Winning Edge: January 2016 - Are You Up & Running? by Institute of Sales Management (ISM)

WINNINGEDGE FOR SALES AND MARKETING PROFESSIONALS

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2016 | www.ismm.co.uk | £4.95

ARE YOU UP AND RUNNING?

Seven key strategies to secure sales, stay ahead of the pack and smash your targets this year – and the next

PICKING WINNERS

How to take the luck out of hiring Cover V5.indd 2

STANDARD BEARERS Imparta and the ISMM join forces

COACH TO WIN

Key steps to craft a top sales team 19/01/2016 17:09

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CONTENTS

WINNINGEDGE

JAN/FEB 2016 www.ismm.co.uk

Basepoint Business & Innovation Centre A22, 110 Butterfield, Great Marlings Luton, Bedfordshire, LU2 8DL Tel: 01582 840001 Email: sales@ismm.co.uk Web: www.ismm.co.uk Chairman: S R Watson-Challis President: W Eric Peacock CMG DL ISMM Honorary Fellows: HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh KG KT, HRH The Princess Royal Vice Presidents: Lord Apsley, Angela Browning MP, Patrick Joiner FInstSMM, Lord Moynihan, Michael Pambos PhD FInstSMM, Dr William Pedley, Norman Waite FInstSMM Director of Business Development: Julian Reid Editorial: Marc Beishon,Tom Nash Design: Del Gentleman Advertising: James Driver Tel: 01582 840001 Email: magazine@ismm.co.uk Printed by: Ridgeway Press © ISMM 2016. Opinions expressed are not necessarily shared by the ISMM. The publishers endeavour to check all facts and figures prior to publication, but are not responsible for errors in material supplied to them for publication. Any article published will automatically be deemed to carry the sole copyright and be the property of the ISMM. International Standard Serial No. UK ISSN 1746-6849

ISMM.CO.UK

1 Contents V2.indd 3

3 EDITORIAL

24 ALL AGAINST ONE

What’s ahead in 2016 and beyond?

Steve Hoyle tackles the challenge of buyers who join forces

4 SALES TALK The latest sales news and research

28 PICKING WINNERS

7 NEW YEAR, NEW RESOLVE

Darren Spence shows how to take the luck out of sales recruitment

Shweta Jhajharia explains three ways to stick to your goals in 2016

32 COACH FOR SUCCESS

9 MAD MEN WON’T SELL

The first steps are key to creating top teams, says Matt Jefferson

It’s time to ditch the Don Draper sales image, says Peter Linas

34 MAJOR MISTAKES

10 SMARTER SELLING

Paul Black explains how to avoid five commonplace sales errors

Information, insight, practical advice – and entertainment

36 EAT HUMBLE PIE

15 THE GADGET PAGE

Humility beats ego when striving for sales, argues Guy Anastaze

Innovative tech kit for sales pros

16 EDUCATION Profiling Imparta’s Richard Barkey, plus new trends in sales L&D

20 COVER STORY Sean McPheat provides seven sales strategies that will keep your selling on track and help you hit your targets this year

38 GET A LIFE! Christian Marcolli shows how to achieve good work/life integration

40 BOOK REVIEWS 43 CAREER LINES 45 NEW ISMM MEMBERS 46 DIRECTORY 48 MEMBER PROFILE 49 CORPORATE MEMBERSHIP WINNING EDGE 1

19/01/2016 19:26

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OPINION

EDITORIAL COMMENT

CLOUD GAZING TECHNOLOGY IS LIKELY TO BE THE GAME CHANGER FOR SELLERS AND CUSTOMERS

t’s usual at this time of the year to reflect on what’s gone and what’s to come in the sales, marketing and business communities across the country. Take the UK economy: a lot of the indicators look good, as we’re nearing what is regarded as full employment, and the CBI reports that there was a strong finish to 2015 with firms delivering healthy output, although exporters have challenges as emerging nations, in particular, have hit major issues such as lower commodity prices. A key indicator is new car sales, which hit a record high of 2.63 million new vehicles registered in 2015, higher than the last record set in 2003. But as we put this issue to bed there has been a big “correction” owing to turmoil in China and there seems little agreement on whether we are on a solid footing or not, although the commentators reckon we will probably see another 2008 Great “M&A activity reached not Recession – it may be more a global record high like the less dramatic in 1998 and in 2015 at $3.8tr” recessions 2001-02, although the impact of globalisation is now greater. One of the big business trends is merger and acquisition (M&A) activity, which reached a 15 year UK high in 2015, and which poses major challenges to suppliers. According to data firm Dealogic, the value of UK M&A deals last year jumped almost 63% to £381bn, involving 3,385 deals – and at a global level buyers splashed out $3.8tr, the highest amount ever, says Bloomberg. If anything, 2016 will be even bigger, the firm adds. Turning to our sector and to selling specifically, there have been some mixed messages recently. We’ve seen the rise of statistic that 60% or so of buyers have already made up their minds before engaging a salesperson, the notion that solution selling is dead (and insight selling is in), and that ARE YOU B2B salespeople are an endangered species. UP AND One of the highlights was the group behind RUNNING? The Challenger Sale releasing The Challenger Customer, in which they migrate their core idea about providing challenging insights rather than building relationships to having customer insiders doing the same thing. But there are plenty of contrary positions to these assertions. There have of course been major changes in the

WINNINGEDGE FOR SALES AND MARKETING PROFESSIONALS

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2016 | www.ismm.co.uk | £4.95

Seven key strategies to secure sales, stay ahead of the pack and smash your targets this year – and the next

PICKING WINNERS

How to take the luck out of hiring

ISMM.CO.UK

3 Editorial REVISE 2.indd 9

STANDARD BEARERS Imparta and the ISMM join forces

COACH TO WIN

Key steps to craft a top sales team

way prospects and customers engage with suppliers and in how they use the Internet and peer groups to do research, but the way these issues are sometimes put it’s as though someone has pulled a switch and you won’t do business without a full-on social media strategy and a salesforce full of “challengers”. There’s a tendency to target the highest common denominator, such as in complex technology sales – whereas out there are a myriad of different vertical industries and vendors of all shapes and sizes. But clearly there are trends that are ongoing. In no particular order: lead generation is becoming harder so smart content marketing is key (and email is still good); inside salespeople (don’t call them telesales) are growing in importance and lines will blur with field sales; sales training will use more blended learning and gamification; hiring and retaining good salespeople will be harder as their skills become even more marketable, and firms could well look more to apprentices, sales academies (and ISMM qualifications); coaching is still a big issue; sales models and processes are becoming more complex, and demonstrating value and giving a good customer buying experience are key; and much more. Probably the biggest changes affecting everyone in the next few years will relate to technology. For sales and marketing, we’ve been saying for some time that there has been a major ramp up in new software for managing people and processes, and it’s notable that more of the ‘smart money’ is backing this trend – venture capitalists are funding a lot of new sales automation firms. Meanwhile coming rapidly down the track are hugely disruptive technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), 5G mobile and goodness knows what else in the sharing economy, to follow firms such as Uber and Airbnb. Industries such as media have already been greatly disrupted by technology, and others will follow – it’s a matter of time. This is an exciting but daunting challenge for all. WINNING EDGE 3

22/01/2016 17:29

SALES TALK INDUSTRY NEWS

CHALLENGES

WORRYING TRENDS A new report reveals what salespeople 40% worry about most

OF SALESPEOPLE MAKE DECISIONS BASED ON EXISTING CLIENT RELATIONSHIPS

STATISTICS

DID YOU KNOW… Source: iAdvize (www.iAdvize.com)

28% OF UK CONSUMERS BUY ONLINE AT LEAST ONCE A WEEK

29% HAVE ABANDONED THEIR ONLINE SHOPPING BASKET DUE TO LACK OF CUSTOMER SUPPORT

73% BUY AT LEAST ONCE A MONTH

62% WOULD BE WILLING TO ENGAGE OTHER WEBSITE VISITORS AND BRAND ADVOCATES VIA COMMUNITY CHAT

BUZZWORDS

SALES ENABLEMENT Some define sales enablement as a role or function in an organisation; others view it as a task performed (helping to build sales presentations, writing competitive positioning guides etc). Either way, it matches strategic initiatives to the sales execution process, and includes the systems, activities, processes and information that support knowledgebased sales interactions with clients and prospects. Sales enablement is typically co-owned by the sales organisation and others, including marketing, product development and human resources. Source: www.qvidian.com

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Almost half of sales professionals worry about falling sales and identifying new opportunities to replace lost customers, even before getting out of bed in the morning, says a new study. “GO WITH The report, by sales THEIR GUT” intelligence software supplier Source: sales-i sales-i, is based on data collected from 283 sales professionals across the UK and US. It also reveals that 23% of salespeople are troubled by upselling to existing customers. Among sales managers, 34% say that their main problem is acquiring timely information to use while selling, while 17% say that visibility into the activities of the sales team is their biggest daily challenge. Paul Black, CEO of sales-i, comments: “Sales is a notoriously competitive profession and while the best are typically driven, charismatic and competitive by nature, businesses must do more to help them overcome the daily challenges they face so they can ultimately sell more. This survey provides some fascinating insight into what exactly these challenges are and what businesses should be doing to combat them and get ahead of the competition.”

E-COMMERCE

CUSTOMERS WANT TO CHAT

Online buyers prefer real-time communication to traditional channels Research indicates that email support offered on websites is a big turn off for online buyers, and that new and more fashionable customer service channels – live chat and community chat – are succeeding it as a way to build loyalty. The study, by customer care platform iAdvize, suggests that online customer care is stuck in the past, with over 90% of UK companies still using a contact form or email query service to deal with questions. One in three UK customers are dissatisfied with email response speeds and favour live chat and emerging peer-to-peer

support alternatives. Speed and ease-of-use were named as key factors for satisfaction, with live chat receiving the highest rating (87%). The report reveals that community chat is gaining favour as a new way for brands to involve their online communities in providing real-time support to other users (see Statistics, left). Community chat is an online chat solution via which experienced users of a particular brand, so-called ‘brand advocates’, can share advice about a product or service with website visitors. Julien Hervouët, CEO of iAdvize, says: “Consumers are not prepared to wait for an email; they want a real time response.”

ISMM.CO.UK

19/01/2016 17:33

SALES TALK | INDUSTRY NEWS

Talking Point

SHORT SELLING N EW S RO UND- UP

KEEP IT REAL

BOOK FOR BESMA “Companies rushing to replace their call centre services by going digital will face the same dire consequences of a decade ago – when moving call centres abroad to cut costs infuriated and lost customers. Most worrying now is a trend to swap person-to-person telephone contact with digital services, including social media, online chat boxes and web-based self-service portals. While it may appear that shifting customers online makes financial sense, in the long run it is a totally false economy.” Doug Tucker, managing director, Sales Commando

The winners of the 2016 British Excellence in Sales & Marketing Awards (BESMA) will be announced by comedian Dara Ó Briain at the BESMA Award’s at the Grosvenor House Hotel, London, on 9 March 2016. (See inside front cover for details).

REVIEW RAVE

VALUE

WHAT ARE YOU SAYING?

Study finds that messaging, rather than process, is what really drives sales

CUSTOMER DATA

IN THE DARK ON DATA Many businesses are working with poor quality customer information Nearly two-thirds of UK businesses report out-ofdate or incomplete customer information, with 60% having hardly any data for certain customers. The finding, from research by Royal Mail Data Services, suggests that businesses are unable to power personalised customer communications or execute data-driven customer marketing. As a result, they could be relying on just 40% of their customers to deliver business growth. Only 43% of businesses automatically validate the customer data they capture on their websites or as it enters internal systems, according to the report on the research, while 21% still have no validation process for customer data captured via the web, and 15% fail to check data entered into their systems. Jim Conning, managing director, Royal Mail Data Services, says: “A fifth of businesses rely on manual checks of address data. This is a time-consuming and costly, and vulnerable to human error.” Conning continues: “Businesses need to use faster, online, self-service ways to capture and validate customer data. Contact and address data management solutions are now readily available.”

ISMM.CO.UK

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Messaging and sales conversations are the most important factor for driving more profitable, closed deals according to a survey by sales messaging specialist, Corporate Visions. But the study also finds that companies still invest the most time and budget on sales process-related activities rather than sales messaging. The survey polled more than 430 business-to-business marketing and sales executives globally. The largest number of respondents (34%) ranked the sales process – making sure salespeople know what to do and how to do it when it comes to managing accounts and opportunities – as the area their company spends the most time and budget on. But the majority of respondents (61%) selected reps’ ability to deliver a distinct point of view, which uniquely positions their solutions, as the most important factor for successfully driving deals to a profitable close. “The results reveal a striking contradiction between what companies believe will drive the greatest value and where they are investing most of their time and money,” says Tim Riesterer, chief strategy and marketing officer at Corporate Visions. He adds: “While it’s important that salespeople know where to show up and how to structure an opportunity, it’s clear that companies know that what is more important is actually what they say when they get there.”

Online reviews are playing a larger role than ever in the buying habits of UK consumers, with 77% saying they would be persuaded to make a purchase after reading a positive review, according to a survey by sales promotions expert Opia.

FINANCE FIRST

Financial services is the top ranking sector in the UK for customer service, according to research by specialist outsourcer Echo Managed Services. Telecoms came bottom of the poll of 1,000 consumers.

CALL CONFUSION

Nearly two-thirds of businesses cannot accurately forecast call volumes, nor measure agent, contact centre, sales and support team performance, finds a survey by customer communications expert Enghouse Interactive.

DUD YOU KNOW

One in four consumers has bought a product online that turned out to be counterfeit, according to research by brand protection specialist MarkMonitor.

DO U-TURN TOO?

A survey by Sales Commando reveals that 70% of sales professionals use ‘u-turn’ tactics to bring them faster, cleaner sales closures and meet targets more quickly.

CONGRATULATIONS…

… to Tadpole Training, founded by Janet Efere (second left), which has won Enterprise Enfield’s Start Up Business of the Year award. Efere established Tadpole Training in 2014, with ISMM accreditation, to teach Enfield businesspeople how to overcome their fears and sell confidently.

