Selling Power Blog

How to Develop Trust with Your Technical Sales Counterparts

Today's blog post is by Chris White. He is the author of The Six Habits of Highly Effective Sales Engineers. Chris is also the founder of DemoDoctor.

 

If you’re in software sales – or sell any other complex technology solution, for that matter – chances are good that you depend on sales engineers (SEs) to close business and hit your numbers. Maybe you don’t know them as SEs; maybe you call them “presales engineers,” “solution architects,” or “solution engineers.” Regardless of what you call them, however, your technical sales counterparts – arguably the most important colleagues in your sales process – may confuse you, confound you, and even frustrate you.  

Let’s be fair, though: We probably do the same to them. 

I’ve spent over 15 years developing and observing the sales-SE relationship – as a sales engineer, an account executive (AE), a sales enablement leader, and now a sales trainer. If I’ve learned anything, it’s this: The AE-SE relationship is arguably the most challenging in all of sales. Challenging because, in many cases, you could not bring together two more mismatched individuals and ask them to work together – on something critically important to the survival of the business, no less: generating revenue. We all know how hard it is to close enterprise technology deals, but it can be equally challenging to develop effective lines of communication and a foundation of trust with our sales counterparts.   

How do we get there? If you are struggling to communicate and collaborate with your SEs, here are three things you can start doing now to improve both the relationship and, more importantly, your results. 

1. Understand what’s important to them. 

The goal of sales is to close business and generate revenue. We are measured fundamentally and primarily by one thing – hitting our numbers. In the context of any given deal, what do we fear the most? Losing the deal. However, our technical sales counterparts’ goals are less clear-cut. Although they are responsible for contributing to the success of a deal – and, in many cases, their compensation is tied to the number – they are not directly responsible for the number.  

While they care about winning deals just like sales reps, they care a great deal more about their own personal and professional reputation. While we fear losing the deal, they fear losing credibility. That’s why they are often reluctant to say anything that could be misleading. When working with SEs, be sure to recognize and acknowledge them for their expertise. Demonstrate to them that you value their expert opinion and recognize the importance of their professional reputation. Help them understand that a solution doesn’t have to be a 100% perfect fit to still be the right solution for the prospect or customer. 

2. Respect their time. 

Want to develop a trusting, collaborative relationship with your technical sales counterpart? Respect and value their time the way you would with an important client. The one thing SEs value more than their reputation is their time. In most organizations, SEs are spread across multiple account execs and BDRs. They have a constant flow of requests for discovery calls, demos, RFPs, implementation discussions, etc. While SEs enjoy being brought in as the experts to provide valuable information and insight, they abhor feeling as though their time is not being respected. Avoid asking them to sit in on meetings for which they are not needed – or to do something a rep should be doing. Value them as the experts they are. Respect their time. Demonstrate that you are bringing them into activities that require their unique knowledge and skills. You’ll be amazed at how eager they become to support you. 

3. Provide them with detailed information. 

As sales professionals, we survive by learning how to operate with incomplete information. When asked a question, we tend to do what I call “round up.” When making decisions, we typically don’t need every detail in order to make what we would consider an “informed decision.” Our technical sales counterparts are not necessarily the same. SEs tend to operate in a world of precision. We tend to be quick to extend the benefit of the doubt. Our presales counterparts? They tend to be skeptical at first. In fact, they make a living out of not being too quick to jump to conclusions. They typically need logic and details before they can be reasonably convinced. 

When you need to bring an SE into a deal – for a demo, discovery call, implementation discussion, etc. – provide them with as much information as you can. If they seem skeptical at first,  give them the opportunity to speak to the customer themselves – to do some discovery of their own. This way they can collect the information they need in order to assemble the right demo, respond to the RFP, etc. And be patient with the process. Give them the benefit of the doubt – again, just like you would a customer. At the end of the day, while we in Sales can be a pretty quick “sell,” our sales counterparts usually are not. Give them as much information as you can and don’t be put off if they’re not as immediately excited as you are. 

In summary, if you work closely with sales engineers and rely on them to hit your numbers, chances are good you’ve had some great technical sales counterparts and some not-so-great. And, if you haven’t, you will. If you find yourself scratching your head wondering how to improve the relationship – and ultimately close more business – begin with the three steps outlined in this blog and see what it does to the relationship and your results. 

