Who is needed on your selling team? - 8 key roles

Sales as we know it has changed forever, gone are the days that 2 people can sell high value deals without help from domain, technology and delivery experts. This fact has implications for the sales and relationship competencies across your organisation.

We all know that buying teams are getting larger and decision making is more complex. But what about your selling team - has it changed accordingly?  Is your company adopting a team-based approach to sales?

What type of sales team is needed to close a €500,000 plus deal?

I was chatting with two successfull entrepreneurs yesterday about selling complex solutions into major organisations and we began to talk about the type of sales team needed to close big ticket deals. 

Based on our collective experience of over 50 years in business we identified a number of key roles critical to moving opportunities from leads to meetings to sales cycles to orders.

1. A sales person - who adopts an expert led and consultative selling approach 

2. A pre-sales support person who knows the domain

3. A product/market expert who can talk knowledgeably about the industry

4. A Product director -  who owns the technology vision and road map 

5.  A Senior developer who can be paired off with senior tech staff from the client/buying team

6. An account manager who can be introduced towards the end of the sales cycle who has delivered similar projects previously

7. An implementation/customer services driver to manage delivery, customer service and steering group reviews

8. The MD & maybe even chairman - to build confidence and add gravitas

The most successful organisations sales is everybody's job.  The organisations who are closing business are holding workshops and team meetings with their key staff to remind them of this. 

 

What buyers look for in a sales person

We were hosting a sales workshop recently with some senior account managers and project managers and they seemed surprised at the characteristics buyers look for from their partners and suppliers.

As a result I asked a director of IT who holds a size-able budget what characteristics he looked for in the vendors/service providers. His answer

• Expertise
• Listening skills
• Someone who isn't too pushy
• Someone who is willing to say they don't know the answer buts knows someone who doea
• People who follow up professionally

The message: people want to meet experts not know it alls, people who are confident in their ability and people who know what they don't know.

Why Selling Is An Olympic Sport

Sales people are in the front line in this time of economic slowdown.  Well all know it is not going to be easy – in fact for many it is already providing to be a challenge of Olympic proportions. 

So, perhaps 'selling in the downturn' should be among those competitive sports included in the London  Olympics.  Here are some of the parallels:

1. Selling as in any competitive sport, requires discipline and stamina, strength and endurance.  A lot of hard work and preparation will go into that short moment on the track. Training and preparation is everything.

2. There will be bruises and the occasional injury along the way.  Sometimes, it will seem like you are constantly running up hill, where perseverance rather than skill counts most.  Other times you will be on a winning streak - in the zone / the sweet spot and at the top of your game.  It can switch between these at any time.

3. You will occasionally hit the wall, that may be a lost sale, or worst of all, perhaps, it may be a stalled sale.  The ability to motivate yourself to get back on the track is paramount.

4. It is not just about a single race – but an unending series of competitions.  That means you cannot rest on your laurels for long, the moment of glory soon fades.  After all, you are only as good as your last sale.

5. Winning is everything, even second place is poor consolation.  If you are not winning then you are off the team and on the sidelines. 

6. It is a team sport.  Increasingly it is not just one person in the limelight.  Every champion owes shares his/her success with a support team of trainers, coaches and so on.  Team based selling requires a combined of skills and for each person to successfully pass the baton. 

7. It could be a marathon, it is not just a long race, but a series of short races one after the other.   With increasingly long sales cycles you cannot always see the finishing line.   Or it could be in the pool, as it can require holding your breath for long periods of time.

8. A great coach is a key ingredient of success, someone that can help people to perform at their best.  So too is effective team work and an evironment that not only rewards, but celebrates success.

 

What MPG is your sales organisation delivering?

Why Sales Managers are paying increased attention to meetings per quarter, and other key sales effectiveness variables.

I had a director years ago who struggled to reconcile what was a very busy sales office, with the results that were being achieved. On his occasional visits he would innocently ask ‘are we busy fools?’ - a question that secretly enraged both over-worked managers and staff. Yet, it struck at the heart of the issue of sales effectiveness.

