Inside Sales Telesales Tips Blog

Best sales training practices: an inside sales tour through Bloom’s Taxonomy

Second in a 3 part series on sales training theory

A question I'm commonly asked is "what's your training methodology?" All training companies have their own, and they're copyrighted, mine included. I was having a discussion with a potential client about adult learning issues, and it got deep into the basics of what makes training work. I'm a big believer in something called "Bloom's Taxonomy," and it's driven the way I train ever since I got my Master's in Education, where I was first introduced to Bloom. I'm going to share some of Benjamin Bloom's methodology with you, because it makes more sense than 90% of what I read today about best training practices.

Benjamin Bloom was an educator at the University of Chicago who cobbled together a team of researchers in the 1950s in an attempt to determine how adults learn most effectively. The resulting body of work comprised three domains of learning, the affective, cognitive, and psycho-motor, and was entitled Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. Book 1: Cognitive Doman is the one that's especially important for effective transference of knowledge. In it, Bloom posited that there are six sequential steps a learner must take in order to have learned a concept. I'll tell you what they are, then give an example of how they're used with a training example right out of inside sales. The steps are:

Knowledge:  Rules ... can you recall it?
Comprehension:   Can you explain it?
Application:  Can you show that you use it?
Analysis:   Can you compare it with what you've already been using?
Synthesis:  Can you use it in the process of inventing something better?
Evaluation: Can you judge it against a standard?

We train people not to begin a cold call with the question "How are you today?", so I'll explain how I apply Bloom's Taxonomy to that training concept. Let's look at the model again, this time by using the example.

1) Knowledge:  Here's a rule... Never begin a cold call by asking "How are you today?"

2) Comprehension:   This hackneyed question has been used by business-to-consumer telemarketers for years ad infinitum, and now just about everyone hates hearing it. It builds negative rapport, and prospects are savvy enough to know that you don't really care how they are today. They know they're going to hear a sales pitch, and much of the time will just hang up on you. At this point, we give the rep a better way to start the conversation. It differs for every client.

3) Application:  Now we give each rep an opportunity to use the new opening in class through role-play. But that doesn't mean that he or she will actually use it on the phone. And that's why we do real-time coaching during actual phone calls. Old habits are hard to break, and just because a rep does it successfully in class, doesn't mean he or she will use it on the job, unless we're there to hear it being used on real phone calls. Then we know that it's applied.

4) Analysis:  Each rep will analyze how much better the new "opening" works compared to what was used before. They see better results immediately, because they've compared it with what they did before. In just about every case, it's an improvement.

5) Synthesis: Sometimes a rep will want to subtly tweak the new opening to work better for him or her, usually just by changing a word or two. If I think it's effective, I'll go with it, because the rep has invented a way of using the new opening that works well for him or her. Every rep communicates differently, and individual changes are just fine provided they work within the conceptual framework of the practice.

6) Evaluation: Using the new subtly changed opening, the rep can now judge --- in real time --- whether his or her new opening works as well as the one we delivered in the class. Great reps tend to be self-judgmental, and may use their new opening, or go back to ours. But this evaluation process allows the rep to work within a framework of success, and build upon a superior foundation.

Bloom's cognitive strategy works in every learning environment, and it's a great model for encouraging reps to be intelligently inventive with new concepts. Another of Bloom's domains, the affective domain of learning, concerns attitude, which is all about getting inside sales reps to enthusiastically embrace new learning concepts so they'll actually want to perform them and integrate them into their daily lives. The cognitive strategy that Bloom discusses goes a long way to creating positive affective behavior, and is best reinforced by an ongoing coaching program that stresses positive reinforcement.

So there are some best sales training practices for you to consider. Many sales executives and managers are training their teams themselves these days due to stringent training budgets. If you're one of them, I encourage you to inculcate Bloom's Taxonomy into your Best Management playbook.

5 questions to ask before considering sales training as a solution to substandard performance

First in a 3 part series on sales training theory

In the 20 or so years we've been in the telesales training business, we've turned down a significant number of potential training situations. The main reason? We didn't think training was the solution for the client's problem, and we knew it just wouldn't work, because other things needed to be fixed first. Today's post is about saving you money if you're thinking of hiring any company to train your team, or doing it yourself with internal resources. Lack of superior performance can be a training issue, but not always. So before you consider sales training as a solution to poor performance, ask yourself the following questions to determine if you've correctly analyzed your sales situation:

1) Product. Do you have a significant underperforming product issue? If so, it's probably all over the web, and prospects love to talk. This "bad rap" will stop calls from being taken by prospects, and voicemails and emails being ineffective. Possible solutions: fix the product or consider dropping it from your product mix.

