Category: Sales Tips

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Sales Advice Sales Basics Sales Tips

The 4th Quarter and Beyond

It’s here folks, do-or-die time for those on the calendar sales cycle! Are you ready?

Right about now people up and down a sales organization’s chain are either confident or extremely worried about the approaching end of quarter (EOQ). No doubt, it has been a tough, tough year and it isn’t over yet, so don’t give up the ship just yet. There are some things you can do and some things you can’t.

Having one or more deals that seems to be stuck in the pipeline is one of the most frustrating situations a salesperson can encounter, and even more so as the year-end looms closer. One of the things you cannot do is BEGIN the selling process in hopes of getting closure by December 31. The exception to this is the transactional or commodity sale, but this isn’t guaranteed either. So What Can You Do?

Assuming you are still holding a live close, you can and must turn up the heat. But how?

    • Go back to your internal coach or advocate and ask
    • Decision maker relationships are key here; What are they waiting for? What is crucial to them?
    • Sales management can help; ASK!

Holding out could just be the company’s way of negotiating. Turn this around and re-negotiate, but before you do, make absolutely sure your tactic will make a difference.

Here is a graph I share with salespeople that explains very simply where ANY action takes place; in ANY organization. I share that with you now.  Presentation1(Click for a bigger image) Using this simple graph, you can add a tick marks and pretty accurately track the closure time of the deal.

Don’t get wrapped up in emotion and be pressured to make concessions you later regret. I am a firm believer in NO unilateral concessions. If your prospect wants to play this type of ballgame, then request something from them that has value to your company, like access to the CIO, CFO or any other officer that would benefit your company and gain a deeper business relationship.

After doing all this, the deal still may slip into the next year. It happens. Especially in this economy.

Ok you are wondering about the “Beyond” part from the article title. As I stated before, some deals are going to slip into the next quarter. Here and now is where you want to begin planning for the coming quarter even if you have no idea about your quota, territory, etc. Begin planning with the thought of moving some of your customers into the top tier of your account list. In my last article, So You Wanna Be the CEO I explain how this can be accomplished. Additionally, I have another article, 5 Tips to Practice Daily that explains the refocusing of your efforts towards the top percentage of your customer base. TPresentation2he following picture illustrates what your goal should be, achieving the top level of this pyramid. Once you reach this pinnacle, the customer sees you as golden. Word of caution; rarely is this level obtained in the eyes of the customer.

If you find this useful, Contact Me or please leave a comment. If you have a Twitter account and found this article useful, it would be much appreciated if you would retweet this at the beginning of the article!

Happy Selling!

Ed Warner

Categories
Sales Advice Sales Basics Sales Tips

So You Wanna Be the CEO?

CEO’s have a tremendous burden in that they must not only perform, they must often outperform. They fail not for the lack of planning, strategy gazeor the lack of a long-term vision, rather because of a simply task, Execution.

Too often we (salespeople and alike) act as though our tasks and daily routines are insignificant. On the contrary, everything you do has a certain degree of separation that touches the bottom line. We fail to realize just how important our job is, regardless of the occupation. In spite of where you are in the corporate structure, treat your sales territory as though you were the CEO… Execute!

In order to execute, you still have to have a plan, but the execution must plancover the humdrum details of account management. Many a salesperson has made the mistake of believing they can do these at their leisure. and the customer will be happy! Nothing could be further from the truth. I am a relationship sell kind of person, therefore I believe in cultivating relationships for the long-term. I do not believe in the churn-n-burn mentality. If that’s your nature and it suits your job description, then more power to you. But if your goal is to keep the customer in hopes of selling to them again, there are continuous must-do’s you have to perform.

  1. Follow-up and make sure your solution did indeed perform–their pain MUST be gone
  2. Regular contact–this allows you to uncover additional pain or issues as they arise
  3. Competition Watch–contact allows you to understand their penetration, if any

So what’s your excuse?
Sounds fairly simple, so why is there such a disconnect in execution? TIME Make the time and make the call or visit. I have heard just about every excuse, but the one that stands out is: I don’t have time, I need to concentrate on this quarter’s numbers. hourglassThis excuse is the biggest reason for not doing anything; the illusions of time dwindle. You actually have more time than you realize and here is how you dispel the myth and reclaim the edge.

Account Division
In order to make sense of your time this really only works for those that do account management. Divide your customers into three groups, 1,2,3 or A,B,C. Decide on one key element that will divide them. It can be something like: yearly potential selling value, lifetime selling value or whatever makes sense for you.
Start by putting the top 20%-30% customers in the first tier, the next 50%-60% into the middle tier the rest in the last tier. Once that happens, make a contact plan for each of the tiers according to importance. Put this into your electronic calendar as a to-do!

