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During the month of December, most sales representatives are too focused on hitting their sales goals for the year. To do this, many reps often apply more transactional selling to get the job done, as a short-term solution with little emphasis on customer needs. I feel that December is an ideal month to begin planning for 2018 and into 2020 by setting goals, conducting an ideal profitable analysis and scheduling consultative business review meetings with your customers.
Here are 3 simple customer-focused Disciplines that you can use to overcome work-related Distractions, and help you prepare for the new sales year.
- 3-Year & 1-Year Goals:
Distraction: Your boss or your customers are too focused on the NOW and achieving sales goals for the current year that it becomes your focus too. They aren’t thinking of how to strategize to achieve their goals in the new year and beyond.
Discipline: Do not wait until January to strategically plan your goals – the time is now! Block the time within your schedule to plan your goals for 2018 and even 2020, and next year at this time you won’t have to worry about this distraction.
- Ideal Profitable Analysis:
Distraction: You may have many customers that you oversee, even some that are fastidious. This may leave you feeling too busy to complete an Ideal Profitable Analysis, which can help you to determine the customers that provide the best return on your invested time.
Discipline: Pull all of your client sales reports for the past 2 years to complete an Ideal Profitable Analysis. It only takes 1-2 hours to complete, and it is so worth the time! You’ll be amazed at how easy it is to identify where you should be spending most of your time, and who you want to do more business with in 2018 and 2020.
- Business Review Meetings with Top Clients:
Distraction: One distraction that we all face is the build-up of emails we receive. Plus, it can take several back-and-forth email communications to reach a final answer.
Discipline: Right now is the ideal time to schedule business review meetings with your top customers. Don’t rely on email to talk about performance and deliverables. Business review meetings provide an excellent opportunity for you to be consultative by asking great questions and offering solutions to help your customers accomplish their KPI’s and future sales goals.
In a competitive sales environment, there will always be a number of distractions to face, but these can be overcome by establishing customer-focused sales disciplines. How will you implement these 3 easy strategies to finish out the year on the right foot, so that you and your customers get off to a fast start in 2018?
Lisa is driven by the mantra – Be Strategic. Be Pro-active. Be Brave. – and has been successfully training and coaching sales leaders and their teams to do the same for over 15 years. As the President of Teneo Results since 2003, she has trained thousands of sales professionals at more than 250 companies across North America. She transitions salespeople away from the standard “product & price” approach to having purposeful business conversations with their customers that drive results.
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We bought a new home this past July. With three kids to get settled before the new school year, we needed to sell our current home quick. So, the hunt for a real estate agent began. My husband is an analyzer-driver, so that meant interviewing four agents to learn about their experience, the strategies they would use to sell our house, and their price.
What did we observe? All the realtors demonstrated the “sell and tell” sales style very well. Not one realtor asked us what we wanted to know about their services or the process of selling our home. They immediately jumped into their sales pitch. Apparently, we were like every other homeowner. But the actions of one realtor, in particular, were quite shocking, and not in a good way.
He arrived on time. He greeted us warmly and asked to see our home. As we toured our house we learned we had a common interest in hockey, Aerosmith and the joys of raising kids. He liked our home. I really liked him. Then we sat down to discuss business, and that’s when things changed immediately.
The rapport-building realtor quickly turned into a sales robot. He pulled out his iPad and positioned it between my husband and myself. He then put on his glasses and retrieved his mobile phone. He started up a PowerPoint presentation on his iPad, and read the notes directly from his phone. He wasn’t just referencing these notes on his phone. He was READING the notes word for word.
The sales pitch killed my interest immediately. It was about 14 minutes later that my husband noticed that I was about to ask the realtor to leave. My husband interrupted him and told him to wrap it up, and that’s when I just had to say, “Can we just have a conversation?”. I was shocked. I had never disliked someone so quickly. He continued to ramble on about the most irrelevant information, and when we finally had the opportunity to ask questions, his answers contradicted the message of his sales pitch. This only added to my frustration.
