B2B Sales: Intelligent Conversations

If you are the person who signs the checks (the President, CEO or business owner) for all of the expenses that go along with exhibiting at trade shows, one of the things that can drive you absolutely nuts is trying to figure out how to get the maximum return on your marketing investment while also ensuring enough new business closes to justify the expense.

As many of our clients get ready for "trade show season" and prepare to send their sales teams off to exotic convention centers across the country, here are the top five (5) trade show mistakes we see VPs of Sales make that can absolutely destroy your return on investment.

1. Planning as an after thought. Running a sales organization can be a tough, demanding job. There are so many moving parts to manage and often meeting with the VP of Marketing to provide input and feedback into trade show planning gets put on the back burner. Huge mistake. Your marketing team always needs a longer lead time than your vice president of sales believes. If your sales team is busy talking about problems solved by product X and your marketing team produces materials and give aways for product Y, you've got a big problem. Make sure your VP of Sales and your VP of Marketing schedule some time to plan well ahead of the show(s) you plan to attend.

2. Customers or Prospects? The great thing about exhibiting at the right trade shows for your industry is that everyone is there, including your current customers and prospective customers. To maximize your sales teams time make sure there is a clear strategy about how to handle both groups and where sales people should spend their time. Our advice is typically to talk with customers before the show to find out if they will attend and perhaps schedule some time with them before or after the show or during off hours. It could be a dinner or a cup of coffee or just a quick hello. Let them know that you value and appreciate their business and then set the expectation that your goal is to focus on new business.

3. Focus on Getting Leads. Many sales people (and sales leaders) attend these events expecting to get a lot of leads and connections - and they are often disappointed when they fall short. In our experience the sales people who leave the show with the most leads and connections are the ones who focus their time, energy and efforts and making connections for others first. What would happen if before the show everyone on your sales team invested some time thinking about who they could connect, who they could introduce, and what they could do to help your clients and prospective clients? Get your team focused on giving first, and they will receive plenty of leads and opportunities.

4. Missed Opportunities. If all you are going to do is set up your booth and stand there for 8 hours, don't even go. Get involved with the show. Offer to moderate a panel. Use the event to learn more about your competition and your market in general. Leverage the opportunity to have hundreds of short conversations as a training opportunity for your newer sales people. Provide on the spot coaching and feedback as you observe them interact with tradeshow attendees.

5. Poor Execution. The details matter. From pre-show planning (meeting with marketing to get the message right, identifying clients who will attend, calling prospects who will attend to book a cup of coffee during the show, etc.) to post-show follow up, successful sales organizations nail the details and execute with ruthless efficiency. Compare that to what you typically see as you walk a trade show floor (bored sales people nursing a hang over) and ask yourself which side of that coin you want your sales team to be on?

Investing in the right trade show can provide opportunities to connect with current clients, fill your sales pipeline with prospective clients, increase your company's viability, and learn more about your competition and your market in general. Make sure your VP of Sales avoids these mistakes and you'll be on your way to a strong return on your trade show investment. See original article (and free download offer) at our:  CEO Sales Blog.

"Ability is what you are capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it." - Lou Holtz

What separates top producing sales people from the rest of the pack? Do they have better sales skill? More talent? Do they build relationships faster? Ask better questions? Are they great presenters? Stronger at prospecting? All of the above?

Of course all of these things help, but in our experience the single most important factor that separates successful, highly productive sales people from everyone else is their attitude. If the first thing a customer buys is you - the sales person - and your attitude sucks it's going to be terribly difficult to get them engaged and excited about your product or service.

A great attitude can make up for a lot. In our sales coaching business we have seen many sales people with what might otherwise be fatal flaws - poor organizational skills, lack of follow up, little to no technical or product knowledge, inappropriate timing and other sales weaknesses - succeed in sales because they have a great attitude. They bring a passion and enthusiasm that is contagious and makes clients want buy from them. Imagine how well they do once we help them acquire stronger sales skills and use a better selling system?

On the other hand, a bad attitude can destroy profit and revenue faster than you can imagine. We have seen sales people with all the right skills and technical knowledge absolutely flop because they have a horrible attitude. And while a great attitude is contagious, it seems a bad attitude can spread even faster.

How is your attitude toward sales? Do you have the passion and enthusiasm to effectively transfer emotion and get your prospects as excited about your product and service as you are? Do you look forward to sales meetings and coaching sessions with your manager? Are you upbeat and positive no matter who you're talking to? Do you have a positive outlook and do you see the impact that has on those around you?

If you can say yes to these questions you're probably off to a great start this year. If you find yourself rolling your eyes as you read these questions, you may still be off to a good start this year, but it's probably inspite of what you've done instead of because of what you've done.

