Sales Reform School - Teaching CustomerCentric Selling®

May the Salesforce Be With You - Wouldn't you love this sort of endorsement??!!

Wow.  I expect salesforce.com sellers to be sharing this video with everyone they know.  Listen for the cheap shot at Microsoft's CRM capabilities.

Cramer hits on all the right themes:  Cloud computing, sales people monitoring, improving customer relations, improving top line revenue.

I wonder, though, is Cramer such a lightning rod that you would want to know your audience's opinion of him before sharing?  I don't think so.  Even if you think he's just being a shill and don't trust him, his points are logical and beg at least a cursory look at salesforce.com's capabilities.

Take a look.

How to Throw Water on your Sales Opportunities

You may have heard that here in the Atlanta area many are suffering through repairing their homes after torrential rains and flooding  - the worst EVER for our area. 

 

Understanding that cleanup and waterproofing contractors are likely the same folks who are hurting due to the present economic downturn, the following actual conversation is regrettable.  

 

This dialogue occurred last week between our highly educated friend Tina and a waterproofing contractor (emphasis added):

 

 

I just had a fine gentleman leave who REFUSED to give me an estimate on waterproofing.  

 

"I can only talk to the decision maker", he said to me.  

 

I explained I was his audience...to which replied, "Yes ma’am, but this stuff is pretty technical, beyond what you could explain to your husband, and may cost more than groceries, so I should talk to your husband, can we call him and see when I can meet with him?"  

 

Guess which (2) of these responses I said next....

 

a) I'm sorry he doesn't let me make outgoing calls.

 

b) The truth is I left my husband years ago in search of something more, like a waterproofing salesman

 

c) I can see you are a wise businessman with a solid marketing strategy - are you looking for investors?

 

d) I'm quite certain we will be giving someone else our money this week, but I am going to find a very special place for your contact information.

 

e) I actually have a wife, not a husband; can you imagine how hard it is for us to decide on anything?

 

Anyone want me to send this treasure to his or her house?

 

Though this real life example is obviously laughable, unfortunately, it is also common. 

 

If you haven’t figured it out yet, the problem with the above is two fold:

 

1)   1) The seller is not treating the buyer with respect – maybe she’s actually an engineer? Or maybe she is just smart enough to understand the proposal he will make? In truth, Tina exudes intelligence form the moment you talk to her.  Often times, listening is the most important selling skill.

2)   2) Though he is on the right track to try to qualify the opportunity, the seller is ignoring any possibility the “wife” had decision making authority and blows this important step in the process.

 

I discussed this train-wreck of a conversation with a client of mine who manages a sales force.  He will be sharing this conversation with his team because it reminds him of the subtle ways his sales-people self-inflict injuries to their opportunities. 

 

He compared it to the important CustomerCentric Selling®  step of figuring out who the other key players are when you only have one contact at an opportunity.

 

Guess which question below makes him want to poke his eyes out:

 

 “So, who are the decision makers on this project at your company?"

Or 

 “So, who else, besides yourself, will be involved in the decision making process?”

 I hope you choose the first one.

For me, we can glean two important lessons from Tina's conversation the sales manager's corollary.  First, treat everyone with respect – seems like a life lesson as well as a business lesson, no?

Second, words count.  Your company can have the best products and services and a slick marketing campaign that drives people to explore what you have to offer. Yet salespeople like Mr. Waterproofing will throw water all over your opportunities if you don’t help them watch what they say.

 

Good Selling.

 

 

 

 

Beware the Halo Effect and Management Gurus

This one ranks up there with Freakonomics.  It's that good. 

Phil Rosenzweig's article, "Misunderstanding the Nature of Company Performance: The Halo Effect and Other Business Delusions", details why management is NOT an exact science and there is no formula or blueprint for success despite what you might have learned in the management aisle of Barnes and Noble.

More than just a debunker of wildly popular management tomes, the author also offers his own lessons.  

For example, "Wise managers must therefore shift away from the search for blueprints and formulas, and instead think of the business world in terms of probabilities.  Strategic leadership is about making choices, under uncertainty, that have the best chance to raise the probabilities of success, while never imagining that success can be predictably achieved."

This lesson resonates strongly with me and should be familiar to anyone who has participated in one of my CustomerCentric Selling® workshops.  These folks have heard me over and over again instruct that implementing a sales process that enhances the customer experience, aligns well with your marketing message, and guides sellers through opportunities is NOT a silver bullet or magic formula.

Instead, if it is followed/coached/reinforced, it will help ratchet up the probability of success.  And as Rosenzweig suggests, isn't that really all you can ask for?

Good Selling!

So, How's it Going?

A year after helping a client of mine with their Customer Centric Selling implementation, the Sales Operations Manager (SOM) asked me to spend a half day facilitating a review and refresh of the sales process with the sales team.

Our agenda at the request of the SOM was the following:

1. Plusses of the CCS sales process
2. Deltas of the CCS process and the implementation at their company
3. Refresh the group on best practices when having an initial conversation with an interested prospect
4. Best practices for over-the-phone sales calls
5. What’s so important about “Artificial Patience”
   

I asked the shortest-tenured salesperson to take notes figuring he would gain most from this task.  Below are his notes with some elaboration and editing.

