What would you do to insure certain success?

What would you do if you knew doing it would prevent failure?

No matter what your role in your company, persuasion is the only thing that you will get paid for. Some say that "everyone sells". Selling = persuasion does it not? The new car you tell your friend about as fast, fast, fast. The golf club that goes far, far, far. The sales discipline that helps you get more appointments, get more appointments, get more appointments.

What often gets lost in these "success stories" is the time and preparation that was necessary in the first place. Think about a time when you had to make an important presentation, prepare for an interview, go before the Board. You were most likely laser focused. You did your homework. You rehearsed your approach/dialogue. And it worked! And you told everyone who cared to listen of your "outcomes".

We often hear the cliche "... you don't get anywhere until you take the first step". While true you must take the first step, you must continue making strides.

How do you continue making strides? What have you done to earn the right to a dialogue with your senior colleague? With the C-level executive you have been trying to get in to see? With your boss or with your team? Continuing to make strides means doing things on your own to create your personal brand. You are who persuades others. You know it works for others right?

The CEO of a small company recently brought in a professional coach to help her with her presentation skills. The project manager of a major electronics manufacturer recently had his team attend a session around business acumen in order to advance his initiative.

What have you done recently to know that if you did it, you would not fail?

The Selfish Bastard Rule

Here is a reprint from a recent post in one of my LinkedIn Groups by Kavin Williams National Sales Director at MCF.

"The reason why sales professionals, in your organization, continue to struggle with uncovering opportunities, and closing business, is because they are either unaware of The Selfish Bastard Rule or are unable to adhere to it. The same is true for the majority of chief sales executives, whose sales strategies are driven by nothing more than a wild guess; and sales managers, who offer nothing to their sales teams except a watchful eye over their shoulder.

The Selfish Bastard Rule has two parts: (1) Buyers prefer to buy outcomes, not solutions, offerings, or commodities; and (2) Decision-Makers, when possible, will act in their own interest over that of their employer.

Any disconnect that occurs between buyers and a sales professional is due to the fact that while buyers prefer to buy outcomes; sales professionals sell solutions, offerings, or commodities. Simply put, they are not buying what you’re selling! Instead, buyers are left to figure out which solution, offering, or commodity offers them the best possible chance to gain the outcome they are seeking to buy in the first place. As a result, business is normally awarded to prospective vendors by default.

Hint: If you are an inward looking sales professional, sales manager, or chief sales executive whose activities are driven by what your company or product is or does, instead of the outcomes you can deliver, you are relying on the relative incompetence of your competitors to win or grow your business.

Your best chance of enhancing your sales performance and growing your business lies in your ability to: • fully capture your prospects’ desired outcomes • communicate that your company was founded on, and continues to be driven by, delivering those specific outcomes to similar organizations • further communicate that your company developed whatever you’re selling, specifically to deliver the outcome your prospect is looking to buy In other words, sell outcomes.

All decision-makers are driven to make purchasing decisions based on their need to either gain a desired outcome or avoid an undesired one. It’s that simple. Hence, your mission to be a more effective sales professional, if you choose to accept it, is to lead with your prospects’ desired outcomes and position your company, its offerings, features, and benefits as a means to deliver it.

Adopting an outcome-based sales approach is not a departure from solution or consultative selling, but, rather, the next evolutionary step. Although it is a small step, it’s a significant one. When selling outcomes, it is critical that sales professionals make the distinction between the outcomes of the company being called upon and those of the actual decision-maker. While they will share desired outcomes, it is important to note that among the desired outcomes not shared by both, those of the decision-maker will often take precedence.

Finally understanding and adhering to The Selfish Bastard Rule is critical in enhancing the competencies of sales professionals at all levels. It also serves as an effective guide for chief sales executives, who wish to set a strategic direction that will grow their business and improve their market share, and sales managers who wish to be active in leading high performance sales teams."

I could not agree with Kavin more. It is what knowledge Advantage has been doing for 18 years.

What is your opinion? Are you using outcomes-based Value Props in your dialogues?

How CIO's are Effectively Aligning

Recently I read with interest, a CIO Insight article involving Jeff Kubacki from Kroll Inc. He reviews a few tricks he's learned over the years about collaboration and getting projects approved by all key stakeholders.

