Btb Guest Author

Jonathan Farrington

The responsibility for ensuring that every member of the sales team is successful and performing at optimum levels lies entirely with management and below are the eight reasons why sales people fail. In fact, I usually ask just three very straightforward questions, in order to identify why a salesperson is underachieving i.e.,

• Are they visiting/talking to enough clients/prospects? In other words are they pro-active and are their activity levels high?

• Are they talking to the right people within those client/prospect organizations? Are they able to penetrate the formal DMU (Decision Making Unit) and get to the MAN?

• Are they saying/doing the right things? This really means – how strong are their selling skills?

However this list, whilst not exhaustive, remains extremely accurate and as I said earlier, management has total control over each of these, including the last one!

1. Wrong or no selection process - The wrong person for the position

2. Wrong or no training - Insufficiently developed

3. Wrong or no planning - Expected to do all of their own planning

4. Wrong or no supervision – Left without competent supervision

5. Wrong or no motivation - Not properly motivated to meet objectives

6. Wrong or no stimulation – Not stimulated by appropriate incentives

7. Wrong or no evaluation – Not regularly appraised against a set of agreed objectives

8. Wrong or no executive action – Not adequately supported by a competent manager

If you are a sales manager, consider your part in this equation. According to these criteria, do you feel your current team poised for success? Hopefully you can say yes! If not, this list will hopefully draw attention to how you can help your team exercise their potential. Your wallet will also thank you!

Jonathan Farrington is a globally recognized business coach, mentor, author, and consultant, who has guided hundreds of companies and tens of thousands of individuals around the world towards optimum performance levels.  He has authored in excess of three hundred skills development programmes, designed a range of unique and innovative process tools and has been published extensively on a wide range of business topics including organizational and sales team development, leadership and the customer imperative.  Jonathan’s first book, “Tougher At The Top” will be published early in 2009.  Visit his website @ www.jonathanfarrington.com

In the News

It was my great pleasure to have dinner with Dave Stein, while he was over here as part of his work with DIT’s and Enterprise Ireland’s International Selling Programme. I am a big fan of Dave’s work and an avid reader of his blog. In a recent post “Ireland Knows How To Support Growing Companies“, Dave compliments Enterprise Ireland on the support they provide for start-ups and high-potential Irish companies - saying that the rest of the world can learn from Ireland in this regard.

I have spoken about Dave Brock on here before. Dave is the founder and CEO of Partners in EXCELLENCE, a leading international business consulting company. In my opinion, he is one of the most clued in consultants you will come across. He recently started a blog, and the quality of his posts has been exceptional. It came as no surprise, when he was named “Blogger of the Week” over at www.socialmediatoday.com

Over at TSE

I joined the other Top Sales Experts team for an conference call last Tuesday, there are some really great initiatives planned for 09 - WATCH THIS SPACE

This is a three-part post. Parts 2 and 3 are directly related.

Part 1 - Listen To

Last Thursday, after rushed home from a meeting and grabbing a quick cuppa, I settled down in front of my PC and signed into a TSE webinar called “The Sales Leadership Imperative”

I knew that this webinar was going to be good, because of the quality of the presenters.

Jonathan Farrington is Chairman of The Sales Corporation, based in London & Paris, and is a globally recognized business coach, mentor, author, and consultant.

Keith Rosen is the president of Profit Builders and is the Executive Sales Coach™ that top salespeople and managers call first to attract more prospects, close more sales and develop a team of top-performing sales champions.

Just over an hour later, I took off my head-set. My own knowledge bank had increased substantially. That wasn’t good, I thought – That was great.

Now, this is what self-directed learning is all about. As an established sales trainer, I consider myself to know a lot about selling, sales management and sales leadership. Yet, during this hour, I had learnt so much – there were simply some stunning insights.

The guys dealt with a range of sales leadership issues including:

• Identifying and leveraging the uniqueness of each member of the sales team.
• Connecting with and motivating your team during each interaction
• Recruit, retain and motivate top salespeople and turnaround under-performers inside 30 days

I would like to take this opportunity to recommend this webinar to you, in the strongest possible terms - it is simply TOP CLASS.

