I just got off the phone with one of my current clients. She is the COO of a large public entity in the midst of evaluating some vendors for medical coverage.
The conversation went like this. "Wendy, how did the Finalist sessions go?" Her response, "all four of them provided my team with an overwhelming amount of content with a totally underwhelming amount of impact!"
I paused and asked, "What went wrong?"
Wendy said, "their logos by default got them to our table, but they felt the need to spend the majority of their time reselling us on their credibility? To make matters worse, they talked about all of their capabilities without taking into consideration our business, our problems, our measures for success."
I replied to Wendy, "didn't you tell all of them what you expected?" Her reply, "I was very clear; connect what you offer to what matters most to us. As obvious as I thought my request was, all four venders failed. Now it feels like we're picking the best of the worst."
Are you thinking... Your team would have presented differently? That your team's presentation to Wendy would have been unique?
Guess what... Odds are very high (>90%) that you're unique, JUST LIKE EVERYONE ELSE.
Stand apart... Change your results by changing your dialogue...
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Friday, April 23, 2010
How do YOU create value for buyers?
Sellers are always being schooled on how to properly qualify by doing their homework up front, asking good questions, identifying and visiting the executive decision-maker, assuring there is budget, and a compelling event. Great. That makes you unique... just like everybody else.
Do you stand WITH your logo or in FRONT of it? Let's face it, if the logo on your business card is a prominent Fortune company, you can pretty much make an appointment and get in to a senior executive. (Assuming of course that your company hasn't blackened an eye there in the past!).
What if your logo isn't so recognizable? I once represented a start-up whose named sounded like an ice cream custard provider. Boy did I get some reactions! OUCH! How do you build value when you cannot rely on the logo? Answer: You build value in yourself.
Salespeople tend to forget or ignore the fact that there are many individuals who charge $350/hour for their advice. Consulting companies come to mind. How many of your customers would pay you $350/hour for your advice if they were asked? How many of you have been asked (after the sale was made) to become part of the day-to-day ongoing advisory council?
If we have heard anything this year we know that Web 2.0 buyers are dependent on social interactions more so than sales calls to make buying inquiries/decisions. Is anyone talking about you in social forums? As the number of face-to-face calls goes down (buyers are granting fewer meetings); the importance of creating value for the buyer once granted, has never been more critical.
Taking the time to build value for yourself and standing in FRONT of the logo will create differentiation beyond any sales process training espoused by so many sales managers today. Don't get me wrong, you need sales process to be able to forecast with confidence and effectively manage time and resources. However, there is more you can do to build your personal brand. How are you going to build yours so that the buyer would be willing to pay for YOU if asked?
Ask the person in the mirror.
Do you stand WITH your logo or in FRONT of it? Let's face it, if the logo on your business card is a prominent Fortune company, you can pretty much make an appointment and get in to a senior executive. (Assuming of course that your company hasn't blackened an eye there in the past!).
What if your logo isn't so recognizable? I once represented a start-up whose named sounded like an ice cream custard provider. Boy did I get some reactions! OUCH! How do you build value when you cannot rely on the logo? Answer: You build value in yourself.
Salespeople tend to forget or ignore the fact that there are many individuals who charge $350/hour for their advice. Consulting companies come to mind. How many of your customers would pay you $350/hour for your advice if they were asked? How many of you have been asked (after the sale was made) to become part of the day-to-day ongoing advisory council?
If we have heard anything this year we know that Web 2.0 buyers are dependent on social interactions more so than sales calls to make buying inquiries/decisions. Is anyone talking about you in social forums? As the number of face-to-face calls goes down (buyers are granting fewer meetings); the importance of creating value for the buyer once granted, has never been more critical.
Taking the time to build value for yourself and standing in FRONT of the logo will create differentiation beyond any sales process training espoused by so many sales managers today. Don't get me wrong, you need sales process to be able to forecast with confidence and effectively manage time and resources. However, there is more you can do to build your personal brand. How are you going to build yours so that the buyer would be willing to pay for YOU if asked?
Ask the person in the mirror.
Friday, April 2, 2010
Evangelize, Elevate and Eliminate... REALLY?