WINNING EDGE 5

19/01/2016 17:33

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Will Greenwood MBE Former HSBC Trader & Rugby World Cup Winner

Chief of Military History at the U.S Military Academy & Leadership Expert

Rob Brown

Grant Leboff

Chris Brindley

Sales Networking Expert (Host)

Social Selling Expert

Former Managing Director of Metro Bank

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19/01/2016 18:15

THREE WAYS SUCCESSFUL SALESPEOPLE CAN ACHIEVE THEIR GOALS THIS YEAR

ichard Wiseman, professor of the public understanding of psychology at the University of Hertfordshire, conducted a well-known experiment into the success rate of New Year’s resolutions. The results were that 88% of those who set New Year’s resolutions failed to achieve them. The question is why? And what can we learn from those who actually achieve their goals? I’d like to share three techniques that have worked for me and for successful businesspeople I know. 1. AVOID COGNITIVE OVERLOAD The brain cells in the prefrontal cortex govern willpower. They are also responsible for keeping you focused, handling short-term memory, and solving abstract problems. When your prefrontal cortex is overloaded, you simply do not have room to maintain your willpower. In addition, when you set yourself more than you can achieve this can impact your self-belief, which demotivates you. It is far more productive to set yourself up for a win so that you can celebrate it and, with confidence, move up to achieve the next level. 2. TAKE BABY STEPS It is more effective to adopt new habits in small steps than to make major commitments. When people make a New Year’s resolution, they often choose something fairly abstract, such as quit smoking, lose weight or manage stress. To give yourself the best chance of success, you need to be more precise, understanding the distinction between a resolution and a habit. A habit is when you perform a very specific behaviour and set a very specific goal associated with it. So convert those abstract resolutions into habits you wish to create. l Quit smoking becomes: “Stop smoking that one cigarette you have every morning after breakfast” l Lose weight becomes: “Every evening after work, go for a 2-3 minute run or walk” l Manage stress becomes: “Meditate for 2-3 minutes every morning after you wake up.” The idea is to break down those lofty goals into actions that only take a few minutes to achieve every day. By doing them regularly, those actions become habits that you can continue easily. Less willpower is required and you naturally avoid cognitive overload. You can then devote your cognitive capacity to creating the next small habit, which in turn furthers your ultimate goal. ISMM.CO.UK

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ADVICE GO O D H ABIT S NEW YEAR, NEW RESOLVE

By Shweta Jhajharia

“It is more effective to adopt new habits in small steps than to make major commitments”

SHWETA JHAJHARIA is founder and principal coach of The London Coaching Group. Visit: www.londoncoachinggroup.com

3. WRITE DOWN YOUR GOALS When you write down your goals, you become more committed to them. For example, we ask our clients to meet every quarter at a strategic planning day, where they fill out a goals template, to which we then hold them accountable. This act of reviewing goals every quarter instills a habit that has resulted in significant achievements towards the ultimate goals of every participant. This is not just corporate fluff. Social psychologist Emily Balcetis has shown that if you focus on the end goal, then you will feel it is easier to achieve. Writing it down helps with that focus. A study at Dominican University in the US chose a wide variety of participants and separated them into five groups: l Group 1 simply thought about their goals l Group 2 wrote down their goals l Group 3 wrote down their goals and what they committed to do to achieve them l Group 4 wrote down goals and commitments, and shared those commitments with a friend l Group 5 did all the above, but also submitted weekly progress reports. Groups 4 and 5 achieved by far the best results, with a 64% and 76% achievement rate respectively. Group 1 performed the weakest, with a success rate of just 43%. The study provides evidence of the effectiveness of three coaching tools: accountability, commitment and writing. Every salesperson and every business is different, but these are three actions that have worked well for me personally and for many other successful people. So if you haven’t tried them yet, it is worth giving them a shot in 2016 – because they work! WINNING EDGE 7

19/01/2016 16:03

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19/01/2016 18:15

WHY IT’S TIME TO LEAVE DON DRAPER BEHIND

OPINION RELAT IO NS H IPS M AD M EN WON’T SELL

o some extent, all professions are influenced by their depictions in pop culture, and sales is no exception. In fact, when it comes to TV, film, and literature, it’s rather spoilt for choice. Alec Baldwin’s slick, cruel Blake from Glengarry Glen Ross is often quoted – “Coffee’s for closers”, “Third place is you’re fired”, “Always be closing” – and to this day Mad Men’s Don Draper is still widely revered. But what do we love about Don? Perhaps we admire the image of the Sterling Cooper superstar, because he is everything a classic salesperson is supposed to be: confident, suave, able to win customers over with a roguish wink, a smile, a fancy dinner, and a distillery’s-worth of alcohol.

MYTH VERSUS REALITY It’s a seductive myth, perhaps, but it’s also completely irrelevant to modern sales. Don Draper may be a conceptual genius; he may win new business at an alarming rate; his jaw may look like it was carved by Michelangelo himself. But nothing about him is genuine. He’s a deeply flawed character: a liar, a serial philanderer, and a man in a constant state of emotional crisis. For these reasons, he isn’t a character that resonates with the millennial crowd. This generation values authenticity above all things. The salesperson has to care. They have to know what customers want, and how to give it to them. As such, millennials aren’t impressed by obscenely expensive corporate hospitality and they can see straight through insincere sales spiel. Winging it Draper-style isn’t going to fly. This poses a problem for those sales professionals who still hold to the old ways, because millennials will comprise 75% of the international workforce by 2025. If the salespeople of today and tomorrow have any designs on future success, they’ll have to figure out how they can impress this audience – and technology provides ways to do just that. When you can’t resort to the Draper technique, you’re faced with getting to know the individual and the business you’re targeting. This causes salespeople to run into trouble, because no single client is ever their only priority. Even on a good day they’ll still have to divide their attention between several different potential accounts. The basic idea that the customer deserves to feel they’re important, and they have the representative’s undivided attention, is worth keeping in mind. Technology makes juggling multiple priorities a lot easier. Automated data capture can keep a ISMM.CO.UK

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By Peter Linas

“Millennials aren’t impressed by obscenely expensive corporate hospitality and they can see straight through sales spiel” record of every interaction, equipping the salesperson with in-depth knowledge of their subject and their specific requirements – making it much easier to close the deal. In the past, data analysis involved sifting through spreadsheet after spreadsheet in the vague hope of finding some kind of tangible correlation or trend. Over the last few years, customer relationship management (CRM) technology has changed things for the better. But CRM systems shouldn’t just build queries from repositories of data anymore. They should actively use the data to provide immediate, actionable information. Sophisticated analysis technology enables salespeople to know not only when a customer is communicating with a company, but how. If a pattern indicates dissatisfaction, it will alert the relevant employee; if it indicates enthusiasm, it will suggest ways to build on the good work.

PETER LINAS is international MD of Bullhorn, which provides cloud-based CRM solutions for service sector companies. Visit: www.bullhorn.com

DON DRAPER IS DEAD The right CRM tool brings the ability to predict a customer’s needs and intervene to address them – making sure that the company keeps vital relationships in robust health. Historical data provides detailed records, and an accurate window on the future. It provides an opportunity to create a strategy for future sales based on verifiable information about a customer’s buying habits. The Don Draper image may be romantic, but Mad Men was a period drama, and the 1960s are long gone. Today’s customer expects and deserves more. With the help of the latest CRM technology, a successful salesperson can give it to them. WINNING EDGE 9

19/01/2016 16:04

SMARTER SELLING

SELLING POINT

SECURITY SECURES SALES Martin Gill and Charlotte Howell say good security reassures customers

customers. In a museum setting, for example, visitors felt safer when there was a visible security presence, checking bags. When carried out efficiently, security checks need not slow people down or cause a disruption and they can also enable positive customer interaction. Indeed, the provision of effective security was thought to have had a positive impact on the customer perception of efficiency of the organisation as a whole. We found that, when renewing contracts, clients valued the security offered by companies.

ll too often, security measures have been viewed by businesses as necessary but unwelcome, even getting in the way of sales. Security has been seen as something an organisation may not wish to draw attention to when marketing a product or service, because a need for security could be interpreted negatively. Yet there is growing recognition that the role of security is changing, and that it is often a support for sales and sometimes a facilitator of them. So, could the sales profession be missing a trick? In our recent research, we spoke to both security professionals and those from other departments, not least sales professionals, about their views. We found a number of examples where high security standards were considered a very effective sales and marketing tool, capable of attracting business. CUSTOMER DECISION-MAKING When choosing between an organisation and its competitors, it was clear that the reassurance offered by security in providing for a safe environment can be a deal maker. For example, in commercial property letting it was reported that having good security in place for a building, and better than other properties locally, meant potential tenants were more likely to rent space. The confidence in security generated increased sales. CUSTOMER SERVICE Security was also seen as providing reassurance and, from that, an enhanced customer experience, thereby encouraging future visits from satisfied

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31%

OF CONSUMERS WORLDWIDE SAY THEY HAVE BEEN AFFECTED BY A DATA BREACH

64%

SAY THEY ARE UNLIKELY TO DO BUSINESS AGAIN WITH A COMPANY THAT HAD A BREACH WHERE FINANCIAL INFORMATION WAS STOLEN

ONLY 25% FEEL THAT COMPANIES TAKE THE PROTECTION AND SECURITY OF CUSTOMER DATA VERY SERIOUSLY Source: Gemalto

MARTIN GILL is director and CHARLOTTE HOWELL is research manager at Perpetuity Research, which undertook research on behalf of the Security Research Initiative. Visit: www. perpetuityresearch.com/sri.html

MITIGATING PROBLEMS Good security can help a business recover quickly after an incident, as well as mitigate potential problems. One example was a data storage and management company that used its security operations centre to monitor global events and identify issues likely to affect its suppliers. This created a commercial advantage over competitors, helping retain existing clients and attract new ones. ADDED VALUE Organisations gave examples of being able to share security expertise and intelligence with client companies, which helped to build and enhance broader business relationships. One organisation in the financial sector, for instance, used its security expertise to advise a client on a particular aspect of the viability of an investment. BUILDING IN SECURITY One security manager reported that the sales department had launched a competition, but it created a massive fraud vulnerability that had been overlooked. It could easily have been managed had security been involved at an early stage. We spoke to other security managers who were able to identify security weaknesses in new and proposed products and services, often at early stages of development, which made them more attractive later. In the retail sector, security staff are often involved in store design so that stores minimise thefts (for example, by eliminating hiding places for thieves to conceal goods) and maximise sales. CONSIDER SECURITY The key question for sales teams is whether good security – physical and cybersecurity – in their own organisation can be used as a selling point. If the answer is, “I don’t know”, it is time to find out. ISMM.CO.UK

21/01/2016 17:16

SMARTER SELLING

Ask Anne GET YO U R T EAM GO ING What do you suggest to energise a team when they are flagging, for example, after lunch or close to the end of the day? There are a couple of games that I like in order to raise energy levels. The good old-fashioned “power hour” works well. Set a stretch target for the MOTIVATION hour and a small prize for those that hit the target. It’s not something I would do for more than one hour at a time, as it can be exhausting. Twice a My staff are often asking to go day works well. “Beer wars” is also a very energetic, fun game. You can, of home early as a reward for hitting There’s no escaping the fact that getting motivated targets, what do you think of this? course, substitute beer for another will give you the edge when it comes to winning I have mixed feelings about prize if you want to. In essence, more business in 2016. Here are my five top five tips allowing staff to go home the prize passes from one for getting and staying motivated in the year ahead: “Raffle early. In my experience, this person to another when SET YOURSELF A BIG OBJECTIVE tickets are a can take productive time a particular target is good way of Visualise your goal, and then map out the steps away from hitting the hit, and when you introducing some you’ll need to take to win that customer over. It can target the next day. The choose the end of the fun. They can be take time, so don’t get disheartened if things don’t only time I allow staff to game, the one whose given out when a happen immediately. Every call is an opportunity to leave early is on the last desk it has landed on target is hit and learn about the customer and personalise your pitch. day of the month or keeps the prize. put into a prize THINK POSITIVE when it’s particularly draw” Around 90% of us find picking up the phone a Is there anything you difficult to reach decisionchallenge, so if this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. makers, like at Christmas or don’t recommend? But negative thinking will affect your sharpness and The key is to keep it small and fun. I holiday times. Another tip regarding focus, because our thoughts create our feelings – and don’t necessarily like scratch cards as allowing staff to leave early is our feelings drive the actions that dictate results. they can encourage gambling. “Go not to announce it too BUILD RAPPORT QUICKLY home early” incentives do need to be early on or it can cause As soon as you make contact with a managed very carefully if you don’t stockpiling of leads. prospect, make them comfortable with you. want them to become the norm. Use open questions (how? what? when?) to Alcohol is popular, but bear in mind What’s the best THE AMOUNT show interest in your prospect and draw way of motivating that not everyone drinks – and some PRODUCTIVITY IS them out. Most people love talking about staff day-to-day? people drink too much – so I would RAISED IN BUSINESSES their jobs, so let them – it’ll help establish My managers vary it with other incentives – and it’s WHERE STAFF ARE rapport and give you vital information you important nothing is opened until enjoy purchasing MOTIVATED need to suggest ways you can help. the staff get home. small gifts, like Source: Hay Group LEARN FROM EVERY CALL chocolate, beer or You won’t make a sale from every call, but wine (not to be opened ANNE BAGNALL is you can take a step closer. You can also glean new in the office, of course) and managing director of information (remember: knowledge is power) and setting modest targets through Phonetic, a telemarketing learn from each call to hone your sales technique. That the day to achieve one of the prizes. company, and also of said, when no really means no, it’s best to move on. It need not cost a great deal, but it Natural Sales Training, LEAVE THE DOOR AJAR definitely encourages a productive where she advises clients So the client doesn’t need your product or service atmosphere. Raffle tickets are on their internal sales departments. She today. That doesn’t mean they won’t in the future. End another good way of introducing is happy to answer readers’ questions. the call on a high note, agree a time to renew contact some fun. These can be given out Call her on 07876 231868, email and get the client’s permission to keep them updated. when a target is hit and put into a anne@naturalsalestraining.co.uk or prize draw at the end of the day. visit www.naturalsalestraining.co.uk LEIGH ASHTON is co-founder of online sales support platform Sasudi.

GEE YOURSELF UP… Being motivated is the key to sales success, says Leigh Ashton

Over the years I have found it increasingly important to ensure my telesales teams are highly motivated on a daily basis. Monthly bonuses ensure you reward your teams financially, but day-to-day motivation is just as important. Here are some questions I have been asked about how to keep motivation high without breaking the budget

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T he Sales Doctor YOU R P ROB L E M S A N S W ER ED

DEAR SALES DOCTOR,

I have inherited a business with a sales team whose members have always worked to a commission cap. I have found out that they often share sales once their cap has been met so others can meet their targets. How do I change this costly behaviour without disincentivising them? Unfortunately, this is a very common practice for salespeople. They often also do something called ‘sandbagging’, where if they know near the end of the month they won’t hit their target, and therefore won’t earn any commission on any deals they bring in, they will hold deals back and put them through the following month where they have more chance of hitting their target. In my experience, the only way to fix this, and continue to motivate and incentivise the staff, is to have an incremental commission structure. This way they achieve great commission for exemplary performance. As an example, let’s say a salesperson’s target is £10,000 revenue per month and they earn 10% capped commission for hitting their target. I would recommend paying them 8% on any business generated between £5,000 and £9,999. They should not be rewarded for failure and doing less than £5,000 per month on a £10,000 target is failing. I would then increase it to 10% commission on £10,000 to £14,999 revenue and make sure they earn 10% on everything, not just the extra. Once they reach £15,000 in a month, they can earn 12% on the full £15,000. This commission structure ensures they are always striving for success and, rather than hit their target and become complacent or share sales, which happens now, they are incentivised to keep selling.

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TONY MORRIS is director of Sales Doctor, a London-based sales training company he co-founded with fellow ISMM member, Boyd Mayover. He is the author of several sales books including Coffee’s for closers, The Perfect Sales Meeting and The Perfect Sales Call. For more details, call: 020 8906 6725, email: tony@salesdoctors.co.uk, or visit: www.salesdoctors.co.uk

A regular client has left us to go to a competitor that offers a cheaper price. How do I get them back without having to match the competitor’s price? Unfortunately if your product or service is a commodity, or viewed as one, then loyalty is difficult and your clients will always be looking for the cheapest price. Therefore, it’s imperative that you always build the value so you become indispensable and are seen as a partner rather than a supplier. My suggestion is to go back to this client and ask them the following question: “If our prices had been the same, who would you have chosen?” If they say the other company that they have now gone to, then you know price was not the reason they left in the first place. You then need to question to understand what was the real reason you lost them and learn from it. If, however, they say they would have chosen you – which I think they will – you must say, “I’m really pleased to hear that – so I am clear, why would you have chosen us?” They are now selling all the benefits of your company that are important to them back to you. You end by saying, “Isn’t that worth paying that little bit more for?” If they still can’t justify paying a little more, you can negotiate by taking things away or by adding things on. You could say, “If you only want to pay £x, what would you like me to take out of our offering?” They won’t expect this and it will highlight the fact that there is a value attached to everything you offer. If they don’t want anything removed, which is normally the case, then agree things you will add to your offering to help them justify paying that little bit more. You have to decide what variables you are willing to offer such as longer payment terms.

