Disciplines: 11 of 21 – Teach them to really listen.

 

Everybody talks about the importance of listening, but few people ever hear anything.  Most sales reps are so anxious to either get their pitch out or want to answer a question before it is finished being asked, that they never really “absorb” the question.  A good rule to follow is for them to wait three seconds before answering, even if they know the answer.  That at least gives the impression they’re listening.  And they actually may think of another, and maybe better, response during the pause!

Listening well is a skill that can be learned.  But for most salespeople, it is very difficult because they have developed a habit of talking and not listening.  Here’s an exercise you can try during one of your training sessions:

Have one of your reps try to sell your product to another rep.  They get one sentence to introduce themselves and the company.  The rest of the sale must be made with questions.  The questions need to be built upon the answers given by the rep playing the part of the prospect.  For it to work your “prospect” has to be interested in your product and not try to sabotage the exercise.  This practice will not only work to strengthen your sales reps’ listening skills, it will also sharpen their questioning skills.

Listening and questioning really go hand-in-hand.  How do you know what to ask if you haven’t heard what the other person is saying?

Part-Time Sales Management

 

Week  10 – 21 Disciplines

Learn, practice or drill a sales lesson every day.

 

You never see a major league baseball player skip batting practice on game day.  And many of those players make millions of dollars.  Professional golfers hit the practice range with a coach before the start of every tournament round.  Professionals know they can never stop practicing and honing their game.  Top sales professionals know this as well.  That’s why they constantly practice and refine their sales skills so they’re ready to help move any sale along at a moment’s notice.

We hold a sales training session every business day at our company.  We found that noon works best for us.  Lunch is allowed.  Usually no longer than 33 minutes. Monday through Thursday will typically be a lesson from this course and Friday will be something around product or industry training.  We also sign up for other sales trainer’s webinars on different topics.  Nobody knows everything.  Many times we will review and brainstorm a deal one of the sales reps is working on.  This is a really great practice to do for a few reasons:

• Lots of input gets people thinking in different ways.
• You can come up with new questions for the prospect.
• Newer reps learn from the more experienced reps.
• It can show where there are some areas of deficiency.

Another thing I found effective is having one of the senior reps deliver a sales training lesson on a topic with which they are familiar.  Not only will the lesson have credibility because it is coming from someone who was in their shoes, but it also reinforces the material and concepts for the presenter.

Emphasize to your reps that being a Professional Salesperson is a lifelong endeavor.  That to get to the top and stay is a continual practice.  A key to mastering any skill is to learn, practice and deliver every day.  Consistency is the cornerstone to building a winning sales team.

“Consistent practice brings mastery.” – George Leonard

Part-Time Sales Management

 

Week 9 – Poor sales forecasts make for a bad business climate.

Many reps will pad their sales forecast to make it look good to the boss. Obviously, this eventually fails.  On the other side of the coin, which is equally as bad, is the sales rep that will not put a prospect into their sales forecast because they don’t want to commit and then disappoint.  In their mind, if it is in the forecast then they are telling you the deal will happen.

Let your sales reps know it is called a forecast for a reason.  If everything in the forecast was guaranteed to close it would be called something other than a forecast.  It’s called a weather forecast because it’s the meteorologist’s best guess based on all the information they have from their scientific instruments.  It’s the same thing for your sales reps.  Let them know it is okay to make their best estimate of when, and for how much, the business in their pipeline will close based on what the prospect has committed to – the salespersons’ scientific instrument.  This is a key point. If you move to more of a buy cycle versus a sales cycle and base your forecast on actions and commitments the prospect has taken and made, then there is less room for your sales rep to put in an arbitrary number.

It’s really up to the sales manager to make sure the forecast is accurate and realistic; regardless if the news is good or not.  You need to take the time and go through each of your sales reps’ Top 10 list of prospects and/or forecast once per week and distill the real number.  A forecast should not be a surprise.

Part-Time Sales Management

Week 8 of 21 Disciplines – Focus on getting customers, not deals.

If you’re in a B2B business your growth will come from repeat business or recurring revenue from your existing customer base.  You can make questionable promises to close a single deal but that’s not how you build a business.  (Don’t forget, even if you don’t own the company or you are not the CEO, you need to approach the sales department like it is your business.)  Your sales reps should know in advance how satisfied your customers will be one month, or one year, after their first purchase.  They know this because they know what kind of company you are, how good your products and services are, and how good you are at standing behind everything you say and do.

Make sure your reps aren’t making promises your bank account or support team can’t keep.  It starts with you letting your reps know your company can’t realistically do some things just to get the deal, if you cannot.  And they need to know you are okay with that.  It may mean smaller short-term gains, but it translates into happier, longer-term customers and profits.

In my career I have had several long-term customers come back to me for additional purchases, because they knew what they would get:  The truth and an honest transaction.  Plus, they would often pay more because they Trusted me.  They learned from their first order, that if there was ever a problem with their product or service, or an opportunity for me to offer them a lower price or better terms, that I would work to get what I could for them.  It sometimes meant losing out on a particular deal because of budget constraints.  But I always know, with these particular customers, that if they have a need for something I can sell to them, and they have the money, they will make their purchase with me.   And that is exactly the kind of salesperson and sales team you want to build.