Aside – I learned the Plusses and Deltas tactic for audience participation from another client, Leadership Strategies (LSI).  LSI’s bailiwick is teaching folks how to be great facilitators.

Say you are in a meeting and you need feedback on an idea or program, or whatever.  Too often, you receive a lot of blank stares or repetitive “what she said” responses.  So, instead of asking for direct feedback, ask everyone to take two minutes to jot down the plusses or positive things about an idea or concept, then the negative ones or deltas on their own scratch paper.  Then, go around the room getting everyone’s plusses first, then the deltas and put them up on a white board or easel.

I often joke that this is the “Focker” facilitation tool.  In the movie "Meet the Fockers", Ben Stiller's parents loved Ben so much they never criticized him and overly praised him to the point of cherishing his 9th placed ribbons.  Similarly, we don’t want to upset anyone by labeling negative feedback as a “minus”, so we call it a delta, as in a process engineer's “gap”.

I.  Plusses regarding the company’s sales process implementation

1. It’s great having a structure
2. Love the SOE [Sequence of Events, documenting the process the prospect says they will undertake to evaluate the sellers offering(s)]
3. The Process reinforces that it is beneficial to treat prospects as unique, even if they are not.
4. The Process Establishes Trust & Credibility
5. It's a Consultative not stereotypical approach
6. Company-wide support around the sales process
7. Product Specialists are motivated because they love process
8. Company-wide alignment with CCS Success Stories, Plausible Emergencies, and Usage Scenarios
9. Not manipulation, rather based on persuasion
10. Pausing throughout the process helps give the buyers room to express themselves and not feel hurried
11. The Sales Process is all about the Customer and reinforces the sellers ability to Qualify/Disqualify
12. Don’t forget you (sellers) have a role on demos - Bring it back to Value; Ask: "Does 'this' help with the discussed challenges?"; Ask:  "Are their other challenges you are experiencing that we have not addressed?"
13. Important to get appropriate pushback from product specialists; they withhold resources if they see they are being brought into the opportunity too early, before it’s properly qualified
14. Because the company has adopted the sales process top-down, managers know how to coach, manage.  They provide  a 2nd set of eyes on correspondence and a reality check - slapping down happy ears
15. Salesforce.com has been aligned with CCS and now houses all info, so sellers live in it.
    

II.  Deltas regarding the company’s sales process implementation

1. May be too formal/heavy based on audience; for example, need pared down champion letter for small opportunities
2. Need more on how to do first call when they ask for a trial
3. Need a balance between heavy qualifying and serving the prospect
4. Need help w/ research about prospects businesses
5. Compromise btw 30 day trial and customer’s evaluation process
6. More help w/ e-mail correspondence such as with templates and language barriers
7. How to deal w/ reclusive, distant (personality-wise) prospects-Suggestion:  rely on emails more than conversations
8. When prospect is doing a trial, it’s tough to qualify from lead to opportunity - Suggestion:  wait a little for the prospect to gain familiarity then call to ask some light diagnostic questions.  If eager to talk, go to full solution development.
9. SOE not getting designed results w/ losses, need to figure out qualification questions when prospect receives SOE less than enthusiastically.
10. No one at prospect has time for Solution Development [comment – so, find others to talk to).
    

III.  Warm/Initial Interest Calls:

Do Research On Front End.  Then build credibility and rapport with the following

• I am a Certified ____________ (at this company, all salespeople hold particular industry-recognized certifications)….
• Are you currently _________, How long, etc…
• How did you get here?  “What made you do this today?”
• What tools are you currently using?
• Tell me about your team size, makeup?
  

IV.  Best Practices from the Moment You Schedule Something to Placing the Call  - Group Feedback

• Review Notes On Past Correspondence
• Know Your Audience
• Goals and Objectives for Customer, the Call, and Your Next Steps
• Agenda
• Align with prod specialists
• Confirm Call Before
• Send an electronic Meeting Request
• Who’s going to be on call?
• Be prepared with success stories
• Next Steps-Make Suggestion
• Follow Up w/ e-mail and ask for feedback
  

V.  Artificial Patience – When do you need to slow yourself down, even if it seems unnatural? Consider these...

• Initially when the lead comes in, take a step back early in the conversation and ask, “What is your objective, what are you hoping to accomplish?”
• After a solution development call, consider waiting to send an e-mail follow up until the next day.  Let it sink in, give yourself time to make sure you do a good job with it.
• Ask yourself before calling up with a limited selfish agenda, “What is another e-mail/call going to accomplish”?
• End of Quarter-Be Careful!!
• When an evaluation drags out, sometime life does get in the way. Chill.
• In between items on your sequence of events - consider letting them marinate.
  

Good Selling!

Today's Selling environment, What to do now....

Last night, I attended a networking event hosted by the Atlanta Chapter of SMEI -  Sales and Marketing Executives International.  

