Traits of the bubbly sales rep

I was out on the road doing some field coaching earlier this week with a great sales rep. She was a classic. See if you recognise the type:

• In her mid to late 30’s
• Excellent communication skills
• Bubbly, effervescent and full of NRG
• Keen to change the world overnight
• Taking on far too much responsibility
• Over promising and over servicing clients
• No idea with time and territory management
  

From experience these are the reps that will burn out within 18 months at your company. They’ll leave your company and go somewhere else for a:

• Slightly better car,

• Better lap top

• A few extra $’s

18 months later, they’ll be off again.

So, why do you hire them?

1. They interview really well

2. They seem confident and determined to succeed

3. We like their attitude and positive outlook

Top 3 reasons why the bubbly rep won’t last more than 2 years with your company

1. No real process -Sales success is more about following a proven process than it is about having a bubbly personality – give me process over personality every time

2. Shocking self management -The bubbly extrovert often struggles with their self management and wastes enormous amounts of time being in the wrong place at the wrong time (CRMs won’t solve this)

3. Don’t understand relationships -Despite strong first impressions they are not true relationship builders and don’t really understand how a proper commercial relationship works

Who should you hire when looking for great reps?

Glad you asked Steve, as the biggest challenge any sales manger will face is finding great sales people.

My top 7 things to consider when hiring sales people

1. Work out what you want – Finder, Minder or Grinder – This is very important

2. Don’t place too much emphasis on their performance in the interview –it’s of fairly limited value. Dig deeper and look for their values, attitude and beliefs- seek evidence

3. Profile or psych test the sh-t out of them before they start. You wouldn’t spend 50k on a vehicle without a mechanic inspecting it first. Lift up the hood and have a good look at the engine

4. How long have they lasted in previous sales roles – people repeat patterns most of the time- people repeat patterns most of the time – did I just say that?

5. Always be looking for new sales people – if you advertise for a role you’ll attract the gypsies of sales – they are always on the move, they are probably the bottom 20% of the market

6. Allocate sufficient time in their first 3 months for you to be with them. Develop, nurture, coach and guide them when it really matters

7. Trust your gut – My wife is great at this. “I didn’t rate that guy, not sure why, just didn’t like the feel or vibe he gave out”

Your sales conference in the new year

I take a well earned rest from December 18th to January 20th. During this time I’ll be a wrestling referee on most days refereeing daily bouts between my 3 kids.

Tickets are still available if you want to watch.

If you want a hand with your sales conference in the new year please contact me in the next 2 weeks as my diary is filling up quickly for late January, February and March conferences.

I can speak or run sessions on:

1. What makes a great sales person
2. What makes a great sales manager
3. Getting more face to face selling time each selling day
4. Stop wasting your time with poor collaborators
5. Adjusting your selling style to match in with your customers
6. Why setting clearly defined goals is the key to sales success
7. Is fear holding you back and what to do about it
8. Selling to different generations – gen X, Y and Baby Boomers

Please stop them wasting their time

It always amazes me when sales people are trying to win new business how many of them spend so much time selling to the wrong people on an account.

One of the biggest differences I see between the great and the average reps is how they allocate their time.

The average ones spend an enormous amount of time selling to the wrong people.

Just because someone has a certain title it doesn’t mean they have the authority or influence to purchase from you.

There are many great time wasting strategies reps can use but one of the best would have to be spending time selling to someone who has limited influence.

I have seen this time and time again over the years. It’s a complete waste of the sales reps time and your money if you are footing their wages bill.

Try a few of these questions to help work out who’s who in the zoo:

· Pablo, if you were to purchase from us how would you go about making that decision?
· Could we set up a time now for me to meet with the other people who may be involved in deciding? How often (and when) do you get together?
· Julie, can I just ask you, what’s your role in the decision making process?
· How did you organise to purchase from your current provider? Were you part of that process? Remind me again of why you went with them?
· What about Romeo, will he have some say on this or will he be influenced by you?
· How do we go about getting you set up with an account or organising a trial?
· Who else should I speak with about this?
· Why don’t we organise a trial now?

At your next sales meeting ask your reps to explain to you how they know they are selling to the right person on the accounts they are chasing.

Quick checklist for your next sales meeting:

For 5 accounts your team are chasing ask them these beauties:

1. How do they know they are selling to the right person / people?
2. Who else have they met with on the account?
3. How much influence does the person they are selling to have?
4. Who else could have some involvement in making the decision to go with us?
5. Has the person they are selling to boss met you? Why not?
6. Why haven’t they met other people on the account?
7. When will they present to the others who may be involved?
8. Why are they waiting for them to get back in touch with us?
9. What should we do next?

Leave your car keys and lap top with me as you leave today

When your reps give you that nonsense that they don’t want to tread on the person they are selling to toes, politely ask them to leave their keys and lap top with you as they leave the building.

Give them the name of a good recruiter or your competitors details. This is a lame excuse for not being hungry enough for the business.

There are plenty of ways of dealing with this as I’m sure you have told them.

Can Linkedin really win you new clients?

Paul was asking in a Linkedin group about ideas on how to best use Linkedin.

Here's what I suggested.

The challenge of using Linkedin as a networking tool to grow your business is a complex one.

I have always found that it takes time to establish mutually beneficial commercial (and personal) relationships.

I see people looking for rapid results with Linkedin.

I suggest to paul try a few of these ideas:

1. Focus on what you can give rather than take. What books do you suggest? Which service providers would you recommend? What did you learn this week?

2. Be active with your network. Communicate ideas of value on a regular basis without becoming a stalker.

3. Pick up the phone or go and have a coffee with some of your best contacts. One face to to face meting is better than 20 emails or blog posts in my opinion.