Your attitude is your choice. And every day you get a new opportunity to make better choices.  Good selling!

I was having a conversation with my colleague Tim Hagan this morning about the tendency for sales management to react (and sometimes overreact) too quickly. The consequences can be devastating to the sales team's motivation and the overall morale of the company. All the research shows that customers first make decisions on an emotional level and then rationalize their decision intellectually. So the last thing you want is a demoralized sales force with a bad outlook.

As we talked about a few specific coaching situations we're both in, I gave the example of playing racquetball. One of the mistakes beginning racquetball players make is playing too aggressive - they dart back and forth and try to smash the ball as hard as they can as soon as they can. More experienced players have learned the value of waiting for the ball to bounce. They don't have to run as far, they conserve energy, they change the pace of play, and when they pause to let the ball bounce off the back wall they have more time to plan where they want to place their next shot.

Your Vice President of Sales and Sales Managers have shots flying at them all day. They run from one crisis to the next trying to swat away problems, save deals, coach sales people to be better, and motivate the team. What would happen if they slowed down - just a little bit - to let the ball bounce before reacting to something? Would they be more effective? Could they avoid overreacting and demoralizing the team? What would happen to your sales productivity if your Sales Leaders took the time to thoughtfully plan their next shot instead of smashing it with all their might and then darting to their next meeting?

Dave Kurlan wrote another gem this week in his recent article "Sales Coaching is Like Baseball - How Do You Rate?" While Dave makes several great points, there's one I want to highlight that we see sales managers struggle with on a regular basis - the effective use of role play.

To be an effective sales coach your sales manager must be able to demonstrate the proper way to handle all of the sales situations their team encounters. If there's a tough competitor in your market working one of your weak spots or trying to reframe the conversation to their advantage, your sales people need to know the:

* Questions to ask,
* Statements to make,
* Phrases to use,
* Softening tactics that gently steer the conversation back on track, and
* Right tone of voice, facial expressions, and body language to do all of this.

The same thing applies to overcoming objections, handling price discussions, uncovering compelling reasons, qualifying the decision process or budget, and all of the other milestones they must reach over the course of an intelligent sales conversation.

So what are the key elements to effective role play? In addition to what Dave writes about we offer the following list - our Five Rules for Effective Sales Role Play:

1) Sales Process Map; the first step sounds obvious, but you'd be surprised at how many sales organizations miss it. To be an effective sales coach who can demonstrate the right behaviors through on-the-spot role play, it's eminently helpful to have a well defined Sales Process Map outlining the key milestones and how to hit them over the course of the sales conversation.

2) Ditch the Map; while mapping out a general framework for your sales process is a great first step, understand that an actual sales conversation almost never happens as planned. A sales process map will give you the general direction to go and areas to cover, but you'll need to be agile enough to adjust and adapt once you are in a real sales conversation.

3) On-the-Spot Role Play; your sales managers may be uncomfortable doing this (at first), but nothing earns credibility and changes sales behavior faster than effective on-the-spot role play. Whether it happens in the middle of a sales meeting or during a one-on-one, going into role play "on-the-spot" to demonstrate the right sales behavior makes everyone step up their game.

4) Sales Person as Prospect; the toughest prospect you will ever meet is a sales person who has been beat up a lot by prospects over the past week. When they get an opportunity to "be the prospect" they get to amalgamate all of the objections, tough questions, and difficult behaviors they've experienced from prospects over the past few days. For a sales person this is extremely fun (and therapeutic). For a sales manager it provides great insight into the types of issues their team is encountering in the field (and it also gives them insight into how busy people are - if a sales person can't role play as the prospect effectively they're probably not in as many sales conversations as they're reporting).

5) Do It and Then Do It Some More; the easiest and most effective way to get better at sales is to get into more sales conversations. And while nothing can replace the experience gained during live sales calls, frequent role play between sales manager and sales person provides a great way to have those conversations in a constructive environment. The more your sales managers do this the better they'll get at it.

Have your sales managers follow these Five Rules for Effective Sales Role Play and you will start to see your sales team having better conversations, with better prospects, selling larger opportunities at higher margins and creating stronger top line growth for your company - and isn't that what you want from your sales department?

I was in a conversation with a CEO last week asking questions about their sales organization, the critical sales ratios they monitor, how frequently they meet, what they accomplish during their sales meetings, turnover on their sales team, profit margins, their competitive landscape, and a host of other issues. As I asked these questions I could see the CEO was getting more and more frustrated.

Finally he just threw up his hands and said "Look, I don't track any of that stuff. I just watch the results they put up and until recently I didn't have to worry about it!"

Here's the mistake I made - by asking so many detailed questions I painted managing the sales organization as a complex, mysterious and difficult to understand process. It's not, but it does require top management attention and you can't manage it simply by looking at the results .

