When you look around your organization, are you witnessing a change in the way your leadership is performing and behaving? Here is probably why ….

The entire career system in most organizations, is based on using hard functional skills to progress. But when executives reach the top of the organization many different skills are required.

Corporate leaders may find that although they can do the financial analysis and the strategic planning, they are poor at communicating ideas to employees or colleagues, or have little insight into how to motivate people.

The modern Chief Executive requires an array of skills.

Some suggest that we expect too much of leaders. Indeed, “renaissance” men and women are rare. Leadership, in a modern organization is highly complex and it is increasingly difficult – sometimes impossible – to find all the necessary traits in a single person. Among the most crucial skills is the ability to capture your audience – you will be competing with lots of other people for their attention.

Leaders of the future will also have to be emotionally efficient. They will promote variation, rather than promoting people in their own likeness. They will encourage experimentation and enable people to learn from failure. They will build and develop people.

Is it too much to expect of one person? I think it probably is.

In the future, we will see leadership groups, rather than individual leaders. This change in emphasis from individuals towards groups has been charted by the leadership guru Warren Bennis. His latest work “Organizing Genius” concentrates on famous ground-breaking groups, rather than individual leaders. It focuses for example, on the achievements of Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Centre, the group behind the 1992 Clinton campaign, and the Manhattan Project which delivered the atomic bomb.

“None of us is as smart as all of us” says Professor Bennis. “The Lone Ranger is dead. Instead of the individual problem-solver, we have a new model for creative achievement. People like Steve Jobs or Walt Disney headed groups and found their own greatness in them.”

Professor Bennis provides a blueprint for the new model leader. “He or she is a pragmatic dreamer, a person with an original but attainable vision. Inevitably, the leader has to invent a style that suits the group. The standard models, especially command and control, simply don’t work. The heads of groups have to act decisively, but never arbitrarily.”

Creating this “new model leader” is our challenge, and will require us to encourage considerable “self-assessment” and “personal auditing” – but challenge is what we thrive on!

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During the earliest part of my sales career, I was fortunate enough to work for companies who took sales team development very seriously. They understood that if I were to develop into the valuable asset they expected me to become, they would need to invest in me, and polish me, rather like a diamond producer cultivates their gem.

It will therefore not surprise you to learn that one of the first guiding principles I was taught, was the absolute necessity to always work to “win-win” principles, not only within the sometimes hostile negotiating environment, but also in any commercial interaction that I may be involved with.

That first principle has stayed with me throughout my career, and I have even adopted it into my whole life, not just my commercial practices – I also taught my children to truly understand its value at a very early age!

But in order to fully comprehend the significance of “win-win” we must also appreciate why “lose-win” and “win-lose” are rarely, if ever, acceptable outcomes. Here is my interpretation.

“Lose-win” means we have accepted terms or reached an agreement that has insufficient value for us; it has produced an inappropriate level of profit, and it may have no strategic value – that is to say, there is no long-term value either. No matter how much ground bait you throw in, it is not going create a proper return on your investment.

With “win-lose” we appear to gain a financial advantage at the expense of the buyer. This approach may be acceptable in some commodity sales environments, where you are totally driven by top-line revenue, and the opportunity for repeat business is negligible, but even then, most companies are waking up to the value of repeat business – even your local restaurant.

You see, your customer will find out that they have paid over the odds, or they have been treated unfairly, and they will vote with their feet, and may never return.

That leaves us with just one final possible outcome, “lose-lose”

I suspect that as many as 80% of frontline sales professionals will shudder at the thought of “lose-lose” No deal, no commission, angry boss for losing the order. This is a very short-sighted and commercially naive viewpoint.

The scenario often plays out something like this: We work conscientiously throughout the sales/buying cycle; we understand the rules; we are totally aware of the steps our prospective buyer intends to take, and we accept them. Then at the death, the rules are changed. Typically price becomes a far more critical issue, and we discover that we are being rapidly pushed towards a “lose-win” outcome.

So now we have two choices. We can agree to the revised terms; drop our pants and cave in just to save the order, and earn a reduced commission – and of course much less profit for our company. Alternatively, we can accept “lose-lose”

There are, you may be surprised to learn, benefits from opting for “lose-lose”

You walk away with dignity. You send out a message that you fully appreciate the value of your products/solutions, your company and yourself. You are letting your prospective purchaser know that your company is also in business to make a profit.

