Sales Laundry

Archive for the ‘Q&A Sessions’ Category

Q&A’s are excerpts of questions I have answered as part of Sales Laundry or other forums that I am apart of.  If there is a relevant sales message for the masses I post it here to share, gather feedback and discuss.

Q:  Channel Sales & Direct Sales Teams:  What are your thoughts on best practices for structuring a sales team that maximizes sales for both groups and minimizes/avoids conflicts.

A:   I don’t know your specific industry,  but my experience comes from technology, so that is how I have framed my comments.  Here are my general thoughts:

The Direct Sales Team

 Dividing the loyalties of your direct sales team between their own numbers and helping out the channel sales organizations can be a recipe for disaster.  If times get tight, I have seen direct guys pull all sorts of tricks to take a juicy channel deal direct.  The hedge to that is a partner deal registry and clear rules of engagement, neither of which is ever a bad thing.  On the other side I have seen channel partners act like blood sucking leaches, draining a manufacturer of resources and continually begging for leads.  It can get ugly either way.

 I would seriously consider putting a dedicated sales resource in your office supporting your channel partners exclusively. 

 You need your channel organization to spend the time and money needed to get trained up on your products and dedicate enough mindshare to them to get them heard above the noise of their other offerings.

 Use your internal dedicated sales resource to go on sales calls with them and help them put sales proposals together and nudge them along the sales funnel.  Force the dedicated channel sales representative to drive all revenue through the partners.  That way you have someone other than your Channel Manager working in the channels best interests on a daily basis.  Put a smart sales person in that role that can leverage the legitimate leads and deals that he uncovers in his patch into incentive for the partners to get up to speed and stay current.  You can use the leads to reward those partners that are moving the needle for you, for priming the pump for new partners or as needed to help steer your channel sales force.

 This dedicated sale representative can also be a good entry level sales position for your company in more established territories that you can develop into a direct role if the compensation model works like that for you.  That way they have your channel supporting them a bit as they come up to speed so you don’t have the huge dips in productivity when a new guy takes over a territory.

 Your dedicated sales representative should support your best partners and their best reps to keep the pipeline full, then spend time working your best partners second tier reps, other partners and finding new partners that are not going to stomp all over one another in a given geography.  Cut the bottom 20% of your partners and all those 1-off deal guys that pop up.

The Channel Sales Team

 Channel organizations are often times the whipping boys of the direct sales team and feel they drive product sales but have no real line of communication with the manufacturer to discuss strategy or to communicate feedback they get from the field.  Listen to your channel.  Typically the top 20% of the reps at the top 20% of your channel partners are driving the majority of your business.  You need to talk to them and understand their challenges with your organization if you want the real scoop.  The execs are usually not as helpful in the day to day stuff and Sales Managers are sometimes in the weeds because they were great reps that got promoted without any training.

 Give the channel a mechanism to register their deals and be protected from your direct reps.  Give them ready access to sales and support until they have their own resources trained and representing your brand well in the field.

That is about 1% of the topic.  You can check out The VAR Guy for dedicated blogging on technology channel sales.

Q&A’s are excerpts of questions I have answered as part of Sales Laundry or other forums that I am apart of.  If there is a relevant sales message for the masses I post it here to share, gather feedback and discuss.

Q:  How important are relationships in selling? Are they the only reason people buy, a prerequisite or not that big of a deal?  I understand that some customer’s do make a buying decision in our favor, but is it the 80/20 rule or relationships?

A:  A relationship could be critical to your success or of absolutely no value.  In my opinion it depends on where the customer places value in a given situation.

For example, I have bought products from sales professionals that brought a lot of knowledge I valued, but did not like them or care to see them again.  The value of their knowledge drove the transaction, not the relationship.

 I have bought products from sales professionals that I had a great relationship with where the product was average to not as good, in retrospect, I suppose because I placed more value on extending the relationship than I did the product.

 I have also bought products that I was enamored with and placed so much value in having that I bought them regardless of the sales process/relationship or the professional.

 So, speaking just for myself, a strong enough desire for the product, or the value I place in that product, can render a relationship unimportant to me.  (Unless I think I am going to need support or handholding to get the full value out of the product.)

 Otherwise, the importance I place on a relationship is directly proportional to my perceived need for that relationship in finding, acquiring and implementing the end product or service.

 Hope that makes sense.  It makes my head hurt just thinking about it.

Q&A’s are excerpts of questions I have answered as part of Sales Laundry or other forums that I am apart of.  If there is a relevant sales message for the masses I post it here to share, gather feedback and discuss.

Q:  What is the best way to keep a (commercial printing) salesperson engaged and motivated during these tough times?

  A:  A small dose of Progress taken daily can wipe out a whole room full of “it’s hopeless.” Retreat as needed.

I approach it like the old adage “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” 

I don’t want my team focused on the big picture Armageddon talk with all of the accompanying noise. Quite the opposite, I want them focused, and therefore engaged on what they need to do each day to keep methodically working toward their goal. 

One other thought.  How about creating some of your own print business?

I don’t know what objections your sales guys are getting, but I assume one of them is “we don’t have the money right now.”

 If you have several small businesses that don’t have the budget to print flyers or marketing materials, but need the exposure, maybe you can bring a different value add.

 Maybe you can solve a larger problem for your customer that will allow them to take advantage of your services.

 Maybe your sales guys, with a database full of local contacts, can help out the small business community by developing a single marketing piece that features a few companies that are not direct competitors and have a similar target market. 

 The result could be that the small business gets the marketing they need, at a price they can afford, you have a new unique product, your guys get paid, and you can keep the presses running.

Q&A’s are excerpts of questions I have answered as part of Sales Laundry or other forums that I am apart of.  If there is a relevant sales message for the masses I post it here to share, gather feedback and discuss.

Q:  Help!  I am marketing a new sports bat training device through independent sales reps, sales are improving, but slowly, and I need to speed up the process.  Any suggestions?

A:  Congratulations on getting from patent to production.  That is no small accomplishment. 

It sounds like sales are happening, but each sale is happening in a vacuum, and not having much of an impact on overall sales velocity. 

Pick a niche in your target market. Maybe it is college baseball, high school baseball, or pro, maybe it is rehab facilities, or possibly coaches, and put your available resources toward owning that niche (ala Crossing the Chasm) to begin to create some leverage out of each sale, that will make the next sale just a little bit easier. 

That should start to give you the multiplier on existing sales you are looking for. 

The next key is finding the right individuals in your selected niche that can add another multiplier to your existing sales with their credibility and influence. 

Look at that niche market and find the people who have influence over the potential customers in that niche. Instead of focusing your sales on anyone that will buy one, focus on the handful of guys that carry enough influence to multiply the leverage benefit of each individual sale. 

Where do you find these guys? Look at trade organizations, governing organizations, boards of directors and consultants for major baseball sporting goods manufacturers. Or it could be as simple as finding that old guy that everybody knows who has been around the game forever and knows everybody who is or was anybody in the game. Look to one of the statesmen of the game along the lines of the late Buck O’Neil as a fine example. 

I would also look to entrepreneurial ex-baseball players with hall of fame reputations. Look for the guys that are out of the game, have the contacts you need and are building business empires of their own. Nolan Ryan is one that comes to mind. 

I had to make a lot of assumptions here, but I hope that helps.