Posted by Mansfield Sales Partners on Tue, Aug 31, 2010
A CEO's most important job – Chief Revenue Officer
A CEO must be many things for a company to succeed. Many CEOs are visionaries and inspiring role models, some are brilliant at attracting and retaining the best talent, and every CEO is the ultimate decision maker. But when the quarter closes, the CEO is ultimately responsible for the top and bottom lines. And the top line is more important than ever.
The top line really matters
In today's economy, revenue growth is difficult for many companies to achieve. It takes relentless focus and complete organizational commitment to drive sales growth in the face of increased competition, in an ever-changing and stagnant marketplace. But growth is essential - most investors require it, and many customers only want to buy from a company that is successful which means a company that has sales growth. Yesterday, it was OK to focus on operational efficiency and cost control; today, winning required sales growth.
So, what can a CEO do to improve sales performance?
First and foremost, a CEO can attract, select and retain a sales organization that can deliver sustained growth. This can be an in-house sales team, an outsourced sales team or a hybrid organization. A CEO can assemble a sales team with the talent, drive and knowledge to succeed. A CEO should also align his entire organization to focus on the customer and make sure that at every customer contact point the customers' needs are met or exceeded. But a CEO can do more - he can be his company's secret weapon.
How to be your company's secret weapon
- Establish CEO-to-CEO connections with key customers and top prospects. The best way to make a CEO-to-CEO connection productive is make it beneficial for both your company and the companies of the CEOs that you connect with.
- Keep your communications at the executive level - leave the sales process and deal making to your sales team. You can add little to the day-to-day sales process and you will reduce your real and perceived power if you get involved in the details.
- Make sure everyone on your sales team knows and owns their role and isn’t intimidated by your involvement. Build a relationship of respect and trust.
- Build relationships that enable your team gain the access and information needed to build strong customer relationships and be there to help overcome any unexpected issues that arise.
Three things a CEO should avoid
- Don't personally change the company's pricing, service or warrantee policies for a specific deal without a lot of thought. For most business sectors, these 'special' offers are best coming from the sales rep responsible for the account - the primary sales contact - so that they develop a relationship with the client.
- Be careful that your pride in your own company and its products isn't perceived as arrogance.
- Make sure that you do not disrupt the sales process. The most brilliant and experienced CEOs are actually the most likely to disrupt everything because they know so much. Trust your team. If you don't trust them, perhaps you need a new team.
How are you driving sales for your organization?
Consider sales outsourcing as a proven way to increase sales and enter new markets.
Photo credit: Joi
Posted by Mansfield Sales Partners on Fri, Aug 13, 2010
Is sales an art or a science? This question has been asked a lot. And the usual answer is the non-committal, but wrong answer: "It's both." In reality, sales is at its core a science often so skillfully disguised as an art that the customers and, many salespeople, have no idea science is involved.
Does it really matter? Absolutely!
By science, I mean applying systematic processes to persuade people to buy a product. Sometimes the processes are so habitual that we forget how much science is involved. Deciding where to focus effort, selecting the best prospects, observing the prospect carefully to know when to ask for the order, doing everything in the right order to make a sales transaction occur and make sure the buyer returns, are all systematic, even scientific processes.
A sales transaction is always complex process. But from the simple act of purchasing a candy bar in a supermarket checkout line to a purchasing manager buying industrial equipment, the basic process is the same. The first step is to gain awareness, then build interest and create a desire for your product.
The "art" often appears to come at the next, critical step – creating trust – converting a prospect’s interest in your offering into a belief that they can trust you and trust what you say about the product. Persuading buyers with clarity and passion in the hands of a master may look like art, but the most powerful persuasion techniques are carefully designed and managed. A sales pro will make sure that his client never feels like a target and gives the illusion that the sales presentation is as unique as the buyer this he is.
Over the years, research has uncovered persuasion techniques that are most effective, most often. These techniques combined are often labeled "the art of the sale" but they are really carefully calculated b2b sales strategies.
People want to buy from an expert
A prospective buyer starts to identify an expert based upon appearance. Does the salesperson look like they know a lot about the product? Once a salesperson has passed this initial visual screening, they need to demonstrate they really have product knowledge.
Parrots make poor salespeople
People prefer to buy from salespeople who do not need to memorize information. Practicing your sales pitch so that you will appear fluent when talking about the product is essential to maximizing success. A professional, more informal presentation almost always beats out a canned pitch delivered by a salesperson who seems like they just memorized the presentation.
