Driving Sales Beyond

4 Sales Tactics To Put Your Salespeople Back In Control

We recently posed this question to the LinkedIn business community, “Which challenge in today’s market most overwhelms you / your sales people?”

• 44% of the respondents said that their customers’ loss of business weighed heaviest on their sales teams.
• 18% said that customer focus on price most overwhelmed their salespeople,
• While another 15% cited the customer’s lack of vision as the main culprit.
• Finally, 12% targeted the salesperson’s workload as overwhelming.

Business “Gold” (AKA Good Sales Strategy)

 Some experts say “gold” is the best investment you can make these days.  From the comments of our poll respondents, it appears that a good sales strategy is “gold” as well.  Sales strategy – clearly communicated to the sales team – can help them regain control in the sales effort, and navigate today’s murky economic waters with a purpose.  Here’s a sampling of comments:

1. Help The Sales Team Apply Effort Where It Matters - “Salespeople have to be reminded to focus on what they can control,” says Mike O’Reilly (GM, ITW Construction), “Sales leaders have to help their salespeople identify where they can win today.”  O’Reilly points to businesses that will benefit from the Economic Stimulus Bill.  To leverage this new reality, sales leaders can guide their people to identify accounts that will benefit from that bill and work with those customers now to help them plan how they’ll score wins once the stimulus dollars roll in.
2. Help The Sales Team Guide Their Customers To Look Ahead - “We have had some limited success with discussions on how clients are preparing for when business turns around,” says Jay Wysocki (Regional Program Manager at CEI).  Strategic selling may require that you teach your salespeople how to lead such discussions.
3. Help The Sales Team Practice Extreme Resourcefulness  – “A client of ours sells 25% of its production to the auto industry here,” said Flavio Veiga, a business acquaintance of mine from Brazil, “The auto industry simply stopped manufacturing cars in November, December, and half of January.  Nothing the salesmen could do would make a sale.  We [created], along with the salespersons, actions to be implemented with the procurement officials such that when they buy again, they will be more likely to buy from this company, instead of from their main competitors. Sure enough, the government reduced the tax on automobiles, sales increased, the factories started producing again, and our customer is happy again.”
4. Help The Sales Team Recall Its Role – “It’s easy to act like a victim in this economy,” O’Reilly added, “however, we did not hire salespeople to be ‘victims.”  We hired them to be ‘difference makers.’”  O’Reilly’s advice reminds us that market leaders emerge in any economy – good or bad.  

The Bottom Line
We pay our salespeople to work around obstacles to discover and pursue available profit opportunities that coexist with market challenges. “Of course the loss of business has to be a concern,” responded James Harsche (Sales Rep, Port Supply), “but this is what we train for, to help turn that around.”  

Share Your Golden Insight
Today's market presents unique challenges for sure, but I've found that unique challenges often translate into unique opportunities.  What has crossed your mind lately about competing in this market?

Leadership Management - From Napoleon To Welch

As I watched President Obama share his vision on Tuesday night during his press conference, I thought of his leadership, which then led me to think about leadership management within wholesale distributors and all sales organizations during these tough times.  

Some observations I recently received from one of my LinkedIn profile discussions, suggested that as leaders today we must:

• Lead by example and lead with action. Leadership is not about being perfect or doing everything right, it is about doing the right things that help empower others to do what they need to do.
• Understand the imperative nature of hiring good people (regardless of the economy) and, even more importantly to let them do what you hired them for. In tough times like these, it is very easy to "micro-manage".
• Keep the vision alive and make sure that people are still able to see it. Focusing on tasks, blurs that vision, and decreases morale for those on the front lines. In a highly transactional environment for example, some find the focus on tasks to be very depressing. We must bring long-term vision into the scenario, along with goals and then let our people go out and figure it out.
• Remember that people look to their manager for that vote of confidence, encouragement, enthusiasm, or just the gentle righting of the ship. Positive people possess that magnetism which can nudge individuals forward.
• Be direct in what you want out of your people and then let them figure out how to get it done. It doesn't work with everyone, and in every situation but if you have those go-getters on your team, then let them go. Set them on a path for success by simply getting out of their way.

Here are five great quotes on leadership management. Which do you think provides the best insight to sales leadership for these economic times? Tell us why you pick the one you do. 



