Selling Power Blog

Your New 10-step Sales Pipeline Performance Checklist

Today’s guest post is by Robert Pease and is an excerpt from the new book, Full Funnel Marketing, coauthored by Matt Heinz and his excellent Heinz Marketing team. If you like what you read, you can get a free complete copy of the book here.

We have recently launched a specific practice area here at Heinz Marketing around pipeline performance. It’s based on what we see as a way to improve operations and increase revenue through an integrated sales and marketing perspective. From our point of view, the pipeline is the ultimate focal point for all sales and marketing activities and accountability.

It tells you where your marketing efforts are being successful…or not.

It tells you where your sales efforts are being successful…or not.

To truly understand performance, you must measure it consistently and over time. But what do you measure? How do you interpret the results and make meaningful changes to improve them? More to come on that, but we believe using this 10-point checklist will get you started on the right path and provide some interesting learning along the way.

1. Understand Your Target Customer

Seems like this should go without saying, but you’d be surprised. This goes beyond standard demographic data points like role, industry, etc., and surfaces things like what they read, where they spend their time, and what their priorities are. Knowing these things makes reaching them with a compelling message that works more efficient.

2. Know What a Qualified Lead Looks Like

A business card is not a lead unless that card was received while actually having a qualifying discussion. Simply having a name, email address, and phone number is not enough. Establish a defined and agreed-to set of qualification criteria between marketing and sales and use those to focus lead and demand generation efforts. Don’t fall into the trap of creating inflated lead numbers that have to be reconciled with reality as they move through the sales pipeline. Write it down and get agreement between sales and marketing leadership.

3. Emphasize Needs and Outcomes in Messaging

Stop talking about yourself and start talking about your customer’s problem and the outcome they are seeking. This should be the rule for everything from top-of-funnel press activities to bottom-of-funnel closing efforts. If you are first an expert on your customer’s pain, it naturally follows that you know how to address it to get them where they want to be.

4. Understand Your Conversion Rates

You may have been told there was no math in marketing, but we’re here to tell you there is – and it is the only way to get the best performance from your pipeline. A spreadsheet can be your best friend, so get comfortable calculating what percentage of contacts turn into leads and what percentage of leads turn into customers. This helps with planning, budgeting, and reporting. Know the numbers and constantly seek to improve them.

5. Always Follow Up

Rarely will one email or call do the trick. Actually, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say never will one email or call convert a B2B customer (if this has happened to you, please share your story in the comments). Life is about follow-up – and successful people know this. Lead nurturing and multi-touch sales development processes are, essentially, just being better at follow-up and staying in front of a prospect. At a minimum, deliver what you promise when a conversation concludes. Even better? Look at all the meetings on your calendar from Q3 and Q4 of 2015, create a list of who you talked to only once, and follow up with them this month.

6. Engage in Context

On the heels of number 5 above, do not just send a “checking in” email or apply a “spray and pray” approach to prospecting. Taking the time to consider who you are contacting and what you will say goes a long way. Reference what you talked about last time, how your product or service fits the needs of their business, or something in the news about their company. Take the time to do this. What it costs you in minutes pales in comparison to the quality of interactions it will create. I actually received back-to-back cold calls from the same person reading the same script recently. They had clearly lost their place on their call list and didn’t even realize I was the same person on the voice mail they had just called.

7. Understand How Your Customer Buys

It is easy to figure out how you want to sell, but have you taken the time to understand how your customer buys? Who can say “yes” but, more importantly, who can say “no”? Be ready for the questions that come up – and proactively provide the information that will help move the deal along.

8. Get on the Same Side of the Table

Maybe more figuratively than literally, but looking at the situation together and teaming up to solve the problem is a subtle but important way to sell. Sitting across the table and wanting someone to pay you is somewhat confrontational. Sitting on the same side of the table and uniting behind the challenge and desired outcome builds shared expectations and understanding.

9. Get a Purchase Commitment

This is why we sell – and, all too often, the activities in the pipeline outweigh the outcomes. Understand quickly what it will take to get someone to say “yes,” put those front and center in every discussion, and methodically work through them so that, when you are done, there is no other answer than “yes.” Don’t be afraid to ask for the business.

