Measure Attitudes

Sales is a very intuitive skill.

As it’s a people based discipline, everyone will find their own way of doing it.  As a result, some find successful ways, others not so much.  As a sales leader, this becomes difficult as a successful sales person may not sell precisely to the process desired by the business - or an unsuccessful one may follow that process but still fail.

However, however the good sales people sell, some things are always consistent:

•  Attitude – good sales people talk positively about sales.  They enjoy it.  They don’t avoid it – they seek it.  They’re hungry and one success is never enough.  Success doesn’t happy by accident.  Sales leaders hear this in their language, see this in their actions.
• Service - good sales people are focused on providing the best service to their clients – not products.  They want to help their clients, not sell them.  They have the clients in mind – all the time.
• Planning – good sales people plan.  Their success doesn’t happen by accident.  They know their sales targets, where they sit against them, what they have coming up this week and what they wish to achieve out of that meeting.  They know their workload and it’s priority.
• Prospects – good sales people have a clear line of sight to their prospects – their future clients.   They know them not by industry horizontal or vertical – they know them by name.   They have a laser focus on those they wish to do business with.
• Activity – good sales people are active.  They hunt and are proactive.  Regardless of their workload – they are selling.  It is how much activity they do which varies based on their need.  They have momentum.
• Pipeline – good sales people have a very clear understanding of their pipeline.  At what stage each deal is at, what can move it on and an action plan to do it.  They know when it needs filling and where their ‘dead spots’ are.  They live in their pipeline.
• Networks – good sales people develop and maintain a network.  They don’t have many shallow relationships, they have deep and tight relationships with key people.  Rainmakers.  Like minded people who support one another – professional friendships.  Solving clients issues through relationships, not pieces of work.
• Team Player – good sales people realise they can’t succeed alone.  They develop and maintain good relationships within the business to support their success.  They appreciate and recognise those who help them succeed.  They encourage success in others
• Reflection – good sales people review their failures and their successes looking for ways to improve.  They seek feedback from others.

Regardless of how a good sales person achieves success – somewhere unpinning their success are all the above.

Often, in sales leadership, the focus is on following a process/system or framework for successful sales.  Sure, this provides a means to categorise the various aspects of sales (eg giving names to phases of the pipeline or common terminology).

Sales leadership is about managing these disciplines with your sales team – not the activities or processes.   If you measure the activities, you will hit numbers, if you encourage and measure the above, you’ll get results.  The difficulty is a) these are hard to measure and, importantly, b) they are unique to each person.

Hunt or Scavenge

What sales style do you deploy - do you hunt for your sales results, or do you scavenge?

Good hunters learn about their target, learn about their history, where best to find them, how best to approach them, how best to engage, which are preferable over others.  Do you show your targets this respect?

Or do you stumble upon them, who ever, where ever, when ever – eating what ever you can find, rather than that which tastes best?  Do you scavenge?

Scavenging is easy – so many do it.  Many survive doing it, like the vulture in nature.   Waiting for RFP’s to be issued, rather than displacing a client. Waiting for clients to approach you, rather than approaching them. Sure, you’re selling. But are you having fun?  Scavenging usually involves either waiting for a good hunter to finish with their target (or scare them off), finding dead or dying targets or attacking the slowest or weakest target.

The problem with this strategy is you often can’t choose who you do business with.  You have to take what you can get.  You also can’t control when you encounter it.

Hunting allows you to choose the best target – the ones you really want. If you really want them, you try harder and enjoy it more. The reward is richer.  Hunting allows you to fill the larder whereas scavenging usually just fills you plate.

Indeniably, hunting requires more effort than scavenging, however even if you don’t win your target, it is much more enjoyable spending time hunting than sitting in the office and waiting for the phone to ring….

Which Came First, Value Or Price

Value is the driver of price.  If someone is marketing you a product you have no need or want for, they have to drop their price until the point you start to value that product, if they're marketing you a product you really want or end, that price can be much higher.

Good products command higher prices because people value them more.  Sure, this can be down to the quality of the parts, or, and more likely, due to the value of the whole.

What does this say if you discount your price about what you think about your value? 

What does this say about your service?

Bake The Cake With Love

Most of us have experienced the absolute joy of a home made cake made by a parent or grand parent. Most of us have also helped them make them as some point.   They taste just that much better than a store point commercial cake don’t they?

In sales, that cake is your proposal/package to your client. So, why is this analogy important to think about?

So, if the cake is the end output of sales – the offer. The ingredients are the various components that make up that offer – the products, services, pricing, value proposition etc.   The recipe is the process you used to get there – the journey – and how much of the various components are added and used within the proposal to get to the end position.   The person baking the cake is the expert – they’re making the decisions on what to use & when.

And now is where we deviate. Your parent or grandparent bakes this cake with love and emotion. They bake this cake knowing you like the cake a little denser, with more chocolate chips. They WANT you to enjoy it, it means so much to them as they will usually get much pleasure from your feedback. They have a recipe – but choose to use it or adapt it.   Also, it’s even better when you, as the consumer, have participated in the baking process.

Now the commercial cake is made with the intention of it tasting good – but completely remotely to you, as the consumer, and your tastes and preferences. Guesses are made. A recipe is often followed precisely to ensure consistency and control costs. Ingredients are selected against a compromise of costs and quality.

