Are you looking to ignite your sales in
any economy?
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
The Importance of Sales Goals
Getting
things done begins with setting goals.
Goals clarify everyone’s role and responsibilities. Each member of a team has individual goals that contribute to the team’s overall goals. Setting individual goals avoids duplication of efforts and makes people feel personally responsible for their work.
For this reason, most companies will have an incentives package which pays out when you meet your goals, and this will focus the minds of even the more cynical salespeople. The benefit of targets for salespeople is that they make a belt-and-braces approach – motivating those for whom achievement is its own reward, and those who expect more tangible, material rewards.
Goals
provide direction. They help everyone in an organization focus on things that
are truly important. Without goals, people are more likely to waste time on
random activities that are not worthwhile.
Goals
should be ambitious but realistic. If you set goals too low, they will not
inspire you to do your best. If you set them too high, you will probably not
reach them, and you will end up just being discouraged.Goals clarify everyone’s role and responsibilities. Each member of a team has individual goals that contribute to the team’s overall goals. Setting individual goals avoids duplication of efforts and makes people feel personally responsible for their work.
Goals
can be motivational tools. It is difficult for people to feel inspired about
their work if they feel they are just doing the same thing day in and day out,
with no end in sight. Goals give people the feeling that their work is
contributing to something larger, something worthwhile.
The
benefits of goals are clear, then, and it is how you react to the presence of
sales goals that will mark how well you do as a salesperson. The idea of having
goals is that they should be something achievable while not being easy.
If
you can attain your goals while working on auto-pilot, then the motivational
impact of having them in the first place is somewhat lost. At the same time, if
the goals set for you are too extensive, there will be at best a limited chance
of you achieving them, and the overall effect will be a de-motivating one as
nothing you do will be quite enough to see you attain them.
Goals
also need to mean something. If your sole reward for attaining goals is simply
knowing that you have achieved them, then it will have limited impact on your motivation.
You probably already know that you could attain these goals, but if there is no
material reward for so doing you may be left wondering why you actually
bothered.For this reason, most companies will have an incentives package which pays out when you meet your goals, and this will focus the minds of even the more cynical salespeople. The benefit of targets for salespeople is that they make a belt-and-braces approach – motivating those for whom achievement is its own reward, and those who expect more tangible, material rewards.
Setting Goals
If you want to
accomplish anything important in life, you need to have goals. Goals give you
something to shoot for. They keep you focused and motivated. They let you know
when to celebrate and when to start shooting for something higher.
Goals are a
part of all human endeavor – both in the workplace and in life in general. We
measure ourselves by how we do in relation to the goals we have set ourselves
and those we have set for us by management. By achieving a goal consistently we
can benefit in a number of ways – we will gain recognition, potentially
advancement within the company, and frequently will benefit from financial
incentives.
So, we know the
benefits of reaching goals – but there is more to goals than what happens when
we attain them. When we are set goals, they are usually set at a reasonable but
challenging level and we will be able to achieve them if we do our job well
enough.
Although we
should all be well motivated to do our jobs anyway, the presence of targets
keeps us “honest”
and encourages us to always make as much effort as we can possibly make.
Therefore sales targets have a dual effect – the incentive of what happens if
we reach them, and their simple presence both make us work harder than we
ordinarily might.
Monday, September 24, 2012
Where Sales People Go Wrong
Writing this post less than 45 days prior to the 2012 elections I have chosen to share some findings about the selling of candidates to the public that relate to business to business selling. The item that comes to my mind is the things that salespeople and sales organizations do to drive the customers away.
Our evenings during the last few months have been filled with robot-callers and personal surveys that all seem to end with an appeal for more money. This year the contributions requested are as little as $2.00, yet when you follow the link to sign up for the $2.00 donation there is not even a box to check for that suggested donation. You sure can make a larger one however! The aim of the callers is to sell the candidate and elicit a donation to fund more calls to all of us!
The point that I want to initially make is that the biggest mistake that is made in sales is contacting the customer too much and too often. Nate Boaz, John Murnane and Kevin Nuffer share in a McKinsey Quarterly article in May of 2010 that while customers in this category say they care about product and price, what they really want is a great sales experience. For the salesperson this means getting the basics right.