A read the following recently from a sales trainer on a social web site: "B2B sales organizations around the world are reporting extended sales cycles, declining win rates, and a growing number of apparently promising opportunities ending in "no decision". They see their prospect's budgets shrinking, more players involved in the decision making process, and increasingly risk-averse buying behavior. Could it be time to re-architect the B2B sales and marketing process?"
The author goes on to postulate: "... to be successful in this new world, B2B vendors - and particularly those who are offering innovative solutions or seeking to create new markets - are going to have to do three things particularly well: First, they will need to evangelize a better future for the markets and prospects they address, and to articulate a clear and compelling vision of the role that their organization intends to play in helping them achieve it. Next, they will have to elevate the prospect's need for their solution. Useful or important needs might help to get a vendor considered or evaluated, but only urgent needs will get them bought. Finally, they must systematically eliminate the common barriers to buying by taking pains to identify how and why their prospects choose to buy, and what they need to do to remove the roadblocks that might stand in their way."
Really? I mean REALLY? Is this a NEW idea?
Don't we all know that the cost of changing MUST be less than the cost of not changing?
Please share your insights as to HOW you are going about aligning what you sell with the priorities of the prospect/customer, how you are establishing success criteria so that the buyer knows how to measure success for the initiative and how you define what is required of Organizational, Operational, and Infrastructure executives to improve the odds of success.
The author goes on to postulate: "... to be successful in this new world, B2B vendors - and particularly those who are offering innovative solutions or seeking to create new markets - are going to have to do three things particularly well: First, they will need to evangelize a better future for the markets and prospects they address, and to articulate a clear and compelling vision of the role that their organization intends to play in helping them achieve it. Next, they will have to elevate the prospect's need for their solution. Useful or important needs might help to get a vendor considered or evaluated, but only urgent needs will get them bought. Finally, they must systematically eliminate the common barriers to buying by taking pains to identify how and why their prospects choose to buy, and what they need to do to remove the roadblocks that might stand in their way."
Really? I mean REALLY? Is this a NEW idea?
Don't we all know that the cost of changing MUST be less than the cost of not changing?
Please share your insights as to HOW you are going about aligning what you sell with the priorities of the prospect/customer, how you are establishing success criteria so that the buyer knows how to measure success for the initiative and how you define what is required of Organizational, Operational, and Infrastructure executives to improve the odds of success.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
"Change is good; you go first"!
These famous words were spoken by the cartoon character Dilbert by Scott Adams. The phrase suggests doubt. Doubt in the idea of change is often times rooted in our own self-imposed confinement of past experiences. These experiences (former collections of ideas and experiences) affects our ability to truly embrace change. Hence the natural corollary to our ability/inability to think outside the box.
Are humans incapable of original thought?
One of the main points of this idea is defining what an original thought is. All the time we come up with what we think is an original thought, yet this thought has come from somewhere. Humans cannot imagine something that excludes everything they have ever seen. Therefore, are we incapable of original thought? If we are incapable of original thought, is this one of the limiting factors on our advancement as a species?
Many would say that a song writer creating a new song is original. But is it? Is it not a collection of former lyrics/melodies/sounds/notes previously heard or played? Yes and No. The answer would really depend on whether we focus on the question around humans being incapable of original thought or whether we embrace the music and the smile it leaves in our heart.
And so it goes ... sometimes we let philosophy get in the way of change. We fail to take in as much "original thought" from every channel in order to improve and broaden our abilities and our senses. To "smell the flowers" as it were. To "hear the music". How much does this limit your potential?
So my message is: embrace change. Go first. Be a thought leader even when those thoughts are inevitably a compilation of everything you've done said and heard.
Who knows, it might just be perceived as original!
Are humans incapable of original thought?
One of the main points of this idea is defining what an original thought is. All the time we come up with what we think is an original thought, yet this thought has come from somewhere. Humans cannot imagine something that excludes everything they have ever seen. Therefore, are we incapable of original thought? If we are incapable of original thought, is this one of the limiting factors on our advancement as a species?
