Sales Coaching: Top Tips for Increased Productivity

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All outstanding sales managers engage in coaching on a daily basis and counseling on an as needed basis. Sales coaching is the proactive manner to help support the mentoring provided for sales professionals to improve their performance and to help them when having difficulties. It is mainly focused on maintaining existing, strong performance and moving it further. Counseling on the other hand is a reactive fractured approach implemented when an employee is performing below expectations due to either a skill deficiency or an attitude deficiency. It is mainly focused on restoring performance to a minimal acceptable level or failing that, removing the employee from that job.

I remember the first time that I was managing a full sales force of individuals and I was asked to evaluate the sales performance of a young woman by the name of Ivy. Unfortunately I was predisposed because I had discovered that Ivy had very poor selling skills, was typically late and was not meeting the quota goals assigned to her. It was up to me to decide whether or not she was worth keeping or terminating her employment. So, with both solutions open to for either coaching or counseling I used both to help increase her performance and reverse many of the poor things people were saying. In the next few moments I will provide you some information on coaching and how to use it to help those with weak into personal skills.

My belief is that all sales representatives should be coached on an ongoing basis. It is a form of mentoring that enables ongoing dialogue between the manager and the subordinate so that feedback on performance doesn’t occur only when there is a problem. Nor should it occur and only one time of the year-the performance review. Moreover it allows for excellent sales work and customer service to be recognized, supported, exploited and then finally conveyed to others.

Unfortunately many sales managers spend 10 times more of their effort and energy counseling. Managers often confuse the two and don’t understand the difference and usually respond only to problems, meaning that the preponderance of their time is spent on correcting weak efforts rather than supporting strength.

The most important attributes of a sales coaching relationship includes:

That the dialogue is constant and ongoing it’s not situated around the periodic review.
The feedback must be timely and it has to be offered at a point where an issue or a problem arises.
It is important to understand that the manager simply coaches and mentors but the employee ultimately performs.
In order for a good mentoring process to occur there must be a good relationship. In other words both sides must be approachable whenever and wherever.
The employee must be able to be coached. Some people simply do not like the told by others how to improve performance therefore is how will to have someone who really wants the assistance to improve.

Counseling on the other hand is a short-term sequence of interactions with sales professionals that results in either restored or acceptable performance or unfortunately and when necessary the employee leaves the job where they can perform better. Counseling is essential to improving sales performance yet few sales managers ever engage systematically and most don’t effectively engage in it at all. The reason being is that many sales managers might believe that counseling requires too much time and effort of which they don’t have and that the employee might actually engage them in too much conflict.

The following is a checklist when you need to use sales counseling:

Determine if the poor performance is caused by a lack of skills or simply a poor attitude.
Focus on the behavior of the individual.
Get agreement on the standard and the actual performance.
Discuss the impact of the performance on others in the organization. Remember here to keep things objective never personal.
Discuss the alternatives and consequences and actually have the employee, suggest some solutions.
Establish action plans and dates so that the employee can be held to accountability standards.
Constantly review and monitor the process.

Drew Stevens works with senior officers and their direct reports who continually struggle to ensure their sales teams meet performance goals. Dr. Drew helps to dramatically accelerate revenues. He can be reached at http://www.stevensconsultinggroup.com

Monday Motivation from Dr. Drew – Sales Mojo

Monday Momentum

Monday Focus – I remember my senior year of high school. I set 6 school records in track and field, my grades were good and I had a girlfriend. I had confidence, I had confidence I had swagger. We all get swagger when things are going well…but once we hit a bump in the road it disappears quickly. Athletes need swagger to remain competitive to stay in the game. So do selling professionals. Believe it or not you can maintain your swagger but always sticking with fundamentals. Constantly develop self; read, write, watch and listen to videos anything so that you maintain your course. What gets repeated gets remembered and if you want to keep your swagger then you need to develop habits to maintain your moo.

Monday Motivational Quote – “Don’t wait until everything is just right. It will never be perfect. There will always be challenges, obstacles and less than perfect conditions. So what. Get started now. With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger, more and more skilled, more and more self-confident and more and more successful.” Mark Victor Hansen (Author)

Split Second Selling – The Book That Helps You Sell More In Less Time

Hi My name is Drew Stevens and I am the author of Split Second Selling. I wrote this book with one purpose - to help you sell more in less time! I want to make you more money!

Why read another book on selling? Simple. Today’s client is more informed more sophisticated and has more access to information. Sales forces are much too tactical. In the increasing age and rage of globalization and the Internet, competition rises. Assisting to thwart competitive forces, organizations typically hire more talent to sell more products or push one brand over another. Present organizations must sell smarter not harder.

