Posted by Geoff Alexander on Mon, Jan 23, 2012 @ 10:05 AM
One of my inside sales training course clients just had a breakout quarter. We trained their team in the summer, and the numbers went through the roof in calendar Q4. They still feel, however, that they could do even better, so we discussed how to make that happen. We trained their inside sales managers to coach their team members, but we found that they had only coached the reps needing to get over quota. They weren’t coaching their star performers, so I told them to start doing that as well, for two reasons:
1) Even star performers have holes in their games. I don’t usually like to make sports analogies, but the best in any sport get continual coaching. They’re already among the best, but like best performers everywhere, they want to get better. Every time I’ve personally coached a star performer, I’ve uncovered one or two things he or she could do better, because even great performers have forgotten a few things. In my experience, fixing those things allows them to do more in fewer calls, so their numbers increase faster, their close rate improves, and things stay in the pipeline for far less a period of time.
2) As a coach, you can learn by seeing and hearing what your best performers do to be successful. Then you can share those best practices with the other individuals you coach. Coaching, like any other skill, is a craft that can constantly be honed, and one of the best ways to sharpen it is to pick up what your best reps are doing, then add those skills to your coaching repertoire.
As managers, we tend to focus on helping the people who need it most, and tend to ignore great performers, who just go about their work, exceeding quota. Those superior performers, though, need input from you as well, and you need to find out what they’re doing on the telephone so you can convey it to others. Coaching everyone improves team communication, and will tend to give everyone a greater presence at peformance review time.
So if you’re a manager that coaches your reps (and you should be), please don’t ignore working side by side with your best. If you do, I predict that your numbers will increase dramatically enough that you’ll want to add it this concept to your Best Practices Playbook.
Posted by Geoff Alexander on Mon, Jan 09, 2012 @ 10:02 AM
I just came back from a two-week telesales class I delivered in a very remote town, and met one of the most energetic, excited inside sales teams with whom I’ve ever worked. I’m going to tell you the story, because you can replicate it, as it’s a formidable model of team communication that leads to success.
I’m not going to give you the company name, because what I’m going to relate gives it incredible competitive advantage, and the company isn’t going to want its competitors knowing how it manages to secure so much business. But here’s what I can tell you. This large inside sales team is based in a small city with two colleges. The team sells a high tech solution, but it’s a three hour drive from the nearest metropolitan area. It’s so remote that it’s located between two volcanoes, has only a handful of daily flights to its airport, so it draws its inside sales team exclusively from the local area. It hires from those colleges, so many of the team members knew each other socially before they went to work there. And the hiring managers are creative, too: one manger got an oil change at a lube shop, met and liked the manager, then soon hired her as a member of the team.
One of the biggest factors in the success of this team is how vibrantly and often they applaud each other for a win of any kind. They’re in a big room, so closed business, new phone techniques, and wins of any kind are big news, and everyone gets excited. They actively pull for each other, help each other out, and actively share challenges and ways to overcome them. The management team focuses on positive reinforcement and actively coaches team members on one-on-one calls, ensuring that best practices are reinforced and broadcasted to everyone. In short, everyone’s win is a win for the team, even though they all have individual quotas.
Here are several reasons that they’re so successful, and your team may be able to replicate them, too:
1) All reps pull for each other. They constantly talk about tricky sales situations, and brainstorm ways that their colleagues can get the business.
2) They often socialize away from work. They talk about new ways to succeed, sales techniques, and tell stories about customer interactions.
3) Their managers coach them one-on-one during live calls. They brainstorm before the call, don’t interrupt the rep during the call, then debrief afterward. And sometimes, the rep calls the prospect right back, if he or she has forgotten to ask an important question.
4) They’ve replicated a “small town” culture within a high tech inside sales environment, with a “can-do” attitude, where even losses are considered to be learning opportunities, leading to future successes.
5) Management has fostered an environment of positive reinforcement, enabling reps to feel comfortable going to management when the sales process bogs down, or where lost business occurs.