By standing your ground, you will, in all probability, gain an even higher level of respect from the other side – and you will have the opportunity to do business together in the future – no, does not mean never.

News: It’s time to say “Thank you” to EzineArticles.com   for looking after me so well.

I published my first article on EA on May 8th 2006, so almost five years ago, and my stats now read:

Jonathan Farrington
EzineArticles.com Expert Author
Platinum Author who joined May 8, 2006
• 168 Live Articles
• 312,508 Views

Anyone who publishes articles anywhere, will tell you that is no mean achievement.

Thanks guys, you are doing a superb job, keep up the good work!

On January 12th, I posed the rhetorical question: “Have We Been Witnessing The Death of Professional Selling?” 

I went on to say …”Interesting question? I think we all know the answer – deep in our hearts – but many people will not want to answer it, because for them, that answer is something they cannot possibly contemplate.

That’s the bad news. The good news is that it really is not that simple; yes, selling is undergoing the biggest upheaval it has ever undergone, and we do not have any choices, we have to go with the flow. The fatality list is going to be extensive – unparalleled – but for the lucky few, a new dawn beckons.”

Since that post, sections of the sales space have been “agitated” to respond in various forms, ranging from the thoughtful to the myopic and protectionist.

Frankly, I was re-assured by all the responses, including those that came served with a generous helping of bile and vitriol, even though they offered no alternative opinion. As a revered acquaintance shared with me recently, albeit about a totally unrelated issue: “People with no parade of their own, will always be happy to rain on yours” I did question the use of the word “rain” and suggested a more suitable alternative.

To those people, I would say this: If I read a blog post today with this headline: “Are We Witnessing the Death of Marriage?” my first reaction would be an emotional one, because I firmly believe in the sanctity of marriage. That’s the emotional and myopic viewpoint of course.

Reality then kicks-in: I contemplate how many of my friends have divorced, and how marriage for many couples is like a disposable tissue, to be discarded at will, as soon as something better comes along.

I carry out some research, and I do indeed discover that divorce rates are soaring – 58% currently in Europe. I read that actually young people are preferring to co-habit, rather than tie themselves into anything long-term. More and more women are choosing to be single parents, and raise their babies out of wedlock …. and so on.

Conclusion? Yes, it would appear that we are indeed sadly witnessing the death of marriage. But, and this is a big BUT, I totally respect any individual’s right to make their own life choices. At the end of the day, we should all resolve to do what is right for us, and not be dictated to by anyone, least of all the Church, which, in my view, needs to get its own house in order. (Just realized that I have opened another bag of worms with that comment – yet another full post-bag on its way – ho hum!)

The relevance of all of that? Well, in the same way, those that have contemplated the topic of the future of professional selling, have taken a far more pragmatic and intelligent approach, sifting through the considerable evidence, and arriving at more or less the same conclusions I arrived at.

This is not a topic that lends itself in any way to ostrich-like behavior – or come to that, narrow-mindedness. Neither is it something that anyone I know intends to make commercial or political gain from, despite one person’s opinion, not made directly to me I should add, but as usual, through a third-party medium ….

“The idea is to create a problem that does not exist then create courses and sell books to head off the disaster that never was on the way and laugh all the way to the bank. At least, that is my impression.”

He continues …

“And it really doesn’t matter to me how many years experience you have, how many you trained or who is in your alleged book “who’s who.”

“Maybe it is not your intent but you are framing yourself as a politician hoping to be elected to solve a problem that is not there.”

I rest my case!

The reality is that “selling” covers such a wide spectrum of situations and industries.

98% of sales (it might even be 99%) are made in a B2C scenario – business to consumer – and as I made very clear in my original post, this is where we are witnessing the most fatalities.

It is not just beginning to happen, it has been happening for years. It’s progress. Why employ expensive and non-performing salespeople, when consumers don’t need them?

I quoted my experiences over the Christmas period, when I purchased computer equipment, clothes, a new mobile phone, food and wine, and even a new car – all online – no selling involved.

Has anyone asked consumers if they prefer to buy online or be cajoled and “persuaded” by a salesman or woman? We can find all the information and all the advice we need from the comfort of our armchairs, and make our own informed choices, we are more informed than we ever have been – and often more informed than the so called sales “professionals” who are trying to sell to us.