How to Integrate and Align Sales Organizations after Mergers and Acquisitions

Today’s guest post is by Jen Marie Jacober, president of EverChanges. Jen Marie is a Peak Performance Mindset Trainer and Transformation Advisor – her focus is on helping companies align their people, culture, and organizational structures to thrive in the ever-changing digital information era. Contact her today to learn more at jm@everchanges.com.

 

When companies merge or become acquired, they need to integrate across people, process, and technology so they can achieve organic revenue growth.

Last month I wrapped up a post-merger transformation project. Here are five takeaways that will help businesses integrate sales organizations after a merger or acquisition.

Takeaway #1: Establish a Strategy
The first step to take when integrating two companies is developing a one- to two-year strategy. The strategy should include people, process, and technology elements – with quarterly milestones and outcomes defined.

For example, as part of the merger, the sales organization needs to make sure all teams move from a contact-based selling approach to an account-based selling approach. This strategy may need to include milestones and outcomes for training (people/process), analytics capabilities (process/technology), and new tools (technology). Develop branding for the strategy to visually depict what the post-merger future looks like. Use the branded strategy for all future communications.

Takeaway #2: Execute a Communication Plan
The next step is to develop a communication plan for the strategy. This plan should lay out a structure for communications and cadence and define a message framework.  

Initiate communications by sharing the strategy across the teams. Provide a forum for employees to ask questions and provide feedback. Use an established cadence to update employees via emails, newsletters, team meetings, and one-on-one meetings with managers. Ensure the message is consistent and that the accomplishment of milestones and outcomes iscelebrated.

Takeaway #3: Baseline Operations to Identify Redundancies and Gaps

Understanding how the sales organizations operate is critical to identifying redundancies and gaps. Redundancies may occur when the companies have the same function but only one is needed post-merger – or a technology is in place where a manual activity had been performed.

Technology redundancy is likely if the merged companies perform the same functions. Technology is the long pole in the tent for most post-merger transitions. Gaps occur when the companies do not have the people, process, or technology to execute the strategy.

Takeaway #4: Use Outcomes instead of Outputs to Measure Process and Methodology

Hierarchy, rules, and complexity make change and adaptability difficult. It is easy to get mired in the details of process and methodology and to spend months or even years on implementing post-merger process change.

Accelerate these changes by focusing on the outcome instead of the output. For example, improving churn rates by 5 percent is an example of an outcome, while tracking monthly leads is an output. This will increase the likelihood of accomplishing the outcome instead of trying to dictate how the process and methodologies need to improve.

Takeaway #5: Align through Integration

The final step is to align the merged companies – recalibrating all functions (typically, post-merger strategies do not address all aspects of sales operations). Develop an integration plan covering six to 12 months post-merger.

The integration plan should include all aspects of people, process, and technology needed to run sales. Use lessons learned (and failures) to identify what needs alignment; then, develop a plan to address them. Once the implementation plan is complete, continue to share communications and use outcomes versus outputs to monitor progress.

How Everyone Can Gain Full Confidence in Your Sales Forecast

Today’s post is by Stephen D’Angelo, president, worldwide field operations at Aviso Inc. Join him March 12 and 13 at the Sales 3.0 Conference, where he will present “Delivering Accurate Forecasts – How Companies Like Dell, Splunk, Zuora, and MongoDB Went from Complicated and Inaccurate Spreadsheets to an AI/Machine Learning Platform.”

 

In many industries, the chief revenue officer (CRO), also known as the VP of worldwide sales, and the chief financial officer (CFO) are typically not the best of friends. This isn’t great, because these two roles need to get along for companies to thrive and succeed in a competitive marketplace. In fact, in healthy companies, the CFO and the CRO are best friends.

Understanding the CFO Job Function

Why does conflict exist between the people who hold these roles? We can begin to see where things go awry by examining the job function of the CFO, who is accountable to the CEO for financially planning most aspects of the company. He or she needs to provide accurate projections to the board and shareholders, execute cash management, and create quarterly and annual top- and bottom-line plans.

What often gets in the way of planning and budgeting is the inability of the sales organization to accurately forecast revenue for the quarter (never mind forecasting two quarters out).

Because arriving at an accurate forecast is essential for the CFO’s job function, often the CFO will listen in on sales forecast calls to get a sense of quarterly progress. One of the biggest complaints from CFOs is that, while they feel the sales team has a reliable outlook on some of the quarter’s pipeline, there are often blind spots that come from heavy reliance on gut feel and human intuition. These blind spots lead to missed forecasts, which reduces the CFO’s confidence in the numbers the sales team delivers.