Buyers prefer to buy from confident, relaxed and friendly salespeople
Studies have consistently found that prospects are hesitant to buy from salespeople who appear nervous or insecure. It is all about attitude – be confident and smile. No matter what happens, even if things go awry, stay cool, calm and collected when making presentations, answering questions or demonstrating to your potential customers. Some salespeople have built their careers by responding calmly and humorously to mistakes – they use these occasions as opportunities to build a relationship with the prospect.
Honesty works
It is much easier to convince a person about something that you believe is true than it is to convince them about something that you do not believe.
Buyers can usually recognize overselling
Overstating the benefits of your product will either fail in the initial sales presentation or fail when your products cannot live up to the promises you made. In controlled studies, buyers were surprisingly reliable at identifying overselling even when they had no expertise or experience with the product category.
Trying to close the sale prematurely almost always fails
Watch for signs your prospect is ready to buy. Sometimes a buyer will give you direct information that the time is right. They will ask about pricing and payment plans, delivery schedules, warrantees or other questions that indicate that they have move to the next step in the buying process. And usually these verbal signals will be accompanies by more subtle, non-verbal cues: open body language, direct eye contact, nodding, agreeing, enthusiastic responses, making calculations, or, the obvious one, reaching for a pen or wallet.
A direct close is usually most effective
Once you detect the right moment, a direct question like, "Which one would you like?" is usually more effective than an indirect close.
What do you think? Is sales an art or a science?
We can help you with your sales performance.
Photo credit: crowolf.
Posted by Mansfield Sales Partners on Mon, Aug 09, 2010
When I ask sales executives, "What is your biggest challenge?" I hear a lot of different answers. One of the most common answers is "getting more high-quality leads." Very often, however, we find their company already has many sales opportunities that are being missed. Focusing on fixing these sales leaks vs. getting more leads can result in larger sales gains.
Top 5 Ways to Lose a Sale
Not recognizing a prospect. The number one way companies miss a sales opportunity is when they fail to recognize a prospect. Someone doesn’t forward an inquiry in a timely manner or at all. A sales rep doesn’t ask the right qualifying questions. Or a hundred other ways that organizations fail to connect with a prime prospect in time to make the sale. The Fix: Take a look at your sales process for handling inquires, make sure your sales reps are properly trained to recognized a prospect, and make everyone in the company who has customer contact part of your sales team.- Lack of planning. Planning gives you the best possible opportunity to reach your prospects with a timely sales presentation. It also enables sales reps to manage their most valuable resource, time – booking the right number of appointments so that they can spend enough time with each prospect to make the sale without ignoring valuable leads. The Fix: Make sure that you are not stretching your team too far and are properly staffed, consider expand your capabilities by working with a sales outsourcing company, determine if you have all the sales management tools you need to properly plan and track sales leads and discover any planning gaps.
- Poor first impression. You only get one opportunity to make a first impression. If you leave a bad first impression, you shouldn’t expect to be able to ever convince the prospect that it was the "wrong impression". The Fix: Put yourself in the customers’ place and look in the mirror – literally and figuratively – and be critical.
- Not knowing enough about the prospect before your meeting. Knowledge of your client and their market, and how your product can solve their problems, is essential to making a sales presentation that addresses your prospects needs and concerns. Taking the time to learn about your client before you meet can be the difference between sales success and failure. The Fix: Invest your time in doing research, make sure that you have access to the necessary sales support resources.
- Not really listening to the prospect. The Fix: Make sure to actively listen to your customers, ask open-ended questions that give them the opportunity to talk about their needs and concerns, encourage them to be open with you.
What do you think is the #1 way to miss a sales opportunity? Contact us for help with your sales performance.
Posted by Mansfield Sales Partners on Mon, Jul 26, 2010
I was in Las Vegas last week and one of the first things I thought about was "How can I improve my odds through sales planning and lead management?"
OK, I can read your mind, sales planning and lead management is boring. I would never think about that in Vegas. Anyway, we have vendors that care of lead management. They have it under control. As for sales planning, that's just a normal part of our sales process. Well my bet is that your company has a patchwork quilt of lead sources and no one is managing them. And the odds are in my favor!
Several recent studies found that about 75% of companies do not have an effective process for managing, dispersing and tracking leads. And over 90% of companies do not integrate lead management into their sales planning process. Yes, I can see you nodding off. But hang on for just a minute. There is a payoff!