Q A

What’s the best way of inspiring a new starter to avoid reading a scripted pitch word for word and getting a conversation going? First, I would encourage them to find out one thing about the individual they are calling, something that will force them to ask questions and take the call off track. Second, I would get them to use a technique called ‘tag on’ questioning. As an example, if a customer was to say, “That’s not among my top three priorities right now,” my tag on would be, “So what are your top three priorities at present?” If the response was, “I’m looking to cut costs,” I could respond with, “What are you doing to achieve this?” This technique enables the salesperson to create a natural flowing conversation without having to read the questions or the script. A good suggestion to help new starters is to have a list of all the open questions up on a poster, where it’s visible to them: How? What? Why? Where? When? Who? Which? This should encourage them to ask open questions and have real conversations, as opposed to merely following a script.

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Coat Hanger T H E LI GH T ER S IDE O F S A LES

TOO GOOD-LOOKING TO SELL? Handsome men may be rejected for competitive jobs

PRICING

IT’S NOT ABOUT THE MONEY Price is not the problem, says Chris Murray

recently spent some time with an extremely senior group of salespeople from one of the world’s biggest companies, who told me that everything was down to price. No it isn’t. Take for example their business. Ten senior salespeople, big cars, expense accounts, support staff – that’s a cost per person of at least £100,000 a year. So that team of ten cost at least one million pounds to keep on the road. When I suggested that if all their problems were indeed down to price – and that the sales team could make no difference – then surely getting rid of those ten salespeople, and changing the business model to a click-down menu on a website, would save at least one million pounds. They could knock £1 off a million units immediately – if it was all down to price, that was the problem solved. They didn’t like that idea at all. But that is the undeniable truth. If the sales team don’t know or can’t explain the difference between their business and a lower-priced competitor, they become an expensive folly. The solution? Work out the five reasons you are better value than the competition and then learn how to explain that to customers. Remember, evangelists don’t try and tell you about heaven to secure their place – they’re already going. They tell you because they don’t want you to miss out on paradise. That is how you should be with your product or service. Get in there and help prospects make great buying decisions before some con artist tries to rip them off, overcharge them or sell them something they don’t need or want. CHRIS MURRAY is MD of Varda Kreuz Training and author of The Extremely Successful Salesman’s Club and his new book, Selling with EASE, which is published this month. Visit: www.vardakreuztraining.com

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esearch by assistant professor Sun Young Lee from UCL School of Management has found that handsome men are seen as more competent – and in competitive workplaces, such as sales departments, good looks signalling competence can make such men seem threatening to future colleagues. If decisionmakers expect to compete, they would rather discriminate against them. On the flipside, managers in collaborative functions, such as R&D departments, hire for competence and favour good-looking male candidates over less good-looking ones. Similarly, in workplaces with rewards for team performance, decision-makers prefer handsome male employees, as they help further their own success. With her co-authors from the University of Maryland, London Business School, and INSEAD, Lee didn’t find the same effect for pretty

women, as female attractiveness wasn’t associated with competence. She believes it’s because physical stereotypes interact with gender stereotypes. “Managers are affected by stereotypes and make hiring decisions to serve their own interests, so organisations may not get the most competent candidates,” says Lee. She adds that awareness that hiring is affected by potential work relationships and stereotyping tendencies can help organisations improve selection. “For example, engaging external representatives may improve selection outcomes, as outsiders are likely to provide fairer inputs,” says Lee. “Also, if organisations make managers more accountable for their decisions, they’ll be less motivated to pursue self-interest at the expense of the company.” The research is published in the journal Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.

What’s your excuse?

Part 1

Lame reasons for missing target

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The product sucks – Why did you take the sales job if you didn’t believe in the product? The price is too high – Sell value not price; amateurs sell price. I’ve no time for prospecting – Create time: plan ahead, stick to your schedule, and ruthlessly eliminate time-wasters. Goals are too high – Stay committed, retain urgency, and plan steps to achieve the goals.

Our competitors are better – See #1. Do you know how to contrast with competitors? Are you believing in your company? We do not get enough support – Are you looking for someone else to do your work? Learn to answer client objections. If you can’t, go to your boss with details.

Todd Hockenbury of US sales and marketing consultancy Top Line Results will present a further six lame excuses in our March/April edition.

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ON THE MOVE

G A D G E T S F O R D I S C E R N I N G P RO F E S S I O N A L S

WHAT’S MORE

TOOLS FOR THE JOB | GADGETS

SMARTPHONE

FORCE BE WITH YOU

This Moto X Force from Motorola may be a good investment as it boasts a shatterproof display, or so Motorola claims. One reviewer described it as “an excellent road-warrior phone. It’s solid, lasts two days at a pinch, has a decent camera, wireless charging and great-looking screen.” SMARTWATCH

FOR THE WELL-CONNECTED

MOTORING

GETTING A SHIFT ON

APPS

This is the 2016 Infiniti Q50 sports saloon, which is claimed to have comprehensive updates including “next-generation” ride and handling technologies and new turbocharged V6 engines. It comes with an adaptive steering system and something called dynamic digital suspension, and a “drive mode selector” which can be augmented with a “personal” mode, and which “permits a bespoke mix of engine, suspension and steering characteristics”. Among the powertrain options are a new 3.0-litre V6 twin-turbo petrol engine with direct injection, which in Europe is tuned to a hefty 400 hp, and there are also less exciting 2.0-litre turbo and diesel models. You can get the Q50 with a seven speed auto transmission but with a manual shift. And talking of shift, Infiniti says it’s sold a lot more of the 2015 models than the year before, so could be on a roll with this new one.

FLIO is an app for the airport – it will search and connect to public Wi-Fi and also give you the latest airport information, and “exclusive” retail offers and discounts at outlets at airports around the world. It’s from a firm called Air Media Service, which was established in London in January 2015 and is the brainchild of Internet entrepreneur Stephan Uhrenbacher. It’s out as an iOS app at present but an Android version is planned. See getflio.com

FLY WITH ME

TABLET

FLEXIBLE FRIEND Lenovo’s Yoga Tab 3 Pro boasts a built-in 70 inch projector, four front-facing speakers to reproduce “high-octane sound”, and Dolby Atmos that “creates a sensation of sound moving in all three dimensions around the listener”. Pretty impressive for a tablet and possibly for your clients and your own use on the road, as it comes preloaded with a Netflix app. This version has a better projector placement and is 180-degree rotatable, and the screen is 10.1 inch with 2560x1600 resolution. Not bad for £400.

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Tag Heuer’s Connected watch is said to be a luxury Swiss company’s first foray into the smartwatch market, and it’s modelled on the classic Carrera design that dates back to 1963 – so back to the future here. It’s quite big but light as it’s made of titanium and the smart features are courtesy of Android Wear. It’s a rather pricey and somewhat limited smartwatch in terms of features but you do get those Tag watchfaces and a few special apps such as a golf game tracker. One to show off. DIGITAL RECORDER

NO RUSTLING PLEASE

Olympus vies with Sony for the best audio recorders and has now come up with what it says is a new product category – a voice recorder in a pen format with the VP-10. It has stereo mics and ‘anti-rustle technology’, which apparently means it won’t pick up the brushing sounds if you’ve got it in say your top pocket as you move about. It weighs 1.3 oz and has a 4 GB memory that will store 1,620 hours of recordings, which you can get off via a USB port.

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PROFILE | EDUCATION

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EDUCATION | PROFILE

RAISING THE BAR

Imparta, a leader in sales training and development, has recently become an ISMM corporate partner. On the following pages we profile chief executive Richard Barkey, and Imparta outlines some key trends in business-to-business sales learning and development for 2016 HOW DID YOU GET STARTED IN SALES? I first became interested in sales while studying for my MBA at Harvard Business School, purely because the curriculum did not at the time include selling. This struck me as a huge missing piece of the business puzzle. After Harvard I joined McKinsey & Co, where I was fortunate enough to work with John de Vincentis and Neil Rackham (joint authors of Rethinking the Salesforce). I quickly became involved in discussions with Neil around creating the next generation of sales training, and I left McKinsey to start Imparta in 1997. WHY DID YOU FOUND IMPARTA? I founded Imparta with the goal of transforming the sales training industry. There were three things at the heart of this decision: a desire for a better, more practical sales methodology; a belief that people learn by doing rather than by being talked at (we pioneered the use of simulations in sales training back in 1999); and an understanding that improving sales performance is a change process, not just a training one. WHAT HAVE BEEN THE HIGHLIGHTS OF YOUR CAREER SO FAR? There have been many amazing moments over the last 18 years, but 2015 was a very special year as our win rate on competitive pitches reached 90%. Even we can’t quite believe that number. It reflects the care we take in qualifying

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opportunities, but also the quality of my colleagues at Imparta and the fact that we take our own medicine. Our internal sales academy means that every member of the team knows and applies our core tools and approaches – and it’s reassuring to know that they work... WHAT DO YOU LIKE MOST ABOUT YOUR ROLE? I get to spend my working life thinking hard about how to improve sales performance, constantly refining our approaches, and talking about sales with clients in some of the best companies in the world. I see this as a huge privilege, and the excitement of having a real impact on the performance of those clients is incredibly fulfilling. WHAT DO YOU LIKE LEAST? Ten years ago I would have said the HR aspects of my role; interviews, performance reviews and so on can feel like a real drain on your time. But over the years I have realised what I should have known before: that the people around you are the major lever for success. So these days I tackle people issues with a smile, knowing that I’m doing the most important part of my job. WHAT ARE THE KEY CHANGES OCCURRING IN YOUR INDUSTRY? There is a lot of consolidation going on in the sales training industry at the moment. It is a WINNING EDGE 17

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PROFILE | EDUCATION

very fragmented market, but the barriers to entry are rising rapidly. Companies these days need broad scope in both content and international reach, real blended learning (rather than e-learning bolt-ons), a strong change management capability and the technology infrastructure to support it. All that means that the bigger companies like Imparta can create additional value and, in turn, that drives a desire to grow by acquisition as well as organically.

of ambition, I would like Imparta to outgrow the big US-based sales training companies within the next three to four years.

RICHARD BARKEY Founder and chief executive of Imparta

WHAT ARE YOUR FUTURE AMBITIONS AND WHAT DO YOU SEE AS YOUR BIGGEST CHALLENGES? We believe in tailoring content to the specific challenges and environment of each client. However, as clients need to do more with less, we are having to find ways to streamline this tailoring process as much as possible, and to manage the complexity that it creates. In terms

I M PARTA AND THE IS MM: BUILDING SALE S C APA BILIT Y l Imparta has become an ISMM Corporate Partner, in support of the ISMM’s ongoing effort to raise standards within the sales industry. l The ISMM is the worldwide representative body for salespeople. Founded in 1911 to promote standards of excellence in sales and sales management and to enhance the status and profile of sales as a profession, the ISMM has been the authoritative voice of selling and the custodian of sales standards, ethics and best practice for over 35 years. The ISMM is also responsible for establishing benchmarks of professionalism in sales. l Imparta’s chief executive, Richard Barkey, is highly supportive of the ISMM’s objectives, having started his company back in 1997 with the goal of “raising the bar for a training industry that too often fails to deliver on its promises”. l Barkey describes Imparta as the “expert’s expert”, teaching sales to some of the world’s leading salesforces, including GE and O2, marketing to industry-leading companies such as the WPP Group and Lloyds TSB, and service to customer-focused organisations such as Microsoft and npower. l Imparta’s core opportunity management course, Creating 18 WINNING EDGE

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Client Value (CCV), was developed in conjunction with Neil Rackham, arguably the world’s leading researcher in the field of sales effectiveness. Beyond managing opportunities, the company offers a comprehensive sales curriculum that covers everything from induction to strategic account management and selling to the C-suite. l “But we also know that good training is not enough,” says Barkey. “You need to understand how adults learn, and what stops them. So we have invested millions of pounds in developing our capability building system: a powerful toolkit that can make any training or cultural change stick.” l Imparta says its modular, best of breed approach defines what good looks like, gets the organisation on board, builds skills through bitesized learning, simulations and application workshops, then helps it all to stick through coaching, application tools, reinforcement and impact measurement. l Barkey sums up, “We put as much emphasis on what happens after the training as on the training itself, and work with clients to create a lasting and measurable impact on their performance.” Visit: www.imparta.com

WHAT SALES SKILLS DO YOU THINK ARE IMPORTANT TO YOUR ROLE? I’m absolutely convinced that selling is the most important skill that I have, whether it’s selling ideas internally, getting clients to say “yes”, or selling the idea that senior leaders need to play their part in making change happen. In all of those situations, the real skill is taking the client’s point of view, framing everything in their terms, adding value to their thinking, and guiding them to an outcome that adds value for everyone. HOW DOES IMPARTA’S NEW CORPORATE PARTNERSHIP WITH THE ISMM BENEFIT YOU? It’s really important that the sales and marketing professions have industry bodies committed to raising standards of professionalism and performance. The ISMM is not only a professional body for salespeople, but also a

“We are committed to playing a full part in supporting the ISMM to achieve its ambitious goals” custodian for sales standards, which aligns with our ongoing work to promote sales excellence. The ISMM also has an impressive digital presence, and we are delighted to be represented on its new and improved website. As one of the few significant players in the global sales and marketing training industry that is based in the UK, we are committed to playing a full part in supporting the ISMM to achieve its ambitious goals. WHAT ONE PIECE OF ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO OTHERS WHO ASPIRE TO A CAREER IN SALES? Focus on the customer or client’s buying process, not on your sales process. Add value and insight at each stage, and find ways to show that you understand them better than they understand themselves, so that you become the supplier they can’t afford to walk away from. WHAT DO YOU LIKE TO DO WHEN YOU’RE NOT WORKING? I’m a fashion photographer in my spare time, which doesn’t add up to a lot of hours once you account for Imparta, my wonderful wife, a home that needs constant love and attention, two dogs, a horse and a hundred or so ducks! ISMM.CO.UK

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EDUCATION | PROFILE

5 TRENDS FOR

Imparta presents its views on what the year ahead will bring for L&D teams delivering performance improvement in business-to-business sales training

or many companies, the main trends in spend on B2B sales L&D (learning and development) in 2013 and 2014 were defensive, reflecting the damage to investment confidence caused by the recession. The inexorable rise in status of the procurement department has been mirrored in many firms by a decline in budgets and the number of L&D professionals. However, in the second half of 2015 we saw a significant breakthrough from this gloom, with businesses recognising the need to reinvest in their sales teams to drive growth and rebuild their L&D teams to achieve this growth. As a result, we’ve been working on some fascinating large-scale projects. Clients are not looking for more of the same training they invested in five years ago; their needs have developed, and suppliers have to respond to this. Here are some of the trends we have seen emerging and expect to become more prominent in 2016.

increased emphasis on ROI metrics and demand for training to make a sustained positive impact on performance. This means L&D investment decisions may take longer to negotiate, but once in place there will be higher commitment.

4. MANAGEMENT COMMITMENT 2. TAILORED SALES TRAINING Tailored and relevant B2B sales training is the way forward; there is no meaningful place for off-the-shelf programmes. B2B sales organisations are frustrated with suppliers who persist in proposing outdated off-the-shelf offerings. These may suit the business model of the supplier, but are unlikely to solve the commercial issues faced by the client. Clients will demand training tailored to the realities of their customers, processes and culture. L&D teams need to secure the talents of highly skilled trainers and developers (either internally or externally) who are able to deliver training targeted to their particular needs.