I’ve often written about the important factor that enthusiasm plays in an inside sales environment. The enthusiasm this team has for their co-workers and management team is reflected in the way they communicate with their prospects. The team is pumped up from the moment each member arrives to work, and the energy level stays high all day long.
So as a rep, moving into the new year, remember to keep your level of enthusiasm at a high level, and it will reflect on the way your prospects communicate with you, in return. And if you’re a manager, foster an overall positive reinforcement strategy to keep your reps open to talking to you, and others, about both win and losses.
Posted by Geoff Alexander on Tue, Jan 03, 2012 @ 10:02 AM
For the past several years, I’ve been publishing roughly one blog post per week on inside sales effectiveness. Every year end, I publish my most popular blog posts created during the previous year, and here are my Top 5 for 2011, in terms of visitors. Price negotiation, stalled proposals, and selling dilemmas are inherent issues to just about everyone carrying a quota in inside sales, but affect business development reps too, who often get commission “bumps” when the order is closed, or when a suspect converts to a prospect.
Among my customers, 2011 was a stellar year, sales-wise, and pipelines are booming, looking into 2012. So take a look at my top 5 most popular posts from last year, and ensure that you’re well-positioned in a company that you love, that’s taking care of its customers, and is maintaining a culture of innovation that will foster an increasing revenue stream for the foreseeable future.
So here’s a quick “refresher course” on my top 5 blog topics for the past year:
1) 5 Basics to Handling Sales Objections
2) 3 questions to put you in charge when your proposal is stalled
3) 5 great steps to selling a Commodity: Differentiate it like it’s not a Commodity
4) Price Negotiation: 3 Ways to win with purchasing managers
5) 10 critical inside sales errors that will fail to increase sales
These issues are endemic to the business of inside sales, and reading through them will give you some great ideas, and give you some answers to situations that you might be dealing with right now. So work hard, work smart, and go out and have a great 2012!
Posted by Geoff Alexander on Mon, Dec 19, 2011 @ 10:02 AM
It’s that time of year when a lot of interviewing for inside sales positions is happening, so I’d like to weigh in on some questions those of you in management shouldn’t ask. I just recently taught one of my inside sales management classes, and this subject, which I cover, generated the usual spirited conversation. This post is mainly for inside sales management, but will be of interest to those of you looking around, too. If you’re in either category, be sure to read my Getting Hired for Your Ultimate Inside Sales Job whitepaper, as it tells both managers and reps some good thing sto keep in mind. So here we go:
‘Avoid’ questions in interviewing include two classes of questions, silly questions and illegal questions. Silly questions require answers that have no bearing on how an inside sales rep can do the job. Two of the best I’ve heard are “Describe what’s in your closet at home” and “If you were an animal, what would you be, and why?” The managers who asked these questions explained that the former tells them how organized the person is, while the latter tells them how creative the person is. I wouldn’t know how to answer either of them, and I’m an organized guy with a BA in Creative Arts. An improvement would be “Describe how you organize your work day” and “Tell me about a creative way that you saved a lost sale.” Bottom line, tie it back to the job you expect the rep to perform.
Illegal questions vary somewhat depending on your legal system (ping your Human Resources department for more information), but here are a few we can’t ask in my locality:
- Age (except to determine if candidate is a minor)
- Marital status, spouse, children or family, or sexual identity
- Status or age of children
- Racial background
- Religion
- Lifestyle outside of work
- Transportation to & from work
- Disabilities unrelated to performance
- Clubs or societies to which the applicant may belong
- Questions relating to politics
There are some compelling reasons not to ask these questions, the most important of which is that it helps prevent you from being sued if a candidate feels he or she didn’t get the position for a reason having nothing to do with perceived performance on the job. There are loads of great questions you can ask, and that white paper I mentioned above can help.
So if you’re a manager in hiring mode, keep your questions to candidates on-target to the job itself. And if you’re a rep, drive all your interview answers to the great sales or sales development successes you’ve had in the past, and how you intend on making your new company more successful by implementing them in a new environment.
