Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
As we charge into Q2 (Notice theurgency? Never a "gentle
amble" for me) with all of thefinancial uncertainty that we are stilldestined to face on a daily basis, theorganizations that are surviving -even thriving - are the ones thathave demonstrated that they arewilling to adapt and be prepared tochange direction when marketconditions dictate that they should.
Inevitably that means smallercompanies are doing better,because they are not be weigheddown by unnecessary beaurocracyand the “decision by committee”mentality; they don’t have to wait forcorporate boardroom decisions tobe taken, often miles away from thefrontline; no hanging around waitingfor budgets to be approved, leavingthe competition to steal the lead etc.
Compare the braking distance ofa juggernaut with that of a smallfamily saloon or the dexterity of asperm whale with that of a dolphinyou get the picture?
I also believe that smallercompanies are more capable ofbuilding stronger, sustainablerelationships with their customers,
and we can certainly say that 2015is the year of “Customer Focus” Butwhat exactly does “CustomerFocus” mean?
Sustained outstanding salesresults depend on the ability to thinkfrom the customer’s point of view,understanding the customer’sagenda, buying cycle and bestinterests. That means beyond asuperficial reading of immediatecustomer needs, salespeople mustgain a deeper understanding of boththe buyer’s long-term goals and theoverall business climate
I would also say that at the heartof customer focus is the art oflistening constructively - the bestsalespeople are masters atcapturing information.
Today the salesperson whoclings to the product orientation of adecade ago is losing ground. Asclient companies branch into newmarkets and unfamiliar territories,they are demanding unique, flexiblesolutions from their vendorscustomized to support specificgoals.
In summary, in order to maintaincustomer focus the best
salespeople become facilitators,creating a partnership that extendsthe selling relationship within thecustomer’s company.
We should never forget that theright to do business has to becontinually earned and neverassumed - that is certainly amessage we will all need to heed inQ2, if we wish to either catch-up, orconsolidate our Q1 performances.
Jonathan Farrington,CEO Top Sales World
Catch Jonathan's award winningdaily blog here - The JF Blogit
Right Now in Sales, Size Really Does Matter!
Editorial
March 31st Edition 2015 Top Sales Magazine 2
Contents March 31st 2015
Editors: Jonathan Farrington [email protected] Richardson [email protected]
Design: Bill Jeckells [email protected] by: Top Sales World http://topsalesworld.com
A JF INITIATIVE
8
10
14
20
Help Your CustomersReveal Who They Are. Linda Richardson interviewsProfessor Tom Steenburgh.Page 4
Top Sales Article& Blog Post ForMarch 31st 2015Page 23
Top Sales World is Sponsored by
Top Sales Magazine March 31st Edition 2015 3
Why Being An Expert Only Makes ADifference With ExpertiseTamara Schenk
Hitting the Bull’s Eye: ThreeQuestions You Must Ask to Findthe Perfect Niche for YourBusiness Mathew Pollard
Virtual Instructor-Led SalesTraining: 6 Things Sales Leadersneed to considerJennifer Cerda
Compassionate Upselling: How toTransform Your Customer ServiceCenter into a Profit CenterErrol Greene
165 Basics for Prospecting Fortune1000 CompaniesMonika D’Agostino
This Week’s Interview
Top Sales WorldAcademy News.Page 22
March 31st Edition 2015 Top Sales Magazine 4
In a recent workshop, a group ofpurchasers stated that the biggest
frustration in their job is that sellerstry to “hawk their wares” when theywere not open to the idea of buyingsomething. They considered it awaste of their time. Nevertheless,the purchasers did welcomecontact when they were activelyinterested in or considering aproduct or making a change. Thiscreates a difficult problem forsellers – how can they get theirmessage out at the right time if they
Tom Steenburgh is the Paul M. Hammaker Professor ofBusiness Administration at the Darden Graduate School ofBusiness and the chair of its Strategic Sales ManagementExecutive Education program. He comes to academia fromXerox where his areas of focus were marketing, operations,and sales incentive strategy. Previously at Harvard, he wasthe chair of the Business-to-Business Marketing StrategyExecutive Education program. He also won the NeilRackham Research Dissemination Award for the impact ofhis research on business practices.
Help Your Customers RevealWho They Are
The Linda Richardson Interview
don’t know where the buyer is intheir buying cycle? Doing so is thekey to remaining in theconsideration set when the buyer isready to make a purchase.
Technology Is the Key Themein Selling TodayTom sees technology as a way outof this dilemma so that sellers andbuyers are aligned. For him the bigchange in selling is usingtechnology to find the markers thatindicate that a customer isinterested in changing the statusquo or is ready to buy so that sellerscan intervene then. The goal is tofigure out where customers are inthe buying process and in doing soget them to reveal how to sell tothem.
Are You a Hunter, Farmer, orFisherman?We hear so much about aligningthe sales process with thecustomer’s buying journey yet, howto do this eludes many salespeopleand sales organizations. Tomdiscussed how salespeople areoften described as being eitherhunters or farmers, but he suggeststhat a new metaphor, thefisherman, might better describehow successful salespeople areselling today. He says, “The goal isto put the bait out there and beready to engage as soon as thecustomer grabs it.” He seestechnology as the game changerfor adapting old sales models –selling differently in themarketplace by enticing rather thanpushing.