MPG = Meetings per Quarter

Let’s put it at its simplest – meetings per quarter (mpq) is the motoring equivalent of miles per gallon (mpg). Like a car, a business, or a salesperson, has a certain amount of fuel in the tank. In respect of selling, that equates to a certain number of customers and prospects that can be met in a quarter.

A high, or rising, mpq could suggest that;

• The wrong type of managers and organisations are being met
• The level of pre-qualification is inadequate, or the criteria are out
• Leads are not being nurtured to sales readiness
• A more sophisticated approach to sales meeting is required, or enhanced sales skills
• The sales proposition needs to be revised, or more fundamentally the market segments being targeted.

Making Every Meeting Count

Regardless of the reason it means that sales costs are rising and that reaching the sales target is going to be more difficult. Prospects are increasingly difficult to identify and costly to meet.

Buyers want to see less sales people and only a small proportion of sales people will get in the door. That means making every meeting with a sales prospect count is very important.

Two Very Important Metrics

Just like in motoring, mpg, mpq (meetings per quarter) and lpq (leads per quarter) is all important. Ultimately, it tells you whether you can reach your sales target, or will grind to a halt somewhere along the way.

Meetings per quarter is also one of a number of important metrics that indicate the effectiveness of your lead generation activity is, and puts the leads per quarter metric in perspective. As sales meetings are costly, the average cost of a sales meeting for many companies being in excess of 1,000 euro, meetings per quarter and cost per meeting are important metrics for every manager.

Metrics for Activity, as well as Effectiveness

Of course, how much fuel you are consuming (mpq, lpq, etc.) and how fast you are travelling are interrelated, but separate variables. So, the metric of meetings per deal, as well as meetings per sales cycle are equally important. There is no point in having lots of meetings that go nowhere and ultimately it is the conversion rate to deals won that matters most.

Productivity & Effectiveness in Sales

Sales productivity initiatives to generate more leads, meetings, etc. have been high on the agenda in sales organisations for many years. Managers initially targeted increased levels of sales activity, but with more complex sales cycles have turned their attention to sales effectiveness as the priority.

Imagine one of the back wheels of your sports car was spinning faster than the other, with lots of activity and poor conversion rates, or increasing conversion rates with little activity. The result would be lost of smoke and burning rubber, but little movement. That is why our formula views activity and effectiveness as two side of the selling axis.

Thus, increasing the number of sales meetings, proposals, etc is futile unless they are successful. The level and effectiveness of sales activity must be increased in tandem.

8 Ways Sales Managers are Dealing with the Downturn

The economic downturn has galvanized the sales community. For many organisations the result has been a sharp increase in the level of activity and innovation respect of sales.

Here are 8 ways Sales Managers are rising to meet the challenges of the slowdown:

1. Top filling the pipeline to allow for the increased likelihood of stalled, or delayed buying decisions, as well as the impact of the general market slowdown. That means increasing the level of sales activity to generate more leads, more meetings, etc. Managers are learning to live with longer sales cycles and falling conversion rates by increasing the pond in which they are fishing, the size of their nets and the hours spend by the water.

2. More clearly communicating the business impact of what is being sold and demonstrating a very quick payback. That means replacing long features and benefits lists with customer success stories that demonstrate the quantifiable impact that your solutions have had on others, in terms of; on costs, revenues, efficiency, etc.

3. Offering the customer better value for money, everybody expects more for less these days but of course that is often a matter of perception, as much as reality.

4. Breaking the overall project and its cost into chunks, phases, or stages, in order to reduce up-front cost, or risk. In particular, make it easy for the customer to try it out. They are packaging and bundling their offering in new and innovative ways.

5. Selling higher and wider in your customer’s organization – more and more decisions require not just a senior management sign-off, but active senior management involvement. Sales people are also preparing for longer sales cycles and more interaction with buyers throughout.

6. Helping existing customers deal with the slowdown and proactively exploring how the services and solutions supplied can be adjusted to help them meet the challenges they are facing in their business.

7. Re-investing in sales skills and most importantly ensuring that the sales team stays positive. A key aspect of this is the transition from salesperson to expert and from selling products / services, to selling solutions to customer problems.