As CEO you don't have to track every last detail - leave that for your VP of Sales and your sales managers - but here are four key areas that provide a good place to start:

1. Sales Organization - do you have enough turnover? Will your sales managers fire someone for poor performance? Are they constantly recruiting and looking for better talent? How effective is your on-boarding process and are you actively working on ways to reduce the time from hire to revenue production?
2. Sales Management - are your sales managers doing everything they can to grow your business? Are they running effective sales meetings? Are they coaching effectively and developing the team? Do they demonstrate the right behaviors? Do they hold people accountable?
3. Sales Ratios - are there enough opportunities in your sales pipeline? Are opportunities moving through your sales pipeline at the right pace? Are your sales managers tracking the daily behaviors of their sales team? Are their sales forecasts real-world or wishful thinking?
4. Market Data - has each sales person identified their "top 5" (or whatever the right number is for your market) opportunities? Do they know which of their clients are on your competitor's "top 5" list and what are they doing to build deeper and broader relationships? What is your competition doing that may disrupt your plans? Have you identified new markets or opportunities to broaden the reach of your product or service? Who in your company is thinking about this and looking for ways to grow new markets?

If you're like most executives we meet you're probably not tracking all of these things and if you are you may not be tracking them with enough frequency. The question you have to ask yourself is what could be more important than growing your top line? Everything starts with a sale and if you focus your time and attention on these four areas you will start to see greater levels of accountability, increased activity, stronger sales performance, and ultimately increased revenue.

Taking the time to systematize even the most mundane, mindless tasks within your company can save you and your team time and your sanity. Take five minutes to write down a list of things you do on a daily basis then ask yourself: "Do we have a set way to do this?"

Here are a few ideas to get you started:

1. Phone greeting; is everyone answering the phone with the same greeting? Does everyone take messages the same way? Do you have a system to assure the person gets the message? It seems like a simple task, however if it's not done effectively you risk losing business. Take the time to create a short greeting. Purchase a message book so your team is trained to look for the same type of paper every time they have a message to respond to.

2. Checking your voice mail; as my boss likes to joke: "What do I need to know how to do if you get hit by a bus tomorrow?" If I ever take a day off my team knows to simply go to my bookshelf, find the Systems Binder, and find step by step details on how to do even the smallest task such as answering voicemail. If small things like that get left behind, it's a lot more work to catch up when you return!

3. Reviewing and updating your systems binder; if you're going to take the time to create the binder, make sure you take the time to keep it up to date. My system for this is easy. Each system gets a date assigned at the top right hand side of the paper. Then, a date is scheduled within Outlook to "review system." Some systems only require being reviewed every six months; some need to be looked at every 90 days. It doesn't take the long to do, and the benefits are huge!

This week as you go about your day keep a piece of paper by you and write down all the tasks you do on a daily basis. After assembling the list it is easy to check off each activity as you create a system and add it to your Systems Binder. The organization may seem overwhelming in the beginning, but the time is well spent to save your energy later on. Stop by next week and I'll go over the importance or creating a position manual for each position in your company and how to assure your year reviews are as productive as possible.

If you are anything like me there is nothing more frustrating than disorganization. Being a firm believer in finding a set way to complete a task and sticking to that pattern every time, it can aggravate me when a coworker does not. As a business manager, administrative assistant, or whatever fancy title you have on your business card-it's your job to make sure that your company runs without any hiccups on a daily basis. However, you may ask yourself: "How do I make my boss and sales teams do anything?" The simple answer is systemization.

If you were to sit down and list all the areas of your business that need organization it can look like a daunting task. However, by taking on each subject separately you can easily have a stress free business organization within six (6) weeks. Over the next two months I will be outlining:

* Basic office organization-simplifying the simple,
* Position manuals and year reviews,
* Systematizing your team's travel,
* Developing a concise marketing system,
* What to do when you receive a stack of business cards, and
* The importance of a 90 day planning session.

According to a recent study by SpencerStuart, the most common path executives take before becoming CEO is Operations. Finance was second. Sales and Marketing are the third and fourth most common roles, but there's significant gap between these "customer facing" functions and the "back room" functions that lead the way.

What impact does your historical role have on how you view the sales organization? Understanding and being aware of the biases your past may create is the first step to building a better relationship with your Vice President of Sales - the kind of relationship that will help you deliver the revenue results your investors expect!