Tom discussed how best in classcompanies use their websites to
provide valuable content that drawsin customers. In exchange for thecontent, customers give informationabout themselves. That data can beacted upon to reach the rightpeople at the right time with theright message.
We know that content marketinghas been highly successfulbecause it helps customers decideif there is a need to change thestatus quo and if the companyproviding the content is the rightsolution for them. There is no bettertime for a salesperson to beresponsive than when a customeris thinking about somethingbecause that is when it is at theheight of importance.
Use Technology to Map Outthe Customer JourneyTom provided an example of howone creative company mapped outits customer journey and increased
sales by doing so. The companywas a wind turbine manufacturer.Its typical sale for a turbine was$5,000,000 and the sales cyclespanned 12 to 18 months. As in anysale, there are many times in thesales process that salespeopledon’t know what their customersare thinking in regard to theiroffering. In the periods betweencontacts customers are constantlytaking in more information. In thecase of the turbine company, theydidn’t know if their customers werethinking about financing,government regulations, orengineering specifications. To givesalespeople a way to gauge wheretheir customers were in their buyingjourney, the company designed itswebsite by defining four customerpersonas: an engineer, a projectplanner, a CFO, and a governmentregulator. A customer visiting thewebsite would click on the personaof interest and would be asked aseries of questions or given optionsto find answers to questions he orshe was struggling with at that pointin time. The company would trackwhere the customer was and whatinformation the customer queried.
In working with the companyTom found that customers werehappy, happier in fact, to interactwith the website at that stage thanwith a salesperson so as not be“sold” yet. As a result the companywas able to tailor its sales processto the customer and create realalignment between the sales andbuying processes. For the call ormeeting the salesperson wasprepared to discuss what wasimportant to the customer based onan understanding where the
Top Sales Magazine March 31st Edition 2015 5
He says, “The goal is toput the bait out there
and be ready to engageas soon as the
customer grabs it.”He sees technology
as the game changerfor adapting old sales
models – sellingdifferently in themarketplace by
enticing rather thanpushing.
March 31st Edition 2015 Top Sales Magazine 6
customer was in the buying journey. Knowing where customers are in
their buying journey is powerful.And data collection provides thejuice. It tells salespeople who in thecustomer organization might beinterested in at that point in timeand enables them to have the rightmessage at the right time toaddress what their customers areactually thinking and care mostabout.
Most CRMs, Tom points out, arewritten from the sales side. Incontrast, a persona web strategyflips the script and thereby mapsout the customer’s buying journey.He believes that we will see manymore strategies like this and thatsales organizations will be hardpressed to design even morecreative approaches.
Tom was very excited to tell meabout a business a few of hisstudents started (and since havesold) which was a perfect exampleof a business that could look at itscustomers and know exactly whereeach customer was in the buyingcycle in a point in time and when tointervene to make a sale. Thestudents started a discussion boardfor groups of first time moms to talkto each other and discuss the manyissues they were facing. As a part ofthis the moms would make wishlists. The students used the wishlists to offer products such as babyshower gifts or diapers at the righttime. From this they made a smallcommission for their referrals tovendors. The implication of thisstrategy is particularly powerful forpackage goods companies in whichresearch shows that customersoften remain loyal to their brands
for very long periods of time, oftendecades. So winning the customerearly in their lifecycle leads is thekey to long-term profitability.
Tom believes that people areopen to a sale only once in a while.One general manager he workedwith remarked, “Customers areopen to buying insurance for about12 minutes every year. We need tobe in front of them when they areready to buy.” But he alsoemphasized that customers don’twant to be sold to all the time butthey leave markers when they areopen to a sales conversation. Forexample, when customers type in asales problem into Google, theyreveal their interests and readiness.To leverage customer searches andunderstand where the customer isat a certain point in time, salesorganizations and salespeoplemust have an Internet presenceand strategy and identify markersthat reveal customer interest.
Markers That Reveal CustomerInterestSo how can you create situations inwhich customers reveal to you theirinterest and readiness to buy? Tomdiscussed four strategies:
� The first is the organic searchstrategy, which is initiated by thecustomer so that when a customergoes to Google and types in subjectof interest he or she finds youbecause you have written an articleor white paper. � The second is branding ofyourself as a subject matter expertstrategy to build momentum bycreating blogs and content, writingarticles, asking and answering
questions in your discipline. Withthis strategy the customer begins tothink of you as the “go to person”and also makes referrals to you. � In addition to your activities, thethird strategy is content marketingin which you maximize the contentthat your marketing team producesto draw buyers in that is relevant toyour customers. � And the fourth a websitestrategy in which companies designtheir websites with customerpersonas in mind as a way to helpcustomers reveal who they are.