Many would say that a song writer creating a new song is original. But is it? Is it not a collection of former lyrics/melodies/sounds/notes previously heard or played? Yes and No. The answer would really depend on whether we focus on the question around humans being incapable of original thought or whether we embrace the music and the smile it leaves in our heart.
And so it goes ... sometimes we let philosophy get in the way of change. We fail to take in as much "original thought" from every channel in order to improve and broaden our abilities and our senses. To "smell the flowers" as it were. To "hear the music". How much does this limit your potential?
So my message is: embrace change. Go first. Be a thought leader even when those thoughts are inevitably a compilation of everything you've done said and heard.
Who knows, it might just be perceived as original!
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Why CIOs Hate Sales People
... well, most of them... and how to turn this around!
Every day hundreds if not thousands of sales people try to get the attention of a CIO. Some succeed and others fail miserably. Gartner reports that for all the sales calls made on a CIO only 20% of the "ideas" get taken forward for "consideration". That's 1:5. Of those only 20% get funded. That's 1:5. Of that , only 20% deliver to the intended scope/time and resource projections. That's .8% success. Let me state it again; .8% success. What is a CIO to do?
The first think a CIO does is look internally to correct the problem. Why? Because few "vendors" provide anything beyond product insights. Sales people inherently want to be more relevant but in most cases, all they focus on is finding qualified prospects and selling their wares into an existing project. This behavior is fed by their sales managers who have a number to make. And so the story goes. CIOs know this behavior all too well. Sales people have done it to themselves.
In a recent Information Week article, BP's CIO spoke about the wake-up call (actually presentation) delivered by the an industry expert. "If BP did not change its trends, they would be out of business in 4-5 years". This is a $300B annual revenues company. Out of business?
Of the 500 senior managers who received this message, the CIO highlighted his top priority. First he brought IBM in to assess his talent. Result: 80% of his direct reports were replaced with more process-specific experts. Staff was reduced by 1000. Outside contractors went from 45% of staff to just 27%.
Next, each junior CIO was reorganized to report directly to the CIO with specific objectives; "Accountability No. 1 for those CIOs is that they're there to help deliver enablement through IT to drive new revenue and also for helping ensure they're driving standardized shared services to keep cost down".
The third piece to the puzzle was to reduce the number of suppliers (how does that make you feel?), Offer tiered services (price and performance), and move from one-time transformation to an ongoing effort.
Let's stop there. Turns out, this CIO is just like us.
What are you doing to:
1) Assess your talent
2) Gain better control of what is going on in the field
3) Reduce the number of suppliers (rogue sales approaches)
4) Offer differentiation, and
5) Offer yourself and sales teams a plan for ongoing transformation?
With these 5 steps, every sales person would gain early-on and ongoing access to a CIO by showing a better command of Business Acumen, process, sensitivity to cost containment and improving the odds of success for every major IT initiative.
Take our free Business Acumen assessment (20 minutes) at www.iSalesman.com and see how you rank against your peers.
Every day hundreds if not thousands of sales people try to get the attention of a CIO. Some succeed and others fail miserably. Gartner reports that for all the sales calls made on a CIO only 20% of the "ideas" get taken forward for "consideration". That's 1:5. Of those only 20% get funded. That's 1:5. Of that , only 20% deliver to the intended scope/time and resource projections. That's .8% success. Let me state it again; .8% success. What is a CIO to do?
The first think a CIO does is look internally to correct the problem. Why? Because few "vendors" provide anything beyond product insights. Sales people inherently want to be more relevant but in most cases, all they focus on is finding qualified prospects and selling their wares into an existing project. This behavior is fed by their sales managers who have a number to make. And so the story goes. CIOs know this behavior all too well. Sales people have done it to themselves.
In a recent Information Week article, BP's CIO spoke about the wake-up call (actually presentation) delivered by the an industry expert. "If BP did not change its trends, they would be out of business in 4-5 years". This is a $300B annual revenues company. Out of business?
Of the 500 senior managers who received this message, the CIO highlighted his top priority. First he brought IBM in to assess his talent. Result: 80% of his direct reports were replaced with more process-specific experts. Staff was reduced by 1000. Outside contractors went from 45% of staff to just 27%.