2) Compensation. Are your reps being compensated for the wrong behavior? For example, dual commission structures, in which reps are paid better on some products than others will virtually guarantee less activity on lesser compensated solutions. A common case is when inside salespeople are paid less for turning over a lead to the field than when selling it themselves, which will result in fewer leads going to the field. Another situation commonly found is when business development teams are being comped for the number of raw leads being sent to the field, qualified or not! For salespeople, compensation drives behavior, so consider changing your comp plan if they're being paid for behaviors not conducive to your company's profit picture.

3) Business processes. Is your inside team burdened with unnecessary paperwork or non telesales-related duties? If so, this could be affecting their efficiency. We see this mostly in non-centralized sales environments where individual sales reps report to Regional managers and work away from headquarters.  Sometimes these reps are charged with generating proposals for the entire regional team, which is one issue we commonly find that takes telephone time away from inside sales reps. Solutions to this vary depending on the company and situation. If you think this may be the case, consider asking each of your reps to log their duties for one week, then compile your answers to see if there's a common thread.

4) Intra-company conflict. Is your team getting "mixed messages?" Calling high is a prime example. You want your inside team to feel comfortable talking to upper level executives at major accounts, but if they're being told by others in the sales organization to avoid calling into accounts beyond a certain size for no intelligent sales-related reason, you're losing business, and your inside team's sales numbers will suffer. This is just one example of an internal roadblock that can damage the efficiency of an inside sales group.

5) Motivation. Does your team really want to work in your company and be in sales? One classic example is when a company converted their customer service reps to salespeople. The problem? They didn't want to be in sales and found it distasteful to ask for the order. They really wanted to be customer service people again, and their ears were not open to sales training. We've seen many situations where people converted to sales jobs and loved it, but it's not always the case. In the case of poor performance, it's always a great idea to ask the rep if he or she really embraces Sales as a career.

I've touched on product issues, business processes, intra-company edicts, compensation, and motivational issues that you'll want to ensure are handled or discussed before you take the financial step to train your team. Superior sales training is an essential way to get your team performing at optimum level, but you'll want to make sure you have a firm foundation in place before you do it. Add pre-training analysis to your Best Management playbook.

Increase sales by using your enthusiasm to get prospects motivated to want to buy from you

One of my mantras when I teach my sales training courses is that you've got to quickly determine how your solution is either going to make your prospects money, or stop them from losing money. Then tell them. That's all about ROI. But pumping up the enthusiasm is really important as well, and I witnessed this concept first hand recently when someone sold me a whole bunch of stuff I never intended to buy when I walked in the door. I was happy with my purchase too, and follow-on sales resulted. We can all learn a lot from this story, so here's what happened:

There's a company called Rosenblum Cellars that makes Zinfandel wines, and they're located way at the northern tip of Alameda, across the bay from San Francisco. I'm not a big zin drinker, but Alameda's a great town, and I was curious about this winery that's located on an old naval air base, so one Sunday a friend and I drove out there. We paid a small tasting fee, and began sampling. And that's when we ran into Kenny Goodman. He asked immediately what we thought of the first glass, and I told him it didn't have enough "pop" for me, because typically I like cabernets. Then he really went into action. "Look," he said, "I'm not supposed to do this, but I'm gonna pour one of best zins that usually I'm supposed to charge for, but I won't charge you. This stuff is really fantastic!" And it was pretty good! "I knew you'd love it, I just bought a whole case last week myself. And if you think that was great, getta load of this one!" He poured another glass from another hidden bottle, and in an animated fashion jumped all over the place, raving about those two new bottles.

We weren't his only customers, but he treated us like we were the only ones in the place. We walked around the tasting room a bit, and I noticed he was going into his performance with all the other customers, too. He wasn't pouring from the same bottles, but made everyone feel like they were special, and he was going to do something special for them. I just loved Kenny's enthusiasm for his product, and it was infectious. My friend and I loaded our trunk with bottles we hadn't intended to buy, and joined the wine club, too. My friend standardized on one of their zins, and serves it as her wine of choice at home. Kenny made a lot of money for the winery that day, and pumped follow-on sales for months to come, too.

My sister Vickie works in the wine industry in the Napa Valley, and I told her the story. She said everyone in the industry knows Kenny, and his enthusiasm is legendary.