10. Closed/Won is Just the End of the Beginning

And hopefully the beginning of a long and mutually beneficial relationship. Keep an eye on what happens after someone buys – are the handoffs to account management or customer care choreographed? You’ve worked hard to get the customer, so work even harder to keep them. Additional revenue from existing customers should be part of your plan and, if you don’t formally or informally have a referral program in place with your customers, you are behind.

Get a free, complete copy of Full Funnel Marketing.

How to Leverage Value to Achieve Profitable Growth

Today’s guest post is by Diane Williams, product manager for the SPIN® Portfolio of training programs for MHI Global. She is responsible for the development of new programs that support the use of SPIN skills.

The corporate world is in the midst of a significant shift in business strategy. The established emphasis on bottom-line efficiency that gave the business world such familiar techniques as downsizing, restructuring overhead value analysis, and reengineering is being replaced by a new interest in strategies for boosting growth.

The sign that the shift is both real and profound can be seen in the changing pattern of consulting revenues. Consulting firms, which a couple of years ago were grazing the lush pastures of cost-reduction advice, are now experiencing something of a famine. Because of that, many consulting firms have opened sales-effectiveness practices to help their clients boost revenue.

Here’s how they’re doing it – and how you can, too.

Selling cheaper. The easiest strategy for boosting revenue – particularly for those whose background and expertise are in cost reduction – has been to find cheaper ways to reach a wider customer base. The Internet has blossomed as a low-cost way to expand the width of customer contact, and there’s also a well-established track record for reaching a wider customer base at a low cost through telemarketing and alternative distribution channels. Consequently, most corporations with low-end products and a substantial customer base have drastically reduced their face-to-face sales forces during the past two years and continue to move toward cheaper alternative delivery systems.

Selling deeper. Purchasing has changed drastically over the years. The average industrial companies are continuing to cut supplier bases by more than half. Because of that, transactional purchasing (i.e., putting out a bid and allowing suppliers to respond) is seen as a heavy strain on resources, while the rise of alternative relationship models, such as partnering, allows for deeper, more meaningful, and longer lasting transactions.

Shifting the source of value. Many sales functions – particularly those that sell through highly compensated salespeople – add negligible value to the overall sales effort. The sales organization provides little more than minor administrative support, telephones, and business cards. Almost all the value of these sales functions resides in individual salespeople and not in the institution. This makes the typical sales organization uncomfortably vulnerable.

If the value of the sales organization lies in individual salespeople, then there’s a real risk that superstars will jump ship, tempted by competitors’ offers – taking their books of business with them. This vulnerability puts many organizations at risk, leading strategists to search for ways to embed more value at an institutional level.

At the same time, when salespeople add all the value, they rightly expect to receive a disproportionate share of the rewards. Many of them have become – to put it mildly – highly compensated. This leads to something of a Catch-22 phenomenon. In most sales organizations, promotion into management means a significant drop in remuneration. Still, it’s hard to add value at an institutional level unless you can attract talented individuals.

In this way, sales organizations are imprisoned by the high rewards they have to pay salespeople who provide all the value. Because of that, many organizations are revisiting their sales process and working to come up with a way to help a wider range of sales professionals succeed. By shifting the source of value, the benefits can spread throughout the company.

Unite Sales and Marketing to Win the Digital Customer

Today's post is by Shalini Mitha, director of solutions marketing at SAP Hybris.  Connect with her on Twitter @shalinimitha or on LinkedIn.

 

It’s no secret that sales and marketing typically work in parallel and rarely together. But, at today’s successful companies, these teams are forging a strong, collaborative alliance that enables them to know their audience better, grow sales, and boost loyalty in this age of the connected, empowered customer. 

Recently, SAP commissioned an Aberdeen research report on the success of sales and marketing alignment. The study found, “Best-in-class companies that optimize the marketing and sales relationship grow revenue 32% faster.”

And, more importantly, “Companies that align sales and marketing efforts by using their CRM system as system of engagement versus system of record enjoy stronger customer retention rates as well as more efficient end of the customer journey sales results. Benefit: 62% of best-in-class companies attain total sales team attainment of their quota.”

Historically, the relationship between sales and marketing has been tumultuous,with both sides playing the “blame game” and pointing fingers on the reasons for lost revenue. But don’t bring out those divorce lawyers yet – there is way to bring harmony. 