Is Jeff getting it right with his peers? Is Jeff getting it right with his vendors? His teams? Are collaborative standards far behind? What are your thoughts? Here is the link:

Link: Kroll's CIO on Effective Alignment

Purchasing Has Been Trained

By now we all know that purchasing stakeholders have been trained to commoditize you and your offering. They are being told to NOT disclose needs to vendors. They are being told to ask for discounts over and over again. They are going to dinner or playing golf with you becasue it's free NOT because they are going to buy from you necessarily.

What are you doing to overcome commoditization and build strategic business value in yourself and your company?

Back To Basics

The best of the best recognized brands of consultants purport to always provide value to their customers. Yet when times are tough the advisors to consultants reminds the best brands to go back to the fundamentals… be provocative, take risks, step in front of the brands…

Priceless advice… Are you doing the same… Let us know what is working…

Link: Never Let a Good Recession Go to Waste

Agitate or Collaborate? How can you tell?

A shepherd was herding his flocks in a remote pasture when suddenly a brand new Jeep Cherokee advanced out of a dust cloud towards him. The driver, a young man in a Armani suit, Gucci shoes, Oakley sunglasses and a Polo tie leaned out of the window and asked our shepherd: "If I can tell you exactly how many sheep you have in your flock, will you give me one?"

The shepherd looks at the yuppie, then at his peacefully grazing flock and calmly answers "sure!"

The yuppie parks the car, whips out his notebook, connects to the net through a cellular card, surfs to a NASA page on the Internet where he calls up a GPS satellite navigation system, scans the area, opens up a database and some 60 Excel spreadsheets with complex formulas.

Finally, he prints out a 150 page report on his hi-tech miniaturized printer, turns around to the shepherd and says: "You have here exactly 1,586 sheep!" "That is correct, take one of the sheep" says the shepherd. He watches the young man select an animal and bundle it into his Cherokee.

Then the shepherd says: "If I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me my sheep back?" "Okay, why not!" answers the young man.

"You are a consultant" says the shepherd.

"That is correct" says the yuppie. "How did you guess that?"

"Easy" answers the shepherd. "You turn up here although nobody called you, you want to be paid for the answer to a question I already knew the solution of, and you don't know anything about my business because you took my dog."

Author unknown...

An Approach that ALWAYS WORKS

I have heard it said that sales people are the easiest to sell to. Here is a not-so-fictional story I read somewhere.

A young sales person peeped into the office of someone who looked like a Sales Manager, muttered something then started walking away. After retreating a little he seemed to change his mind, seemed to head back to the door, where after some hesitation, he started to back away again.

The sales manager, feeling sorry for the young man, and surprised that he was so poorly trained, called him in.

"You're a salesman aren't you? What are you selling?

"Sir...uh...yes... I'm a salesman. I'm sorry to bother you. I was selling insurance but I'm sure you don't want any. Sorry to have wasted your time."

Feeling sorry for the young bungler the Sales Manager bought TWO policies to give the young salesman some confidence and then started teaching him about selling. He said, "You should have different pre-planned approaches for different kinds of ..."

"But sir I do; the one I just used is my planned approach for Sales Managers. It always works. Thank You!"

Social Media in 2009 and Beyond

People we speak with in sales and marketing are largely still trying to figure out how to harness the social media outlets like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and the like.

SiriusDecisions writes "While the hard dollar investment is lower to add social media to the marketing mix, companies should not underestimate the time and people resources that are required. Unlike other marketing tactics, social media requires an ongoing commitment and new skill set. SiriusDecisions believes that communities – the fastest-growing social media segment within b-to-b organizations – will eventually be largely managed by product marketing to create the most relevant content and dialogue with customers and prospects."

Whew! Thank goodness that Product Marketing is taking the lead in managing this conduit. Now sales people can back to work. Traditional sales approaches like personalized hand-written letters should not be abandoned. They still work! they show you care and prospects and customers want to know that you are not a drive-by opportunistic vendor!

Happy Selling and Marketing!

Marketing and Sales Coming Together

Most of the executives I speak with are unhappy with their efforts to get marketing and sales on the same page. Intuitively, they know how important it is. Heretofore it is difficult to measure the real "costs" of not closing the GAP.

