Blog

A Leap in Sales Performance

Do you want to make a quantum leap in sales performance?  Of course you do.  However, many people use words like ‘quantum leap’ as a cliché - as an empty promise.  And, there are lots of clichés.  Let’s go to the next level!  ... to the next generation! 

How do you increase performance beyond the past?  Are you ready?  Do you want the answer? 

It’s simple.  Increase face-to-face sales time.  Yes! - that’s it.  Just increase face-to-face sales time - the amount of time spent face-to-face “with the right prospects” each week.

In one Fortune 500 corporation’s study, salespeople spent 8% of their time each week in front of prospective new customers, or 3 to 4 hours.

What a staggering discovery!  The rest of the week this sales force worked to complete administrative tasks, customer service tasks, and lead generation tasks.  They handled customer problems, returned calls from previous buyers, finished and distributed paperwork (paper or Internet), and networked to uncover new leads.  And, Murphy’s Law applied - “Work expanded to fill the time available,” and sales performance decreased.

Count them.  How many hours a week do you spend face-to-face with prospective customers?  2, 6, 10, 20??? In high activity selling, as the number increases from 10 to 20 hours+ per week, the quantum leap takes place and sales performance radically improves.

What would have to change for you to spend more time in front of the right prospective customers?  Answer the question and then go and make things better.  Lance.

Standards build Traditions - Traditions build Legacies

Legacies are the impact of traditions on today’s world ... left behind by people who struggled to meet standards for the benefit of others.

Sometimes people lower their standards without a fight ... and, they build new traditions that leave a poor legacy for those who follow.

Leaders often set the standards for future traditons before the future fight makes them a reality.  They decide NOW what they will stand for in the days to come. 

So, let’s stand for those things that help our country, company, associates, customers, and families - great things, excellent things.  Let’s teach our children to build a wonderful legacy for future generations.  Lance.

(Note:  What are YOUR sales team standards.  What are YOUR minimum standards, average standards, GREATness standards?)

What are YOUR STANDARDS?

Great coaches and teams of people put their very best into what they do.  Standards, performance norms or accepted levels of behaviors emerge out of their fight for greatness. The emerging standards, produced from great thought and toil, define the limits of minimal and great performance.  For sales teams, these standards include:

Where to Set Standards - Minimum, Average, Great
• Appointments and quotes by person and period
• Closed sales per every ten (10) quotes
• Sales results by a sales person, team, or area
• Income levels per salesperson

Do not confuse standards with goals.  Standards are accepted and measurable levels of belief about what’s right.  For example, think about your favorite college football team - one that has a great tradition.  At a certain number of wins each season, the fans feel either terrible, OK, or great.  And, somewhere between terrible and great, they fire a coach.  That’s because they believe their team ought to win ‘x’ amount of games every season, win the conference once every so many years, and occasionally compete for a national championship.  It’s just apart of the standards in their tradition.

So, what are the minimum expected standards for your sales team?  For a salesperson?  What’s average?  What’s GREAT?  What will you tell new salespeople?  What do you stand for?  What will you not stand for?  When will you feel terrible, OK, or great? 

Knowing these things is vitally important.  Otherwise, what’s the point?  Go and make things better.  Lance

I’m Looking for Consistency - A Pattern

I’m a field rep and I love the idea of independence and an income opportunity without a ceiling.  I do see the possibilities, but I also feel a challenge to its accomplishment. 

What challenge? 

It’s not really time management.  No.  I think it’s self-management.

In the beginning, I’m completing new employee paperwork, learning product information, making a prospect list, and beginning to set and hold appointments.  Things start well.  I’m even making a few sales with and without the help of my sales manager. 

Then, I find that I’m missing something.  I’m still in survival.  Each month I feel the pressure to produce, and I want to produce, but something’s missing.  I’m looking for a pattern - a model - a successful process, that when I repeat the steps (1, 2, 3, etc.), I am fully confident in reaching a certain level of performance.

Words like accountability just do not quite define it.  Focus gets a little closer.  I want to know where I am in a process that, if followed, ensures my success. I want something simple - something easy that helps me stay on track.

Different activities share time with sales activities.  The activities I necessarily do range from paperwork, eating, sleeping, family needs, physical fitness, networking, phoning, returning calls, holding appointments, preparing presentations and quotes, sending out mail, product training, sales meetings, etc.

Some of these activities do not directly produce income.  They are important but not critical to making sales.

I believe what I need is self-management, but I’m thinking there’s a better set of words, and they are ... Activity Management.  Lance.

Social Confidence in GREAT Salespeople

Social Confidence is trait #3 of four personality traits that affect the achievement drive of great salespeople.  People endowed with this trait can naturally and without stress interact with people.  This helps them gain power throughout the sales cycle. 