3. LEARNING TECHNOLOGIES 1. INCREASED SPEND – WITH MORE FOCUS The days of running standard sales training courses to use up a pre-allocated budget are behind us. B2B sales training is now about problem solving and taking advantage of opportunities. Spend will have to be justified in clearly articulated commercial terms, with more involvement from senior sales leaders and procurement teams. There will be an

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As the generic, off-the-shelf course wanes, so will its close relation, the click-and-learn online sales training programme. Clients want digital learning that addresses specific challenges, not a one-size-fits-all solution. B2B field sales teams will look to digital learning to provide a strong foundation in sales skills, tailored to their processes and propositions. More sales workshops will be reserved for the development of higher-level B2B sales skills such as consultative selling, strategic account management and sales leadership. Whatever the goal, L&D teams will demand that digital sales training solutions reflect the bite-sized, taskrelated and mobile way that salespeople want to learn. This means including components such as simulations, competitive challenges, assessments and shared social learning opportunities – all available on multiple mobile platforms. Suppliers will respond with a generation of digital sales training products that will at last live up to the promises made by online learning.

Learning technologies will play an ever-greater role. In the past, decisions to invest in digital learning were motivated by the need to reduce costs. But these low-cost, low-quality solutions delivered false economies – they had little impact on performance and were often ignored by salespeople. There is a continuing trend of L&D teams increasing their focus on the outcomes of the investment, and on the quality and impact of the training.

Sales managers will be more involved in coaching, mentoring and driving the principles of 70:20:10. Great sales managers handle competing demands and prioritise getting the best out of their team, using coaching as a tool. Sales programmes will focus on the role and skills of the manager, knowing that this spend is immediately leveraged across the manager’s team. The best digital learning programmes will create opportunities for manager interaction and coaching. L&D teams will work with suppliers to create bite-sized but compelling training modules that can be coached and taught by managers in their sales teams, bringing the reinforcement of skills development out of the classroom to the frontline.

5. STORYTELLING Storytelling has been the buzzword in leadership training over the past year, and is set to become a core skill in B2B sales training. Storytelling is the art of making a connection with your audience by delivering your pitch as a compelling narrative. In a world where PowerPoint and product data are easily accessible, salespeople need to rediscover this art.

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FEATURE | SALES METHODS

HOW TO STAY ON TRACK IN 2016

SEAN MCPHEAT suggests seven sales resolutions for the coming year

re you still sticking with your New Year’s resolutions or have you caved in already? We all seem to set weight loss goals or promise to drink less, but how many of us set resolutions in terms of what we are going to do, or indeed stop doing, to improve our sales performance? SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST At no time in history has change been a more constant companion in every facet of life, and 20 WINNING EDGE

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that is true in the business of sales as much as anything else. Being able to adapt to those changes and the business environments customers work in will set the best salespeople apart from others in 2016. It is well worth remembering Charles Darwin’s famous deduction: “It is not the most intellectual of the species that survives; it is not the strongest that survives; but the species that survives is the one that is able best to adapt and adjust to the changing environment in which it finds itself.” ISMM.CO.UK

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SALES METHODS | FEATURE

TRY TO SET T H E TO NE l Research at Harvard has shown that 80% of negotiators adopt the same strategy as the other party. If the other negotiator wants to play hardball, they’ll play hardball too. If they are interested in collaborating, they can collaborate just as well. l Only 20% of negotiators, on the other hand, take a more assertive approach, trying to set the tone. Interestingly, one of the things people in those 20% find is that no matter what tone they set, people tend to negotiate in the same way. Looking at the stats, it’s not surprising to see why: chances are, they are negotiating with someone in the 80%, someone who is looking to see how they will negotiate in order to follow their lead. l The lesson here is that if we want to improve our chances of success in a negotiation, we gain a tactical advantage by being proactive and setting the tone. Most of the time, people will follow our lead. Source: thenegotiationblog.com

SEVEN SALES RESOLUTIONS With that in mind, here are seven resolutions that will help you do things better than you said you would – and, quite possibly, better even than you thought you could: 1) Listen more, talk less The key skill that should be adapted, adopted and adjusted in 2016 is curiosity. On the phone, face-to-face, via email, or however you are communicating, you should be asking yourself why the prospect is taking the stance they are. The quality of your questions will dictate the quality of the information you obtain, so there has to be a clarity of thought that leads to probing at the most professional level. This requires commitment to improving your listening and interpretation skills. You simply cannot listen while you are talking, and that also means talking to yourself. Vow to spend more time concentrating on the prospect’s needs rather than pushing your product.

80%

2) Follow up quicker When responding to new leads, when sending proposals, when following up an email… speed wins! One thing that customers tell us is how impressed they are with our speed of response to enquiries and the impact that has on their decision-making processes. Imagine that you are getting an enquiry from a prospect who is going to be researching a number of other options. The sooner you can respond to the enquiry, the less likely it is that they will continue in their search, because prospects want to make speedy decisions to change their businesses for the better. If you can prove your ability and acumen quickly to them, you stand a great chance of progressing.

OF NEGOTIATORS ADOPT THE SAME STRATEGY AS THE OTHER PARTY

DO THINGS BETTER My philosophy for sales success is simple: “Do what you said you were going to do, when you said you were going to do it, better than you said you were going to do it.” This involves having the right attitude as well as aptitude or skillset. It means making a real effort to go beyond the expectations of the client. It involves a mindset that understands, adapts and responds to changes in real world environments and situations OF NEGOTIATORS that will only get more complicated TRY TO SET THE and technological in the year ahead. TONE

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3) Check your numbers regularly If I asked what your closing ratio was last month, your call to appointment levels, your pipeline figures, or the number of lost sales you experienced, would you be able to tell me immediately, accurately and without hesitation? Many sales professionals cannot do so. Why is it so important? Because your numbers show what’s working and what’s not. Without the confirmation that your sales processes are working, you may spend your valuable time on procedures that don’t bring effective results. Without knowing where your time is wasted, you will probably concentrate on inefficient steps. Your numbers will give you clear information about where you are successful and where your development efforts will reap rich rewards. WINNING EDGE 21

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FEATURE | SALES METHODS

4) Become more than a salesperson Think of your prospects. How can you turn them into customers? What about your customers? Could some of them become ongoing clients? And could any of your regular clients become advocates? By adding additional value at each stage in the process, you prove that you are no longer just pushing products and services; you become someone who proves themselves to be a valuable asset to any business. You prove this by positioning 63% yourself as a “maven” in your OF ATTENDEES industry. According to Wikipedia, REMEMBER a maven is a trusted expert in a products, you may not think it STORIES AFTER particular field who seeks to pass matters much. But here’s the A PRESENTATION. knowledge on to others. It means maths. Your profit currently is 5% REMEMBER STATISTICS “one who understands”, based on (100 x £100 x 25%) £2,500. Source: LinkedIn Sales an accumulation of knowledge. The adjusted figures become This expertise is something you can (90 x £100 x 25%) £2,250 + (10 x prove by getting published on £90 x 15%) £135 = £2,385. That drops your overall profit by over LinkedIn, writing articles that position you 5%. And that’s with a very small discount on a as someone who others value. By becoming very small number of products. When you do valuable, you get people calling you, asking your the sums, you will realise that even offering a low opinion, building a reputation for changing discount will have a big effect on your figures. businesses and the way they work. 5) Commit to upskilling How many training hours did you put in during 2015? Are you happy with that number? Let me ask that question slightly differently. How many hours did you devote to your own personal learning and development in 2015? To be adaptable to the changes that are happening in today’s business environment, you need to keep your development as a top priority. Make plans in 2016 to make it the year where you keep up with industry developments, improve your questioning skills, build your knowledge of business skills and create a persona that appeals to the widest range of possibilities. 6) Don’t discount so readily You will know the objections that are raised most of all with your products and services. Have you dealt with each one effectively? Or are there still some areas where you struggle to overcome some of the things prospects throw up at you? Make it a goal for 2016 to plan for the objections you most often encounter. Identify what precisely the prospect means by that objection and deal with it professionally. The most frequent objection salespeople face is that of price. But what happens when you discount your price? Your products lose their value and are cheapened. Imagine your profit is 25% on your product, and you sell 100 per month at £100 per piece. If you offer a 10% discount on just 10% of your 22 WINNING EDGE

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Let me tell you a story: Storytelling is a very powerful sales tool and should become a skill you embrace for 2016

7) Become an expert storyteller What happens when someone tells an anecdote or story? Others stop what they’re doing and pay attention. Why? Because we all like to use our imagination and see how it could possibly become real. Storytelling should become a skill you embrace for 2016. It’s a very powerful tool that can include case studies, examples of success, challenges that have been overcome and objections that have been turned around. You won’t have the same conversation twice, but you could have a string of stories that would impress most prospects. Rather than just talk about your products in 2016, draw on your experiences and present the most applicable successes that you have achieved, and explain what the current prospect can expect as a result. When the prospect sees what your current clients are experiencing, they will want similar success. So, if you can link the storytelling with the current challenge the prospect is facing, they will see the point of your products and the chance of a great result if they make a similar choice. ADAPT AND PROSPER In 2016, it won’t be the most intelligent or the strongest salespeople that prosper – it will be those who adapt to the changing philosophy and behaviour of buyers. By following these resolutions, you’ll stay motivated and achieve the results your professionalism deserves.

SEAN MCPHEAT is managing director of MTD Sales Training. A best-selling author, international speaker, and award-winning entrepreneur, he is a regular presenter at ISMM events and is frequently quoted in the media as a subject matter expert. For further information, call 0800 849 6732 or visit www.mtdsalestraining.com

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FEATURE | COMMITTEE NEGOTIATING

TAKING THEM

STEVE HOYLE considers the challenge of selling to buyers who have joined forces to get a better deal

was recently asked to help prepare for a major negotiation involving a committee of customers. Although I’ve been involved in a number of these throughout my career, I have never formulated a clear set of strategies, and some quick research reveals that, while there is a huge amount of advice available for negotiating generally, very little thought has been put into the differences required in negotiating with a committee. The observations that follow come from several long conversations with successful salespeople who have experience in dealing with this situation. First a definition: what do we mean by committee negotiating? The original request from my client is typical in that a group of independent customers had banded together in order to get a better deal. Sometimes the customers may be truly independent but willing to cooperate as a buying club; probably more often they are autonomous units within a larger organisation, where they can all make their own decisions, but there are some organisation-wide groups that can make cooperating much easier. A typical committee negotiation comes about following a sales campaign that has normally been conducted with each separate organisation, which

deal agreed upfront, there were still at least some further individual discussions with some parties who wanted changes to suit their own particular circumstances. It also became very evident that in many ways the secrets of success for sellers in a committee negotiation closely matched those for a more normal one-to-one negotiation. Any sales professional going into a group negotiation would do well to remind themselves of the basics, as follows. THE FOUR STRANDS OF NEGOTIATING Strand 1: Deal set up Before getting to the end game, expectations have been set,

“Any sales professional going into a group negotiation would do well to remind themselves of the basics”

FEDERAT ED O RGANIS AT IO NS l Federated organisations present a particularly difficult negotiation challenge, as they typically involve central/group/head office participants, which can be functional (eg. group IT or group HR), as well as group procurement, together with seemingly independent operating companies, which might in turn have their own business, functional and procurement specialists.

l Achieving a deal in these situations is almost then come together with the different bodies all impossible and discussions will invariably lead to more or less inclined to do business with a further localised negotiations taking place. The best particular vendor. They then want to join forces outcome is often not to strive for too detailed a for the “end game”, to reach the best possible deal result, but rather to establish more of a frameworkfor everyone. type agreement, which allows for further flexibility. The first thing that became apparent when l The most successful salespeople reported looking at where committee negotiation that in practice they used the principles of has taken place is that in probably committee negotiation, but always found about half the cases the process was it difficult with complex federated not really a committee negotiation, organisations. The challenges included gaining clarity about the interests and but more often trying to get some THE AVERAGE NUMBER positions of the different players, concessions from suppliers before OF PEOPLE INVOLVED IN figuring out who actually held the individual negotiations followed. In MOST BUYING DECISIONS power (“follow the money” is often a fact, in the vast majority of cases, (FIRMS WITH 100-500 useful starting point) and establishing EMPLOYEES) even where there was an overall

Source: Gartner Group

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the boundaries of the negotiation.

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COMMITTEE NEGOTIATING | FEATURE

ALL ON

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FEATURE | COMMITTEE NEGOTIATING

positions crafted, and precedents set. In our research, we find that the majority of salespeople have given away far too much during the selling phase, sometimes explicitly by saying things such as, “Of course, we will honour the conditions agreed last time,” and sometimes innocently by phrases such as, “I’m sure that won’t be an insurmountable problem.” Good salespeople know that during the selling phase they need to set buyers’ expectations at a level where they are considered seriously, but at the same time, they need to preserve their explicit and implicit opening positions at as high a level as possible. Deal set-up – the time before you get to the negotiating table – is also the time when you clarify your long-term goals with the customer, build relationships and particularly build your perceived value across the account. Strand 2: Deal construction This is the second strand of good negotiating, and involves all of the preparation that should be done beforehand – clarifying your best, worst and opening positions on as wide a range of possible bargaining points as possible. Most salespeople understand the need to do this, but sometimes fail to do the same from the customers’ perspective. It is often very useful during the pre-negotiation preparation to start getting creative by looking at other ways that you can satisfy the customer’s real areas of interest, rather than just bargaining on things that you both might find it difficult to move on as discussions progress. Preparation should especially include understanding the interests of all the individuals that you will be dealing with – a procurement executive, for example, may well be measured on proven cost savings from the original quote, whereas the user could be more interested in best value for a certain budget. In addition to preparing all of the information and options that might be useful, from both buyer and seller perspectives, during deal construction we also plan how we are going to use this information – what areas we are going to open with, and which individuals we want to focus on. Strand 3: Table tactics This, the traditional stuff of negotiating, includes: l Insisting on clear criteria l Teasing out buyer objectives and interests early l Opening at a high, yet credible, level l Using a decreasing and converging concession strategy l Only ever trading concessions l Focusing on the common ground l Using time-outs effectively l Using time pressure and momentum l Employing all of your normal sales craft. 26 WINNING EDGE

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“Set up your relationships as early as possible, and in particular your coaches and whom you can go to for help and assistance if things get very difficult later on” Strand 4: Deal evolution This fourth strand of classic negotiating is often overlooked by less experienced negotiators, and involves documenting and clarifying the deal and any assumptions made. Some people see the agreement at the end of the formal negotiation as the end point, while others see it as merely an important starting point, and they will start altering the agreement (in their favour) almost before the ink is dry. Make sure that you have a solid foundation to fall back on to protect yourself, but also know how you can start to refine the deal to your (and your customer’s) greater advantage. COMMITTEE NEGOTIATING Negotiating with a committee has some particular aspects that can make it especially tricky, and which require careful handling: During the deal set up strand Set up your relationships as early as possible, and in particular your coaches and whom you can go to for help and assistance if things get very difficult later on (your “safety valve” contacts). During the deal construction strand It is particularly important to separate out the individual positions and interests of each of the players. While the negotiation will typically start with a unanimous committee-wide position, as things develop you will undoubtedly see cracks appearing in the common approach and it will be imperative for you to understand which way each individual will be developing their own thoughts. Planning the process is also particularly important for committee negotiations, by ISMM.CO.UK