As a Customer Experience Strategist, I advocate and train sales representatives about consultative selling. Ask questions first. Listen to understand what’s most important to your customer or prospect. Then share your perspective on the best solutions to meet their needs. It’s that simple. Please, I beg you, ditch your sales pitch. Just plan to have a conversation instead.
Angela leads Teneo’s “Customer Conversations” and “Purposeful Sales Strategies” programs. Angela is a dynamic facilitator and trainer helping business teams build an engaging consultative customer service culture. As a Certified Sales Professional, she has earned the Certified Training & Development Professional (CTDP) designation that focuses on training needs assessment, curriculum design, and evaluation. Angela has also earned a Masters Certificate in Adult Training and Development from the Schulich School of Business.
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Every salesperson and sales leader have an overflowing platter of things to do: goals to achieve by the end of the year, new customers to find, managing back-orders, troubleshooting problems, and the list continues. There is certainly no shortage of things to do in a day.
In the past few years, I have noticed that the already full plate that everyone has in front of them has become an overflowing platter of things to do with the expectations from senior leadership and the demands from customers on the rise. As demands on our time increase, we still strive to say “Yes” to our customers and continue to invest the time to build strong partnerships with them. Salespeople and leaders are working more hours than ever to plan and strategize to achieve their double-digit growth expectations. Winging it is no longer an option!
Long ago are the days of extended customer lunches, several golf days in a year, and leaving early on Friday afternoons. These things are almost non-existent!
Something must give! My suggestion to the sales professional is this – decide what sales disciplines will help you become a high performer to outperform your competition, exceed sales goals and customer growth demands. Consider how you will continue to earn your customer’s trust, credibility and gain more business. Ponder what has worked for you in the past, and what will work in the future.
More importantly, you must decide what you will say “No” to. There are more distractions vying for your attention than ever before. Hundreds of emails, texts, high maintenance customers, and big territories with a ton of windshield time are all distractions pulling your eyes away from the sales dashboard of goals and activities.
In working with thousands of top-performing sales professionals, Teneo has identified 10 + 1 Disciplines that help turn sales professionals into high performing individuals and teams. We are also building our list of the Top 10 Distractions that get in the way of maximizing a productive sales day. We’ll be sharing these Disciplines and Distractions in future blogs and video blogs – so, stay tuned for those!
This week, I challenge you to identify your top 3 sales disciplines, which you want to say “Yes” to. These disciplines will help you to maximize your sales day, your territory and sales year. Then, I want you to identify the top 3 distractions that are preventing you from having a productive sales day. Identifying your top 3 disciplines and distractions will help you to proactively and strategically begin planning for next year and even help you look towards 2020! To hold yourself accountable to saying “Yes” to disciplines and saying “No” to distractions, I would suggest emailing, texting or tweeting your disciplines and distractions (even though that could be one of your distractions!). Reclaim your time to focus on disciplines and reduce distractions to maximize your sales productivity.
Lisa is driven by the mantra – Be Strategic. Be Pro-active. Be Brave. – and has been successfully training and coaching sales leaders and their teams to do the same for over 15 years. As the President of Teneo Results since 2003, she has trained thousands of sales professionals at more than 250 companies across North America. She transitions salespeople away from the standard “product & price” approach to having purposeful business conversations with their customers that drive results.
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In this article series, our intent is to help Sales Leaders and their teams get ready for the changing Sales and Buying Demographics by the year 2020.
In previous articles on this topic we’ve discussed the major workforce changes coming to sales teams as Millennials enter the workforce and Baby Boomers retire. In fact, by 2020 a whopping 50% of the workforce will consist of Millennials! Not only will they be the largest age group in the workforce, they will also have the largest spending power. This means the buyer of your products will have shifted, and therefore, your sales strategy should as well. However, before you can shift your strategy you must understand your buyer.