So what can we in inside sales learn from Kenny? Two important things:
1) Enthusiasm. We deal with the same products every day, and to us they're old hat. But they're new to the prospect. Try to talk about your solution the same way you did when you found out how great it was. Rave about how it's helping other customers, and tell each prospect about how you just can't wait for him or her to get it on board so you can hear about their success stories, too. And don't be afraid to put yourself in the story, either. Kenny was a such a big fan of his product that it made us want to try everything, and we felt that if he liked it so much, we would, too.
2) Treat each prospect as if he or she is special. We talk to sometimes dozens of prospects every day, and it's easy to go into the same old rap. Take a look at your prospects' websites. Get really enthusiastic about what they're making, and talk about their products. Change your conversation to reflect what's going on at your prospect's company. Ask how their own products are making their customers' lives better. If you're one of their customers yourself, talk about how much you love their product or solution. Make each prospect feel as though he or she is the most important person you've talked to that month.

If you take Kenny Goodman's approach, prospects will want to buy from you, and sometimes that's what will drive the business to you, and not to a comparable competitor. Selling over the phone is a tough job, and some days are tougher than others. I'm sure it's like that in the wine room, too. But if you pump up the enthusiasm and make each prospect feel unique and special, you'll have more fun, your day will go faster, and you'll write more business. Sales managers and execs ask me every week how to better motivate their teams. Self-motivation is the best answer, and if we all think of our prospects as being unique people working in fascinating environments, the enthusiasm can be infectious. While you're on your way to work tomorrow, seriously think about how you'll go about re-crafting your rap to add more "pop" to your conversation.  And consider adding Kenny's techniques to your Best Practices playbook.

How to shine when giving an in-house product presentation

Particularly if you're selling a technically sophisticated solution, you may, as an inside salesperson, be called on to make a product/solution presentation to your own in-house sales or engineering team, as proof that you know your product. Such a presentation can be fraught with pitfalls, as more than occasionally you'll be expected to provide a product feature dump, particularly if your engineers are the intended audience. While we touch on presentation skills as part of our telesales training courses, it's worth reading this blog post if this presentation task is coming up for you.

The worst mistake you can make is trying to make sense out of a 400 page technical manual, then trying to craft the data into a presentation. This happened to me one time, and I made a really great presentation because I distilled three concepts before I started to craft my presentation to the brain trust. These three concepts are:

1) What customer problem does my solution solve?
2) What do I need to know about my solution in order to sell it?
3) What do I not need to know in order to sell it?

Presenting these three concepts will not only provide a "wow" factor for your in-house folks, but it provides a distillation that you can use effectively on the phone with prospects. It will also help you to avoid "feature dumping," or reading a list of features, a practice that bores colleagues and prospects alike.

Example: a software debugger

In an example from my own sales world, I sold a product called an Atron AT Probe, which was a hardware-based software debugger, a really techie product. Here's how I used the model.

1) The problem it solved was engineers spending long hours debugging software problems by manually debugging. Our solution saved dozens, occasionally hundreds of hours of engineering time. With the debugging time reduced, engineers could be put on new projects, reducing design and development schedules all over the company. The ROI could be put in engineering hours multiplied by the hourly engineering rate, or in getting the prospect's product to market faster.

2) What I needed to know: I needed to know that my debugger worked each time, every time. And I needed a pre-sales tech support person if there were technical specs I couldn't fathom. I needed to know what product my prospect was building, so I could talk about increased time-to-market, and how my solution could accelerate that, so my prospects could make money faster. I also wanted to know my prospect's anticipated release date of the finished product. This way I could use a "fear of loss" closing approach. I needed to know the decision process, because I might have to call others on the team (often, my engineer contacts would encourage me to "call high" to a director or VP to make a case). And I needed to know the meaning of commonly used technical acronyms and jargon.

3) I didn't need to know exactly how the solution worked, or go deep into the technology. Concepts like "sticky breakpoints" were commonly brought up. I knew we did that, but didn't know exactly how we did it. That's what pre-sales tech support was all about. We had a great pre-sales engineer that loved to talk tech. My technical expertise was limited to about ½ page of tech specs. The term I used to describe my approach was to be "intelligently ignorant."

Bottom line, my job was to make lots of good calls and move product. By having a clear understanding of how much I didn't need to know, I could flood my market with calls and make my company profitable.

