opportunities. Determine the external and internal disconnects. Drill down into each area: Do we have the right people who can win in new and existing markets and create more customers? What changes are needed to optimize our sales process? What would the ideal technology road map look like that would continually increase operational efficiencies?
2. Get executive sponsorship. Get agreement that the sales organization is a key competitive differentiator. Articulate the new vision, create a realistic sales-transformation road map, and define what success looks like. Get the financial support needed to continue the journey as described in the road map. Collaborate with senior managers and develop a set of key performance indicators that will allow them to track progress.
3. Create a culture of measurement. Sales force transformation requires a culture change from making decisions based on hunches to making decisions based on science. While, in the past, selling depended on the skills of individual players, sales organizations today are synching resources and developing a collaborative approach to create customer value. A clear set of performance-measurement tools will not only help the synchronization process, but also contribute to a predictive organization in which pipeline potential and velocity are clearly visible, forecast accuracy will exceed 90 percent, and salespeople are routinely coached on bridging the gap between actual and required performance.
4. Eliminate departmental silos. To win in today's environment, sales must be aligned with marketing, service, finance, HR, and legal. Sales organizations need to seek alignment between sales ops, sales channels, and internal and external teams, but must also closely collaborate with all departments. When it comes to negotiations with clients, salespeople have greater chances of winning deals when all departments have a clear understanding of what represents customer value and what value a new customer means to the company. Once all departments are aligned and in synch, there will be little internal friction on how an order is handled, how discounts are approved, or how cross-cultural roadblocks are removed. As a result of this alignment, crisis management will be reduced, customer information will be easily accessible, and all stakeholders will clearly see how they can contribute to the creation of a new customer and the retention of existing customers.
5. Shift to strategic and operational competencies. While many companies believe that operational efficiencies come from supporting legacy systems, smart companies are redesigning their entire sales operation and creating a customer-focused enterprise, where all stakeholders listen, understand, and respond to the forever-shifting demands of the customer base. This transformation cannot succeed without embracing one version of the truth, which will help create a standardized process for producing and serving customers across the enterprise. This shift cannot be achieved without bringing more art and science into the sales operation.
6. Harness the collective intelligence of the sales organization. Sales transformation is not only the result of good leadership, but also a reflection of good stewardship of the information streams that all stakeholders create in the quest to win new business. As we move from a sales-pitch-based economy to a conversation economy in which the brands are a reflection of rich social-media information streams, salespeople need to become better storytellers and learn how to initiate and lead customer conversations that are focused on value. This also requires the mastery of social-media tools that are fully integrated with the sales process.
7. Select and deploy the best technology. Sales technology is critical to both growth and profitability. Sales organizations have stripped hundreds of millions of dollars of waste out of inefficient sales operations. Lead-management apps have improved demand generation, proposal-management tools have improved win rates, and compensation-management apps allow companies to incentivize the right sales behaviors that improve a company's bottom line. As a result of the transformation, salespeople should spend less time tickling keyboards and more time co-creating sales with customers. Savvy sales leaders achieve successful sales transformation by aligning the best people with the best processes and technologies. 

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6 Ways to Get Executive Buy-In on Sales Performance Tools

Today's blog post is by Christopher Cabrera, CEO of Xactly Corporation, the industry leader in sales compensation automation.

 

 

Trying to convince management to invest in new sales performance tools to make salespeople's lives easier is no walk in the park. While you understand how much certain sales applications would improve sales productivity, management expects you to demonstrate the value of any new solution.

The big idea is—in order to make sales easier on you and your team, you need to do what you are supposed to do as a sales professional: align the value of the solution with what your customers want to achieve.

Here are six guidelines to follow when you're pitching new solutions to management:

1. Get agreement on what management wants to accomplish

If your CEO wants to increase sales by 20% without a significant increase in cost, do the math for a few what-if scenarios, such as:

• What if we had technology that could improve the number of qualified leads by 100%?
• What if our demand generation team had technology that made them 200% more effective?
• What if we could deploy technology that shortened our sales cycle by 50%?
• What if we cut the time it takes our sales team to write proposals from hours to minutes?

