Ensure You Arrive At Your Destination On Time

A pilot determines where they're heading - the ends - but more importantly, they also determine how they will get there - the means.  They do a pre-flight inspection of their plane, set their waypoints, assess where they need to refuel along the way (if at all), they assess there weight and distribution to assess there takeover speed etc. 

Yes, knowing the destination is important for a pilot as this is where their passengers expect to end up - but the planning ensures they get there and get there on time.  Also, once in the air, they are continually assessing the situation to make changes as the situation alters- eg weather

Why do we assume selling is any different? 

The previous post mentioned we need to sit down and plan the year ahead.  It also briefly touched on the need to review this weekly (ideally).  This is actually the most important part of planning.  Reviewing regularly keeps the plan from become a dream.

What should you be pre/reviewing weekly?

•  Review
• Successes and failures - why did/didn't your actions work.  Replicate the successes, mitigate the lost opporturtunities
• Productive v Non-Productive activities.  There will usually always be some non-productive activities in any role, but ensure this is at a minimum and doesn't become the excuse/reason behind your not being productive
• Relationship Development - soft sales.  Are you doing enough relationship development today which will pay dividends in the future.  Note:  I used relationship rather than business development
• Do you need any training/development

• Preflight Inspection
• What appointments do you have coming up
• What work have you committed to deliver from previous appointments
• What actions do you need to do prior to these activities to make them a success.  
• Who do you need to engage with internally or externally to support this activity's success
• Advise your team of your coming activities 

• Weather Check
• Has the market changed which requires you to adjust your direction.
• Have your prospects' situations altered which requires you to adjust your strategy
• Does any competitor activity require your attention. 
• Do any of your intermediaries need your attention
• Do you need to work on any internal relationships to support your success
• Are your workload and commitments manageable?

•  Arrivals Board
• Are you on plan to arrive at your destination on time?
• Do you need to adjust your route

 Repeated success isn't an accident.  It requires planning and, more importantly, regular review.  Even the best the laid plans need to be adapted as the situation demands.  Sometimes we need to take a new route to our destination.

30 minutes planning at the beginning or end or each week for the coming weeks is invaluable.  It helps ensure you get to your destination on time
 

Do What You've Always Done?

If the answer to this is yes, then in all likelihood, you'll get what you always got!

As we start 2014 - we often burden ourselves with the usual yearly promises - eg lose weight, smile more etc - yet some fall in the habit of rolling in to the work year on a 'let's see what it brings' basis with no real planning.

Success isn't an accident - and planning increases the chances of successes.  Here are some thoughts around how to make your 2014 a professional sales success...

Plan

Now the important part - start with the end.  Look at what you want to achieve this year and what you need to do to get there.  Ask yourself questions like:

• How will I measure 2014 as a success on 31st December 2014?  Not just your work's measure - but your personal measure is important
• What do I need to be doing regularly to achieve this?
• How many new clients to I need to on board?
• Who would I like these be?  Find Your Ideal Client
• Do I already know them?  
• If not, how do I get to know them? 
• Who can introduce me to them?
• Where do I need to be during the year? (eg what functions/groups)
• Who can help me and my business?
• Who can I help be a success? (Karma does rub off in sales)
• Undertake "Stop/Start/Continue"
• Look at what behaviours you need to stop, start or continue doing which will prevent or help you achieve your goals
• Undertake a SWOT analysis on yourself - remembering
• Strengths and Weaknesses are internal 
• Opportunities and Threats are external
• So consider
• What skill gaps you have which may inhibit you achieving your goals and what you can do to minimise/eliminate them.  A strategy here may be bringing others in to fill this gap?
• If you are continually internally focused, you will miss the external opportunities or threats, so also look outwards are the market, competitor intel etc as these may help or hinder you
• Do just look at your skills - but also look at your behaviours.  Often these are harder to change - but have the biggest impact on your success (eg a highly skilled person but they have poor attitude or motivation)
• Review your diary.  Make sure it reflects the above.  

The most important part is to review this weekly!


Some other aspects which are worth doing at this time of year are:

Organise

Over the course of year we accumulate a great deal of professional detritus.  Whether it's physical items on and around our workspaces (eg files and information we think we'll use 'at some point) or digital clutter (eg email mailing lists we've subscribed to and habitually delete without ever reading)

The beginning of the year is a great time to sort all this out - a spring clean if you wish.

Some things to think about:

• What mailing lists are you on which are wasting your time - then unsubscribe.  Be brutal, you can always resubscribe
• De-clutter your workspace.  File/trash files/information, give it a clean, sort out your drawers etc.  Set yourself up for the year
• Tidy up your Linked In - send invites to those you've worked with over the last 12 months, check no competitors have crept in to your contacts, ask for recommendations etc
• Tidy your email up.  Set up rules to move regular emails that don't need immediate attention, set up folders, archive old information
• Make sure you have client contact details correct in your phone so you can ring whenever and where ever you need to
• Look at what blogs/sites you want to review regularly and subscribe to their newsletter (hint:  this one!)
• Consider your brand - throw our old shirts/ties/blouses etc.  Present yourself with the image you want to portray
• Look at your training and development for the year and set the wheels in motion
• Plan any large events and diarise them out in advance to maximise their value

The success of 2014 is in your hands now - do you want to get what you've always gotten?

