At the start of 09, I expected my own sales performance to increase significantly.  I based this expectation on two sound contributing factors.

1.There would be a greater need for my services.

Companies would have a much greater need for improvement around sales performance than in previous years. If making sales would be harder in 09, mine was a recession solution.

2. I offered a guaranteed result.

I would be offered a ROI payment option, which meant that there, was no risk in investing in my sales programmes - I guaranteed actual sales improvement. This would give me a significant competitive advantage.

My analysis of how I performed vs. my expectation.

I recently undertook an analysis of my personal sales performance for the year to date. While I am satisfied with many of my performance indicators, I am slightly disappointed with my win ratio per meeting with new customers specifically. I expected a nearer 100% hit ratio, I delivered 62%.

While some may be happy with such a return in this environment, my continued sales improvement has always resulting from me not resting on my laurels; and continually seeking out ways in which I can better what I do.

So how do I explain this?

Initially I must admit that I struggled.

While there may be room for improvement around my qualification process, I work very hard to ensure that I am talking to genuine prospects that are in a position to buy. I believe I am talking to the right people and at the right time and I am offering a better product than that of my competitors.

A more convoluted, complex and ever changing decision making process may go some way to explaining my disappointment. However, I don’t think that it is the only factor and even if it is, my payment options should go a long way to overcoming this as an obstacle.

So I asked myself, what I am not considering, what might I have not planned for.

I begin by revisited my stats on paper, I compared what I was doing against best practice, there was very little by way of explanation.

I then begin to consider that my expectation was unreasonable, that I hadn’t given enough weighting to the recession factor. While it might have worked for me on many occasions, perhaps it had also worked against me.

I quickly realised that I was engaging in the type of attitude; I so often have to help overcome in those that I work with. I was engaging in can’t do rather than can do.

I shook myself down and decided to investigate further. I pride myself on good planning, yet here was something I had failed to consider. It had left no apparent trace of itself in my work. It was bloody invisible.

Invisible! Now there’s a thought, what might have been invisible to me at the start of the year? Something I would not normally consider…….. Ah! Gotya.

it’s FEAR!!

I have trained myself to ignore fear; it plays no part in my decisions, my planning or my expectations. This philosophy has always served me well. I realised at an early age what fear can do, how it can control and how it can destroy.

At the start of the year, my intentional ignorance towards fear had allowed me to plan for success, to see abundance, and to plan for opportunity. Sounds great?

I’m afraid only to a point (did you get the joke?).

This same philosophy had blind sighted me, not to my own fears but towards the fears of others; in this case the fear in my prospects. I had failed to consider and to plan for their fears.

I started to recall the conversations where I had failed to win the deal. A comment trend started to appear.

“I know where we need to go, but I am not prepared to do what it takes to get there”

Yes, I had helped them to identify their need.

Yes, I had shown them the solution.

Yes, I had taken away the risk.

Tick, tick, tick…

But No, In a great many cases, I had failed to take away their fear of making the decision. Because I had failed to plan for fear, in doing so I had also failed to plan for how to deal with my prospect’s fear.

The good news, I am now on the case.

Next Tuesday, June 2, at 6 PM, Dave Brock and I are presenting a webinar sponsored by Top Sales Experts International: The Good News, Customers Want To Buy; The Bad News, They Can’t Find The Funding. We address the very issue raised in this video and provide a foundation to help you find solutions to this issue. Make sure you sign up and participate. Dave is someone I greatly admire, and he has acted as a mentor to me on many occasions - I am really looking forward to presenting with him.

Join TSE here

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

The following is the rough transcript of a recent call I had with a Sales Director of a large Irish Company.

Mr X: Hi Niall, This is _________ __________, I am the Sales Director with ___________ ___________ What I’m looking for a two day sales training course to brush up on our selling skills. What would that cost?

Me: Hi __________, thanks for your call, let me briefly tell you about what we do. We specialise in providing bespoke in-house sales training solutions. We invest a lot of time in identifying how best we can help, come up with a plan to achieve sales results, and build a training programme around this. Can you first tell me a little about the company, what you sell, to who and what prompted you to call me at this time?

Mr X: We sell _____________ to _____________; we have a team of 20 field based salespeople. The salespeople feel that they would benefit from some sales training; times are tough and they believe that it would help them to make more sales.

Me: Great, Let’s hold that last thought “to make more sales” what I would like to do next with your permission, is for us to meet up, introduce myself and Btb training, how we work and investigate with you, if and how our sales training solutions can help to make more sales. How would sometime next week suit?

Mr X: Frankly, Niall, I don’t see that there is any need, what I am looking for is a two day sales training course, plain and simple. Can you send me a proposal including costs? All the other training companies were able to; they didn’t need to meet up.

Me: I understand but again our focus is ensuring actual results, so let me explain to you why I feel that it is necessary for us to meet up. If the overall objective of this process is to increase sales, I do not yet know how I can help, and even if I can help, the training solution I might recommend will likely be different to a two-day course on basic selling skills. This first meeting allows me an opportunity to investigate, to better get to know you, the company, the problems and the solutions. In short, if I can help and how I can help. I cannot commit to a project unless I have established this, in other words I will need to be sure that I can deliver ROI. This first meeting is very much for my benefit, and hence there is no fee, nor is it a commitment to do business. I will only seek that commitment after I have demonstrated that I can help to increase sales.

Mr X: I think what you are saying is that you want an opportunity to increase your price?

Me: LOL, __________ it is highly lightly that the overall solution that I will recommend will require more than two days training, so yes, this would mean more cost. We tend to work with clients on an ongoing basis. I would be taking a long-term view point, that being said, new clients generally will hire us to first, do a stand alone project. The reality is that unless you see results, you won’t rehire and we are happy to work with you on this basis. Can I ask, what has been your experience of other trainers?