In simplistic terms, salespeople need to ...
1.  Find prospects
2.  Set appointments, and
3.  Close sales
And, in sales cycles of ninety days or less, they need to do these activities over and over again.

Prospecting requires a great salesperson to network, ask about others, and to leave a memorable impression on the phone and at events.  Sometimes they must answer questions with tact, poise, and a frank demeanor.  So ... great salespeople not only ask questions well themselves, but they also respond well to the questions of others.  People with low levels of social confidence appear weaker and less memorable in face-to-face encounters.

And, then the real fun begins - setting appointments.  For many salespeople, this is a most difficult task.  And, it is made all the more difficult if someone would rather not assert themselves.  Great salespeople make appointment sales every month.  They sell someone on the need to meet.  While stressful to many people, it is greatly stressful to someone with low social confidence.

That brings us to the sales process - developing rapport, asking questions, listening, presenting, negotiating, and getting agreements completed.  Many people with low social confidence have trouble gaining rapport with dynamos - people with abrupt and demanding personalities.  They do better in less pushy sales situations with less pushy people.  While a person whom is not socially confident may ask questions very well, they sometimes do not probe well into sensitive areas and into the financial or emotional impact of a person’s needs. 

When it is time to present, this same lack of confidence may produce weakness in obtaining commitments, responding to objections, and handling rejection.

Salespeople, by the nature of their profession, need to tell people to do things from time to time.  While it is very important to ask questions and uncover needs, it is also important for a salesperson to tell a person what to do next - what’s important and what’s not important.  And, they need to do this with confidence.

Social confidence in a salesperson’s personality combined with goal-orientation, social drive, and a need to control naturally creates better genetics for finding prospects, setting appointments, and closing sales.  High-activity salespeople whom lead their teams have healthy doses of these traits.  Personality profiles created to help managers in the recruitment process must contain social confidence as one of their targeted traits. (see craftprofiles) (Other important traits include goal-orientation, social drive, and a need-to-control.  (By the way, some people interview well, and have great social confidence, but are process-oriented - not goal-oriented.  They do not focus on achieving end results, the sales and the money, within a given time frame.  But, they sure interview well.)

I’m thinking of someone right now whom I hired with all of these traits.  He had never worked as a professional salesperson.  His learning curve was sharp and his sales went above anything previously accomplished in his company.  It takes awhile to find people with these traits, but it’s always worth the effort.  In your screening, profiling, and interviews look for social confidence.  It’s a key performance trait in high-performing salespeople.  Now, be GREAT.  Lance.

How Do Salespeople Remain Relevant?

Salespeople remain relevant to a buyer depending upon how well they practice the consultative sales process.  In theory, a sales conversation “can be” 100% relevant if the steps below are practiced perfectly.

But, tada!  That’s why we practice in sports and in sales ... to keep striving for greatness. 



First, how does a salesperson remain relevant? By ... 

Adaptation 

1. Adapting to a person’s buying style ... socialite, dynamo, or thinker. 



Listening

2. Asking great questions to understand a person’s situation: their needs and problems relevant to our product or service. 
3. Paraphrasing understanding, taking notes, and summarizing as we “sincerely” listen. 
4. Getting the customer to describe the impact of needs and problems - financially and/or emotionally. 



Presenting 

5. Showing only those products or services that fulfill customer described wants or needs. 
6. Showing only those features and benefits that fulfill customer described wants or needs. 
7. Explaining how the negative impact will be replaced by a positive impact: the new emotions or better financial numbers. 

8. Checking for feedback as we advise - answering questions, or providing solutions to fears or concerns about our advice. 



Finishing and Following Up

9. Helping them make a decision and “opening up a long term customer relationship.” 

10. Following up to make sure that the new customer is satisfied or to help with the use of the product(s) or service(s). 



These steps and others help the salesperson remain relevant during and after the sale.

The sales teams, that great managers coach, fight to get better at making the buying process comfortable for the buyer.

It’s a guess, but I would say that less than 1/2 of most sales experiences are relevant to the buyer in today’s marketplace.  The buyer fights to be adapted to, listened to, and cared about during and after the sale. 

But, you’re different.  You want to learn, use, and even coach sales skills and attitudes that make things better.  You want to build lasting relationships and repeat business.  So, go do it.  Make a difference.  You can.  Many of you are.  Lance.

An Old Key Worth Using

Today, It was my privilege to interview a seasoned veteran for a new sales job.  As I listened to his answers to my rather “structured interview,” I began to learn - to hear the wisdom of dedicated years ...