As with any new relationship, you need to set ground rules to ensure a successful union. Sales and marketing need to discuss the best ways to work together – especially in terms of a lead definition, process, and execution. Collaborate on the best approach to nurture leads and communicate on what works and what doesn’t. As sales and marketing roles continue to overlap – with marketing carrying more responsibility further into the buying cycle and sales needing to be more knowledgeable and prepared with every customer interaction – it is important to break down those silos.

The blame game needs to stop. In truth, both groups need each other. Marketing can be quite resourceful in deal support, nurturing leads and building customer relationships, while sales can provide first-hand insight into what customers want. The two need each other, and forging a strong, collaborative alliance is imperative in the era of the connected, empowered customer.

Here are four steps to get you started.

• Work with marketing to ensure personalization of marketing content. It is imperative to know at what stage your customer is in their buying journey – so marketing can provide personalized and relevant content and so sales can build trust and confidence.
• Accelerate productivity. A wandering mind is an unhappy mind. According to a study by Harvard psychologists Matthew A. Killingsworth and Daniel T. Gilbert, 47 percent of our waking hours are spent ruminating and unfocused. Make every moment productive. Empower sales reps to sell with insight – anytime, anywhere, on any device.
• Turn insight into action. The modern customer generates a tremendous amount of data. Enterprises are challenged to collect, organize, and interpret all of this data in order to create detailed customer profiles and share those across the entire front office. According to Bill McDermott, CEO of SAP, ”Machine learning will fundamentally change the enterprise and help salespeople see which opportunities will close.” Best-in-class companies use CRM solutions to provide ways to best proceed with current pipeline opportunities, based on past marketing and selling success.
• Leverage tribal knowledge. Today’s marketing and sales practitioners are supported by applications that promote the free exchange of ideas and best practices. Best-in-class companies are 91 percent more likely to deploy enterprise social collaboration platforms.

Like any good “marriage,” the secret is mutual respect, empathy, and communication. If sales and marketing work together in harmony, the customer wins and loyalty and customer retention follow. Learn more about the secret to success; see how your organization compares to best-in-class companies by reading the full Aberdeen white paper: “Marketing/Sales Alignment 2016: Who Is Agile Enough to Win?” Or learn how SAP Hybris can help you empower your sales teams to sell smarter, act faster, and be relevant everywhere.

Five Tips to Successfully Identify if You Have a Team of Top Performers

Today’s post is by Diane Polnow, owner and founder of Elite Sales Leaders.

 

 

Do you get frustrated working with people who don’t have the same motivation, work ethic, or desire to succeed as you? I understand how it feels. It’s not easy.

So here are some tips on how to identify whether you have a team of top performers.  

Tip #1 – Desire and Motivation: Do they even have the desire and motivation to be a top performer? Are they willing to put in the time and effort? You may be, but they may not.  I’ve worked with people who are content with average performance. If they don’t have the desire or motivation, you’ll need to work with what you have until you can make changes to replace them.  

Tip #2 – Skills: Do they have the right selling and interpersonal skills? Have they been properly trained? Take time to consistently provide the tools and techniques they need to excel. If they aren’t willing to sharpen their skills and continue to grow, you can’t force them. Once again, you’ll need to work with what you have until you can make changes to replace them.

Tip #3 – Attitude: Do they have a good attitude? Some may have a sense of entitlement or know-it-all attitude because they’re tenured. They feel that, because they’ve been with the company for a long time, they should get special treatment. Their peers notice and question this attitude.

Tip #4 – Responsiveness: Are they responsive to emails and phone calls or are they disrespectful? I’ve worked with people who didn’t think twice about not responding. And I was shocked at how people thought it was okay to be so disrespectful to supervisors, teammates, peers, or customers. Take time to evaluate your team’s attitude and ensure you have a team of positive people who are not tainting others.

Tip #5 – Coaching and Feedback: Are they open to coaching and feedback? It’s painful to work with someone who has enormous potential – but who resists coaching and feedback. To me, school is always in session for pros. I’ve spent thousands of dollars on my own personal growth. Even if someone doesn’t want your coaching and feedback, it’s your job and responsibility as a leader give it to them anyway. You don’t have to give up  just because they do.

If you discover you don’t have the team you’d like, then it’s time to make some changes. Don’t wait. Start now.

For more information about how you and your team can rise to the top and be part of the elite, go to www.EliteSalesLeaders.com. And watch our YouTube video, “Successfully Identify if You Have Top Performers.”

I look forward to hearing how you rise to the top and join the elite!