Most companies outsource lead generation and let their lead management efforts operate on autopilot. There is rarely any effort to make sure that the vendors know about changes in the marketing program, new product development plans or changes in sales strategy. Once leads are received, there is rarely an effective process for managing, dispersing and tracking leads. And it is almost impossible to find any companies that effectively plan the lead generation program as part of the sales planning process.
Every now and then a "sure bet" really does comes along. In this case our sure bet is a sales strategy that incorporates all aspects of the sales and marketing process into a coherent plan.
- Aligning sales with lead generation. The first step in that process is to take at look at your lead generation efforts and integrate them into your sales planning. Are you getting leads and new customers from emerging markets? Are there underserved markets with weak competition that offer you new growth opportunities? Then look at your capabilities. Is your sales team able to keep up with the marketplace? If not, what can you do to make sure that you can expand capabilities rapidly?
- Accelerating the sales process. The competitive gap in sales planning and lead management provides a great opportunity to the few companies who rethink their lead generation programs. This gap has also given rise to a new generation of Integrated Sales Management outsourcing firms – agile, sophisticated companies that have moved beyond generating qualified lead lists to offering a full range of integrated sales planning, lead management and strategic marketing services. Companies who have invested in the latest sales automation technology. Companies who can efficiently manage turnkey new client acquisition programs that really reduce the cost to acquire a new customer. Bringing in this kind of capability can rapidly improve sales and allow you to exploit new markets quickly.
Look at your current lead management capabilities. Think about integrating them with external teams that incorporate planning, management and lead generation. Sales outsourcing provides a low-risk, high reward way to improve your odds of achieving success. But don't miss this opportunity. You can bet that an opportunity like this won't happen very often.
Photo credit: Roadsidepictures
Posted by Mansfield Sales Partners on Wed, Jul 14, 2010
One of your greatest assets is qualified sales leads, but many sales leads get lost. No one responds, because no one notices, or they end up in the wrong place, or no one has time. There are thousands of excuses, but the result is the same, sales are lower than they should be.
Every company loses some qualified leads, no matter how well they manage their leads. But some companies lose sales leads in very basic ways – that can easily be avoided.
Here are 10 ways we have actually seen otherwise well-run companies literally leak qualified sales leads.
Customer Service Roadblock: A buyer wants to make a purchase from a company. The first number she finds is a toll-free customer service number. When she calls and asks for a number to talk to a sales rep, she is informed that this number is not available. The buyer goes online and finds another company to fill the order. - Online Form Goes Nowhere: The buyer finds a beautiful website, reviews the promotional copy and is interested in placing an order, but she has some questions. She completes the online form requesting more information. The form goes to someone, somewhere, but there is no response. The buyer gets bids from 3 other companies.
- Secret Phone Numbers: The buyer wants to contact a company to get a bid. She goes to the company’s website and discovers that there are no phone numbers listed. She calls toll-free directory assistance and finds that the company does not have a toll-free number. She moves on.
- Unanswered E-Mail: The buyer sends an email to the address listed in a business directory inquiring about the company’s products. The E-Mail is out of date and goes to an unattended E-Mail account. No one ever responds.
- Phone Message Gets Buried: The buyer calls the company’s sales department and leaves a message. The receptionist promises a sales rep will call back but the message gets buried on someone’s desk. No one every calls the potential buyer. It is found 3 months later in a pile of paper on the former sales reps desk.
- Phone Tag: Everything seems to be working right. The potential buyer calls the sales department and gets to the right person. The sales rep takes the information and promises to call back with a quote. But the sales rep fails to get complete contact information and only has a mangled email address and a phone number. A game of phone tag ensues and the buyer does not get the bid in time to consider it.
- Territory Questions: The buyer contacts the company and requests a bid. No one is sure who "owns" this account and the request goes unanswered. "I thought it was his account…"
- Too Many Cooks: The buyer contacts a large corporation about a complex RFP. The order involved products from three divisions. No one is sure who should respond to the RFP and it goes unanswered.
- Wrong Rep: The buyer contacts the sales department and is directed to a sales rep. Unfortunately, this rep does not have expertise in the products the buyer is interested in purchasing. Rather than pass this lead on to someone qualified to handle it, the rep tries to respond and is completely ineffective. The buyer selects another company’s products.
- "I'm Too Busy": The buyer contacts the company and is directed to the #1 sales rep. He takes all the information and has a great call. The buyer is predisposed to purchase from the company. But the sales rep is really swamped and never gets back to the buyer. He’s just too busy.