Millennials have a different thought process when buying, and it’s important that your company understands what drives their purchasing decisions. Millennials are interested in companies that stand for more than their bottom line and consequently show them more brand love. When surveyed, 37% of Millennials said they would purchase a product or service that supports a cause they believe in―even if it costs more. This helps humanize the company, and makes them appear more authentic to Millennials.
The digital age has changed the way that all age groups choose to buy, but none more so than Millennials. Certainly brick and mortar venues are still frequented by Millennials, but online shopping receives a large portion of their spending. It is common for this age group to practice the “showrooming” approach, where they visit the brick and mortar store, check out the product, and shop online for the best deal. They also use online shopping as a preemptive strategy when shopping. They’ll check out reviews, ratings, and prices online before going to buy the product in-store. This is the same when it comes to a B2B company. Millennials will likely research the company online to see how trustworthy they are. 72% of Millennials say online search engines are their most trusted source for information.
A common concern among most sales professionals is Millennial’s lack of brand loyalty. However, Millennial buyers can be remarkably loyal as long as they feel they are treated right. The most obvious way to increase brand loyalty is to have a reliable, quality product, and to have great customer service. Millennials want personalized treatment and to feel welcome when they are considering whether to buy a service or product. They also say that the most frequently used sources of information include: industry analysis 38%, vendor face to face meetings 36%, and vendor websites 33%. This is significantly less and Baby Boomer or Gen X.
Millennials also have a different view of advertising. Only 1% of 1,300 surveyed by Forbes stated that advertising would make them trust a brand more. They value authenticity over content and view advertising as manipulative and inauthentic, which is why they tend to ignore banner ads and use ad skipping programs to avoid video advertisements.
Given that Millennials have very different buying habits among the retail and B to C buying spheres, they will likely have different buying habits among the B to B sphere as well. Here are some tips to start selling to the Millennial.
1. Customization is key. Millennials want to feel unique and a great way to do this is to make them feel welcomed―whether it’s upon entering a store, or when making a sales call―a personal connection and authenticity can do wonders. Establishing a rapport is one of the crucial 8 steps of every sales call. It is also important to make them feel like they are getting an experience or personalization that is specific to them. Make the interaction special.
2. The buying process should be as seamless as possible, and provide the customer with direction along every step of the way. Yes, this means more pre-work on your end, but it will ultimately save time and headaches in the long run. Make sure that all your different media channels are in sync. This means everything from your website, to Facebook, to Twitter to the emails you send them. This will create a better buying experience for the customer and will help strengthen your relationship with them.
3. Establish a bond of trust with your customer by offering a quality product or service, and build upon this relationship. Remember, they value products that enhance their lives, and an authenticity to their transactions and conversations. Deliver both and they will likely reward you with loyalty to your brand.
4. Provide them with external resources. Millennials do a staggering amount of research before buying. This research includes information on the product, customer reviews, testimonials, and cost comparisons. They place the most value into their own peer’s testimonials, and feel a need to pass along their own experience, which is why many feel responsible to review products after buying them.
5. Promote the ways in which you give back to society. Many Millennials consider this to be a driving point when choosing which company to purchase products from.
As Millennials gain buying strength in today’s markets, selling strategies will need to change to accommodate this incoming market. Fortunately the workforce will also be in transition during this period and more Millennials will be placed into selling positions. Millennials have a good understanding on how their generation works and will be able to develop new ways of reaching their selling market.
Lisa is driven by the mantra – Be Strategic. Be Pro-active. Be Brave. – and has been successfully training and coaching sales leaders and their teams to do the same for over 15 years. As the President of Teneo Results since 2003, she has trained thousands of sales professionals at more than 250 companies across North America. She transitions salespeople away from the standard “product & price” approach to having purposeful business conversations with their customers that drive results.
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The Star Worthy Awards for sales excellence showcase our amazing clients and are awarded to the best sales professional, sales leader, sales team, customer service professional and the entire corporation as a whole.
Being Star Worthy is about really embracing and applying consultative selling and customer care practices in your day-to-day activities. It’s about adopting new concepts and implementing them into practice, and inspiring others to do the same.