When Sales Forecasting Questions Go Unanswered

It’s understandable why the CFO would want to be involved in the forecasting process; however, friction can arise when unsolicited advice is given on how to execute deals.

Additionally, CFOs will often ask the following basic and valid questions the sales team can’t easily answer.

• “What changed in the forecast since last week?”  
• “How much business do you expect to pop up and close in-quarter?”
• “How are you doing versus this time last year or this time last quarter?”
• “What pacing of deals closing do you need throughout the quarter to make the number?”

On many levels, it’s no longer acceptable for the sales team not to have this information at their fingertips.

The Problem with Spreadsheets and CRM Reports

The problem is, the majority of sales teams are still using spreadsheets and CRM reports, which makes obtaining historical information, making predictions, and detecting trends difficult. A complicated spreadsheet is simply a compilation of what is in CRM along with gut and intuition. The more the sales leader relies on spreadsheets and gut, the more he or she loses credibility with the CFO and CEO.

There is a better way.

With the introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning for revenue-generating sales processes such as forecasting, the CFO, and senior sales executives are more aligned than ever.

Through AI-based sales planning and forecasting, sales executives can let data drive the conversation. For example, a sales executive can now leverage a trend line of closing business to prove that his or her team will exceed plan by the end of the quarter. Additionally, they can back up their intuition on close date with AI-driven smart selling signals that show which deals are most likely to close this quarter, push into next quarter, or be lost opportunities.

The Difference AI Makes: Achieving Accurate Sales Forecasts

With AI projections, on the first day of the quarter, sales executives can tell the CFO with 90-95 percent accuracy what the end-of-quarter number will be... AND where they will land next quarter!

Additionally, with an AI-enabled platform, sales executives can now tell the CFO what business will close that wasn’t in the pipeline at the beginning of the quarter.

With confidence in the forecast, the CFO can plan, put hiring models in place, execute spending to meet cash flow objectives, and – lo and behold – create an annual bookings plan that is based on reliable data vs. the growth rate they want to achieve for the next round of funding or pleasing shareholders.

A note of caution: Unless sales execs become more analytical using accurate, predictable data, they will be marginalized by other departments – not viewed as a data-driven sales executive. Make the transition from reliance on gut, intuition, and spreadsheets to a new era of AI-generated insights. The sales executive graveyard of those who haven’t embraced the science of selling continues to grow. Don’t be one of them.

By introducing them to these technologies, Aviso has already turned CFOs and sales executives into best friends at many high-tech companies. If you would like to find out how to ditch error-prone spreadsheets and become a data-driven executive, send me a note at stephen.dangelo@aviso.com, or register now to join me March 12 and 13 at the Sales 3.0 Conference, where I will present “Delivering Accurate Forecasts – How Companies Like Dell, Splunk, Zuora, and MongoDB Went from Complicated and Inaccurate Spreadsheets to an AI/Machine Learning Platform.”

Four Ways Your IT Team Can Successfully Facilitate the Sales Process

Today's post is by Danny Wong. 

 

 

Sales organizations of all sizes value predictability in their pipelines, as this ability to forecast future revenue impacts all strategic decisions surrounding the company – from hiring plans to reinvestment in the business.

Making these predictions accurately requires the ability to control the sales process and assess the likelihood that the deals in progress will close. While that’s typically the role of the sales reps and their managers, there are ways the IT team can support that mission – allowing reps themselves to prioritize the deals they have in flight, better determine how to move them along to the next stage, or flag those that need more of their attention.

IT teams specialize in maintaining and implementing technological solutions for the betterment of the organization, so there’s a match made in heaven for sales teams that suffer from antiquated procedures and tool sets when newer options exist.

1. Facilitate Sales and Marketing Alignment

One of the first things IT can do is help ensure there is alignment between sales and marketing to create a better path for tracking and managing the deal stage of leads and prospects. As the line between these two departments increasingly blurs, it’s more important than ever that everyone is speaking the same language. The marketing half of a lead’s journey – from the initial conversion to a contact, and later an MQL and SQL – can quickly move into the sales side as they work through the exploratory stages and closer to buy-in from decision makers. Establishing these (and other incremental) stages in the process can then be used to determine a corresponding likelihood to close and, when coupled with the deal value, allows organizations using a CRM or some form of tracking to gain additional insight into their pipeline.