The technology to achieve any of the above already exists. The challenge is finding a solution for your unique situation.

Technology is our means to accomplish our aims. Always begin with the aim, before pitching the means.

2. Be clear about the risk

Not every technology delivers ROI. Technology is only one part of a three-legged stool. People and Process are the other two. Ask yourself:

• How will the new technology change our processes?
• How will our salespeople react to a change in process AND technology?
• What will be the user adoption process?

Do a "Pre-Mortem Analysis" where you assume that your project has failed. Work backwards and define how to avoid unexpected failures.

3. Understand and define the pain

Selling can become painful when salespeople don't have the right sales tools.

• Study the workflow of your salespeople.
• Ask them to prioritize their 3 biggest time wasters.
• Invite your sales team to a 1-hr "gripe" session to voice what they dislike most about their jobs.

There are over 1,600 sales applications designed to improve sales productivity. Chances are, applications exist for the majority of their problems.

4. Demonstrate the ROI of a new solution

One simple ROI formula is:

(cost to acquire + cost to maintain during expected life)

/

(money saved per month + increased abilities per month)

=

(number of months to cover costs)

Other tips:

• Allow for hidden costs, such as customization, the cost of consultants and the cost involved in training and coaching.
• Know when to say no—if the solution doesn't pay for itself in under a year, you're better off working on another pain point.
• Talk to at least 3 references—if they haven't been able to measure ROI, you probably won't either. Time to walk

5. Align the new technology with your overall business strategy

The success of a business depends on the continuous alignment of internal resources with external opportunities. Ten years ago there was only one sales technology: CRM. Today, companies rely on a suite of sales and marketing applications.

The two keys to success are:

1. Alignment
2. Business strategy integration

For example, software company Brainshark integrated 20 carefully selected sales applications into their sales operation. They spent $4,000 per salesperson and achieved a 35% gain in sales year-over-year, for two years in a row. (Source: Brainshark sales executive)

6. Create a roadmap for change management

If you want your company to achieve its revenue goals, you must find and deploy sales performance tools that work faster, better and cheaper. But selecting one sales tool a year won't get you very far in this tough economy. You’ll likely need a number of solutions that you deploy over time.

While external change accelerates automatically, it takes great internal effort to match the pace. Change is hard because:

• People overestimate the value of what they have
• They also underestimate the value of what they may gain by giving up what they know.

That's why successful business leaders continually challenge the status quo; they drive change to avoid being driven out of business.

They also know that the leaders of change are the leaders who will pocket the most change.

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Transformation of the Sales and Sales-Management Roles: Will You Make It?

Today's blog post is by Nancy Martini, President and CEO of PI Worldwide, the global management consulting firm and publisher of the Predictive Index (PI) and Selling Skills Assessment Tool (SSAT). Nancy is the author of the soon-to-be-released Scientific Selling: Creating High Performance Sales Teams through Applied Psychology and Testing.

The role of sales is being transformed by a set of conditions we have never seen before. The good old days are not coming back. Sales managers and reps who adjust their methods of operating to succeed in today's environment will excel in 2012 and beyond. 

The transformation began in 2002, when the Internet became an integral part of selling. New technologies continue to affect every aspect of the modern corporation, and nowhere are they used more than in the sales area. From email to automated supply chain to cloud computing to smartphones to Web conferencing to search engines to social media, we are thrust into a world where the rules have changed for buyers and sellers.

Ten years later in 2012, we need to address the implications of this transformation on sales, sales management, and the future of selling. The following trends represent a highlight of this massive set of changes.

Trend #1: Buyers have more information. Today's buyers can access a wealth of information in a matter of seconds, which changes their needs and expectations of interacting with a sales rep. From Websites, they can gather hard data on products, companies, competition, and industries, and they can gather soft data from friends, colleagues, and strangers (anonymous reviews) on social-media sites. Bottom line: buyers are theoretically better educated before they talk to a rep or, more dangerously, they think they are.