I do not in anyway consider myself to be a sophisticated online shopper, but neither am I a Luddite – something in between possibly – maybe a “sophisticated Luddite.”

The real “winners” in this new business to consumer relationship, and hence their increase in importance, are the marketers, who are helping to steer our online preferences – oh, and the company bosses, who are saving billions of dollars on salaries. 

But let’s return to what may have been perceived as a throw-away comment in my original post: “but for the lucky few, a new dawn beckons” 

I have since quoted Jeb Brooks, of The Brooks Group, who in a recent post said:

“In today’s super-modern, fast-paced, non-stop world, how easily can a sales professional move from one complex sales environment to another?

The answer, I think, depends on how much the salesperson is willing to learn. How quickly he can consume (and retain) information. In a Sales 2.0 where prospects and customers often know as much or more than salespeople, buyers are really looking for experts.
So…could your average, talented “I-Can-Sell-Anything-Salesperson” sell…
• Wine;
• Airplanes;
• ERP Systems;
• Organic Food;
• Book Contracts;
• Commercial Presses; AND
• Thoroughbred Horses?
No, the average salesperson could not.”

I agree totally – well almost – I do buy my wine and organic food from known suppliers online, because I can now access resources globally, and I am no longer restricted to vendors from my own city!

So, once and for all, I have stated that it is my  belief that marketing, technical support and customer service are going to become increasingly essential to commercial success, but professional selling in most B2B arenas will survive – and I said: “Finally, those salespeople who remain, will become genuine “business consultants, strategic orchestrators, and long-term allies”

The 2015 sales professional will not only be an industry expert, but also have a solid grasp of commercial issues, and as a consequence, they will speak the language of the buyer, not their own”

This is a clarion cry to all sales professionals everywhere … “In today’s world of selling, there is less and less room for apprenticeship. Selling has become an exclusive club of highly skilled professionals, where product knowledge and time management skills, for instance, are the cost of membership, not leadership.

Ongoing research demonstrates that today’s ‘average’ salesperson is just as effective as the high performer in explaining features and benefits effectively, relating a service or product to customer needs and closing a sale. But, above this Level 1 plateau of competence, the exceptional salesperson is busy defining the “basic skills of tomorrow”

The message is a very simple one – adapt and thrive, or stagnate and perish.

Two further resources you may care to acquaint yourself with:

“Death of a Salesman. Of Lots of Them, Actually.” By James Ledbetter, an article which was sent to me by a good chum last week.
You really need to read the article in its entirety, but here are a couple of snippets.

“From 1950 to 1980, sales represented one of the fastest-growing occupations in the country. In the 1980s, sales was by far the largest job-growth category, increasing 54 percent. That growth slowed in the 1990s, and by 2007, the number of sales job was shrinking. No other job category has experienced a drop this sharp in the same time period.”

And …

“But the biggest culprit in killing off sales jobs is right in front of you: the Internet. There was a lot of talk in the dot-com era, mostly positive, about “disintermediation,” or creating direct connections between consumers and suppliers. Think of all the purchases you make today online that once would have been accompanied by a salesperson: a sweater, a book, a “compact disc,” a small appliance or piece of electronic equipment, shares of a stock or mutual fund, airline tickets, etc. Even in my own industry—media supported by advertising—some ad space can be booked online, as Slate writer Seth Stevenson demonstrated in a video earlier this year. The precise impact of Internet selling on sales jobs is hard to quantify, but it’s a big contributor and it’s irreversible.”

I suspect you may also enjoy this superb piece of thought provoking writing from another good chum, Christian Maurer, which offers us a very balanced and considered view-point – “Three Megatrends For Professional Selling”

So there we have it. Again, in case anyone is left in any doubt, when I asked the question: “Are We Witnessing the Death of Professional Selling?” – I repeat it was a rhetorical question!!!! I was not in any way suggesting that in five or ten years time sales professionals in every sector would become extinct.

That’s it – subject closed – I have, for now, grown tired of this debate … here endeth the epilogue.

Do look out for two significant upcoming Top Sales World Roundtables, later this month – “The Future of Professional Selling” featuring panels consisting of world class experts debating this most topical of… well, topics

From the Sales Director’s perspective, developing a consultative sales process means developing a comprehensive, formal, realistic, and step-by-step outline of what salespeople are expected to do. This is just as appropriate for internal and totally reactive sales teams, as it is for external pro-active ones.