1. Operations Background - View of Sales

-Focus on sales as a "process" - you love the sales process flow chart your VP of Sales created showing each potential decision point and feedback loop
-Tools and Infrastructure - since you view sales as "a process that can be optimized" you are willing to invest in CRM tools, databases, pipeline reports and other things that improve your sales infrastructure
-Systems View - while you like your VP of Sales, you tend to view individual sales people as "parts in a larger system" that can easily be replaced or upgraded (as a result you may have more sales hiring mistakes than most of your peers)

2. Finance Background - View of Sales

-Focus on "cost of sales" - you tend to focus on reducing the "cost of goods sold" line on your monthly profit and loss statement more than your peers do
-Profits come next - in addition to reducing COGS, you also tend to focus on increasing profit margins and ask your VP of Sales to drive the team toward selling higher-margin products or services
-Sales People and Recruiting are an expense - you tend to view sales people and the constant need to replace them as an expense to be managed rather than an investment to maximize. You will disagree with this at first. Remember that next time you are upset when signing the commission checks some people on your sales team earn

3. Marketing Background - View of Sales

-Build It & They'll Buy It - you tend to be pretty feature/benefit oriented and have a fundamental belief that if your product team builds the right stuff all your sales people need to do is collect orders
-Value Proposition - from your perspective, it's all about defining and communicating the right value proposition. If sales are down your first instinct is to work on this rather than develop your sales people or improve sales management
-Killer Demo/Presentation - your sales people are more familiar with PowerPoint than Excel. With your natural bias toward building stronger and stronger value propositions, your VP of sales has mastered the subtle art of rearranging bullet points and graphics

4. Sales Background - View of Sales

-Fear & Loathing - because you have such a detailed understanding of the challenges facing your sales team, you fear losing control and have to resist the urge to put on your "VP of Sales" cavalry hat and ride to their rescue
-Will Spend Money - in our experience, CEOs with a sales background tend to approve more generous compensation plans and will spend more on technology and perks for the sales team (the results their teams produce rarely correlate)
-Potential Blind Spot - a strength overextended can become your greatest weakness. Because you have such a detailed understanding of sales and the sales process, you tend to wait too long before asking for help

Are these observations a little harsh and too simplistic? Yes, that's probably fair criticism. Then again, there are elements of truth in each of these observations and the first step to improving yourself is to recognize and acknowledge your potential shortcomings. The question you need to ask is do you want to talk with someone who will "tell you like it is" rather than a sycophant who just tells you what you want to hear?

"Patience is a virtue, right? Too much patience is stupidity." Lou Piniella, Cubs manager, after shaking up the lineup of his run-challenged club.

We see it happen all the time - sales managers who are afraid to shake things up on their sales team who end up keeping mediocre performers when all signs indicate they should let them go. Yes, patience is a virtue. And yes, it's the sales manager's responsibility to make sure they do everything in their power to create an environment for sales people to succeed - from daily coaching, to joint sales calls, to frequent role play, to motivating, to investing in sales training, to listening to calls and debriefing, and supporting their sales team in every way possible.

But as Cubs manager Lou Piniella put it this past weekend, "%u2026too much patience is stupidity." When should your sales manager draw the line and make the difficult decision to let a sales person go? What criteria should they use leading up to that decision? How do you make sure your sales manager is doing everything they can to avoid the mistake of letting a potentially strong producer go?

1. Manage Daily Behaviors, not Results - we advise our clients to focus on the daily behaviors that lead to sales results, rather than the results themselves. This is especially important when a sales person is struggling. You can monitor this by looking at what your sales managers are measuring. Do they know the number of call attempts, referrals, or introductions each sales person generates every day/week/month? How many turn into conversations? How many conversations turn into face-to-face meetings? How many meetings turn into proposals? If your sales managers focus on the day-to-day activities that lead to success, the sales results should follow.

2. Three Strikes and You're Out - as your sales manager monitors specific activities, have them set clearly defined activity goals for the sales person in question. Since the activities monitored should be within the sales person's control and are measurable, set specific targets. The first time they miss a target (for the day, week or month, as appropriate), that's strike one. If they get to strike one, talk about what happened and coach them through whatever challenges or difficulties caused them to miss the target. If they get to strike two, the sales person gets a day off (unpaid) to get their head on straight and to think about whether or not they want to be in their position. If they reach strike three, it's time to let them go.

3. Recruit, recruit, recruit - we tell our clients that a decision to recruit is not a decision to hire. If you are constantly recruiting sales talent, you'll never be held hostage by mediocre performers because you'll have a strong pipeline of sales candidates available. It is extremely difficult to implement the "three strikes and you're out" rule if you don't have a recruiting system in place. Most sales managers we evaluate recruit on an "as-needed" basis only.

No matter how long you've run your company, chances are you've had sales managers hang on to a struggling sales person a little too long. Follow these three simple steps and you can make sure their patience doesn't breed mediocrity in your sales organization. Need help? That's what we do - just e-mail mike@intelligentconversations.com to schedule a briefing.