“Customers want to be contacted just enough, not bombarded. Sales reps should know their products or services intimately and how their offering compares with those of their competitors. Customers need information on exactly how a product or service will make a difference to their businesses. And while they may say price is one of their biggest concerns, a satisfying sales experience is ultimately more important.”
We are approached constantly by sales organizations that do not have a clear understanding of when to develop salespeople. The answer is all of the time! Salespeople are just like athletes who are sent to exhaustive spring trainings every year for baseball near our home in Southwest Florida. The same is true for all teams and also for salespeople who must be groomed and taken to higher levels.
Development is needed to understand changes taking place in the field. Too often the focus of customer is to see a concept and methodology that the customer does not buy into on the first call. The constant pounding of that concept or idea is not the answer to winning the customer over. It is a constant drip of the idea over time. Ultimately even the drip of water will carve its path through a piece of rock.
Jim Ullery
Our evenings during the last few months have been filled with robot-callers and personal surveys that all seem to end with an appeal for more money. This year the contributions requested are as little as $2.00, yet when you follow the link to sign up for the $2.00 donation there is not even a box to check for that suggested donation. You sure can make a larger one however! The aim of the callers is to sell the candidate and elicit a donation to fund more calls to all of us!
The point that I want to initially make is that the biggest mistake that is made in sales is contacting the customer too much and too often. Nate Boaz, John Murnane and Kevin Nuffer share in a McKinsey Quarterly article in May of 2010 that while customers in this category say they care about product and price, what they really want is a great sales experience. For the salesperson this means getting the basics right.
“Customers want to be contacted just enough, not bombarded. Sales reps should know their products or services intimately and how their offering compares with those of their competitors. Customers need information on exactly how a product or service will make a difference to their businesses. And while they may say price is one of their biggest concerns, a satisfying sales experience is ultimately more important.”
We are approached constantly by sales organizations that do not have a clear understanding of when to develop salespeople. The answer is all of the time! Salespeople are just like athletes who are sent to exhaustive spring trainings every year for baseball near our home in Southwest Florida. The same is true for all teams and also for salespeople who must be groomed and taken to higher levels.
Development is needed to understand changes taking place in the field. Too often the focus of customer is to see a concept and methodology that the customer does not buy into on the first call. The constant pounding of that concept or idea is not the answer to winning the customer over. It is a constant drip of the idea over time. Ultimately even the drip of water will carve its path through a piece of rock.
Jim Ullery
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Everyone talks about wanting a measurable ROI from a training initiative...but how do you, personally, measure your ROI?
How to Measure Training Results: A Practical Guide to Tracking the Six Key Indicators by Jack Phillips and Ron Stone ISBN-10: 0071387927 or ISBN-13: 978-0071387927 is the book that
you want for this subject. For me the guarantee that I give my customer is that
they are the sole judge and jury on the results of the training.
I will place a student that does not measure up back into our training class without charge if they do not improve in the skill that I am teaching. I give the client up to one year to determine this. I also tell the client that if the student "washes out" for whatever reason - I will re-train the new
employee for up to one year providing the student returns with all of the material from the previous student. If they do not have the material I collect for a new set of material.
Any graduate is free to re-attend a program for refresher as long as the same version of the class is being taught without charge.
As for managers that want to measure ROI my impression is that the accounting community has the whole concept backwards. Why the heck is it that you can purchase a new computer or a major piece of equipment and it considered an investment yet you train a person that will provide the company multiples of financial return and the cost is considered and expense?
None the less, the "bean counter" that you are generally working with has not got a clue on the valid methods of calculating an ROI and when they do it will take them more time than it is worth to figure it out. I refer the accountant type to the above book! Even then I have the ROI requesters head spinning when they realize they do not have a clue on how to do Value
Justification. The real answer for me is - Have your bottom line profits improved? Did you implement and effective follow up program and some pig headed discipline to put the training into place? Knowledge is a great thing - The real issue is however are your people implementing the ideas? Did top management participate in the training with their people so that a real discussion of systemic issues related to the training can be addressed? In most cases the
managers have less than one hour per month to guide the actions of the new graduates of any training and that is in the 3% of the companies where the manager even gives one hour of face time per month to their people. 97% do not give as much as the hour. These are the statistics according to Harris Interactive study done for the Franklin Covey organization.
you want for this subject. For me the guarantee that I give my customer is that
they are the sole judge and jury on the results of the training.