... and, I was reminded.  Wisdom resides mostly with those who have tried several doors in a productive life. It remains true in disparate areas like marriage, sports, and sales.  Many failures lead to one success - three quotes or so lead to one sale - a lifetime of commitment through trials and testing leads to a greater love among committed lovers.

As the interview continued, I, with years of experience and a few gray hears myself, began to learn that there are still some old keys still lying around, that if found, and then turned, will open important doors. 

Sales plans need wise counsel.

They need others to question them and to offer competing thoughts and wisdom.  And, they especially need those with grey or white hair to offer a smile as they reach in a pocket and bring out an old key worth using.  Then, confidence grows in those that learn from the unlocked wisdom. 

How Much Wood Could a Woodchuck Chuck …

... if they were on straight commission without incentives, goals, or directions?

Three Answers
1. “As much wood as a woodchuck would if a woodchuck could chuck wood.” 

2. “A woodchuck would chuck as much wood as a woodchuck could chuck, if a woodchuck could chuck wood.”
3. “A woodchuck would chuck all the wood, if a woodchuck only could.” 



This means that a woodchuck salesperson would chuck all the wood available to chuck. He’ll do it to survive. In the present, that will be the incentive. 

And, he’ll look for the wood. Most woodchucks are solitary independent critters. They do not rely on other woodchucks except for alerts to danger. They take care of themselves. That’s their character and personality. 

Of course with incentives (wood) and direction (location), woodchucks would chuck as much as they could chuck - perhaps even all of it.

from another perspective ...


“As much wood as a woodchuck would ...”

We need to make sure that we’ve got the right woodchucks - ones that ‘would’ chuck wood.

Some woodchucks are lazy while others are unreliable or without a sense of personal responsibility. Some of them might sleep all day or just sit by the hole, and when you ask them about it, they’ll just act like they couldn’t find any wood. 

"If they only could” might refer to their upbringing and the leadership they get - especially from older and wiser woodchucks. I know some woodchucks who often wander away from the hole in any ole direction. With direction and an internal motivation to provide for themselves and their family, OUR woodchuck(s) can receive what they need, knowledge, direction, and skills, to develop into industrious and dependable producers and providers. 

So, in summary, let’s strive to find the right woodchucks, ones that want to learn and and then let’s give them direction, coaching, and a reason to do what it takes.  Lance.

Coaching MAXIMUM PRODUCTIVITY

Ah ... maximum productivity and results???  The driven question.

Results come from activities.  Activities leading to results are steps in a system.  A system contains a person working a process with its tools and skills. 

And, the system is driven by beliefs and attitudes.  Do we want something?  Do we value excellence?  Do we see something in danger?  Are we personally responsible for someone?  Is it a competition?  What motivates us toward maximum productivity? ... an end result.

The firemen in New York were very motivated.  They sacrificed themselves, their sleep, and their lives for the lives of others during 9/11.

Coach Walton never talked about winning and hardly ever about the end result.  He coached his players toward weightier matters - learning to give their best for the benefit of teammates, fans, the university - and striving to get better each day.  In the long run, this internal motivating clock works better that pounding on oneself or other for RESULTS.  Maximum productivity happens when IT matters.

[1st - Start with the goal.]
Are your salespeople emotionally connected to IT?  Does IT NEED to be done in a certain time frame?  Why?  What’s the impact of not reaching the goal?  What’s the impact of reaching the goal?

[2nd - What’s the plan?] Have they planned out the way, the actions and strategies, and the achievement of their sales goals?  Have they established, with your help, a step-by-step process?  Have they sought counsel (advice)?  Do they know how they will measure progress?  What will they delegate?  How will they prepare each day?  What training will they need?  What new skills will they develop as habits?

[3rd - Do the plan.] Get them to work on focus, perseverance, work ethic, and other character traits that will help them accelerate their progress.  Build new skills’ muscles into habits.

[4th - Monitor and Measure.] Measure progress.  Keep track of productivity.  Know the score, sales-to-date, profit, etc.

[5th - Adjust.] When appropriate, coach them to change the goal’s time frame.  Change what they measure.  Together, make changes to the plan, and, if IT loses IT’s meaning, change the goal.

[6th - Celebrate.] Celebrate all along the way - when a person emotionally connects to a responsibility (goal), gains confidence from a plan, improve their work ethic (or some other part of themselves), makes progress, or when a person makes corrective changes.  Hi five. Keep looking forward.  Forget about the strikeouts.  Teach them to learn from the swings they take, and to strive to get better each day.  And, if you care, push them to their limits.  Lance.

Social Drive in GREAT Salespeople

Research scientists have found “Social Drive” to be a core characteristic for high performing sales reps.  The scientists who create validated personality profiles may use different terms for being socially engaged. 