New SiriusDecisions research indicates that companies that are able to report closed-loop metrics on their sales and marketing integration efforts have demonstrated more than 20 percent higher revenue and profit growth over a three-year period vs. those companies that cannot.

Now that is what I call closing the GAP!

So, take the words of William Penn to heart when he said "Humility and knowledge in poor clothes excel pride and ignorance in costly attire." Put thy differences aside and build a bridge between marketing and sales and soon your customers will follow.

Did you prepare well prior to your Cold Call?

Too many times I witness senior sales executives tenaciously and vigorously cold calling to a categories of executives without first properly doing the necessary homework to increase their odds of success. Maybe they are lazy. Maybe they are stuck in the 80's way of selling.

From IT and HR to Operations to Mahogany Row; all these people you are trying to reach are busy. Very busy. So when they are interrupted (or their administrative staff is interrupted), what will you do differently to create a razor's edge difference in the buyers' eyes?

Buyers routinely tell us that they want callers to know about THEIR BUSINESS PRIORITIES. Let's face it, if it is not a priority for the buyer, they won't take much time to engage you in meantingful conversation.

How do you find out their priorities? This is not so easy but your efforts will bear fruit! Let's map it out for you in easy bite-size chunks:

1) READ- scour the web for INDUSTRY dynamics, GOVERNMENT pressures, ECONOMIC impact on your buyer and FINANCIALS relative to others.
2) STUDY- based on the research, learn what the indicaters would most likely cause your target firm to focus on; revenue and profit, Customer Service, Cost Containment, etc.
3) WRITE- next draw a map of cause and affect; how one data point feeds another in order to show YOUR UNDERSTANDING of what you THINK the buyers' priorities are.
4) PRESENT- ... your findings. You may be surprised at how few sales people will WRITE what they think they know. Most will speak "... I did my homework prior to calling you and ....." but few will write it down. Why is writing important? When was the last time you asked someone to correct/review your resume or an email and they didn't have at least one suggestion for change? (That's what I thought!)
5) ASK FOR FEEDBACK- simple but so powerful. Ask your buyer if your ASSUMPTIONS are on-track or off-track BEFORE asking for an appointment. Buyers find this refreshing and thoughtful.

Remember- do your homework, write it down, show it to your buyers and see your results improve! Its the Knowledge-Advantage way!

Does this still work in 2009?

Recently I read a post about how to "sell to the C-level". Here it is with some words changed to protect the author's identity.

"Hello Ed, this is XXXXXXXX with YYYYYY. Ed, I just saw a news article come across the wire that mentioned your new product release of the XYMHY banana security software. On May 24th we're holding an online Banana Summit which is a day of back to back webcasts from thought leaders and niche solution providers from around the country. I was calling to see if you'd be interested in showcasing this product at that event. **Now the customer engages and begins to ask questions ******
The cost is $7500 for a sponsorship spot."

Does this still resonate with buyers?

Sales Tactics- BEWARE

I read many articles and books and bloggs about sales. Most espouse "tactics" to handle certain situations. (What do you do if the client says "Just give me a quote?"). Some/most approaches are manipulative. Most think that the buyer does not "see YOU coming". Of course, they do. So beware of what you read and question its validty for YOU. Ask, "Would I like it if I were being sold to this way?"

I saw a great commercial on TV yesterday watching The Players golf telecast. PriceWaterhouseCoopers (in a commercial) began "The lessons of life become lessons for business." Isn't that what it is all about? I'll paraphrase some of what I remember...

1) Take a personal interest in the buyer and s/he will openly share their thoughts/challenges; they will tell you the answers to the 18 questions you would have never thought to ask. (We call this GIVE TO GET)

2) Some say that adversity builds character; I think it reveals whether a person has it.

3) How we conduct ourselves day-to-day is a roadmap of how we will conduct ourselves in crisis (can you say "end of the month/quarter"?).

4) The only way to build sustainable relationships is to let people see your vulnerabilities.

5) Going with the pack is easy but much more difficut to be forward-thinking and go around the corner to see the treasure of an idea.

6) Clients do not care how much you know until they know how much you care.

