This is the 11th article in a January series on the Architecture of the Sales Force.  Here are the others:

• Organic Sales Growth and Its Impact on Sales Architecture
• Overlooked Conversation Between Sales Managers and Salespeople
• Do Technical Salespeople Need Sales Training?
• Why Doesn't Sales Methodology Get More Attention?
• Getting a Sales Organization to Buy-In to Sales Training
• Marketing and Sales Feedback Loop Can Help You Grow
• Five Things VP’s Must Do To Insure Sales Enablement Has Impact
• Sales Execution - What Should You Pay Attention To?
• You May Be Expecting Too Much From Sales Training When...

In a recent conversation with a CEO, we discussed his use of CRM.  While his intention was to increase focus and visibility into new business development, the primary usage had become tracking client and delivery activities on large, existing projects.  Little attention was paid to tracking the flow and evolution of new opportunities.

In his case, significant non-sales events had diverted his attention.  Because his business was driven by large long-term projects, profitability and cash flow had stayed positive.

Last week, during a Sales Recruiting program, we discussed reasons why the recruiting and startup process failed to work.  I asked the management team whether their CRM system tracks the internal milestones needed to do business with someone, or a sales process that leads to a prospect wanting to buy from them.  After some silence, they acknowledged that it was the former.

These scenarios illustrate ways in which CRM is misused and underused.  While sales technology tools have grown significantly in the last several years and companies are investing in them, it is important to look at adoption, usage, and most importantly, outcomes.

What are some of the desired outcomes of using a CRM platform?

• Better data on the status of opportunities,
• Greater accuracy of forecasting,
• Retaining institutional knowledge on clients and prospects,
• More accurate metrics and KPI’s,
• Insight into the sales process,
• Sales Coaching,
• Increased productivity, and
• Earlier adjustments to strategy.

Most salespeople won’t optimize their efforts without proactive debriefing and strategy development.  In virtually all cases, this requires the sales leader.  Well-planned, adopted and utilized CRM is necessary for this.

I reached out to our partners at Membrain, a world-class CRM tool, for their thoughts. Recently, they were named Best Sales CRM in the 2013 Top Sales Awards.

Leadership adoption is critical.  This doesn’t mean just talking about the virtues and critical reasons for using CRM.  In the movie “We Were Soldiers”, Mel Gibson tells his troops that the paratroopers have a rule: the officer is always the first one out of the plane.  If sales leadership uses the tool daily, the team will be more inclined and encouraged to do so.  If the CEO uses it and makes this known, people will pay attention.  However, if leadership fails to do this, the initiative will very likely fail.

Many salespeople don’t make the connection between using CRM and it’s value.  They see it as an unnecessary burden.  Much of this derives from their often unstructured and non-detailed styles.  Leadership has to work tirelessly to close this gap and show the salespeople that it’s not just a reporting tool.  All efforts should go toward ensuring that it helps the sales team execute the sales strategy, follow their process, get better coaching and win more profitable and satisfied clients.

It must be incredibly easy to use.  When used properly, it will impact their workday tremendously.  It cannot be an obstacle for the sales people.

It can't be seen as stand-alone software, it needs to tie into and support the overall sales strategy, reinforce the training programs and encourage best-practice behavior.

Visibility and awareness are crucial.  Salespeople need to know the rules and have a clear, accurate picture of where they stand.  Combining this with healthy competition helps.  Spend time discussing with your team (group and individually) what the conversion ratios are, what the optimum sales cycle is, who is getting traction quickly and who’s moving opportunities through the process more consistently.  Send out daily updates, based on your observations of the data.

For those of you who may be interested in learning more about being an effective sales leader, our expert team at Kurlan & Associates is presenting an upcoming, complimentary webinar on February 5:  "Leading Your Ideal Sales Force - Part 1" at 11:00AM Eastern Time.  Please do consider registering.

Last week, I was at the Dallas Vistage International Conference.  When I checked into the hotel, there was a group of little girls dressed in performance dance attire.  We got onto the elevator together with several of the moms.  Now I hate to admit this, but by somewhere between the first floor and their floor, they reminded me of the shows like Dance Moms or Toddlers & Tiaras.  I was in the elevator with those kinds of moms and kids.  They weren't particularly modeling upright characters.

On Thursday morning, a dance troupe performed as a demonstration of Innovation, one of the categories for which Vistage gives annual member awards.  The Silhouettes, a Colorado dance company performing in silhouette format, was simply amazing and received a standing ovation.

