Selling Power Blog

How to Coach Your Salespeople off Plateaus

Today’s post is by Mike Fisher, vice president of business development and a master facilitator for Integrity Solutions. Contact him on LinkedIn.

 

It happens to nearly every sales manager at some point. One of your most consistent salespeople reaches a plateau and just can’t seem to get past it. The goals you’ve set for them should be attainable, but you hear excuses and their activity starts to fall off. “That won’t work in my territory,” they tell you.

As their manager, you start to wonder, Is that all there is?

The good news is, in most cases, the salesperson is absolutely capable of moving off that plateau. But the excuses and the decline in activity aren’t what the real issue is. Like the “check engine” light in your car, they’re the indicator that something else is wrong.

In our work, we frequently see two primary culprits that lie at the root of why a salesperson stalls out: self-limiting beliefs and a lack of goal clarity. Coaching your people around these two areas can help them release their inner achievement drive so they can get back on track and hit their numbers again.

Self-sabotaging Self-talk

Over the course of our lives, we all develop belief boundaries – defining for ourselves what we can and can’t do. Someone freezes up on a quiz in grade school and decides, from that point on, they’re not a good test taker. A manager sets a goal that’s beyond anything a salesperson has achieved in the past, and they tell themselves, “No way – I can’t do that.”

No matter how much someone knows (intellectually) what they’re supposed to do, that self-talk works against them – looking for ways to prove they can’t do it. Any obstacle is a sign: “See, I told you so.” In essence, they’ve programmed their goal seeking mechanism to achieve negative results.

When you hear arguments or excuses, it’s an indicator that you’re pushing up against that person’s comfort zones. They can move past that plateau and achieve more, but their belief boundary is telling them they can’t. It’s your job as a coach to help them recognize their self-talk is just talk. It does not reflect what they’re really capable of.

• Focus on activities, not results. Coach salespeople to do the activities that will drive the results they want, and reward and recognize the effort rather than the result. The salesperson can’t control whether someone buys, but can control whether to make the call. When the skills are there, activity will build confidence and expand their belief boundaries as the effort begins to pay off.

Lack of Goal Clarity

People often say, “You can’t teach achievement drive,” and that’s true. But everyone has achievement drive within them; it just lies dormant until they have goal clarity.

That’s where great sales coaches come in. They see more in their salespeople than the salespeople see in themselves. When salespeople don’t think they can do it, sales coaches show them they can.

As a sales manager, you have the opportunity to be that person for your salespeople. Once salespeople are clear about what they’re trying to accomplish, and why, they can come up with a plan to get over the obstacles. The “why” that goal clarity provides is an essential self-motivator. If you have the “why,” you’ll figure out the “how.”

• Support, don’t assign. Never tell them what you can ask them. You can ask, “How do you think we can reach a 20 percent increase?” Let them share their beliefs. There is much deeper buy-in if it is their idea. This releases achievement drive to make it happen. Coach them and hold them accountable, but let them own the goal.

By nudging salespeople out of their comfort zones, expanding their belief boundaries, and helping them take ownership of their success, you’ll not only help them hit their numbers; you’ll change their view of what’s possible.

To get the full results from Integrity Solutions’ 2018 research on sales coaching effectiveness and its impact on organizational performance, see our Research Brief.

To Fill Your Sales Funnel, Focus on the Customer Life Cycle

Today’s post is by Jeff Seeley, CEO of sales and leadership training company Carew International, as well as a frequent keynote speaker, columnist, and blogger. Find him online or connect with him on LinkedIn.

 

As sales and marketing leaders, we need to give our time and attention to an emerging conversation: the call for more focus on expanding the customer life cycle, versus acquiring new business, as the means to fill the sales funnel.

Obviously, both sales revenue streams are critical, but there is fresh focus on understanding and expanding the customer life cycle as a means to put more convertible sales opportunities into the sales funnel.

We all know acquiring new business is far costlier than retaining existing customers. According to recent statistics compiled by Invesp, the cost of acquiring a new customer is five times greater than the cost of keeping an existing customer. Perhaps more compelling is the data that speaks to the dramatically higher conversion rate and profitability from existing customers.