Next, each junior CIO was reorganized to report directly to the CIO with specific objectives; "Accountability No. 1 for those CIOs is that they're there to help deliver enablement through IT to drive new revenue and also for helping ensure they're driving standardized shared services to keep cost down".
The third piece to the puzzle was to reduce the number of suppliers (how does that make you feel?), Offer tiered services (price and performance), and move from one-time transformation to an ongoing effort.
Let's stop there. Turns out, this CIO is just like us.
What are you doing to:
1) Assess your talent
2) Gain better control of what is going on in the field
3) Reduce the number of suppliers (rogue sales approaches)
4) Offer differentiation, and
5) Offer yourself and sales teams a plan for ongoing transformation?
With these 5 steps, every sales person would gain early-on and ongoing access to a CIO by showing a better command of Business Acumen, process, sensitivity to cost containment and improving the odds of success for every major IT initiative.
Take our free Business Acumen assessment (20 minutes) at www.iSalesman.com and see how you rank against your peers.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Monetizing Sales and Marketing Investments
THE ENGAGEMENT PROCESS
Monetizing Investment in Sales and Marketing
More and more pressure is being placed on Demand Creation- both Sellers and Marketers- to generate qualified leads that hopefully lead to net new logos. Metrics are being gathered and analyzed to know how many leads were converted to a sale and everything in between on the sales "process" flowchart.
CSO Insights offers an annual research paper detailing industry averages for ratios such as leads-to-presentation, presentation-to-proposal, and proposal-to-close.
The industry is not at a loss for vendors peddling their sales and marketing automation wares. Suffice it to say that with CRM advancements, key activities can be tracked and measured. Except one. The Engagement Process.
In an article written by Tony Jaros, Sirius Decisions, he illuminates the "why not" around sales and marketing practices.
"Ask the engineers at General Electric how to manufacture jet engines, and you'll get a set of documents detailing a painstaking process followed by everyone with razor-like precision. Ask the software designers at Microsoft how they built Windows, and you'll get a hard-and-fast list of code provided in stepwise fashion. But ask these same companies the process they use to sell their jet engines, software or services, and you'll likely get as many different answers as people you ask."
While part of this may be true for some companies, over 93% lack a defined engagement process that can be taught, monitored, measured, and hold people accountable with full transparency.
Why not? Some say that a manager cannot be on every call with the rep and rationalize that the verbal debrief is effective.We call this subjective. Some say that selling has its own "style" and should not be disturbed by "scripted" or "canned" pitches. We couldn’t disagree more. Some say that every buyer is unique and requires slightly differing approaches and therefore intuition. We say intuition cannot be taught.
If your goal is to improve Demand Creation and Demand Monitoring in order to monetize investments and improve results, all the automation in the world will only report bad news from a flawed or non-existent Engagement Process.
Knowledge Advantage's Dimensions of Success Engagement Process will help your team "jet" to the top with the reliability and effectiveness of a GE Aircraft engine!
Monday, March 1, 2010
The Cost of Sales Training
Many have written that sales training dollars are often wasted. The pundits claim that most training is in a group setting (sub-optimal) and that 1) not all attendees need or want the same training, 2) all of the sales people are out of the field at the same time risking lost opportunities, and 3) after three days to a week of day-long exercises, most of what is learned is forgotten within 90 days and people are back to doing what they've always done. Of course there are more excuses.
Let's address each one.
Most training providers know that one size may or may not fit all. For example, we find that using a baseline Business Acumen test reveals an average score of around 40%. Not one person has scored 100%. That suggests that "everyone needs to up-level their business acumen" if business acumen is important for you as a sales manager or training manager to help gain entry to the executive C-Level suite. If not, perhaps there is another set of baseline "table steaks" skills that are warranted.
Once you have each person baselined, then and only then can custom training be developed. Keep in mind, custom training is expensive. That is why #2 above usually takes place. It is more cost effective. Further, one might also justify taking everyone out of the field if keeping them in the field performing poorly results in behavior that is much worse!
Looking at #3, we admit it is human nature to resist new ideas and the discomfort that goes with it. What is worse is making the training a one-time event. To affect behavior changes, reinforcement for between six months to twelve months is required. Yet companies resist the incremental investment.