Posted by Geoff Alexander on Mon, Dec 05, 2011 @ 10:02 AM
This past week, I’ve been working with a number of very talented reps that are taking my inside sales course. Among the behaviors we’re changing are the usage of gender-specific words and phrases. The most common so far? “You guys” and “who’s your right-hand man?”
These reps are selling to a prospect base that includes a large number of women. Their territories are all over the country, and include many university towns. Like everyone else, these reps grew up learning a language at home, and honing it in conversations with friends throughout their school years. Terminology becomes habit, and habits can be hard to break. Now these reps are in a professional environment, where gender-specific slips can damage rapport. So here are some tips:
1) Avoid “you guys” and “who’s your right hand man?” Replace them with “you” and “who have you delegated to work on that project?”, or something similar and appropriate.
2) The absolute worst gender-specific comment is “open the kimono” (I’ve blogged on this term before). Please avoid using this term, even if you have colleagues that do.
3) Bad verbal habits are often not easy to fix at work, so get some assistance at home. Ask someone you live with to tap you on the shoulder every time you say “you guys.” Within a week, I guarantee it will be out of your vocabulary.
A generation ago, it might have been the case that most b2b inside sales reps sold to men the vast majority of the time. Not any more. Some of those old “legacy terms” are still with us. So if you want to ensure that you’re communicating well with all your prospects and customers, add “gender agnostic” words to your Best Practices Playbook.
Posted by Geoff Alexander on Mon, Nov 28, 2011 @ 10:02 AM
Today’s post is about all those prospecting calls you make that amount to nothing, and those small-revenue sales that don’t add much to your paycheck. As I tell people in my inside sales training courses, these are the keys to making bigger pay days, because they help you get to higher-revenue sales faster. I was reminded of this in a taxi ride I took last week, and there’s a parable here, so read on.
I live 5 miles from my airport, so when I take a taxi ride home, it’s a short fare for the driver. And sometimes he’s waited 2 hours in the taxi pool to get my fare. I tip well, but it’s still not a very profitable fare. I understand, because I paid for a lot of my college education by driving a taxi in Boston. Sometimes I drove in the airport taxi pool too, and got plenty of short fares, then had to go back in line for another hour or so. One day, I actually averaged it all out, and realized that overall, I did pretty well, because even though not every fare was a great one, I got enough long fares that it averaged out well. But I had to be in line to get them, so I began to think that if you’re going to be in the game, the short stuff is part of the mix. My philosophy evolved to the point of understanding that I wouldn’t get the long fares without doing a lot of short ones, so in essence, the short money enabled the bigger money.
And I think that’s why, a few year later, when I became an inside sales rep, I handled non-profitable prospecting calls so well. If I didn’t make them and slog through them, I’d never find the more profitable customers. I’d be grateful for every tiny order, too, because at the end of the month, they’d add up.
In the inside sales world, not a whole lot has changed since I was a rep. There are never enough great leads. The database is slow. One of the products has a technical problem. Someone else has a better territory. But great reps make every day a new adventure, hit the phones at 8 am, and open every call with the passion that THIS call could be the one that makes the whole month worthwhile. I made pretty good money as a cab driver, but I’ll bet that all of you reading this post make a whole lot more than the cab driver around the corner. But those folks have an ethic for hustling that we can all learn from, and it all starts from understanding that the small or no profit stuff, from short rides to disqualified prospects, are liberally scattered along the path to success. So please consider embracing them as a necessary means to making you and your company more profitable.
Coming into the final month of the year, add enthusiasm and passion with every call you make to your Best Practices Playbook, because the next call could be your best one. And always remember to tip your cab driver.
