Posted by Geoff Alexander on Mon, Mar 30, 2009 @ 12:57 AM
Probably the question most often asked in my telesales training courses is "How can I get more people to answer the phone in the first place?" With the proliferation of Caller ID, virtually everyone at every company can see who's calling, and they do make judicial decisions about which companies they're going to take calls from. If you've made a couple of calls and your party never picks up, go ahead and leave a good voicemail (what's a good voicemail? I'll cover that in a separate blog article within the next week or so). If your interesting, efficient, and brief voicemail isn't returned, call again, but this time manually disable your caller ID, and you'll be pleasantly surprised at how often your party answers the phone.
How do you disable caller ID? Every phone switch has its own system, so talk to your internal IT folks to figure out how to do it. I use AT&T, so I hit "*67" prior to making the non-caller ID call. I then get a second dial tone, and I'm off to the races. I have been amazed at the rate my contacts have increased. Your own IT people will be able to either do a global override, in which all outbound calls are masked, or give you a code that you can use with discretion. I don't recommend global override, as your company will have many customers and prospects that will want to take your company's calls. Use the individual override code instead, and you'll find that you'll reach more people, thereby leaving fewer voicemails and emails (I'll be writing about emails in the next few weeks, too). To sum up, here's the formula I recommend:
1) Make two "normal" calls. After the second, leave a brief voicemail.
2) If no response after a day or so, call again, overriding your caller ID.
3) If no response after 3 "override" attempts, send an email.
And don't forget to listen to your prospect's outgoing voicemail message all the way through, as he or she will tell you if he or she is out of the office, on vacation, or if there's someone else you can talk to. Through this 3-step approach, you can accelerate the process of having conversations with prospects fairly dramatically. Add it to your Best Practices playbook, and let me know how it works for you.
Posted by Geoff Alexander on Fri, Mar 20, 2009 @ 01:35 AM
Every salesperson seems to be talking about how to thrive in a tough economy, so I'd like to address a sales opportunity that you may be ignoring, but could provide you with a good long-term revenue stream. It's called selling through consultants. Who are consultants? They're people that are probably on the bottom of your call priority list, but have expressed an interest in your solution, generally by downloading a whitepaper, or attending a trade show or seminar. There are two kinds of consultants, those who are working for a client, and those who are trying to find a client. And typically, you know who those clients are, although you may not know it. Unfortunately, most telesales people ignore the latter type of consultant, but maybe they shouldn't. I'll share with you how I made a lot of money by working with them. First, let's differentiate between these two categories of consultants:
Consultants currently working with a client. These folks have been hired for their expertise, and could have a big impact on whether your solution gets sold into the company. Their titles vary, everywhere from CXO to software engineer. If the individual to whom you're talking identifies him or herself as a consultant, take notice! Ask about his or her expertise, and also ask about his or her business. Is he or she working with other companies as well? Has he or she worked with other companies in the past that might need your solution? If so, ask the consultant for a referral name and phone number at the previous company. Ask if the consultant works for a consulting firm that has a number of other consultants. If so, you'll want to get engaged with an exec at the consulting firm to ensure that all appropriate consultants know about your solution. It goes without saying that you should do your qualifying to your original consultant prospect as well, to sell your solution to that particular company. But you don't want to leave expanded opportunities unaddressed, and that's why you'll need to delve into the consultant's world a bit, too.
Consultants not currently working with a client. They're out of work, and actively looking for consulting opportunities. Begin your call by asking if they're working on a particular project right now. If not, they'll be honest with you, and tell you, that's how you'll find out that they're not working. As above, ask about their particular expertise, and about previous clients they've had that could use your solution. Get referral names and phone numbers. Chances are that you've been moving these folks to the disqualified list, but I have another approach. Why don't you ask them if you can help them find work? In the days when I sold software development tools, I kept a list of software consultants in my territory. And often, when talking with a prospect, he or she would tell me that the company was adding headcount to the engineering team (I'm using engineering as an example; insert your target audience instead). I'd ask if they were considering consultants, and if the answer was "yes", I'd put the prospect and consultant together through a fast intro. If the two sides reached an agreement, I'd be embedding consultants that already knew of my solution in a prospect company. Not only had I helped the consultant get work, but I helped my prospect find a candidate. This didn't take much time, either, just maybe a couple of extra questions, and a 30 second call back to the consultant. And I've got to tell you that I made a lot of money this way, because these folks remembered that I went beyond the call of duty to help. It gave me incredible presence in the account, enhanced our brand, and created a vibe, which contributed greatly to my sales numbers. It also made me a real territory expert. Essentially, I created opportunity with a consultant where none previously existed, and these consultants went from company to company promoting my solutions. And this constributed to my paycheck.