 

The promised agenda was "How to Make Your Numbers Before Year End."  

I usually have low expectations for this sort of thing, but have to relate that I was pleasantly surprised.  

 The moderator Bruce Kopkin led a lively discussion with three panelists 

                   Jeff Fisher – CEO Partner, HiTech Partners

                  David Gibson – VP Sales,  Reveille Software

                  David Riviere – MD, Alvarez and Marsal

 I gleaned the following no-nonsense baker's dozen:  

 

1.     The current macro-economic environment is all about execution -  prepare, practice and deliver.

2.     The world has shifted to one where defining your niche is vitally important.

3.     You have to have a tight cost v. benefit analysis - payback has to come "in year". Do not try to close business based on an ROI (nasty acronym) too far into the future.

4.     Think about the financial health of your prospects and potential customers to see what they might need from you and where they may be spending money.

5.     CFOs and their direct reports are the key decision-makers on significant opportunities today.

6.     Be creative and honest. Ask: "What does new normal look like?"

7.     Be willing to share risk and outcome with your customers; be prepared to put skin in the game. 

8.     If "partnership" is the context of a deal, be sure there are agreed upon success metrics on set time periods.

9.     The "value prop" is in buyers eye not sellers eye; and "Value Prop" as a concept is timeworn, nebulous and stereotypical. EDITOR'S NOTE - this is a pet peeve of mine.  Can't stand the expression, but that's me. 

10. Make sure you have a tight demonstration on business value so others (your internal champions) can sell for you.

11. "Provocative Selling" is not about being in their face but leaving prospects/buyers with a strong positive impression of you, your company and your offerings.

12. The inquisitive sellers are the ones who will do better in this economy.

13. Marketing and sales should report directly to one individual because they are so co-dependent.

 At first glance, this list may look a little like “Motherhood and Apple Pie”. 

You know, sure these are universal truths of selling for all-time, everyone knows them and loves them.  

But look at them again and compare your reaction if the economy was booming rather than the worst in at least a generation.  

At the very least, the above baker’s dozen should cause you to consider or re-consider your recipe for success.  

Good Selling, and isn't it time for dessert?

Back to School....Part 2

See Part 1 here.

Working with the curious, it helps to nurture, not push.

Next up, John Holland - co-author of the CustomerCentric Selling book, methodology, and coursework - did a great job as usual putting into perspective what is happening today between buyers and sellers.

According to Holland (and I agree), traditional selling is at odds with today's informed buyer.  Especially in B2B sales, buyers more often than not encounter sellers after already learning about their offerings through web sites or third parties - real or web-based.  Traditional sellers, however, assume too much about their buyers without asking questions and believe they are the sole experts on what they sell. 

Holland says that if we combine the above with the baggage that buyers bring over to B2B relationships from their B2C experiences, we can see why many sales people and teams struggle.

How do we fix things?  First, Holland noted that good sellers have to become good sellers on purpose. Next, we have to realize that new buyers crave transparent information - that's why third party sites and referral networks are doing so well.   "At the heart of social networking for business is transparent information buyers can get from or about vendors prior to or during the buying experience."  This is scary for traditional seller-vendors who have trouble qualifying buyer interest or are behave too pushy towards the "merely curious."

Holland then took a step back to look at how world-class marketing and sales organizations generate leads.  It turns out that these companies' sales people are spending most of their time working on active opportunities rather than lead generation.  

"World Class sales organizations have 47%  fewer leads generated by sales." 

- John Holland, CustomerCentric Selling

Instead their leads are generated by marketing and some sort of inside sales/business development group who hand off "hot" leads to quota carriers. 

Marketing, however, may be too aggressive in qualifying during "lead generation".  Imagine a curious individual at a potential prospect who visits your web site to learn more.  This person has just had a rude episode at the electronics store, car lot or with an insurance salesman.  This person merely wants a white paper to "see what this is all about," but is turned off by your web site's insistence that he provide an email address and/or phone number in exchange for the download.  So, he navigate away not wanting to be bothered by an email or worse, a phone call from a pesky sales guy.  You've potentially turned off a prospect.  

Is this scenario possible?  Happens everyday.  I know I've done it as a when merely curious.  

School's over, time to get back to work.

Instead, Holland suggests,the best marketers in B2B see their role as nurturing the "curious" so that eventually curiosity becomes an active need.

Back to School....

I spent the early part of this week going back to school myself: At the CustomerCentric Selling® partners retreat.  Lots of pearls of wisdom and enlightenment.  This is Part I.

 

First off was an impressive keynote address from Greg Alexander, CEO of Sales Benchmark Index.   After mentioning that his research shows that sales force effectiveness is the #1 objective of today’s CEOs, he discussed four main points that I’ll break out for you below.

1)  Product and Price are no longer a sustainable competitive advantage.  Everything cool and useful gets copied within 18 months or so these days.  In the global economy, there seems to always be someone pricing their comparable stuff even cheaper than seems possible.  See Michael Porter, Thomas Friedman, etc.   

