Dec/090
How to manage a Lone Ranger in your sales team.
There is an off stated myth that successful sales professionals are lone rangers by nature and don’t respond to the structure a highly performing sales team has to offer.
Managing a super star much less a group of lone rangers or rain makers can be a thankless and frustrating affair. Generally speaking these situations only advance the individual sales person and sub-optimize the total interest of the company.
Often managers get roped into believing: I’ll just let my superstar do whatever because they generate results. This is short term thinking and death to a high performing sales culture.
The highest performing companies are those who cultivate an elite world class selling mentality that reveres and respects the sales professional and constantly underscores their worth to an enterprise.
To optimize the company, sales team and individual sales professional here are a few hints:
- Develop team & individual goals.
- Create a culture where high performers are rewarded & recognized for sharing their knowledge.
- Instill a learning environment where new ideas and best practices are reviewed and institutionalized.
- Institute mentoring opportunities for your new and seasoned sales professionals to engage one another.
- Catch a sales person doing something “good” and publicize it throughout the organization.
- Underscore the principle that nothing happens until a sale is made, thus everyone in the company is involved and supportive of the sales effort.
Finally practice, play and work as a team and the results will follow!
Nov/095
Sales Prospecting Priorities
The other day I was attending a network event when a sales professional stated his business was way off, the phones just stopped ringing, and his commissions were drying up fast.
He inquired if I could help him?
I asked, “How much time did he spend prospecting each week?”
He said, “Maybe an hour on Friday afternoons, my important work for the week has been completed.”
I explain he had his priorities misaligned and he needed to put prospecting had the head of list each week. I suggested he set in his Outlook calendar or Google calendar a block of specific time and day that is sacred with no interruptions. Do not answer incoming calls, respond to emails, answer your door – just hunker down and prospect.
In today’s market place sales professionals must spend 20 – 50% of their waking hours filling their pipe line with new leads that turn into appointments and eventually become full fledge prospects and ultimately result in a sale.
There is no easy way around it!
If you are an owner, sales manager or sales professional focus on getting more appointments and keeping your sales funnel full of new opportunities.
This flow of potential customers will determine your success or failure in achieving your sales goals. It’s not the big wins but the day to day wins that will will be the foundation for a solid sales pipeline. www.nealabc.com
Oct/090
It still pays to do the right thing…
Last week I presented at a senior executive forum in metro Phoenix. During the discussion the principle of ethics in business and the sales process was raised.
One of my mentors and highly regarded business associates posed the notion that part of the current business dilemma we are experiencing today, has to do with unbridled greed and unethical business practices.
Possibly a subject left to discuss when times are better?
Doing the right thing is not restricted to when the timing is right, but rather a pattern of behavior honed over years of understanding the ethics and standards we follow in our society.
Without getting too preachy, I would suggest each of us examine our own sales process and reestablish the values, rules, and practices we as leaders convey to our entire enterprise.
We often give sales professionals great latitude in dealing with customers and prospects, reconnecting them with your ethical foundation is the right thing to do and good business! Once a reputation is sullied, you all know how long it takes to recoup if ever.
Proper business ethics never go out of style! www.nealabc.com
Sep/090
Easy way out selling on ‘Price’…
In many of our engagements over the last two years we hear sales professionals complain “the old days are gone it’s all about price!”
Price has never been excluded from the equation. Perhaps there was a little less emphasis in the past, but always lurking near the surface.
Although we are in the most difficult economy in our lifetime hasn’t it always been about price, value and relationships?
Sales professionals can become pessimistic allowing the customer and themselves to obsess over price. World class sales professionals continue to dig deep and wide looking for opportunities to creatively bring value, innovation, cost reduction, and relationships to the sales process.
As owners, sales managers, and sales professionals we must all look introspectively and resist the tendency to fall prey to the price mantra.
Do you believe in your goods or services? If so challenge yourself to find the differentiators. Price will has always been and will always remain relative! www.nealabc.com
Aug/090
Staying Relevant in the Sales Game
A couple of months ago my two sons’ and daughter urged me to remain “relevant” by being connected to Facebook, LinkedIn and other social networking offerings.
After an initial defensive response, I pondered their observation and deduced we all must keep moving ahead never accepting the status quo. The notion that we are not a finished product unless we say so is thought provoking!
This is thought provoking for personal as well as professional endeavors.
For owners, sales managers, and sales professionals the question is are you keeping pace?
Are you remaining relevant to the needs, wants and desires of your customers?
Does the market place offer new opportunities that “old “perceptions are preventing you from taking advantage of?
Pose these questions to your sales team, challenge them to think out of the box, encourage them to try new approaches, keep them relevant! www.nealabc.com
Aug/091
Leads are the life blood of the sales process.
Leads are the life blood of the sales process.
Generating leads and following up on them is a tedious job yet a fundamental requirement for world class sales performance. Warm leads are precious and the process to turn them into initial appointments and true prospects needs to be consistent.
As the CEO or VP of Sales are you aware of the number of leads your sales people process each day, week, or month? Can you identify where the leads come from and how timely they are followed up on?
Statistics demonstrate that all too often sales people do not have enough leads at any one point in time to keep the pipeline filled; thus they have gaps or voids in the flow of legitimate prospects. Another critical issue is frequently sales professionals don’t follow up on “hot” leads in a timely fashion and loose the majority to competition.
Keeping your sales force focused on consistently generating leads and tracking their status via a CRM is one of the single most important task management can provide. www.nealabc.com
Jul/090
Sales Professional Time Allocation
Time is money!
All sales professionals have the same amount of time to sell (24hrs/7 days a week)? How they spend their precious time can make a big difference.
According to a survey conducted by CSO (Chief Sales Officer Insights) only 35.7% of the average sales person’s time is spent in face to face selling. Arguably the most important use of a sales professional’s time allocation.
Certainly there are other tasks: administration, quote preparation, generating leads, meetings, etc. that require an expenditure of time.
Are you aware and monitor where your and your team’s time is spent? Do you condone where the time is spent? Do you coach sales professionals to increase valuable face to face selling time?
One obvious area to examine is the use of technology (CRMs, laptops, cell phones, webinars, etc.) to reduce manual processes, thus increasing face to face sales time. www.nealabc.com
Jul/090
Know Your Customer’s Perspective
Most entrepreneurs, CEOs, and sales managers focus internally on their products or services and try to figure out how to make them more appealing to a customer.
This product “pushing” mentality, at least from the seller’s perspective is not in concert with today’s consultative sales approach. Customers want to engage in problem solving vs. product flash.
As a result, knowing your customer from their perspective is the only perspective that counts.
Management needs to help their sales professionals understand customer’s wants and needs both present and future. This requires more of an inquisitive approach, asking more probing questions and understanding the customer’s entire business proposition.
This macro view allows specific products or services to create more value when connected to the customer’s situation. www.nealabc.com
Jul/090
Microsoft CRM Mobile Expressed Released – Mobile Sales Force
Expand your sales team virtually and sell more with this new feature that comes with Microsoft Dynamics CRM. www.nealabc.com Try it FREE for a month in our hosted CRM offering.
Mobile Express for Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a new feature that enables users to access Microsoft Dynamics CRM data from a mobile Web browser on a Web-enabled mobile device. This feature must be installed on the Microsoft Dynamics CRM server, and can work over the Internet if Microsoft Dynamics CRM is set up for Internet-facing deployment, or within a company intranet. It is available as a free download for English versions of Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Once installed, users can view and modify Microsoft Dynamics CRM data from a web browser on their device.