These awards are presented at our annual Sales Leader’s Evolve Event in the Spring.
Left–Silvano Marone CSP, Robert Bosch,–Star Worthy Sales Professional Award.
Right–Doug Hiltz CSP and David Stojni, CanWel Building Materials Star Worthy Sales Team Award .
Top Right– Marianne Thompson CSP, Jeld-Wen–Star Worthy Sales Leader Award.
Bottom–Mike VanWart CSP, Alexandria Moulding–Star Worthy Cross Cultural Award.
Not Present: Christine de Henestrosa CSP, Sunstar Americas–Star Worthy Sales Professional Award. |
Lisa is driven by the mantra – Be Strategic. Be Pro-active. Be Brave. – and has been successfully training and coaching sales leaders and their teams to do the same for over 15 years. As the President of Teneo Results since 2003, she has trained thousands of sales professionals at more than 250 companies across North America. She transitions salespeople away from the standard “product & price” approach to having purposeful business conversations with their customers that drive results.
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Like any good Canadian, I’ve seen my fair share of hockey games. A good portion of my younger years were spent traveling around to different arenas watching my brother’s team play, and our TV was constantly set to Hockey Night in Canada. I’ve even occasionally laced up my figure skates and grabbed a stick to play a little friendly game―although I’m much better at spinning and jumping than I am at handling a puck. That is because I was trained as a figure skater and not a hockey player.
Even though I’m not training as a figure skater anymore, I’m still constantly training and being coached at work. The same metaphor can be applied to sales teams, where the goal―like in hockey―is to score goals to win the game. Sales reps are the players and sales managers are the coaches on the bench.
When we are training a new sales team or when a sales representative is transitioning into a management role it’s common to see them with their skates on and a stick in their hand trying to score goals. However this is a bit problematic. How is the manager supposed to coach the players while still on the ice trying to score the goals?
A coach’s role is to observe the players and develop a strategy to win the game; all while being sidelined on the bench. This can be difficult to accomplish―especially when managers are used to taking things into their own hands. This could be as simple as hijacking a meeting from a sales rep and taking charge instead of letting the rep take the lead to secure the sale.
So how can we transition a player to a coach and get managers to give up their skates and stick? It’s important for both parties to speak the same language, and to take the time before the meeting to go over the game plan. Managers should give coaching advice before the meeting starts and ensure both parties are on the same page during the meeting while allowing the rep to take charge.
Coming up with a game plan can be as easy as following the 8 steps of consultative selling, but all the players need to be aware of the plan and agree to follow it. Often, sales managers don’t even realize they’re interfering with their sales rep’s progress. Sometimes they believe they are helping by simply doing everything themselves. Sales coaching can help them correct this, and will help give them ease of mind when sending sales reps into meetings by themselves.
It’s the sales manager’s job to develop the skills and talent of their team, provide coaching feedback in between plays, and ultimately create an environment for their team to succeed and win. It’s the sales rep’s job to offensive and defensive strategies to score goals and win the game―all while staying out of the penalty box.
We used this analogy to help participants at a Sales Manager Coaching Workshop recently. We chose to hold the session at the arena, walked the managers out onto the ice and asked them to give up their sticks, take off their skates and put them on the bench. We then told them the only way they could win the game would be to coach their team to win. This was challenging for them, but by the end of the day they realized they did more strategizing, practicing, and coaching on plays in sports than in actual sales.
For a sales team to be effective they need an objective eye to watch the game and to report back with strategies to help score that next goal, and for a coach to be successful they need a team that listens to recommendations and puts them into action. The success of the organization depends on both players and coaches to succeed.
By Jenny Wilson
Lisa is driven by the mantra – Be Strategic. Be Pro-active. Be Brave. – and has been successfully training and coaching sales leaders and their teams to do the same for over 15 years. As the President of Teneo Results since 2003, she has trained thousands of sales professionals at more than 250 companies across North America. She transitions salespeople away from the standard “product & price” approach to having purposeful business conversations with their customers that drive results.