This outline includes the activity and calls they must make, the relationships they should establish with prospects, the documentation they should use in sales calls, the issues they must discuss and resolve with prospects and the tangible goals they must achieve in sequence along the path to each sale, in order to achieve maximum effectiveness.

It’s only when such an outline is in place that sales management can be in a position to:

• Monitor the sales force’s activity, progress and results

• Assess issues as they arise and take appropriate action

• Redirect individual sales representatives’ efforts efficiently

Although many organizations appreciate the importance of being customer-focused and talk in vague terms about their “consultative sales process,” surprisingly few sales leaders invest the time and energy required to develop a formal sales process – a process that is at once detailed and resilient enough to guide their salespeople and permit effective management of their efforts.

Overcoming Implementation Inertia
Even when a consultative sales process has been developed, understood by sales managers, written down, and circulated, it’s often not enough. No matter how brilliant, a sales process will only be effective to the extent it is followed and used by frontline sales staff. And this is where most organizations fall down: overcoming inertia – among managers and salespeople alike – and implementing the process.

The hurdles that must be cleared, in order to get people throughout the organization to actually implement it, are enough to cause Sales Directors to tear their hair out!

But a select few, of the very best, have found some innovative strategies that have enabled them to achieve the Holy Grail: Sustained sales growth achieved efficiently, reliably, and by design.

Tomorrow: A break with tradition; no JF Guest Author Spot, because I need to write an epilogue that concludes a post I made in January “Have We Been Witnessing The Death of Professional Selling?” which has caused such flutterings and witterings in a few myopic quarters.

My view, which I will justify, is not only have we been witnessing its death – in some B2C sectors – but we have been to the wake, and watched it climb down to the vestibule and join the choirboys. Do join me?

Most sales training companies have a unique philosophy – and therefore a specialized approach. Perhaps they are strong in the area of selling business value to board level members – at the expense of competitive positioning.

Perhaps attention on strategies, for winning very complex sales situations, dilutes their efforts toward working with students on the details and tactics that they need to execute in order to win – down to the actual words they need to be saying and to whom. 

A training company that specializes in one or more areas of sales expertise will not necessarily perceive or look for your requirements in other areas. If the training/consulting provider is left to define your approach, there will more than likely be a gap in the methodology – and, of course, a resultant gap in the subsequent training.

One way to handle this is to employ two independent providers. One would assist in assessing your situation, defining your requirements, and perhaps in building your methodology. The second would provide the training and would be evaluated and selected based upon their ability to meet your specific (and complete) requirement set. That would ensure that the first provider would not be defining your requirements to meet their expertise.

The best alternative is to employ a firm that is completely independent of any training or sales consulting provider and can offer the proper guidance, throughout these steps, to achieve the best possible result.

Important to any company that makes an investment in sales team development is measurement.  

Benchmarking current levels of performance, setting reasonable goals and objectives based upon a careful assessment of the situation and measuring progress against those goals is a necessary, but for the large part overlooked , component of most training initiatives.

When progress is at or above plan, everyone is encouraged, motivated and continue to perform and excel. If expectations are not being met, the opportunity exists for immediate problem diagnosis and adjustment, assuring that the initiative will get back on track and provide the return on investment expected.

Summary

The JF Consultancy has developed a range of assessment tools, which allow us to benchmark current performance levels and provide a totally objective view of a sales team’s current and future requirements. Typically, our report costs a fraction of the training programs currently being utilized and in fact, in nearly every case, results in considerable savings.

If you would like to learn more about accurate, objective, leading-edge sales team assessments and performance auditing, please Email me: jf@jfcorporation.com

Does that sound a little harsh? In my opinion, hundreds of millions of dollars world-wide are wasted every year on irrelevant, unnecessary or inappropriate sales skills development, and there are four obvious reasons.

To begin with, the one-off program may supply a short term motivational buzz and provide the delegate with a number of thought provoking ideas. However in reality, once they are back at the “front-line”, the day to day pressures of hitting quotas etc. take over again and the reactive mindset returns.

Secondly, too many courses on offer today deliver what I term “generalized” skills development.

For example, a person operating within the aerospace sector negotiating multi-million pound contracts can find himself sitting next to a young salesperson who markets insurance policies and is based in a call centre. On his/her right is another person who is developing a successful career in manufacturing, selling hydraulic components and next to him…..I think you will appreciate my point.