That afternoon, I went back to the hotel and ran into a couple of the kids with their Silhouettes-logoed jackets.  When they turned around, I realized these were the same people from the elevator.  So which was it, those people or the nationally-recognized Silhouettes who'd performed that morning?  I made a very quick, yet strong, judgment based on no more than thirty seconds.

This isn’t surprising since research shows how quickly first impressions are formed, but it highlights one reason why sales recruiting so frequently backfires.

Judgment can work both ways.  I could have seen the girls in the elevator and thought, “What loving and committed parents. It’s wonderful seeing young girls doing something they love and having fun.”

Salespeople are successful not simply because they're presentable, articulate, engaging and people are comfortable being around them.  They're successful because they're highly-skilled listeners, ask great questions, follow a well-defined, structured process, are unburdened by sales-specific weaknesses and receive ongoing behavior-based coaching.  Most importantly, they may not be anyone like you or other successful salespeople in your company.  This is not to say that you should hire people who don’t share your vision, support the organizational culture nor interact well with employees.

The problem is that we often quickly judge sales candidates based on their presentation and posture.  Most successful salespeople are effective in these areas, but this doesn’t mean they have great hunting skills, are capable of engaging in a comprehensive business discussion and are skilled at helping people understand the complexity and importance of the challenges which they face.

Let me illustrate this by way of a question.  Have you ever hired a salesperson who had all the right stuff during the interviewing process, yet was not successful once you hired them?  The answer is almost always "yes".  Why does this so frequently happen to sales managers, executives, human resources and sales operations professionals?  My experience is that judgment is a significant factor.  Other contributors are lack of testing, using the wrong testing (data gathered in a non-sales context), following poorly-defined sales interviewing process and pressures to hire.  Hiring managers must be highly-skilled at seeing past first impressions, avoid emotional attachment with candidates and finally, practiced and trained on behavioral-based interviewing designed specifically for sales recruiting. 

How is judgment affecting your sales recruiting success?  Does your organization have the right stuff when it comes to hiring salespeople and sales leaders?

Find out how you can improve your sales recruiting.

Having a great plan isn’t enough. The problem is that we all have an Achilles' Heel.  Frank Belzer’s post, “5 Ways to Restore Your Sales MOJO for 2013!”, offers great tactical advice and provides an outline for a sales plan.

I’m a good planner, but consistent focus and discipline can be a challenge.  Like many of you, I suspect, I alternate between firing on all cylinders and a semi-stalled engine.  When I’m on my game, I’m very focused.  For me, 2013 is about keeping my sales mojo and paying more attention to my Achilles' heel.

As a teenager, I loved science fiction.  I was a Star Trek fan, read many books by Ray Bradbury, Issac Asimov and Kurt Vonnegut.  My favorite though was J. R. R Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings.  Tolkien’s Trilogy, preceded by The Hobbit, was his life’s work.  He literally created the languages and developed ' of history for his stories.

While his works are based on the classic “good vs. evil” metaphor, they're also about struggle, adversity and the human condition.  Bilbo (The Hobbit) goes on an adventure which challenges his complete being.  In The Lord of the Rings, his oldest cousin, Frodo, is tasked with the unthinkable - saving the world from evil.  Despite the overwhelming odds against these lovable Hobbits, they somehow found the will to continue and thrive, driven by a purpose for which neither asked nor knew they possessed.

Salespeople face enormous challenges, including rejection, disingenuous prospects, loyalty, politics, unaligned self-interest and even themselves.  What is your Achilles' heel?  Can you identify and describe it?  Are you doing anything about it?

I believe the biggest challenge which salespeople face is looking at them in the mirror each day.  Whether it’s the challenge of Commitment, Desire, Outlook, Rationalization, Willingness to Change, Open-Mindedness, Humility or Tenacity, we need to honestly identify and work on them each day.  We'll make mistakes, but continuing to put one foot in front of the other is the essence of what Star Trek's Captain Kirk referred to as the "human condition".

My challenge for you is to identify your sales force's Achilles' heel, put a plan together to address it and stoke the fire each day.

Cost of Sales is a critical KPI, particularly when you operate on thin margins.  Influencing factors include attrition, training, travel, equipment, compensation, recruiting and administrative costs.  Some of these are generally fixed while others can vary widely.