Salespeople who are driven socially will want to be out among people in networking events. They love to go toward people - especially if their social confidence is high.  Top performing reps ‘need’ social interaction with people for ANY of the following reasons ...
- Competitive drive
- Recognition
- Emotional connection
- Word bantering (talking)
- Goal drive (money: another core trait driving a great salesperson to ‘go be social’)

This rings especially true for high activity salespeople with sales cycles of 10 minutes to 90 days. The best of these work hard at continuously bringing new prospects into the top of their funnels. It is less true for major accounts salespeople. While the best large account reps do prospect and network, it is less on a grand flat horizon and more on a targeted and strategic basis.

The type of social networks that salespeople participate in most varies.
- Chamber events
- Industry trade shows
- Sporting events
- Sport’s teams for young people, i.e. Little League Baseball (many kid’s coaches are salespeople)
- Formalized business networking groups
- Theatrical performances
- Business networking groups

(Additional note: High-activity salespeople often have a low detail orientation and a disdain for step-by-step process, and we can help their sales performance with coaching suggestions for consistency in social networking.)

If a salesperson’s social drive is low, you may see the following behaviors.
• Waiting on prospects to come to them.
• Going home after a 9 - 5 day, done, finished.
• Procrastinating follow up activities.
• Avoiding social interaction at gatherings.
• Preferring to do detail work during prime prospecting time.

Regarding other professions, I think it’s easy for all of us NOT to think of engineers and accountants as socially driven. And, the research bears this out.  Most are not.  And, while we can all think of someone who breaks the mold, the bell shaped curve of people in these ‘analysis and thinking’ professions shows them not as likely to ‘socialize.’ (They actually have to remove themselves from social activity to recharge their energy. Doing things social drains their life battery.) And, that’s my oldest son, Matt, the mechanical engineer. Other family members can socialize, FOREVER.

Make sure the profile you use provides a percentage range (1-100) that show social drive intensity.  High-activity salespeople naturally reside in the upper range.  They prospect with less stress especially with high amounts of goal-orientation and social confidence.  (see craftprofiles).  Recruit with greater certainty and choose social drive as a top trait for great performing salespeople. Lance

Goal-Orientation in GREAT Salespeople

Goal-Orientation: Personality Trait #1 in High-Activity Salespeople (for sales cycles less than 90 days)

Is your team motivated to achieve timely results or to steadily pass the day?

TARGETS • OBJECTIVES • SALES
When salespeople achieve their numbers, CASH FLOWS .......
and, businesses thrive.  Owners hear the streaming sound of profits reach the bottom of a healthy income statement.  They love that sound!

Driven salespeople (racehorses) who consistently achieve their numbers are naturally goal-oriented.  They find enough prospects in the time required.  They set and hold the right amount or appointments.  They present a high enough number of quotes to reach their sales goals, and then start the cycle again.

Goal-Orientation combined with Social Drive (Trait #2) leads to more prospecting.  A person networks and attends social events for the purpose of lead generation.  They make things happen with networking activity and by attending events for prospecting reasons.  They keep their sales funnel FULL.

What if a salesperson has a low goal-orientation?  What if they do not look at their progress - and just work at a steady pace?  Do you think this would affect sales?  Of course, it would.  It’s common sense.

What if a salesperson does not like to socialize (low social drive) and prefers working alone?  Have you ever noticed that office parking lots do not contain cars belonging to great salespeople? 

Top performers, with short sales cycles, do not sit in offices.  They RACE for the tape.

They get out of the office and into the lives of potential customers. 

Excellent personality profiles show levels of Goal-Orientation, Social Drive, Social Confidence, and a Need to Control.  These four traits, anchored by Goal-Orientation, produce top performers with drive and energy.  Salespeople with high levels of these personality traits NATURALLY produce more.

Imagine this.  You hire a salesperson who keeps track of their progress during the month.  They always know how much they’ve sold and how much they need to sell.  They realize that it takes ‘x’ number of quotes and ‘y’ number of appointments to get enough sales each and EVERY month.  And, they love this kind of activity.  They love it.  They love being in the race.  And, you’re the sales manager.  What would that feel like?

Recruit them and use a personality profile to help you spot them. (see craftprofiles)
We’d love to help you.  Lance

Why Personality Profiles?

TAKES THE GUESSWORK OUT OF RECRUITING ...

Increase your ODDS of finding a great salesperson or sales manager by 10-15 times over traditional methods of interviewing and reference checking.  Use a validated personality profile to decrease hiring mistakes - mistakes that cost $8,000 - $200,000 per poor hire. 