The Big Change in Selling The need to “push” to reachcustomers to find opportunitieseither through challenging them orthrough a solution type sale (both orwhich are push) is recognized byTom. But to avoid a lot of misses hesees the big change in selling asenticing customers to reveal theirreadiness to buy by usingtechnology. The key for sales todayis to identify markers that will bespecific to industries that indicate
The implication of thisstrategy is particularlypowerful for packagegoods companies in
which research showsthat customers oftenremain loyal to theirbrands for very long
periods of time,often decades.
The Linda Richardson Interview
the customer is open to discussionat this point in time. Products suchas HubSpot are all about this. Oncea customer’s curiosity is peaked it istime to “strike’. By helpingcustomers reveal who they are,sellers are in a position to knowwhen to contact them and how tomove them to the next stage. Thisdata allows not only the tailoring ofthe message at the right time butalso enables comparisons.
Tom described how the best-in-class companies not only use thedata to know when to make contactbut they are starting to use the datarelated to customer personas totrack customer sets to determinethe life time value of customers,return on investment calculationsthrough cost benefit analysis, andto be more accurate in the
customers they target to go after.And most importantly they use thedata to win more business. Thiskind of data allows companies tospot buyer trends that were notpossible to see in the past.
Tom’s passion for sales isconnected to teaching. I had thepleasure of participating in a salesconference with Tom. I am amazedto find how many of the bestteachers “have it in their blood”.Tom’s dad was a professor ofbiology and zoology and teachinghas always been Tom’s first love.He says he would not have ever leftXerox if it were not to teach.
Teaching affords him the ability towork with students, “stay young andcurrent,” conduct research, andhave fun. He has promised that thissummer he would share with us hisnew and very exciting research onselling innovation—why it fails sooften and how to make it work.
Tom’s Advice: Ask your salesteams to develop three to fivepersonas for your customers andmap out their typical journeys. Besure to clearly define the magicmoment when the customer isready to listen and buy. �
To find out more about Tom Steenburgh, pleasevisit here.
Stay Connectedwith Top SalesWorld ….Join our lively LinkedIn group and rubshoulders with the top sales expertsin the world.
And follow us on Twitter (we willfollow you back).
March 31st Edition 2015 Top Sales Magazine 8
What is an expert in sales? Oftenexperts in sales are
considered as people with in-depthknowledge about a provider’sproducts and capabilities. Expertsin sales often have specific titles,such as solution sales, presales orsales engineers. What aboutcustomer knowledge? Howrelevant are competencies to beingan expert in sales?
In today’s complex andcontinuously changing world, definingwhat an expert in sales really meansbecomes a competitive necessity tomake a difference. Defining “expert insales” leads directly to a blueprint forrequired sales enablement services.
“An expert is a person who hasmade all the mistakes that can bemade in a narrow field.”-- Niels Bohr
Experts know a lot of details in aspecific knowledge area. Tobecome an expert in a specificknowledge area, lots of mistakeshave to be made. That’s theprerequisite for learning what worksand what doesn’t. Mistakes andcontinuous learning allow people todevelop their knowledge andunderstanding to the next level. Insales, we shouldn’t work on thefalse assumption that an expert isonly knowledgeable about aprovider’s capabilities. Thiscapability knowledge area is anentry ticket to open a door. But
“The top experts in the world are ardent students. The day you stop learning, you're definitely not an expert.” --Brendon Burchard
Why Being An Expert Only MakesA Difference With Expertise
Tamara Schenk
capability knowledge alone won’tbe enough to have relevant andvaluable conversations withprospects and customers.Additional areas of knowledge areequally important, such asknowledge about the market and itstrends, the customer’s industry, andthe internal landscape of methods,processes and tools.
Being an expert in productsand solutions is important, butnot enough. To create real valuefor customers, sales professionalshave to be experts in thecustomers’ specific businesschallenges
Based on the above-mentionedknowledge areas, salesprofessionals have to becomeexperts in their customers’environmental and specific context.The way to make a difference inconversations with potential buyersis to know and understand theirspecific context of businesschallenges, problems andopportunities, and being able toconnect the dots to their owncapabilities. Knowing their contextincludes understanding theircurrent and their desired financialperformance as well as theperformance indicators that arerelevant and critical for them. It’s nolonger enough to be knowledgeableabout the ROI or TCO of aprovider’s product or solution. Thefinancial impact of the customer’sdesired solution (your products andservices often are only a part oftheir solution!) mapped to theirrelevant financial metrics: that’swhat matters to them. Being able toprovide perspectives on differentapproaches to creating an even
higher financial impact makes ahuge difference. Sometimes, thisability enables new providers to windeals over those who areestablished since years but whodidn’t care enough about thespecific customer’s businesscontext.
In addition, being an expertmeans understanding thestakeholders’ different concepts ofhow to approach a challenge, fix aproblem or avoid a risk. A salesprofessional who can recognize thestakeholders’ functions and rolesand identify their individualpreferences for processinginformation and decision-making isa true expert. Knowing andunderstanding the decisiondynamics of a certain customerstakeholder group and being ableto orchestrate these decisiondynamics is often what makes thedifference in complex deals. Theseare all requirements a salesprofessional, an expert in sales,needs to provide perspectives forcustomers: relevant, valuable,creative perspectives that enablecustomers to achieve or over-achieve their desired results andwins.