Which would you rather eat? Isn’t the picture above already making you hungry?

Next time you’re selling to a client consider the following – ‘I am baking this cake with love?’ Think about:  Why am I selling to the client? What reaction do I want from them (focus on the emotion)?

The reaction question is important – the cake made for you was made because your parent or grandparent WANTS you to enjoy it. They know you’ll eat it (ie: the sale will conclude) – but this isn’t enough, they want you to LOVE the cake. In sales terms, this means your client can accept your proposal, but it doesn’t mean they LOVE it. A signature or commitment isn’t an emotion.

The great things that happen in selling aren’t often because we have great products or great pricing. They happen because we do them for great reasons.

Focus On The Water…

There’s an old sales story which basically goes:

Two shoe salesmen were sent to a corner of the world to see if there was a market for their product.  The first salesman reported back, “This is a terrible business opportunity, no-one wears shoes.”  The second salesman reported back, “This is a fantastic business opportunity, no-one wears shoes.”

Yes, it is probably an urban legend. However, in sales terms it is a demonstration of the ‘glass half empty’ ethos. Do you focus on the problem or the solution is essentially the question.

It can get deeper than that – depending on the situation you’re in, your focus can alter. A sales area where you’re confident may see you leaning more often, if not all the time, towards solutions. Yet, an area where your skills aren’t as sharp, or experience not as deep may see you more often focusing on the problems.

The end goal is to understand in what situations you err towards focusing on the problem – this quickly highlights the areas where you could develop. Often it’s easier for those around us to tell us this – not that we usually like this. Sales Managers and Leaders can usually see ‘problem orientated’ thinking quite easily, but the challenge is identifying the skill gap that’s causing it.

It can be as simple as not having the skills to deal with it. For example, the first shoe sales person above may have only ever sold to people replacing shoes. He has no strategy for those that have never worn them.
It could be they’ve tried before and it didn’t work. Again, the first shoes sales person may have tried to sell someone shoes who doesn’t wear them and failed and assumes it will happen again.

Next time you find yourself or your sales team making negatively biased statements around what can’t be done….ask yourself (or them) it is because you’re focusing on what’s not in the glass, rather than the water that’s is.

But I’m Not A Sales Person

Not every one in a sales organisation is explicitly charged with selling. They may not hold the role of ‘Business Development Manager’, ‘Client Manager’ etc. They may not have responsible for managing clients, championing a product or closing deals with clients.

However, one thing is true in largely every ‘for profit’ organisation – it would stop existing if the revenue line in the Profit and Loss Statement was zero.

Whilst only some in an organisation are clearly measured on sales – as a whole, most organisations’ purpose for being is revenue. How then can anyone within it suggest they aren’t responsible for sales?

Whether this is supporting those who are selling, adminstration, logistics or being directly responsible for sales – EVERYONE in an organisation is a ‘sales responsible’. Everything they do is focused on the revenue line as, without it, there isn’t a business to work for. For example – even if your role is managing costs, these costs only exist because there’s a client willing to buy your product/services.

The sole responsibility for sales doesn’t sit exclusively on the sales teams/departments shoulders – it is carried by all within the business. Everyone should be looking for opportunities to grow the top line, all the time.

Everyone should be challenging the business to sell more and do so more efficiently.

Everyone has the ability to improve a businesses top line.

Every conversation within the business should be focused on those that generate that revenue – the client.

Challenge anyone in an organisation that says ‘But I’m Not a Sales Person’

Put People First…

Raise ‘sales’ in a workplace and you’ll instantly alienate some of the audience. Many have either had poor sales experiences or, worse, no experience but listen to those that don’t like it.

The interesting thing is, much like this blog, there is a plethora of material around to make you that great sales person. Scripts, processes, courses, features and benefit analysis and the list continues unendingly.

The very term ‘sales process’ puts procedure ahead of people. This clutters sales with steps,  a procedure and deprioritises the single most important thing – people. Teaching your staff to sell should be a people rather than process skill.

What good sales people actually do – is what they don’t do. They don’t listen to this noise. They don’t labour themselves with a rigid process or script. They don’t think what they do. They don’t over think how they do it.

What they do is have a very strong grasp on is why they sell. People.  Helping them improve their situation.   They understand that behind every process is a person. Benefits are only meaningful to people. A script only works if a person is prepared to listen.

There is a book I would encourage every sales person, in fact everyone, read. It was written many years ago. It is a brilliant handbook for sales – yet isn’t a sales handbook. Why? It discusses people. It just so happens – when you address the people part of selling, the balance actually takes care of itself and you don’t need to worry about it.

The book is Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends & Influence People. Why am I recommending this? Because no matter how hard I try – I just can’t write a more compelling piece on the importance of people.  It is also so important to me, it should be to you as well.

A good sales person will read this book and, if they don’t already , will understand why they’re good. Someone who is less skilled at sales will have an epiphany.

In order to become success at selling – focus on one thing. People. Declutter the rest of your process. Focus on your client. Help them and you will, ultimately help yourself.

If you’re truly interested in more about this – please let me know. It just so happens I know the perfect person to talk to about it.