Trend #2: Selling is more demanding. Today's buyer has less tolerance for old selling tactics, and today's reps need to possess all the core sales skills of a top consultant: intelligence to assimilate information rapidly, behavioral fit to excel under pressure, stamina to endure the sales cycle, and resilience to continue in the face of adversity. Most of all, today's sales reps require the wisdom to manage the sales process, rather than do something to the prospect.

Trend #3: Buyers are more risk averse. As the economy has become more unsettled, customer reactions have become more cautious, spending is more conservative, internal controls have increased, decision making has moved up, and reps have less access to those decision makers. Gatekeepers are more likely than ever before to create barriers to stakeholders.

Trend #4: Selling is becoming more professional. Much like the transformation of medicine in the early twentieth century, the specialization of selling has led to the creation of a professional class. The evidence is growing: more business schools are now offering sales courses, more sales reps are getting advanced degrees (MBAs), and there are now roughly 40 colleges and universities in the United States that offer a degree in sales. The overall specialization trend is toward education and professionalism – and that's good for both buyers and sellers.

Trend #5: Selling is becoming more global. Globalization has been forcing the transformation of the sales role, and today, "global intelligence" and the ability to compete in a global marketplace is not a nice-to-have, it's a must. Sales teams have to learn how to balance cultural and regional realities and social norms and language. The result is a sales environment that requires increased skills in team selling, "world selling" knowledge, higher reliance on sophisticated selling strategies, and an increased need for a true global business view.

Are you and your reps prepared to win amidst this sea of change? How many on your team possess the behaviors and skills needed to win? How do you know the difference between those who are barely hanging on and those who will flourish? These are questions that every sales team will face. 

Fortunately, all of these conditions can be answered with effective sales skills, increased professionalism of reps, accurate coaching by sales managers, and a solid set of data to eliminate errors and take solid steps forward. In 2012 and beyond, successful companies will be those that leverage scientific data for accuracy, enable reps to succeed with relevant training and coaching, and create smarter reps to win in this transformational, technology-driven global economy.

Invitation: Join Nancy Martini on Wednesday, Jan 11th at 2:00 pm EST in a webinar entitled How science will drive sustainable sales results in 2012.

Disclosure: PI Worldwide is a Selling Power customer.

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Why Email Attachments Don't Work to Engage Customers

Today's blog post is by tech marketing and sales veteran Bill Carney, VP of Marketing at VisibleGains. Check out the VisibleGains blog at http://blog.visiblegains.com/.

 

Face it: we're always selling and using whatever materials we can get our hands on to get our message across, typically through email. I recently received an email with 18 links and 5 attachments! I was amazed it got past the spam filter; it scared the hell out of me! I know why it got through, though. The sender (who shall remain nameless) was on my approved list. He worked at a company where I'd previously purchased services. I assume my sales "friend" figured I'd educate myself on his new company and offerings by reviewing all the info he spat at me. Problem is, from where I sit, we're starting over. Sending attachments my way, never mind how many, was way too soon for our relationship. I hit delete.

Dating Hasn't Changed That Much

Have you ever seen that movie in which the gal – and often the guy – has some objective to meet someone and says, "Let's skip all the time-consuming 'getting to know yous' and become a couple now"? Zero to marriage in three minutes flat. I'm sure we can all agree that, while it may be entertaining in the movies, it's definitely out of whack in the real world. 

Sending email attachments, unless I specifically request them, is like getting married without dating. I'm not ready for that type of "relationship," and it's rather presumptuous of you to think I am. Have you had a conversation with me yet to determine why I'm special? Why would you think collateral created in a generic way is ideal for me when you don't know me or my primary concerns? Are you a spammer? Maybe not, but without any evidence that you know me and what's important to me, I'm going to classify you as "that guy (or girl)" and ignore all subsequent content you try to send me. I might even just block you. The point is, you haven’t earned the right.

Your Place or Mine?