Rule of thumb: 1st tier call monthly, 2nd tier call quarterly, and 3rd tier call every six months. What are we trying to accomplish? Relationships. It’s all about relationships. Still true today, people buy from people! All of your 1st tier customers should be your key account or best prospects. Increase ten-fold, the relationships you now have within those accounts. fightFailure to win this battle will guarantee you lose the war! This is a priority so treat it as such. Do what is necessary to cultivate the relationships

Your goal is to follow the same procedure for the next tiered accounts, but in a more restrained role. Tier 2 accounts can be thought of as the next Tier 1 accounts so starting early puts you ahead of the curve. The last tier of customers need to be jettisoned or cultivated. As a salesperson, no one likes to say goodbye to a customer, but consuming more resources than their sales potential is capable of replenishing, it is time to cut the strings.

I will leave you with this thought provoking question: Why win additional customers if you cannot keep the ones you have?

If you find this useful, Contact Me or please leave a comment. If you have a Twitter account and found this article useful, it would be much appreciated if you would retweet this at the beginning of the article!

Happy Selling!

Ed Warner

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Sales Tips

Hiring the Right Salesperson

Going through the hiring process from the candidate and the hiring manager’s point of view is not all that different. Each side should have the same objective; convince the other this is the right match. Is there a way to increase the odds for a win-win situation? This article addresses this question.

Anyone can hire and anyone can hire poorly. The key is to hire the right person the first time. Hiring the wrong person is costly for a company, but what the hiring company fails to realize is this is also highly damaging to the candidate’s reputation as well. Hiring the right sales person should not be predicated strictly on their ability to meet and exceed quota. WHAT? Yep, you read it right, that’s exactly what I wrote.

I didn’t say that trait was not important or not high on the list. Managers get myopic when they see a high performer and don’t see the bigger picture. Let me explain with this scenario. interviewYou have two candidates interviewing for the same position, and their performance at their last position employer was 80% and 140% respectfully. Which one do you hire? Managers with myopic vision hire the over-quota performer and six months later, you find this person truly is a rock star, but with one BIG drawback. He/she does not follow the rules, disrupts team continuity and has undermined your team allowing resentment to set in which is allowing total sales to drastically fall. WOW! Not the result you had in mind when you hired this cannon is it?

Given this scenario, which candidate would be the better hire? The answer is: You don’t know. Certainly this hire is producing as you had hoped, but at a very high expense to the team and company. The passed-over candidate maybe looking pretty good right about now, but then again you had no guarantee of success if you had hire them.

This brings us to the core of this article, Personality-Trait testing. I opposed these until I saw how costly a bad hire could become, and not just in revenue; they can be destructive to the entire sales team. Companies are beginning to understand the value of having a candidate tested, especially when it relates to the cost of hiring an employee that does not work out.

These type of tests are not expensive, so you could do these on your own and send one to targeted employers in a job search as they could give you a competitive edge. The caveat to doing this is if it came back showing you in a negative light, you might not want to share with a potential employer. Additionally, if it is truthful, ignoring it won’t make you a better salesperson.

Personality and trait analysis testing isn’t new, but in the present economy, they are becoming a valuable tool. analyzeI do caution companies and managers to think sensibly when analyzing the results. These are simply another tool to use in evaluating talent. If you perceive these as the deciding factor, then maybe hiring isn’t your biggest problem.

I will end with a great quote from
Casey Stengel–Finding good players is easy. Getting them to play as a team is another story.

Make sense? Let me know by commenting. It’s how we all learn!

If you find this article of value please comment. Have a Twitter account? I would be most appreciative if you would retweet this at the top of the article!

Happy Selling!

Ed Warner

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Demo Sales Advice Sales Tips

Demo and Presentation Tips

Anyone remember when Bill Gates had the dreaded BSOD during the Chicago Comdex keynote in 1998?  That crash made headlines around the geek world. That big snafu didn’t stop the adoption of Windows, now did it?  Learn how to take control of your presentation.

Here are some tips to ponder for your next engagement.

The typical demo is usually done with the lead demonstrator (or account manager) doing the introductions then handing off to the technical person, usually a sales engineer (SE). The first thing I see happen is the SE sits down or remains seated for the remainder of the presentation. WHY?meet

Do this instead: Plan your presentation with two people. Next, get up on your feet and stay there! Gain “control” of the audience and have your partner do white board or flip chart entries outlining the most important parts of the presentation.