8. Innovating in terms of the offering and how it is marketed. There is a saying in retailing 'when business is bad, paint the shop' - a similar approach is being adopted by sales and marketing managers. Another trend that we notice is that companies are looking to simplify, minimise and reduce the cost of what they are offering.

9. Better understanding customer motivations, challenges and buying decisions. This includes a greater appreciation of buyer risk and uncertaintly, understanding the totality of the choices faced by buyers (including doing nothing) and really understanding the prospects key business drivers and how they can be impacted upon.

10 ways to increase the effectiveness of your sales team

Where do managers concerned with improving sales performance turn?  Here are the top 10:

1. Run a sales campaign (providing the impetus of specific sales campaigns supported by marketing initiatives)
   
   
2. Implement a sales systems (making target lists, sales planning, reporting and administration, as well as marketing much more efficient and allowing metrics regarding activity and effectiveness to be easily tracked across the sales team)
   
   
3. Revise your sales process (pre-qualification, more systematic needs analysis, relationship building, etc.)
   
   
4. Improve your sales structures (incl. incentives, meetings, reviews, etc.)
   
   
5. Providing better leadership and more coaching in the field
   
   
6. Provide sales / marketing / telesales support (including list building, generating awareness/enquiries, appointment setting, etc)
   
   
7. Provide some sales training – building confidence and skill, as well as product and industry knowledge
   
   
8. Segment your market (targeting specific niches or segments in a tailored and effective manner)
   
   
9. Revise your sales materials / collateral (updating tired sales aides, brochures, web pages, etc.)
   
   
10. Revisit your sales proposition (putting a new more compelling angle on the message for the customer)

Closing The Performance Gap Between Your Best & Worst Performing Sales Person

Some sales people perform better than others.  In fact, the top 20% of your sales people often account for 80% of sales revenues. 

But, what does this chasm in performance really mean?  Is it something you just got to live with, or something that can be changed?

'Mind the Gap'

One of our clients has a sales team of 15 people serving a construction related industry that has enjoyed over a decade of continuous growth, but is not suffering a significant decline. 

Interested to understand how effectively the organisation was responding to the new competition for customers we asked some questions about the levels of sales activity and effectiveness across the company's sales team.

In a typical week the company's best performing salesperson closes 3 times more deals than his poorest performing colleague.  The higher performer was not only closing 45% more deals, but was meeting 7-10 more customers per week.

The gap between the best performing and most struggling rep was as follows:

	Number of Meetings	Conversion Rate	Average Value
Best	22-25 per week	75%	850
Worst	15 per week	30%	750

 

Quantifying the Opportunity

It is not unusual to find these disparities in performance across a sales team, either large or small.  However, that does not mean that such chasms in terms of performance cannot be leaped.

If all the sales force is struggling then attention logically turns to market conditions, the sales proposition and sales strategy.  However, when some sales reps are performing and others are not, then sales productivity and sales effectiveness immediately come into focus. 

Why are some struggling, while others are performing?

Sales people differ in terms of  their attitude, product knowledge and sales skills level.  However, although this is generally the first reason cited for gaps in performance we prefer to look other places first.

We find time and time again that the below average sales person can achieve above average results if her, or she is provided with the right systems, structures, leadership and support.  In general we find that there is too much emphasis on the sales person to the neglect of all those other factors vital to sales success.

Modest Improvements, Significant Results

Modest improvements in terms of sales activity levels and conversion rates, at different stages of the sales cycle, can have a significant overall  impact on results.  For example, if the average rep did just 3% more calls, increased win rates by just 3% and increased average order value by just 3%, the resulting increase in sales would be greater than 10%.

Of course, it would be naive to expect that most under-performing sales people can be transformed into high performers, or simply into average, or better performers.  Indeed, there is no getting away from the fact that some sales people are simply in the wrong company at the wrong time. 

This aside, however, there are few sales people that cannot be assisted in increasing their levels of sales activity and sales effectiveness.   A focus on these two areas generally results in one of two outcomes – an improvement in performance, or a decision by the sales rep to move on – both of which can be a positive step forward for both the rep and the manager.