To join TSE, click here

To register for upcoming webinars, or to hear achieved webinars - simply click on the link below.

On Thursday April 30th 2009 at 6pm GMT, join TSE expert Christian Maurer for “Where is Your Revenue Growth to Come From?”

Part 2 – Join Up

Sales Leadership Ireland is a new LinkedIn group set up especially for Irish sales community. The focus of this new group is simple, to help sales professionals and sales leaders sell more.

We intend to network both off and on-line, we now have 124 members, and we want more; so if you are involved in sales and business development - please join us.

Part 3 – And Contribute

We have just put up our suggestions for our first SLI meet-up, The Changing World in Sales - “Buyers are not buying”

A practical look at how companies and sales people might respond to the current challenges and opportunities in the market.

SECTION 1: Interactive sessions with Speakers (1 hour)

Structure: 2 to 3 speakers on Key Topics providing practical information that can be applied quickly. 15 minutes each, generating interaction with the group with questions and discussion.

Some Suggested Key Topics:

- Removing the New Bottlenecks in today’s Sales Processes

- Bigger Pipelines, More Prospects, Better Qualification, Meeting Customer Needs

- Building New Channels to the Customer

- Engaging with Customers through New Media

SECTION 2: Key Challenges Roundtables (1 hour)

Structure:

A chaired session to identify the key challenges in today’s markets, assigning selected challenges to groups and to respond with potential solutions.

Steps:

a) Whiteboard / FlipChart suggestions from the entire group

b) Select top 4 or 5– allocate to groups, depending on numbers in attendance

c) 4/5 Roundtables/Groups decide on chairs/spokesperson

d) Discuss and FlipChart the suggested actions to meet the challenges

e) Spokesperson shares with the whole group

A session report could then be issued to the Linked Group Discussion.

So again, please join us on Linkedin, we would love to have you. Get stuck in and come along to our first meet up

I recently passed the 100 post mark on this blog.

To say that I have learnt a lot in between would be an understatement. To say that I have lots more to learn, would require an even bigger understatement.

It has been an enjoyable, frustrating and fascinating experience. I have gained readers; I have gained new customers and best of all I have gained many great new friends.

My posts have resulted in praise, in controversy, and in scorn. Readers have agreed with me strongly and readers have disagreed, with equal amounts of passion.

Perhaps, now is a good time to step back, and evaluate what has a 100+ posts taught me, about blogging and blogging for business.

Lesson Number 1 - Quality always Beats Quantity

With the amount of available information that is out there, you need to stand out from the crowd. To this end, it is always better to focus your efforts on the quality of your posts, rather than the quantity.

People now have a much shorter attention span, so to get them to actually read what you have written - requires that you offer something of real value. Spend enough time constructing each post, giving extra special attention to your headline (eye-catching) and your first paragraph.

Lesson Number 2 – Never Ever Sell

So many business blogs are merely a series or reworded advertisements for the particular business. It’s awful, awful, and awful and gives nothing of real value to the reader. Instead think Give! - give advice, give insight and give resource. Make your blog valuable, in the eyes of your readers.

So instead pose questions, stimulate debate, provide commentary, and invite other experts to write interesting posts. Remember, the more value your blog brings to your readers - the more lightly that these same readers will become your customers.

Lesson Number 3 – Popular won’t always mean Popular.

There can sometimes be a tendency to jump on a particular bandwagon, and post about what everyone else is posting about. While this can be sound strategy for more established bloggers - it is rarely sensible for new bloggers to follow suit. Where possible, try instead to come up with new ideas and new topics - or at least differing angles for your posts.

It’s perfectly OK to be controversial, so long as your opinions are considered, and that you truly believe in what you are saying. Be careful, because once you have committed a point of view to the public domain - you will need to be able to back it up.

Lesson Number 4 – Engage with Your Readers

The very best thing about blogs is that, they allow for you to engage and debate with your readers. If someone takes the time to comment and give their point of view, make sure to respond and thank them.