“Knowing is not enough; wemust apply. Willing is notenough; we must do.”--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Being an expert requiresapplying the various knowledgeareas, skills and strategies inspecific customer situations.Expertise means to connect the
dots between capabilities andcustomer knowledge, betweenskills, competencies and strategies.
Being an expert is theprerequisite for expertise.
Expertise also meansrecognizing when one’s own levelof expertise won’t be enough tomake a difference for the customer.Including another expert is not aweakness; it is a strength in acustomer-core approach, and atrue sign of conscious collaborationin sales.
Last but not least – what aboutthe “generalists”? Are they nolonger required, or are they expertsin another area? Think about anexecutive account manager in alarge strategic account, and thinkabout a deal executive in a six-figure outsourcing deal. Thesesales professionals are notnecessarily experts in all theknowledge areas as describedabove, but they are also notgeneralists. They have to beexperts in orchestrating largecustomer stakeholder communities,and they have to be experts inselling big deals in their ownorganizations. Additionally, theyhave to be experts in allocating theright domain experts to their deals.Their expertise is understandingdecision dynamics; their expertiseis leadership and collaboration.
Do you have all the experts onboard to make a difference for yourcustomers? �
Top Sales Magazine March 31st Edition 2015 9
Tamara Schenk is the Research Director for theMHI Research Institute. Visit here.
Targeting your audience andpositioning your business to
speak to a specific niche requiressome work as well as a lot ofthought. However, as someonewho has five-multimillion dollarbusiness success stories under mybelt, I can tell you that it’s essential
for you to take the steps necessaryto set your business apart. I’mgoing to walk you through what youneed to know, along with someadvice based on the fifth session ofthe marketing and sales seminarseries created by Daniele Lima andmyself, which is available in full at
DanandMatt.com.How do you know whom to
target? Whatever the size of your
business, you probably have aclear idea of what resources youhave. This gives you a good ideahow viable it is for your business toaddress any unmet needs you maysee in the market. However,matching the resources you bring tothe table to each niche you’veidentified isn’t enough: you alsohave to take into considerationthree important factors before youcommit to one.
First: Is the segmenteconomically viable?
Economic viability has a lot incommon with the story of“Goldilocks and the Three Bears.” Ifyou remember, Goldilocks tries toeat porridge that is too hot, and toocold—before finding one that is“just right,” (much like the segmentyou want to choose). You want tomake sure your segment is bigenough; otherwise, even if youdominate it, you won’t make
One of the biggest mistakes a business can make is trying to be seen as everything toeveryone rather than essential to a select group or niche. To achieve this, stop trying todo everything and think, “ To what audience can I provide something unique? Are they abig enough group around which to grow my business? How can I communicate my uniqueoffering with this group or niche in a meaningful way?”
Hitting the Bull’s Eye: ThreeQuestions You Must Ask to Find thePerfect Niche for Your Business
March 31st Edition 2015 Top Sales Magazine 10
Mathew Pollard
enough to survive—in other words,it’s “too cold.” Additionally, you don’twant to choose a segment that istoo competitive (or “too hot”);otherwise, you’ll find yourself andyour business getting lost in thenoise. The segment that is “justright” is one that is big enough forone or two players to make a gooddeal of money and, preferably,doesn’t have anyone else workingin it yet.
Second: Can you effectivelycommunicate with your market?
This one may seem obvious, butit’s worth stating. If your market ismade up of 1,200 people who live indisparate areas and lack a commonmethod of consuming information, itmay be so difficult to reach themthat you cannot succeed. I like touse my mother as an example ofsomeone who has a commonmethod of consuming information:she is a coffee drinker, and formany years she found herselfhaving a relatively disappointingcoffee-drinking experience. Shewould go into cafés that seemednice, but their product was oftensub-par. However, when she beganto use Yelp, she found far greatersuccess in getting consistentlygood coffee. Yelp clued her in to anumber of cafés that were off thebeaten path, or less aestheticallypleasing, but had a better product.
Before review sites, it could beextremely difficult to communicatewith a group of people whose onlyshared characteristic was thedesire for a great cup of coffee.Now, however, individuals cancommunicate their experience at agiven business and ultimatelyinfluence others to seek it out, or
avoid it, despite having little incommon with their audience.
Third: Do people with similarneeds populate the niche?
The people in your niche don’tneed to have precisely the sameneed, but the need does have to besimilar enough that you can cater toit. For example, manufacturingformal wear for larger and/ or tallerindividuals allows you to targetthose with similar needs; due totheir specialized requirements, yourprospective customers are likelylooking for the garment to fit wellrather than for it to conform to thisseason’s style trends.
Now that you have the tools tocommit to your niche, you may bewondering: how do I communicatemy unique offering with my selectedniche in a meaningful way?
This starts with the creation ofyour positioning statement. Thepositioning statement is an internaldocument; however, it holds the keyto how you’re differentiated in themarket and has a huge impact overhow the consumer associates withyour brand. Everything you doshould align with your positioningstatement; staff should know thisstatement and understand that theyare expected to deliver on it.