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COMMITTEE NEGOTIATING | FEATURE

answering questions such as how the opening positions will be set out, in which order you will take issues and how agreements are going to be recorded. As the selling team, one area you will seek to understand is how the buying committee will make its decisions (and to understand this probably needs very early and powerful relationship nurturing with your coaches). The third crucial point for committee negotiations seems to be in estimating the importance of a deal to each of the players, and especially the impact on them if no deal can be reached. You may well find that this gives you huge amounts of leverage, but one that is different for each of the committee members. You will, of course, estimate the impact on yourself if no deal is possible with the committee, and typically this is that you will have to negotiate separately with each player – a prospect that may not be that bad and in some cases is actually preferable. During the table tactics strand There were three points that came out very strongly when looking into the many and varied experiences of committee negotiating: l Have a “process observer” on your side whose role is to simply observe and figure out the changing nature of the individual positions on the committee, as well as the power plays that will be occurring. This will be invaluable to you as the negotiation unfolds and you have to make decisions about which players to favour in your concessions strategy (actually, which factors to move on based on the impact on the interests of the more powerful individuals). l “Time-outs” are often not used enough by negotiators in any case, but in committee negotiations the timing and regularity of good time-outs can be crucial to success for both sides. Time-outs can be used to settle any emotions, to brainstorm or re-formulate strategies, and in committee negotiations to allow for the committee to come to joint decisions which might be impossible in the general session. l The use of deadlines is a well understood and well used tactic in all negotiating, but in committee negotiations where there are multiple competing interests, which always have the potential to drag out the session and divert you from the key issues, their use is often the critical component of a successful deal. During the deal evolution strand This is where many committee negotiations take a surprising twist – although it should not be surprising that once having arrived at an overall deal agreed by committee, all of the individual players, especially those with bigger budgets, immediately want to start all over again, using the ISMM.CO.UK

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CA S E S T UDY T H E H ATCH FO RD GROU P Tammy Sorenson was reflecting on the order that she had just received from The Hatchford Group – five almost independent companies that are owned by the same venture capital group. All five companies had been looking to replace old telephone systems that had been sold to them many years ago when they were much more interconnected, but all of which were now unfit for purpose, unreliable, and difficult and expensive to maintain. In fact, Tammy had been surprised when the companies came together to negotiate one contract, as up until that time their requirements, timescales and stated decisionmaking processes had all been very different. While initially she had been pleased that they were coming together, because for her it meant one much larger order, in fact it turned out to be an extremely difficult process to go through. The negotiation itself had been challenging. Armed with a good idea of a similar solution for each of the operating companies, Tammy had proposed a good level of

discount for one order. Her discount was immediately accepted, but then two of the operating companies declared that they were not satisfied with her solution technically and wanted the option to pull out of the deal following a proof of concept that they wanted to run with another supplier. A third company then phoned Tammy separately and said that it wanted a much more extensive solution, which was more expensive, but for which they would want additional discount. At this point Tammy had realised that she had made a major mistake in assuming that all members of the negotiating group were being open and honest in the process. It became obvious that they had come together tactically to get a good starting discount from Tammy, and then wanted to negotiate separately on top of this. Tammy’s greatest error had been in getting too excited about the prospect of one large, consolidated order, and failing to qualify each of the participating companies individually. This story is based on a real life sale, with only the names changed.

previous committee negotiation as the starting point for their individual deal making. It is during deal construction that successful negotiators will have anticipated this and included sufficient manoeuvre room for this eventuality, enabling them to trade further concessions without fatally undermining the deal from their perspective. Once over this normally immediate hurdle, committee negotiations, because they are more complex and involve a mixture of customer interests and positions, need to be documented in detail fairly quickly. There are many examples of individual players, or sometimes the whole group, coming back to the negotiation again many months later, normally to try and get a better deal on the basis that “things have changed”. Things may well have changed, but probably in multiple ways, so you will need documentation in the future to be able to put one particular change in the context of any other changes to assumptions that you had originally made.

STEVE HOYLE is a sales consultant, coach, commentator, trainer, interim manager and author, specialising in helping clients to grow the capability of their sales teams in complex B2B environments. He can be contacted on 07785 381563 or at steve.hoyle@linksdev.net

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FEATURE | RECRUITMENT

HIRING: how to pick more winners DARREN SPENCE explains how you can take the luck out of recruiting great salespeople

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t still surprises me that employers and specialist recruitment companies don’t work better together to improve the way salespeople are hired and onboarded. Too much emphasis (and risk) rests on the shoulders of the employer to manage the process effectively – recruiters could do more. I’ll come back to that point later on, but first let me ask you a couple of questions.

most appealing? Is their past, or how you see their future more important? Question 2: Do you agree that choosing the right candidate can be the catalyst to you exceeding your targets and accelerating your career and your earnings? If you do, do you agree also that choosing the wrong candidate can create a load of wasted time and effort, and result in a sizeable opportunity cost?

TO SALES MANAGERS Question 1: When interviewing candidates for a sales position, is it the competency or the potential competency of the candidate that’s

TO SALESPEOPLE Question 1: When interviewing for a job, is it your competency to do the job or your potential ongoing personal development and subsequent ISMM.CO.UK

19/01/2016 16:51

RECRUITMENT | FEATURE

CAS E S T UDY 1 PAUL’S NEW BUS INES S S T RAT E G Y career progression that’s most appealing? Is your past, or how you see your future more important to you? Question 2: Do you agree that if you’re onboarded well you are more likely to feel happy in your role and are more likely to be successful? And if you’re not onboarded well you may become disenchanted, underperform and ultimately leave? THE NEEDS OF THE HIRER – THE SALES MANAGER Having grown nine sales teams, interviewed hundreds of salespeople and hired many, it’s abundantly clear to me that sales managers (hirers) are more interested in a candidate’s past than their future potential. Now… before you take to Twitter and vent your disagreement, let me emphasise the word “more”. Future potential is of course important, but sales managers are looking for certainty when hiring new salespeople – and future potential is less about certainty and more about confidence.

When Paul took over as sales director of a large IT services organisation, he realised that most of the orders it received were coming from existing clients. While this helped predictability and forecasting, it was hindering his success, as his targets were dependent on his team winning net new accounts and generating net new business. He therefore set about developing a more robust process for hiring and onboarding new business salespeople. With assistance from his internal learning and development (L&D) business partner, Paul devised a competency framework that aligned to his new business strategy. One of the competencies on the framework was prospecting, or to be specific, the proficiency of the candidate in networking and establishing meaningful connections. Three levels of prospecting proficiency were defined, and the higher the level, the more proficient the candidate was judged to be.

wanted to assess was the competency of the salesperson to use LinkedIn as an effective networking and prospecting tool. To this end, he devised a series of questions that would help him ascertain precisely how competent the individual was and what, if any, further training would be needed. Other areas of prospecting competence that were assessed included the candidate’s ability to: l Establish credibility l Write, publish and share blog content l Deliver and participate in client, partner and general networking events. Each area had an associated list of questions with a clear and consistent scoring matrix, which enabled Paul to understand exactly where the candidate’s strengths and weaknesses were. The results enabled him to make more informed hiring decisions and plan for a better onboarding experience that was tailored precisely to the needs of each individual.

THE NEEDS OF THE JOB SEEKER – THE SALESPERSON For the job seeking salesperson (the candidate), the opposite is true. They are more interested in what non-remuneration opportunities their future employer One of the specific areas of prospecting that Paul has to offer them. They want to know that they are going to be onboarded properly and trained more confident that the successful candidate well so they can earn good possesses the skills necessary to do the job. money and progress their career ANNUAL They will also be able to better identify the as fast as they can. TURNOVER OF shortcomings of the candidate, allowing them SALES ROLES to put together a more relevant onboarding THE DICHOTOMY Source: SalesGenomix So, on the one hand you have a programme designed to precisely address the desire from the sales manager to skills and behaviour gaps of the individual – validate the past and on the other you optimising the time-to-value calculation. have a desire from the salesperson to validate the Of equal importance, by being assessed for future. How then can you systemise your competency the salesperson will take comfort recruitment process so it delivers to both? from the fact that their personal development is being taken seriously, particularly if their offer THE SOLUTION letter refers to the competency assessment and The answer is competency-based interviews. highlights the development areas that will be “A competency is a set of defined addressed during the onboarding process – behaviours that provide a structured guide allowing them to accept the best offer with enabling the identification, evaluation and increased confidence. development of the behaviours in Competency assessments offer a win-win for individual employees” (Wikipedia). both the interviewee and the interviewer. Competency-based interviews are significantly underused and can help take the unknown out ASSESSING COMPETENCY of the hiring and application process. How then is competency assessed? It’s a threeHow? Because by measuring the competency stage process. We need to: of a sales candidate the sales manager will be l Define what competencies we consider to

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FEATURE | RECRUITMENT

be necessary for each specific sales role l Design a framework (ie. a set of definitions) that underpin each competency l Devise a series of well-crafted questions and a clear and consistent scoring matrix. Let’s assume for now that you want to improve your sales performance and that to do so you’ve identified that it’s critical that your salespeople can: l Network, connect and engage with new prospects more effectively, either in net new clients or existing clients (prospecting) l Increase deal margins and client loyalty by selling on value, not price (selling value) l Communicate their offering, both in writing and orally, in a more compelling way (proposing) l Predict sales outcomes more accurately (forecasting). These identified core competencies – prospecting, selling value, proposing and forecasting – will then form the basis of the overall competency mix associated with each role within your sales team, so a new business development role may major on the prospecting competency, whereas an account management role may major on the selling value and proposing competencies.

CA S E S T UDY 2 S A M’S ACCO UNT MA NAGEM E N T J O B Sam was disenchanted with her employer, so she left to join a more progressive sales team. She eventually joined a well-established telecoms company, which had a different approach to interviewing than the other companies she’d been to. The role was as an account manager. During the interview process, the employer explained that they were looking for someone who could take on the management of some of their existing accounts and grow their value. It was further explained that the company had designed and published a competency framework and that all internal promotions were based on the internal candidate’s ability to demonstrate their level of proficiency against the competencies relevant to the role. Sam liked the systematic approach the employer had to promotions.

designed to assess Sam’s ability to: l Question effectively l Understand strategic priorities l Align a given proposition to the strategic priorities. The “propose” questions were designed to assess Sam’s ability to: l Collaborate with peers l Communicate value in both written and oral formats l Structure presentations. At the end of the assessment, Sam was invited by the employer to a playback session. She was taken through her assessment results and shown an outline of the onboarding and training plan she would experience if she were successful. In due course Sam did receive an offer. Although the remuneration package offered wasn’t the highest she had received, she accepted the role because of the competency based interview, the proposed onboarding process, and the implicit value the employer placed on salesperson development and long-term success.

THE OPPORTUNITY Sam was asked to sit an assessment While competency-based interviews may make to help the employer measure her common sense, they’re not that common. proficiency in two areas of I recently surveyed a wide group of sales competence, namely her ability to managers and salespeople. Only 23% of sell value and propose. respondents said they had a competency The “sell value” questions were framework, suggesting that 77% of sales managers have scope to improve their recruitment process by introducing a relevant “Specialist recruiters need to work better at improving competency framework. their selection services by assessing the competency of any However, while this is clearly in the interest of the sales manager, I don’t think that 100% prospective candidates before they are put forward” of the effort, risk and cost should rest on their shoulders. Specialist recruiters need to work employer or recruiter, relative to the better at improving their selection cost associated with a bad hire it is services by assessing the competency a small sum. An alternative is to of any prospective candidates outsource the competency before they are put forward for assessment to an independent consideration by their client. organisation, with the cost of doing Far too many recruiters still just so potentially split between the send “good” (their definition) CVs employer and the recruiter. over to hirers with a load of waffle However we do it, do it we must. that the candidate is superior to all When looking to hire a great others. Where’s the evidence that salesperson, we can’t keep taking pot validates the competency of such DARREN SPENCE is founder luck and simply hoping for success. candidates? of Sales Gym 360 and author of We have the means and the Of course, there is a cost The 30 Minute Sales Professional opportunity to improve the way involved in conducting iOS app. Contact him at PROPORTION OF darren.spence@salesgym360.com we assess and onboard our competency based interviews and SALES REPS FAILING or on 07771 598578, or visit: salespeople, removing “bad luck” someone needs to pay it. But www.salesgym360.com or TO MEET TARGETS from the possible outcomes. whether that someone is the www.4eyedsalesguy.com Source: SalesGenomix

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Degrees at Work

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FEATURE | COACHING

OPEN FOR SUCCESS MATT JEFFERSON explains your crucial first steps to creating a high performance sales team

o, you have just started a new role as a sales manager or inherited a sales team – what do you do? First, start with the “who” – the people, then the “how” – the sales process, and finally the “why” – the metrics and targets they and you will be measured by. THE WHO Like anything in life you need to sit down with each of your team and understand why they are here, what their journey has been to this point, and what their destination or end goal is. Are they career sales professionals, in which case this might be a step up within the organisation, or possibly one step in a sales career that may in fact inevitably end somewhere else? Alternatively, have they been thrust in to a sales role from a technical or product background and moved to what we in sales jokingly refer to as the dark side? I do come across the latter scenario quite often and find that there really hasn’t been much sales training or coaching and sometimes little management support. Importantly, what motivates them – money, status, job satisfaction, recognition? You’d expect money to be the biggest motivator, but that isn’t always the case. I have had success by taking a financial value and matching it to what different team members are interested in: one might like motorsports but want someone else to organise a track day; another might enjoy European city breaks; and some do just want hard cash. In my experience, adequate recognition has always been a significant factor, as salespeople are usually working longer hours than many other employees and are under more pressure from the business and the CEO. They are also easiest to measure in terms of performance – the numbers don’t lie, so when they are doing well recognition is essential. Think about their role – what do they enjoy and what do they dislike? What do they do well, 32 WINNING EDGE

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OF SALES GO TO THE FIRST SALESPERSON TO CONTACT THE PROSPECT

and where can they improve? Yes, I can hear all of you say, sales admin SOURCE: INSIDESALES.COM and updating the CRM often comes top of the latter list. Reducing sales admin and increasing selling time is always a winner… time management is critical in most roles, but in sales even more so, as your buyers are only available during working hours, so an early bird really does catch the worm and starting the day without being prepared and without a plan is a disaster. What are their capabilities and do their roles match current skills and experience? Very often, there aren’t job or role descriptions or KPIs and so it may not be clear to them or to you what their role constitutes or what their responsibilities are. Developing a capability matrix can help here and may involve tweaking or refocusing current team members’ roles as the more specific and focused they are, the more measurable they are in terms of success. Continuous improvement is really important and where you have a team and strong players in certain areas of the sales process it works well to pair them up with others who are weak in these areas. The end result is that everyone improves. Your own ability at breaking the ice, building ISMM.CO.UK

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COACHING | FEATURE

ever-important follow-up. The follow-up has to be timely and I usually insist that it is scheduled in the buyer’s calendar, otherwise it takes twice as long to gain that important feedback and also your time isn’t respected by the buyer. Other key areas should include negotiation and close, pipeline management and forecasting. If you ask a team member why a certain prospect is going to buy from you rather than from someone else, and you get a pregnant pause, this usually elicits a number of areas of weakness in the sales process that need to be strengthened immediately. I usually come across either overly optimistic or overly pessimistic salespeople, so the likelihood of winning ranges from 90% to 5% – and you need more precise forecasting than this. Coaching all the team members across the sales process and refining their skills and ability in each area is essential to making them all high performers. There is a balance to be struck between coaching them and letting them make mistakes to see their errors – and you will find yourself having to step in from time to time to save the sale. Just don’t take the credit...