For twenty years, we have used personality profiles to make hiring decisions with greater accuracy.  They have also made selecting a top performer easier.  As a result, our confidence has increased along with sales team production and retention.

We want to help you with our profiling expertise.  And, we want to keep you away from a reliance on a ‘seat-of-the-pants’ interview - statistically worth less than 2% in making a good hiring decision.

Select GREAT Salespeople
Let’s keep it simple.  A great salesperson has the natural ability to do enough of the following activities ...

FIND PROSPECTS
HOLD APPOINTMENTS
CLOSE SALES

Use a personality profile.  Quickly determine if a person naturally possesses the personality to do these skills well.  In other words, does the salesperson have the personality to handle these skill areas?  And, at what ‘power level’ can they do them?

Find Prospects.  Does the candidate have enough social drive and goal-orientation to get out among people and find prospects?  Do they have the social confidence to approach these people and build relationships?  Will they assert themselves.  Will they continually prospect to reach their goals?  A personality profile predicts a candidate’s ability to naturally find prospects and network.

Hold Appointments.  Will the candidate pick up the phone and make appointments?  Do they have enough goal drive and social confidence to do this on an ongoing basis?  Will they set enough appointment each week?  Will they seek to control the sale process or will they allow the prospect to control it?  Do they have the social confidence to present well?

Close Sales. Will they quote enough business?  Will they ask for the business?  Will they fight to get enough business completed to reach their sales goal?  Will they ask about next steps?  Will they follow up in order to win sales?  Will manage time and activities to get results?  Will they want or desire to reach performance objectives?

We want you to lower the ramp up time to acceptable production.  We want you to increase the selection and retention of great salespeople.  We want to help you use a personality profile as a recruiting tool - one of several steps to make better hiring decisions.  We want to make you a conscious competent with a great recruiting tool - a personality profile.  (see craftprofiles)

And, we want your coaching confidence to heighten with a better understanding of one new recruit vs. another.

Select GREAT Sales Managers
Great salespeople do not always make great sales managers.  Do you have someone that has the right makeup for this change in position?  A personality profile can help you with this crucial sales team move or outside hiring decision.

A great sales manager must possess the natural instincts to ...
Prospect for great salespeople
Plan sales team goal achievement
Know people as individuals
Manage sales processes - confronting and coaching performance of sales activities and face-to-face skills
Build teams and recognize achievement

Use a profile to determine a person’s strengths and weaknesses in these areas.  Will they prospect and network for great salespeople?  Will they focus on enough detail to plan goal achievement, sales meetings, etc.?  Will they care about their people?  Will they learn about their unique characteristics.  Will they confront poor behavior?  Or, will they give away praise and recognition?  Will they build teams?

Great salespeople oftentimes do not naturally posses the traits of great sales managers.  Goal achievement WILL NOT be pegged at the top of the scale in a great manager.  Sales managers must value step-by-step processes at some level.  Their personality will also require enough patience to plan and to analyze.  And, yet, this level of detail must not be so high that they are not active with their people and driven to get results.  Sales managers must not become paralyzed by analysis.

And, a great sales manager will give away praise and recognition.  They will not possess too great a need for praise themselves. 

Personality profiles are great at predicting if a person possesses the traits of a great salesperson or manager ... so let’s get started making better, easier, and more confident hiring selections NOW.  Please read through this post several times.  There’s much to be absorbed here.  Thanks, Lance.

The Makeup of Great Sales Trainers

“What makes a GREAT sales trainer? Ah ... the makeup ... personality? character? talent? skills? knowledge? attitudes and beliefs!!!!

Attitudes and beliefs make up the most important part of a great sales trainer’s makeup. They frame what a sales trainer decides to learn, how the trainer applies knowledge, and what results the trainer strives to accomplish. 


I’m going to put these attitudes and beliefs in yes or no question form to simulate a picture of a great sales trainer. And, I’m going to put the questions in order of importance. 



Does the trainer: 

1. ”Care about the needs of those being trained?” 
[If so, they will be discovered and acted upon prior to, during, and after training.] 



2. “Believe that people can get better?"(that the participants have what it takes.) 
[If so, that belief will be transferred during and after training. People will be inspired.] 



3. “Believe that people motivate themselves?” 
[Trainers put together an environment in which people want to get better.] 



4. “Believe that failure is an ingredient in giving your best as people strive to grow?” 
[If so, the trainer will present with humility and people will pursue getting better with less fear.] 



5. “Believe that teams are more important than individuals?” 
[Great trainers will get people working together on sales issues and team goal achievement. They will model respect for the individual and respect for the team. They will teach salespeople to learn from each other and to help each other - especially in the training room.] 