Your positioning statement ishow you proactively target tocustomers, while defining who youare and what you’re about.Additionally, it will drive yourmarketing plan. There are variousmethods to creating yourpositioning statement, but all
statements should cover certainpoints. Firstly, it must meaningfullydifferentiate the business andinclude the distinct place in themarket that you plan to dominate.This isn’t a physical space; rather,it’s what makes you unique (suchas being the pizza place in themarket for those with dietaryrestrictions).
Your positioning statement mustalso be sustainable and has todeliver the core benefits in a mannerthat is attractive to consumers.Finally, it must give potentialcustomers a reason to believe.People want to know that they won’tbe disappointed by a product orservice before they purchase it; apowerful reason to believe helps toundermine a person’s reluctance topurchase and can includetestimonials, compensation if thebusiness doesn’t deliver on itspromise, and even number of yearsthe business has existed.
Choosing the specific audienceyou want to target and positioningyourself in line with its needs arecritical actions to take if you wantyour business to succeed. Whenyou’re in the mindset of meetingyour segment’s needs, yourbusiness is moving as a cohesivemachine toward a specific and clearvision. Use the tools you’ve learnedtoday to choose the most viablesegment for you, match its needs,and you’ll soon discover that yourbusiness is unstoppable. �
Top Sales Magazine March 31st Edition 2015 11
You can find out more about Matthew Pollard byvisiting here.
A key part of having a successful sales organization starts with linking sales
coaching with the sales process. And developing a good sales process
starts with the customer in mind and identifying critical success factors.
So how do you orchestrate a successful, quota-hitting salesorganization?
Watch our recorded webinar with world-renowned authors and industry
sales experts Linda Richardson, Tamara Schenk, and Jonathan Farrington
who will discuss ways you can transform your organization with proven
principles. They’ll discuss:
� An alternative approach to coaching
� How to link sales coaching with sales process
� How to orchestrate your internal operations the way you want to get served
as a customer
� Do’s and don’ts of building success criteria
Watch Replay Here
I know you are extremely busy trying to hit your sales targets and improving the performance ofyour team, but stop for just a moment and take a look at who we’re flying in to speak at this year’sSales Innovation Expo on 13th 14th May at Excel, London.
Among the 80 strong expert speaker line up, I am delighted to announce that we have confirmedhuge coup to fly in Tiffani Bova for a rare UK speaking appearance. She is one of Gartner’s mostdistinguished Analysts who has received their thought leadership award for her work on theFuture of IT Sales.
On top of that we have secured Tamara Schenk one of the world’s top 10 sales influencers, andour very own Jonathan Farrington, CEO of Top Sales World and probably the most connectedman within the sales industry. It’s going to be unmissable so why don’t you register for your freeticket here.
The event will also showcase some of the most innovative new sales technology and tools for2015, we have also negotiated terms with world leading experts in numerous sales fields for youto utilise their knowledge for free and as an added bonus we have also sourced 50+ of the bestsales service providers in the UK & Europe to help solve the dilemmas you have.
This is still the only Sales Expo in the UK which is completely free to attend. Register for yourticket and to find more info visit www.salesinnovationexpo.co.uk
March 31st Edition 2015 Top Sales Magazine 14
Today’s buyers demand well-trained, expert sales reps. The
additional pressure on salesleaders to ensure that they cutinternal costs and have consistentrep coverage invariably leads toevaluating the efficacy of virtualinstructor-led training as analternative to traditional classroomtraining for selling skills.
A long-time client that has reliedon us to deliver face-to-face salestraining for many years asked mewhat the benefit would be ofchanging to a virtual trainingdelivery to get his new hiresfundamental skills and also torefresh the rest of the team.
“It seems like virtual training is agood idea, but I’ve also heard it canbe a risky investment...What’s youradvice?” He asked.
Travel cost savings are one ofthe easiest efficiencies to identify,but my client wanted to know whatthe skill payoff would be, as well asthe pitfalls to avoid.
A team of experts helped usdesign, test and deliver our virtualtraining solutions and I met with acouple of those team members toequip me with the right perspective.
A synopsis of my interviews withMargaret Cooke and MichelleBenning, virtual training expertsand Independent Sales Consultantswith Huthwaite, now part of MHIGlobal, is below.
Question #1 - In your experiencewhat are some of the reasons thatsales organizations want virtualtraining vs. on-site training? Some reasons are the same
whether you’re running a salesteam or any other type of team. Themost obvious is the ability toengage targeted learning at a lowertotal cost. Reducing travel,classroom, catering and lodgingcosts can save the companythousands of dollars. It also givesorganizations the ability to selectlearners based on skill, knowledgeand acumen rather than onlylocation and convenience.
