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Understanding the Sales Force
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Two things are very clear from my post earlier this week on ultimatums. - All the readers who observed that ultimatums are not necessary if sales managers are doing the right things are correct. But Objective Management Group's data from tens of thousands of sales management evaluations show that fewer than 15% of all sales managers come anywhere close to spending enough time and having the required skills to consistently coach, develop, motivate, inspect, measure, train and hold their salespeople accountable. So yeah, in theory, ultimatums aren't necessary and you can rely on the myth that salespeople are self-starters who don't need to be managed. Tell that to the sales manager with 12 remote salespeople. In reality, the ultimatum is a powerful weapon that allows a sales manager to gain back some degree of control over performance.
- Those of you who commented also approach the ultimatum with the same degree of comfort that you might have for embracing a skunk ready to cover you with some of the most long-lasting stench of a liquid known to man. You would sooner put up with or terminate an under achiever than put yourself through the discomfort of an ultimatum.
Next we are going to perform some algebra. Do you remember expressions like 40 is to 8 as x is to 5 where x = 25? Then ultimatum is to x as confront is to deal with issues. The words ultimatum and confrontation scare the shit out of most of you but, in reality, an ultimatum is simply a conversation with an underperforming salesperson where you reset expectations and let them know the consequences for failing to meet those expectations. Confronting is when a salesperson deals with issues created by their prospect or customer.
Now how do you feel about ultimatums? (c) Copyright 2008 Dave Kurlan
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Suppose you deliver an ultimatum to a salesperson...
Suppose you deliver it to the entire sales force...
How would you expect them to react?
Is it predictable?
It is if you break it down by A's, B's and C's.
Ultimatums are embraced by A's - they thrive on the pressure, the challenge, the urgency of it all.
Ultimatums will provide the answer to the question, "can my B's become A's?"
Ultimatums will accelerate the process by which your C's leave.
One more thing about ultimatums - they don't work. UNLESS:
- Expectations are clear;
- The "how" is clear;
- You support them as needed;
- They get the coaching they need;
- They get the training they need;
- They receive the development they need;
- Accountability is tightened up;
- They are committed to the end result;
- You are committed to the end result.
What do you think about ultimatums?
(c) Copyright 2008 Dave Kurlan
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Tags: Selling, Sales Force, sales competencies, sales assessment, sales evaluation, salesforce, sales personaility, improve sales, FLIC, PENTA, sales model, closing percentage
Every company, with or without a salesforce, has a selling model. I know of one company whose model is "we don't believe in sales". It works for them, but it won't work for many others. What happens when you force yourself into a model? My wife did that with her company. She is a very driven, gifted, caring, giving, talented, brilliant, effective, successful leader, entrepreneur, philanthropist and marketer. Because of that rare combination of attributes and talents, she is in demand as a speaker, board member, fund-raiser, volunteer, and champion. In addition to being the CEO of her company, she is also the chair of the non-profit she founded, the incoming chair of a non-profit on whose board she sits and the vice-chair of the local chamber of commerce board. She is a terrific wife and mom to our son, who is frequently mentioned in this Blog. When you add up all of those important responsibilities and learn that she is also the only salesperson for her company, how much time do you suppose that leaves for selling? Exactly. So her selling model is a combination of self-imposed time limitations, along with a strong need to be selective and effective. When she meets with a potential client, there is business to be done! What happens when you compare a model like Deborah's - if you're gonna go hunting you'd better come back with dinner - with a model that has its salespeople making 3 sales calls per day, or around 60 per month? Do you think those salespeople come back with 60 new customers or orders per month? No chance! They probably sell 10. That's why they're on so many calls. What would happen if you told those salespeople that you only wanted them to go on 30 calls per month, but you want them to be a lot more selective, and you expected them to close 50% instead of 10%? I'll tell you what would happen, your A players would close 50% of them and your B's would probably get 33% (the original 10 deals with half the work and half the resources). Your C's? Same as today - they'd still fail to get the 10 you needed. You need to develop your B's and replace your C's. The only problem is that you aren't really able to identify who your A's, B's and C's are. You think you can but you're measuring them by the dollars they produce, the worst possible measurement of potential, because the dollars are not necessarily the result of their efforts today as much as the dollars may be the result of their previous efforts or the efforts of others over time. If you want to learn how to truly learn your ABC's, engage me, send me an email or leave me a comment. We'll talk. (c) Copyright 2008 Dave Kurlan