Don’t just engage with people through your own blog, instead follow them home to their blog and leave a comment. Reading and engaging with others bloggers, not only increases readership of your blog – but is a super super way of generating ideas for new posts. Be sure to credit the other person and invite them to continue to partake in the ongoing discussion.

Lesson Number 5 – Don’t Be Afraid to be Yourself

A big mistake many new business bloggers make is to try and write in a so called “professional manner” It’s much more important to try to be yourself and to let your uniqueness out itself in your writing. If you like a joke, well then - have a joke.

Don’t burden yourself with having to sound, or come across - all professional like. The most important thing is your message, and that you communicate it with language your readers will understand.

So it’s 100+ posts down, and hopefully many more to go.  I could say more, but I will save for it 200+.

Can I take this opportunity to say a BIG thank you, to the readers, to those of you who left such great comments, to those that republished my posts and to anyone from anywhere who ever stopped by.

Warning: By the way, blogging is bloody addictive and I still cant spell LOL.

Published by Niall Devitt @ BtbTraining  

Btb Guest Author

Frances Neeson

As a daily DART commuter I’m an avid reader of the Metro that is handed out every morning. Reading it last Wednesday on the way into work I came across an article reporting on the results of a survey done by Monster.ie about flexi-time. Monster found that just 1 in 5 employees in Ireland have full access to flexi-time with 62 % of respondents claiming they have no access to flexi-time at all.

I’ve been working in my present job since September and one of the things I enjoy most is the relaxed atmosphere in the office and the flexi-time policy in place. I’m an early bird so I prefer to come into the office early in the morning and leave early in the afternoon. The majority of the staff come in later and work later. There are core hours when we all have to be in the office which are between 11 and 3, but we can work our other hours however we like around this.

The main reason that I appreciate this arrangement is that in my previous job even coming in 5 minutes late or leaving 5 minutes early was a huge no in the eyes of management. Asking to work flexi-time most likely would have resulted with a resounding shout of laughter and two words which I won’t write here! From the results of the survey mentioned earlier it seems that this is the case for many employees in Ireland, despite all the benefits a flexi-time policy can bring to the workplace.

Personally I think the option to work flexi-time is a huge incentive and motivation for employees and a great morale booster. I believe the benefits of flexi-time far outweigh any negatives, the most common of which are the organization and logistics needed for it to work properly and the fear that staff members may abuse the privilege or could falsify records of hours worked if they are not supervised properly. However my own feeling is that employees are usually grateful for a flexi-time policy and will not engage in behaviour that could result in a return to “normal” working hours.

Here are a few of my favourite things about flexi-time:

• I actually get a seat on the train both coming and going to work and no longer have to spend 30 minutes squashed up against a complete stranger while people fight for any available space in the carriage.
• Coming in early in the morning allows me a couple of hours to do any needed work on my client accounts or prospect for new leads without feeling guilty that I’m sacrificing phone time.
• If I need to go to the doctor or run an errand I don’t have to ask my boss for time off or worry about squeezing it in after work.
• I have plenty of time to see my friends, my family and do all the hobbies I love.

There are also many benefits for employers and companies such as:

• Improved staff morale and job satisfaction. Most companies that offer flexitime report improvements in recruitment, absenteeism and productivity.
• Decreased levels of stress and tiredness in staff members.
• Increased staff retention and reduced turnover rates.

Having worked in both a company with no flexi-time policy and one that does offer flexi-time; I can whole heartedly say that for me flexi-time gets big thumbs up. Although I do see that for some companies, larger ones especially, it might be more difficult to implement, once managed and overseen correctly the benefits will very quickly become apparent. My experiences are all from the employees’ side and it would be interesting to know if employers and senior managers view it in the same way or if they have a completely different opinion on the topic. But for me, my answer to the question of flexi-time is a resounding yay!

Frances Neeson is a sales consultant with OfficeMetrics, leaders in office productivity. OfficeMetrics provides companies with the tools to increase productivity and performance and enable flexi-time and home-working. For more information go to the website: www.officemetrics.com or email frances.neeson@officemetrics.com

Over at TSE

Our Webinar series are well and truly rocking and rolling, and the response so far has been incredible. The great thing is that if time constraints mean you can’t listen in live, you can of course listen to the recording over and over.