Six Ways to Help Inside and Outside Sales Teams Get Along

Today’s post is by Danny Wong, a marketing consultant, sales strategist, and writer. He leads marketing at Tenfold, a seamless click-to-dial solution for high-performance sales teams. Connect with him on Twitter @dannywong1190.

Unfortunately, inside and outside sales teams often clash. They might fight over which clients fall into a team’s jurisdiction. Or, inside reps might refuse to hand over large clients because they don’t want to lose the commission.

To implement an efficient sales plan throughout your organization, inside and outside sales strategies must complement one another. Here are six ways you can make sure they do:

1. Start from the Beginning

The key to creating complementary sales strategies starts with job descriptions. If the company’s inside and outside sales teams are duplicating efforts or not working to their strengths, productivity suffers.

A good framework is using inside sales reps to prospect and touch base with dormant accounts through email and phone calls. Outside reps, on the other hand, can help them break into and manage larger clients that benefit from a face-to-face relationship. This frees both teams to focus on what they do best, complementing each other perfectly.

2. Empower Your Team with Technology

The easier you make it for your inside and outside reps to work together, the more likely it is that they will do so. Invest in a CRM system that makes it easy for multiple reps to keep tabs on a single account. At a minimum, they should be able to leave notes, attach important documents, and update contact information on the fly. You will also want to invest in software that facilitates internal communications and interdepartmental collaboration.

3. Host Inclusive Meetings

Instead of holding separate meetings for your inside and outside sales teams, consider holding all your sales meetings together. This gives your salespeople the chance to spend more time together, learn from each other, and discuss important strategies. Ensure your sales managers work side by side during these meetings to further drive home exactly how connected the two functions are to the company’s overall goals.

4. Set Shared Bonuses

Money is a powerful motivator. To integrate your inside and outside sales strategies, you need to modify the way your commission and bonus structure works. If commissions are paid out solely to the rep who closes a deal, inside and outside sales teams will compete against each other – to the detriment of your company and your clients. If you can find a way to pair their performance and reward everybody fairly, however, they will not only work together but they will openly root for one another.

5. Develop a Clear Career Path

One of the biggest problems that comes with managing inside and outside sales reps is that outside sales reps tend to be more experienced. They engage bigger clients, close larger contracts, and earn more money. It is often difficult for inside sales reps stuck working the phones to find much in common with them.

That is why making a clear career path that leads inside sales roles into outside sales roles makes a lot of sense. It instantly turns outside salespeople into mentors for inside sales reps. Most importantly, it makes future collaboration much easier. After all, your outside reps will know exactly what it means to have done inside sales for the company.

6. Unify Management

When inside sales reps report to their own manager and the outside sales team reports to another, it can create confusion and lead to conflict. The best-case scenario is having both teams reporting to a single manager. If that isn’t possible, you need to make sure the two managers work very closely to ensure their goals and strategies are aligned.

You can also unify your management team simply by ensuring both managers have the same boss. If both teams ultimately report to a single sales director, it is much easier to coordinate complementary sales efforts.

The Why and How Behind Effectively Motivating Your Sales Team

Today’s post is by Norman Behar, CEO of Sales Readiness Group and author of The High-Impact Sales Manager: A No-Nonsense, Practical Guide to Improve Your Sales Team’s Performance.

The best sales managers know how to motivate and inspire their teams. They understand we all have different motives that drive us – and that those motives and their intensity can change over time.

To be a successful sales leader, you must be adept at identifying dominant motivations and recognizing motivation signals. Salespeople tend to be driven by one or more of the following six motives: money, opportunity, teamwork, independence, visibility, and excellence.

1. Money

This is the most obvious motivator. Money – or what money can buy – is important to most salespeople. However, it isn’t necessarily the most important motivator to everyone. Other motivators may be equally or more important. Ways to impact and/or support money as a motivator include

• Relating sales results to financial gain or reward.
• Adding incentives for higher performance.
• Discussing and reinforcing financial goals.

2. Opportunity

Many salespeople are driven by opportunity. Motivational opportunities usually fall into the categories of challenges and the possibility of improving one’s situation. When you’ve recognized this motivation in members of your sales team, you should try to create an environment that offers opportunities. Ways to create and foster opportunities include

• Showing how success can lead to advancement.
• Providing for career opportunities where possible.
• Delegating responsibilities that prepare the person for promotion.