How have you invested in training for sellers? Is it a cost or an investment?
Remember, we live in a selling world where 80% of the revenues come from 20% of the reps/customers. And you accept that as long as you make the number. The question is not the cost of of training but the losses from not training!
Let's address each one.
Most training providers know that one size may or may not fit all. For example, we find that using a baseline Business Acumen test reveals an average score of around 40%. Not one person has scored 100%. That suggests that "everyone needs to up-level their business acumen" if business acumen is important for you as a sales manager or training manager to help gain entry to the executive C-Level suite. If not, perhaps there is another set of baseline "table steaks" skills that are warranted.
Once you have each person baselined, then and only then can custom training be developed. Keep in mind, custom training is expensive. That is why #2 above usually takes place. It is more cost effective. Further, one might also justify taking everyone out of the field if keeping them in the field performing poorly results in behavior that is much worse!
Looking at #3, we admit it is human nature to resist new ideas and the discomfort that goes with it. What is worse is making the training a one-time event. To affect behavior changes, reinforcement for between six months to twelve months is required. Yet companies resist the incremental investment.
How have you invested in training for sellers? Is it a cost or an investment?
Remember, we live in a selling world where 80% of the revenues come from 20% of the reps/customers. And you accept that as long as you make the number. The question is not the cost of of training but the losses from not training!
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
The cost of a lead in 2010
What is the cost of a quality lead in 2010?
Recently I was invited to a luncheon at a well known 5 star restaurant to listen to three executives tell me how their product (err, ahem, I meant SOLUTION) was more powerful with greater breadth of capabilities that "point solutions" from their competitors.
The interesting part is how I got invited in the first place. I am curious by nature. Moreover, I like to keep up on trends and in so doing, I can apply what I've learned to solve business problems for my clients. So, when this particular company was featured as part of a email campaign from an aggregator- (surely this cost them some money (let's say .08 - 10. per click to develop and include in the email blast) I was curious about what they offered. At the time, I was working with Customer Service teams in a call center as well as keeping up on Social Networking.
That click-thru put me on the vendor's web site where I opted-in to download a white paper. (The cost of the white paper? Let's say $1000 conservatively if it was written in-house). Hence, I was now on the vendor's email list.
An email showed up in my reader a few weeks ago inviting me to lunch at a very well known establishment. Lunch included a fresh field of greens salad with walnuts and Granny Smith apples in a light honey-based dressing sprinkled with crumbled Maytag blue cheese. Followed by a prime 8 ounce Filet Mignon (cooked charred rare- slightly warm center) with creamed corn, sugar snap peas and garlic mashed potatoes. Warm fresh break was served as well. Lunch concluded with a creamy chocolate mousse dessert and coffee. (The steak entree alone is $44.95)!
I certainly wanted to learn more and a free steak dinner for lunch sounded great! So I emailed back that I would be attending. I received an email confirmation. I also received a call from a friendly person reminding me of the date/time and re-confirming my attendance. I assured her that I would be there. About 40 people attended; both customers and "suspects" alike.
The three executives (as you might guess) were 1)the CEO of the division, 2) the Marketing Leader of the local Division and 3) A technical pre-sales person. All men. Suit jackets. Collared shirts. None wearing a tie. It follows then that the order of events during the luncheon were 1)An overview of how big their company was and how fast they had grown ("Google-like meteoric rise!), 2) A movie of how fast social networking was adopted compared to the radio and television, 3) The features of the software and 4) A demonstration of the software.
At the conclusion, the Marketing VP thank us for our attendance and warned us that we would all be getting a call in the morning from their business development people who were going to set up appointments with each of us to come out and discuss how they could help us.
"So when you get the call and you are thinking about the steak you just ate, please pick up the phone". Like I don't have enough guilt in my life already?
So, I may have used the wrong term for the title of this blog; I am not a lead at all. They never qualified me as a potential person who might be interested in having a dialogue with them about how they could help. If they had asked me, I would have disqualified myself! Yet they spent the money on my "butt in the seat".
