Sales Laundry

Archive for the ‘Sales Management’ Category

Two minutes into a conversation with a good friend, who works for a major national insurance provider, our casual banter took a sharp turn into a series of rants about the technology industry, incompetent sales professionals, ignorant project managers and grossly inadequate deployment teams.

 I had some time to spare so I just listened until finally she took a deep breath, blinked, looked up at me and said “Sorry about that.”

 Two years ago her company decided to gut their technology infrastructure and start over with a major ERP software package.  The plan was to completely integrate their organization in one mass of technology and human efficiency.  Unfortunately, two years later it was still a work in progress, and missed milestones were being measured in quarters, not days or weeks.

 I am certain the account management team thought they had struck gold landing this marquis account, and were already looking for ways to leverage this win into their next opportunity.  In actuality, all they have really struck is one big fat nerve that has an entire organization throwing them under the bus at every opportunity. 

 So what turned a fantastic win for the sales team and the entire company into a life sucking vortex?

In a word, implementation.

 When the implementation team began mapping the existing processes in the organization to mirror in the software they made one fundamental mistake that derailed the entire project on day 1. 

 They built their process map primarily from the information collected from executive and departmental management not the actual people doing the work.  The only input from the front line users came by way of survey forms.

 If they would have interviewed the front line team members and mapped their work processes then confirmed with management and integrated new efficiencies, moving to pilot phase and final implementation would have been a much simpler affair.

 So what is the lesson?  Account Managers, stay engaged until deployment is complete because you have a vested interest in things going well as a hunter or farmer.  What should have been a great sales win leading to many more for this team is instead a disaster they cannot shovel dirt over fast enough.  The next big mistake would be to bury this, you should parade this “loss” and the lessons learned, but that is a different post.

 Sales Managers, the impact of this cluster will never show up directly on a forecast, but it can be an invisible force working against your team morale, your ability to leverage future sales, and your reputation.  Watch for the signs as you performance manage your sales team, evaluate their forecasts and committed numbers for the next few quarters.  I would advise pushing for bigger committed numbers over the next several quarters to counter any fallout or delays this black eye might introduce.

 For the implementation side?  Simple analogy.  Design the new wrench based on what the guy who actually uses the wrench says he needs, not what his manager, a guy that will never use the wrench, says he needs. 

Image courtesy of http://www.all4humor.com

When sales are difficult to come by, there is, I believe, a natural gut instinct to nudge a company toward broadening its services in hopes of reaching a wider swath of potential customers.  You typically have to look no further than the existing Sales Managers and Account Executives to find the source of this internal “Scope Creep.”

 While this idea may sound good bouncing around your head, in practical application this seemingly small leap in logic can very well destroy a company.

In electing to follow this strategy you are in essence trading some of your market depth for market breadth, and your competitors will love you for it. 

 Lose some focus on what you are best at and you run the risk of alienating some of your current customer base.  Experience any reduction in quality or service while your eye is off the ball and you just make it that much more difficult for a prospective customer to differentiate between you and a close competitor.

 Lacking depth and experience in you new expanded area of focus, you risk never establishing a customer base.

Lacking a specialization or something to hang your hat on, it is very easy for a company to succumb to “death by being average.”  Look no further than the recent death of Circuit City.

This is not to say a company cannot expand successfully.  They can and do every day with planning and new infrastructure to support the growth.

 In most instances, the better answer is to narrow your focus to what you are absolutely best at and where you hold the maximum competitive advantage.  Mine existing sales, established relationships and references to build sales leverage, making each new sale easier than the last.

If you are not known for something you will be known for nothing.

My 8 year old daughter has some basic responsibilities around the house.  One of which is to keep the bathroom she uses cleaned up  (i.e. cleaning up the toothpaste that gets loose from a wild night of bedtime brushing, rounding up rowdy bath toys, swapping clean towels for the dirty ones, etc.)

One day, with inspired motivation, my daughter decided it was time to give the bathroom a serious cleaning to the standard set by her mother and well beyond the mundane challenges of wrestling with escaped toothpaste.

Once she completed the task to her satisfaction she flew through the house, rattling the stairs on her descent like a herd of stampeding cattle on her way to tell us of her accomplishment.