Are You Uncomfortable?

Most people realise in time growth comes from being out of ones comfort zone - in our challenge zone.

However, spending time in the challenge zone is taxing as it requires far more effort than sitting in our comfort zone so we often don't spend as much time in it as we should.  It is, be definition, uncomfortable.

This can play out often in sales - we do what we know, what we expect to work, what we think our clients want and like - we stay in our comfort zones.

But what if our clients comfort zone is completely different from ours?

What if staying in our comfort zone doesn't allow us to be meaningful to our clients?

What if our comfort zone prevents us from connecting with our prospects?

Selling isn't easy - in fact, being successful in sales in the long term often requires considerable time to be spent being uncomfortable.  Some skills are easy, others constantly challenge us.

Have you ever stopped to think about whether the amount of time you spend in your comfort zone prevents you from further success?

It manifests itself in many ways.  Take Cold Calling (some of you just cringed).  What are the 'excuses' behind sales peoples distaste of this?

- It doesn't work

- It has a low hit rate

- Clients hate being cold called

and the list goes on.

What, more often than not, is the real reason?  You don't like it.  You rationalise the other excuses to justify staying your comfort zone.  What do you miss? 

Ever seen a sales person be successful over a period only to slowly fall away?  Could it be because they become comfortable and don't challenge themselves?

Sure most of us can't spend our entire life outside of our comfort zone - but growth doesn't come it we don't. 

Is it time you become uncomfortable more often?

Which Will You Feed...

Theres are old story that goes:

One evening an old Cherokee Indian told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people. He said, ‘My son, the battle is between two ‘wolves’ inside us all.One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.

The other is good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.’

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: ‘Which wolf wins?’

The old Cherokee simply replied, ‘The one you feed.’

Have you ever stopped to consider what behaviours you exhibit in sales?  Some are positive behaviours we should promote, others aren't and should be demoted.

Positive behaviours which promote growth include:

• Positive attitude -staying focused on the successess and win rather than failures.  Visualising success rather than expecting failure
• Accountability - owning both the successes and failures in sales - being accountable to your outcomes
• Responsibility - being responsible for deliverables and seeing things through.
• Honesty - being true to yourself and others. 
• Respect - treating others appropriately and as you'd like to be treated. 

Behaviours that can create negative and devisive environment include (and are unsurprisingly the opposite of the above):

• Blame - placing respnsibility for your actions or inactions on others
• Justification - balancing your actions or inactions against those of others
• Resistance - fighting back against others and their ideas
• Denial - refusing to see your part in failures (or successes)
• Put Down - Either bringing others down to your level to have a group or doing so to seemingly elevate yourself
• Rejection - dismissing others and their ideas

In sales, these negative behaviours are simple traps and, once the emotions are fed, can quickly become consuming for you and, often, those around you.  For example - you miss a big deal and it can be easy to blame others (including your client), justify why you didn't win (your competitor was cheaper) and a host of the other emotions.

Often it is easier to err towards the negative as sometimes the positive takes more effort

This doesn't just play out in sales either - it's true in life in general

Which Do You Feed? 

Are You Match Fit?

Sports team practice their game plans consistently before a match until they are etched in the players minds and muscle memory. 

They study their opponents to get a gauge on how they can be beat them. 

Then, on the day of the game, all bets are off.  The best laid game plan can quickly be cast aside and opponents may surprise you by deviating from previous form and tactics. 

What saves good teams is being prepared and, more importantly, quickly able to assess that their game plan isn't working and drop it in lieu of a better one mid-game. 

Sales isn't any different.  All the practice and research in the world can mean very little once you're sitting in front of a client.  Each client is different - the people are different, their circumstances are different.  In fact, even working with the same client can be a different experience each time.

There are no silver bullets in sales - no one strategy, process or verbage that works every time.  Working your way through the sales process requires preparation and an ability to talk to, understand and adapt to your client throughout the meeting.

Many let themselves down because they stick unerringly to their game plan - not deviating from it despite a clients non-response (tele-marketing can be a great example of this).

An example - I got called recently from a business trying to sell subscriptions to our local newspaper.  They asked, in a scripted fashion, did I read the paper, how often et al.  They then asked how I read the paper - to which I replied 'online'.  They then tried to sell me a subscription?!?!  My response to them was 'unless you intend to pay me to read the paper, why would I subscribe as it's currently free?' - to which I received silence and, eventually, a disconnected line.  Why did this happen?  Surely in this day and age, that DM firm could reasonably expect online to be a valid channel some would be reading the paper.  What failed them was most likely a pre-determined view that their target market was people who bought the paper casually (ie at the service station) but regularly.  Not those who read online. 