Those who have earned the right still may have trouble sending me information. In today's world, getting an attachment through the various spam and security filters is difficult, especially when emails contain large-file attachments. It's interesting that such a simple concept as FTP with a nice UI has spawned several companies. These companies are growing by leaps and bounds and changing the culture (although not completely) into a "come to my place to get it if you want it" mentality.

If you've earned the right to have a conversation with me, don't blow it by NOT agreeing on how we're going to share information. We need a personal "one-to-one" place to work together – not a file cabinet or deal room (our relationship’s not there yet). People who have earned the right to have the conversation don't clutter my inbox; they collaborate, giving me options for easily accessing information they've selected just for me.

Sure, such online tools as Dropbox, Box, WeTransfer, and YouSendIt are helpful when we want to share files with established colleagues, partners, and customers, but they're prematurely inappropriate for delivering content to prospects. Simply put, it's too early in the relationship.

Treat Me Right

So what's a salesperson to do when looking to create that relationship? Send me off to their Website? Might not be a good strategy, as I could get lost pretty easily and feel overwhelmed. We have customers with more than 500 different product SKUs, and the complexity of their site just might cause overload. Usually, people are looking for specific information to help their process along. Why dump your prospect on a generic site and make him or her more confused?

It's really hard to fake authenticity and create a connection. Focus instead on getting to know me and my company over time through various channels. Then, once you've earned your way into a conversation with me, we can both agree on how we are going to transfer materials and information. Don't just send something over; I'm not gonna read it. I've already deleted your email.

"Engagements" and "attachments" are part of both romantic and seller-to-prospect relationships. The difference is their order. Engaging with clients respectfully, ensuring that you add value at the right times in the right ways, will help you earn prospects' trust and lead to mutually beneficial interactions. Done right, sales conversations built on trust lead ultimately to buying decisions and repeat orders.

In full disclosure, VisibleGains helps salespeople use their email to cultivate prospect engagement and understand which conversations will turn into sales.

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5 Sales Management Questions We Answered in 2011

Every ending signals a new beginning. To make sure we build effectively on our experiences and avoid repeating our missteps, I asked Selling Power editors to compile this list of five important sales-management questions we addressed this year. Here are some of our most popular articles on topics that resonated with readers, including developing talent in your reps, adding value for customers, staying positive, and fostering loyal relationships.

Are You Selling Problems or Solutions?
Think about the news stories you heard or read today. Did you find information that you could use to improve your life? Did you read something that gave you a positive feeling? 

When Should Sales Managers Step in to Close the Deal?
The hardest part of sales management may be knowing when to step in and when to take a back seat as your reps learn the ropes, particularly in front of the customer. As tough as it is, it's often critical for the development of individual reps – and your team as a whole – to let them pave their own way. 

Are Your Sales Contacts Quality or Quantity?
With LinkedIn and Facebook making a public display of the numbers of "connections" or "friends" we have, it's tempting to equate numbers with success. But long-term sales success isn't about the quantity of your connections; it's about quality.

How Can Comparison Questions Help the Sale?
Sure, asking questions can lead to a sale. Asking the right questions, however, can win loyal business for years to come.

Where Can You Add Value?
What pushes business forward and paves the way for bigger sales? More value. One classic way to find opportunities to create value is to take a product or service and add something to it.

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Can You Triple Your Sales Growth in This Economy?

This guest post was written by Duane Sparks, creator of Action Selling and chairman of The Sales Board. Duane also wrote a best-selling book entitled Action Selling.

 

 

A small-but-mighty company shows how to achieve quantum growth by installing the right selling system in the right way.

Barcode equipment reseller Supply Chain Services Inc. (SCS), of Stillwater, MN, did something remarkable in 2011: it grew revenues by 60 percent – with no loss of profit margin. Even the company's 
managers were surprised. A year ago, they thought they were being plenty ambitious when they set a growth goal of 20 percent.

What happened? First, SCS acquired a new owner and CEO, Chip Emery. Second, Emery introduced a new sales system: Action Selling. Third, SCS made sure that every employee, not just the salespeople, received training in the Action Selling system.