Here is the real kicker- they are selling Customer Management solutions that are suppose to "automajically" help decide when a "live prospect" is on their web site or has responded in a certain way to their marketing materials, blogs, Facebook, tweets, etc. so they can respond quickly in the most appropriate way. With me, they missed the mark.
I will take their call tomorrow and share my thoughts. I may share it on a blog or a Facebook page. Millions of people may eventually read my thoughts. That is the power of Social Networking and Web 2.0. We all can type what we wish.
How many of you have found this approach to be beneficial? (I know that one deal pays for the whole luncheon, however....).
How many of you are tired of the 1,2,3 punch of My Company, My Products/Solutions, My demo?
How many of you put the customer's priorities before your product/solution?
What is the cost of a quality lead? What is the price of poor execution?
Recently I was invited to a luncheon at a well known 5 star restaurant to listen to three executives tell me how their product (err, ahem, I meant SOLUTION) was more powerful with greater breadth of capabilities that "point solutions" from their competitors.
The interesting part is how I got invited in the first place. I am curious by nature. Moreover, I like to keep up on trends and in so doing, I can apply what I've learned to solve business problems for my clients. So, when this particular company was featured as part of a email campaign from an aggregator- (surely this cost them some money (let's say .08 - 10. per click to develop and include in the email blast) I was curious about what they offered. At the time, I was working with Customer Service teams in a call center as well as keeping up on Social Networking.
That click-thru put me on the vendor's web site where I opted-in to download a white paper. (The cost of the white paper? Let's say $1000 conservatively if it was written in-house). Hence, I was now on the vendor's email list.
An email showed up in my reader a few weeks ago inviting me to lunch at a very well known establishment. Lunch included a fresh field of greens salad with walnuts and Granny Smith apples in a light honey-based dressing sprinkled with crumbled Maytag blue cheese. Followed by a prime 8 ounce Filet Mignon (cooked charred rare- slightly warm center) with creamed corn, sugar snap peas and garlic mashed potatoes. Warm fresh break was served as well. Lunch concluded with a creamy chocolate mousse dessert and coffee. (The steak entree alone is $44.95)!
I certainly wanted to learn more and a free steak dinner for lunch sounded great! So I emailed back that I would be attending. I received an email confirmation. I also received a call from a friendly person reminding me of the date/time and re-confirming my attendance. I assured her that I would be there. About 40 people attended; both customers and "suspects" alike.
The three executives (as you might guess) were 1)the CEO of the division, 2) the Marketing Leader of the local Division and 3) A technical pre-sales person. All men. Suit jackets. Collared shirts. None wearing a tie. It follows then that the order of events during the luncheon were 1)An overview of how big their company was and how fast they had grown ("Google-like meteoric rise!), 2) A movie of how fast social networking was adopted compared to the radio and television, 3) The features of the software and 4) A demonstration of the software.
At the conclusion, the Marketing VP thank us for our attendance and warned us that we would all be getting a call in the morning from their business development people who were going to set up appointments with each of us to come out and discuss how they could help us.
"So when you get the call and you are thinking about the steak you just ate, please pick up the phone". Like I don't have enough guilt in my life already?
So, I may have used the wrong term for the title of this blog; I am not a lead at all. They never qualified me as a potential person who might be interested in having a dialogue with them about how they could help. If they had asked me, I would have disqualified myself! Yet they spent the money on my "butt in the seat".
Here is the real kicker- they are selling Customer Management solutions that are suppose to "automajically" help decide when a "live prospect" is on their web site or has responded in a certain way to their marketing materials, blogs, Facebook, tweets, etc. so they can respond quickly in the most appropriate way. With me, they missed the mark.
I will take their call tomorrow and share my thoughts. I may share it on a blog or a Facebook page. Millions of people may eventually read my thoughts. That is the power of Social Networking and Web 2.0. We all can type what we wish.
How many of you have found this approach to be beneficial? (I know that one deal pays for the whole luncheon, however....).
How many of you are tired of the 1,2,3 punch of My Company, My Products/Solutions, My demo?
How many of you put the customer's priorities before your product/solution?
What is the cost of a quality lead? What is the price of poor execution?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)