2. Research Technology Worth Purchasing and Implement It

With the process and procedure nailed down, IT teams can lean on some of the technology at their disposal to implement sales enablement tools. A wide variety of these tools exist with a range of capabilities, but aggregated review sites like G2 Crowd can help illuminate the best fit for your needs. While the potential use cases are virtually limitless, some of the common desires are for improved marketing automation and lead nurturing.

How this takes shape will often depend on the sophistication of your sales and marketing process, but can include everything from better email nurturing to triggered outreach events and content personalized to the viewer on the Website. Imagine, for example, how your sales team would respond to receiving a notification that a lead they’d been working was currently viewing the pricing page on a Website and might be ripe for a call. Similarly, the ability to understand how and when their messaging is resonating with prospects by knowing when old emails are re-opened or links are clicked is well within the feature range of some email clients and tool extensions.

3. Build Tools that Complement the Sales Process

While the core of an IT team’s responsibility is integrating disparate systems to ensure the compatibility of everything in their arsenal, this isn’t always constrained to off-the-shelf products and might include a few custom tools. Some teams have the ability to create these from scratch, whereas others prefer the DIY sandbox environment of a platform like SnapApp – but creating tools that can add value to prospects during their evaluation stage can help accelerate the process for the sales team.

In this instance the only limits are on the imagination, so work with marketing and sales to figure out where the potential lies – but interactive questionnaires, ROI calculators, or product configurators are examples of modules that can help everyone involved in the transaction.

4. Simplify the End-of-Funnel Process for End Users

Consider the problem that e-commerce companies frequently worry about – where shopping cart abandonment represents enormous chunks of lost revenue. A similar problem can arise when snags come up in more considered B2B purchases and – given the average deal size – it's imperative that, when a prospect is ready to buy, there are no barriers in their path.

Creating an easier purchasing process is an area of potential refinement for many sales teams. While a unique payment link and the opportunity to use a credit card is an easy process that mirrors the online purchases most of us make in our personal lives, this isn’t always feasible for enterprise solutions. Even still, there are a host of document e-signature tools to manage contracts, which are especially helpful when sign-off needs to come from different people throughout an organization, or even different offices.

Taking strides to create an easier procurement process can help remove friction at the finish line, where neglect can also do the most damage, but the broader goal aligns with every stage in the sales cycle. The motivation for everyone involved should be to give sales and marketing as much information as possible about their prospects, be able to seamlessly provide value back to them, and strike while the iron is hot. The better armed an IT department can make the client-facing teams, the more dangerous and efficient they’ll be when they’re finally in front of prospects.

Three Sales Forecasting Steps that Will Save You Time

Today’s post is by Eric Esfahanian, senior vice president of sales and marketing at Gryphon. Join Gryphon and Selling Power for a joint webinar on October 12, 2016, at 1:00pm ET, “Separating Hype vs Reality: The Top 3 Sales Activities that (Really) Predict Revenue.” This event will showcase great, pragmatic tips on how to predict revenue and increase sales performance.

When it comes to sales forecasting, managers are often left scratching their heads trying to determine which opportunities are just hype and which are reality. There’s a good reason for that since, according to CSO Insights, fewer than 50 percent of deals close as originally forecasted. You might as well just flip a coin to predict revenue rather than going through the traditional forecast grind.

So how can sales managers increase sales forecasting accuracy and spend their time more wisely? In today’s world, this process starts with the proper tools. Here are three steps you can take (with the help of the right technology) to make your forecasting life easier and get the best, most productive performance from all your sales reps.

Step #1: Automate the process of capturing data related to sales activity in CRM.

A great forecast starts with great sales activity data. For example, how many times is a rep reaching out to a prospect? Are those conversations too long? Are they too short?

There is often a direct correlation between a sales opportunity and the activities that led to it. Accurate sales activity data is the most important asset for strong forecasts – and inaccurate data is the greatest liability for weak ones. Unfortunately, industry data from Ventana has shown that most sales reps spend four hours per week manually entering data into CRM, with only about 40 percent accuracy.

As a sales leader, you have to relieve reps from the chore of manually updating selling activities into CRM. If you can first capture activity data automatically, you’ve taken a huge first step to a better, more accurate forecast.

Step #2: Make your life easier by accessing sales-activity data in real time.

The more visibility managers have into the rep’s calling data (captured automatically with a tool like Gryphon), the better they can manage and ultimately improve the effectiveness of their teams and the accuracy of their forecast. However, you need to look for tools that can help you capture (and see) that data in real time – you can’t be expected to comb through dozens of data-laden spreadsheets to find meaningful insight.