That unusual third step – the idea of spreading training throughout the company – was crucial to achieving the eye-popping 60 percent growth rate. It allowed SCS to weave the new system into the organization so thoroughly that everyone – managers, technicians, and salespeople – could speak the same language and pull in the same direction. 

As SCS's chief operating officer, Dave Green, puts it, "Action Selling provided the system, the language, and the sales culture that we needed to execute our ambitious growth strategy. What are we doing better today? We use Action Selling to differentiate ourselves in a commodity marketplace. We have dramatically improved our ability to assess the customer's needs and fit our solutions to those needs. And we confidently ask for commitment.  We didn't do that before we were trained in Action Selling."

SCS's feat – 60 percent growth in a down economy – was enabled by integrating Action Selling into the company's day-to-day life.  Every week, SCS's four top executives conduct sales call planning sessions with their sales force. They use the language and process of Action Selling to drill down to specific, concrete situations that the salespeople face on the job. What gets practiced and managed gets done. "Our team functions differently today," says Emery. "I can't think of a single job that we didn't win since [using] Action Selling."

Is Everybody On Board?

The fact that Action Selling is an effective system, one that can demonstrably improve sales performance, makes it a great tool. But the results you get from any tool depend on how you use it.  "The difference between good and great lies in how thoroughly you absorb what the system gives you," Green says. "When salespeople start to believe in and live the Action Selling process, that's how you get the extra lift. Everything you need to accomplish this is built into the Action Selling training and coaching system."

But it's more than just salesperson buy-in. "Everyone in our company sees and understands the benefits of Action Selling," Green says. "Our technical staff has a better idea of what we can do to satisfy a customer's needs. Our salespeople sell with far more confidence. Management understands what's going on in the field. We're very close to the customer because of how well we communicate with our sales force on every deal."

Action Selling was the perfect choice for SCS, Green says. "We waded in, studied and practiced hard, saw immediate results, and then practiced harder. Now we're exceeding our ambitious sales goals.  I recommend Action Selling to anyone who is serious about growing their business."

View the corresponding video for this story: http://thesalesboard.com/sell-more.asp

Full disclosure: The Sales Board is a customer of Selling Power.(www.thesalesboard.com)

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Killing Email in the Name of Sales Performance? It’s Possible.

Today's blog post is by Christopher Cabrera, CEO of Xactly Corporation, the industry leader in sales compensation automation.

The French information-technology company Atos recently announced that it will give up email over the next 18 months. Instead, all 74,000 employees will use instant messaging and a Facebook-like interface for internal communication. Atos CEO Thierry Breton said 90 percent of the emails employees receive are not useful, and 18 percent is spam. Breton has not sent an email in three years. (Source: WSJ)

Here's how I think Atos stands to benefit from its email ban:

• Easy sharing of content across the company
• Elimination of spam and unwanted email from outside the organization
• Instant collaboration, which will lead to more collaborative solutions
• Higher-quality company communication because dedicated internal channels won't co-mingle with external platforms

Is Email Dead, As Some Pundits Have Predicted?

This remarkable departure from email reflects a radical shift in the corporate culture and illustrates how social technology transforms workplace communication. Point-to-point email communication seems to get displaced by social information streams that everybody in the company can join to collaborate, comment, challenge, and vote on. I am reminded of the free flow of information in an ancient Greek forum, where every citizen contributed to the ongoing dialogue aimed at improving the state.

Today, autocratic leadership is taking a backseat to community ownership. Our Chatter and Jive culture allows employees to contribute to the corporate information streams in real time. These live conversations instantly reflect and shape what's taking place in a company. They empower every employee to feel he or she has a meaningful stake in the company. Everyone contributes to the welfare of customers and the company.

Technology motivates people to truly participate in the progression of their culture and company. It's also important to note that the boundaries of the workplace have shifted. Work is no longer a place we go to. Work is what happens in the Cloud. We need only a browser to connect to people around the globe 24/7.