So circling back to you, try using this technique next time you're asked to make an in-house presentation. You can even use something that, in the education biz, is called an "advance organizer," developed by an educator named David Ausubel. You begin your presentation by saying: "I'm going to tell you the major problem this product solves. Then I'm going to tell you what I need to know to sell it. Then I'm going to tell you what I don't need to know to sell it." Add this presentation skill to your Best Practices playbook, and I'll bet your presentations will be a lot more fun, effective and to the point.

When you become too old to work in Inside Sales… or is it just ageism?

One of the inherent beauties of selling or qualifying over the phone is that since no one can see us, hiring practices have been egalitarian, for the most part. In my telesales training courses diverse workforces have been the norm, and the resulting cross-pollination of ideas and experiences has resulted in smarter workforces. But in the past six months, I've been made aware of several outstanding inside sales candidates that were told they weren't hired because they "didn't fit in." And that was the sole reason given that they weren't hired. It had nothing to do with lack of professionalism or poor work stats. But these individuals were all over 40 years old, and the postings ran the gamut from Rep to Director.

In every case, the individual was interviewed at a company with a predominantly younger inside sales force, and came away with the feeling that management at these companies was more concerned that the new hire could party and socialize at the same level with younger workers than with what it takes to get the job done and over-perform in quota-oriented activities.

We're getting a good reputation in this blog for dealing with issues no one wants to discuss, and age discrimination is an uncomfortable topic for many. Human Resources departments are well aware of discrimination laws, but companies work around them with the "not fitting in" clause, which is not falsifiable. I'm going to give you two stories that underscore my point, but before I do, let's set up the argument.

Here are some reasons not to practice age discrimination in hiring:

1) If you're a younger manager or exec enforcing age discrimination at your company, it will eventually affect you as well. You may get succeeded by a younger person, or laid off because of your age. And you won't be able to prove it, because your company has a process in place for successfully removing older people without overtly violating discrimination laws.

2) We're not talking about the palliative crowd here. People over 35 have generally acquired great work habits, are intelligent conversationalists, and are focused on making themselves (and the company) money. They tend to be less "entitled" and accept authority more readily than many younger people.

3) Your younger inside sales reps can learn a lot from them. If they have a sales concern, they may readily go to a more experienced rep for advice than a manager, as they may feel they want to fix the problem before management becomes aware of it. This additional level of expertise provides for quicker inculcation of Best Practices, and can open up intelligent dialogue throughout the entire inside sales team.

Here's one story about an experienced inside sales rep I'd like to share with you. I trained an inside sales team in Florida that had one rep who was noticeably older than her colleagues. I would guess she was in her sixties. I always ask my participants what their passion in life is. When it was this woman's turn, she said it was flying Stearman aerobatic aircraft. She was a stunt pilot who still was doing air shows, and was probably the most focused rep in the room. In coaching sessions, she was far and away the best of the group. In follow-up discussions with management, we had serious discussions about how to find more people like her, and I would have recommended her to any of my client companies in a second.

The second story is perhaps a bit more poignant, but goes to the heart of the issue. In the early 1980s, I was putting myself through college driving a taxi in Boston. We had a number of black drivers in our company (probably half of whom were African).  There were also a number of steady customers calling for cabs that specified they didn't want a black driver. So the argument went one way that the company should send white drivers in those situations, because if they didn't, the customers would refuse to ride with the black driver, call the competition, and we'd lose the business forever. The contrary argument ran that by refusing to send black drivers, we were perpetuating discrimination, and it would never end if we didn't draw the line somewhere and say "no more." The second argument won. None of us wanted to live in a discriminatory world.

This post is primarily directed to sales managers and executives that can change the policy of age discrimination by recognizing that having experienced reps on the team makes the whole team better, then  showing leadership by taking the position that neither you nor the company will stand for it.  Discrimination in any form is odious, and pre-selecting out great reps because they may not join in on the Friday afternoon paintball tournament is just plain silly. Building a great inside sales team is all about talent and ability, and not about homogeneity. So please strongly consider adding real personnel diversity to your Best Management Playbook. You'll have a more effective and powerful company if you do.

Use KPIs during your telesales job interview to put yourself above competitive candidates.