 

What Can Sales Effectiveness Initiatives Deliver?

Managers are finding that focusing on Sales Effectiveness has the potential to accelerate sales growth more immediately than most other activities, or strategies.  Furthermore compared to other strategies, such as the launch of a new product, it generally does not require a major investment. 

For most companies a focus on increased Sales Effectiveness has the potential to double the rate of sales growth.  Moreover, as effectiveness generally implies getting more from existing resources, the impact on margins is often greater.

 A modest 3% increase in conversion rates at each stages of the sales cycle - for example the quality of sales leads, the effectiveness of sales presentations, etc. – is likely to double the rate of sales growth in most organisations. 

 Sales effectiveness is less about ‘a magic bullet’ and more about a series of modest sales process, systems and skills improvements.  These changes, in isolation, might be considered minor, yet the cumulative effect on sales is surprising.  

Tom Peters said excellence is measured in millimetres not kilometres.  This is particularly true in respect of sales effectiveness.  The focus is on continuous and modest ongoing improvement, as opposed to revolutionary or earth-shattering change, in areas such as:

·         Pre-qualification of Leads

·         The effectiveness of sales meetings, or presentations

·         A more structured sales approach

·         Selling skills (e.g. building relationships)

·         Selling higher in target organizations

·         More effective proposals

·         Sales systems to manage leads, opportunities, etc.

The combined effect on sales of small changes in these areas is to significantly impact on overall conversion rates.  Yet, adopting such an incremental approach has the advantage of being easier to implement.

What is sales effectiveness?

Sales effectiveness is everything that has the potential to improve overall win rates for your sales team and more specifically conversion rates at different stages of the sales cycle.

That means its scope is almost endless – ranging from the effectiveness of sales collateral in generating leads, or enquiries, to the effectiveness of sales presentations and proposals.

 Indeed, sales effectiveness brings the notion of continuous improvement to all aspects of sales and sales led marketing.  Faced with real resource limitations, it is also the application of ‘work smarter, not just harder thinking’. 

Sales effectiveness necessitates closer alignment between sales and marketing – something that is lacking in many organisations.  The results are clearer joint goals, greater co-operation and fewer demarcations.  It also means an accelerated transition from traditional mass marketing (big events, expensive ads, etc.) to one-to-one marketing aimed at specific customers, niches and segments.

Sales effectiveness also means responding to marketplace changes.  More specifically it means more effectively tailoring the seller’s proposition (product or service) and sales efforts to the prospect’s individual and often idiosyncratic needs.  

Sales Effectiveness - The New Mantra

With conversion rates under pressure from increased competition, lengthening sales cycles and increasingly demanding buyer sales effectiveness is the new mantra for sales managers across the globe.

The focus on sales effectiveness recognises the need for greater visibility, predictability and control in respect of sales.

Sales Effectiveness brings the notion of continuous improvement to all aspects of sales and sales led marketing.  The best results are achieved by focusing on the identification of a variety of modest improvements across the organisation and throughout the sales cycle. 

Although the approach is incremental the results can be extraordinary.  Typically a 3% increase in conversion rates at each stage of the sales cycle can double the rate of sales growth.

Rather than looking at win rates overall, managers are looking for improvements at each stage of the sales cycle; leads, meetings, cycles, orders and repeat orders.

Increasingly managers are viewing sales and marketing as the revenue generating engine of their business.  This results in a more engineering-led approach to sales, with greater emphasis on metrics, systems and conversion rates.

This approach also enables managers to look behind such general problems as ‘not enough leads’ or ‘low conversion rates’ to identify specific opportunities to accelerate sales growth in their business. 

The drive for increased sales effectiveness necessitates an approach to sales that is planned, structured and systematic.

 

Bid Losses Offer Clue to Sales Effectiveness Opportunities

The loss of a number of recent bids had heightened competitiveness concerns among the sales team of a leading IT services company.  This was compounded by fears regarding a general economic slowdown.