Inspiration and Compensation in a Time of Transformation

The new workplace offers employees a huge opportunity to contribute their ideas and talents, and as a result, companies need to rethink their compensation strategies. Visionary sales leaders transform their operations, not to serve and support those who are reluctant to change, but to empower a future generation of technology-enabled high performers who are motivated to leap tall buildings. As sales leaders, we need to constantly align our processes, including our modes of communication, to reflect these shifting priorities.

When you provide the right motivation, you can influence how employees act and salespeople sell. As our adage at Xactly goes, "incent right, sell more."

Are your salespeople, processes, and technology aligned to inspire your sales force? What are you doing to cultivate a future-oriented corporate culture that attracts and retains top talent and promotes excellent performance?

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To learn how to improve sales performance by leveraging what Gen Y cares about, check out Xactly's “Tips for Incenting Gen Y.”

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4 Sales Management Resolutions for 2012

Many sales managers today are finding themselves leading teams that are not as effective as the
competition. Why is that? 

It all starts with the sales process. When the sales process is weighed down by outmoded methodologies, leadership, and people, your sales reps are more vulnerable to failure.

If you haven't already started, now is a perfect time to shake off the dust and get in gear for 2012. Here are my four New Year's resolutions for sales managers -- each one is based on changes I've seen in sales management in the past year. Use them to get your team on the path to sales success today. 

Resolution #1
I will create content that attracts customers.

Many sales teams are struggling because they work for companies that are failing to respond to the new ways that customers are buying. I routinely talk to sales leaders who do not see the need to optimize their B2B websites to capture and follow up on inbound leads. They don’t take advantage of marketing automation software. They have no online sales channel. They think social media is a waste of time and have little or no presence on Twitter. They’d rather have their reps out selling than blogging or connecting with new prospects on LinkedIn. Yet these are all steps that leading companies are taking to engage with an audience and turn prospects into loyal customers.

Keep this in mind: Good content stimulates curiosity, sparks online conversations, and encourages "likes" and online engagement. Seize the opportunity in 2012 to become the conversation leader and content leader in your field. In 2012, good content will pave the road to more closed sales.

Resolution #2 
I will create messaging that gets our customers to open their minds.

Right before a meeting, your reps should be able to pull up vital information about the prospect’s company and industry in order to set the stage for a relevant dialogue. Access to the right information is the first step. Translating this information into messages that engage and persuade customers is the second step -- that's an area where many salespeople come up short. 

Last month at the Sales Strategies in a Social & Mobile World Conference, I invited sales executives from sponsor companies to deliver a one-minute elevator pitch to the entire audience onstage. While we heard a number of creative and compelling messages, some of these pitches didn't have traction. 

In 2012 you want to make sure that your salespeople are able to deliver a message that opens their customers' minds. You also want to make sure they will follow up with a clear value proposition. If they don't, their clients won't open their wallets.  

Resolution #3
I will create top performing sales reps. 

A recent report on how successful companies are creating opportunities for new and better sales shows that leading organizations are opting for short and timely training programs that can be disseminated virtually and accessed at any time. If you create a winning sales culture – one that empowers reps to learn new skills through training, share collective knowledge, and tap internal resources that can help them sell more effectively – the top performers will come knocking.

Resolution #4
I will hold everyone responsible for the sale companywide. 

Another mental shift that many sales managers need to make is that sales is not an island. Because today’s customer has often completed up to 80% of the buying cycle before even coming into contact with a sales rep, it’s important that all departments be empowered to act as sales support. 

If finance and legal work in silos it will be impossible to create an effective sales negotiation strategy. If sales and marketing are not aligned, it will be hard to optimize your company's sales potential.

Today, sales management success is about being social and mobile. You can’t always control when and where customers find you, but you can control your social presence and your level of engagement. This is great news for sales managers who want to succeed in 2012. Sales success has always been an art, but it is now equally about science. As a sales manager, your job is not to get there before the competition or win the war on price. Your job is to equip your team to find and follow the right opportunities, engage with prospects early and with intelligence, and create an overall culture of success.  

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Image via Grant Cochrane/freedigitalphotos.net