Increased Activity is not always the answer

Increasing the velocity and volume of any bad process is known to be detrimental to progress. But, some feel that by doing so, a sales rep may get lucky and find a smart and "ready/qualified" buyer.

Our customers tell us that monitoring sales activity is not always the smart way. For example, take into consideration your average "cost per call" to make a face-to-face visit. Time, money, transportation, lodging, meals, tolls, tips.... these all add up. So making more of these calls to find a buyer is costly and unnecessary.

Finding the correct metrics to monitor and measure is key. Without a system that supports full transparency and traceability of sales rep/team behaviors forces sales managers to look at what they do have available such as call and expense reports. Bottom line... examine your current CRM or systems of record (often a speadsheet on someone's personal laptop) and if you can not recreate a sequence of events for a great sales campaign so that others may benefit from "the best", you could be focusing on the wrong things, wasting money and losing opportunities.

Stop Selling and Start Engaging

Curious if anyone has used a simple "scripted" outline for making an introductory call on a "C-level" executive where you are reasonably sure there is an opportunity to help solve a business problem worth solving. (I consider the outline to minimally include: 1) Pre call preparation, 2) Making the introductory appointment, 3) Framing what you do/say in front of the client to OPEN the conversation to show value and 4) Closing for the next action.)

The goals are: 1) qualify 2) build value in "me" and my company enough to be asked back for a second meeting if qualified. Sales Leaders tell me that when they are brought in on calls with their reps, they use this to immediately engage with the client and refrain from "selling" their solution up front.

Buyer and Seller BEWARE!

All too often I hear from sales people that the buyer (under a tremendous amount of time pressure) forces the seller to "show me your solution".

We in sales are partly to blame. With all the "SOLUTION and CONSULTATIVE selling training, we are taught to sell "everything in the warehouse because that proves we "have the total package".

Especially in a highly commoditized market space like computers, networks, storage, security, etc., sellers must be prepared to ask the buyer to "slow down". Of course, you ask, "How?".

I do not make a practice of this, but I will give you the answer here:
http://www.knowledge-advantage.com/podcast/napkin/

ENJOY!

Sell to three Categories of Executive

For all major initiatives, a company will need to get concensus or buy-in from several categories of executives. I say categories because I want to avoid the use of "levels" (Executive level, administrative level, etc.). The fact is, all people want to feel important and they are (in their own way). They do want want to be "leveled"!

Why three categories? It is easy to understand why three when you look at what each group looks for or desires in order to be a supporter of an initiative.

The IT and HR category (lets color them GREEN) primarily deal with SUPPORTING the INFRASTRUCTURE of a company. Your need to hire people and administer them etc. and for IT - well, every company has technology and a need to manage systems and networks, security etc. GREEN executives (CIO, VP of HR) look at a project primarily from a Total Cost of Ownership standpoint. So, when selling to them, show the value to them as lower TCO and you will resonate with them.

Next is OPERATIONS. We'll color them YELLOW. (VP of SALES, CMO, VP of Manufacturing, etc.). Yellow executives are interested in OPERATIONAL IMPROVEMENTS. Show them how to improve efficiency and effectiveness and how to reduce cycle times and you will see interest.

Of course, what is left is the ORGANIZATIONAL category. CEO, CFO, COO and BOD. These folks are responsible for setting the strategic direction of the company. We'll color them Red. When selling to red, highlight RETURN ON ASSETS. Make sure your proposal makes specific references to improving the income statement and the balance sheet and you will see smiles on the faces of RED CATEGORY executives.

MOST ALL COMPANIES I INTERVIEW FAIL TO RECOGNIZE THe DIFFERENCE and therefore their proposals are so braod and generic they are not specific for anyone. This leads to longer sales cycles and the buyers NOT GETTING FUNDING for VERY GOOD initiatives.

BOTTOM LINE- HELP YOUR CUSTOMERS sell your proposal internally because they strggle with Red, Yellow and Green just like you do.

For more info on HOW Certified Knowledge-Advantage students do this intentionally on a single sheet of paper, take a look at www.knowledge-advantage.com and download the free book Dimensions of Success.

747 Flyover NYC Airforce One

Shame Shame Shame. What a blooper. What were they thinking? I can tell you what they weren't thinking. They did not put themselves in the shoes of "the other guy".