I have sat through my share of demos and even given quite a few. What I gained from all this experience is what I want to pass on to you. It is a very simple three-step rule when it comes to presentations or demos.

  1. Tell the audience what you are going to show them
  2. Show them
  3. Tell them what you just showed them

Read it again just to make sure you understand. Sounds pretty simple, right? It is. By doing these three things, it reinforces what you want the audience to come away with. Here is where your presentation partner can write what your are going to show on the white board so it remains there during your demo.

Next, I think we have all seen a presentation or demo quickly start into the first two slides of the corporate background, which in reality no one cares about except you. If the point you need to get across is on slide 20 of 34, there really is little chance the audience is going to make it that far, even if you have the product they want.

Alter your strategy: Instead of making a presentation to a cross-section of corporate attendees, do your homework and meet with those that will attend and learn what issues are important to them. Tailor the presentation or demo to address the majority’s issues and concerns. Now you have a message that you can direct (by name) to their pain, even if that person at the last minute doesn’t attend.

If your presentation goes like others, new people will show up that you’ve never met.  By all means introduce yourself to them as a team and find out who they are. Chances are good some of these new people are the real decision makers. kickoutYou need to get their buy-in before you start the presentation. If not, you run a high risk of being stopped because you are not talking about the real key issues.

Do this instead: Ahead of the meeting, prepare a quick one-page handout just for these people. Handing them the agenda, say something like this: “Hi John, since we haven’t met, I wanted you to confirm that our presentation will address your most important issues. Is there anything we need to address that you don’t see here?” If these new people ARE the real decision makers, then throw your presentation away and address the issues they have confirmed and show only the capabilities and benefits that address what you have just been told.

Someone always asks, “Can your software can do X, Y or Z?” You want to avoid this if your solution is a complex solution. The audience is going to get very woozy quickly. This is because it is new to them. Showing the capability may mean moving through many screens.

Use this approach: If possible, draw it on the board or explain it will be shown later. It you must flip back to show it, have your partner redirect attention away from you.

Lastly, you will always have someone in the room that will be the competition’s best friend. You need to find who they are quickly. They usually are the ones raising the most questions and trying to take you down the “rat hole.” They will also try everything they can to throw your presentation off track.

Counter with this: Meet the opposition head-on. Embrace the question(s) and ask the entire audience how big an issue it is. Let the players face off, not you. Try to put the pressure back on the asking party. As you wind down the demo, ask the room, “Are any issues with what they have seen so far? No? are there any minor concerns?” This gives on last opportunity to face you and the opportunity to squash those concerns.

Just remember to keep your cool. Everyone makes mistakes and yes, everyone sometimes has crashes. Show the professional salesperson you are, pick yourself up, and move forward!

If you find this useful, Contact Me or please leave a comment. If you have a Twitter account and found this article useful, it would be much appreciated if you would retweet this at the beginning of the article!

Happy Selling!

Ed Warner

Categories
Experience Sales Advice Sales Tips

Do the Worst First

Ever hear the expression, Save the Best for Last? I have one better, Do the Worst First!

A common thread among top sales reps is a habit that everyone can benefit from. Human nature is responsible for the procrastination we have toward tasks we dread the most. Top performers do just the opposite; they get the hard tasks over with as quickly and efficiently as possible without any fear of the approaching event.

As a kid, I remember a meeting between my parents and my teacher because of some behavioral issues at school. image13Waiting for the outcome of the meeting was the worst part, not the meeting itself. Just waiting conjured up imaginary scenarios of dread and doom and permeated every activity until the meeting was over.

What I learned from this was to stop wasting time worrying about upcoming events or their outcomes, and concentrate on the positives experiences like these from the past. This over-worry leads to stress and stress is bad…for anyone. image14Stress can be sensed in a phone conversation and certainly can be seen in a face-to-face meeting. Moreover, stress is often misconstrued as fear, not something useful as a sales professional. Here are some suggestions for preparing for those undesirable tasks that have to be performed.

  1. Relax by what ever means helps you obtain the focus and allows you to remain sharp. Play the iPod or take a head-clearing walk.
  2. Exercise or do some physical exercise to raise the sweat level and drop the fret level.
  3. Lastly, I wrote an article about doing 5 daily tasks and one of those was to get out of your comfort zone. If you practice that, the next time becomes that much easier.

Strive to be the best you can be and strive to be on an even keel. I admire those that strive for the best, but don’t admonish them when they fail to achieve. None of use will be number #1 forever, and very few achieve #1 continuously.

If you find this article of value please comment. Have a Twitter account? I would be most appreciative if you would retweet this at the top of the article!

Happy Selling!

Ed Warner