She was grinning ear to ear, beaming with pride and self satisfaction as she talked about how she cleaned the bathroom the way Mommy did it, not just the kid way.

At my daughter’s announcement, my wife was off like a herd of equally shocked and stampeding cattle, make that graceful gazelles, to survey the damage in the upstairs bathroom.

I knew what was coming next.  Ten seconds later, with precision matched only by the Master Clock at the U.S. Naval Observatory, I heard it.

My daughters name was called with a stern tone and frequency formally set aside by the FCC for the exclusive use of angry mothers.  When I was a boy this broadcast typically originated from my front porch and could be heard for blocks in all directions.

I watched my daughters face, beaming with pride mere seconds ago, register a look of shock and horror, as if she had just watched me punt Fluffy the cat over the back fence. 

We resolved the issue and restored order, but suffice to say my daughter would have rather been airborne with Fluffy than make the death march to her mother upstairs.

Given some time to think and laugh about the situation I began to draw some parallels to managing sales professionals. 

We continually reinforce the idea that our daughter should stretch herself; try new things and new foods for that matter.  We tell her don’t be afraid to fail, that is how you learn. 

We tell our sales representatives the same thing and have for years, give or take the “try new foods” part.

My daughter took our direction.  My daughter felt she had mastered the basics and was ready to stretch.  She felt she could do more and had the desire to prove it even if it meant breaking a rule or two in the process.

Was she rewarded for her attempt to stretch herself and hit the higher standard?  No, just the opposite in fact, being blasted for the final result somewhere shortly after I heard my wife exclaim “You put bleach, where???”

In trying to do more she found herself in more trouble than she would have been in for doing nothing or just meeting the standard set before her that she found unacceptably low.

A great opportunity to reinforce her positive behaviors (even if the end result was wildly off target,) show some appreciation for the effort and initiative, and coach her on some specifics to help her improve next time were lost.

Instead, she could have walked away with an attitude of “My work is not appreciated.  I tried my best.  Fine, from now on I am just doing the basics, it is not worth it to do anything more.”

I am not suggesting that the final results are unimportant.  What I am stating is that the final result, while being very important, is not the only measurement that counts in developing a sales organization.

Handled correctly, these opportunities can truly help you develop the middle 60% of your sales team and help some middle performers move to top performer status. 

Handled poorly, the same sales professional that dared to stretch himself to achieve can become an uninspired team member doing the minimum, working themselves out of your organization, and increasing churn.

Look beyond the end result.  Reinforce the right behaviors even if they deliver the wrong result.

After being whacked upside the head by my daughters misguided initiative the lesson seems clear, minus the small stars floating in a circle above my head.

 As a manager you can make a huge impact in your sales organization by taking a step back, recognizing not just the end result, but the behaviors that led to that end result and carefully selecting the tools and response that will help you develop your sales organization without gutting personal initiative or weeding out their desire for growth.

Image courtesy of cutiepie-photography.com

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.

 Bonus Tip #1:  Watch for the 1-off partners who happen to be working in some other area of an account and get wind of an opportunity with your product and an existing partner.  It may make sense to put these deals together from time to time, but pay close attention to their activities.  A 1-off partner can suck up a lot of your resources better spent on partners that will drive consistent revenue.

 Bonus Tip #2:  If you find your channel partner coming to you for discounts to win deals consistently or selling on price and destroying your perceived value add in a given market find out why, find out why their own value add is not helping them hold margin, and be prepared to turn them loose.  Again, there are exceptions to every rule.

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Over the years I’ve been through several reshufflings of product, service or target market.  Some of these changes have been revolutionary following industry changes, some evolutionary, and some have been flat out ground up rebuilds when management transitions or other fundamental changes to the business were at hand.

 I have watched these changes occur from the perspective of an Account Manager, Sales Manager, Director and finally, VP.  One thing that seems to get missed in the discussions of deepening the offerings, broadening the offerings, positive average margin impact, vendor training, leads, and promised revenues is the grey matter between the account managers ears.

 There is only so much space in anyone’s head.  You can only keep so much information at the forefront of your peanut head at anyone time.  If you thought about it like an old school newspaper or your favorite new site, there is only so much premium space above the fold (or before you start scrolling down.)