In case you missed it, the United States federal leadership decided to fly Airforce 1 over NYC very close to where the World Trade Center disaster took place while two fighter planes protected its flanks recently. They wanted to take photos near the Statue of Liberty. They did it without notifying the mayor of NYC or anyone who might be slightly traumatized seeing this spectacle in broad daylight. (I guess the administration has not heard of Photoshop).

What does this have to do with Sales Execution. The direct correlation is that in this case, the administration failed to put themselves in the shoes of "the other guy". They didn't see things from another perspective. They were only concerned with themselves while making decisions.

Sales people fall into this trap all too often. They have quotas to make and a specific timeframe to do it in and often times they do shameful things without thinking of the buyers first.

I submit that in actuality, a great deal of time and money and effort can be averted if you think of "the other guy" first when making decisions. I wish the Obama administration had. And with Obama's apology, he wished he had too.

The BEST Customers Don't Need Sales or Sellers

What makes a good customer? One who can align the priorities of their key internal stakeholders, one who can fully uncover and then articulate what is required for an initiative to be successful and one who then can show the WIFM to all three categories of stakeholder HOW SUCCESS WILL BE MEASURED.

Unfortunatly, most customers can't align priorities, understand requirements or establish criteria. And that is one of the primary reasons that Gartner reports that less that one percent (.8) of all major IT initiatives deliver to the original intended value (scope/time/resources).

So, I have to chuckle when I read "... through questioning, the best sales people are able to empower their buyers by giving them a vision to achieve goals, solve problems, and satisfy needs if they had the sellers offering."

Isn't it awfully presumptive that a seller is going to 1) get the appointment/audience with a buyer (will questioning get the appointment?), 2) earn the right to ask a series of questions, and 3) receive the "correct" answers to the questions? Going in with a "give to get" approach works 99.9% of the time to earn the right to the most productive collaboration with your "less than able" buyers.

Remeber, customers want and need your help to improve their odds of success beyond .8%. Initially going in with a series of open ended probing questions does little to help you stand out from the crowd. After all, your questions are not unique.... just like everyone else.

Sales Dialogues

Do you ever think about how many forms of communication take place in a sales that spans a period of 6-9 months? Literally THOUSANDS!

Email, web, phone, voice mail, traditional letters (yes, the ones housed in envelopes with stamps on them), fax, social networks, text messages and the like.

These communications take place between and amongst buyers, sellers, and third parties to name three categories. Within each category however each party may speak a different language particular to their role in the organization.

A CEO/CFO speaks and listens for Return on Assest (ROA) when ldetermining the viability of an initiative or project (and wether to free up the resources for the same). Infrastructure stakeholders (IT and HR) think in terms of TCO while operation stakeholders look for efficiency, effectiveness and cycle time gains. If they do not see the proposal/business case in their language they are left to interpretation. What to do?

Just like with human language, a translator is needed to bridge the gaps in these dialogues short of learning all three languages. By taking a look at your current communication mechanisms (collateral, web site, email's etc) and asking yourself, "Which category of executive would my message resonate with most and which executives would have glassy eyes?", you will begin the first step to improving results. That first step is the AWARENESS phase of a six step buyer/seller roadmap. Stay tuned for phase two- ANALYSIS!

Balancing Sales and Helping the Buyer Buy

Today I was interviewing a 30-year sales veteran and he told me that had he tried to help the buyer be more successful with the buyers project rather than trying to "sell his solution", he would have gotten both a sale and he would have helped the buyer simultaneously. And he might not be looking for a job today.

What?

We have all heard stories of how we manipulate the questioning techniques we've read in books to get at the problems and implications and the pain etc. etc. etc.; do you realy think the buyers are not "on to you" with that approach?

Instead, go in realizing that the buyer wants and needs your help to make the buyers project as successful as possible (with or without you). In so doing, you wll be rewarded. That means helping the buyer align priorities with the three categories of stakeholder, (bet you didn't know that the buyer is really three distictly different buyers in a high dollar matrix-buying sale), understand requirements and establish success criteria. Tell me your experience when you've done this effectively for the buyer.