Customers are seeing right through the selling representative and deplore the selling approach. Sales representatives are myopic to the needs of the organization focusing only on the “product/service” of the day. For many firms a client obtains mixed messages and misunderstands the message of your organization. Rather than use your existing lines of business, clients turn to your competitors. This loses your bargaining power, your client value, and positioning. The solution lies in adjusting to your client by offering measurements and value. Helping clients save time, money, resource focuses on bottom-line performance and instills customer value.

Split Second Selling will show you how to increase your sales and align with customer value. Based on over 26 years of research and experience, Drew Stevens provides a simple and easy to use formula to get you from the starting line to the finish line. Drew has condensed the myriad of selling concepts and ideas into a simple and easy to remember formula known as PRACTICE™.

The seven steps of PRACTICE are:

Planning – The most vital process for any successful sales professional. Sales professionals must plan each call and be prepared to offer prospective clients all the essential information.

Coaches Clinic:

Follow industry trends by reading news and online periodicals
Use a sales planning guide to understand objectives for the call
Know the habits and values of your decision maker

Rapport – Building rapport is one of the largest hurdles for any sales representative. You have to get to know strangers. You must always discover new ways to connect to people and help them resolve their issues.

Coaching Clinic:

Listen to follow body language
Ask lots of questions to aid your relationship skills
Study personalities to gain insight into prospective buyers communication skills

Attention – Buyers today are distracted by email, voicemail, the internet, remote controls, cell phones, etc. Sales professionals must rise above the din to be heard. And, more importantly,

Coaching Clinic:

·Listen intently to communication style of the prospective buyer
·Take notes and summarize the conversation to keep prospect engaged
·Use statistics or facts to link to value the client perceives.

Split Second Selling will illustrate how to:

Identify client needs easier
Become more efficient and productive in the selling process
Enhance customer relations
Understand the role of today’s sales professional
Improve your ability to communicate with others

Simply put Split Second Selling will:

Sell more products and services in less time.
Increase your marketing message so that you establish more value and gain more community.
Help you reduce the number of objections so that you sell more services faster!
Discover your passion so that you remain more enthusiastic throughout the sale.
Illustrate how to meet more economic buyers that make decisions faster!
Provide you with the 12 questions that must be asked during every sale to close more quickly!
Enable you to gain more referrals so that there is less cold calling and building a larger and faster community.
Get you more clients
More Money!

I Object!

I have what might at first seem to be an odd view of objections: I love them! That is so important I want to repeat it: I love objections!

You might think that is silly, but it is not. Objections simply help you understand where you are in the sales process. Challenging though they are, objections provide valuable touch points to gauge your progress.

By and large, objections are nothing more than concerns and skepticism on the part of the buyer. Objections are the result of indecision, fear, and prior losses. If you have done a good job discussing wants and needs, objections don’t get raised as often, but they still appear.

When prospective clients raise objections, what they’re really saying is that they’re not comfortable with the decision for a variety of reasons. Further, they are telling you that they have unresolved questions in their mind. So what’s a good sales professional to do? We must simply address their objections. The simplest way to respond to a sales objection is to listen and then some simple rules.

First, always anticipate that you will receive objections at some point in the sales process. You should never be surprised when you get one. One of the first things that you need to do when handling an objection is to use a technique that I learned many years ago called the B.I.C. Principle. The only way to maintain control during a sales presentation is to constantly listen or ask questions. You should never lose control or seem surprised. Objections are simply a part of the sales process and, more importantly, the closing process. Your ability to remain in control is essential to your success.

A second rule of thumb is to never argue when you receive a sales objection. The buyer is merely seeking to gain more information – it’s his or her way of indicating that you have not provided enough data.

Third, objections can be genuine concerns or trivial points. It is incumbent upon you to ask the proper questions to determine whether an objection is genuinely concerning or simply a minor glitch. In my experience, the most common trivial objection is “the price is too high.” You must ask more questions to determine genuine objections – in other words, to discern the primary reasons that the buyer considers most valid for not moving forward.

Fourth, too many people want to talk and not listen. Sales professionals can become too focused on trying to close the sale. This can result in the salesperson neglecting to listen to the buyer’s objections. The best thing you can do is intently listen to the buyer’s reasons for not progressing.

So the next time you hear something such as the price is too high or I’m happy with my current vendor you might want to consider where you slipped in the sales process or what additional questions does the prospective client need to understand your value.