2)  The key question executives need to answer then is “What is your strategy for maintaining or achieving a dominant position in your market?” Since it’s can’t be product or price, what’s left is The Customer Experience.   Where does Customer Experience start?  MARKETING AND SALES.  

How?  That experience starts with empowering your sales team to make your customers’ buying experience world class – that is, make it easy and enjoyable.

 

At this point, my mind wandered a little:  (c’mon, I’m a sales guy, like my attention can be held in a vice without hypnosis).  I started thinking about a recent success story I heard from a customer of mine.  Seems they were locked into a hyper competitive opportunity against their archrival for a large contract from a F500 company – we’ll call them F500 for short. After awarding the business to my client, F500 actually told them, “You won because of salesmanship.  When we asked your competition about differentiators they talked themselves up and then bashed you.  You, though, described yourself in terms we could understand and then talked up your strengths without even mentioning your competition.  We felt you must really care about doing things the right way.”  THAT is caring about the customer experience. 
 
Tbis success is gratifying to me.  With this competitive situation, they were demonstrating the CustomerCentric Selling core concept - which I taught them -  of “Make yourself equal THEN make yourself different… Otherwise you’re just different.”  And you make yourself different by building a vision of usage and value around what makes you special.

 

(Back to Alexander’s Keynote)

3)  Alexander then asked, “Why Now?”  Well, because within a few years half of the sales talent is going out the door.  It seems the US census tracks this sort of thing and reports that there are 20 million sales people give or take a few in the United States.  Half of them are nearing retirement age.  Someone needs to talk to these people!!!

Alexander is NOT suggesting a focus on the Willy Loman's out there that sold only on relationships. He's referring to the sales leaders who are planning to retire without so much as an exit interview, let alone a thorough interview about what made them successful.

For many companies, all that knowledge is going to go out the door without anyone writing down the tools or methods the "non-Lomans" (my term) have deployed over the years.  Yet, writing down the tools, methods, processes a successful sales person uses is the first step in implementing a sales methodology.  And having a sales methodology is the first step in focusing on the Customer's Experience, especially for B2B companies.

Stunningly, Alexander reports that many companies do not have a sales methodology even though his company’s research shows that it is a statistical fact that you will do better if you have one installed.  Alexander points to Seth Godin and Zipf’s law – that is, in a winner take all society, the difference between #1 and #2 is huge, perhaps 10%.  #3 is much further behind than that - for further evidence of the importance of focusing on Customer Experience and documenting why your salespeople are successful. 

Folks, you're successful sales people are retiring, you haven't figured out how to clone them by recording the secrets to your success, yet you need to focus on Customer Experience. So,....

4)  Where to start? Well, you had better benchmark.  Sales Benchmark Index has data on 11,000 companies.  Only 7.3% qualify as world class.  That is, they are in the top 25% across 11 categories of metrics.  Where do you stand? Do you have a sales process?  Is Marketing involved?  Do Sales and Marketing work together to insure a positive customer experience?

Thanks Greg for a thoughtful and entertaining keynote.

More from my "Back to School" days later....

 

A Quick Primer on "Social Networking Tools for Business"

Steve Youngblood and I worked together years ago.  He posts a nice short primer on Social Networking tools for business here.  Steve summarizes Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Blogging.  

Bosworth on Sales-Ready Messaging

Michael Bosworth, Co-founder & Co-author of CustomerCentric Selling®, comments here on how integrated sales and marketing teams increase sales. 

Negotiations that many of us can relate to....

Not Training - It's Implementing a Sales Methodology

My colleague and fellow CustomerCentric Selling partner Jim Naro has posted an excellent article on how to make sure your sales training and sales process improvement dollars are being spent wisely.  

If you think of sales training as an event rather than just a part of a process improvement implementation, you are unlikely to reap the improvements you seek.  Well done, Jim.

Nuggets from sitting in the back and really listening....

At least once per year, I serve as a sales training coach for another CustomerCentric Selling® 

practitioner. Last week, I helped Frank Visgatis, co-writer of the CustomerCentric Selling® methodology at a Workshop in Atlanta.  This serves a few purposes: 

1) to improve my delivery; 

2) As Stephen Covey suggests - I need to constantly Sharpen my Saw; 

3) as a re-inspiration mechanism for why I love what I do.

So, in no particular order, here is a peek at my notes.  Consider these the "yeah, that's it" or "Hmm, interesting way to put it" moments for me.

 - Query: Who pushes an enterprise forward? Is it Sales, Marketing, Product Development?   

Answer: None of the Above.  At a for-profit enterprise, it's the Customer!  This is the foundational element of CustomerCentric Selling®.

 - Our goal is to help everyone involved in revenue for a company think of themselves as being part of the enterprise becoming better at being "Buyer Facilitators."

 - In order to defeat "No Decision, Inc.", sellers need to help buyers realize that the cost of the challenge (or pain in the old nomenclature) is greater than the cost of change.

 - Too often, sellers think linearly, station to station instead of  - again Covey - keeping the end in mind and working backwards.