If 100% of your salespeople consistently make their quota or budget at the desired margin, much of the concern about Cost of Sales would evaporate.

So why worry about it? I was speaking with an SVP of a brand-name company with thousands of salespeople.  He told me that most all of their sales teams have only a few (2-3) salespeople achieving quota while the rest consistently struggle.  Let's take a look at a typical sales team of 8 people.

The net gap in margin, $210,000 in this example, replicated 6 times to account for the 5 similarly performing teams in the organization, has a direct impact of $1,260,000 on the Cost of Sales.  You don’t need to be a financial wiz to see that even a small drop in margin has a significant effect on profitability.

My experience is that when salespeople consistently do the things which they don’t want to do (healthy behaviors), good things happen.  Highly-effective people do the hardest and least desirable things first, assuring greater productivity.

In this light, the SVP’s comments illustrate both a huge problem and an amazing opportunity.  Yet most senior executives assume the 80/20 rule will be true, but simply leads to more unacceptable behaviors and outcomes.

Consider what would happen if your financial people were able to account for only 92% of your money or if operations shipped only 92% of your product.  It’s virtually certain that things would change quickly.

Let's put aside the impact on profit and look only at the salespeople.  Self-limiting thinking impacts everything.  For example:

• I can’t help a prospect who's happy with their current supplier.
• The economy is hurting our business.
• It’s OK if I miss my quota as long as I come close.
• I’m not an executive.
• I wish that I didn’t have to deal with being rejected.
• People are under pressure to buy the lowest priced products.

These thoughts influence bravery, execution, adherence to sales process, motivation, outlook and most importantly whether the salesperson can execute the call strategy.

What are your salespeople thinking when management isn’t looking?  Is sales management skilled enough to address this challenge?  What don’t you know about your sales force that’s costing you 8% or more of your margin dollars?  Are you accepting the 80/20 rule, the one which says that 80% of your sales organization is underperforming?

In the movie “Ghostbusters”, Bill Murray’s character closes a deal when he says to the New York City mayor, “You will have saved the lives of millions of registered voters.”  After a long pause, the mayor agrees to work with the Ghostbusters to save the city.  If you haven’t seen this movie clip, be sure to watch it.  

Being intentional in sales allows us to create “magical moments” where everything changes thereafter.   In this clip, the Ghostbusters first explain the consequences of the problem.  Bill Murray then puts the solution in a context about which the mayor cares (registered voters) and then goes silent to let the moment happen.  How often do your salespeople trample their work with too much dialogue?

Magical moments can’t necessarily be planned; they must just happen.  They’re caused by chemistry, emotion, process awareness and the willingness to take a risk.  

So what are magical moments?  They’re points in the process when bonding happens, insight occurs, prospects get emotionally connected to the issue, trust is demonstrated and prospects know you “get it”.  

Intuition helps a lot.  For example, how is the person likely to feel when you first meet?  What can you do to improve the connection?  When you sell to a friend, “your relationship” is the elephant in the room, so acknowledge it, validate its importance and ask if you can agree to put it aside during conversations.  

In a recent meeting, we heard an SVP demonstrate his intimate understanding of the business and how it works.   It was comprehensive, succinct, passionately articulated and offered a vision with enough detail to bring it alive.   My colleague recognized this and commented that his description was the most clearly-articulated message that he’d ever heard.  You could see how much positive impact this had on the SVP physically and it was a magical moment.  Afterward, his peers said that they too were blown away by what he’d said and thanked us for recognizing and acknowledging this.  

Salespeople often go too fast on sales calls.  Sometimes they need to slow down to speed up.   Intuition and the universe talk to us all the time but we don’t always listen well.   When someone says something that impacts us, we know it.  The challenge is do we take a risk and respond.   Risk is a funny thing.  In sales, it’s virtually nonexistent since we typically haven’t closed the deal yet and therefore have nothing to lose.  However, our fear convinces us that we’re in danger and then provides a crazy rationalization for not acting.

Magical moments are always around us.  Your salespeople need to learn to see them and act on them.  The irony is that when we do so, it’s frequently by accident.  Then we’re awed by what happened!  The key is to be intentional.  

Being intentional can be taught and fostered through role-playing and coaching.  To learn more about growing in this area, feel free to contact me.