Up next, “The Sales Leadership Imperative” with Jonathan Farrington and Keith Rosen

When it comes to these two gents - You know you really can’t afford to miss it!

Remember, readers of this blog qualify for discounted membership to TSE - Just click here.

Now for something different…….Door-to-door selling is where I started my sales career - Fellow TSE Skip Anderson recently published this advice for all you door knockers……. Local election hopefuls should also pay attention

Btb Guest Author

Skip Anderson

Spring is finally upon us here in Minnesota (at least I think spring is here; sometimes it’s hard to know for sure in Minnesota). I saw one sign of spring earlier this week: I had a door-to-door canvasser ring our doorbell at our home.

I admire door-to-door canvassers; they experience massive amounts of rejection, and yet they still get out there, walking the streets and by-ways of the community, to identify prospects to whom they can sell. For most, it’s not an easy job, but it can pay big dividends, especially if you know what you’re doing.

So I admire the guy who came to our home the other night. He had a pleasant and sincere smile, and he was working hard. But he could have done a much more effective job.

Here’s what he said when I answered the door: “Hi, I’m with _____________ Painting, and I’m wondering if you have any painting projects planned in the next year.”

I said, “No.”

He then gave me a door-hanger and asked him to call him if I decided we needed any interior or exterior painting. The was the end of the interaction.

What follows are some suggestions that, if implemented, would improve this salesperson’s success rate.

1. Stand back from the door 6-8 feet after you ring the doorbell. Many people feel a twinge of uneasiness when somebody they don’t know is at their door. That feeling of uneasiness is magnified when the unknown person at the door has their mug mere inches from it. Give the homeowner some breathing room.

2. Wear a large ID badge attached to your clothing or hang it around your neck. It should show your company’s name and your name in large letters, and it should have a picture of you on it. When you introduce yourself to the prospect, left up the id badge to call attention to it. This helps the suspect feel at ease.

3. Rarely, if ever, should a door-to-door salesperson start with a closed question (one that can be answered with yes or no, or a multiple choice question. Start with an open-ended question. A perfect open-ended question for the gentleman who visited us the other night would have been, “I couldn’t help but noticing the patch of rotting siding on the side of your house. It made me curious; What happened?”

It’s a long story about why we have a patch of rotting wood siding on the side of our house, so I won’t go there, but we certainly need to have some siding replaced, and after it’s replaced, it will need to be repainted. So why did I tell the salesperson that I didn’t have any painting projects planned in the next year?

Like a lot of customers, I took the easy route. His closed question made it too easy for me to say “no.” But if he would have engaged me in a more effective manner, I probably would have shared this information with him. I’ve also been avoiding thinking about the rotting siding; so my psyche is in denial mode. He question let me continue in denial mode.

The key is customer engagement. Closed questions are notoriously poor engagement instruments. Open-ended questions, on the other hand, are fabulous for this purpose.

4. Ask for referrals after a suspect shuts you down.

“You know the people in your neighborhood much better than I do. Who would be the 2 or 3 people that you think it would be most important for me to talk to?” Some people will refuse to answer your question, but some people will give you some neighborhood intelligence that may be helpful in finding viable prospects to talk to.

Even if they shut you down again, follow up with another question: “I would love it if you would give me the names of two or three people you know who might possibly want to talk to me about painting…even if they don’t live in your neighborhood.”

Hand the prospect a referral sheet and a pen and see what happens. You’ll definitely get some referrals if you utilize this approach consistently.

Happy canvassing!

Skip Anderson is a recognized authority on consumer selling, and is Founder and President of Selling to Consumers, a sales training and consulting company. Skip is a frequent speaker on sales topics to companies and individuals who are passionate about maximizing their sales effectiveness.

Great New E-Book

TSE captain Jonathan Farrington’s latest e-book ” How Sucessful Organisations Evolve” can be downloaded here 

Btb Guest Author

Dave Brock

This morning, I had an interesting discussion with a client. He was talking about a specific sales situation. Basically, he said that customers were saying there was no differentiation between the products and services his company offered, versus the competitors. He went on to say, they are seeing this response in more and more sales situations. He was at a loss to deal with it — or at least wanted to avoid the ultimate differentiator — at least in this situation — pricing.