 - No one goes into a hardware store to buy a quarter-inch drill bit.  They need to buy a quarter-inch hole!

 - One of the biggest differentiators for CustomerCentric Selling® is our use of messaging tools in the sales process.  Imagine your 20-something sales rep has finally, after months of trying, netted a first meeting with an executive at a target organization.  Happiness, right?  Well, when the door to the corner office opens, and your rep walks in and shakes the execs hand, do you know what the content of her conversation will be?  Is it best-practices?  Will it show off that this 20-something knows the goals, challenges, issues that exec likely is facing?  Or, will they try to wing-it?

Good Selling,

Adam

Training New Hires - from a LinkedIn Discussion

From the Sales Training Practices Group on LinkedIn:

Matthew Kearns, a Sales Learning Consultant posted:

My company sells outsourced workforce management technology and service. I’m currently a sales trainer for their Major Accounts division (selling to companies with 50-999 employees). Over the past several years in the field and now preaching as trainer, its been mostly Value Based selling…meaning strategic, client centric to C-Level, finding out how we can help them to impact top line revenue and reduce expenses to stretch out their bottom line profit. This has been adopted very well assuming we’re talking to a true C-Level decision maker…price isn’t a barrier if there is opportunity to tie back our value to their TOP LINE initiatives...other factors come into play as well…The challenge is when there isn’t any other way into the account besides through a User, who in many cases can pull the trigger for change…this is were as sales professional you need to know when to call an auditable and get down to business, find out the buying criteria, strongly qualify the buyer and if it makes sense, take your seat at the table and position your solution and company accordingly…not always fun, gets more commoditized, however can be a quick turn especially if your replacing a like service. For new folks in my industry it is extremely hard to teach the latter. They want to talk strategic when their speaking with a tactical buyer…sometimes they’ll lose the sale because it could get over complicated. Any feedback on how to teach the difference would be welcomed!

I answered:

Matthew: 

Your challenge is real: Yes, often opportunities start as leads from "users". You say, sellers must "find out the buying criteria, strongly qualify the buyer and if it makes sense, take your seat at the table and position your solution and company accordingly..." 

What if we take the first task out of the equation? Is there really a "buying criteria" yet when starting with a user? Many sellers ("closers") knock themselves out of alignment with users by assuming they have arrived at a point where there is a buying criteria. You are on the right track, though, by including "qualifying the buyer", etc. There is a real difference between qualifying the buyer and qualifying the opportunity. For us, without a qualified buyer, you cannot have a qualified opportunity. For a "user based" lead, then, what does a rep have to do to qualify the buyer (as a champion)? 

How's this? 

* Does the user's company and user herself have goals and objectives similar to those we've helped our clients reach in the past? 

* Do we have conversational and then correspondence-driven agreement with the prospect that there are real and measurable issues and challenges that are keeping them from reaching these objectives? 

* Does she agree that with the capabilities (discussed) we can offer, the prospect can overcome these challenges or issues and reach objectives? 

* Are they willing to introduce us to others who with them will evaluate these capabilities, allow us to prove ourselves and buy if there's a strong enough cost v. benefit? 

This probably seems like "motherhood and apple pie". if I can re-phrase your question: So then, how do you teach "new folks in your industry" to have conversations so they can perform the above buyer qualification process? 

The answer lies in how you prepare them for their sales conversations. 

To prepare them, what if leaders from product marketing/management and sales knew how to get together and create tools to arm new reps with the actual questions to ask - by title - and the conversational process to follow to drive the building of visions of a) Usage (when would they need your stuff?) b) Value (what do I get out of using your stuff?) and c) Implementation (how do i get to where I am using your stuff at geat benefit?)? 

If a user develops these visions (with the help of your sales rep) and can get to others who would be involved in an evaluation, then don't we have a qualified buyer? Wouldn't the rep be able to answer the four qualification questions above? 

Too often, new reps try to mimic existing/successful sellers. They wing-it and fail without following any sort of process. Why? The good existing reps act intuitively out of experience and often succeed, but the new reps who do not have that experience fall back bad habits and behave badly. 

By documenting the conversational model and the best practices of experienced reps, can you see then how sales, marketing etc. could clone the "intuitives" and create questioning templates for new reps? In essence the leaders will be "loading the lips" of the new folks who otherwise would be relying on their ability to figure it out for themselves. Think of these templates as product usage/value/implementation training tools. 

In many companies, product folks teach new reps about the products or offerings as a separate process from new hire sales training. What I am suggesting above is that product and sales need to combine the two. "What a feature is?" is of less importance to a new sales hire than "how does a customer USE it?" or "how do they get VALUE out of it? and how do I have a conversation to build those visions." 

What if new hires could practice the buyer-qualification-conversation ahead of meetings? Can you see how they could qualify better? 

This strategy will better prepare new reps when getting into an account through a user.