HBO’s 24/7 chronicles the pre-fight training camp for significant upcoming bouts.  This Saturday, Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez square off in Las Vegas.  It’s the fourth time that they’ve met.  Pacquiao leads the series 2-1, but Marquez defeated Pacquiao in their last bout.  Expectations and excitement levels are high as the boxing experts see these two being incredibly closely-matched.  We definitely can expect a great fight on Saturday.

Behind the fighters are two of the greatest cornermen in the game, Freddie Roach and the legendary Nacho Beristan.  Nacho’s fighters have won an amazing 25 world championships.  Freddie Roach has trained some of the best fighters in the world and has a storybook following.

What struck me was the nature of the relationship between the fighters and their coaches.  To say they trust and respect each other is a huge understatement.  And, the personal rivalry between Nacho and Freddie is perhaps greater than that of the fighters.  In short, there is a tremendous amount at stake including pride, history and legacy.

Putting the chemistry between the cornermen and fighters aside for a moment, Freddie and Nacho can teach us a lot about being world-class coaches and mentors. 

• They are creatures of routine and habit.
• Their workdays start early and end very late.
• Details are never missed.
• They will do whatever it takes to win.
• The emphasis is on fundamentals.
• Conditioning is paramount to success (behavior).
• Mental toughness trumps everything.
• They are masters at diagnosing the situation.
• Changes are made incrementally and build on each other.

Listening to Manny and Juan talk about their coaches was similar to hearing grandchildren laud praise, honor, respect and unconditional love on their most adored grandparent.  It was a thing of beauty and a wonderful illustration of people helping people for all the right reasons.  My sense is that it’s almost more important to the fighters that they win for their coach than for themselves.

How committed to your salespeople are you?  Would they walk through walls if you asked them?  Is your relationship based on deep respect and trust?  Which elements of a cornerman’s approach are you missing and what are you going to do next?  A sales force evaluation would be a great first step into the ring!  Why not contact me directly?

Quantum physics has shown that matter vibrates at a specific and measurable frequency.  Of course, this includes human beings.  What’s really interesting is that frequency changes based on our emotional state and we attract energy vibrating at similar frequency.

This law of nature, like gravity or cause and effect, is termed The Law of Attraction.  It means that our emotional state attracts people and circumstances consistent with what we are feeling. 

Think about salespeople who are on a roll.  Success fosters the opportunity for more success.  When they get in a slump, it's very hard for them to get back on track.  Whether you want to believe it or not, this dynamic affects us in every aspect of our lives, whether we are in sales or not.  It also greatly contributes to our happiness.

When a salesperson is in a slump, the following thoughts could manifest: 

• Business is hard right now.
• I can't seem to get anything closed.
• If I don't fix this soon, I'll be in trouble.
• This isn't fun anymore.
• I must be doing something wrong.

Imagine how this thinking might affect them.  What happens to their mood and attitude?  Are they more or less likely to conjure up bravery and passion?  And how does this affect how prospects and clients perceive them?

Consider the impact of a CEO who may exude negative energy compared to another executive who radiates passion for success, commitment to excellence, personal improvement and enormous commitment to their employees’ well-being.  My belief is that the difference, between highly successful companies and underperforming ones, is determined by the nature and consistency of its employees’ energy.

Integrating this principal into your organization isn't easy.  Witness the effort and challenges of culture change resulting from mergers and acquisitions.  It can have a profound impact on your team, company and you.  Identifying the specific non-supportive beliefs, by which your sales force is affected, is critical to the coaching and development process.  For example, a salesperson who is uncomfortable talking about money will avoid this conversation despite the agreed-upon call strategy.  Of course it all starts with the individual.  We need to bring the right attitude, state of mind, passion and energy, which our companies and teams need.

My challenge to you is to implement the following for the next month and see what happens: 

• Focus and talk about positive things and avoid the negative.
• Give people your undivided attention.  Listen to them, not about what you’re thinking.
• Keep a gratitude journal and read it daily.
• Acknowledge people as human beings, not employees.

Last night, I had the pleasure of listening to Aaron Davis, a member of the 1994 Nebraska National Championship football team.  His enormously passionate message offered practical thoughts on sales leadership and our challenges.

It’s said that all I really need to know I learned in kindergarten. Examples include: 

• Share everything.
• Clean up your own mess.
• Say you're sorry when you hurt someone.
• When you go out in the world, watch for traffic, hold hands and stick together.
• Be aware of wonder.