4. Add your blog to your profile and blog about ideas (regularly) that would would be of interest to your network.

5. Think deeper rather than wider with relationships. Focus on your best 10 contacts and invest in those as opposed to having 986 fairly meaningless Linkedin connections.

Good luck. Be patient.

Selling in the year of the shrinking budget

1% of something is better than 100% of nothing

Have you or your team heard these a few times this year

• We are holding off on this until the market picks up
• This has been a tough year so we aren't spending
• Our budget has been slashed
• We'd love to go ahead but we wont be able to get the job approved
• Can we postpone this purchase until next year?
• We've got a freeze on non essential spending this year

To succeed in selling in 2009 you must develop strategies for dealing with these.

I'm not denying that some of these are not genuine.

A lot of the time you here these objections (lets call them excuses) because you have failed to sell in enough value.

I'd say get hungry and work hard to bring forward the purchase. The longer you leave it, the more likely it is you'll end up with nothing at all.

Do you really understand their needs?

Do you really understand their decision making process?

Do you understand their current process, issues, agendas, the roles of the people you are selling to?

As great sales people know you can normally predict (With about 90% accuracy) what a prospect will say when you are pitching to them.


Be prepared for the above by trying some of these:

• " That's OK, lets process an order now and we will invoice you next quarter "
• " Fine, lets break down the payments into bite size pieces"
• " How much , realistically do you think you can access at this point in time?"
• " What do you suggest is a way of bringing this purchase forward?"
• " With what you have to spend, lets look at still providing you with a short term solution "
• " Lets look at a solution that costs you 30% less and still can assist you"
• "If you had the money, from what you've seen from me, what would you spend it on?"
  

Practice these responses at your next sales meeting. Modify them to suit your business.

Get hungry. As Billy Joel says, " Don't let a good thing slip away "

You have to be cruel to be kind

Have you ever noticed that it’s the poor sales reps that cause you so many headaches?

13 of my favourite excuses from poor performing sales reps

Poor reps develop a pretty good list for why they are not hitting their numbers.

See if you recognise any of these:

1. Personal or family health issues
2. Our price is too high
3. The market has changed
4. The GFC has kicked in and people are holding off their purchasing decisions
5. Those customers are going through a restructure at the moment
6. It’s hard to get appointments at the moment, everyone’s too busy
7. The leads I’m getting from telesales / telemarketing are rubbish
8. The decision maker is not available every time I call
9. I’m waiting on marketing to provide me with more materials
10. I’m still waiting to hear back from them
11. I don’t want to hassle them
12. They are happy with who they currently use
13. This is a poor territory that hasn’t been properly looked after for a long, long time

4 groups you should spend more time with

I think the hardest decision you make as a sales manager each day is how to allocate your time.

Your NRG vampires will drain you. Spend a lot less time with them.

Remember the song by Nick Lowe – Cruel to be kind.

It may be cruel, but really aren’t you just being kind, if you ignore them.

You are helping them to accelerate their career development. Ideally working for your best competitor.

Hang them out to dry. If they really want to be successful they’ll lift.

If you spend too much time with them you’ll run out of NRG pretty quickly.

I suggest spend more time with these groups:

1. Your best performers – Convert them from Good to Great

2. Reps who have the right attitude, a willingness to learn, but may be lacking in the skills

3. Potential reps for your team – Go and have a coffee with someone you’d like to have joining your team

4. Your customers – ideally whilst you are out on the road, coaching your best reps and your emerging stars

So before you leave today, organise to double your coaching with your best 3 performers and half your coaching with your duds over the next month.

Getting back in front of your clients

Ruth set up over 100 appointments last month.

This is a great effort and shows what can be done when you get focused on what you want. She's also a credit to New Zealand. She beat all the Aussies she was up against.

She won a Borders voucher from NRG Solutions for being the best performer.

I love a good contest for sales people.

Ruth works as an area sales manager for adventure travel company Kumuka.

She knows she needs to be in front of as many of her clients as possible each week.

The challenge for Ruth and her team is when she calls to set up appointments , her clients often say

" There's no need to see me this month, we're OK at the moment ."

Like any great sales person you need to be creative to get back in front of your clients:

9 ideas for getting back in front of your clients

1. We have something new that I have to show you. It's amazing
2. I'd love your feedback on something
3. My turn to buy you lunch / coffee / breakfast
4. I have a referral opportunity for you we should discuss
5. I left my wallet in your office last week (the George Costanza technique)
6. I haven't met your new staff member yet and want to train them / show them
7. I want to discuss a joint promotion with you and get your thoughts about it
8. My new boss would like to meet you - He's single and very good looking
9. I'd like to do a proper price comparison with you, it's easier to explain this face to face


What's your best tactic for getting back in front of existing contacts?

Sales Management

How much time are you spending searching for great people?

I went to a talk last week about leadership in business. The piece of content that really caught my ear was around great sales managers and what they are always doing.

The success of your business is all around getting the right people. We all know this, yet how much time are you spending working on finding them?

A couple of the key take aways for me were:

1. View recruitment as a process not a transaction. As a sales manager, you need to be constantly searching for great people. Find them, wine them and dine them. Stick with them. Let them know you want them on your team. Finding great people takes time. Build your network and allocate time for ongoing recruitment.

2. The poor performers (in sales) are always scanning the job ads. The good performers are not actively looking. You need to get active to get to them.

3. Build a culture that will attract great people to your team. If you think you have a great culture now, ask yourself why more people aren't ringing you up to join your team?

4. Keep coaching them once they come on board. The best way to keep your best people is to invest in them. Watch what happens to them as you invest your efforts in to them. The returns can be amazing.

Have a look here for some of my favourite questions an MD should be asking their sales managers.