1. "The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it." Theodore Roosevelt 


2. “A leader's job is to look into the future and see the organization, not as it is, but as it should be."  Jack Welch 
3. "A leader is a dealer in hope." Napoleon Bonaparte 


4. "Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things." Peter Drucker 


5. "Don't tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results." George S. Patton

Please Share Your Thoughts
Which of these quotes do you think provides the best insight to leadership management for wholesale distributors and all sales organizations for these economic times? Tell us why you pick the one you do. 



Who else wants more than their fair share?

Can you ever imagine Tiger Woods saying that he wants to win his "fair share" of golf tournaments?  Last week he returned to the PGA Tour, still ranked #1 in the world after an 8 month break following reconstructive knee surgery.  Despite his early exit from the World Golf Championships - Accenture Match Play, he returns with a mind set that undoubtedly gives his competitors sweaty palms when he says, “I want to become better than I was.”

I guarantee that you will never hear Tiger Woods say that he wants to win only his fair share of golf tournaments!

But how about sales people?  Are they ever comfortable with their fair share?  From my travels with distributor and manufacturer sales people another guarantee I can provide is that many are, in fact, satisfied with getting only their fair share.

I was recently with a task force of managers and sales representatives from a regional distributor where we explored why customers tend to split their spend between a handful of suppliers.  Some of the reasons identified included:

• Sophistication - the business savvy of some customers doesn’t allow them to see the real value of deeper partnerships.
• Obligation - relationships and friendships built over the years compel the customer to dole out business to their friends.
• Credit Line - maybe more so in today’s market than before, customers need to use the credit line from multiple suppliers to source the needed goods.
• Comfort - The prospect of having “all their eggs in one basket” is unsettling to many.

I am sure there are others, but sales people can find many reasons to be satisfied with getting their fair share of an accounts business.  Over the last several years for example, I have spent a lot of time working with distributors who are selling their products to and through independent dealers.

A common theme that I hear from many of the sales people is: “All’s I want is my fair share.”  Have you ever heard one of your reps say that?  What they are saying is that if they represent one of the top three brands in the market for example, they are working to get 33% of the floor space.  It's interesting to think where these individuals would end up on the PGA’s tournament wins or earnings list with that mindset - while their competition is strategizing how to take more than their fair share.

I personally don’t understand this thinking.  In fact, I think it is the easy way out.  I know that there are many reason why we can rationalize limiting ourselves to fair share:  We don’t want to be pushy, we don’t want to create a discussion around the volume rebates the dealer gets from the competitors, we understand that the dealer has developed friendships with the competing sales reps . . . the list goes on.

You know, most sales reps spend too much time thinking about why we can’t get more than 33% rather than why we deserve more than that even split.  

More Than Our Fair Share
In today's economic environment, now is the time to change our thinking - now is the time to displace competition and earn more than our fair share.  Some call it wallet share.  Others market share; and still others, percentage of the customers spend.  Some of the best distributor salespeople I have been with have a mind set that they don’t want their fair share - they want and truly believe they deserve more than their fair share.

Here are some questions that these top producers are continually exploring to develop strategies & plans to earn more than their fair share:

1. How do we differentiate? - They define what they bring to the customer that sets them apart from all other suppliers.
2. How do we add value? - They define how they can better impact the customer’s bottom line when they do in fact get more of the business.
3. How do we get and keep mind share? - Being top of mind is crucial and they develop systems to engage the customers with the appropriate quantity and quality of touches.
4. How do we get floor/shelf/bin space? - This question is all about earning the business.  Finding ways to overcome the many challenges and solid objections customers have to “putting their eggs in one basket.”
5. What must I do to “own” the customer? - These top producers are constantly exploring how they can be so invaluable to their customers, that the customer can’t imagine splitting the business.

I’d love to hear from you.  

• What are your thoughts about earning more than your fair share from your customers?  
• What have you successfully done to increase wallet share?  
• Are there other questions in addition to the five I’ve posted above that we should be asking ourselves?
• What are some of your answers to the above questions that you have found drive sales and help you gain more than your fair share?

Its Time To Thrive – 3 Areas Of Focus

Ugggh!  Keep the newspapers (remember them?) away from me.  The news is not pleasant.  Layoffs here, declining profits there, bailouts everywhere!