We don't just create and deliver world-class telesales training courses here. We also help great telesales reps who've excelled in our classes and at work to find jobs. We know reps that have never been under quota that were laid off this year. The other day, veteran inside sales executive Alicia Assefa interviewed a candidate we sent her, and she gave the candidate some outstanding advice on how to make a presentation in the interview that would be compelling to any sales executive. It's all about describing how you use KPI (key performance indicators) to increase your numbers and overshoot quota. I asked Alicia to share her perspective with my blog, and she did. I'll let her put it in her own worlds. Here's what Alicia says:

Everyone knows how difficult it is to find work.  It's tough out there.  Although job opportunities are more prevalent than they were say, six months ago, it is still a very competitive market.   A few months ago, you could expect hundreds of applicants for one open position.  Now, the number may be in the tens of applicants.  In any case, the odds are still against job seekers.  In order to get noticed, your resume must stand out.   To get to the next level of the interview process, you must stand out, during each interview.

If you are looking for a sales position, there is a sure fire way to stand out from the crowd and position yourself as the "right "person for the job.  Know your numbers. 

Your numbers are metrics that Sales Managers call Key Performance Indicators or KPIs.   A manager's performance rating is, in most cases, tied to KPIs such as pipeline growth and quota achievement. 

What are the KPIs for an Inside Sales Professional?   KPIs will vary, based on whether you do Teleprospecting or have a sales quota. 

KPIs for Teleprospecting Reps: If you are a Teleprospecting Representative and your primary focus is on generating leads for a Field or Inside Sales team, your KPIs might include the following:

• Average Daily Dials: You should know, on average, the number of dials you make, each day. If the product is a high ticket complex solution that requires that you speak to a Senior IT professional, you may make 40-50 dials per day, as you must get past gate keepers, etc., to reach the required high-level IT professional. If, however, your product is a lower-priced commoditized solution, you may be able to make 60-100 dials per day.
• Raw Lead (RL) to Qualified Lead (QL) Conversion: Raw leads are the leads that marketing provides you, each day. Depending on the type of solution and contact level you need to reach, your RL to QL conversion should be in the range of 15%-20%. If you have a position, currently, check out the RL-to-QL conversion statistics for your team, for a 2 week period. See what the average is and where you rank. If you are looking for work and don't know this particular KPI, try to remember the total number of leads you received and how many of those turned to a qualified lead.
• Cold Call Ratio: Cold calls are calls that you make to contacts that you uncover without the aid of marketing support. Sales Managers are, typically, very interested in Sales Representatives who are not afraid to make cold calls. In general 20% of your dials should be cold calls into your accounts or territory. Managers will want to know where you got the contact names and how you pitched your Company's value proposition.
• Contact Ratios: Dials and lead conversion are interesting to Sales Managers because Sales is a numbers game. The more dials you make and the more leads you qualify, the greater your chances are of successfully meeting sales targets. A very important KPI is the contact ratio number. For example, if your daily dial average is 50, you should expect to connect with a minimum of 5 important contacts, or 10% of your dials. Ten to fifteen percent of your dials should be with important contacts that can help you move your sales activity to the next levels.
• Pipeline Growth: Pipeline is not just for quota bearing reps. Teleprospecting Reps, who generate leads for a Sales team, will have a pipeline of Qualified Leads (QL). Know the Average Sales Price (ASP) of your solution. Know your team's quota. Once you have this information, you can start to build your qualified leads pipeline. Typically 33 percent of deals will roll off the sales forecast, 33 percent will close and 33 percent will stall. If you are supporting a Sales Team, in general, you will need a qualified leads pipeline of 3X your teams' quota targets.
• Emails: Emails are another touch point that connects you to prospects. Although the phone is the primary way to connect with prospects, it is often necessary to stay in touch through an email. Know how many emails you send out, daily. Emails, when added to your average daily dials, increases the total number of prospect touches you have, each day. On average you should send out 15-20 emails to key contacts, daily.

KPIs for TeleSales Reps: If you are a quota bearing Sales Professional, your KPIs will include most of the items above, including:

• Average Daily Dials
• Cold Call Ratio
• Contact Ratios
• Average Sales Price
• Emails

In addition, as a quota bearing representative, you have a quota (monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, etc.).  In order to achieve your quota, it is important to build your pipeline to ensure that you will meet sales targets. 

• Pipeline Growth: Depending on the type of solution you are selling (complex, high-priced or commoditized, low-priced) you will need to build a pipeline of 3X to 6X your revenue objective. If you are currently working in a sales position, ask your manager how large your pipeline should be to meet sales targets. Start building to that level, to ensure your success.
• Quota Achievement: Every Sales Manager is going ask you if you made your sales targets. If you did, you should know how (pipeline growth of X times of Sales Targets, X Cold Calls made per day, 50-60 Daily Dials, etc.). If you didn't, you should know why. If you didn't, make your numbers, were you within 85+ % (an acceptable range). If you didn't, how did you rank against your peers?