3. Teamwork

Many salespeople enjoy being part of a team and are motivated by the idea of contributing to the success of the group. They derive satisfaction from solving problems as part of a group, contributing to a coworker’s success, or even playing a major role at a sales meeting. If you identify teamwork as a motivating factor for a salesperson, you should

• Get the salesperson involved in team projects.
• Build team-based goals and incentives.
• Provide team recognition.

4. Independence

While some salespeople are motivated by teamwork, many salespeople prefer to work independently. This involves empowerment, independence, freedom, and enhanced feelings of power and control. This motivator should not be ignored or minimized simply because people belong to a team. For any salesperson motivated by independence, you can

• Delegate special projects or assignments.
• Provide greater autonomy and accountability.
• Reinforce their success at working independently.

5. Visibility

Recognition, approval, or a need to stand out from the crowd drives some salespeople. When a salesperson is motivated by visibility, you should

• Highlight successes with a personal note, team recognition, or recognition from upper management.
• Be sure the salesperson knows his or her accomplishments are appreciated and recognized.
• Allow the salesperson to share his or her accomplishments in a group setting.

6. Excellence

Most salespeople want to perform well. The difference between the “excellence” and “opportunity” motivators is that the excellence-motivated person wants to excel at what he or she does and is not necessarily seeking higher and more challenging goals and opportunities. Excellence means the person takes great pride in achieving or surpassing personal and professional expectations. When a salesperson is motivated by excellence you should

• Recognize the achievement of goals.
• Acknowledge consistency of good results.
• Reinforce the benefits of his or her high-quality work.

The best way to understand what drives your salespeople is to observe their behaviors and ask them what they enjoy most about their job. By taking the time to observe how they work and understand their perspective, you’ll gain incredible insight into their key motives.

In this video interview with Selling Power founder and publisher Gerhard Gschwandtner, we discuss the top motivation mistake inexperienced managers make – and how to find out what motivates each member of your team.

Order your copy today of The High-Impact Sales Manager: A No-Nonsense, Practical Guide to Improve Your Sales Team’s Performance.

Three Steps to Defusing Customer Customer Objections (Instead of Overcoming Them!)

Sundance Brennan is a sales professional and coach with more than 20 years of experience in consumer direct sales. You can read his blog posts, which usually consist of sales rants and book reviews, at www.salesfumaster.com, Tweet him @salesfumaster, or join the conversation at  www.facebook.com/groups/SalesFu/.

“Closing” has a negative connotation, mostly because some salespeople “closed” too soon, became argumentative, and bullied their way to a deal. There is another way, though. I’ve heard it called objection mining, objection avoidance, or the term I prefer – objection defusing. It’s also called good service. This is how you do it.

 #1: Accept Responsibility

• Great salespeople defuse the situation; everyone else loses control and places blame. In 20 years of sales I’ve heard all the excuses. The product is bad, the price is off, the leads are horrible, the time shift or region is terrible, my assistant ate my homework, my dog booked the appointments after lunch – you name it. What I’ve never heard is a salesperson who said, “You know what? That customer wants to wait and it’s 100 percent my fault.”
  
  As people, we want to try to deflect failure and pretend it’s outside of our control. No one said sales was an easy profession and no one owes you a thing. Accept that you and your family need and rely on you to make a good living. You alone are in control of your success. Accept responsibility for every objection.
  
  
• I read a book about five years ago that drilled this into me – Larry Winget’s Success Is Your Own Damn Fault. Check it out. Not a paid plug – I promise.

#2: Set Up for Success

• Ask questions to uncover the objections before they happen. Ask about the decision making process, how they have made decisions in the past, what criteria are  important, and why. The first answer to a “sales” type question is the social nicety or what the customer thinks they should say – something like, “I’m fine, just looking.” The second question is typically answered with what they think they should be shopping for – something about a budget, rate, cost, or feature.
  
  Now we’ve asked a couple of questions and have absolutely no idea what this customer wants or needs. The third question needs to find out why these features would help. The best way to understand the “why” is to check out the Golden Circle TED Talk by Simon Sinek. Just search for it – it’s a great way to spend 20 minutes.
  
  
• Listen more. Ask your questions and then shut up. The problem with salespeople is that we love the sound of our voice. We have great things to say and we are very persuasive, right? We aren’t comfortable with silence and tend to dominate conversations instead of letting our customers get comfortable. Listen twice as much as talking and your customers will like you twice as much.
  