• The success rate of selling to an existing customer is 60-70 percent, while the success rate of selling to a prospect is 5-20 percent.
• Increasing customer retention rates by 5 percent increases profits by 25-95 percent.

These numbers suggest shifting your priority – from acquiring new business to expanding and extending the customer life cycle – is not only worthwhile, but also a potential game changer.

For so long, we have viewed “sales success” as getting a prospect to customer status – so we have funnelled our marketing dollars into the pursuit of new customers. But what if we change our paradigm? What if we define sales success in terms of customer loyalty, advocacy, and longevity?

Doing so would hold significant implications for our sales process and sales team, with the greatest potential falling into these three categories.

Category #1: Customer Relationships

The customer relationship belongs at center stage. Customers buy from people they like – when trust, credibility, rapport, and respect have been established. These elements provide the foundation on which to build productive, long-term relationships.

For sales professionals, building this foundation requires abilities far beyond product knowledge. For starters, sales professionals need a strong intellectual curiosity to understand their customers’ business, competition, and marketplace – and they need to work in partnership with their customers to influence the customer’s customer.

Your sales team also needs specific communication, exploratory, and diagnostic skills, as well as a mindset that puts the customer’s business ahead of their own sales objectives. This combination of skills and mindset strengthens the customer relationship, extends the customer life cycle, and drives more sales as the role of the sales professional evolves from vendor to business partner.

Category #2: Networking

Sales professionals usually have a limited scope of customer contacts who advocate for us within an account. Not surprisingly, one of the leading causes of lost business is the exit of a solo champion from the organization.

Effective networking protects against this vulnerability and, more importantly, allows sales professionals access to the people who can educate them as to how they can provide significant additional value for the client’s organization. Networking is the most effective means of extending your value contribution deeper and more broadly throughout the client organization.

Category #3: Sales Team Motivation

Sometimes sales can be a brutal and deflating profession. That’s why sales leaders devote a lot of time and energy to motivating the sales team.

While rejection is a reality for every sales professional, there is no greater motivator than success. When we consider the comparative sales statistics between new and existing customers, as outlined above (success rate of selling to an existing customer is 60-70 percent, while the success rate of selling to a prospect is 5-20 percent), we can clearly see they advocate paying attention to the customer life cycle for sales team success and motivation, as well as bottom-line growth.

Beyond the direct correlation between customer retention and sales growth/profitability, these benefits spill over into new business development, since customer advocacy is a key driver of new customer acquisitions via referrals. And we know that referrals drive the strongest leads for closing new business.

If you want to maximize sales growth and profitability, place proportional focus on extending the customer life cycle. Success on this front depends largely on having selling skills in place to cultivate strong customer relationships, loyalty, and advocacy.

How to Drive Sales Performance in Three Simple Ways

Today's post is by Mark Shonka and Dan Kosch, co-CEOs of IMPAX Corporation, a global sales training and performance acceleration company. Connect with Mark and Dan on LinkedIn.

 

The results of our 2018 State of B2B Sales study show the relationship between many buyers and sellers is fractured.

Buyers increasingly view salespeople as product pushers and short-term problem solvers – perceptions that make selling tougher than ever.

To accelerate and maintain strong sales performance, sales leaders need to get strategic. Below, we reveal three key actions every sales leader and team can take to thrive in a tough sales environment.

#1: Prioritize value over price.

In many industries, companies are being pushed toward commoditization. This is due, in large part, to the increase in procurement and vendor management practices (bad news: The procurement situation is expected to get worse before it gets better). As a result, sales organizations are seeing the customer’s perception of their value erode.

When price is the top consideration, sales organizations tend to suffer. So, what will sales professionals need to do to counteract this disturbing trend? Make sure your sales team understands value and can position it effectively with customers. Of particular importance are things like

• Conducting research to understand the broader business outcomes customers are trying to realize
• Developing influential coaches within customer organizations
• Identifying and involving higher-level decision makers (who are empowered to buy value)
• Delivering customer-focused messages that quantify the potential impact of working together

#2: Improve sales performance by adopting a sales process and developing your team’s consultative selling skills.