Posted by Geoff Alexander on Mon, Nov 14, 2011 @ 10:02 AM
Toward the end of each year, I like to review my closed business, deals lost, and proposals that didn’t fly. We’ve had another terrific year for our inside sales training courses, so the business we didn’t get is always interesting to review. And probably the most interesting element is looking at the business that we chose not to compete in. This post might have value for you, as you look at and analyze the deals you didn’t win. It’s always valuable to diagnose why you lost, why you sometimes chose not to compete, and where you had already lost, but didn’t know it. This last area falls under the categories of proposals that maybe shouldn’t have been written in the first place, an area I’ve covered in a previous post about avoiding the dangers of being “shopped” by prospects that are merely using your pricing information to get a better deal from the vendor they’ve already chosen. If you haven’t read that post, you should.
So let’s diagnose some “losses.” I break down lost deals into the following categories:
1) Chose not to compete, because the prospect had already chosen a competitor, and was requesting a proposal from us as a tool to negotiate price with our competitor.
2) Lost to a competitor. We chose to compete, but didn’t get the business.
3) Lost because of price. There was no way we could provide an exceptional solution for the price the prospect wanted to pay.
4) Chose not to compete, because we didn’t agree that the prospect’s requirements and stipulations wouldn’t make our solution successful.
5) Chose not to compete, because there was an ethics issue that we felt was insurmountable.
I’m going to discuss these five types of losses, as they apply to my business. I’ll bet you all of them apply to yours.
1) Chose not to compete, because the prospect had already chosen a competitor, and was requesting a proposal from us as a tool to negotiate price with our competitor. In this situation, it was presented to us that we’d be competing with a current vendor. I asked why the e prospect was considering making a change, but he or she couldn’t give any concrete answers. I asked what the prospect liked about the current vendor and got a positive response. I then asked how the current vendor could improve, and there was no response. Then I asked what I could put in the proposal that would give us the business. The response was “I don’t know, but we’ll compare both proposals, and reach a decision.” Because we have to craft a training schedule as part of a proposal, it takes 1-2 hours to create one, so we really like to know we have a shot at it. In this case, we didn’t. I asked the prospect to please give me a reason why he would consider changing from his current vendor, and again, couldn’t get an answer. And this was from a Director. So we declined to compete. I told the director “Looks like you’ve got a solution that’s working for you. If that changes, we’d love to submit a proposal.”
This doesn’t mean the current vendor was better than we were, only that the level of dissatisfaction hadn’t reached the point of necessitating a change. In this case, the prospect was clearly looking for some competitive price analysis so he or she could convince the current provider to lower the price.
2) Lost to a competitor. It happens, and sometimes it doesn’t matter how good you are or how well you sell. Maybe a competitor got there first, or maybe there was a pre-existing relationship that was very strong, which could be everything from a business relationship to a personal one.
3) Lost because of price. We try to be flexible, be we can’t give it away. Our solutions are all customized to the client, and that’s one of our strengths. If a prospect insists on a “cookie-cutter” approach, we’ll do our best to discuss it, but sometimes we just have to walk away.
4) Chose not to compete, because we didn’t agree that the prospect’s requirements and stipulations would make our solution successful. This happened earlier this year. Upper management had mandated a training formula that we knew wasn’t going to make their reps immediately successful. Middle management (our prospects) felt they had no leverage to change the mindset, and were reluctant to discuss this with upper management, or get us involved with them. Yes, we could have gone over their heads, but we knew we were competing with others that would immediately take the business in its present form. This was about protecting our reputation. We’ve got great testimonials, because our program really works. Ultimately, we felt we’d be short-changing both the sales reps and the prospect company, so we opted out.
5) Chose not to compete, because there was an ethics issue that we felt was insurmountable. In one memorable situation, we were asked by middle management to train sales reps on a certain element that upper management had specifically asked them not to address. The prospect asked us not to disclose this fact to upper management. Upper management interviewed us, and asked us specifically not to do it. We were stuck in the middle of a “no-win” situation that we felt required ethical compromises we couldn’t make. This was a huge company that all of you have heard of, too. We suggested the company keep looking for a solution, and opted out. This was a tough one, because middle management was angry at us for walking away, and no one won in this situation. It's not always cheap to do this, either, as one time we walked away from a six-figure transaction. On the subject of ethics, you have to make your own decisions, and this one allowed us to sleep better at night.