In this economy, you've got to think out of the box, and utilize nontraditional ways to sell. We teach this in our inside sales training course. Having other people doing your "selling" for you by helping them is good business and gives you your own personal "feet on the street." It gives you an opportunity to take a sales lead that you thought had little value and make something out of it. Become an expert in the consulting business germane to your solution in your territory, and you'll increase sales this year. Add this sales skill to your Best Practices playbook.
Posted by Geoff Alexander on Mon, Mar 16, 2009 @ 01:09 AM
Regular readers of this blog know that I like to publish upbeat, real-world sales tips that telesales reps can use today to increase sales. I also discuss business ethics from time to time. Today I'm going to step back and discuss some terrible decisions made by Sales Management that ended up severely demotivating their inside sales forces, with a concomitant loss in sales revenue. I cover this topic in my Telesales Management and Coaching course, but consider these issues important enough to bring them up on the blog for those who haven't taken the class. If you're a telesales rep, I hope you'll never encounter them. If you're a manager, I'm sure you'll get a chuckle out of these, because managers that read this blog would never do this stuff! These situations all really happened. Read on:
Demotivator 1: Hire your significant other (SO) to run the sales team. Here, the individual that led the overall sales team hired the SO to manage the inside sales team. The SO had never managed and had never sold, and immediately clashed with the top-producing sales rep. The clash became worse, and issues brought up by the sales rep were not addressed at the top level. The top-producing rep left the company, and hired a lawyer. The legal issue was resolved financially in the rep's favor.
Demotivator 2: Let's borrow the reps' commission checks for a couple of months. Several companies decided that instead of continuing to pay commissions on a monthly basis, they'd pay them every quarter instead. As we all know, sales reps go crazy during the last week of every month, trying to get in business so they'll see it reflected on their next month's check. That's a motivator, and it happens 3 times per quarter. In extending the time it takes a rep to get a commission check, the reps only go crazy trying to drive the business for one week every three months. They also realize that the company is drawing 60 days interest on their commissions. This was a recipe for disaster, as it totally eroded any trust the sales reps had in upper-level management.
Demotivator 3: Hire the company gossip to run the sales team. This individual was promoted from the position of sales rep to run the entire team. The sales executive that made the decision was relatively new to the company, and didn't realize that the individual he promoted made a second career of talking behind peoples' backs, but the executive assistants knew it. The new manager was promoted based on longevity in the company, not on sales figures, as the person was not a top-producing rep. With the promoted individual now in charge of the sales team, the culture of gossip was now in full force. Top sales producers were now reporting to an individual they did not respect, as they knew every element of their personal lives would continue to be broadcast around the company, except now there would be no remediation at the corporate level. Memo to slaes execs: always interview the rank and file before promoting from within.
Demotivator 4: You get paid when we get paid. Here's another excellent way to make salespeople wait for their commission checks: don't pay them until the customer pays. Sales and Accounts Receivable are two separate functions in most companies, but this particular company forced their sales reps to become collections agents in order to get paid. Delay of payment wasn't the only demotivator for the telesales reps either. They realized that they were essentially being held hostage by the company, because if they quit, they'd lose all unpaid (although accrued) commissions. The reps brought up the unfairness of the practice, but management ignored them. This created an unfavorable situation in which rep attrition was extraordinarily high, as newly hired reps left to work for other companies as soon as they realized they took on the job of being collections agent when they thought they were signing on to be salespeople.