Success Story: VersionOne More than Doubles Revenue with CustomerCentric Selling's Help

Business Problem

VersionOne offers its software development project management tools through a sales organization of now 26 people, including sales representatives, product specialists, sales operations and executives.  Early in 2008, VersionOne had several sales challenges which it sought to overcome by implementing CustomerCentric Selling®.  For example, the sales organization needed a process for ramping up new sales people quickly to reduce the time from hire to first sale.  The sales team sought a common language or way to effectively describe capabilities.  Additionally, they needed a best practice to adequately process inbound requests from prospects. VersionOne also wanted to address the following concerns:

·       How do we adequately train and coach our existing and new sales force when we are running around growing the business? 

·       If we are going to grow personnel and sales, we need to codify our best practices and learn how to repeat them and coach them. When are we going to do that?

·       Are we saying the right things at the appropriate time in the sales or recruitment process?

·       Many of our leads are inbound, so they are either already looking at someone else like us or we are the first on a list – how do we distinguish ourselves and conduct appropriate discussions?

·       How well are we tracking our opportunities?

Solving these combined challenges would directly impact VersionOne’s revenue potential.

 The CustomerCentric Selling® Solution

VersionOne’s sales and marketing team began working with Adam Shapiro, CustomerCentric Selling® (CCS) Business Partner in February of 2008 by building an initial sales-ready messaging kit of scripts, success stories and conversation prompters.  Later, they held three CCS workshops, the last in September of 2008, all led by Shapiro.  With Adam’s help and the CCS methodology, VersionOne immediately saw positive results. 

The sales people were able to arm themselves with messaging tools that they could then utilize throughout each step of the sales process.  These tools are especially helpful in knowing how to effectively qualify or disqualify a prospect early in the process.  CustomerCentric Selling® was also able to help VersionOne define a common language for how they can discuss opportunities as an organization.  Most importantly, the new methodology helped VersionOne create a process for working through opportunities that honors what buyers need in order to make a purchasing decision, while also setting them apart from competitors.  The net results of this CustomerCentric Selling® implementation have been remarkable – VersionOne more than doubled its sales in 2008 over 2007. 

Richard Fuller, Vice President of Sales for VersionOne states, “Demand for our products were clearly ahead of our sales capacity prior to CustomerCentric Selling® (CCS).  We needed a process that recognized the value of consistent messaging, the demands of a consultative sale and the realization that our buyers are well-educated and well-informed.  With CCS, we received all of this in a highly effective, repeatable process that helped us quadruple our sales team in less than one year.”

 VersionOne CEO, Robert Holler also credits the hands-on guidance they received throughout their implementation by stating, “Adam is one of the few I have met with truly exceptional insight into sales messaging and the sales process. As we scale, it is beneficial to have someone to turn to for assistance with training and messaging.  We subscribe to the CustomerCentric Selling® sales methodology and Adam just happens to be one of the best I have seen at helping teams reach their potential through the associated best practices.”

__________

“The CustomerCentric Selling® methodology drives a much more collaborative experience between sales and marketing. It definitely gets you 180 degrees away from selling on price and into consulting with customers on solutions to their issues or challenges that match up with the key strengths of our product. The methodology helps you clearly articulate and deliver your value proposition to the customer.”

–Denise Grey, VP of Marketing for VersionOne

 _________

Customer Closeup

VersionOne is recognized by Agile practitioners as the leader in Agile project management tools.  By simplifying the process of planning and tracking Agile software projects, VersionOne helps development teams consistently deliver software faster.  Since 2002, companies such as Adobe, BBC, Siemens, Disney, Dow Chemical, IBM, Lockheed Martin, Sony, 3M and Business Objects have turned to VersionOne to help provide greater value to their customers.  Today more than 10,000 teams and 70,000 users in 50 countries use VersionOne’s Agile project management tools to streamline and standardize their Agile development efforts.  VersionOne offers the most feature-rich, easy-to-use Agile project management tools available.  No other Agile project management tool gives more visibility into and confidence in the software development process. 

Using VersionOne, all project stakeholders – project managers, developers, testers, product owners, customers and software executives - can work together to easily coordinate project plans, priorities and progress.

 

More information on VersionOne can be found at www.versionone.com 

 

Prospect/Customer Conversations in a Down Economy

I had a client meeting last week that you might be interested to hear about.  This client asked me to address his sales and marketing personnel about how to have sales conversations when the sellers anticipate that the target market is having a rough time due to the economy.  I focused my remarks on two types of conversations:

1) The informational interview – how to have a relaxed open-ended conversations with targets about the goals, objectives, challenges, issues they are facing/working towards in a non-threatening, non-”salesy” manner.   This sort of conversation is similar to the job applicant who is looking to switch industries so she talks to players who have insight into the opportunities in the new area.

2) The success metrics review  This is the "how are we doing?" conversation with past/current customers.  This call shows you care about success within your client base and gives you a route to add-on sales or referrals.

The meeting was very interactive.  I had the sellers do some “lab work” to get their creative juices flowing and make it “their” solution.  They brainstormed on appropriate content for each of the above conversations.  The group constructively critiqued their output and we role-played.

The next day, I received the following email from the sales leader:

“I wanted to let you know I have received great response from the team since you left yesterday.  They immediately began incorporating your word tracks and are happy to share, ‘It Works!’”