  
• Non-business relationships (NBR). Click with your customers, use personality types to bond, read about and study social graces. I don’t know a successful salesperson who isn’t likable.
  
  
• Uncover need. Throughout your conversation, keep notes of what the “need” is. This person doesn’t need to save money; this person needs you to change their life in some way. You have heard it before: This person needs a hole, not a drill.
  
  
• Gather up benefits. As you gather up the information, you’ll have an idea of what the objections to making a purchase now will be. Make note and stack up reasons they should move forward anyway. Those reasons are called benefits.

#3: Defuse the Objection

• Don’t be caught off guard. If you get surprised with an objection, you failed in the first part of the call.
  
  
• Anticipate the objection and frame your benefit statements to address it. If you anticipate a cost objection, heavily outline the recoup cost and the cost of doing nothing, if that’s applicable. Talk about the savings. Talk about the long-term savings. Talk about the value of time.
  
  
• Use “the agreement.” Confirm that your solution addressed the concern in question. “That solves the problem of paying for the program, right?”
  
  
• Do this properly and you won’t have to overcome objections – customers will overcome the objections themselves and choose to move forward.

Three Steps to Successfully Debrief with Salespeople after Sales Calls

Today’s post is by Sandler Training Global Headquarters CEO and President David H. Mattson, a bestselling author, sales and management thought leader, keynote speaker, and leader for sales training seminars around the world. At Sandler, Mattson oversees the corporate direction and strategy for the company’s global operations, including sales, marketing, consulting, alliances, and support.

What really happened on that important sales call? You won’t know unless you conduct a good debrief with the salesperson in question.

All too often, what passes for a debriefing is little more than a casual, uninformative conversation between a salesperson and sales manager. You know how they go – you run into the salesperson in the hallway and ask, “By the way, what happened in your meeting the other day with ABC?” The conversation that follows is cursory, and the information exchange is limited to what the salesperson can remember off the cuff…and wants to reveal. Time has been wasted and little has been learned by either party.

To be effective for you and your salespeople, debriefing sessions must occur regularly and be consistent. To accomplish this, you should take the following steps.

Step #1: Formally schedule sessions. When you make the effort to schedule a formal debriefing session, you and the salesperson will treat the time and topic more seriously. Time set aside on the calendar is too valuable to both of you to be wasted.

For this reason, you won’t want to debrief each of your salespeople after every sales call. Even if you had the time for that, your salespeople are capable of doing their jobs without being micro-managed. If you hold regular sales meetings and use other tools to monitor the sales activities in your department, you should know when it is most appropriate to debrief someone.

It may be that the salesperson is approaching a critical point in the process, or has had difficulty with a particular phase of the sales cycle. Whatever the reason for debriefing a particular call, you and the salesperson should be clear about both the timing and purpose of the session.

Step #2: Plan and structure the sessions. Like all interpersonal exchanges in your department, these sessions should be subject to ground rules and up-front contracts that define how you will run the session. Among other things, you should have a set time for the meeting and a clear format both sides understand. Your salespeople must agree to “full disclosure” about the events that occurred during the sales call.

Since your purpose in uncovering mistakes and problems is to help the salesperson correct them, there is no reason for the salesperson to withhold any information from you, good or bad. Your salespeople should know to come to the debriefing session prepared to report fully on the sales call in question. You, too, should be prepared with questions and with an understanding of where in the sales process the salesperson is – as well as what information he should have uncovered and what objectives he should have accomplished.

Keep the discussion on course and relevant. Be ready to tactfully redirect when the salesperson attempts to steer you toward some topic he finds more comfortable than what you just asked about.

Step #3: Use a consistent set of questions. When he was my manager, David Sandler gave me a written list of 10 questions he told me he was going to ask me during each and every debrief. I knew I was going to have to answer these questions – in addition to whatever questions he would ask me based on the unique situation.

By giving me the questions ahead of time, he made sure I asked the buyer what I needed to know in order to be able to respond intelligently during the debrief! The questions he wrote down on that sheet helped me learn to progress the sale. When I first looked at the list, I said to myself, “Hmm...I ask question one sometimes; I ask question two all the time; and question three – wow, I’ve never asked that!”