Specific to sales, leadership isconstantly in need of increasing thebusiness development skills of theirsales talent. The sales engineneeds to be finely tuned with goodskills from the manager to the mostjunior reps in the organization, butthe sales team also needs todevelop business as the numberone priority. Maximizing learning
Jennifer Cerda, Client Executive with Huthwaite interviews Maggie Cooke and MichelleBenning, virtual training experts and Independent Sales Consultants
Virtual Instructor-Led Sales Training:6 Things Sales Leaders need to consider
Jennifer Cerda
and limiting time away fromcustomers and prospects is critical.Virtual training is a way to decreasetime out of the field.
Another reason is salesprofessionals tend to see less valuein formal in-person classroomtraining and want access to learningwhen it’s convenient for them.Virtual delivery allows for salestraining to be delivered in smallchunks and incorporated into theirday-to-day activities more readily.
Question #2 – Are there “pitfalls”associated with VILT for thesales team?Expectations need to be clear andset in advance of the training.Defining what those expectationsshould be is a critical step in anysales training implementation andis accomplished through anorganization alignment session withleadership.
A communication plan to thesales team should also bedeveloped, so that they know whythey are investing their time, thepurpose of the training and thereasons that the organization chosethis format of delivery.
There is a technology requisite.Virtual classrooms are designed tobe easy to navigate, but theorganization and training partnerneed to work together ahead oftraining to make sure that learnershave the necessary technology toparticipate effectively.
The design of a ViLT program isdifferent from onsite training.Special attention has to be given tofacilitating learning in anenvironment where you can’tnecessarily see how engaged the
team is. The level of interaction andparticipation in the virtualenvironment has to be “amped upin order to be effective.”
Question #3 - What should thesales organization expect as aresult of building selling skillsvia VILT?Sales leadership should expectimmediate application of skillslearned in the classroom.
The most successful virtualsales training programs includeassignments between each virtualsession which results in near real-time reinforcement and applicationof the skills learned in the virtualclassroom.
Question #4 - What in yourexperience is the #1 reason thatvirtual sales training isunsuccessful? Not investing in the instructionalintegrity of the virtual class or theinstructor and expecting similaroutcomes to that of in-persontraining.
If the course is designedeffectively and delivered by atrained virtual facilitator, the resultsshould be equivalent, if not betterthan formal classroom training.
Question #5 - How does contentneed to be different in the virtualclassroom?The training should be designed tobe shorter than traditional on-sitetraining. Engaging graphics versusslides filled with words are
impactful. Participant materials also need
to be designed so that they don’trequire the learner to take attentionaway from the virtual session.
Content should also includeactionable tools to refer to duringtraining that are ready forimmediate use on the job aftertraining, or between sessions.
Question #6 - What has to be inplace in the organization tosupport virtual sales training?Although most sales trainingcompanies have their preferredvirtual classroom delivery platform,it’s important to understand thatthere is a difference betweenwebinar platforms used formeetings and demos vs. a virtualclassroom environment.
A true virtual classroom enablestrainers to create rich and interactiveexperiences for their learners.
Targeted instructor-led virtualtraining, reinforcement andcoaching sessions have provento be highly effective. Virtuallearning, like many othertechnology-based tools leveragedby sales teams today, is a viablesolution when and if it is executedeffectively.
To find out about Huthwaite’sSPIN® Selling and CoachingSPIN® virtual training programs,please contact us [email protected]. �
Top Sales Magazine March 31st Edition 2015 15
You can find out more about Huthwaiteby visiting here.
Some companies think that hiringas many sales people as
possible, having them hit thephones and “dialing for dollars” willbe the answer. At times they end uphiring "telemarketing" people orsales people who only work on acommission basis to play thenumbers game.
But honestly, in today’s evermore competitive environment, doyou want your sales efforts to be allabout quantity? If you’re looking tostand out and embrace aconsultative approach, you’ll agreewith me that it’s really all aboutquality. Once you know who totarget and what your unique
positioning is, then you can rampup the call/e-mail volume. But firstyou need to know how you canserve your prospects best and whoyour target is.
Be Consultative, Mindful andRelevantA consultative sales approachstarts with understanding what youwant to say to your prospects. Didyou develop a message that willresonate with your audiences?Remember, in order for people tobuy, your solution has to help themmake money, save money or time,maximize their potential and
In a consultative sales environment, companies that targetFortune 1000 prospects all struggle to stand out from thecrowd. How will my sales people get the attention fromthese prospects? That’s really the big question that keepsall sales managers awake at night.
5 Basics for Prospecting Fortune1000 Companies
March 31st Edition 2015 Top Sales Magazine 16
Monika D’Agostino
achieve their goals or elevate theircompany’s or their own reputation.
Focus on Value, not Featuresand Benefits
Therefore a message focusingon the greatness of your product orservice will most likely not be aseffective. Put yourself in yourprospect’s shoes and try to find outwhy you would buy your service.Your message needs to focus onthe value to your decision maker.Most sales people lead withfeatures or benefits and forget thattheir counterparts do the same. Forexample, good customer service isessential but hardly unique andcertainly not a differentiator. Goodcustomer service is also somethingthat people take for granted. Everycompany with a service offering willclaim to have good customerservice, they certainly wouldn'tmention it if it sucked, would they?
A global presence on the otherhand can be a differentiator, as longas it is important to your prospects.