I thought I’d throw this issue out there for your ideas and thoughts. I’ll provide a few of mine as a starting point (but by no means complete):

1. I fundamentally don’t believe, “everything is equal,” this is the ultimate point of commoditization. Even in commodity areas, there are differentiators, but they may not be based on product differentiators. I think the problem here is sales people tend to focus too much on the product, and not the total offering or capabilities of a company. When one considers the total offering, the product, the capabilities of the company, the services, etc, things are seldom equal.

2. Often, this view is the result of an inward-out orientation. That is, we present the product features, functions, feeds, speeds to the customer. The “sophisticated” sales person may add some company capabilities. But we dump these facts in the customer’s lap, and let them make the assessment. First, that’s not their job and if we force them into that, then we aren’t doing our job. We need to start with the customer, understanding their business needs, drivers, goals, priorities and challenges. We need to drill deeply into their business issues and prioritize each one — for each person involved in the decision making process. Only when we understand it is it possible to position our offerings in a context that has real meaning and impact to the customer. Done properly–customer by customer, in my experience, it is virtually impossible for everything to be equal.

3. The previous point addresses the customer business drivers. We cannot forget the personal drivers — things that concern each person involved in the decision process, but which we often overlook. People make don’t make rationale business decisions. Often they rationalize deeply personal decisions with a business argument. We need to understand their personal drivers. It may be getting a boss off their back, getting home on time, getting a promotion or bonus, keeping their job. Like the previous point, only when we have understood the personal drivers of each person involved in the decision process and position our offering in the context of “What’s in it for them — personally,” can we differentiate ourselves. Again, from this point of view, it is virtually impossible for everything to be equal.

4. Finally, at least for my comments, I think we under estimate the value we bring to customers in facilitating the customer’s buying process. A strong, consultative sales professional adds tremendous value to the customer as they execute their buying process. My personal experience is this is often the strongest differentiator. Many people have bought from me, simply because I cared about them and their companies. They wanted to invest in a partner who was committed to their success. Maybe it’s my ego, but I am never equal to anyone else!

Enough of my ramblings, what are your thoughts? Can everything else be equal — is our world becoming increasingly commoditized, where the only means of differentiation is price?

Dave Brock works with organizations to help them achieve the highest levels of performance excellence. He helps them identify and execute new business, sales, marketing and customer service strategies. His goal is to have a profound difference on the lives and results produced by his clients. Dave is the founder and CEO of Partners in EXCELLENCE, a leading business consulting company. He has held executive roles in IBM, Tektronix, and other large technology companies. He is an investor, advisor, and director of several high technology start-up companies.

Over at TSE

Shush!!…….keep it quite, but because I am a member of Top Sales Experts - my readers can join for a special discounted rate

In case you missed it, last night was TSE Kick-Off Roundtable “The Future of Professional Selling . The panel of Jonathan Farrington, Jill Konrath, Linda Richardson, Dave Stein and Nigel Edelshain answered questions on wide range of sales topics. It was an extremely rewarding and informative on-line experience, and I had a few people contact me directly to say thanks for making it available through our blog. A BIG well done to everyone involved.

TSE Webinar Series : FIFTY top sales gurus, who will be delivering top class presentations - simply click on the banner below to see the full schedule.

Our webinar series kicks off on the 16th of April with Wendy Weiss’s “Cold Calling in the 21st Century: The New Rules”

On April 21st, we launch “Sales Hardtalk” a daily dose of hard hitting advice, commentary and sales tips - easily downloadable and in bite size chunks, not to be missed.

Finally, at the end of April, the Top Sales Experts team will be launching their latest Ebook, packed with contributions from all of us - more details soon.

I have being tuning in and out to a lively and very interesting discussion about sales incentives on TSE’s new LinkedIn group.

Tibor Shanto who started the dialogue, points out that “In sales it is a given that revenue is the ultimate measure of success. In general no one takes issue to paying commissions for realised revenues.