I will place a student that does not measure up back into our training class without charge if they do not improve in the skill that I am teaching. I give the client up to one year to determine this. I also tell the client that if the student "washes out" for whatever reason - I will re-train the new
employee for up to one year providing the student returns with all of the material from the previous student. If they do not have the material I collect for a new set of material.
Any graduate is free to re-attend a program for refresher as long as the same version of the class is being taught without charge.
As for managers that want to measure ROI my impression is that the accounting community has the whole concept backwards. Why the heck is it that you can purchase a new computer or a major piece of equipment and it considered an investment yet you train a person that will provide the company multiples of financial return and the cost is considered and expense?
None the less, the "bean counter" that you are generally working with has not got a clue on the valid methods of calculating an ROI and when they do it will take them more time than it is worth to figure it out. I refer the accountant type to the above book! Even then I have the ROI requesters head spinning when they realize they do not have a clue on how to do Value
Justification. The real answer for me is - Have your bottom line profits improved? Did you implement and effective follow up program and some pig headed discipline to put the training into place? Knowledge is a great thing - The real issue is however are your people implementing the ideas? Did top management participate in the training with their people so that a real discussion of systemic issues related to the training can be addressed? In most cases the
managers have less than one hour per month to guide the actions of the new graduates of any training and that is in the 3% of the companies where the manager even gives one hour of face time per month to their people. 97% do not give as much as the hour. These are the statistics according to Harris Interactive study done for the Franklin Covey organization.
Friday, February 3, 2012
How To Handle A Concern
“We are satisfied with our current provider…”
I am sure that many of us have either heard or seen this type of reply from a prospect. The key to a crisp reply is understanding and listening:
To Whom It May Concern:
We have been working with Paul Peterson for many years now. He has always done a fantastic job of offering good coverage at a fair cost. However, what sets Paul apart is his outstanding
customer service and speed in accommodating our needs as a manufacturing company. Many of our staff actually employ the talents of Paul’s firm because of the level of comfort that we have with him. Over the last 10 years, there have been countless other electrical contractors knocking on our door trying to earn our business. We respectfully decline and tell them we are satisfied with our current provider; just like any happy homeowner would.
When you read this don’t you just wish that you were Paul? In the Sales Pro Professional
Selling System PSS class we teach that this is a customer concern. Other sales classes might refer to it as an objection. Frankly, there is an army of salespeople that turn on their proverbial heels when this statement is made and they are out the door.
Please understand, in Sales Pro we teach that this is a good thing. We want to hear these
comments. This is not an objection, it is a concern. What we want ourselves to hear is I have been using my current provider for the last 10 years and I hope my trust in them is being met with the very best in innovation and advanced technology. You see, raising issues or concerns that our firms are able to deal with up front, demonstrate our ability to provide what the customer needs today. Needs change over time. So should our investment in listening to the current needs of an organization or its people.
Here is a sad truth that you can take to the bank. The very best customers are used to using
their current providers and many of them let down their guard and do not ask for special considerations in the form of expanded services and greater profitability. An easy example is to
call your current cell phone provider and shop for a new plan today. In most cases where you may love the provider and their platform, that very firm is giving new customers off the street a
better value than you currently have.
So what do you do? First acknowledge what is important to the prospect without endorsing
the company. Never say, “They have a great reputation!” Why? Simple you are not their marketing department.
A better acknowledgement would be, “Being confident in your choice of vendors is extremely important as the technology advances today.” Now seek permission to probe on a limited basis.
I never want to overstay my welcome as I am now on borrowed time. If I introduce a time frame I will saysomething like, “I will take no more than 10 minutes.”
Now I am going to explore what the current situation is.
“Tell me about the three most important factors that go into your maintaining the relationship with your current provider?”
“Please put them in order of priority for me.”
“Over time, what changes have you seen in that relationship that has kept it returning greater investment for you?”