Mr X: I think that sales training every now and then, is good to remind salespeople about the right ways of doing things and to motivate, but after a while it’s forgotten and you need to start again.

Me: You are absolutely right, traditional sales training focuses on imparting knowledge; so much of what is taught is quickly forgotten. That is why you find you have to retrain the same skills over and over. We would take a different approach, in that we would create long-behaviour led changes, with each course looking to build on and teach new skills. I also agree that sales training needs to be ongoing. As part of or meet, I would like to continue to discuss these training experiences, and identify how we can ensure a longer-term skills change.

Mr X: For now, I just need a proposal for two days training with costs and names of who you have worked with. If we are interested, I can come back to you about the meeting.

Me: I’m afraid I won’t be able to put together a proposal at this stage, for the reasons I have already mentioned. I can however give you names and numbers of some clients in your space. Perhaps, I could set up a call so that you can have a conversation with them about our approach, and how it compares to other training providers. How does that sound?

Mr X: I will only be interested in talking to references after we had made a decision to go ahead with whomever.

Me: OK, I’m sorry then, I don’t think that there is much more I can say at this stage, if you change your mind or if you would like to consider a different approach next time, please do let me know. I will send you an e-mail to recap on our conversation and include my contact details. Thanks for your call.

Mr X: We are in a recession, you are supposedly a top sales trainer and you refuse to quote for potential business. Think you are in the wrong business, Niall. Goodbye.

I have tried to be as truthful as I can about what was said. My initial thoughts were that the individual, because of previous bad sales training experiences, has no faith in sales training as a solution. He is possibly being requested by the sales-team to provide training and is looking for the cheapest available option.

I took the call on my mobile, walking to and from meetings, perhaps I could have taken a different approach, but I get the feeling that the net result would have been the same.

I have received a large number of these types of calls since I became a trainer. Some might say that “the customer is always right” but I will continue to refuse to quote for sales training until I have established that I can help. It’s just a pity that more training providers don’t have the courage to do the same.

Over at TSE 2.0 today.

One of the most clued-in business consultants on the planet, Dave Brock of Partners In EXCELLENCE. Listen as Dave talks Counter-intuitive:

Rather than driving harder and faster, do we really need to take a step back and evaluate how we can do things better.

Like what you hear, Well why not come and join us.

Published by Niall Devitt, Btb Business Training

Paul McCord, sales guru, trainer and author of  “Creating a Million Dollar a Year Sales Income: Sales Success through Client Referrals” is frankly someone I have come to admire greatly, while I don’t necessarily always agree with his position, his knowledge, honestly and calling it as he sees it is entirely refreshing and his blog is a must for anyone involved with sales.

(more…)

Published by Niall Devitt, Btb Business Training

Studies show that women buy or influence 80% of all consumer goods. According to a David Powers Homes study they make 80% of all $180 to $500K price range and they are likely to play a significant role in other big ticket purchases such as cars etc. In fact just because they aren’t directly involved in a particular purchase doesn’t mean they aren’t strongly behind the buying decision.

(more…)

Published by Niall Devitt, Btb Business Training

This is the final post of three on Cold Calling strategies and techniques although I’m sure it’s a subject I will no doubt revisit in the future. The other two posts are “Is Cold Calling still Relevant” and “Cold Call Strategy Planning and Objective”

(more…)

Published by Niall Devitt, Btb Business Training

Designing an incentive plan that gets balance right in terms of cost versus performance can be a difficult task . The challenge being to create a structure that includes sufficient attainable rewards to motivate the team while at the same time creates enough challenge and fail safes that the company doesn’t end up paying over the top for performance.

Get it right and you end up with a highly motivated sales team, high levels of performance and sustainable growth and costs. Get it wrong on the other hand and you end up with a demotivated team, disjointed performance levels and unpredictable growth with high costs.

(more…)

Review

The Top 10 Sales Articles is a website that I have been meaning to post about for a while and they gave me a good reason this month when they featured one of my articles Ten Reasons to take Notes during a Sales Meeting.

Thanks a lot guys, needless to say that I have been a fan of the website since it started in April 07. It is top quality on-line resource for anyone who is interested in sales and business development knowledge and advice.

(more…)

Guest Author: C.J. Hayden

Seeking out other professionals who will act on your behalf as referral partners is an excellent and production way of securing high quality leads.

Here’s an article on the subject by C.J. Hayden. C.J. is the best-selling author of “Get Clients NOW! (AMACOM, 1999)”, “Get Hired NOW!” and “The One-Person Marketing Plan Workbook”. C.J. is a career and business coach who teaches people to make a better living doing what they love. She is a former corporate productivity consultant with over 25 years experience in business and management. C.J. has been speaking and training professionally since 1978, and coaching since 1992. She has been featured in numerous books and magazines, and widely profiled internationally by newspapers, radio, and TV. For more information, visit www.getclientsnow.com.

(more…)

Published by Niall Devitt, Btb Business Training

My very first sales position was with an insurance industry and I now can look back fondly at that experience knowing that some of the early sales skills that I learnt from my time selling life polices and critical illness cover have remained valuable and relevant to the other products that I later sold and sales roles that I worked.

(more…)

Published by Niall Devitt, Btb Business Training

Recording details on paper with the prospect during a sales meeting is a subject that divides a lot of salespeople. Sellers who fall into the “no to note taking camp” will say that note taking can be off putting to the prospect and only serves to stop the prospect from sharing information.

They say that it can ruin the natural flow of the conversation and can make questioning the prospect a disjointed process. I on the other hand am a firm believer in the value of taking notes Here is a list of ten reasons why I believe note taking works.

(more…)