Just a bit ago I had a great conversation with a friend of mine James James (yes that is his real name) the VP of Sales for Yacht Chandlers relative to this state of economy and its impact on business, sales organizations, and individuals.  James shared the insight that in this environment most people - it’s human nature to - act in a way that:

• Makes you look good
• Reduces risk, and
• Allows you to survive

I think James is right.  Look at what sales people are doing in this environment.  To look good, they might start using the sales force automation system that the company invested in (years ago).  To reduce risk they might bring more competitive pricing to customers who have opened conversations with competitors.  And to survive they are knocking on more doors hoping that some prospect is in crises mode to reduce costs that will allow for an opportunity to quote.

On a macro economic level the British economist John Maynard Keynes coined the term “liquidity trap” during the Depression in the 1930s. A liquidity trap is when the loss of confidence of businesses and consumers results in a desire to hold on to cash rather than spend or invest.  A bank for example in tough times like we are experiencing now, will want to look good by taking massive write-downs.  They will reduce risk by tightening credit.  And will act to survive by conserving cash and cutting its dividend.  Sound familiar?

My take on this environment is that now is the time to:

Be Good rather than look good
Now is the time to check your skills.  I have suggested for years that good times camouflage poor performance.  And factually many in sales and sales management are waking up in this new economic period realizing that they had not focused on developing their skills to succeed in not just the good times, but in tough times like these. You know what skills & behaviors have been lacking - have you been transaction oriented rather than consultative?  Have you been administrating rather than coaching.  Let’s focus on being good.

Manage risk rather than reduce risk
Now is not the time to cower, sit back and wait for the market to turn.  Now more than ever strategy comes into play.  In good times, the market was much more forgiving to those who reacted to opportunities rather than strategically created opportunities.  In our just published book Driving Distribution Sales Beyond: Best Practices For Outselling Your Competitors from the NAW Institute for Distribution Excellence, we explore how leading businesses develop the strategy and roadmap to achieve their vision.  Manage risk today by setting specific goals, detailing plans to achieve them and mobilize resources to work the plan.

Thrive rather than survive
In every market there are individuals and businesses that perform below the market averages and those that perform above those averages.  There are those that hang on and (try to) survive, and those who go beyond mediocrity to thrive. To thrive today we must have an expectation of success, which include the needed behaviors and a focus on superior execution.

One of the things that I am doing to be good, manage risks and thrive in this market is embracing the whole social networking movement.  Another is that we continue to evaluate ourselves internally relative to our commitment of “more than satisfied customers.”  Let me know if you want more information on either of these and I’ll be happy to post.

So what are you doing in these times to Be Good?  To Manage Risk?  And to Thrive? Share your insight so that we can learn from you.

Human Energy

I have to admit  - I love Chevron’s Human Energy branding and advertising campaign.  I got hooked with their 2 1/2 minute commercial titled Untapped.  Maybe it's the motivational speaking in me, but this campaign is very good. 

 

Make no mistake Chevron is selling.  They’ve produced this commercial to sell and market the company, its products, and its services.  But - they have taken their message beyond the consultative approach and they are certainly not simply peddling their traditional oil and gas products.  They are improving sales by selling Human Energy.  Human Energy that creates:

• Vision
• Ideas
• Solutions

Chevron is challenging you and I, better than any business speaker could, to be part of the solution in overcoming the energy obstacles that our country is confronting.

What a great model for distributor sales organizations.  Today maybe more than ever we in distribution sales are faced with tough challenges.  Challenges of a lifetime.  Our economy is the story of this time and the economic challenges are all encompassing and leaves no one untouched.  Our customers included.

Now is the time for you and I to approach our customers in the same way that Chevron is reaching out to its market.  Let our competitors go in and pitch product and price while we sell a vision for a better tomorrow.  Let’s take time to understand - really understand how this economy is impacting the strategies, plans, and initiatives within our customer’s business.  Let’s bring ideas - solid well thought out ideas that come together as a comprehensive plan that solves real business needs.  And, like Chevron let’s sell a vision, a future reality for their business, operation, or department that is possible and would, when achieved contribute significantly to their business results.

What do you think of the Chevron Human Energy campaign? I am curious, how are you approaching customers differently in these economic times?  What is the human energy you bring to your customers?  Share with us way that you are selling more than product and price, maybe how you are partnering with your customers to sell ideas, vision, solutions and challenging each other to achieve a better tomorrow.