Next I want to pick up on something the prospect says that is very important to them and look for more detail. I am looking for an opportunity.
“You said….… was important – would you expand on that for me?”
“Mmm that is very interesting. More and more of our clients are telling us the same thing.” Here I am acknowledging. (In our program we talk about the extreme importance of
acknowledgement.)
Now I want to explore the effect on their business if this factor is not all that it can be.
“What have the consequences been for you to discover after the fact that you might have
configured your….differently?”
“How do you feel about that?”
“How has that affected you?”
Finally I want to confirm that there is more than potential in what my firm can do for this prospect. I want to confirm that during this interaction potential has become desire to accomplish or to have something. It has become a need!
“It sounds as if you would rather have……Is that correct?”
“So you need……right?”
“Would you like to have a way to……?”
I am sure that many of us have either heard or seen this type of reply from a prospect. The key to a crisp reply is understanding and listening:
To Whom It May Concern:
We have been working with Paul Peterson for many years now. He has always done a fantastic job of offering good coverage at a fair cost. However, what sets Paul apart is his outstanding
customer service and speed in accommodating our needs as a manufacturing company. Many of our staff actually employ the talents of Paul’s firm because of the level of comfort that we have with him. Over the last 10 years, there have been countless other electrical contractors knocking on our door trying to earn our business. We respectfully decline and tell them we are satisfied with our current provider; just like any happy homeowner would.
When you read this don’t you just wish that you were Paul? In the Sales Pro Professional
Selling System PSS class we teach that this is a customer concern. Other sales classes might refer to it as an objection. Frankly, there is an army of salespeople that turn on their proverbial heels when this statement is made and they are out the door.
Please understand, in Sales Pro we teach that this is a good thing. We want to hear these
comments. This is not an objection, it is a concern. What we want ourselves to hear is I have been using my current provider for the last 10 years and I hope my trust in them is being met with the very best in innovation and advanced technology. You see, raising issues or concerns that our firms are able to deal with up front, demonstrate our ability to provide what the customer needs today. Needs change over time. So should our investment in listening to the current needs of an organization or its people.
Here is a sad truth that you can take to the bank. The very best customers are used to using
their current providers and many of them let down their guard and do not ask for special considerations in the form of expanded services and greater profitability. An easy example is to
call your current cell phone provider and shop for a new plan today. In most cases where you may love the provider and their platform, that very firm is giving new customers off the street a
better value than you currently have.
So what do you do? First acknowledge what is important to the prospect without endorsing
the company. Never say, “They have a great reputation!” Why? Simple you are not their marketing department.
A better acknowledgement would be, “Being confident in your choice of vendors is extremely important as the technology advances today.” Now seek permission to probe on a limited basis.
I never want to overstay my welcome as I am now on borrowed time. If I introduce a time frame I will saysomething like, “I will take no more than 10 minutes.”
Now I am going to explore what the current situation is.
“Tell me about the three most important factors that go into your maintaining the relationship with your current provider?”
“Please put them in order of priority for me.”
“Over time, what changes have you seen in that relationship that has kept it returning greater investment for you?”
Next I want to pick up on something the prospect says that is very important to them and look for more detail. I am looking for an opportunity.
“You said….… was important – would you expand on that for me?”
“Mmm that is very interesting. More and more of our clients are telling us the same thing.” Here I am acknowledging. (In our program we talk about the extreme importance of
acknowledgement.)
Now I want to explore the effect on their business if this factor is not all that it can be.
“What have the consequences been for you to discover after the fact that you might have
configured your….differently?”
“How do you feel about that?”
“How has that affected you?”
Finally I want to confirm that there is more than potential in what my firm can do for this prospect. I want to confirm that during this interaction potential has become desire to accomplish or to have something. It has become a need!
“It sounds as if you would rather have……Is that correct?”
“So you need……right?”
“Would you like to have a way to……?”
Monday, January 30, 2012
Crayons are part of most supply lists for students going to elementary school.