So, instead of hanging your head because no one seems interested in buying, pick up the phone or get in front of people.  Show them you care by having one of the above conversations.  When the market turns or budgets begin to thaw, they will think of you.

AJS

Quick read on Mission, Vision....

It's January.  Seems like a good time for business planning.  Though I've helped others with mission/vision/business planning etc., to get the juices flowing, I googled for some nourishment on mission and vision.  I came across this excellent Q&A.   Some of the headings captured my attention:

Don't Include Everyone
The Vision is the Reason
Fit the Hire
The Mission is the Second Reason
Fit Ideas with Vision/Mission First

Good Selling!

Adam

One Idea on What to do When Sales are Slow... A letter to my clients

Clients: 

I hope the year ends on an upswing or at least at or above projections. While all of you are busy trying to close deals this month, you undoubtedly will have reps wondering how to stay busy while deals slip or (better) while waiting for the good news to come on an opportunity. I have often found that December is the hardest month for business development since the seasonal theme is more about wrapping things up and winding things down. 

So, here’s an idea to keep your reps busy with worthwhile client conversations. Why not have them call customers who bought or implemented this year and see how they are doing? Your customers who are enjoying your offering may be more than wiling to be the basis of a success story. These may turn out to be large “white paper”-like productions or basic CustomerCentric Selling(c)-style conversation tools. Either way, remember people buy from people they trust (See Covey, Stephen). And Trust = Sincerity + Competence. Competence is revealed through our successes. We can only relate our success if we now the background and substance of the success. 

So here are 10 questions to get you and your reps started on building success stories. They should not treat this as an interrogation. Rather, use their personal style to make it conversational.

1. How long ago did you first start using our product/service/technology/product(s)?
2. What was your challenge or business problem when you first started talking to us?
3. Did we replace an existing process/technology/product/service you had in place before? If yes, then who?
4. If you answered ‘yes’ to the previous question, what led you to evaluate other options?
5. How do we compare to other processes/products/services/products you’ve used in the past, if any? What do you like best?
6. Who else did you consider when evaluating us, and what influenced your decision to choose us?
7. How many/which business team(s) use our tools/processes/products/software/services regularly?
8. What kind of (measureable or intangible) results/gains are you seeing that you didn’t have before?
9. Please provide us a link to your company Website or a brief paragraph about your company.
10. Please provide your name and title, as well as any other names/titles of your internal team who was a part of the decision-making process in choosing us. 

Happy Holidays! 

Adam J. Shapiro

Sales Managers Consider the "Law of Threes"

If you pay attention to pop culture, have some appreciation for history or at least historical perspective, and love sports, you should be regular reader of "The Sports Guy" on ESPN's Page 2. Bill Simmons is a smart and hysterically funny writer. Very intelligent. While watching my New York Giants tonight - (we're winning!), I am reading his NFL mid season report. Simmons ranks the Giants #2 and comments:

Our friend Mike Lombardi did a tremendous job describing Tom Coughlin's coaching style over at the National Football Post last week: "He is using a very simple leadership strategy called the 'Law of Threes.' On each team there are three types of players. The first are the ones who will do anything that is asked, willing to help the program. The second group are the undecided players, the players who are not sure what to do. And the third are the malcontents. These are the players who want to buck the system all the time and try to break down the team. As a leader, there is a tendency to try to win over the players in group three by trying to make them happy. But all that does is move the players from group two into group three, and cause you to start to lose the players in group one. What Coughlin has done is focus on group one. He pays no attention to group three and what has resulted is that Plaxico is on an island and no one wants to join him. The team is bigger than Plaxico."

Love it. Now THAT makes perfect sense to me. The Law of Threes. I really respect how the Giants have defended their title this season. We don't see it enough in sports anymore. The road to Super Bowl XLIII goes through them.

I love it too! Sure, it speaks highly of my favorite NFL team. But, sales managers - and really all managers - take note:

Do you pay minimal attention to your malcontents? Or are they poisoning your team?
Do you focus on those in the middle group? For them, is it an enthusiasm or expertise issue that is keeping member of the second-middle group from joining the first?

Figure this out first.

Quit trying to make your malcontents happy.

Maybe you'll win the Super Bowl, too!

Secret to His Success

Web browsing is awesome. I am currently evaluating whether to move away from a laptop running windows to a new MacBook. While researching how to switch over without losing productivity and gobs of time, I stumbled on an insightful post in Michael Hyatt's Web log "Working Smarter".

If you scroll down the home page, you will come upon an entry titled:

Monday, February 27, 2006
What’s the Secret to Your Success?

or link Here.

In a word, Hyatt says it's "responsiveness." I could not agree more. His explanation resonates well with me especially after some pipeline reviews I held last week. I am helping a client by meeting one on one with a few sales reps and going over individual opportunities. Continually, these reps are having excellent opening or introductory conversations with prospects, some of whom are former colleagues or social contacts.