After you've derived your numbers: Now that you know your numbers, the next step is to ensure that your résumé lists your numbers (KPIs).  List your achievements, by company.  For example you might list:

• At ABC Company I achieved 92% of my quarterly objectives for 6 consecutive quarters. I was ranked number 2 amongst my peer group. I achieved my numbers based on:
• 1) Average Daily Dials: 65
• 2) Cold Call Ratio: 20% of all dials
• 3) Pipeline: 2.5X quarterly sales objective
• 4) Contact Ratio: 20% of my daily contacts were with senior level IT Executives

Once your resume is completed and lists your KPIs, your next and final step is to complete a one-page overview of your accomplishments.  This overview should list your major accomplishments, with the most important accomplishment listed at the top. 

Your overview should list the following:

Sales Highlights and Accomplishments

Company XYZ:

• 2009 Presidents Club
• Achieved 120% of Quota
• Pipeline 5X revenue objective
• ASP: $50,000
• Contact Ratio: 20%
• Cold Call Ratio: 15%

When you have an onsite interview, make sure that you give your Sales Highlights and Accomplishments document to the hiring manager.  Keep a copy in front of you, for the entire interview.  You have a lot of numbers to discuss and you don't want to forget your most important KPIs.

Knowing your numbers and communicating your numbers, during the interview process, will put you way ahead of the competition.  When you know your numbers, Sales Managers will feel very comfortable that they won't be hiring a junior person.  Rather, they will see you as a seasoned and serious Sales Professional who is goal oriented and highly motivated.  Start building your list of KPIs.  Know your numbers and communicate them in your resume, Sales Highlights and Accomplishments overview and during the interview process.

It's Geoff here again. So there's some important advice from an inside sales executive whose job entails determining who to hire and who to discard. One day while I was a juror, a judge told me after the case was finished that he was frustrated because he'd told the prosecutor exactly how he wanted the case presented, and the prosecutor went and did it his own way anyway. And lost the case. Here, we have an inside sales exec who's telling you how to get hired. Add Alicia Assefa's advice on presenting your KPIs to your Best Practices Playbook.

7 Ways to make an Underperforming Territory profitable, fast

It's fairly common for superior sales performers to be rewarded by being transferred to an underperforming territory. Rarely is the sales rep happy about it, and it's probably happened to a large percentage of you reading this. If it hasn't happened to you yet, get ready, for it may. In my telesales training courses, I always tell people that our world is a lot about constant change, and how well we handle it. Today's post is about how a really great rep got a lemon and made lemonade out of it. I worked with Gordon at a software development tools company, and saw him take control of what had been a terrible territory, work it, and make it one if he best territories in the company within a very few months. Even though the product line we're talking about was technical, his story can apply to anyone selling anything in a territory that has traditionally been a poor earner. Here's what he did:

First of all, he wanted to know which companies weren't buying our tools, and why, so he made a list of the biggest companies in all of the states in his new territory. In his first week in the territory, he made a telephone call blitz, and found that there were two types of non-buying prospects: those in which upper management (e.g. VPs of Engineering) made the decisions against us, and those where upper management didn't care, but instead had empowered Project Managers and Developers to make their own decisions and select their own tools.

Not surprisingly, he found that many of his prospects had never been called, or hadn't been called in months. Gordon started making extensive charts of the types of software development projects that these companies were working on, and became an expert in project knowledge. Gordon was a great salesperson, but he was non-technical. All he wanted to know was what they were building, who would buy the finished product, and what types of tools the engineers used. So he ended up with two charts (today, you'd call them spreadsheets): "Nonbuyer Reasons and Personnel," and "Project Classifications." Then he really went to work.

He had inherited several decent customers, called high, and found that there were many projects starting at those companies for which development tools had not been selected. He leveraged his VP contact, and sold a lot of new product to those companies (within 6 months, he'd doubled the previous year's sales on current customers alone). He also uncovered many opportunities at companies that hadn't been called in awhile. They were now in his sales pipeline, after less than one month in the new territory.

But there were still some companies that wouldn't buy, because they didn't like our company. He was able to determine that the VP of Engineering at a huge prospect company had a sister, and she was married to the Director of Sales at one of our competitors. That company had standardized on our competition, and Gordon knew he'd never get a sale there as long as upper management stayed the same. At other companies, Gordon found that individual engineers and project managers had prejudices against our development tools (too bad, because our tools were superior), and would work to ensure our tools were never placed.