Sales training is just that, training - it doesn't mean you're match fit.  Just like sport, running around on the practice field seems a long way away after you receive the first tackle in a real game.  Selling is the best practice for selling.

Like sport, there's only one real way to get match fit - and that's to start playing.  Also, staying match fit means playing regularly.

Are you match fit for sales?

Your Customers' Customer?

Sometimes in sales something unique can happen - you view your customer through the same eyes that they view you.  
Do you think about this when you're talking with a prospect?  You should.
In large companies, your supplier list can be a great source of prospects - have you ever viewed this?  You should
As a relationship manager, do you know if your clients are suppliers to your business?  You should
As a relationship manager, do you know whether your clients views you as a prospect and wants to do business with your business?  You should
As a sales person, do you connect your prospects with your business where appropriate to discuss their products/services?  You should

You should remain open to the thought of whether you prospect/client could do business with you as much as you doing business with them.

Client/Supplier Relationships - Exploring the Client Side of the Supplier Equation

With experience, broadly speaking there are 5 types of client/supplier relationships:

1. We Love Each Other
2. We Love Them
3. We Don't Love Them, But You're All The Same
4. We Don't Love Them At All
5. We Don't Have One

Looking at what each means from a sales perspective:

We Love Each Other

This is a difficult sales road and you'll usually find your most desired prospects in this space (and your top existing clients should sit here as well).  These are customers whose supplier is a partnership - enscounced in their business providing more than just product/services - but helping the business proactively, supporting the business.

Of course, things change, here you spend time trying to get to know them, where they're going and endeavouring to add value on the way waiting for a catalyst to deepen your relationship. 

As this is the type of loyalty you wish to engender with your top clients, you need to respect that loyalty and be the top of the list in the event something changes.  Sales here tend to be long term - relationship and trust based.

Success here is getting to talk to them and regular contact.  A very good client won't even let you in the door - seeing you suggests they're open to maintaining a relationship but doesn't give you the right to hard sell.

We Don't Love Them At All

At the other end you have the entirely mobile clients - those who have signalled their desire to move.  Here you need to be careful.  A good client will seldom find themselves in this space unless something has seriously decoupled in their relationship with their supplier.

You need to determine if this is due to an issue with the supplier or the business.  You do run the risk of inheriting another suppliers problem if you don't scope what the dissatisfaction is about.  This process is often compounded by the fact that clients in this type of position typically wish to move quickly.

Sell cautiously here and make sure you understand what is driving the need for change or dissatisfaction.

We Don't Have One

Some sales people have a unique job - selling a process or service to a client where they don't have an incumbent supplier in this space or, while they do, what you offer is a seachange in process/product/service to them.

Here, sales becomes more about education.  People typically like what they know.  Cloud and SaaS are an example where, despite being around for a while now, some clients are only just accepting them as an option for their business. 

This becomes a strong conversation - not just about cost/time savings, but other internal issues and objections like fear of the unknown, business risks etc.  Testimonial clients are an invaluable source of influence here - especially if your testimonial is from a client who was similarly minded.

Now we're in to the last two types.  This client type and the next are by far and away the most enjoyable to work with when you're on the top of your sales game

We Don't Love Them, But You'll All The Same

'Ouch' says the sales person.  Unfortunately as a good sales person or company, you can be measured by a clients poor experience.  Industries where there is a 'neccessary evil' to the relationship (eg Accounting, Insurance, Banking/Finance) lend themselves to this.  A poor experience becomes normal for a client and they learn to accept it - worse, they assume ALL other providers of the same service/product are similar - so why change.

Selling here is about proving them wrong.  Demonstrating to them the relationship they should be getting.  This isn't about saying it - no doubts they're heard all the rhetoric before (which makes things worse!).  It is about doing it - showing them.  Show them your clients who have benefited from your relationship, show them what you can do for them.  Actions, in this case, certainly do speak louder than words.

We Love Them

The subtle difference from the last one and this one, is above the client knew the relationship wasn't special - here the client thinks they have a great relationship with their supplier, but you know it is less than optimal.

How do you tell them they're wrong?  Again, you show them.  For many clients here - the issue is their definition of a 'great relationship'.  Like the above, often this frame of reference is limited by prior experience. 

Take a PowerCo for example and ask a client.  Most people will have an ambivilent relationship with their company.  Good service to them is the power stays on and the bill isn't stupid.  Sound like you?  How many times in the past 5 years has your power company rung you to suggest they could optimise your bill as they think you're on the wrong plan - heck, this now sounds familiar.  Some have started doing this haven't they?

Selling here is about showing them what they don't know they should be getting.  Resetting their expectation of a great relationship - helping them realise the supplier equation was unbalanced and they were being under serviced. 

Questions To Ask Yourself

With Your Prospects - knowing how they think about their current supplier, how should I adapt my sales process?

There is no surprise, how well you like working with a client directly affects the above - so when prospecting ask yourself - will we love working together?

With Your Clients - what do they think about us and is this what we want them to think?