trust and demonstrating integrity will be crucial in them opening up and being honest with you. If you are able to demonstrate some of your own background, challenges and even past vulnerabilities that will help in levelling the conversation. After all, we all make mistakes; the key is not repeating them. Once you understand their roles, where they fit in the company, their motivations, and their strengths and weaknesses, this places you in a good position to understand the people aspect and how you can coach them to be the best. THE HOW Next, look at the sales process. What does your team do, how does a lead come in to the business, how is it captured and nurtured, and what systems and processes are in place to turn that lead, if qualified, into a customer? Of course, if you don’t know what a good lead is, and by what criteria it should be qualified, then you need to take a step back and first build an ideal customer profile. Sales process means analysing the sales lead workflow, marketing automation, CRM system, and data capture, and how the team prepares and researches for sales calls or meetings and the ISMM.CO.UK

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MATT JEFFERSON is a Fellow of the ISMM, sales management consultant, interim sales director and business growth adviser. Visit: www.jeffersonsales.co.uk

THE WHY Last, reviewing the metrics and targets is key. These must be done together as each impacts on the other. If your metrics are wrong then you’ll never overachieve on your targets. By starting with the target, you can work back to what metrics to use and activities to conduct to hit it. If you know the average sales value and the conversion rates for each team member then you can quickly identify how many sales calls or meetings need to be performed to reach target and by when. This will, of course, differ across the team and you can identify strengths and weaknesses very clearly here. Also, by having data and metrics about your ideal customers and those that convert most you can focus on the right customer segments. I would love to say that we always know these numbers, but unfortunately that isn’t the case, and sometimes you just have to use your experience from similar industries. Asking when the targets were last hit is an essential question. There really is no point in having targets that no one can hit, as this simply creates a demotivated team with low morale, and if there are some good salespeople in that team they’ll soon go elsewhere, as no one wants to be at 50% of target all year. You need to look behind the numbers and truly understand what is realistic based on historical data, where your product/service sits in the market right now, and how you are going to drive more leads in to your sales funnel to hit that growth. WINNING EDGE 33

22/01/2016 17:34

FEATURE | SALES METHODS

MAJOR MISTAKES

Salespeople make five common errors, says PAUL BLACK

significant issue facing companies of all shapes, sizes, and turnovers is that – in terms of revenue – a fraction of the salesforce ends up doing most of the heavy lifting. In fact, 67% of the average sales team will fail to meet their quota, while 8% will be responsible for 80% of the company’s sales. What makes that 8% so successful? It’s not that they’re born superstars and it can’t be ascribed to any innate quality; certainly, you need a way with people to make any headway in this profession, but charisma and interpersonal skills serve more as entry criteria than any real assurance of success. The truth is that many salespeople lack purpose: unmoored from any discernible strategy, their approach is often to fumble around calls and meetings without the information they need to close that all-important deal. That said, in most cases, an underperforming salesperson is not irredeemable – which is

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fortunate. When you consider that it costs around £75,000 to find a replacement, it’s always worth looking into what they are doing wrong first and attempting to find a solution. You’ll have a stronger team than you would if you immediately replaced the 67% of your staff who are not bringing in enough business – and it’s obviously significantly cheaper. But finding a solution is often easier said than done. We’ve identified five major mistakes that salespeople make when selling that cause business owners to despair.

MISTAKE 1

PHONING WITHOUT PURPOSE Too often, salespeople make calls just for the sake of it. They might be chasing a daily call quota, or have a list of names to work through, and end up simply focusing on completing the task rather than doing it well. OF SALESPEOPLE Cold calling may be a traditional DELIVER 80% OF SALES

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While they do get some business from the customers they are calling, these are products the customers would probably have bought anyway – so, no new business is created. If the competition starts offering a better service at a lower price, customers might be tempted to leave, especially if they are not aware of the potential upside they could enjoy by staying with their current provider. To be proactive, rather than reactive, salespeople should be offering existing customers goods and services they want and need, before the customer is even aware that they need them.

approach to sales, but if giving your staff a phone book and a list of names and telling them to get going was ever effective, it isn’t anymore – and often ends up wasting both time and company resources. You’ve probably received unsolicited, irrelevant sales calls yourself – how much did you enjoy those conversations? For this reason, before picking up the phone, the salesperson should know exactly why they are calling the particular client or potential customer – and what the ideal outcome of the call would be. A targeted approach, focusing on those calls that have a realistic chance of ending with a sale, is the key to success.

“Generic sales patter isn’t acceptable anymore. Customers want to feel like you know and understand their business”

MISTAKE 2

FAILING TO UNDERSTAND THE PROSPECT’S PROBLEM On average, only 13% of customers believe that a salesperson can truly understand their needs. The rest perceive the salesperson as trying to push their idea or product without taking the customer’s point of view into account. Often, this leaves customers feeling that, instead of listening, the salesperson is coming up with what they perceive as “solutions” without really attempting to grasp the problem. This usually results in the customer feeling frustrated and the salesperson missing yet another target. Being able to talk may be important – but being able to listen is essential.

It’s dangerous to become too dependent on brand loyalty, so the emphasis should not only be on maintaining repeat orders of the same products month after month, but also selling additional products.

MISTAKE 5

MISTAKE 3

DOING TOO LITTLE HOMEWORK Too often, salespeople don’t take the time to understand their customers before making a call. It’s crucial to know what that client is struggling with if your product is to improve their business – and that means you’ll need to tailor your approach to their situation. Generic sales patter isn’t acceptable anymore. Customers want to feel like you know and understand their business – and in order to provide this personalised service, salespeople need to conduct adequate research before picking up the phone. Nobody you call wants to feel like one of several hundred or thousand leads. If you simply phone without having done your homework, you’re hurting your chances. In contrast, if you make them feel that one of your priorities is understanding their business, you’re much more likely to make the sale.

MISTAKE 4

WAITING FOR ORDERS TO COME IN Another trap that salespeople tend to fall into is that of becoming order takers. Instead of being proactive with their selling, they wait for customers to contact them with an order request. ISMM.CO.UK

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PAUL BLACK is co-founder and CEO of sales-i, a specialist in business and customer intelligence software for salespeople. Visit: www.sales-i.com

UNDERUTILISING RESOURCES Most companies have vast amounts of data available on their products and clients, comprising everything from product factsheets to feedback from former customers. Salespeople should use this information when targeting new business to ensure that the best aspects of their products are highlighted. But it doesn’t stop there. People increasingly live their lives online, which means that a significant amount of free information about their activities is available. A company will typically have a website, social media profiles and a blog, while individuals usually have LinkedIn profiles and accounts on various other social media platforms. A quick Google search could give a salesperson insight into the challenges a company is facing, and information they can use to emphasise how their solution addresses those challenges. They can also research the price their competitors are asking for a specific product and then offer it to its customers at a discount. All of this information is of great value to salespeople – but it’s often underutilised. In summary, overall we’ve found that many salespeople should think differently about the way they sell, putting an end to junk calls and aiming to call the right customers, at the right time, for the right reasons – and with the necessary background information to hand. WINNING EDGE 35

19/01/2016 16:55

FEATURE | SALES BEHAVIOUR

ARE YOU THE BIG ‘I AM’? You must put your ego aside and show humility to optimise your sales, says GUY ANASTAZE

go, from the Latin personal pronoun, usually describes one’s self-awareness. Ego is often considered (especially in psychology) to be the foundation of personality, and sometimes (notably in spirituality) as an obstacle to personal development. Here, I will discuss Ego from the second perspective, distinguishing it with a capital E and referring to what one commonly calls “a big Ego”. This Ego causes chaos. Ego is pretension or belief that you are better than others and worth intrinsically more than they are. Positioning yourself by comparison to others, the Ego can be a substantial obstacle to self-development and reaching your full potential. Unfortunately, the management of political, military and religious systems, and many other organisations, relies on the Ego. This is one of the reasons that these systems lead to war, whether physical or economic; the Ego is the breeding ground for what psychologists call narcissists, perverts or psychotics. In sales, the Ego becomes a flaw when a salesperson judges that they know what is good for the client better than the client themselves. This flaw manifests itself as arrogance and it leads to failure. Arrogant salespeople talk too much and don’t listen, believing they already know and understand in the place of the client. The Ego is often closely associated with ambition. I’d like to make a key distinction here 36 WINNING EDGE

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between these two concepts. My view is that ambition sets the bar very high, helping you both to build your dreams and to shape your conviction such that you can achieve them. Relying on the conviction that you are capable, ambition does position you compared to where you are now; it leads you to say “I can do it,” acting as a positive energy which motivates you to strive to do better by working with others. To win business in sales, you need to advance with your team and alongside the client, collectively building the best solution to meet their needs. Ambition, then, is the booster of excellence. Ego is the destroyer of excellence. HARNESS HUMILITY Humility reminds us that we are not perfect, that we are perfectible. Associating strong ambition with great humility is one of the best ways to develop yourself and achieve your goals. It helps you to learn, to take a step back from your

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SALES BEHAVIOUR | FEATURE

inspiring trust, and without trust you will be unlikely to close deals. The importance of trust is one of the reasons selling is sometimes viewed negatively, too many people having placed their trust in someone only to be let down. Developing a well-deserved position of trust – built on the repetition of day-to-day events and actions designed to reinforce this trust – is therefore essential. Trust is founded in three main components: sincerity, respect and empathy. Sincerity lets your client know that you firmly believe in what you’re proposing; they may not always agree with you, but they can count on you to tell the truth. This starts an honest, open dialogue. Respect creates a protected interpersonal space for your clients, enabling and encouraging them to reveal themselves and allowing confidentiality to be established. Empathy – the ability to mentally and emotionally identify with others – promotes a compassionate communication environment, reinforcing the protected space established by respect. The true nature of empathy is not to put yourself in the client’s place and state that “If I were you, I would do X”, but instead to ask yourself, “What could I do if I were the client?” If trust is a magnificent and delicate structure, patiently built from the bricks of sincerity, respect and empathy, it is essential that the Ego does not add the least bit of dynamite. Practising sales like an arm wrestling match is one of the best ways to break down trust. The pressure of short-term targets and the expectations from management and shareholders can make us lose the sense of reality that is critical to remaining grounded and sincere.

certainties, question your intentions and beliefs, and to listen to and identify with others. Professional advancement tends to follow a pattern of S curves. Entering a discipline as a junior, we progress to the level of advanced professional as we continue to practise, ultimately becoming senior when we fully master it. If at this moment on the curve we stagnate, the curve could invert and we may descend along with it. Between the end of the Second World War and the middle of the 1980s, an entire career could span a single S curve, each phase lasting around five to 15 years. Today, these curves last about five years, with each phase lasting between one and two years. We are obliged to have several mini careers, and humility plays a crucial role in moving between each S. From “master” we must become a beginner leaving our senior position for a junior position in the next curve. We must unlearn to progress to a new position, abandoning in part

“The Ego becomes a flaw when a salesperson judges that they know what is good for the client better than the client themselves” what we know to gain new knowledge and skills. We must “let go” in order to get ahead. The bigger our ambition, the more S curves as we pursue new opportunities for growth and development, and for new challenges and responsibilities. The speed of moving from one S to another will depend on our humility. The better you develop your humility and tame your ego, the better you known your goals, the smoother your rise towards those goals will be. Certain companies don’t give us the choice, of course, forcing individuals recognised as having high potential to follow this pattern. It is what one of my mentors at IBM called “to be subject to strategic discomfort”. There is a popular saying in sales: “People buy from people they like.” Certainly there’s some truth in this saying, but the better formulation would be: “People buy from people they trust.” You can inspire respect, admiration, even favour without ISMM.CO.UK

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GUY ANASTAZE is an expert in business efficiency, behavioural and relational aspects of business performance, and improving the customer experience. He spent 30 years in sales management at IBM and is author of Authentic Selling: How to boost your sales performance by being yourself, where he explores ‘selling by coaching your customer’. Visit: www.theauthenticsellingbook.com

SUPPORT CLIENT CHANGE All purchases represent an act of change, impacting to various degrees your interlocutor, their team, department or overall company, their budget, habits etc. The sale thereby becomes a disruptive act for your client. All change requires letting go of the present and putting faith in the future. So it is natural that sales comes up against resistance, and the best way to overcome this is to let your client understand the necessity of this change, supporting them as they become aware of the benefits for them, their team or company and helping them to identify the option or solution best suited to them. Ultimately your goal is to make the client autonomous in making their final choice. Winning deals like this requires empathy. It requires the salesperson to act with humility and to demonstrate leadership. To preserve trust and get further ahead, be ambitious, but let go of your Ego. This will provide the foundation for genuine partnership. WINNING EDGE 37

19/01/2016 16:57

FEATURE | WORK/LIFE INTEGRATION

HOW TO WIN YOUR LIFE BACK CHRISTIAN MARCOLLI advises successful sales and marketing professionals how they can bring greater fulfilment to their lives in 2016 and beyond

ou don’t need me to tell you that today’s sales and marketing professionals do not have an easy life. You may be a well-paid, high-performing leader or executive, but the chances are you’re overworked, under pressure and stressed. I visit a lot of companies and meet many high-performing executives and in my experience it is common to find many of them giving 100% of themselves to their career, while at the same time feeling a gnawing sadness that 38 WINNING EDGE

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their family life is not all that it could be. As they struggle to cope with professional demands that are calling them from every direction, it becomes harder to juggle the demands on them at home, and they are managing it with ever less energy, resources and joy. All too often, with their focus, strength and energy channelled into their professional life, the quality of their private life slowly declines, weakening like an unused muscle. At worst, they suffer ill-health and broken relationships. Many successful businesspeople will say that such malign outcomes are simply an occupational hazard – the price of career progress, and a necessary risk. But believe me, it doesn’t have to be this way. Crucially, you don’t have to rein in your career. On the contrary, it is possible to maintain your ambitions and continue to achieve professionally, while at the same time creating the treasured moments for yourself and your family that build the strong foundations of your life. ISMM.CO.UK

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With the right approach, instead of exhaustion and domestic friction because of stress and work overload, you can get more of the good things in life. Here, I don’t mean more in material terms, but more joy, more satisfaction, more meaning, more love and more success – however you define it – at home, as well as at work. For those of you with partners and children, here are some tips on how to build solid foundations at home in a way that is efficient as well as effective, so it also supports your professional performance:

MEET, COMMUNICATE, SUPPORT Hold pre-arranged family get-togethers, ideally every week at the same time. Here, you and your loved ones can agree and commit to shared leisure activities, which can create so many great moments and magical memories. Equally importantly, these meetings can be used to plan and share chores fairly and efficiently, helping all family members avoid stress and friction. It takes some effort to create a supportive and trustworthy environment in a family. It won’t happen if family members always eat separately at different times. It won’t show up behind closed doors with music blaring and computers and TVs in kids’ rooms. So agree some simple changes to all your routines, so that sometimes you’re all in the same place at the same time. In addition, make a conscious effort to plan quality time with your spouse or partner, for example, by setting a regular date night. Offer regular, thoughtful support to family members and ask for support back from them. This exchange informs each other’s attitudes and behaviours, making you all emotionally stronger through meaningful, constructive feedback, and building an unbreakable bond between you.