At the same time most people we talk to agree that revenue is achieved as a result of specific actions and behaviours executed by the sales professional; making revenue a ‘result’ of these actions and therefore making revenue a lagging indicator.

Add to this the fact that most people adhere to the view that incentives and incentive programs should drive behaviour. Putting aside MBO rewords, and PM based on scorecards and KPI’s, does it make sense to only pay commissions on revenue or is it time to examine paying a portuin of incentive on specific behaviour?”

The resulting dialogue, raised a number of very interesting questions; not least of which is a more general question. How effective is plain old money in motivating salespeople?

I for one, have always questioned its effectiveness and have thought that more has to do with what money provides rather than the money itself.

Several psychological studies would seem to back this up, with a very interesting body of evidence now claiming that traditional rewards (and punishment) - are actually counter productive in promoting behaviours.

Jim Micklos weights in with “top performers do not reach and remain at that level solely for the money itself. They’re in it for what the money gives them – security, luxury, status – all of which are psychological and emotional rewards (applause), not monetary.”

He goes on to say “When exceptional performance is required, it is most effectively driven by exceptional reward. Several studies have shown conclusively that, dollar for dollar, non-cash incentive programs (praise, recognition, merchandise and travel awards) are far more effective than cash”

I know that something that employers often fail to grasp is that a badly designed compensation plan can as easily act to de-motivate salespeople. From my own interviews with salespeople, this is much more common than companies would like to think.

One area that unfortunately gets overlooked by employers when designing incentive schemes, is personal and career development programmes and training. Rewarding salespeople in this way, demonstrates that the company truly values the salesperson on a personal level. In my own experience, providing salespeople with additional skills and expertise is one of the very best and most effective ways of motivating them.

Putting together a successful incentive structure is a big challenge for businesses because of the complexities involved. Getting it right can drive sales and revenues where as getting it wrong can cause big problems.

The nature of the economic situation that we now find ourselves in makes getting it right even more important. What do you think? I would love to hear from others about sales incentives. In your experience, what works and what doesn’t?

The TSE roundtables kick off at 6pm GMT today, with our very first roundtable event “The Future of Professional Selling”

So what are the TSE Roundtables? Well every month, a new TSE roundtable will address the issues being faced by sales professionals everywhere. As we face up to the severest economic downturn ever, we plan to run one Roundtable every month. (Your colleagues may join us for a cost of $99.50 per roundtable, yet as a member, you will receive that 25% discount on every single session. Click here to become a member of TSE.

This is 90 minutes of live discussion, live debate and live Q&A with some of the foremost authorities on sales excellence in the world. It’s an opportunity to listen, learn and partake in an on-line interactive sales event and to have your critical questions about selling and sales leadership answered.

Simply put, each roundtable is an event not to be missed.

I have been very busy of late, so apologies for not posted sooner. I just noticed that we passed 100 blog posts - didn’t see that coming. A BIG thank you to everyone that contributed and I plan to write a post soon, on what I have learned about blogging for business – but enough of that for now though!

Sales Leadership Ireland Update

Mr Joe Hussey, Principle at Via Consulting, just became our 100th member. Thank you to Joe and all the members for making SLI a success thus far. The group is still very much a baby in terms of age, but there seems to be a collective appetite for a sales specific type networking group. I am involved in ongoing discussions with the members as to what shape they would like SLI to take. These discussions thus far, have focused on three needs/aspects.

1. Off-line Networking Activities including Talks from experts.
2. On-line Networking Activities built around Focused Webinars
3. Strategic Partnerships, both National and International.

You can join and get involved with Sales Leadership Ireland @ http://www.linkedin.com/e/vgh/1860441/

Btb Guest Author

Jonathan Farrington

Sales success to-day demands a radical shift from the ‘peddler’ mentality of merely demonstrating products and expanding on their features. It requires treating the customer as a participant. More often than not, a ‘flashy’ sales presentation alone alienates rather than persuades.

The best salespeople regard the sales call as a two-way conversation - not a one sided pitch. They have developed active listening skills Average salespeople score fairly well in their ability to provide customers with facts and figures, but top performers dramatically outscore the rest when it comes to gathering information. In addition, how a salesperson collects information still distinguishes exceptional achievers from the rest of the pack. I.e. top performers ask better questions and as a result gain much better information.