Crayons are part of most supply lists for students going to elementary school. There are many different colored crayons found in a collection. Individual colored crayons serve unique purposes and achieve their own goals. They make an important part of the learning community. This resembles the teachers that are involved in the education of children. It is also a part of the requirement of learning cultures within corporations, not for profits, charitable organizations and any family. A crayon has its own unique tint and colors a picture noticeably, and each individual brings their own personalities, opinions, and their own agendas to the educational and organizational picture. Have you ever seen a child color a picture with just one color? Using one color of the choice of many crayons is often used to complete a picture. It does the job the user requires without using any of the other colors. This is what individuals old and young do. They complete their task on their own without the assistance from others.
Crayons are organized in groups of color families. The color families are brought together because of their similarities and the way they complement each other. Each of the crayon families seem to blend easily together and can create beautiful things within their own group. Though crayons are inanimate objects, the way they are used presents a vivid similarity to home, school, and community groups. Each of these groups comes together on their own based on their similarities in interests, opinions, and purpose. They work tirelessly for their cause, each group on its own, trying to do what is best for their interests.
Yet with both the crayon groups and the home–school–community groups, no matter how wonderful the results are, how hard each individual group works to find a purpose, the picture can be incomplete. The picture may not be able to reach its full effectiveness. When crayons are used together by the blending of colors, the groups working together to further enhance the beauty of the picture, using complementary colors from other families, everything seems to come together. What was once a basic picture, full of creativity yet missing something, the vibrancy of every one of the crayons can be used together to make a beautiful picture. Isn’t this true in the efforts of the three groups; home, school, and community? Each group has something to offer that is good. They can work together to create opportunities to learn, encourage our children to be active in their learning, and help enhance the quality of education in the school. The groups can create a beautiful educational picture. Working together the home, school, community relationships has the opportunity to help build a positive school system within their community.
A word of caution should be acknowledged though. Crayons are delicate instruments. They can break if not cared for. Crayons also need to be renewed. If we use the crayons over and over again, they will wear down and not be as effective. Crayons must be replaced so that colors can remain vibrant. In this regard relationships between home-school-community are very similar. They can be delicate and can break if not nurtured and cared for. It is important to recognize that the people involved in these groups must be renewed. Continuing to use the same people over and over again wears them down. Home-school-community groups must bring in new members so ideas remain fresh and enthusiasm remains constant.
Special attention should be given to these wonderful instruments of education; crayons and home-school-community relationships. Both provide opportunities to express themselves, both work together to form a captivating picture, and both groups add a breath of fresh air for education.
Crayons are organized in groups of color families. The color families are brought together because of their similarities and the way they complement each other. Each of the crayon families seem to blend easily together and can create beautiful things within their own group. Though crayons are inanimate objects, the way they are used presents a vivid similarity to home, school, and community groups. Each of these groups comes together on their own based on their similarities in interests, opinions, and purpose. They work tirelessly for their cause, each group on its own, trying to do what is best for their interests.
Yet with both the crayon groups and the home–school–community groups, no matter how wonderful the results are, how hard each individual group works to find a purpose, the picture can be incomplete. The picture may not be able to reach its full effectiveness. When crayons are used together by the blending of colors, the groups working together to further enhance the beauty of the picture, using complementary colors from other families, everything seems to come together. What was once a basic picture, full of creativity yet missing something, the vibrancy of every one of the crayons can be used together to make a beautiful picture. Isn’t this true in the efforts of the three groups; home, school, and community? Each group has something to offer that is good. They can work together to create opportunities to learn, encourage our children to be active in their learning, and help enhance the quality of education in the school. The groups can create a beautiful educational picture. Working together the home, school, community relationships has the opportunity to help build a positive school system within their community.
A word of caution should be acknowledged though. Crayons are delicate instruments. They can break if not cared for. Crayons also need to be renewed. If we use the crayons over and over again, they will wear down and not be as effective. Crayons must be replaced so that colors can remain vibrant. In this regard relationships between home-school-community are very similar. They can be delicate and can break if not nurtured and cared for. It is important to recognize that the people involved in these groups must be renewed. Continuing to use the same people over and over again wears them down. Home-school-community groups must bring in new members so ideas remain fresh and enthusiasm remains constant.
Special attention should be given to these wonderful instruments of education; crayons and home-school-community relationships. Both provide opportunities to express themselves, both work together to form a captivating picture, and both groups add a breath of fresh air for education.
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