However it is precisely in depressed markets and among down-spirited sales teams that a focus on sales effectiveness can produce the greatest results.  In particular two key opportunities to increase sales effectiveness were identified:

1.   1.  The sales team was over reliant on proposals to sell.   Most proposals were prepared after an initial short meeting with the customer, or following a phone call or email enquiry.   As a result proposal success rates were low, with limited information gathering / needs analysis, or prequalification before submission and no gauging reaction to price.

2.      2. Hampered by an insufficient flow of sales leads – reps were responsible for generating all their own leads, as a result less than 10% of their time was spend meeting new customers, with just one new customer being met each week by each rep.

In respect of proposals new criteria regarding when they are to be prepared and a policy of greater interaction with buyers before submission reduced the number of proposal generated, but dramatically increased win rates.  

Added to a telemarketing campaign to generate leads and increase the number of prospects being met, the result was a 22% increase in sales growth.  

Managing Sales Cycles To Increase Win Rates

'Many of our potential customers have reigned in spending’ complained the sales manager of a software company selling to the major financial institutions.  ‘It is not that we are losing business to our competitions, it is that more and more buying decisions are stalled’, or delayed he explained.

The turmoil in the financial markets has certainly had an impact on IT investment plans among the big banks, however how the company managed sales cycles also contributed to the number of stalled decisions.

Working with the manager and his team a range of opportunities were identified to improve the management of sales cycles, including:

• More thorough pre-qualification – it was clear that the sales team did not have a full understanding of budgetary and timing factors in all cases
  
  
• More extensive coverage of the buying unit – the sales team was relying on just one or two contacts in the buying organization
  
  
• More systematic needs analysis – in many cases there was insufficient information to complete a business case for the buyer
  
  
• Ensuring more time is spent with the prospect in order to fully understand needs, build relationships and demonstrate commitment - the amount of interaction with the buyer before submitting a proposal was limited
  
  
• Uncovering, with buyers, latent business needs and helping them to create a compelling business case for their resolution with your solution.  In other words, sellers can't rely on buyers knowing exactly what they want, or need.  They must generate awareness of the need, rather that simply serve a ready made demand for their solutions. They have to dig beneath the surface to uncover new problems and educate buyers to needs and solutions that they may have previously been unaware of.  
  
  
• Reducing buyer risk – there was limited use of low risk pilots, scoping, or phased projects that would make it easier for clients to commit
  
  
• Identifying and accentuating points of pain – in most cases the sales team had not helped the buyer to create a compelling case for buying now, as opposed to later.
  
  
• Helping the buying organisation to structure its buying decision making process, including clarifying requirements, criterion, information requirements, etc.

Sales Revenues Fall as Sales Effectiveness Slides

There are two key variables that explain the peformance of most sales teams: the levels of sales activity and effectiveness.

The first one is the number of sales leads, meetings, cycles, proposals, etc. The second is the conversion rates at each stage of the sales cycle - from sales meetings to sales cycles, as well as overall win rates. Here is a good example of this in the real world.

A long established business services company dominated its market for more than 20 years growing sales in a manner that at times seemed almost effortless. However, in more recent years sales had shown a dramatic decline.

The sales team pointed to increased competition, changing buying patterns and minimal marketing by the company as the causes of the downturn.

However, further analysis identified that low levels of sales activity and effectiveness as the prime factors involved. For example:

· On average sales reps met only one new customer, or potential customer, every 2.5 months (i.e. 4.8 per annum).

· Conversion rates stood at 25% and average order values of £15,000, posing a real challenge in terms of growing sales

· The sales manager complained that sales people were selling products, as opposed to solutions and pointed to the ability to communicate value as the key challenge.

· There were no targets for growing revenue among existing customers, a siloed approach to selling across divisions and no key account plans. These factors explained declining levels of repeat business among existing customers.

By increasing the level of new customer sales activity by 15% over 6 months, growing average order values by 10% and repeat business by 7%, the company reached its year-end target midway during quarter 3.

Where are the opportunties in your business? What is the potential to increase the level of sales activity, or sales effectiveness?

How you can close more business in 2 months than in 2 years

I read something by Dale Carnegie that is as true as it is simple:

'You can close more business in 2 months if you are genuinely interested in other people, than in 2 years of trying to get them interested in you.'