If you want to know more about objections you might want to read the chapter in my book Split Second Selling

Sustained!

No Trust, No Relationship, No Sale!

Derrick arrived at my door last weekend seeking to sell me some home improvement services. I normally do not answer the door on the weekend since I am busy doing chores but needed to respond when since the front doorbell continually rang.

Once I opened the door I was greeted by a young (perhaps new) sales representative that continually asked me questions that included:

- Do you need any home improvements?

- Any windows that are broken an in need of repair?

- Any desire to expand on your current home?

Not once did he stop to create a relationship but prodding me with questions to “buy” his services. Not once did he establish rapport or care about my wants and needs!

“Why don’t people take the time to learn professional selling?

After close to thirty years of sales it is getting embarrassing to see so many individuals “attempt” sales. Selling is a profession that requires as much study as management, law or any other professional degree. “If so many do it then why do so many fail?”

The problem is that selling requires a mindset that builds upon customer-centered relationships. Clients today want to build trusting relationships with their suppliers. Failure to do so only makes sellers a vendor. This reduces the power to negotiate, build a referral network and future sales. It is 88% more effective to discover sales from retained clients than prospective.

It is also important to be reminded that clients have choices and just because you show up at my front porch this does not produce a conversion. Door to door sales are no different from cold calling they are intrusive, unprofessional yet more specifically a waste of time. If you are in sales desiring more business then:

Take the time to build honest sincere relationships
Use your referral network to gain access to “buyers”
Stop using the same tactics as competitors; illustrate your difference.
Network like crazy to gain third party endorsement.
Build a network that gets others to speak about you while attracting them to you; end the hard labor.
Learn proper questioning skills focused on objectives and measurements of success.
Find methods to learn mastery in the sales craft; attend a public seminar, obtain a personal coach, listen to tapes – anything that makes you better.

What best practices can you share with our readers to lessen labor and make them more effective?

How to Sell to Large Accounts

I remember when I first arrived in sales. I was selling a service to day traders. It was very rewarding but I was missing something. I worked hard for four years and worked the phones like mad but I was not satisfied. Until one day a recruiter called with a job offer than altered my life. Rather than solicit services over the phone I was asked to work for a large organization that desired to employ sales professionals who could get appointments with “C Suite” executives. Yes I was asked to sell new services to the CEO’s and CIO’s of Wall Street. Now I was Top Gun.

Similarly, you will want your sales team to do the same. Selling to large accounts is actually no different from selling one to one but there are some considerations.

First and foremost before any selling representative picks up a phone to place a call with a large account it is important to know what to say before hello. Large accounts require proper planning and analysis so that provocative conversations can transpire between sales agents and decision makers.

The proper research includes:

Annual Report

This important multi-section document is a must read. Within the front pages sales professionals will find a letter from the president or CEO indicating new products, growth plans, operational woes and competitive plans. This first section will communicate how you and your producers help the company.

Other ways to obtain the report go to the firm’s website or subscribe to an Internet services such as Hoovers.com or Dow Jones News Retrieval.

Business News

To properly service your customers you must understand their successes, feel their trials and tribulations and help to downplay competitive and marketplace pressures. Reading a major periodical will apprise you of new customer news and keep you abreast of business changes.

Industry News

As important as the real-time business news is, you must clearly understand the industry you service. It is your job to follow the industry news. Perhaps you are servicing a niche industry such as I do in Wall Street Technology. Ask your clients and contacts about the periodicals they read to follow industry trends.

Know the Who

Once you have prepared then you must discover methods to help get you in the door. There fore you must then identify you key economic buyers. Gatekeepers waste time and do not understand value. Gatekeepers focus on victimhood and conceit. Decision makers concern themselves with productivity and value. Do not be confused by titles. There are many individuals who believe titles have enormous clout. 67% of business professionals spend too much time with those that cannot make a decision. Sellers are often duped into the process because they do not ask the proper questions. Good detective work means asking the difficult questions.

Large Accounts Require Results

In my entire business career so many automatically know what they want, but few know what they need. Ask additional questions that provide value by honing in on these differences. The focus here is on value to the organization and to the individual, as well as measurements for success.

Focus on Results

No one cares about your creative advertising or corporate office. Demonstrate important outcomes for the client, such as speed, guarantees, high return, and transition management. When you focus on client results, conversations become crisp and tightly focused.

Customer to Customer Influences

People like to conduct business with those whom they know and like. Begin by obtaining a testimonial from every possible client. Relationships are built based on prior expertise. Your ability to nimbly build a “book” of testimonials will assist you in becoming the provider of choice.