REIGNITE THE PASSION IN YOUR HOME LIFE Instead of thinking of the family as a place of duty, where dinners are served and homework is done, start thinking of your family as a place that provides comfort, relief, laughter and relaxation after the stresses of difficult days. Take a deep look inside yourself and your

“If your family understands what you find fulfilling about your work, the greater the chance they will offer support when you need it”

CONSIDER YOUR OWN NEEDS Take care of yourself – including diet, exercise, sleep and “me time”. This isn’t selfishness. When we are listening to the emergency procedures on a plane, we are told to put our own oxygen masks on before putting them on our children. In this scenario, taking care of ourselves first is so critical it could save the lives of the people we love most. Similarly, as partners and as parents we can only be what we need to be in our families when we love and take care of ourselves. And organise yourself. It is beneficial to plan upfront and be as ready as possible for all of life’s challenges. This is “frontloading” and it means doing things on a daily basis rather than only when a crisis hits. Develop the skill to delegate things that don’t have to be completed by you – at work and at home. This saves you time, and helps you focus on the most critical and valuable tasks in both your professional and domestic life.

family to discover what is there, where the passion is and where it has gone. Think back to some times as a family where you truly felt that passion together. What was it that made that time so special? When was the last time you had that feeling? All successful families need to understand what is important and unique to them, as part of the pursuit of passion. Having understood what makes you and your family tick and what makes you unique as a family, write it down in a “family mission statement”. Ask all family members to contribute to it and summarise your ideal vision of your family. This will give all of you clarity on what it really means to be part of a loving, supportive family unit, and the fundamental connection you have to each other. START SHARING Make your family one of your most important projects. Incorporate your individual passions into family life. If you are keen on cooking, for example, get your partner and children involved in planning and preparing a meal once a week. Encourage your children to share the things that they love doing, and make space for it in your time together. Also, share your passion for your work. If your family understands what you find fulfilling about your work, the greater the chance they will offer support when you need it. ISMM.CO.UK

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CHRISTIAN MARCOLLI is an international expert in performance psychology. He is founder of executive coaching consultancy Marcolli Executive Excellence, and author of More Life, Please!, published by Urbane Publications. The book offers practical guidance to businesspeople on how they can experience their lives more fully through stronger connections with their loved ones, and be more present, peaceful and mindful. Visit www.marcolli.com

BE YOUR TRUE SELF Too often, our interactions with others are based on fear, with our defences high and our authenticity low. Within a family, life’s challenges often become even harder. Don’t hide from them, but be your true self. Show your weaknesses, and capitalise on your strengths. If you mess up, apologise and look for a solution to put things right. Show who you are by living the values you hold dear. Use your head and your heart together and you will never go far wrong. WINNING EDGE 39

19/01/2016 16:58

BOOK REVIEWS

POCKET SCIENCE Two books in a ‘genius’ series that majors on research are reviewed by MARC BEISHON

here’s nothing quite like appealing to be the very best and to stand out from the crowd, and this book series has the magic word – genius – that sounds like it will set off more than a few lightbulb moments. We got hold of two of the volumes most suitable for selling, namely Sales Genius and Presentation Genius – will they really help you be an Einstein among your sales colleagues? SALES GENIUS Taking Sales Genius first, it’s written by Graham Jones, who has an interesting background, to say the least – he started off in biology, then worked in the music industry and as a journalist, before going back to college to specialise in psychology. It’s the latter domain that he now uses as a self-styled ‘Internet psychologist’, where selling is just one of many business-related issues he turns his hand, or rather his mind, to. In Sales Genius, he sets his approach apart from most other books by saying it’s based on science, which a number of other Winning Edge article authors also major on, and we must say that solid evidence is what we should be looking for in sales if indeed we are to see it as more of a science than an art. Jones’s pitch is that it’s no good desperately reading sales book after book where clearly you aren’t getting the nuggets that stick, so instead he mines for real rather than fool’s gold, and gives 40 short, evidence-based chapters with references. (And 40 seems to be the magic number as the other Genius titles also have the same chapter count – the blurb says this is about assembling a ‘fast track MBA’.)

LOSS ADJUSTE R One chapter that stands out is entitled “Customers have no idea about prices”, in which Jones discusses studies from two psychologists, one of whom won a Nobel prize. “When we are deciding to buy something we are calculating whether we will lose something by purchasing it, or lose something if we don’t buy it,” writes Jones. At the same time, we are working out what we gain from buying it or gain by 40 WINNING EDGE

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( S ALES G ENIUS)

not buying it. Price is a small factor and it’s “loss aversion” that’s key. But salespeople are often concerned about their prices rather than the risks and losses their customers are weighing up. Having a price range rather than one fixed price is also advantageous to the psychology of pricing which, although being a well-researched area, is not one that always gets a good airing in sales.

Sales Genius is not so much a book as a set of articles, and not surprisingly is aimed more at the behavioural side of selling, with some topics that will appeal to managers. The first chapter is “Consultative selling is expected”, in which the key is that buying things entails risk and salespeople are still pivotal to this in the Internet age. Customers are turning to chat rooms and review sites, where they want guidance, and salespeople should act as problem solvers, also using the Internet to do research and knowing that the customer isn’t always right… Adaptive selling, covered next, is about listening, bearing in mind that you may think you’re adapting to customers but evidence suggests you may be using an inflexible formula to pigeonhole people, who are more complex than standard training will prepare you for. There’s a chapter on why direct selling still works, but this is mainly about consumer selling – ISMM.CO.UK

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BOOK REVIEWS

the book does rather chop and change without much reference to B2B and B2C, which is a shortcoming of writing it in self-contained chapters. Jones is especially strong on how technology has changed buying and selling, and moves on to an interesting look at why email matters more than the web, why most sales journeys start online (and he notes that salespeople are often unable to influence what their own websites look like), and how the Internet is creating niche areas of profitability, as online retailers can stock specialist lines that traditional ones can’t. There’s a good chapter on time management and making more time for appointments, referencing a study that’s shows that people who are able to switch between tasks (not the same as multitasking) are more effective. A chapter on getting past gatekeepers is also interesting but Jones can only find one small study here (and a note about science – some of the evidence that he cites certainly isn’t anywhere near the level of being peer reviewed and published in a journal). Dipping into the rest of the chapters, we find how persistence pays off, and that salespeople often give up after only one or two calls; that too much eye contact with customers is not good; that selling to men is not the same as to women (women want complete solutions, while men are not so specific); how to spot buying signals; and that you need to move away from the process of closing to being better prepared and building supportive relationships (here Jones could have cited some more up to date studies – indeed, quite a few he references are fairly old now). The book is probably stronger in chapters that play to Jones’s own strengths, such as on “power posing” in negotiation, and getting inside the mind of buyers. An unusual take on handling objections is to be “kind”, and of course there’s a study – “When people raise objections the crucial thing to do is to be kind to them, see things from their perspective and avoid trying to ‘prove’ your product or service is what they really want.” (This came from a study on life insurance sales.) Being “mindful” and “in the moment” are also important to focusing on the customer and avoiding conflict. There is also material on commissions, promotions, forecasting and training, aimed more at managers. Each chapter also has a short list of further reading, and bullet points of three big takeaways, so the material is pretty digestible. The production level is not that high and there are no graphics. Perhaps the best value of the book overall is to show that selling is a good deal more complicated than most think if there 40 topics to juggle, and that there’s a big library of books and papers should you have the time… ISMM.CO.UK

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GORILLA IN THE ROOM Can you get your audience to notice the rather large gorilla? You’ve probably seen that famous video where some people don’t notice it because thy were busy concentrating on something else. It’s called attention blindness and could mean your audience can’t be relied in to see what you think is

“You need to move away from the process of closing to being better prepared and building supportive relationships”

Sales Genius by Graham Jones and Presentation Genius by Simon Raybould are published by John Murray Learning. Both are available on Amazon for about £12 (£9 for Kindle versions).

(PRESENTATION GENIUS)

obvious in your presentation. You need to make it obvious, especially if it’s something unusual. But thankfully, by the same token most won’t notice your mistakes. “Make a point of drawing your audience’s attention to anything that may be counter to what they expect,” says Raybould.

PRESENTATION GENIUS The second book, Presentation Genius, is on the well-trodden subject of presentations, and is by Simon Raybould, who also started out as a scientist but is now a trainer. Like Sales Genius, it has 40 self-contained chapters and the same references and takeaways format, and of course it’s all founded on research. Raybould has mapped his chapters into how people learn, how to get yourself ready, tools you can use, and techniques to use in your design. Getting stuck in with a big message in chapter one, he shows that you should present your most powerful arguments first, owing to the “primacy effect”, but you’ll also need to make it clear to your audience that they have some responsibility for making the right decisions, and deliver your message in a “likeable” way. There’s some pretty heavyweight material here already from a study on how people judge whose guilty or innocent, which is where the responsibility angle comes in. The book continues in the vein – what seems like simple chapter titles, such as “Clarity is king”, “Fast and hard”, and “It’s not what you say it’s the way that you say it” reveal a lot of research that most of us probably haven’t heard of – how about the assertive evidence method in PowerPoint (it involves using a single sentence supported by spoken detail and a large graphic). The book is good because it also asks questions you may not have thought of, such as how to use a metaphor (answer: carefully and early); how to greet your audience (best to say hello with a handshake if you can); and avoiding overloading your audience (put their minds at rest about the quality of your content). Further: try and get yourself introduced, present in chunks, use stories, be persuasive – and more persuasive still (such as by getting your audience “to agree the rules upfront”, and give your audience the tools to take notes. Presentation Genius is actually a more substantial book than Sales Genius, and we’ll revisit both with some of the themes in more depth in another issue of Winning Edge. WINNING EDGE 41

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APPOINTMENTS

CAREER LINES Derren Nisbet | U N I T4 Unit4, which specialises in enterprise applications for service organisations, has brought in Derren Nisbet as MD for UK and Ireland. He joins from GT Nexus, a cloud based supply chain provider, where he was senior VP, EMEA and built up a sales team, and he’s also held a number of senior positions at Oracle, the most recent being European VP, Edge applications, with a team of 75, and where he closed the firm’s largest European application deal. In one year as a senior director he also hit 200% of target. He’s an expert in complex sales, it seems.

Jamie Ward | COMMUNITY PROFESSIONAL LOUDSPEAKERS Jamie Ward has been brought in as international sales manager, EMEA, at Community Professional Loudspeakers, a US firm that provides installed speaker systems in outdoor and indoor locations. Ward is said to have extensive sales and business management experience in the pro audio industry, having been regional sales manager at Allen and Heath, sales director UK at the Stanton Group and a sales manager at Harman International. Where can you hear the speakers? Check out the new Alexander Prokopenko stadium in Belarus, named after a Dinamo Minsk football star.

Thom Coupar-Evans | E XC H A N G E

AND MART

Exchange and Mart has appointed Thom Coupar-Evans as sales director (pictured) and also Jim Murray-Jones as general manager, “marking a new era and renewed investment for its used car classified advertising and trade portal”. Coupar-Evans comes from AA Cars, where he was national sales manager, and he’s also been at Auto Trader as an account director. Murray-Jones joins from News UK Automotive, where he led the strategic and product transformation of the classified listings and editorial sites Sunmotors.co.uk and Driving.co.uk. Previous roles include overseeing the digital leadership team at Haymarket, where he managed the acquisition of Pistonheads and product development for titles including Whatcar? and Autocar.

John MacMillan | N OD E 4 Node4, a cloud, data centre and communications specialist, has appointed John MacMillan to the newly created role of sales director. MacMillan is said to have “a proven ability to drive transformational growth in the IT sector”. He’s been at Azzurri, where he was instrumental in securing the company’s largest outsourced managed services contract, and at Daisy Group he closed the largest single contract in data centre and managed unified communications. At Node4 he will lead a team of 30+ sales, pre-sales and account managers to focus on growing revenues within the enterprise mid-market, as well strategic vertical sectors.

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Simon Thomson

Christine Key

TAMPA YACHT

WH ISTL

Simon Thomson, an ISMM Fellow, has joined American military boat builder, Tampa Yacht, as director of international business development for its Tampa Defense USA, Tampa Defence UK and Tampa Yacht Manufacturing divisions. Thomson has a background in global maritime and defence and will operate from the Tampa, Florida, and UK offices. The company specialises in fast interceptors, force protection and patrol craft for special forces and navies around the world.

Whistl, the second largest postal operator in the UK, which used to be TNT Post, has hired delivery specialist Christine Key to head its packets and parcel division, which currently handles 60m items a year. Key has previous roles in the delivery sector, including sales director roles at Yodel and DPD, and commercial director at Parcelnet. Most recently, she’s been running her own consultancy and says that “determining and implementing proven sales strategies”, and motivating large teams, are among her specialties.

A PPO I N T M ENT S EX T RA IAN RIGBY is now VP of sales, EMEA, at Tufin, a security tech firm. He’s said to bring ‘vast’ sales management experience. GRAHAM TAYLOR has taken up the role of UK broadcast sales manager at Riedel Communications, a networks technology player. ALAN COOPER and DAVID STEVENSON are now at car retail software firm Codeweavers, running national and Scottish sales. CHRIS BUTTON has moved to Clondalkin Flexible Packaging Bury, bringing many years of experience in the packaging sector. WILL MOORHOUSE has joined travel firm Portman as sales director, joining from corporate travel company Egencia.

N EW JO B? Have you moved job or taken up a new professional role in sales and marketing say at a chamber of commerce or charity? Send us the details, including where you moved from, what your key achievements have been and anything else you do that’s fantastic. Email: magazine@ismm.co.uk

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NEW ISMM MEMBERS

WELCOME TO THE ISMM We would like to extend a warm welcome to all our new members. Here are just some of them ZOE BRUCE SALES MANAGER, GROUPS Inspiring Learning ANDREW COBB NATIONAL RETAIL SALES MANAGER Mercedes-Benz Financial Services GARY DEAN DIRECTOR OF EUROPE C R Laurence Co. Inc

JILL TOWNER

MAT DODD SALES TEAM MANAGER EDF Energy

CONTRACTS MANAGER Professional Academy

DANIEL BROOKS KEY ACCOUNT MANAGER Budenberg Gauge Co

BENJAMIN HISCOTT BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER ALC

SARAH LOCKHART ACCOUNT DIRECTOR PIB BEN DOOLEY SALES DIRECTOR Broadsoft Inc STEPHEN DUNSDON-MASH MANAGING DIRECTOR Cost Consulting International JERMAINE EDWARDS FOUNDER AND CEO Key Account Hack DAVID FORDHAM BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION DIRECTOR House of Bricks

ANTHONY HALL AREA SALES MANAGER Condair

PRINCIPAL SALES AND MARKETING MANAGER Willmott Dixon Interiors

CHRISTOPHER GROOME COMMERCIAL SALES MANAGER Software Europe

ANDREW BARKER PARTNER â&#x20AC;&#x201C; BUSINESS SERVICES Chancery Accounts LLP

THOMAS BINNS SALES ENGINEER Centa Transmissions

HENRY MAYES

DAVID GREENLEES GENERAL MANAGER Milner Browne

ROBERT ALP BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER TACK International

CHRISTINA BEARD EXPORT SALES MANAGER Supertouch

GARY PICKERING

PAUL GORRY SENIOR SALES AND MARKETING MANAGER Willmott Dixon Interiors

ADAM JELLY CUSTOMER SERVICES MANAGER Elfab JASON KAYE BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER Days Contract Hire PAUL KERR RESPIRATORY HOSPITAL SPECIALIST SALES REPRESENTATIVE Boehringer Ingelheim VEEREN LALA REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT MANAGER RBS Mentor

SALES DIRECTOR SSE ANTHONY ORGAN MARKETING CONTENT WRITER Growth Engineering DAVID PROBERT RELATIONSHIP MANAGER RBS Mentor JAMES PULLIN HEAD OF SALES Structa LLP DARREN SCANTLEBURYWATSON FREELANCE BUSINESS TURNAROUND CONSULTANT Scantlebury-Watson PAUL SMEE NATIONAL MARKETING AND SALES MANAGER Garran Lockers STEVEN SMITH MANAGING DIRECTOR The Lead Generation Company MARCIN TOBIASZ SALES MANAGER Rainforest Foods JAGJEET VIRDEE MANAGING DIRECTOR Inspire International UK

RUTA MISIUNAITE SALES EXECUTIVE IRI

PETER WALLBANK AREA SALES MANAGER Tradebe UK

GEMMA MOORE AREA SALES MANAGER Close Brothers Asset Finance

NEW COMPANY MEMBERS EIBE PLAY; THE LEAD GENERATION COMPANY

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DIRECTORY | SALES TRAINING AND CONSULTANTS

THE DIRECTORY

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

BRUCE KING An inspiring and unique combination of sales and motivational strategies, presented worldwide. T: 01923 859977 E: bruceking@bruceking.co.uk W: www.bruceking.co.uk

CAROLE SPIERS

The Winning Edge Directory is a ‘one-stop-shop’ for finding top sales trainers and consultants – so if you offer sales training or consultancy, it’s the ideal place to be seen. Call 01582 840001 today to secure your entry in print and online ANDY HANSELMAN A business expert, who helps businesses and their people to ‘Think in 3D’! Dramatically and Demonstrably Different. T: 01142 434666 E: andy@andyhanselman.com W: www.andyhanselman.com

ANDY PRESTON A cold calling expert, sales trainer and motivational speaker who is guaranteed to light up your conference, meeting or event.