6. “Believe that processes lead to goal achievement?” 
[If so, the great sales trainer will cover the three most important process areas for great salespeople ... (1) Goal Achievement Planning; (2) Activity Management; (3) Face-to-Face Skills. The tools and skills of these process areas will be customized to the company.] 



7. “Believe in following up training for the purpose of goal achievement and skill building. 

[The great trainer designs reinforcement sessions and on-the-field coaching by sales managers to make sure new habits form which lead to sales goal achievement.] 



Note: Bad trainers care about themselves before others - how they look and how they sound. They don’t care if people get better. They just want to get paid for the training. They seek to manipulate the emotions of people for their own gain. And, they do not care about teamwork. Followup is nonexistent and that’s what they are after the training.  Nonexistent.  Lance.

The Impact of a Product Knowledge Focus

Can product knowledge get in the way?  YES! 



A friend and past mentor, Ron Willingham, once told me that all salespeople sell with some type of focus.  That focus can be one of these ...

- Product focus
- Quota focus 

- Ego focus 

- Value focus 



A “product focus” causes a salesperson to wax on eloquently about product features and perhaps benefits that have no bearing on the needs of the person being sold. Oftentimes, sales training is really product training.  The trainer teaches product information and does not teach salespeople how to identify needs, problems, or wants filled for new customers.  As a result, sales trainees do not develop good questions to use during a face-to-face meeting that bring these out. 



A “quota focus” causes a salesperson to see the prospect as no. 4, or no. 8, or no. etc… or as some amount of sales dollars. This focus keeps the salesperson from understanding needs or even knowing the prospect’s name. It also causes the veins to bulge out in his neck as he attempts to close the sale under a quota pressure. 



An “ego focus” causes the salesperson to be preoccupied with looks, or pride, or what others think. As a result, this focus hinders a salesperson from caring about the prospect - their satisfaction or their needs.



Finally, the best focus is a “value focus,” through which the salesperson wants to exchange value in the transaction. The salesperson seeks to understand a prospect’s situation, needs, and problems relative to the prospect’s product or service purchase. The salesperson wants a fair exchange of value and wants the new customer to be delighted with a solved problem, filled need, or satisfied want. 



Let’s coach salespeople to sell with a value focus and not a product, quota, ego, or PRICE focus.  Lance.

A Talent Fit for Your Organization

Most companies do not know how to do find a “talent fit.” And, here are reasons why:

1. They do not know the top six traits in order of priority necessary for a good “fit.”
2. They do not look for the important character AND personality traits of a top performer.
3. They have not been trained to use a best practice recruiting system: funnel process, skills, and tools.
4. They do not think about how fast people need to ramp up - and the aptitude necessary for success.

How do we find the traits we require for a high-activity salesperson (as opposed to a major accounts sales team)?
1st ... Identify the top character traits: - Honesty - Personal Responsibility - Hard Work Ethic Next, know the top personality traits that align with prospecting, closing, presentation, and high activity.  They are: Goal-Orientation, Social Confidence, Social Drive

[For free, here’s a brainstorming process for determining the character and personality traits required for your sales position 1. Ask current managers, “What are the major changes in the last 1-2 years affecting sales (flip chart)?” 2.  “What are the challenges of the job position as a result of these changes (flip chart)?” 3.  “What actions need to be done to meet the challenges (flip chart)?” 4. “What will be the traits of high performance salespeople who can meet today’s challenges? in this position?] ”

2nd ... Sourcing Methods ... Find best sources for candidates most likely to fit the character and personality traits targeted.
3rd ... Recruiting Funnel Process Stage One: Screening (resumes, by phone: 5-12 minutes, by email, references) Stage Two: Personality Profiling (with EEO validated CraftProfile see http://www.craftprofiles.com) Also, Oxford Learning Inventory for learning style (also see http://www.craftprofiles.com) Stage Three: Structured Interviewing (a interviewer-scored 100 point questionnaire structured to look for the character and personality traits)
4th ... Recruiting Process Tools and Skills (all of which should work toward identifying the necessary character and recruiting skills)
- Phone screening scripts
- Resume screening skills
- Profile analysis
- Interviewing skills
- Matching sheets showing +’s and -’s with regards to character and personality traits desired

... Recently, we installed this type of recruiting system in a company whose industry is showing a 22% drop year-to-date in sales.  This company is presently 18% up year-to-date in sales, primarily due to recruiting more effectively right “talent fits” for their company. So, work at using the ideas you find helpful in the post.  And ... Do GREAT.  Lance.

The Challenge of Door to Door

What a great training ground for a sales professional ... Door-to-door sales will stretch your sensitivity to rapport building in many ways, and it will require you to learn to make compelling presentations, while captivating your audience in a variety of situations less than ideal.