What are your sales do's and don'ts? We can help improve your sales results.
Photo Credit: Zach Klein
Posted by Mansfield Sales Partners on Mon, Jul 12, 2010
We have all heard the stories about how a sales rep made a huge sale to someone that they just happened to sit next to on an airplane or met at a social event. They were just in the right place at the right time.
But can you really be successful without a sales process? Can you really depend on haphazard luck? Can you integrate internal and external sales functions if there is no process? Can you be sure that your sales team is following up with on leads without a lead management system? Can you maximize sales from existing customers without any customer relationship management tools?
The answer to all of these questions is "no"!
Don't let a few lucky wins deceive you – they will happen with or without a sales process. But you will never beat your competition depending solely on luck and instinct.
A formal sales process enables oversight and real sales management, and is essential to successful selling. A sales process allows you to maximize sales and better utilize your sales team. It also makes it possible to fully integrated outside vendors into your sales process – vendors who can supply qualified leads, assist with new market entries, provide sales support and lead follow-up services and so on.
If you want to win consistently and frequently, you need a sales process
No one would ever expect to win a football game without training, proper equipment and a highly-developed playbook. Why should sales be any different?
If your sales team is properly trained, has great tools and has a playbook of winning plays, they have the best shot at winning. When the real pressure is on, they will know how to execute flawlessly and professionally. Not only will your company win more often but your sales stars will be more likely to stay with your company.
Sure it’s fun to end up winning a football game with a lucky pass, but it is much more rewarding to have a winning season and win the championship with an unbeatable team and plan.
Contact us to discuss your sales plan and process.
Photo Credit: Alex
Posted by Mansfield Sales Partners on Sat, Jun 26, 2010
As product and service differentiation becomes more difficult to achieve and competition intensifies, effective sales channels are vital to growing and defending your market share. Many companies face growing pressure to reduce field sales investments and to produce more with less. With ever increasing resource constraints, sales leaders have used external cross-industry efficiency benchmarks to fully assess the performance of their field sales staff, to validate their resource allocations and to determine if strategic outsourcing of some sales functions is warranted.
Three factors play a critical role in sales force performance:
- Sales team size
- Resource allocation to target markets
- Sales team productivity
In order to optimize sales team size, validate resource allocation, and evaluate overall sales team and individual sales rep productivity, it is essential to establish valid benchmarks. Most companies measure the success of their sales force based on sales results – revenue growth, actual sales vs. plan, average order, order frequency, close rates and so on. And this makes sense, until you really examine it.
If the benchmark for a sales team’s success is beating last year’s performance, how do you know if that is the right goal?
What if your sales team was inefficient last year? Wouldn’t a sales goal of a modest increase over last year just be asking your sales team to be a little less unproductive? On the other hand, if you have the most productive sales team in the industry, do you need to put programs in place to make sure that your competitors don’t steal your star performers? And are there functions that can be more cost-effectively achieved by external partners? Should you consider outsourcing some sales functions?
Establishing effective sales performance benchmarks
For a truly informative benchmark, compare your team to leading competitors across your industry. In addition, benchmark internal productivity measures [cost per qualified lead, cost per sale, revenue per sale, and so on] to outsourced supplier results. Benchmarks can help you and your sales management team identify gaps and determine where to focus efforts to improve sales productivity and accelerate sales growth.
The most common sales productivity gaps
- High cost per lead OR low cost per lead with a low close rate: This usually indicates a gap in your company’s lead generation process. A review of your marketing strategy and lead process is in order.
- Low close rate: Investigate carefully to identify the root causes. Are the leads really qualified prospects? Are there gaps in the sales process? Is your company at a competitive disadvantage in service delivery, pricing or other significant factors? Is your sales team properly trained and managed? Is there a gap between your marketing message and the sales presentation?
- Sales growth from existing accounts lags the industry: Determine if your sales and service teams are doing what it takes to maximize the profitability of existing accounts. This gap usually indicates that your clients’ needs and expectations are not being fully met. The root cause could be a real product/service gap or it could be a poorly constructed sales presentation that overpromises what your company can deliver.
- High customer attrition rate: High rates of customer loss are the most troubling problem. Quickly identifying the cause and increasing customer retention rates is the single fastest way to increase sale revenue.
How do you address misaligned strategy and/or poor productivity in your sales team? These are some of the questions we address directly when we join forces with you as a sales partner. Contact us for more information about sales outsourcing.
Photo Credit: CPX Interactive