T: 0845 130 6779 E: via the website: W: www.outstanding-results.co.uk

BID BETTER Working with both small and medium-sized enterprises and multinationals in different sectors and achieving a three out of four bid-win success rate for clients. T: Philip Norman on 01202 237506 E: info@bid-better.co.uk W: www.bid-better.co.uk

A leading motivational speaker and provider of employee counselling, stress management training, workplace bullying awareness training and employee wellbeing services. T: 020 8954 1593 E: info@carolespiersgroup.co.uk W: www.carolespiersgroup.co.uk

CLARIFY Specialist business development for enterprise technology and services organisations with high value business propositions. T: 01189 126800 E: info@clarify-uk.com W: www.clarify-uk.com

DESTINATION INNOVATION Book Paul Sloane to speak at your conference or to give high-level training on sales, innovation and leadership. T: 07831 112321 E: info@destination-innovation.com W: www.destination-innovation.com

FINESSE SALES TRAINING Sustainable results, passion, motivation, positivity, belief, measurement, leadership, sales process, aftersales, customer service, new media sales, attitudes, coaching, international sales. Degrees T: 01234 381199 at Work E: info@finessesalestraining.co.uk W: www.finessesalestraining.co.uk

GRAHAM PHELPS Endorsed by

BA (Hons) Sales The UK’s FIRST online sales degree

Graham Phelps is among the UK’s most experienced and expert sales and customer service trainers, working regularly with the ISMM for over 15 years. T: 020 8133 2629 / 07515 851691 E: contact@grahamphelps.com W: www.grahamphelps.com www.in-house-training.com www.brilliantcustomerservice.com

HUTHWAITE INTERNATIONAL Helping businesses across the world transform their sales performance, delivering long-term results through behavioural change. T: 01709 710081 E: webinfo@huthwaite.co.uk W: www.huthwaite.co.uk

IAN SEGAIL One of Australia’s and New Zealand’s leading strategists and coaches on sales performance management and author of Bullet Proof Your Sales Team. E: ians@bulletproofyoursalesteam.com W: www.salesmanagerprofits.com

I4 SALES PERFORMANCE Focused on helping small and medium enterprises (SMEs) achieve bid excellence. i4 is a Shipley Business Partner. T: Sarah Hinchliffe on 07854 051979 E: sarah@i4salesperformance.co.uk W: www.i4salesperformance.co.uk

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT LTD (LDL) Sales and leadership consulting. Emphasis on ‘skill+will’. Full-time consultants. 500,000 people trained. High energy learning that delivers. T: 020 7381 6233 E: learning@ldl.co.uk W: www.ldl.co.uk

LESLEY EVERETT An international authority and coach on personal branding. Keynote speaker, columnist, media personality and author of ‘Walking TALL: Key steps to total image impact’. T: 01344 427977 E: lesley@walking tall.org W: www.lesleyeverett.com

LINKS DEVELOPMENT We specialise in helping clients to grow the capability of their sales teams in complex B2B environments. T: 020 7193 6371 E: info@linksdev.net W: www.linksdev.net

Professionalise your sales practice, improve your performance and be amongst top sales leaders with our unique qualification. • • •

Flexible online learning based on real-time sales challenges.

Outside back cover

270mm (h) x 220 mm (w)

£1,500 plus vat

Inside front cover

270mm (h) x 220 mm (w)

£1,000 plus vat

Course developed in partnership with leading sales organisations.

Inside back cover

270mm (h) x 220 mm (w)

£850 plus vat

Double page spread

270mm (h) x 440mm (w)

£1,500 plus vat

Full page

270mm (h) x 220 mm (w)

£750 plus vat

Half page

116mm (h) x 187mm (w)

£495 plus vat

Quarter page

116mm (h) x 91mm (w)

£295 plus vat

Open to individuals and corporate teams.

Apply now at www.anglia.ac.uk/sales

Degrees at Work

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WINNING EDGE ADVERTISING RATES

CALL 01582 840001 ISMM.CO.UK

19/01/2016 18:54

SALES TRAINING AND CONSULTANTS | DIRECTORY

They Laughed When We Trained our Service and Technical Teams to Sell But When They Saw our P & L!

DIRECTORY RATES YOU HAVE THREE LISTING OPTIONS. TO BOOK, CALL 01582 840001 OR EMAIL magazine@ISMM.co.uk

THE DIRECTORY 1

ProfitB X 01159 333480 www.profitbox.co.uk info@profitbox.co.uk

MIDLANDS SALES ACADEMY E: olivia@oliviastefanino.com W: www.oliviastefanino.com

PARETO LAW

The leader and innovator in sales execution, we help businesses grow profitable sales through our easily repeatable methodologies. T: 01908 211212 E: ukinfo@millerheiman.com W: www.millerheiman.com

We are sales recruitment, training and development experts. We are a recognised ISMM centre and through our newly launched ‘Accolade’ service provide professional sales qualifications benchmarked to recognised standards of excellence. T: 0843 636 7037 E: enquiries@pareto.co.uk W: www.pareto.co.uk

MTD SALES TRAINING

PROFESSIONAL ACADEMY

We specialise in B2B and B2C telephone and retail sales training, working with a wide variety of clients, both large and small, in the UK and internationally. T: 0800 849 6732 E: enquiries@mtdsalestraining.com W: www.mtdsalestraining.com

The World’s leading provider of marketing courses, digital marketing courses, sales courses and management and leadership courses. We have 6 UK study centres and are accredited to deliver all levels of ISMM qualifications. T: 0844 800 5256 E: enquiries@professionalacademy.com W: www.professionalacademy.com

NIGEL RISNER Interactive presentations that allow people in their organisations to grow, communicate more effectively, improve their teamwork, boosting business performance. T: 020 8447 1732 E: nigel@nigelrisner.com W: www.nigelrisner.com

PROFIT BOX

OLIVIA STEFANINO

REED LEARNING

Author, speaker, coach and media commentator. Author of ‘Be Your Own Guru – personal and business enlightenment in just 3 days’. T: 0845 456 7095 / 07768 625294

A leading provider of professional sales and marketing courses and qualifications, both for companies training their staff and individuals developing their own skills.

ISMM.CO.UK

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20 words of descriptive text, plus contact information (including your phone number, email address and website). The cost: £295 plus VAT. 12 months online and in print.

SINGLE COLUMN BOX, PLUS CLASSIFIED LISTING

QUARTER PAGE, PLUS SINGLE COLUMN BOX, PLUS CLASSIFIED LISTING

A quarter-page full colour advert in the display section of Winning Edge (One insertion only). The quarter page dimensions are: 91mm (W) x 116mm (H) The cost: £595 plus VAT. The classified listing and single column box are also included as part of this package, for 12 months online and in print.

finds the hidden wealth...

MILLER HEIMAN

CLASSIFIED DIRECTORY LISTING ONLY:

The single column box dimensions are: 42mm (W) x 90mm (H). The cost: £395 plus VAT. The classified listing is also included as part of this package. 12 months online and in print.

We positively impact the bottom line by increasing average transaction values. Arrange a free consultation and intensify your 2016 growth strategy.

Improve your sales and management skills, working with other forward thinking sales professionals who want to be better. T: 01782 617132 E: colin@midlandsleadership.co.uk W: www.midlandsleadership.co.uk

A proven formula which inspires sales and service personnel to generate incremental profits by increasing average transaction values. T: 01159 333480 E: info@profitbox.co.uk W: www.profitbox.co.uk

T: 0800 170 7777 E: more.info@reedlearning.co.uk W: www.reedlearning.co.uk

REPUTATION SELLING Attract more customers with video testimonials, practice using them in sales role plays. Call today for more information. T: Nick Belcher on 07976 684009 E: nick@reputation-selling.co.uk W: www.reputation-selling.co.uk

SALES SUPERSTARS Our 100% online approach to ISMM-accredited sales training means you can transform your skillset and earn qualifications at your own pace, and cost-effectively. T: 01753 840331 E: hello@salessuperstars.net W: www.salessuperstars.net

SBR CONSULTING A regular Winning Edge contributor, we specialise in sales transformation, customer experience and go-to-market strategies, working with all customer-facing teams. T: 0845 873 3939 E: info@sbrconsulting.com W: www.sbrconsulting.com

SPEAK FIRST A global, communication skills, staff training and coaching company with a reputation for being innovative, flexible and reliable. T: 020 7253 2117 E: enquiries@speak-first.com W: www.speak-first.com

STERLING CHASE Enabling you to drive sales and business growth in today’s competitive marketplace. Offering award-winning face-to-face and online sales training, coaching and consulting. T: 0845 371 3099 E: info@sterlingchase.com W: www.sterlingchase.com

STEVE HEAD Helping you ‘deliver more with less’. One of the most dynamic, engaging and impactful sales presenters in the UK. T: 01635 523540 / 07774 110937 E: steve@headstart-uk.com W: www.stevehead.co.uk

TACK INTERNATIONAL An International business training specialist, providing open, in-company and bespoke sales, marketing, finance and management courses. T: 01923 897900 E: info@tack.co.uk W: www.tack.co.uk

WILSON LEARNING WORLDWIDE Sales performance experts of choice for leading organisations across the globe. Offering a proven portfolio of sales excellence solutions. T: 01494 678121 E: info@wilsonlearning.co.uk W: www.wilsonlearning.com

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ISMM MEMBER PROFILE

FORCE FOR THE BETTER Winning Edge talks to the co-founder of ForceManager, OSCAR MACIÁ How did you find your current role? I’m currently the CEO of ForceManager, one of two founders of the company. After working as a sales manager, it dawned on me that something was missing – a tool to really help me become aligned with my sales reps. The options available were clunky, impractical and difficult to use, and actually hindered rather than helped me and my team build an understanding. In response, along with my co-founder Xavi Bisbal, I decided to start ForceManager, with the sole ambition of creating a tool designed specifically for the mobile field rep. User experience and practicality are our top priorities, while offering sales managers real-time feedback from the field. Decisions need to be made with data, not just gut instinct. What do you like about the role? Getting to talk with a lot of different people from different industries. I started off my career as an engineer, but I’ve always liked to interact with people. I’ve found they make for better conversation than machines… My first transposition to sales was working in the air conditioning industry, selling AC units to big corporations. It was a very technical sales process with long sales cycles, so I learnt that engaging with customers was one of the most important things to focus on. It’s amazing to see how many ways there are to tackle similar issues and it’s this diversity and out-of-the-box thinking that helps us grow as a company. It’s a constant learning process. What do you like least? I have to spend far too much time in the office, with the finance guys, lawyers etc. I love to get out in the field, helping my customers. What’s changing in your industry? There is an evolution taking place in the sales software industry. Mobility and user experience are now at the forefront, with exciting innovations such as wearables. People are realising that software should be designed to add real value to sales reps, not the other way around. What are your biggest challenges? A lot of products need to be redesigned from scratch. Although they were thought out with the best intentions, they were never built to be mobile. Everything is being modified and this simply won’t 48 WINNING EDGE

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cut it – this is not the way to move forward. It’s a difficult process because you have to rethink your product from scratch. There can be no shortcuts. If you want to make even the slightest modifications or changes, you’ll have problems with the interface and this is exactly what the big companies are facing right now. Expect things to happen, and soon. My challenge is to make ForceManager the first choice sales CRM worldwide. It is a product that’s designed not only to assist those out in the field, but at the same time help managers maximise the efficiency of their teams.

“There is an evolution taking place in the sales software industry. Mobility and user experience are now at the forefront”

What are the highlights of your career? It would have to be taking ForceManager from a small, tech-start-up to an internationally recognised brand with presence in over 30 countries. It’s not just that, though. It’s the confidence in knowing you’re building a product that is actually helping people day-in, day-out, in the field; something genuinely useful. I’m extremely proud of that. What advice would you give to those starting out in sales? I’ve met a lot of sales reps and the thing I’ve found in common with all the best performers is hard work. There is no substitute for that. Empathy and creativity are also key, being able to engage with customers. But the number one trait is passion – if you’re not passionate you need to move on to something else, and this applies to all facets of life. And your advice for sales managers? It is important to take the time to look after people. When I was working as a sales manager, I had a rep who was not performing and he was close to being fired. I realised that this guy was working extremely hard, yet his results simply didn’t reflect this, so I tried to help him. We sat down together and analysed what was going wrong – and we discovered he struggled to close his deals. With help from me and the rest of the team, he turned his figures around. It just goes to show how far the right attitude and a little bit of guidance goes. What do you do when not working? I enjoy sport and spending time with my three beautiful children. I live in front of the beach, where I like to walk the dog. For me, this is the one moment in the day where I can totally switch off, reset and enjoy the Barcelona sunset. ISMM.CO.UK

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ISMM Corporate Partnership Partner with the ISMM for sales success Corporate Partnership provides employers with a great opportunity to align their companies with the aims and objectives of the Institute of Sales and Marketing Management. It enables them to acknowledge the key role their salespeople play in their company’s overall success and show them they appreciate their work. Established for over 100 years, the ISMM is the UK’s only Professional Sales Membership and Awarding Body accredited by Ofqual, the government’s regulatory authority, delivering qualifications exclusively focused on selling and sales and marketing management.

GatorLeads The ISMM has formed partnerships with many of these companies to provide products and services to ISMM Members, allowing both parties to benefit from working together. These organisations all have to demonstrate that they share the vision and values of the ISMM. Please visit www.ismm.co.uk for details of their services.

To learn about the advantages of ISMM Corporate Membership and why so many companies, of all sizes, have joined its ranks, call 01582 840001, email sales@ismm.co.uk or visit www.ismm.co.uk

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FORCEMANAGER

MOBILE

CRM Understanding the future of wearable technology to measure, analyse and maximise your sales teamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s performance As seen at the National Sales Conference Expo 2015

START YOUR FREE TRIAL www.forcemanager.net/nsc DISCOVER THE NEXT GENERATION OF CRM

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Winning Edge: January 2016 - Are You Up & Running?

Articles inside

ISM Book Review 2016

How to win your life back

Are you the 'Big I Am'?

Major mistakes salespeople make

Creating a High Performance Sales Team

How to pick more Winners

Selling tio Buyers

How to stay on track