In his new territory, many development teams were in a state of flux. Some companies were downsizing their departments, and engineers were getting laid off, and having a challenging time finding work. By this time, he knew about different engineers levels of expertise, and he also knew how they felt about our products. So here's what he did: since he was calling all over the territory anyway, he started asking if they were hiring engineers. If they were, Gordon would check his list. If an engineer looking for work loved our products, Gordon found him or her work at companies were he wanted to get more business. He got advocates at new companies that way. And if engineers didn't like our products, he found them positions at that big company with the VP whose sister was married to his competition. Gordon figured if he had engineers in his territory that didn't like our solutions, it was best having them all work in one place, in a company that for political reasons would never buy our development tools anyway. In essence, Gordon played his territory like a chessboard, shifting the pieces from one square to another. He was able to do this because he probably called more people in the territory than anyone had before, asked great questions, took good notes, and plotted things on charts. He turned two of the states in this underperforming territory into two of the most profitable in our company in under a year.

So what can be learned from Gordon?

1) An underperforming territory can be an opportunity waiting to flourish.
2) Call high, and ask great questions to determine why people aren't buying.
3) Ensure that you're providing as many solutions as possible to companies that are already your customers.
4) Know your prospect's business, so you can figure out how your product can help your prospect to make money faster, or stop losing money.
5) Make enough calls that you can be considered a territory expert.
6) Develop your own analyses tools and charts to understand what's happening (or happened) over time, not just what happened today.
7) Think out of the box. In Gordon's case, he improved the lives of his advocates, and they remembered the favor he did for them.

As Gordon would tell you, you have to work hard, but you also have to work smart. Add Gordon's techniques to your Best Practices Playbook for selling successfully to an underperforming territory.

How to turn the executive interview from Hell into your advantage

Today's post is for sales executives and managers and those who wish to become them. A sales executive I know just went through one of the worst interviewing experiences of his life, and asked what he could have done to change the outcome. In today's hiring market, every one of you reading this post could run into the same thing. My solution touches on a closing technique I use in my telesales training courses, too. So let me tell you the story, and what you can do to turn a similar situation that you might face into your advantage.

Robert interviewed for a sales exec position at a medium-sized company that had a sales situation that needed to be turned around. As part of his interview, they asked him to present a sales plan for the upcoming year, based on what he knew about the company. He spent quite a few hours designing it and writing it out. He told me about it, and it was a brilliant plan. The interview took three hours, in front of the company's executive board, and he outlined it all out. They told him they liked the plan, would discuss it, and call back. They did, and invited him for another interview to discuss the plan, as they had questions. He did, addressed all the issues, and they told him they'd call him back. They did, and said they were moving in another direction. He didn't get the job.

All in all, Robert spent many hours designing and interviewing for a job he was probably never going to get. They just needed some free consulting. So I suggested that since this was becoming an all-too-common experience these days, he turn it around to his advantage the next time this happens by following the following steps:

1) When a prospective interviewer asks for a business plan, walk in with an outline, not a whitepaper.
2) Answer any questions, but keep the interview to two hours or fewer.
3) If the interviewer wants a more detailed plan for the next interview, tell the company that the detailed plan is what you'd be implementing at the company. Suggest that the company hire you to build a sales plan for a consulting fee. When you present the plan, the company will have four options:

            a) hiring you (the candidate) to implement the plan
            b) hiring someone else to implement the plan
            c) doing the plan in-house with current personnel 
            d) not doing anything at all

This is an approach I've used successfully when a prospect company wants me to do a lot of front-end work with no guarantee of a contract. About 50% of the time, I get a consulting contract, and eventually get their follow-on business, too.
Prospect companies aren't always disingenuous when they ask for a lot up front. Many times they are disorganized, have political issues, or internal disagreements about candidates and processes. But taking my approach does force them to come to the table with something in return for the time you (the candidate) spend on diagnosing their sales process. My friend and colleague Barry Mainz would refer to this approach as quid pro quo, and it's a closing technique that works just as well with prospective employers as it does for closing sales prospects on business.

It's an employer's market these days, but you'll gain a lot of respect by taking this approach, and you may get paid for your time, too. And it's is a good start to getting hired by that company. If they don't agree that you have a point, you may have what we call a "walk-away." You won't have lost anything, and will have gained some professional respect. Add this technique to your Best Management Practices playbook.