If you have anything north of 10 offerings for your rep to drive out in the field, you really only have 1-5 that he is going to be actively working and watching for and maybe 10 offerings in total that he has sufficient depth to discuss in some detail. 

 The “Closet Offerings” as I call them, or everything beyond 10, do not get mentioned unless prospect comments or questions happen to push the conversation in that general direction.

 When you get a call to broaden your offerings or to go after an increasingly wide and diverse market (typically when sales are slumping and revenues tighten up,) resist the urge to simply pile on more products and new markets to your existing team.

If it is not on the billboard in your reps head, it is not going to get said.

 You would be better served reevaluating and reshuffling the offerings occupying the prime space, page 1 above the fold, in your Account Managers head.  From my experience a better quality and quantity of sale will result.

 As an added bonus, develop clear concise messages for you defined offerings to keep the sales team “on message” and ad libs to a minimum.  Develop policies and procedures on the backend to clarify how your operations and services units will execute and deliver on the products and promises your Account Managers are pushing out the door.

 Final thought.  The next time a vendor talks to you about adding product remember to consider your sales teams mental product line up.  To give mindshare to a new product you have to be comfortable with the fact that an existing offering will lose some traction or be eliminated.

Fill those minds wisely.

A man trying to go more than two directions at once is not moving at all.

image courtesy of http://www.worth1000.com

Hyundai has a problem shared by every car manufacturer; we are not buying new cars. 

 Sales are down 30%+ across the industry and GM, once the pride of American manufacturing is on the verge of being delisted from the stock exchange as shares trade under $1.00.

 The difference is Hyundai gets it.  Instead of gutting their value and defensively dropping their shorts on price, rebates and financing, they are on the offensive, effectively saying “Mr. customer, I dare you to lose your job.”

 they are on the offensive, effectively saying 

“Mr. customer, I dare you to lose your job.”

Hyundai already has a sales strategy and marketing message that I would think would play well in this economic environment.

 That message being “We build stylish high quality, inexpensive cars, and we back it up with a strong warranty” which was designed to solve the problem of “I don’t have a lot of money, but I need a car that is better than what I am driving now.”

 That message has a lot of appeal, but apparently not enough to keep sales from falling off of a cliff. 

 Hyundai took a deeper look at why business was slumping and thought way outside of the box for ways to solve a problem weighing much heavier on the minds of their prospect than the problem their current value statement was solving.

 That deeper problem being “What happens if I lose my job and cannot pay my bills?”

 The answer until now has been “The car gets repossessed.  I lose my transportation.  It would be harder to find a new job.  My credit gets ruined, and I won’t be in a position to buy a car on credit when I do get back on my feet.”

 Final decision:  “A new car would be nice, but there is just too much downside right now to justify it.  I will keep my old car; at least it is paid for.”

 So what did Hyundai do?

 Hyundai Assurance Plus:  If you lose your income, we will make your payments for 3 months.  If that is not enough time to work things out, you can still bring the car back within a year.  By the way, you still get the 10yr warranty.

 I have no idea how this strategy is going to play out for them, though I assume it will be fantastic as long as legal did not pack the contract with too many outs.  I can, however, tell you how it makes me feel as a consumer.

 I feel like Hyundai is a company that gets it.  That they understand and they are offering up a legitimate “bail out” for the little guy if it becomes necessary.  More importantly, I feel like Hyundai cares.  Hyundai is willing to step in and help out if life’s challenges get a little too big for a while.

 Hyundai is going to earn some respect and get a look by a segment of the market that would not have looked at a Hyundai before and Hyundai is going to win a deep loyalty from the customers they end up helping out.

 More sales today, more happy customers and more market share tomorrow.

It is an aggressive move in a market that finds most of their competitors retreating to a defensive position of low price.

 Ask yourself, does your present value statement carry the same weight it once did?  Is there a bigger problem in your customers mind than the one you are presently solving?

Identify that problem, find the solution, and then figure out how your company can help deliver that solution alone or with strategic partnerships.

 If I were an independent car dealer right now I would be calling my financial partners to see if we could put a “Hyundai Solution” in place for my dealerships.

 What is the creative solution for your industry?  Get it right and you will be the one rewarded with customer loyalty and market share. 

I am looking forward to reading your thoughts.