Demotivator 5: Fund my pet charity. Or else. Upper management loved to collect wall plaques from a well-known national charity. To earn the plaque, 100% of employees would have to donate to the charity. The company had accomplished this several years in a row. If a sales rep refused to give money to this charity for any reason, he or she was called into a one-on-one session, and accused of being miserly, greedy, hard-hearted, not a team player, you name it. Reps were brow-beaten into giving, but deeply resented it. When the national director of the charity was charged with misuse of funds, it made headlines in every major newspaper in the country, and the sales reps for this particular considered upper management to be buffoons. Tip for Management: if you have a pet charity, let the company make a donation rather than "encouraging" your employees to donate. They are salespeople, not fundraisers.
OK, so there you have 5 beauties. They all really did occur, because I knew people involved in all of them. It's really all about business ethics, a subject which doesn't get discussed as much as it should. Two of the companies mentioned above are out of business. Taking the high road and treating your sales employees fairly is a key to retention, and makes a statement about the value of your brand that is far more important than any framed sales mottos can. Set and maintain a policy of strong business ethics, and add them to your Best Practices in Management playbook.
Posted by Geoff Alexander on Mon, Mar 09, 2009 @ 01:00 AM
Periodically conducting an employee performance appraisal and overall performance reviews are essential to judging the effectiveness of individual inside sales reps. Discussions on this topic with managers when we're conducting our telesales training classes are frequent. Your reps do need to know what your criteria are, and also need to know that they're fairly and evenly applied to everyone. If you're a manager that already has codified a performance appraisal and review process, read on, to ensure your criteria are valid and measurable, and based on observation, not opinion. If you're a manager that doesn't yet conduct appraisals and reviews, read ahead for a few ideas to get you started. And if you're a telesales rep, read on to ensure that your performance reviews are fair, valid, and are designed to help you to meet sales quota.
As a manager, when compiling behaviors for your performance review, keep in mind that these factors must be both measurable and observable. Observations are the opposite of opinions. Every manager has opinions, but to be statistically valid, they must be backed up by measurable observations and behaviors that can be documented. By "observable", it means that you, not someone else, has witnessed the behaviors.
The ideal performance review should be based on the most important, measurable factors that lead to success. For measurement, keep it simple. You might consider using a three-point scale detailing whether the rep exceeded, met, or didn't meet the objectives. A larger scale, say 10 points, often opens the review to subjectivity, and the review must be objective. The argument can be made that one could, in fact quantify 10 success points for each performance factor, but does anyone really have enough time in the day to compile these?
How often should you give your reps a performance review? At least once a month. A good time to do it is when you hand each of them their monthly commission checks. Do it in a series of one-on-one meetings. For individuals that are not meeting expectations, you may want to consider a weekly performance review to get their skillsets up to speed faster.
If you haven't yet listed your performance review elements, it's not a bad idea to generate your own list, then run it by your reps to ensure they're in agreement. They may have valid points, or give you ideas on other behaviors that you hadn't thought of. But do keep your reps on track, and reaffirm to them that the behaviors must be observable and measurable. And bear in mind that for every item on your list, your reps will, in their own performance reviews with you, expect you to provide a concrete example of how they exceeded, met, or underachieved, still another reason to underscore the importance that the behaviors be both observable and measurable.
To begin your list, try to break down the behaviors you want to track in three general areas:
- Job responsibilities
- Performance objectives needed to meet quota
- Performance objectives in support of team and company goals
Now let's review the points model:
- Level 3: Exceeded expectations
- Level 2: Met expectations
- Level 1: Did not meet expectations
Ready to start? Here are a few measurable behaviors that you may want to consider putting on your list, as well as some that are non-measurable that you'll want to stay away from. These lists are incomplete, and you'll certainly want to customize your own:
Factors that are measurable:
Job responsibilities
- Meets monthly quota
- Works business hours relating to territory (exceeds expectations when work hours occasionally extend to longer-than-8 hour days)
- Adheres to company-specified dress requirements (if work dress is specified as "business casual," a rep may exceed expectations by habitually wearing a suit, for example)
Performance objectives needed to meet quota
- Talked to at least one high-level executive at each of his or her 20 key accounts, and logged at least two sentences describing the conversation in the CRM to prove it
- Profiled the decision process from CXO through Managers, for each line of business within 3 corporate entities, and can produce that data in written form
Performance objectives in support of team and company goals
- Presents solutions when presenting problems (exceeds expectations when the proposed solution is implemented)
- Enthusiastically supports internal initiatives from his or her Sales Management team (exceeds expectations when observed advocating the initiatives to other colleagues on the sales team)
- Has a strong sense of business ethics (exceeds expectations when a good ethical decision may potentially, or did, result in personal loss)
- Willingness to help others on the team (exceeds expectations when observed volunteering to help another rep)
Here are some behaviors that are not measurable:
-
Personality traits, including friendliness, sociability in the workplace, fashion sense (but see company-specified dress, above)
- Having a good relationship with other team members (hear me out on this: we know of one case where an ethical sales rep refused to join in on after-work bar gossip regarding other individuals in the company, and was ostracized himself for not participating in these "slam sessions." Individuals that pride themselves on "taking the high road" will often be perceived by less-ethical employees as being "aloof.")