Selling large accounts is not an overnight process. Large Account Management takes years to master, and even then, there is always something to learn. There is no way that in three weeks you will become proficient in selling. Nor can it occur in one sales training course. Selling, like human development, is a process that will take you years of time, energy and investment.

Sales Lessons

Lessons from the Sales Field

We just completed our latest Business Acceleration Sales Seminar. Our dialogue was crisp and thought provoking and many came away with several good best practices to take back to their firms.

With over 29 years of aiding sales managers and sales professionals there are some new trends developing. Here is a list of best practices from the sales field that will help you immeasurably in gaining new business.

Avoiding transaction to make traction. Selling today is about relationship. Good trusting relationships bind deals not selling widgets.
Cold Calling is as innovative as AM Radio. The world is changing and so too are buyers. Individuals do not have time and resources available to be interrupted by total strangers. The root to the buyer comes from different paths.
The key to success is differentiation. Sellers today must articulate value. Buyers research firms before the seller arrives. They know their needs what they are not clear on is the obtained value.
Content is king. Those that prepare for every call and every circumstance will win. Procrastinators are left at the back door. Know what to say before you say hello.
Moving right along. Great sellers move issues to the next level they think in terms of movement and action steps. Sellers are the leaders of the band not the other way around.
Consistent and Relentless Referrals. The only manner to gain successful business today is constantly seeking referrals or being introduced by third parties. Remember to make at least three to four sales when selling. You are selling the initial prospective client and others in their network.
Professional Presence. Selling professionals that are constantly prepared always prevail. In a world rift with casual dress and lethargy those that use the right tools, dress appropriately, engage in great conversation, articulate content on the world around them and relate to the client will always remain successful.

There are several others but for now that is base line. What might be some other best practices for the list? What are things you do to accelerate your sales success? Place a comment in the field below.

Sales Difficulty – Return to Fundamentals

During my high school and collegiate days I ran track. I recall the numerous times I attempted new goals and failed to reach them. Or there were times when competing that required some changes. In both instances I returned to fundamentals,

Similar issues happen to those selling, Sales professionals compete each day with some days going great and others not so much. Sometimes no matter how hard you attempt to meet new prospects or close new deals it is similar to running up a mountain on a hot day with a 30 pound sack.

Rather than continuing on the path with no results it is best to review some fundamentals to center your efforts and reclaim your confidence.

To assist you here are seven of 25 aspects:

Preparation – Never say hello without conducting complete research on your prospective buyer. Review annual reports, proxy statements, current news, and the company website so that you can engage in healthy conversations.
Questions – Many keynote speakers use notes to guide their presentations. Therefore prepare a series of provocative questions based on objectives, measurements and returns clients desire. Do not think on your feet when you can prepare questions that lead clients on a path.
Stop Prescribing – Clients desire value therefore your conversations must be value based. Stop sounding like other sales agents. Base discussions on results and outcomes. Stop telling information and listen to what they need.
Value – Engage clients with a value proposition. End the features and facts discussion. If you desire a template on a value proposition contact me.
Start Listening – A former mentor Norm Strauss had a wonderful ability to ask questions with a question. Sales representatives do not get information when they speak they do so when they ask questions. Be in control of every call by forming the discussion with purposeful questions.
Evaluate – Every athlete always reviews strengths and limitations of competition, why not selling professionals? Conduct a quick SWOT and make your next client call better.
Seek Council – Unfortunately when sales people reach out for aid they believe it is a sign of weakness; not true. Mentorship is a sign of power as individuals seek supremacy of their craft. Never be afraid to ask for help.

What fundamental practices do you use that aid you during difficult times? Place your best practices in the comment area below.

Overcoming Sales Hurdles

Through trial and error we understand that the more issues remain the same the more they must change. Research in a myriad of periodicals mentions numerous challenges for organizations especially in the selling process. New issues abound daily impacting how selling professionals meet buyer’s needs.

What we know are the following:

➢ Decision Makers are hard to find. There are so many responsibilities for people that trying to find the time for discussion is difficult. Additionally, since organizations tend to focus on lean, more people are making decisions rather than management. A recent Wall Street Journal Report states that personnel without authority to purchase a laptop can plan a regional meeting with a budget of $500,000!
➢ Competitive Neutrality. The proliferation of the Internet and information is challenging. Buyers comprehend more of your organization than your own sales force!
➢ Organizational labyrinthine. Globalization, rightsizing, mergers and multitudes of organizational transformation are as perplexing as discovering the DaVinci Code. Reporting lines and decision processes are difficult.
➢ Financial Planning. The one constant is decreasing divisional funds. Agreement is reached only to discover the unavailability of funds.
➢ The best defense is unclear. 15 years ago, training your sales force was mandatory. With tightening budgets and productivity issues, selling professionals are sent into battle without armaments.
➢ CRM. The sales tool offered to assist selling professionals is underutilized and mis-understood.
➢ No Teamwork. Sales require more collaboration with the marketing department.