Basic selling skills are still important for sales professionals. However, intermediate and advanced skills (again, like recognizing and articulating value) will help customers regard salespeople as trusted advisors.

Salespeople can’t succeed on skills alone; they also need a consistent sales process to follow (and an understanding of how to implement and scale it appropriately).

#3: Hire and develop great sales managers.

The role of the sales manager is critical to successful sales results. Strong leadership will position you well for success; poor management performance will expose you to the forces of commoditization.

Characteristics to Consider When Hiring Sales Talent

From a talent perspective, having the right people on your team will be key. Sales leaders and salespeople both believe characteristics that will lend themselves to success in the future include things like

• Being collaborative
• Being insightful
• Having business and financial acumen

However, it is not enough to simply understand the profile of a successful sales representative. Sales leaders need to make sure they have a process in place to actually hire to that profile, too.

Improve Sales Coaching Among Managers

One of the most important responsibilities a sales manager has is coaching his or her team. The data on the impact of coaching is compelling: One study found that sales leaders who coach their salespeople see a boost in revenue by about 27 percent! Over and over, results show that simply receiving coaching – regardless of its quality/effectiveness – leads to increased sales performance.

Unfortunately, there is a recognized gap in this area. Our study shows both sales professionals and sales leaders lack confidence in leaders’ abilities to coach the sales team and advance opportunities.

Ultimately, sales teams driving success in 2019 and beyond will focus not only on the performance of their sales teams, but also on improved performance from their sales managers, too.

For more information, download our complimentary 2018 State of B2B Sales study results.

How Agile Selling Leads to Better Results

Today's blog post is by Michelle Vazzana. She is the CEO and a founding partner at Vantage Point Performance, a leading global sales management training and development firm. She is co-author of Cracking the Sales Management Code: The Secrets to Measuring and Managing Sales Performance. Vazzana is also author of Crushing Quota: Proven Sales Coaching Tactics for Breakthrough Performance. 

 

Once upon a time, sales organizations had very little organizational structure. Then sales teams discovered the power of sales methodologies.  These became de rigueur as sales leaders adopted the idea that there is a ‘best’ way to sell. (Naturally, sales training companies filled the void offering myriad expensive, specialized programs showing the path to sales nirvana.)

The Rise of Customer Segmentation and Buyer Personas

Along the way, customer segmentation became a requirement and salespeople changed their selling approach, slicing and dicing customer groups with demographics like industry, size, revenue and so on. Recently, buyer personas have become trendy, requiring lots of specific data around the buyer’s role and motivation, in addition to other demographics. Sales leaders and sales reps everywhere these days have been duly buried in new data, collateral, approaches and so on, as they’ve sought to manipulate these additional nuggets of information into a more fully formed picture of buyer personas. Yet sales performance continues its steady decline.

Sales Trends Still Stink ...

Here we are, overwhelmed with the sophisticated, expensive tools and selling strategies we’ve purchased for decades, convinced all we need is to identify our ideal kind of buyers, and woo them with our favorite sales process. Success must be close at hand! Except it’s not.

What if I told you that according to the LinkedIn – State of Sales Report by Gong.io Research, 65% of sales reps miss their quota and 34% of newly hired reps leave their companies in 16 months? What are your company’s stats on these two metrics? Companies spent $15B in 2017 on sales technology and training, according to that same report. Why does all this investment appear to be making so little impact on sales organizations? Are your company’s training dollars generating an equally dismal ROI?

And what if I told you that new research conducted by the Florida State University Sales Institute may have hit on a revolutionary explanation for this utter failure of sales process and customer segmentation? And further, that this insight should cause you to completely re-examine your sales training programs?

What Really Works: Situations

Here’s the lightning bolt: Personas do not determine successful interactions by reps. But buyer situations do.

Let’s consider a simple selling example that most of us face on a daily basis. John is the head of sales. He is also an avid golf fan and enjoys spending time with his family. John greets his family with a hug or a kiss. At golf events, he high fives. At work, he shakes hands. Why? Because from a very young age, John has observed each situation requires a different way to say hello. Imagine if John hugged his clients or shook hands with his wife. Cringeworthy, right? Sales meetings are no different.