Essentially, they aim to engage customers in the buying process with questions that require thoughtful answers, that stimulate curiosity and that reveal the customers underlying needs.

Businesses need to re-define selling and what constitutes basic selling skills:
In to-day’s world of selling, there is less and less room for apprenticeship. Selling has become an exclusive club of highly skilled professionals where product knowledge and time management skills, for instance, are the cost of membership not leadership.

Ongoing research demonstrates that to-day’s ‘average’ salesperson is just as effective as the high performer in explaining features and benefits effectively, relating a service or product to customer needs and closing a sale. But, above this Level 1 plateau of competence, the exceptional salesperson is busy defining the “basic skills of tomorrow”.

Building an up-to-date foundation in sales competence does mean sacrificing some old notions of what it takes to succeed in a competitive marketplace. For example, a salesperson can no longer just “win by knowing”. Every company needs to test their assumptions about what skills really contribute to sales success. Too often operating on old sales theories means training and rewarding people to do the wrong things.

When the buyer and seller act as partners, they are building a bridge to profitability:
Successful selling is definitely not about the “hit and run” sale. Sales achievers regard their relationships with key customers as a partnership and cultivate it as such. When customers face tough business challenges and complex technological choice, they rely on sales people who can assist them in making the right decisions.

The primary objective of a sales partnership has to be, to create and sustain a mutually productive relationship, which serves the needs of both parties, now and in the future. The key word here is symbiotic. Partnership does not mean eliminating the tension between buyer and seller; it means that top-performing salespeople know how to strike a balance between achieving immediate results and developing the relationship fully.

In Summary: Why Do We Need A Fresh Approach To Selling?

Many organisations have developed without objective analysis of their purpose and structure. The buying power in many industries is no longer evenly distributed - in a large number of markets a few big firms control the majority of purchases.

The development of new marketing techniques has meant that some tasks traditionally performed by the sales team can be more effectively handled by other methods. The prime objective of all sales staff is to gain business. From an organisational point of view, however, how they all achieve their goals must be defined in order to identify what kind and the quality of skills that are required.

Jonathan Farrington is a globally recognized business coach, mentor, author, and consultant, who has guided hundreds of companies and tens of thousands of individuals around the world towards optimum performance levels.  He has authored in excess of three hundred skills development programmes, designed a range of unique and innovative process tools and has been published extensively on a wide range of business topics including organizational and sales team development, leadership and the customer imperative.  Jonathan’s first book, “Tougher At The Top” will be published early in 2009.  Visit his website @ www.jonathanfarrington.com

Jonathan will be one of the speakers at TSE Roundtable kickoff event : The Future of Professional Selling

Over at Sales Leadership Ireland

• We are already well on our way to 100 members.
• We are in the process of polling and discussing with the members what their needs are.
• We will be shortly be announcing some exciting initiatives.

Polls include:

How do your sales for Q1 compare with 08 ?

Where in your sales funnel are you encountering the most difficulty?

How would you describe your Networking Activities?

What would you like Sales Leadership Ireland to help you with?

Anyone with an interest in business development and growing sales in Ireland is invited to join.

Well, I think sales people don’t have a bad reputation. They are simply no more RELEVANT. Why? Read “death of a sales man”. No no no - I mean read it NOW - read it again - NOW. It will tell you WHY. If you don’t believe me - you don’t believe me like the main character in the plot didn’t listen to the youngsters who took over. Dave (Stein), you want to give them a “entirely different orientation” - wooo how cool is that. Terry, are you still hanging on to the old “solution selling stuff” from 30 years ago? Next comment may be about the “reference selling” method, or all the other good old ways of selling. Anybody up for the “killer instinct” Rarrrrrrr. How about the good schools from Miller Heiman…

Come on people what are you dreaming about at night? You are over fertilized and squeezed out people that try harder and harder to meet the commission, the forecast to walk through your “funnel” that is more like a “tunnel” with no light at the end. You get asked to work harder - you pull in more cold calls, you “align” you call centers… How about finding yet another more fine tuned sales methodology based on Yogi what’s his name. Don’t you realize that YOUR way of selling is DEAD

This is a comment by Axel Schultze from Dave Brock’s post “Why do Sales People have such a Bad Reputation?” on  The Customer Collective. This new type of pitch from a new type of salesperson refers to the role of social media tools in the B2B selling environment. Axel followed this up with his own post on this topic Death of a Salesman - Version 2009.