Aaron’s message, like the kindergarten lessons, was timeless and applies to every aspect of our lives from being a successful sales leader, parent, spouse, friend or employee.

• Find out what your “why” is and live it.
• Listen more than you speak.
• Discuss the elephant in the room.
• Make sure everyone understands and believes the purpose and intent.
• View change as an opportunity.

None of these ideas are new.  They have been passed down from generation to generation.  What’s important is how we live and manifest them in our daily lives.  As I thought about Aaron’s message, it struck me that sales leaders assume that if we properly communicate and reinforce these principals, our salespeople will integrate them into their selling habits.  While intellectually this is true, it doesn’t mean our team member will be able to do this without help.

For example, it’s intuitive that having clearly-defined personal goals will lead to better results.  Going to the gym, making the weekly date night a priority, calling your friends or relatives and being mindful of what we eat make sense.  In sales, Desire and Commitment are the two most important drives of performance - Commitment being paramount.  The real issue is why this is important to them.  This is the more difficult question to answer, one with which many sales leaders are woefully inconsistent and ill-equipped to help their people answer.

The biggest problems which we face are the non-supportive beliefs of our salespeople. As Aaron put it, championship teams don’t spend time thinking about why they might lose.

The good news is you can identify these non-supportive beliefs and the limiting weaknesses which influence the “why”.  The chart below comes from a top-performers vs. non-performers blog post which my colleague Dave Kurlan wrote.  It empirically identifies what sales leaders need to know to help their salespeople improve.

If you are committed to being a top-performing sales leader, you must coach your people on the real issues.  To do this, you need to know what they are.

In a recent article from Management Association, Mary Lynn Fayoumi talks about the importance of HR professionals having good sales skills.  She speaks about the necessity of “selling” great talent on coming to work for you. 

In a competitive marketplace, where specialized skills and experience are increasingly important, the ability of hiring managers to differentiate themselves and their company is critical.

If we surveyed HR professionals, asking them to define what a successful salesperson must do well, I suspect that articulating the company’s value proposition would rank very high.  The question is how?  The best salespeople help the client to discover that core business issues and unforeseen consequences make the value proposition important.

Salespeople often start off in the right direction, but then quickly find themselves in presentation mode.  The result is a loss of control and differentiation.  I believe that HR professionals suffer from the same problem.

My experience is that far too many HR executives underappreciate the science, art and difficulty of professional selling.  They can articulate the business case, cost and impact of underperforming salespeople.  They understand the opportunity cost of turnover, but they really don’t “get” salespeople and, in too many cases, underappreciate the difficulty of the sales job.  This probably isn’t surprising since most CEO’s have the same challenge because they’re from the finance, operations and/or technical side.  HR professionals also happen to spend a lot of time interacting with vendors who often don’t live up to expectations.

What makes salespeople different? 

• They are usually highly emotional and sometimes volatile people.
• They are not good at being introspective.
• Asking for help is typically a weakness.
• Compliance is not in their vocabulary.
• Most are fairly self-absorbed.
• They love teamwork when they are in control of the team.
• They should ask questions which make prospects uncomfortable.
• Details are not that important.
• The good ones fight when prospects say no.

What percentage of these traits do you think HR professionals possess?  More importantly, how many look for these attributes when hiring great employees and how does this affect the sales talent recruitment?

There is a great video going around which illustrates how absurd prospects sound when they start negotiating. It's absurd because of the context, "I budgeted for a trim but I want color highlights for free, perhaps if my husband approves I'll pay you next time."

We know this strategy won't work in the "real world" and yet when we are selling the rules change. Why is this?

We are afraid of losing the deal so we act desperate; our pipeline is empty so we put all our energy into saving one deal and avoid looking for new business. We make excuses about the economy; commiserate with our peers and further erode our personal bravery.

Let's consider why prospects negotiate.

• It works
• They can say they tried
• It gives them a sense of power
• They like to manipulate people
• They are testing you
• They will buy only on price

If the underlying reason that prospects negotiate aren't based on price, there is very little risk in saying "no" to them.  You can't loose the deal - you don't have it yet. Salespeople must learn how to say no and see what happens. If a prospect needs to buy and wants your help, statistics, while they won't predict this do show that you're very likely to remain in the game after you say no. The problem is with you, what you're thinking and how this affected your actions. Stand up for yourself and do the right thing. No one but you can take responsibility for being treated fairly and professionally.