Mastering those 10 questions helped me become consistent and self-sufficient – and close more sales! You should take the time to create such a list of questions for your team. As a sales leader, you want to make sure your people know what to do when you aren’t with them. A self-sufficient sales team is a productive team! This list of questions can serve as the basis of great training sessions as well as ensure people are getting the information they need.

Check out our book, The Sandler Rules for Sales Leaders, and learn how to create a common language with your sales team!
https://shop.sandler.com/books/sandler-rules-sales-leaders

New Research Shows the ABCs of Running a Great Sales Force

Today's blog is by Thomas A. Stewart. He is the executive director of the National Center for the Middle Market, the leading source for knowledge, leadership, and research on mid-sized companies, based at the Fisher College of Business and in collaboration with The Ohio State University, SunTrust, Grant Thornton, and Cisco.

In sales, ABC means "always be closing" – but what are the ABCs of creating and running a great sales force? The National Center for the Middle Market (NCMM) delved into best practices when hiring and managing sales forces in a recent study, titled "The Force Is with You: Building a Highly Effective Sales Organization." The study – developed by NCMM in collaboration with the American Marketing Association and Greg W. Marshall, professor of marketing and strategy at Rollins College and co-author of Sales Force Management, the top-selling sales-management textbook – is based on a survey of 400 middle market C-level executives who aimed to uncover what makes the best and brightest sales forces tick.

Our driving questions behind this study were:

1. What do middle market companies value in their salespeople? How does this affect their hiring and development practices?
2. How do executives demonstrate this value to their sales forces? What methods are they using to motivate their sales forces?
3. How do companies organize and deploy their sales forces and enable them with technology?
4. How do the best sales forces interact with marketing, customer service, and other company functions?

It's no surprise our findings indicate that middle market executives consider their sales forces to be integral parts of their respective companies. However, there are some surprising differences in how companies evaluate sales hires – as well as how compensation for sales teams is handled.

Hiring and Development
Executives consider interpersonal skills to be more important than selling skills when hiring new salespeople. We believe this is due to two factors. First is a shift in sales force structures – particularly in larger middle market companies – from a focus on individual performance to company or team selling. The ability to collaborate with coworkers is a key attribute for an individual contributing to an effective sales team.

Second, the finding is consistent with an emerging consensus that it's better to hire for attitude and train for skill than vice versa. What new hires may lack in selling skills or experience, many companies make up for by providing formal training or development programs. High-growth businesses invest more in formal mentoring or coaching programs than the average middle market company does, and are more likely to deliver training hands-on, through mentors, than in classrooms or electronically.

Executives also divulged the skills they're emphasizing in that training and development. While many noted that their teams are already skilled in maintaining existing customer relationships, they are focusing their efforts on improving customer prospecting and the ability to drive the business by finding new markets. Many are also considering increasing the technological capabilities of their sales forces. Companies that deployed CRM systems report much higher levels of sales force effectiveness than others – but, surprisingly, more than 40 percent of middle market companies do not yet have CRM platforms.

Compensation and Promotion
A significant challenge for many companies is putting the best compensation practices in place to motivate and retain their salespeople. It can be difficult to identify an optimum pay structure; there is no single best approach. Our data show that many middle market companies are moving toward team-based review and payment processes; surprisingly, however, high-growth middle-market companies diverge from the pack and are more likely to emphasize individual commissions and incentive pay. Conventional wisdom and the move toward team selling for complex solutions and services argue for team-based compensation. But classic individual incentives have not lost their power to motivate sales or their place in the compensation mix.

In terms of sales force leadership, the best place to look for upper management candidates may be within your own company. Of middle market senior sales managers, 59 percent had been promoted from within their organizations. This came as no surprise, as executives are clearly confident in their own teams: 83 percent of high-growth firms believe their sales teams are more effective than other sales forces. With exceptional salespeople in their ranks, executives are recognizing the opportunity to leverage existing talent for management positions.

To Build a Great Sales Force, Get to Know Your Team
From NCMM's research into middle market sales forces, we've determined that the key to creating a successful and efficient sales force is understanding your team's needs. First, decide what you want to see from your team; perhaps, you want to increase new business efforts, grow existing client relationships, or enter a new market. Establishing clear goals will lead you into the second step – discerning superior methods to motivate your employees or teach them the skills required to meet these goals. Finally, implement the required measures and your sales team will have the knowledge and willpower to help your company meet and surpass its goals.