In the End - People Buy fromPeopleThe next step is to develop amessage or script that you as thesales person can own. If sales
people don't believe in the messagethey are communicating, they willcome across as inauthentic.Prospects will feel that they being“sold to” rather than advised. Assoon as a sales person soundsscripted, people will most likely loseinterest. Even when you prospectFortune 1000 companies youshouldn't forget that it is people whoare making decisions. People don'tlike to be sold to, but theyappreciate help. If you can offersomething of value to them, it willhelp you build rapport and trust.Trust is essential in buildingrelationships, on a personal and ona business level. Remember the oldadage? Know – Like – Trust. Neverforget that it is people you aretargeting.
Who Are the Decision-Makers?And then comes the really, reallyhard part. Who within theorganization should you call on? Inusing a consultative salesapproach, it is essential to be clearabout and establish who the finaldecision-maker is or, more likely,who the decision-makers are.
In prospecting Fortune 1000companies you will need toapproach and build relationshipswith multiple decision-makers, orperhaps a committee making thedecisions together. There will bedifferent levels of decision-makersor buyer influencers. And if youwant to stand out from the crowd,you’ll work to understand what is ofvalue and relevance to each of
these different influencers. Will theyactually be using your solution? Willthey be passing onrecommendations to use yoursolution? Or, will they be makingthe final decision? – In other words,can they say “no”, when all otherssay yes?
Do Your Research & BeRelevantA CFO will most likely respond to amessage that will help him savemoney. A COO will be interested inoptimizing workflow and a CTO willwant to hear about the latest andbest technology solutions. A CMOon the other hand will want to hearabout the benefits that a technologysolution will bring to optimizingmarketing efforts and not thebenefits of the technology itself.
Knowing who your decisionmaker is will help you customizeyour message and it will enable youto speak directly to their needs andthe industry challenges. That is whyresearch is essential when it comesto good prospecting.
We have documented time andagain when applying a consultativesales approach, how important it isto be relevant (mention industrychallenges) mindful (remember, it'speople we are targeting) and to doyour research so you come acrossas a knowledgeable andprofessional advisor - not as someunqualified sales person trying tosell something. �
Top Sales Magazine March 31st Edition 2015 17
To find out more about Monika D’Agostino,please visit here.
Put yourself in yourprospect’s shoes and
try to find out why youwould buy your
service. Your messageneeds to focus on the
value to yourdecision maker.
2015 Top Sales AcademyNext Session Released on April 3rd
This session will focus on why aligning strategy andsales is crucial; data about the current misalignmentbetween strategic goals and sales efforts in manycompanies and the financial consequence; the factorswhich cause that misalignment; and how to fix it.
Frank Cespedes is Senior Lecturer in theEntrepreneurial Management Unit at HarvardBusiness School. He received his B.A. from the CityCollege of New York, M.S. from M.I.T. and Ph.D. fromCornell University.
At Harvard, he has developed and taught a variety ofMBA and executive courses, led the StrategicMarketing Management program for seniorexecutives, and was co-lead of the SustainableMarket Leadership program for CEOs and theirleadership teams. He currently teaches the requiredTEM course and the elective Business Marketing andSales course in the MBA program as well as modulesin the Owner President Management (OPM) executiveprogram and he heads the executive program on“Aligning Strategy and Sales.”
FREE Registration for Academy Here
Linking Strategy and SalesFrank Cespedes
March 31st Edition 2015 Top Sales Magazine 20
Innovative companies are realizingthe benefits of having a customer
reach back to them, and theresulting opportunity it provides topresent an outstanding customerexperience, as well as a chance toentrench the customer more deeply
to the company. But there’s a fine line between
being concerned that a customermight be missing something thatsincerely helps them and trying topush products and services. Peopleare quick to pick up on being, “sold
to” vs sincerely helped. Whatseparates the two? The answer istrue compassion and concern forthe customer’s best interests.
What does this look like?I recently had an expert present
a perfect example of this to me at
Customer service is currently experiencing a renaissance period in many regards—ground-breaking companies are starting to realize that the customer service rep’s (CSR)role has become far more than simple issue resolution; they have now morphed into asales role. CSRs are on the front line are a direct face of the company—critical brandambassadors, vital to creating a positive customer experience.
Compassionate Upselling: How toTransform Your Customer ServiceCenter into a Profit Center
Errol Greene
my bank. I called in to close—notopen— an account, and wound uphaving the best support call of mylife. My banker made sure and firstcompleted the task I asked her todo, closing an account that I nolonger needed. However, while shewas doing this, she also mentionedthat my home equity line of creditseemed to be at a high interest rate.“You should consider re-financingyour home—it would likely save youa lot of money in interest everymonth.”
I was listening. In other words, keep two-
thousand four-hundred dollars ayear that I was currently spendingneedlessly? That’s an extravacation every year, or that muchmore towards retirement.
Of course I would consider it—any intelligent person would. Shemade the value proposition of doingbusiness so rational that to say ‘no’would have been counter-productive and frankly, dumb.