With over 27 years of research and analysis with numerous organizations we constantly hear about sales excuses- no return calls to numerous voice mails. I have made return calls to interested parties only to never hear from them again. The world has become more complex and navigationally difficult.

Read any present newspaper or periodical and you will begin to acquire the phraseology of the “knowledge economy”. This is defined as an economy based on creating, evaluating, and trading knowledge. In a knowledge economy, labor costs become progressively less important as opposed to the amount of knowledge acquired by individuals and organizations to become more effective. Simply put, the more information one has the more knowledge one gains. Content is king! This is the key differentiator.

Selling professionals similar to your clients must be content experts. Clients desire trust and respect and they desire intellectual conversation. Drop the features and benefit discussion- these left when public seminars did. Your clients crave illustrious council. Selling professionals must be advisors, consultants and experts. This is vital to your business success.

There are some rules about sales:

1. There are simply four techniques of selling that are vital. One does not need numerous methods and training. Learn the four simple steps and you will sell more than you realize.
2. There is no basic selling rule or principle that has been discovered in the last hundred years.
3. One needs to take these principles and use them daily. Practicing these rules and making them a habit in your daily life will make you better.
4. Do not rush learning. Rome was not built in a day. You must learn daily and practice daily but without haste and impatience.
5. Evaluate yourself. Be critical and learn by what you are doing and not doing to become better. Be honest in your assessment.

The one issue of selling never expressed in training or research is that it is not event based or linear. Selling is a process, it takes time, it takes effort and it takes patience!

Original sales article published here.

What Holds you Back?

One of the worst things that hurt individuals is the inability to grow. We all have skeletons that haunt our past- if we let them. Previous issues, phobias and concerns can be like anchors on boat, they can continually drag you down until you reach the bottom; and they can sink you.

If you feel you are held back, it just might be past ghosts. The focus must be on the present and the future- not the past. You cannot alter the past; you can only impact your future.

I learned this imperative life lesson many years ago as a survivor of child abuse. After many years of physical and mental anguish I was forced to mature quickly while making many life-altering decisions. Now as a professional entrepreneur and more importantly a joyful father and husband I understand the power of focus and future. Life from time to has been volatile but if you remain focused and positive you can create the future you desire. Here is what I have learned along the journey:

1. It is imperative to have goals and to write them down. When the mind views something on paper there is an implicit contract that gets committed to memory. Additionally, focus on time frames so issues you desire remain in reach.
2. Dreams are those visuals that instigate and instill our desires. Never let anyone tell you dreams are folly. Those that do are stuck in their own hubris.
3. Guilt is negative thoughts derived and devoured by self-deprecation. The “pity pot” cements us. Positive thoughts instill better outcomes.
4. Franklin Roosevelt once stated, “The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself.” This is not a trite statement but very true. Fear similar to guilt stops you. Fear derails you. Fear stops growth. The best attitude against fear is risk. Higher risk means a greater opportunity for high returns.
5. Similar to fear, procrastination when manifested will derail future growth. Procrastination is the resultant of both fear and guilt. To stop procrastination, one must create motion. Motion creates energy and with it the more speed to get more accomplished.
6. Stop engaging with negative individuals, they only sink you. You are the summation of the individuals you associate with. If those around you do not love you unconditionally then you need to find new people. Altering your associations will bring significant changes in attitude and behavior.
7. Never lose hope and never lose faith. Life has some hurdles and it is how you operate through and around them not avoiding them. Hurdles are unavoidable but can be speed bumps with the right attitude.
8. No matter what God you believe in, never lose faith. God does not want anyone to fail and is always with us in the shadows walking right behind or beside us.

Drew Stevens is one of the world’s leading authorities on business development and sales. Drew is the author of the successful sales process book Split Second Selling. He is also the creator of the Sales Leadership Certificate one of only 14 programs in the United States offering an accredited degree in the profession of selling and has a top ranked podcast called Sales Fitness. To discover how Dr. Drew can assist your organization to increase their business development skills visit him at www.stevensconsultinggroup.com

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