Don’t miss low-hanging fruit… Prioritize calling the best leads that money can’t buy NOW, before your competition does

At this time of year, salespeople are typically focused on two things: closing prospects that are already in the pipeline, and managing new leads that are coming in through trade shows, downloads, you-name-it. But you've already got a better lead source than those new leads, and they're sitting in your CRM sales database. Let me explain, because if you ignore what's in your CRM, you're missing some hidden but active sales opportunities, and working hard, not smart.

Two weeks ago, I made a printout of every month of activity on last year's calendar, including all calls to my telesales training prospects. Loads of those calls I made last year never resulted in conversations. In just about every one of those cases, I finally left a voicemail as a last resort. Like most voicemails, they didn't get returned. So I decided to set up a call blitz after the first of the year, and call every one of those prospects from last year. I made loads of calls every day. And guess what? Lots of them were interested, and I loaded up my pipeline for the new year!

It turns out that they never returned my calls last year because they had no money and didn't think it had any value to tell me. Most of them remembered my name. Some of them didn't. But the fact was that if they were good enough to call last year, I had already determined that they were viable prospects. They still are, but they're "warmer" now, because they heard my name a few times last year. Many of them are from very large companies. And now my pipeline is jam-packed with these formerly "dead" prospects.

So what can you learn from this? You most probably will have a higher "hit" ratio from people who already know who you are or have heard of your company. Many prospects that had a need for your solution but didn't have budget last year, DO have budget this year. You've already put a bit of time in calling these prospects, and you don't want your competition to get the business now because all of a sudden budget arrived, and you didn't call! So here's a formula that will accelerate your sales cycle. It takes a little extra work, but will put more money in your pocket this year, and faster:

1) Get a prospect printout of last year's calls, by month. Sort by company name, and be sure to put the name and title of the prospect in the readout, too. If you can't set the print parameters on your own, ask your in-house CRM guru to do it for you. That's why you have the CRM in the first place.

2) Take the printout home and carve out a couple of weekend hours to highlight every company you'll want to call again. Focus on large companies as well as prospects that had a need, but no budget.

3) When you get back to work on Monday, begin by calling every prospect from last year that is working at a company that is a customer of your company's, anywhere in the world. There may be exceptional opportunities to cross sell, upsell, and reference sell with these people. Next, call companies that had a need, but no money. Finally, call all those really big companies that you want to have as customers.

4) Allocate at least three hours every day for outbound calling to this list, and "hard schedule" it so you'll really do it, without interruptions. It's better qualified than any new list you'll get, because it focuses on established needs, leveraging current customer relationships, and making something happen at big prospect companies.

Don't let your competition grab the business you spent so much time cultivating. This process I've described is working for me right now and it can work for you, too. Add it to your Best Practices Playbook.

 

Top 5 Most Popular Blog Posts of 2009

Last week I provided 5 great tips for closing year-end business, from a list of my own favorite blog posts. But you voted on yours, too, and that's what today's post is about.

When I launched this blog in 2008, I did it with two objectives in mind. For one, I wanted to convey valuable elements of my telesales training curriculum to my subscribers, a good number of whom work for companies that would love to hire us to train their inside sales teams, but can't find the budget to do it in these tough times. My other objective was to help to elevate ethics and best practices within the high tech inside sales business, posts that are pertinent to sales management as well as sales reps. Particularly in the latter category, I've ruffled a few feathers, but that gets dialogue going and brings issues up that frankly need to be addressed in order for our industry to continue evolving. The blog's successful. It's been picked up on a bunch of other websites, and loads of people are using the material (even my competitors!)

Reflecting on 2009, I thought it would be of value to tell you what your colleagues were prioritizing when they read the posts that were written in 2009. Here are the top five, in order of page views. If you haven't read them in awhile, why not pick out the ones you feel might help you get a great start to the new year? Numbers 3 and 5 deal specifically with  Management issues, while #s 1, 2, and 4 reflect techniques that can increase sales, starting this week:

1. 20 Characteristics of a Superior Inside Salesperson
2. 5 Most Common Price Negotiation Mistakes
3. Increase sales through improved Daily Call Metrics
4. 4 Common weak phrases that erode telesales success
5. Increase sales by conducting an effective Telesales Employee Performance Appraisal

I'll keep blogging on techniques and issues I feel are critical as the new year unfolds. These are wonderful, exciting times to be in Inside Sales, and each new leap in the technologies we use presents new opportunities and challenges. Believe me, I'll write about them. I hope you'll add the techniques in the posts above to your Best Practices Playbook... and let's get started having a great year!