Sales Laundry

Posts Tagged ‘sales coaching’

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:  Does sales training really work?  Why don’t more companies engage in training programs?

 A:  Does sales training work? Yes.

 In fact there is not a more cost effective way to convey massive amounts of information to a sales team over a short period of time.

 So, why all of the problems getting companies to sign up?

 Sales training works, but…

 If the person trained does not use the knowledge, the knowledge will simply leak out of their head.

 Which requires Sales Managers be trained and to reinforce the new behaviors with field sales coaching.

 Sales Managers do not typically do field coaching because it is almost never something they are held accountable for, so sales coaching gets bumped to next week  as call reports, expense reports, forecasts, etc. that they are held accountable for each week, get done.

 Changing the Sales Manager role requires Executive management to make reinforcing their sales training a priority and making sure Sales Managers have the time they need to work one on one out in the field, even if that means cutting some reporting requirements.   

 Frankly, most companies do not realize the extent of the changes that need to be made to their organizations to properly support their sales training efforts.  Many are not willing to put forth the effort in the long term to make lasting changes in their sales organizations and sometimes the required changes in their sales/management infrastructure are more painful than just absorbing the cost of the training and writing it off as a failed experiment and promising never to make the “mistake” of signing up for training again.

The companies that do build sales training into their culture do find measurable long term improvements in their sales organizations.

As a sales person you need to read “What does better mean?” It is a very short article by Seth Godin that will take you one minute at the most to learn a lesson it took me a long time to figure out.

 His message is aimed at marketing types, but the message hit me right between the eyes in its simplicity.

 Which is better Microsoft Office or Open Office?  Google or Live?  Firefox or Chrome?  Coke or Pepsi?  McDonalds or Burger King?  Best Buy or Circuit City?  Ok, winner declared on that last one.

 While you may be selling version 2.0 or version 10, just because Marketing, the CEO, you, your Sales Manager, your mother and the mailman all say it is better absolutely does not mean that it actually IS better to the one person that matters.  That would be the one making the purchase.

 So the next time you find yourself thinking  “How could they not see that our solution was OBVIOUSLY better?” you should have a better answer as to what went wrong than the one you have today.

 You thought you were selling something that was obviously better, you just did not make sure it was obviously better to the buyer.

In the battle of which is better, the buyers “better” always wins.

Looking around these days it appears we could all do with more sales.  Sales experts have, since time began I guess, been telling the great sales unwashed that the best and easiest source of new sales are referrals from existing happy customers.  So why aren’t we all out there asking and working referrals on a consistent basis?

 According to a statistic I have seen plastered all over the Internet, but never sourced, 15% of sales professionals do ask for referrals on a consistent basis.  I assume there is a measure of truth to that statistic as it fits my anecdotal sales coaching experience.  So why would an estimated 85% of all sales people prefer cold calling among other methods to collecting referrals as a means of finding new opportunities?

 Because done poorly, through a lack of training or otherwise, the referral collecting process can damage our valuable hard won personal relationships.  Rather than risk doing more harm than good, most choose to do nothing.

 I think we can do better.  Here are some strategies, both relationship and transaction driven, to help you become part of the enlightened 15% that have referral based selling figured out.

Relationship based strategy:

Strategy 1: Ask a better question.  Instead of asking “Who do you know that could benefit from my product or services?” I would ask a more targeted to my profession.  “Can you think of anyone that is having difficulty hitting their sales numbers” or “…anyone struggling to get their new business off the ground?”

With the first question, you are asking your client to understand the problem your business solves and apply that to the lives of the people they know.  It is much simpler to just present the problem you solve and let them figure out who might be a fit.

When you do get a name, follow up with “What made you think of that person?”  This will give you an understanding of your clients thought process and give you something to work with when you do engage the prospect.

Ask your customer to make an introduction for you.  Ideally this would happen face to face, perhaps over lunch, but a three-way call, or an email between all parties could work in less than ideal situations.

Every few months ask your customer base a new question and begin the referral generation process all over again.

Strategy 2:  Tell a story.  More specifically, tell one of your success stories that involves the kind of referral client you are looking for and how you were able to help them.  It does not need to be long, just where the client was, where they wanted to be and how you helped get them there.  After you finish relating the story, ask them if they have ever seen a situation like that or know anyone in that situation now.  Asking this way changes the conversation in the head of the person you are talking to.  Instead of asking them to sacrifice one of their friends who may or may not need your services you are asking them to play a game of Classic Concentration in their head and match someone they know to the character in the story.  If they can make that match, their is a greater likelihood they will tell you because you have helped them identify a solution to a specific problem one of their friends has.   

Strategy 3:  Find vendors with complimentary products and establish a referral system with them doing reciprocal work.  Think auto parts and car washes, software and hardware vendors, advertising agencies and production studios, insurance agents and clinics/body shops for instance.

 Strategy 4:  Work with the people you know and depend on like barbers, waitresses, dry cleaners, your coffee shop guy, your realtor, or your insurance agent and where appropriate leave them with a stack of your business cards if a referral opportunity presents itself and do the same for them.

Transactional based strategy:

Strategy 4:  Build a repeatable transaction driven referral process.

Every time you engage a client in a meaningful way give them an opportunity to refer a friend and a reward them for helping you win a new client.

When you send out an invoice, drop in a flyer for your referral program detailing the reward for giving you a new prospect.  Technicians can leave a flyer when they complete their onsite work.  Promotional letters could be packed with shipments.     

Obviously, in your industry, mileage may vary.

The objective is to build a system that provides your business with a steady stream of referrals by consistently making your customers aware of your search for new customers and rewarding those who choose to help you identify and land new business.       

Strategy 5:  http://uRefer.com.  Pay to use a referral system someone else has already built like uRefer that just bolts onto your existing web infrastructure.  For the record I have never used uRefer, nor do I have any incentive for recommending them over any other company.

 I, myself, have ignored the “benefits” of having a formal referral program in place over the years because I did not honestly see a need based on the numbers we were turning.  In light of where we are today that seems careless and more than a little silly.

 If you told me today that a successful referral program could potentially bump my top line revenue 10-20%, again, mileage may vary, I would make that an immediate priority.

Thank you for taking the time to read this article.  Please spend another two minutes on this 5 question survey.  I would appreciate your feedback as it will shape some future posts.

Want to see how the Guinness Book best car salesman in the world used referrals? 

Image courtesy of http://trismartcoaching.com