To paraphrase an old baseball adage, some of your best deals are the ones you don’t make. It’s important that every transaction create a win-win that works for your company, as well as the prospect company. For younger reps, that’s how you build a reputation for honesty that will last your career. I believe in making so many calls that you can avoid transactions that give you the heebie-jeebies. You’ll still make money, because you’ve prospected, qualified, and closed well and often. Diagnosing lost sales is a great technique that you should add to your Best Practices Playbook, and there’s no better time to do it than right now.
Posted by Geoff Alexander on Mon, Nov 07, 2011 @ 10:02 AM
If you’re like me, you’re inundated with phone calls these days. A lot of executives are, too, as I discuss in our inside sales training courses. Those executives --- as well as loads of other prospects --- have found some great ways to avoid taking phone calls. Here are some of them:
1) They only take calls on their mobile numbers
2) When they pick up, if they hear dead silence --- even for less than a second --- they’ll immediately hang up, knowing that it’s a call center
3) They won’t take calls from blocked numbers
4) They request that everyone communicate with them by email
Pretty daunting! But there’s really nothing new under the sun. Prospects have been dodging salespeople for years, but creative salespeople always find a way to get the business. Here are some effective ways to reach these hard-to-reach prospects:
1) First and foremost, recognize that your job is to sell a solution to a company. The name you have on your call list is just that --- a name. Those initial names, whether coming from trade shows, whitepaper downloads, seminars, etc., are just clues that there may be an initiative. So when you find that you can’t reach your prime contact, “pound out,” and ask the person who picks up who else is working on the initiative specific to your solution. Then engage that new person in a conversation to determine what’s on the plate.
2) When you dial a number, expect someone to pick up, so you’ll be ready to talk. Initial dead silence may end your call before you have an opportunity to say anything.
3) When you’ve successfully had a conversation with a qualified prospect (especially when it’s an incoming call), ask for that person’s mobile number. In the real world, that may be the only one the prospect will answer.
4) Although email is an accepted practice, don’t let email control your day. It’s pretty common for initial requests for information to come in via email. A good way to take control is to call that individual and mention that you’ll need to ask a few questions in order to respond with the right solution. One phrase I use is “I don’t want to sell you something you don’t need.”
I look at problems as opportunities for creativity. So get creative, and add those four techniques to your Best Practices Playbook, and reach more people.
Posted by Geoff Alexander on Mon, Oct 24, 2011 @ 10:02 AM
Do you sell through the channel, using Value-Added Resellers (VARs), acting as a revenue-generating or business development rep? Do you manage a team that does this? Are you a VAR, looking for ways to maximize profits and work better with your principal(s). Today’s post is for all of you. First, a little explanation...
Many of the companies whose reps have taken my inside sales courses sell wholly or partly through channel sales, and value-added resellers are a big part of the picture. But things don’t always go so well when lines of communication aren’t what they should be. And when that happens, a lot of needless blame is tossed around. While this post is primarily for inside reps working with the channel, it’s also a great one if you’re a VAR. If it resonates with you, forward it to your principal.
My first high tech job was that of an inside sales rep working for an IBM VAR. In my second high tech job, I set up an international VAR channel. I’ve worked both sides of the fence, and the problems involved in the VAR-principal dynamic are both ancient and avoidable. Alll ittakes is a bit of team communication.
Value-Added Resellers are more than just order-takers. They’re your eyes, ears, and feet on the street. They can help you to exponentially write more business, or ignore you unless you’re calling to assist them with an order.
So here are 6 Tips and “to-dos” that will help you and your resellers to become more profitable.