It was clear to me that all of hersuggestions were sincerely helpingme. And while she may have also
been trying to upsell, she was at thesame time only presenting optionsthat would genuinely benefit me. Iwound up going to the bank,meeting with her and anotherbanker and saving far more than$200 a month—it ended up closerto $500. I was ecstatic.
I was then asked to rate herperformance following the call. I notonly gave her the highest scores Icould, I also added a comment;“She’s a credit to the bank, and Ijust wish you had more peoplethere like her” in the review. Andshe kept her word and saved meover $500 a month. I’m now nolonger a customer-- I’m anadvocate of this bank and mynew favorite banker. I’ve sincespoken with other people about thisparticular branch and all areabsolute advocates as well. Theywouldn’t even consider changingtheir allegiance.
What did she do right? 1. She started with a sincerecustomer service review, looking forways to authentically improve my lifeand make it better. It came acrosswith all of her recommendations andher tone of voice—she wasn’treading from a script, she wasengaging in a dialogue with me. Bysolving my initial issuesuccessfully and showing shefirst cared about me, she earnedthe right to ask more questions.
2. She established an empatheticconnection first. You’ve heard it
before, but it remains true; No onecares what you know until theyknow that you care. Critical toestablishing trust and building aline of open dialogue isestablishing empathy and trustearly in the call. By demonstratingempathy, anger is diffused, and thecall can transition from antagonismand complaints, to negotiation andresolution. Until this is done, and thecaller feels that he or she is beingheard and understood, there’s zeropotential for upselling and cross-selling. But once a trust-basedrelationship is established, thecustomer is now receptive to yoursuggestions and the ability togenerate additional profits becomesa reality. �
Top Sales Magazine March 31st Edition 2015 21
Errol Greene is Solution Development Manager atClear Harbor, LLC. Find out more by visiting here.
To uncover additional tips andtechniques to help upsell andcross-sell even angry customers,download the report, FiveInnovative Strategies CompaniesAre Using to Turn CustomerSupport into a Powerful ProfitCenter... While IncreasingCustomer Satisfaction. In it, you’lllearn techniques companies areusing to successfully turncustomer contact calls intoopportunities to increase revenuesand build customer advocates,including insight from one of thetop call center sales trainers, BobDavis, of Bob Davis Associates.Click here for the full paper.
I’m now no longer acustomer-- I’m an
advocate of this bankand my new favorite
banker. I’ve sincespoken with otherpeople about this
particular branch andall are absolute
advocates as well.
2015 Top Sales Academy
April 3rd - Frank Cespedes“Linking Strategy and Sales”
April 10th - Dan McDade“SMART Nurturing: Triple Return on Marketing Investments”
April 17th - Jim Cathcart“Increasing your Success Velocity™”
April 24th - Dave Kurlan“How to Coach Salespeople Like a Pro”
Phase Two is running from Marchto October 2015. Each week a newsession will become available onsite for registered members toview. Registration is free - Go here!
March/April Timetable
Top Sales Article & Blog Posts
Does your sales team needsomeone to:
� Monitor every minute activity inthe sales office?� Be every salesperson’s bestfriend?� Close the deal for every teammember?� Set sales goals designed tosimply make them and their teamlook good?
Over my three decades in sales I’veseen lots and lots of salesmanagers. The vast majority fallinto one of these four types:
The Hall MonitorThe Hall Monitor sees their job asone of chronicling activity, takingnames, dispensing discipline,focusing on procedures, thinkingthose are the keys to generatingresults—or at least to keeping theirjob.
Hall monitors tend to be orientedto process, are organized, andhave a strong sense of discipline.All admirable characteristics—butthey’re misguided. The Hall Monitormakes a great bureaucrat, a lousysales manager. He’ll make sureeveryone knows their place and ...
You’ve heard it over and over againas CEO—delegate, delegate,delegate! Learning how to delegateis crucial for every CEO, yetresearch shows that one of the topareas board directors say CEOsstill need to work on is “sharingleadership/delegation skills.”
With all of this focus ondelegation, is there such a thing asover-delegation? You are, after all,CEO—NOT Chief DelegationOfficer. So while it is important todelegate some things, noteverything should be delegated.
Below are 5 areas of your
business that are yourresponsibility to always monitorclosely:
1) Quality StandardsAs CEO of your company, as soonas you stop paying attention to thequality of your products andservices, so will the rest of youremployees. While you can delegatequality control to employees, youcannot delegate setting the qualitystandard. That comes from the topand should be protected by the top.The quality of your product ...
Read More Here�
Read More Here�
This Week’s Top Sales ArticleYour Sales Manager is Why Your Sales Team isFailing by Paul McCord
This Week’s Top Sales Blog PostWhat NOT to delegate in Life After the Death ofSelling by Tom Searcy
Top Sales Magazine March 31st Edition 2015 23
March 31st Edition 2015 Top Sales Magazine 24
If you would like to learn more about the benefits of becoming a TSWsponsor and our existing Partner Program, please find details here.
Click on our Sponsors to find out what they can do for you.
Our Principal Sponsor is
Our 2015 Partners...