Sales cycles can be long or short. Some buyers have assumptions that should be challenged, and others whose favorable opinions need reinforcement. Some buyers are highly motivated and other are not. Can you honestly name a sales methodology that encompasses all of these scenarios? (If you can, email me!)

Out with the Outdated

This is the future of sales – training agile managers and reps to use methodologies that take into account different buying behaviors. FSU’s Dr. Leff Bonney has shown that one size-fits-all sales methodologies fail 75% of the time. It should, therefore, be clear why it’s unwise to train sellers in a single, rigid sales approach and then expect them to use it in all selling situations.

Well, you can do such a thing, but you shouldn’t expect anything to change! Buyer demographics are not as helpful in making successful sales as finding your company’s unique buying situations and then training your managers and reps on how to use them. Go on, I dare you! Step into the 21st century with a bold, new sales approach.

Three New Selling Skills You Need to Win with Buyers

Today’s post is by Andrea Grodnitzky, Richardson’s chief marketing officer. She is responsible for demand generation and value creation through strategic marketing, brand awareness, digital optimization, product launch initiatives, and market-facing thought leadership to drive sustained, organic growth.

 

Why does it make sense for salespeople to develop new skills? To start, consider three facts about the current state of buying and selling.

1. Customers have an increasing number of buying options and, therefore, face more complexity in the decision process.
2. More buying decisions are unfolding behind closed doors, leaving sellers in a poor position to shift buyers’ assumptions and existing beliefs.
3. Skepticism among buyers is increasing: A study of 33,000 people revealed that trust across major institutions, including business, has dropped by 37 percentage points in the U.S., according to the Edelman Trust Barometer.

Sales professionals need new capabilities to properly face these challenges. Here are the current skills sales professionals need – and how to implement them.

Skill #1: Asserting a Point of View to Shape Thinking

Most customers tend to hold deeply ingrained beliefs. Positioning a solution means reshaping these well-established notions.

However, sales professionals must first understand the customer’s needs and perspectives before asserting their own perspectives. Take the time to ensure you express a point of view based on facts, not assumptions.

Asserting a point of view can feel threatening to the customer. Therefore, clarify your intent first. Make it clear that your interests are aligned to those of the customer. This preliminary step creates an environment that is more conducive to asserting a point of view.

Next, use concise, compelling language to deliver your message. Remember: Customers embark on buying journeys because they seek a solution, so don’t be afraid to be assertive.

Finally, after asserting your point of view, ask for the customer’s response. Use reflection questions like, “What are your thoughts on this approach?” or, “How do you see this solution fitting into your business model?” To advance the dialogue, sales professionals need to know if the solution capabilities resonate with the customer’s needs.

Skill #2: Uptiering to Gain Access

Uptiering is the process of expanding your engagement within an account and drawing in more senior-level contacts. This skill is invaluable because decisions today typically occur among a team. In most selling scenarios, if you’re talking to just one person, you’re engaging only a fraction of the customer. Effective sales professionals use uptiering to expand their spheres of influence rather than leapfrogging from one person to another.

Embracing this approach means building trust with the initial contact. Doing so reduces the risk of alienating the primary contact when making the request to meet with senior-level decision makers.

Moreover, the current contact must be certain granting you access to senior-level colleagues will reflect well on them. Without an uptiering strategy, the sales cycle can grow, leaving the sales professional with a limited understanding of the customer’s needs. Sales professionals should begin the request by recognizing the current contact’s existing level of support while highlighting the benefits of expanding ties to both the current contact and the senior-level contact.

Skill #3: Creating Alignment among Stakeholders

One dissenting voice within the buying team is enough to sink the sale. This outcome is more likely to appear as business challenges grow in complexity and create uncertainty in the buying process. Therefore, sales professionals need a plan for aligning the stakeholders and encouraging their resolve to move forward.

The first step is to identify the source of misalignment. In most selling scenarios, the source is fear or communication breakdown. Next, the sales professional must weave the differing customer perspectives into one case for change. Finally, the sales professional must address concerns surrounding risk. Just as the buyer’s journey is dynamic, the process of building alignment is also ever-changing. Alignment is never assured until the sale is complete.