1) It’s all about Mindshare. VARs have everything from a handful to dozens of principals with whom to work. They’re human, and choose to work with the principals that treat them best, listen to them, and are proactive in making them money. Everything on this page is about giving you maximum mindshare with your VARS…
2) Engage your VARS earlier in the sales process. They might have additional solutions to sell (including Maintenance, services, software, hardware) that will better satisfy the prospect. So call your VAR right away, right after the opportunity goes into your pipeline, and get your VAR engaged early.
3) Don’t give away your VAR’s profit. If ultimate pricing comes from the VAR, tell the prospect that the VAR will provide pricing info.
4) Poll your VAR rep colleague once a month: ask how you could provide more value to him or her, and for ways to enhance the relationship.
5) Poll your VAR CEO once a quarter. As a principal rep, you do really want to establish a relationship with the VAR CEO, in addition to your VAR rep. The CEO will often give you insight that a VAR rep can’t, or won’t. A good way to start the conversation is “It’s my job to help you make more money by working with us. Tell me how we can do a better job for you.”
6) Make your VAR money, even when you don’t make money. This is perhaps the most important rule of all. As an inside rep, you’re making scores of calls each week, and sometimes prospects won’t need your solution. But they could very well need a solution your VAR offers (e.g. IT consulting services), but you don’t. This is your opportunity to gain significant mindshare with your VAR by passing on a lead that makes you no money, but helps your VAR to make money. It turns you into a consultant, rather than a salesperson. It shows you understand your VAR’s business. And when you do this, you’ll find that your VAR will reciprocate, and get you into places you might not have gotten into yourself. So when your prospecting call results in a non-opportunity for you, always ask a final question on behalf of your VAR. Here’s an IT example: “Even though you don’t need our solution right now, what are the 2 or 3 most pressing initiatives you have on the plate right now?” And if the answer comes up with a lead for your VAR, you’ve built great mindshare, and enhanced the relationship.
As a rep, I loved being a VAR, and loved working with VARs. Treat them right, and they’ll make you a lot of money. Ignore them or treat them badly, and you’ll lose a valuable asset that could be very important in finding new opportunities as well as enhancing the ones you’re already working on. So add these 6 VAR Tips to your Best Practices Playbook.
Posted by Geoff Alexander on Mon, Oct 17, 2011 @ 10:02 AM
Rachael, one of our blog readers, wrote this past week with a dilemma: “if the customer says to sales person ‘you seem like a nice guy and I would like to buy from you personally but Ii don't think that your company is worth it,’ what should the sales person think?” Every great sales person has heard that at least once, and in fact, this came up in a discussion in one of my inside sales training classes last week. So here’s my opinion on the subject of this common sales objection.
As I’m fond of saying, people only buy for one of two reasons: either your solution will make them money, or stop them from losing money. Being a nice guy (or gal) helps, but it’s secondary. I’ll bet your prospect doesn’t recognize a meaningful ROI (return on investment) from the solution your company offers. Your prospect is either going to base the decision on that, or will have to carry it to someone who will. If you haven’t read my free whitepaper on Selling By ROI, please download it, as it gives a great example of how to do it.
But to back up a bit, ask your prospect to explain why he or she feels your company isn’t worth it. It could be for a whole number of reasons, and it could fall under the categories of valid objection (you can’t do it), a misinterpretation, or a misunderstanding. If it’s the latter two, work to clear it up. But if it’s a valid objection, you’ll have to determine if what your solution lacks is a “need to have” or “nice to have.” This is a great opportunity of asking “open” questions (“tell me about,” “would you explain…?”), which help you to obtain meaningful information, rather than leading questions (“Is it because…?”), which much of the time gets you little of value, because you’re guessing. If your solution lacks a “need to have,” if you can’t successfully move it to a “nice to have,” you probably don’t have a sale.
Since the prospect likes you, I’ll bet he or she will tell you enough that it will become crystal clear. So remember to keep ROI in mind when you sell, and ask open questions to flush out what the prospect is thinking, and why. Add them to your Best Practices Playbook, and this particular sales dilemma will go away.