Figures lie and Liars Figure

Remember that saying? There is an ongoing debate about the use and importance of EBITDA in valuing a company. Here is a wonderful short article about the pros and cons to help you better prepare for for Customer Collaborations.

http://www.investopedia.com/articles/analyst/020602.asp

C Level Executive Interactions

So you want to make more C Level calls?

Recently I heard the CEO of a $6B Gaming company say that their priority was free cash flow. And when looking at the hurdle rate for new investments they "... look at forecasted/estimated EBITDA, subtract interest and maintenance capital expense estimates and taxes. We compare that to the acquisition cost and then see if we can generate 5% year over year free cash flow."

How would you as a seller align your capabilities with the priorities of this CEO/COO/CFO?

Sales Process Who Benefits?

I engage with sales executives every day in the C level suite. Many of the Leaders have been through some sort of CRM rollout and understand the importance of tracking leads and conversions of leads to qualified opportunities and ultimately closes/wins.

I dare say that many hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent on an internal sales process yet I don't see an equa amount of investment being made in the customer and THEIR buying process. Say what? That's right. I said it. Its on the table now.

I spoke with an "accomplished" VP of sales recently who changed jobs and went from a "name brand" provider of networking/system monitoring applications to a relatively little known start up. The sales force is small- around 6-10 sales people and the supporting cast of tech wizzards who are the ones that get brought in to "sell the deal ... I mean technology". After all, do you really think we sales managers and sales reps did all the selling ourselves? No. But most of the time the sales person with the quota gets the credit and therefore they start believing their own press! Ha! (Just read some resumes of these overachievers sometime. You'd think they put a rocket on Mars already).

Anyway, I asked the VP who travels quite a bit around the country, "What role do you play when you are asked to go on custoer calls with your reps?". You will not be surprised by his response. He said, "... I sniff the deal to make sure its real and then I sell the prospect on our young company and its viability".

Now that the door was wide open (and his pants were clearly down to his ankles) I asked him why he had to sniff out the deal if his reps were such "senior high flying eagles"? He said his butt was on the line and he wanted to see for himself first hand. Argh!

Next I asked him what prep he requires of his rep to make the most of his customer visit. Again you can guess.... none. The 20 minute ride from the airport to the account was all the time they use. So much for sales process that actually could be valued by the customer.

My point is this, if he would have taken the time to understand the customer's business challenges, not just for his product/solution but really understood how the economic indicators and industry dynamics and financial conditions drive the priorities of his customer, he might have been abe to compete on a different level rather than doing sand box studies and proofs of concept. The times have changes but I am afraid the sales profession has for the most part- not. Still internally focused with its CRM and sales proess and account planning and no customer value. Shameful.

Collaborating with Customers when interviewing

HOW TO MAKE COMMON SENSE COMMON PRACTICE-
The job market for high tech sales professionals is tough, you don't need me to tell you that but why are we making it even tougher to get hired?

Consider this; prospective employers know that if you were the top performer at your past company you would still be there. Period. If you have been out of work for a while they are wondering why you are still looking. So you better have the answers to these two basic questions going in. Here are some other common sense ideas to consider.

1) A prospective employer will only hire you if you can add value in the form of something they don't have now and need/want. How do you go about finding out what they need and want other than traditional notes from job boards or a recruiters spec sheet?

2) Using social networks and introductions from friends and colleagues does not mean that you can lob in a call to the CEO and expect her/him to automatically take your call. What are you doing to get the attention of the key individual(s) you need to impress to get the job? How do you prep? What do you look for to position yourself in the best light?

3) Graying hair can be a plus or a minus! The reality is the person interviewing you is most likely younger than you. How will you be able to relate to a younger person? A younger person is going to question (non-verbally of course) your stamina. Your intentions. Your longevity. Your desperation factor! What can you do to make all of these "concerns/question" a non-issue?

All these and more are common sense. Right? But in my part-time role helping folks interview better, I recently witnessed poor preparation, defensiveness, going in without a plan, inability to understand the buyers 1) priorities, 2) their requirements to add the next hire and 3) success criteria that will be measured to know that they made a good decision.

While I have only scratched the surface, these were top of mind today. I'd love to hear your thoughts around common practice and common sense.

Without a simple set of methods and tools making common sense common practice defaults to intuition. Intuition is very difficult to teach and the key reason that change managment is so daunting for sales professionals.