This is why Gryphon offers graphical dashboard views of sales activity, compared against your sales activity goals (for example, number of sales calls or conversations made per day). With Gryphon, sales leaders can spend time on what really matters: tracking key performance indicators related to closing business and establishing the foundation for an accurate forecast.

Step #3: Leverage speech analytics to improve the behaviors that track back to accurate sales forecasting.

After you take the initial steps outlined above, you’ll be ready to use speech analytics to delve into the conversational aspects of the sales interactions. With insight into prospect mood, rep script adherence, keywords, as well as phrases that get results during phone-based interactions, managers can better understand why some reps convert and others don’t. This cultivates better sales behavior, puts a halt to bad habits, and bridges the visibility gap between your reps and revenue.

You might never achieve a perfect forecast. However, with the right tools and processes in place, you can use your time far more effectively while also helping your companies build a confident, robust pipeline of business.  

Join Gryphon and Selling Power for a joint webinar on October 12, 2016, at 1:00pm ET, “Separating Hype vs Reality: The Top 3 Sales Activities that (Really) Predict Revenue.” This event will showcase  great, pragmatic tips on how to predict revenue and increase sales performance.

Tips to Expand Your Sales Organization Internationally

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.

The prospect of an international expansion can be a thrilling and scary time for an organization. With the possibilities for growth in new markets, better economies of scale, foreign partnerships, and more, many business leaders are eager to get the ball rolling on their expansion plans as quickly as possible.

According to a document by the Peterson Institute for International Economics published in June 2016, U.S.-based SMBs play an important role in the world economy, since they make up 98 percent of all exporters in this country. It is no surprise so many organizations look across international borders for growth, and the International Trade Administration reports that companies that expand overseas experience faster growth and are approximately 8.5 percent less likely to go out of business when compared to companies that operate only domestically.

The problem is that you can’t just export an entire sales strategy or team into a new country and expect to succeed just like you always have. Successfully transitioning your sales operation to an international location requires diligent research, help from the ground level, and a detail-oriented mindset. If you enter the process with open eyes and a thorough understanding of the challenges you are going to face, expanding your sales operation internationally can lead to one of the most rewarding and profitable ventures you have ever experienced.

Educate yourself about your new target market

It is almost impossible to conduct too much market research about the country to which you are expanding. You will need to have a detailed understanding of concepts such as: the expected size of the market, who your likely customers are, how you plan to market to them, who the competitors are in that area, etc.

Your first step upon deciding to expand your business internationally should be to start making regular trips to the country and begin building a network. By going to conferences and events within your industry, you can position yourself to make connections that can assist with local lead generation and marketing strategies. You can also utilize online resources such as the Commerce Department’s Export Portal, which can point you toward helpful data on a number of germane topics. You may also want to set up location-specific social media accounts for your company (run by someone who speaks the native language if it is different from your own) that will allow you to share content marketing and assist with lead generation in a new market.

Tap local knowledge and resources

Since so much is at stake when it comes to hiring your international sales team, you will want to use a variety of different methods to identify the right candidates and assemble a group that knows how to sell in the local environment. You will want a proven sales leader from your company to be in charge of the international operation at the start, but they will rely on input from experienced locals who understand how to differentiate your product or service for these new prospects.

There will likely be industry associations specific to the country to which you are expanding, and – by reaching out to the experts in these organizations – you can connect with experienced leaders who have access to some of the most talented sales professionals in the area. Additionally, you may want to contact the leadership teams of other companies in your industry, as they may be interested in pursuing an alliance or partnership. You can also consult LinkedIn and your professional network to find contacts who already live in – or are intimately familiar with – the industry landscape in your new outpost. They may be able to further connect you with on-the-ground experts who can help you form a stellar sales team that will represent your company exceptionally in the new market.

Be wary of culture shock

It is best to assume there are plenty of unknowns about the country in which you are going to be operating. So you must do your due diligence and research every potential roadblock before you make your grand entrance. The old adage, “It is better to ask forgiveness later than permission now,” definitely does not apply in international business. If you or one of your salespeople unknowingly violates a local custom or regulation, you could find yourself having offended a client (at best) or facing criminal charges (at worst).

Consult with local legal representation to ensure you are following all of your host country’s laws and requirements. You also have to remember that not all countries offer the same protections to corporations as the U.S. does, and there may be differences that have a profound effect on your business, such as lackluster intellectual property protection.