I remember those days in the home - a few years of them.  As you drive up to the home, you look for the personality of the homeowners in the property’s appearance (you may find conversation openers there as well) ... is it messy, is it extremely neat, are their flowers, color, special features (swimming pool, deck) etc?  Also, when you knock on the door, you stand back away from it and turn your side to it - looking away, until they open the door. This lessens the fear they have of you, a stranger, standing very close to the door, facing it, and looking at them.

Rapport building will begin from the time the door opens until you leave the property. Door-to-door sales will help you learn to speed up for dynamos, slow down for thinkers, and to chat and talk with socialites. And, when it’s a couple, you learn to develop rapport with two people at the same time. 

You also learn to center your presentation on their needs, while learning to ask great questions prior to the presentation. Also, you learn to control the presentation setting - perhaps at the dining room table or in an area most conducive to your product demonstration or the advice you give.

I remember the Southwest Bible salespeople - young college kids selling door-to-door during the summer ... learning to ask for referrals to other neighborhood doors.  Through the door-to-door experience they became good.  Many went on to great careers as salespeople.  The challenge of door-to-door sales makes a terrific proving ground.  It builds heart and mind muscle for those who learn from it.  Always respect those who go door-to-door.  Lance [Note: An absolutely great movie to watch is William H. Macy’s performance in Door to Door (2002) ... http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0274468/ or, ]http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0274468/]

Stimulating Competition or Pursuing Greatness?

The following may be a little controversial. However I do not intend to be divisive… just a little weird or unusual about the subject of competition. Alfie Kohn wrote a book several years ago. I believe it was called, “No Contest: the Case Against Competition.” His heavily researched work concluded that competition was unhealthy no matter how many sales managers decry the thought. (By the way, I love to WIN with the best of them. L.)

In my studies of all coaches with three (3) national championships or more ... very few focused on creating a healthy competitive climate within the team ... so few in fact, at present, I cannot remember one who did. Instead they worked to form incredibly strong bonds between the players in the struggle to give their best, on the field or on the floor, for the benefit of others ... while striving to get better each day.

In the last twenty (20) plus years, I discovered that I can inspire others and I cannot motivate them. I can create a ‘climate’ in which people release their own achievement drive for the benefit of others.

I’ve also discovered that competition lies naturally in the hearts of salespeople, but teamwork doesn’t. And, I’ve learned that teamwork focused on excellence is in the long-term more productive than competition flamed within the ranks. So, I’ve been able to lead sales teams in breaking records with a mature focus on personal goals and team goals. I’ve done this by building emotional meaning into those goals for themselves, their families, and their companies. And, if I’ve recruited well, each of the teams I’ve led have formed strong bonds very much like that of a family. I’ve also learned to teach salespeople to cheer for other salespeople, to encourage them, and share celebrations at team meetings.

Eleven companies, out of 1400, made the cut in “Good to Great” by Jim Collins. In each, a disciplined and relationship-centered company of people focused on striving for excellence - without finger pointing or dancing in the end zone. These companies quietly and incrementally improved for years without flaming out or having mass exits and without depending upon charismatic leaders or lesser motivational forces.

I believe a competitive nature exists. It exists as a spiritual energy - to be harnessed for men and women to fight TOGETHER against the forces of mediocrity and those issues that impede personal and team goal achievement.

Some Sales Planning Basics

Some Basics ... Sales blocking and tackling stuff (use anything that will help you or your people) ...

The following information contains questions and comments that will help your salespeople develop new business.  They will also help create a value-focused attitude and sales tools for what you provide ... 


Ask these questions ...

1st - “Do you believe in your ability to deliver value to customers or clients?” Yes or No. 
(If you get past this one, continue. If not, do something else.) 

2nd - “Do you believe that people exist who need what you have?” 
(If you get past this one, continue. If not, do something else.) 


3rd - “What typical situations do these people face?” 

4th - “What needs and problems do they have as they face their situation?” 

5th - “What do needs/problems cost people in terms of $$ or emotional impact?” 

6th - “What typical solutions do you provide?” 

7th - “What will $$ or emotional impact will your solution bring?” 

Now, answer all of these questions on a piece of paper. 


Then, have your people do these exercises:

Help them develop three (3) tools from these questions. 

- Tool #1 ... a 30 sec. statement about what you do, who you do it for, and what typical benefits you provide. 

- Tool #2 ... an approach letter that they can mail out that asks for an appointment and explains what’s in Tool #1. 

- Tool #3 ... a set of open-ended questions that start with: who, what, where, when, why, how, describe, tell, or explain ... that when asked of prospects gets them talking about the typical situation, needs, and problems you listed in #4 above. You will use these questions when in front of prospects and you may use one or two of them when at networking events. 