So REALLY, how effective are these new technologies in producing additional sales? and are they now, as has been claimed in some quarters already replacing established sales methodology and processes?

Well according to a new study by ES Research Group, Inc. (ESR), one of the leading research and advisory firms on sales effectiveness, social media tools such as Jigsaw, LinkedIn,Twitter, Plaxo, Facebook, Hoovers and OneSource may be useful for other purposes, but most of them aren’t helping sales teams close many B2B deals today. The survey was developed in cooperation with The TAS Group.

Based on a survey of nearly 400 sales professionals in the U.S., the report found that only LinkedIn (86%) and Hoovers/OneSource combined (61%) were used by more than half of respondents in their selling efforts. Facebook (50%), Plaxo (48%), Twitter (31%), and Jigsaw (26%) trailed in use.

Note: Hoovers and OneSource are separate companies but were combined for survey purposes because of their similar services.

Of respondents actually using the tools for sales, Hoovers and OneSource were the only tools helping more than half (54%) of them win B2B sales sometimes or often. LinkedIn was next at 42% and Jigsaw followed at 35%. Worst were Facebook (15%), Plaxo (13%) and Twitter (13%).

“The results demonstrate that with all the hype and buzz, most social network tools aren’t helping sales teams sell more yet,” Said Dave Stein, CEO and founder, ES Research Group. “For example, Twitter has not come into its own as a salesperson’s tool. It is presently a marketing tool that can potentially benefit the sales organization by contributing to the generation and nurturing of new sales leads. For now, the use of sales methodologies integrated with CRM systems and other sales enablement tools are proving far more successful in driving sales.”

Other key findings include the following:

• LinkedIn is clearly the favorite among B2B salespeople surveyed.
• The established for-pay information services (Hoover’s and OneSource) came in second.
• Free/low-cost information sharing services such as Jigsaw will rise in popularity over time.
• Twitter is an anomaly. It will have a high degree of uptake, but in a very narrow market. Marketing will find the tool much more valuable than sales for the foreseeable future. Presently it is not a valuable mainstream medium for B2B salespeople.
• For the time being, Facebook is best reserved for the personal and family sides of one’s life.

The ESR survey of sales representatives in a broad set of industries examined the prospecting process, the selling process, and the storage and retrieval of customer and prospect information.

No one doubts, the evolving role that social media technologies will play in the B2B selling environment, however the evidence clearly demonstrates that their present significance is no where near what some would have us believe. This is a topic of conversation that we will no doubt re-visit as the months and years go by. For now though, I applaud Dave and the ES research group for seeking out the facts of the matter, and for giving me the reassurance to continue to deliver the best advice for my customers and their sales people.

Buy the 10-page ESR/Insight™ Brief , The New Social Media: Do They Enable B2B Selling?

Over at Top Sales Experts,

Our Timetable for April includes:

First up in April is the inaugral TSE Roundtable- “The Future Of Professional Selling” featuring five of the world’s leading sales experts: Jill Konrath, Linda Richardson, Dave Stein, Nigel Edelshain, and Jonathan Farrington.

This an event you really should not miss out on - simply click on the banner below for full details and to book your place.

On April 16th, we launch the TSE Webinar Series, and I know that you are going to be very impressed with the line-up of almost FIFTY top sales gurus, who will be delivering top class presentations - simply click on the banner below to see the full schedule.

On April 21st, we launch “Sales Hardtalk” a daily dose of hard hitting advice, commentary and sales tips - easily downloadable and in bite size chunks, not to be missed.

Finally, at the end of April, the Top Sales Experts team will be launching their latest Ebook, packed with contributions from all of us - more details soon.