We sell by helping people. We have to demonstrate that we are willing and able to help before the customer will buy from us.

Forget everything you learned about closing. This is where it is at.

What should your sales plan look like?

No manager wants to spend days writing a sales plan, and no rep, manager, or investor wants to spend hours reading such a plan either.

Everybody agrees that a plan is required, but how to keep it short and at the same include all those key elements that will ensure the sales team stays on course for the year.

Here are some of the key ingredients included in the best sales plans:

1. Too many sales drives stumble at the first hurdle, that is lead generation. So you plan has to include a target and budget for lead generation from multiple sources over time.

2. Activity gets results and for many managers getting the level of sales activity up (e.g. getting in front of more prospects) is a key priority. However, targets and plans in this area must be balanced with the need to improve the level of sales effectiveness. Quite simply, it is a lot better to do 10 meetings and convert 20%, than to do 20 meetings and convert just 10%.

3. Too many plans are short on specifics, in particular those metrics and KPIs that can be used to track progress on a weekily, or monthly basis, including number of meetings, conversion rate from lead to meeting, from proposals to orders, etc. then track them.

The precise form of the KPI will vary depending on the particular managers priorities, but here is a good example.

A start-up company set an assumption regarding conversion or success rates and then set a target for the level of activity required – that is they needed to meet with 7 target companies every month for the first 12 months. That provided the manager with a clear measure against which he could benchmark sales activity and sales effectiveness.

4. Set a target for new and existing revenues, set target for up-selling and cross selling. Outline targets for growing revenue in key accounts and key account management and customer service priorities/policies.

5. Focus on a number of campaigns, around which you can centre your activities. Don’t have one plan for marketing and another for sales, but an consisted and integrated campaign arranged on a quarterly basis for example. Agree the message for each, the target list / target list profile for each, etc.

6. Help individual sales people put together a 2 page plan for themselves. Nobody is more committed to a plan than if they write it themselves. In addition, this an ideal opportunity to coach them towards achieving their full potential. Your overall sales plan is the summation of all the individual sales plans of your team.

7. Don’t beat around the bush, exactly how many leads and meetings will be required for each sales person per week, or per month in order to achieve target.

8. In your overall plan focus on this/next quarter in detail, relating it to the individual sales plans of each of the sales people and the overall campaign set out. Include an rigorous validation of the pipeline, that is related to the key stages of your sales process.

8. Focus on the issues of sales process, sales systems, sales structures, etc, Identifying opportunities to ensure the smooth running of your sales organizations/sales team.

Click here if you would like to read more on why you're going to need a plan, or the questions others are likely to ask regarding your plan.

Does your sales engine needs a tune up?

Every engine needs a tune up. Otherwise it will gradually lose power, burn more gas, and generate higher emissions.  Even if the increase in performance is as little as just 3%, or 5%, the yearly impact can be very significant. 

So, from time to time an engine will require new spark plugs, a new filter, new oil, etc.  Similarly, the way an organisation sells will require ongoing fine-tuning – adjusting the level of sales activity and its effectiveness. 

Is your sales engine purring softly? Are all cylinders firing? Is it delivering the torque you need?Could it be turbo charged, or even supercharged?

How do you know if your sales engine needs a tune up?

Here are some of the tell-tale signs that you could be getting more miles per gallon from your sales and marketing:

      1. Your market has changed, is slowing or is more competitive

      2. Customers who should be placing repeat orders are not

      3. You are losing deals that you expected to win

      4. More deals are stalled, or ‘in the valley’

      5. It is increasingly difficult to predict what deals will close and when

      6. Buyers are making more decisions when you are not in the room

      7. Prospects see you as a salesperson, rather than a trusted advisor

      8. You could sell more if you were able to get in front of more of the right prospects

      9. Some sales people are underperforming, or sales force turnover is rising

      10. Sales people don’t feel marketing is helping them and you are not sure of its role either

      11. Sales and marketing costs are rising, but value for money is a growing concern

Every sales engine needs periodic fine-tuning, particularly in the context of a changing market environment.