Part-Time Sales Management

Week 6 of 21 Disciplines – Documentation for every call.

Sales reps come and go.  You just don’t want them “going” with the knowledge of your prospects and customers notes, activities, contacts, meetings, etc., in their head never to be seen by your company again.  Whatever CRM or sales automation system you use, you need to make sure your reps use it religiously.  Every phone conversation, meeting, presentation, etc., needs to be documented in your system.   Additionally, it’s a good idea to send a Meeting Follow Up document after a presentation, strategy call or demo.  It should include who was present, what was discussed, and what the action items are for each party.  Make sure those items gets put in the CRM system as well. There is format you can use in Day 97 – The meeting follow up document.

A lot of companies and sales managers take enforcing this documentation policy, lightly.  I do not.  If it is not done, and done religiously and accurately, it costs me time and money.  I like both of those things.  It also conveys an attitude from your sales rep that says, “I am really only here for me.  I know what’s going on in the account.  If the deal doesn’t close while I work here, then it doesn’t matter to me.”  This Lone Ranger attitude should scare the heck out of you as the Sales Manager because it is symptomatic of deeper issues.  If your sales rep is not documenting every call and everything about the account:

• What else are they not doing?
• What are they really telling your customer of which you are not aware?
• What else are they promising?
• Are they telling the other sales reps they don’t have to do it either?

The real pain is when that rep is gone and you are left having to put together all the missing pieces.  Not only is this time (and thus money) consuming, it will also make you look bad to your customer if you have to call them to verify information.

I am being overly paranoid?  Maybe.  But I believe what Andy Grove, the former CEO of Intel, espoused as his motto and lived by:  Only the paranoid survive.

Part-Time Sales Management

Week 3 of 21 – Nurture a desire to be better than the competition.

Sales reps, like other professionals, need the drive to become the best at their craft.  With the web, eBooks, podcasts, email newsletters, etc., it is easy to find relevant, well-designed sales training.

No mistake about it, the top performing rep is the one who does not like to lose.  You want reps that hate losing to the competition and don’t do well at all with coming in second place.  You must instill the concept that “there is no money for second place in sales.”  Until they embrace this concept, they will never have a sense of urgency that is required for being a top producing sales rep.

I believe most of a person’s competitive nature comes naturally.  However, there things you can do to enhance that competitive spirit.

• Ring the bell! I love having a sales bell in the office.  When a sales rep makes a sale, they get to ring the bell.  I know it sounds corny or even immature, but it works.  Everyone wants to ring that bell.  And they want to ring it loud.  It is almost like yelling, hey, look at me. Your sales reps may work a bit harder and more competitively for the chance to make some noise in front of everyone.
• Loudly and publicly praise and glorify others’ success. Everyone wants to be acknowledged and praised in front of others.  Send out emails and announce in team meetings, how well the sales rep who is closing more business, is doing.  Envy can be a great motivator.
• Sales contests are great for developing internal competition. First, the prize needs to be something everyone wants.  (You usually can’t go wrong with money, but there are lots of other prizes.)  Make sure the rules are published, clear and not debatable.  If you fudge something in a contest such as allowing an order to count five minutes after the contest ends, you will lose all credibility.

Side note:  Winning and competitive attitudes are great to have from your sales reps, as long as they don’t point those fangs at their colleagues.  Yes, you can and should have internal sales contests.  However, efforts at winning the real prize must be directed at the prospect and the competition.

Part-Time Sales Management

Week 2 of 21 – Build a desire to learn and get better.

Sales reps, like other professionals, need the drive to become the best at their craft.  With the web, eBooks, podcasts, email newsletters, etc., it is easy to find relevant, well-designed sales training.  A lot of this training is free.  I offer free training videos at sales-getters.com.  They are summaries of the some of the lessons in this course.

You can do your part by providing an environment that is abundant with tools and by pointing them to the above resources.  The regularly scheduled training session is also a must.  You may get resistance at first, but the reps who want to succeed will come to demand these learn-and-grow sessions.  At our company we run sales training every business day at noon.  We usually don’t go longer than 33 minutes and it really helps develop the attitude of growing and getting better.

Next to the content, it is consistency that’s at the heart of getting better.  You probably know that it’s better for you to exercise or practice a musical instrument 30 minutes a day, rather than exercise or practice one day a week for three hours; or one day a month for 10 hours.  You lose your focus.  You lose it because you don’t use it.  With consistent practice, a ritual if you will, learning becomes a habit.  When you make sales training a habit, you’re always thinking like a salesperson.  And when that happens, your income accelerates.

While the lessons only take a few minutes to read, the rest of your 33-minute training session should be used to apply each lesson to your product and/or any sale on which you are currently working.  This typically works best with the sales manager leading the discussion and getting input from all the sales reps.

Fractional Sales Management