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Tags: Selling, Sales Force, sales competencies, sales assessment, sales training, sales effectiveness, sales process, sales evaluation, salesforce, sales excellence, sales system, sales compensation, IDC, Xactly, Avitage, Landslide, Savo
If you are like me, you're receiving email invitations to attend webinars at the rate of 10 to 20 per day. And you're getting the exact same invitations every single day from the exact same companies. And some of them promise the solution to all of your sales problems - sales excellence solutions. Take a look at the invitations I received today alone! - IDC - Sales Advisory Service (they provide research reports and hold seminars where they report on their research and provide sales enablement advice)
- Savo Group (their tag line is "never sell alone" - they tap into your sales teams' knowledge and make it available on demand)
- Xactly (they have online applications that optimize compensation and incentives)
- Landslide (they have the best sales workstyle management application so that your salespeople follow your process and enter the appropriate sales cycle information to produce the reports you need to see)
- Avitage (they provide central storage for and an application for taking the visual and audio nuggets and putting just the right message together so that your salespeople deliver the email/web message that you want them to)
I may not have their messaging the way they want it but it's my sense of what they do. But their webinar announcements all promise to improve sales effectiveness. Can they? Do they? What do you think of when you hear that you can increase or improve sales effectiveness? What they can't do is make your salespeople any more competent, although Savo and Avitage might disagree. They can't make your salespeople any more motivated although Xactly might disagree. And they can't make them any more effective, although Landslide might disagree. All of these applications are systems which optimize and improve efficiencies, standardization, attention to details, access to information, and how to use the information you get. They don't train and develop your salespeople and the only way to make them better is through evaluation, training and development. Evaluation identifies all of the people, systems and strategy issues that need to be addressed. Training is the process by which skills are transferred while development is the process by which their strengths are developed and weaknesses overcome. If you train and develop your people and then utilize these services then yes, you'll improve sales excellence. These application are far more effective when you've already worked with a sales force development expert, developed a sales process and developed your salespeople. Then these applications can be aligned with true best practices, as opposed to the practices in place prior to development.
I can tell you first hand how good Landslide is - I use it and recommend it to all of my clients. I can tell you first hand how insightful Lee Levitt, the IDC Sales Advisory practice Director, is. I have met Lee and read his articles. I met Jim Burns from Avitage and saw his demo but haven't used the application yet. I spoke with someone from Savo Group and saw their demo but haven't used the application yet. And I haven't met or spoken with anyone from Xactly yet. What really creates sales excellence? No one thing - ever. A combination of things - always. (c) Copyright 2008 Dave Kurlan
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Tags: Selling, Sales Force, sales coaching, Economy, sales assessment, sales motivation, sales accountability, sales performance, sales, sales evaluation, salseforce
I was interviewed on two different radio shows today. Jim Lobaito interviewed me about the impact that the economy is having on sales on his weekly business show and David Leopold interviewed me for his live Internet radio show, Let's Talk Small Business.
I agree to these interviews and post often to the blog because I believe that in this economy we need to constantly raise expectations, set the proper, positive mindset, provide increased coaching, step up our accountability and upgrade our sales forces. It is our responsibility to do what we can to fire up the economy by getting our salespeople to sell more effectively and stimulate the flow of money. Are you doing your part by turning others onto this blog and others like it? Are you sharing?
I've been interviewed dozens upon dozens of times and Leopold's interview was the best. His great questions got me talking about things I don't usually get to talk about. unfortunately, when I clicked the link to the show, it was the most amateur presentation I've seen to date. There was a video of a partially obscured David Leopold, sitting in a chair, holding the telephone up to a microphone. It's an extremely low quality, low volume, difficult to hear recording, yet it's some of the best 40 minutes you'll hear of me! If you want to give it a look/listen you can find it here. Today (11/12/08) it's the first listing on his site but if you're finding this post at some point in the future you'll have to find it down the list which is sorted by most recent. Let me know what you think...
(c) Copyright 2008 Dave Kurlan
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