- Communications styles: having a "friendly phone manner" is not measureable, because it's too subjective. (But "Uses first names on every call," on the other hand, can be measured.)
Additional tip on determining measurable performance objectives:
A great way to define measurable performance objectives it to visit with your reps side-by-side, in their workspaces, so you can see how they work and define aspects of performance that can be measured. This is an element that we cover in our inside sales coaching classes for managers, incidentally. Among these observable behaviors could be:
- Investigates CRM for same company contacts prior to making initial call to a new prospect
- Investigates company website prior to making initial call to a new prospect
- Takes no more than 3 minutes to investigate company website
The final word on criteria for Performance Measurement is this: every company has a slightly different sales performance situation, depending on what the reps were trained on, and how. This is why you can --- and should --- determine your own. Add establishing a measurable, observable Performance Review process to your Best Management playbook.
Posted by Geoff Alexander on Mon, Mar 02, 2009 @ 01:01 AM
A question that commonly comes up in my telesales training courses is "How do I manage to listen to my prospects, take great notes, not miss anything, and say what I have to say?" And it comes up virtually every week in telephone conversations I have with telesales managers. I have a notetaking process that has proven successful, because it's simple, thorough, and anyone can do it easily. It allows you to do everything you need to accomplish in the call, not miss anything, be a great listener, and it's accomplished in these 7 simple steps:
1) Handwrite your notes. Unless you're order-taking, people don't like to hear you type. It tells them you're more focused on typing than listening to them.
2) Use an 81/2 x 11 piece of paper. I've seen telesales reps scribble on post-it notes, and they can't see a 5 minute conversation digested into one page, or read their tiny handwriting.
3) Keep the left-hand side of your paper for the prospect's conversation. Put a square around anything he or she says that you'll want to revisit before the conversation ends.
4) Keep the right-hand side of the paper for things you need to tell the prospect, but don't want to say right now because you're getting important information from the prospect, and don't want to interrupt.
5) Keep the middle of the page for "starred items". These are salient points made by the prospect that will be your follow-on priority items as the most important things that you'll put into your CRM database. Place a star in the middle of the page adjacent to an important point the prospect made (on the left) or you need to make later (on the right).
6) Keep your ears open for what I term "problem clues." When prospects use words like "frustrating", "annoying", or "unusable", to describe their current situation, you'll need to ask more about them now or later in the conversation. They lead to important business reasons why your solution may be perfect for them. You can't afford to wait and ask about them in your next call, because the prospect may not remember the context. Box and Star these (see points 3 and 5 above) so you don't miss anything.
7) Immediately after the conversation, transcribe the important elements of your notes into the CRM database. Don't do it after your next call, or after lunch. While transcribing your notes, you may realize your forgot to re-address a boxed or starred item with the prospect. Call right back (you know he or she is in the office, you just got done talking) and address the issue. The prospect will answer your questions and respect you as a rep, because he or she knew you were really listening. And you won't miss an important issue.
So now for your next call, go ahead and spacially divide your note paper into three columns, with the column in the middle of the page the narrowest. Use it in your next conversation, and I predict you'll love it. It's deceptively easy. Practice this today, and you'll be a note taking whiz by tomorrow. And add it to your Best Practices playbook.