Marketing & Sales Alignment Best Practices

In How Sales Executives Can Improve Marketing and Sales Alignment in 2011, ExecSense examines easy-to-implement strategies and best practices used by leading sales executives to build alignment between their sales and marketing teams. Take the 60 minutes to view this webinar (on your computer, mobile phone, iPad, Kindle or printed out) and learn valuable tips and techniques to improve marketing and sales alignment in order to build a single, integrated revenue pipeline and generate and close more leads this year.

If you cannot call-in to attend the webinar and view the presentation at 4:30 EST, Friday, March 18th, ExecSense will email you the PowerPoint, audio and supplementary files by the next day for viewing at your convenience during your next commute, business trip, flight, lunch, or free hour in your schedule (you simply need to register before the webinar occurs). If you would like to ask an anonymous question or request a specific topic to be covered during the webinar, please email the moderator at lauraj@execsense.com after you have registered to attend and we guarantee your question/topic will be covered.

Find out how to order at:

http://execsense.com/details.asp?id=3364

Sales Management Blog Voted in the Top 50

SalesCrunch releaes its Top 50 Sales Blogs.

The list is generated according to the “Grade” in Blog Grader and is updated daily so the list is always accurate and up to date. Stevens Consulting is ranked number 17 of the top 50 sales blogs. Thanks go to Kevin Vecchione and Tom O’Leary for their infinite wisdom and to Samantha Hartley for her power of repositioning and branding.

Please return often to read our valuable content on sales manager training and development.

Sales Process and Activities – To RFP or Not RFP That is the Question

RFP- Requests for a Proposals are very labor intensive activities. Sales professionals tend to spend much of their sales process and sales time on these requests. However, the bottom line is do these intensive exercises lead to results? Let Dr. Drew inform you of the good, the bad and the ugly side of RFP’s.

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How to Use The Front Desk To Help Sales and Service

Sales Expert and Sales Consultant Drew Stevens illustrates how to use the power of the front desk to transform your sales and marketing efforts.

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Sales Managements Issues in 2011

Drew Stevens presents three of several sales trends to help drive business and develop more customer centered relationships in the new year. He finds the continuance of frugality, getting closer to clients and better pipeline reporting most prevalent.

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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.

Why Training Investment is a Failure to Most Organizations

Reading a recent Wall Street Journal article I was flabbergasted to learn of organizations that are recently increasing the amount of leadership development training. Ironically, organizations are dropping organizational development in light of budget limitations. With tighter budgets and concerns over the recession, many organizations are attempting work on both leadership and team building skills.

With careful analysis of both value and outcome organizational development is heading in the wrong direction. Developing staff during an economic quagmire sends both the improper message and focus.

Here is the rationale why training fails in organization:
1.    The first area of focus during economic turmoil is sales. Nothing happens without something in the organization getting sold. There must be a solid focus on selling methodology, value orientation and relationship building. Energies must be applied to building sales adjuncts and not leadership.
2.    Every organization exists for one purpose- the customer. Attempting to build narcissistic programs without focus on client retention is wasteful.
3.    Leadership Development is a waste. If the organizational culture does not exemplify empowerment, strategy and client focus I good or bad times, the training is wasteful.
4.    There is a current fear that training aids employee retention. This is farthest from the truth; people leave bad managers not bad companies. Seek to retain talent by ending the infighting, the silos and the bad management.
5.    For years I have watched organizations attempt team building. I enjoy seeking an organization try to mend conversation between Bob and Ted. They take the two on a whitewater rafting trip with a case of beer hoping for cajoling. Believe me if Ted and Bob do not like each other, one is not returning. All of our clients believe that greater teamwork is essential to their efficiency and effectiveness. However clients actually have groups rather than teams. There are those in the group that win while others lose. In addition, there is too much focus on the individual accountable versus what the team can provide.
6.    The training and development industry is self-serving. Over $60 billion is spent on training every year with very little focus on return on investment. It is wasteful to conduct training without any sustainable result. Training is an event that does not change behavior in a six-hour period. In addition, training is a reaction to something gone awry.
7.    Training attempts to throw independent consultants and money at an issue to be resolved. What is required are metrics of accountability both before and after. Managers must hold themselves and employees accountable after an event.
8.    Training must be part of an ongoing process, such as coaching, mentoring and counseling. These techniques not only think through what is before but what goes after. Using these techniques, managers can review the obstacles seeking application on the job.
©2009 Drew J. Stevens Ph.D. All rights reserved.

Food Fight

I had the opportunity to meet a dear friend for dinner at a local steakhouse near my home. As we were seated, Danny Devito’s twin greeted us. Oscar aka Danny took almost 25 minutes to return to our table taking drinks and our meal order. Mind you this was not a very busy evening, but you could tell from the moment we were seated Oscar did not want to be working.

During our order I desired one of two choices: fish or steak. Naturally I asked Oscar which he believed best. His glib reply, “Well this is a steakhouse”. My friend and I were aghast but continued our meal.

No one needs to be treated disrespectfully whether eating a meal or simply sitting in the waiting room of a physician’s office. The fact is that customer service is a vital aspect for each business; product or service.

Here are some thoughts for sales professionals, managers, and business owners.

1.    Smile – The first thing consumers see when they are getting serviced. Ensure there is a smile on every agents face. When was the last purchase you made from David the Depressed?
2.    Enthusiasm – Smart people like, smart-ass people can live without. If your people do not like what they do, ask them to leave.
3.    Engaging – Service does not have to look similar to Thanksgiving Dinner with the family but it does require being genuinely interested in others. Ensure conversations occur.
4.    People Make a Difference – Hire the right people for the right job. Clearly Oscar had no business waiting tables on a busy Saturday evening.
5.    Check your Baggage – Like you there are good days and bad days, everyone has them, however consumers do not care. Leave the misery and angst at the door; service everyone equally and respectfully.

Close More Business Podcast

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Overcoming Limited Beliefs Podcast

One of the worst things that occur in life is the belief we manifest based on things we believe we cannot accomplish. These stem from experiences in our youth that morph the values and beliefs we gained from those around us.

I grew up with an extremely abusive father. His mental and physical abusiveness helped to lay the foundation to things I thought I could not accomplish. By the time I was 13 this man explicitly told me, I would become nothing, be nothing and accomplish nothing. For many these beliefs would stop anyone in their tracks, and for many they do. There are two choices individuals have; manifesting these beliefs or altering them. I chose the latter.

Limiting beliefs are those concepts and ideas that you believe you are. These beliefs can and will hold you from accomplishments.

Discover the secrets and techniques needed to overcome limited beliefs and create a new vision and values.

Download the latest podcast at:

http://www.stevensconsultinggroup.com/sales-fitness-podcast.php