I will ask, "Did you offer and have you followed up with a recapping email note?" and their response is, "Non and not yet, I am waiting to get more information." But, the rep doesn't know when that next contact will be or it isn't scheduled. Wouldn't it be better to show that you listened and are thinking about your new prospect's goals, objectives, issues or concerns by recapping the previous conversation while it is fresh? Would that show you are not just interested in a "close", but also getting it right? Might that note become an artifact at the prospect's organization shared to generate interest in what you have to offer?

This note should fit into the following outline:

1) I would like to recap our last conversation, please let me know if I get it right
2) The prospect's current situation - the goals, objectives, issues, problems etc.
3) "Would the following help the above?" Describe your company's capabilities in a way that shows, usage and value?
4) ask for a meeting to discuss the above and make sure you understand their current situation.

In my mind, this all fits in well with Hyatt's kernel of responsiveness as a centerpiece of success.

Summary to sales people: If you get some meaningful information from someone who COULD be a prospect, be repsonsive: offer to recap and DO IT!

P.S. I just fouind Hyatt's new blog, "From Where I Sit" HERE.

What's your Dirty Dozen?

Here's a frequent conversation I have with friends, colleagues, prospects, clients:

FRIEND: How do you get your clients?

ME: It's a lot of conversations like this one.

FRIEND quizzical look on his face: What do you mean?

ME: Well, when I talk to people about what I do for a living, it's my opening to inform them about my Dirty Dozen.

FRIEND: Your what?

ME: In any business, but especially Business to Business sales, the issues a company helps others overcome can be thought of as the more-than-annoying issues that your clients face every day or at least should worry about every day. If they don't deal with them, they fester and can damage the whole enterprise. These pests remind me of the rag-tag delinquents and convicts Lee Marvin whipped into shape in the movie of the same name.

If everyone I know, knows the issues or concerns that my clients have that I help them address and overcome, then they become my advertising and marketing team. If they experience any of my Dirty Dozen or know of someone else who is, it's my goal that they remember to think of me. If I just talk about my features or my "stuff" then I am leaving it up to my audience to figure out when they or one of their contacts would need what I have to offer.

FRIEND: So, what's your "Dirty Dozen"?

ME: well, I'm not about to go into a solilloquy, instead I rattle off a few of the below concerns sales and marketing execs face -

* No process for ensuring that sellers are putting out the
same message in sales conversations as the executive team is creating on
a higher level - that is, marketing and sales are not integrated.

* Prospects attempt to treat what they sell as a commodity

* Sales cycles inexplicably long and expensive

* Salespeople find themselves having to unseat an incumbent’s
product or service

* Maintaining the 'status quo” one of their primary
competitors

* It takes too long for new hires to make their first sale or
management wants to insure a quicker time to first sale.

* Salespeople too often “Wing-it” and rely on the product too
early in the sales cycle, they don’t have conversations about the buyers
goals, needs and challenges

* The decision to purchase has to be approved by 'multiple
executives' who have diverse business issues and who are typically
averse to risk

* Prospects require your product or service to demonstrate a
quick and clear cost-versus-benefit analysis even to be considered

* What they sell requires a major change in thinking by your
prospect

* The team is composed of veterans who each bring to the job
their own way of selling with no unified dictionary of terms and
processes or less seasoned folks with no process at all; It is hard to
provide skill and opportunity coaching with everyone doing their own
thing.

* Within the sales team, there is not a process for sharing
information on opportunities

See, in any company, if you are a marketer, it's your job to condition the market to think of your company when a particular goal, issue or concern arises. For me, my customer's goal is usually to improve sales performance, but that is too general and broad. My Dirty Dozen, I hope, addresses everyday issues that arise. When they do, I want folks to think of me. By the way, many smart execs tell me that they want a corporate culture where EVERYONE wants to be at least helping drive sales and revenue. Loading up employees with the Dirty Dozen is a good first step.

FRIEND: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense, but I am in sales; finding new prospects, that's marketing's job, you just said so.

ME: If you don't hit your sales number, does your boss want to hear that marketing is not doing it's job? Ultimately, your pipeling is your responsibility. Also, don't your shortest sales cycles come from referrals!? They do for me. Arming your contacts with YOUR company's DIRTY DOZEN will start the referral engine. Sorry for the mixed metaphor. Ms. Kelly - my High School english teacher would not be pleased.

Soooo, what is YOUR Dirty Dozen?

----------------------------------------------

Personally, I am not one to thrust what I do for a living onto others. That's just me, I am not comfortable doing that. I try not to force rapport. For me, rapport doesn't work and can be a negative unless I have gained some amount of trust. And as I have said before, I agree with Covey that trust = sincerity + competence.

When asked, however, what I do for a living, or specifically about my business, like above, I want to make sure I am prepared. Consider this: At a trade show, cocktail party, kid's soccer tournament, if you or ANYONE in your company is asked "what you do for a living or what does your company do?", can you answer in a way that could eventually generate a referral? Or would the listener have to figure out for themselves when they would need it, whatever it is?

Your Dirty Dozen can be your best weapon to boost your pipeline!