Next, decide what people, vertical markets, or companies you will put on a prospecting list. List all the companies on a sheet of paper and get any information you can about who makes decisions about what you sell.  Or, when you call, simply ask the question, “Who makes decisions about ‘x.’”


Suggestions:

Now ... 

1. Join a Business Networking International group to exchange leads for prospecting. 

2. Join the Chamber of Commerce and get to know people who can give you leads to prospect. You will also meet small business owners there. 

3. Mail out ten (10) approach letters (tool #2 above) each week and call these people each week for an appointment. Read Bill Goods, “Prospecting Your Way to Sales Success” to learn what to say when you call - use a script as a basic building block to work from. 

4. Also, mail out the approach letter to referrals you receive when networking (mentioning the name of the person who gave you the referral).
5. Cold call (telephone: see Bill Good’s book above) or cross residential or company thresholds cold if you have to in the early part of your career.  

6. When you go on appointments, ask permission to ask your questions (tool #3 above).  Tell the prospect that you want to understand their present situation to see if there are need and problems you can help. Ask your questions, take notes, paraphrase your understanding and, if they have needs and problems you can help, ask to set a 2nd appointment to get back to them with a customized proposal.  If the solution is complex, and other buying influencers are present, then set appointments with them and ask them questions as well.

7. Set an appointment to present your solution and its investment. 

8. Count on doing 3 presentations to get one sale when thinking about your income. 



These basic exercises and suggestions will remove salespeople from the role of “snake-oil salesperson.” They help people work with high integrity and on the needs and problems of others. They’re just basic.  (Also read: Ron Willingham’s “Integrity Selling.” It’s one of those ‘basically“ good sales books.) Any of the above can be expanded and made better.  Do it.  Great selling. Lance.

Courage in Sales

Please tell me about a personal example in sales when you had to have courage to ‘keep on keepin’ on.

Here’s mine.  More than twenty years ago, I was faced with the following. I was two or more payments behind on my house and I had received the proverbial registered letter.  It basically said that I was going to lose the farm unless I sold something. And, at the same time, I was face-to-face with the real culprit, me. Yes me. My work ethic was bad. My courage was low. And, I was about to fail my lovely bride and children.

I had quit my job and I was trying to sell for the first time in my life without knowing anyone in business or without even knowing what a cold call looked like.  My office was in my bathroom and sometimes others needed it for more than my typewriter and I had to leave.  During the day, I would make cold calls out of the City Directory to sales managers (while sitting in a Holiday Inn using thei guest telephone).  I still remember the first appointment leading to a sale.

I was afraid, in danger of losing my home, uncertain, and intimidated by people who knew a lot more about business than I did.  But, by the grace of God, I survived and appeared on the other side as a new person.  Kept the farm.  Kept the family.  Built a business.  I will never forget.  Hope this helps someone.  Now, go and make things better.  This is about as personal as I can get.  Lance

Sales Ratios: Areas to Measure?

When the sales cycle is greater than ninety (90) days and begins to move toward six (6) months or greater, the closing rate is an unimportant way to manage sales performance. In these longer sales cycles, it is more important to manage the funnel size and to focus on strategies not activities (please reference Neil Rackman’s research in his book “Managing Major Account Sales"). 

For shorter sales cycles, ninety (90) days or less, activity ratios become very important and should be focused on for sales goal achievement. And, in these high activity sales teams, the following ratios are: 



1st Appointments to Quotes (or presentations) 
- This is the Opportunity Ratio and tells a person how qualified are their prospects. A higher rate means a pool of more highly qualified prospects who have needs and problems that the salesperson can help with their service or product. This measures the effectiveness of a salesperson converting 1st appointments into presentations (quotes), and is generally affected by the quality of the prospect and a salesperson’s ability to get the prospect to agree to a presentation based on existing needs and problems. 



Quotes (or presentations) to Sales 
- This is the traditional Closing Ratio, and measures the effectiveness of a salesperson’s face-to-face skills at the end of the sales cycle. In Major Account selling, the sales manager is not effective being thrown in toward the end of the sales cycle. In High Activity selling, i.e. short sales cycles, the sales manager is effective at the end of the cycle. He can help the salesperson with closing sales. (Note: If the sales cycle averages several days and can be as long as ninety (90) days, then one must look at these ratios over a year’s period of time to truly understand what they are.)

How do you track these?  Better still ... how to your salespeople track these?  And, remember, in Major Account Sales, manage the funnel size and the sales strategies for movement in the funnel.  Celebrate the advances.  Now, go and make things better.  You can.  Lance.