Effective sales professionals are recognizing that the skills needed today look different from conventional selling capabilities. Uptiering, asserting, and aligning are all part of the new playbook.  

To learn more about Richardson’s advanced sales training program, High-Stakes Consultative Dialogues, please download a complimentary brochure here.

How to Overcome Resistance to Sales Coaching

Today’s post is by Michael Mallin, professor of Sales and Marketing at The University of Toledo’s Edward H. Schmidt School of Professional Sales. He has published more than 40 articles in sales and sales leadership and is the academic director for the Executive Master of Sales Leadership degree program – a specialized master’s degree program for sales professionals.

 

Sales coaching is an ideal way to improve productivity among your team. In fact, according to Harvard Business Review, “… no other productivity investment comes close to coaching in improving reps’ performance.”

Sounds great, right? Unfortunately, however, sales coaching outcomes aren’t always as effective as they could be. Chalk it up to basic human nature – salespeople sometimes have an instinctive, negative reaction to sales coaching.

Why Salespeople Sometimes React Negatively to Sales Coaching

Even if sales managers have the best intentions to positively impact performance, salespeople might respond with feelings of defensiveness, reluctance, fear, confusion, and apathy. This is perfectly natural, and there are a few key ways managers can lay the groundwork for successful coaching outcomes.

Put on Your Sales Coaching C.A.P.

Dealing with a salesperson’s negative reaction should be treated like the process of handling any sales objection, issue, or concern. Think C.A.P.: Clarify, Address, Proceed.

Clarify. First, clarify or acknowledge the negative reaction to reveal the basic issue. This may be accomplished by

• Asking questions (“Help me understand your concern with me traveling with you”);
• Reflecting (“So, you feel there are no areas in your questioning techniques you can improve upon?”); or,
• Showing empathy (“I understand it may be difficult to try something new”).

Address. Next, address the negative reaction by clearly explaining the purpose. The key message should be to remind salespeople that your focus is to help them develop and refine their skills so they can achieve sales objectives.

Proceed. Finally, proceed with the coaching session only after clarifying and addressing the salesperson’s basic issues.

This table illustrates some sample conversations you can use when salespeople display negative reactions to sales coaching.

Salesperson Negative Reaction	Basic Issues	What You Might Say: Clarify or acknowledge (C) the basic issue Address (A) the concern
Defensiveness	Ego and self-esteem protection; Risk of exposure of skill deficiency	C: “Help me better understand your hesitation.” A: “I’ll share with you my observations during the (sales) call and we’ll discuss steps to get you back on track.”
Reluctance	Defiance or unwillingness to engage; Does not see or believe a benefit will result.	C: “I see you are a bit reluctant. The benefits of doing this may not be apparent.” A: “I’ve been working with Joe over the past few weeks on this (skill). He is now on track and is more confident.”
Fear	Concern over consequences stemming from skill deficiency	C: “I can appreciate your concern, given last month’s results.” A: “However, I believe in your abilities. If we spend some extra time together, I know you can make a great comeback next month.”
Confusion	Lack of clarity or ambiguity of the process and benefit	C: “It seems that you are not clear on the purpose.” A: “My goal is to facilitate a discussion with you so we can agree on some adjustments necessary to help you achieve your sales goals.”
Apathy	Self-improvement is not important; Belief that coaching will not make a difference	C: “I sense your skepticism.” A: “This is an important step to ensure we both agree on your steps to performance improvement.”

Conclusion: The Key to Effective Sales Coaching

Remember, negative reactions from salespeople don’t have to be a roadblock. By incorporating the steps discussed here, sales managers can put themselves in the best position for their coaching efforts to be received more favorably by salespeople and for their feedback to indeed be viewed for what it is: a gift.

Effective sales coaching is an action-oriented process to help salespeople further develop their knowledge, skills, and efforts. It is not a one-time event but a sequence of ongoing conversations providing lessons to maximize performance. If you’d like to learn more about coaching and other sales leadership topics, look at the curriculum of the Executive Master of Sales Leadership degree program at The University of Toledo’s Edward H. Schmidt School of Professional Sales.