To achieve sustained success in all of these disparate industries requires specific skills sets – the “generalized” workshops simply cannot deliver them.

Thirdly, I would estimate at least 80% of training organizations today make the assumption that all delegates are at the same level in terms of experience, expertise and have the same “commercial bandwidth” – this is of course totally unrealistic.

Whilst it is not possible to equate age and experience with success, the reality is that although some professional salespeople do have ten years experience, most have one year’s experience ten times!

The very best salespeople – the ones that consistently exceed expectation, have usually received ongoing skills development from the “emerging” stage all the way through “advanced”, right up to “consultative/collaborative level” if appropriate, but the keyword is “ongoing.”

Finally, and this is the most significant and blatant error of judgment most Sales Directors make, every member of the team receives the same training – i.e. they are all dispatched off to the same course, regardless of whether or not they already have those skills or if indeed they need to have them in their current role.

The point here is that there is far too little planning, assessing, and objective setting. It is much easier to abdicate responsibility to the training company. The downside to this approach is of course, so much money is wasted. So what is the answer?

The first step for any company deciding to make a change in their sales approach is always an assessment of the situation.  What processes and methods are currently being employed by the company?  What has their sales performance been?  What percentage of sales people are delivering against plan?  What are the biggest obstacles to success?  How dynamic or stable is the company’s environment?  What are the practices and expectations of the buyers?  These are only a few considerations.

Training must be based on what the salespeople need and should be tailored to address diagnosed performance gaps. Using a diagnostic approach – a formal sales team skills audit saves an organisation money and time, because there is nothing to be gained from teaching people something that they are already doing well or, conversely, that they don’t need to do in the first place.

A well-targeted program is far more likely to engage the participants’ full interest, because they’ll see its immediate relevance to their daily results.

Any training program will be more effective when the skills that participants learn are reinforced on a regular and continual basis. For maximum impact, every level of management must reinforce training. Such reinforcement can come in many forms, but the best way is for the sales manager to serve as a “model of excellence” who provides an ongoing demonstration of required skills so salespeople begin to live and breathe them.

Tomorrow: “How Do You Choose The Right Training Company For Your Needs?”

Failing to focus salespeople’s activity reduces efficiency and consequently reduces results, because there isn’t a salesperson alive that believes they have enough time in their working week to complete all the activities they want to achieve!

Time is a huge constraint on salespeople’s activities so that when their manager asks them for more, it’s no wonder that they are overwhelmed.

It is also abundantly obvious that salespeople often aren’t clear about how to identify the prospects most likely to have a genuine need for their product or service. Without an objective way to prioritize which prospects to contact first and/or an efficient strategy for contacting them, salespeople are doomed to waste a large percentage of their time.

Another huge dilemma for many salespeople is how to divide their time between servicing existing clients and generating new business from new prospects. Existing clients frequently make requests for service that could be dealt with by support staff. But salespeople who lack a disciplined, future-orientated plan for generating new contacts and sales, often find themselves spending more time attending to “urgent” tasks for existing accounts instead.

A common approach among salespeople can be summarized in the saying “If you throw enough mud against the wall, some of it is bound to stick.” This approach is exhausting, demoralizing, extremely unproductive, and very expensive in the long term.

Far too frequently, competent salespeople are expected to channel their own activities into the areas that will produce the quickest wins.

Unfortunately, left to their own devices, they don’t develop and pursue a formal strategy for moving a sale tangibly forward during each prospect interaction, neither do they have a clearly defined set of goals against which to measure the progress they are making.

Typically, their judgment is based on gut reaction and is purely subjective – i.e. “Oh yes, I’ll get that order, he likes me.” – because salespeople have to be optimistic by nature. They end up “dancing around” with prospects, in the hope that eventually they will get to their chosen point on the dance-floor – i.e. the sale. In this scenario, the customer has complete control.

Finally, let’s not forget good old Villfredo Pareto and his 80/20 rule

The sales that a salesperson completes today were made possible only by activities performed in the past.

Equally, it’s what they do today that will create their future sales results. Because there is a time delay between activities and results, salespeople have an opportunity to improve their sales results by undertaking sales productivity planning and implementing an effective prospecting system.

Generally, since 80% of sales are generated from 20% of customers, 80% of salespeople’s time should be focused on 20% of the biggest customers/prospects. Simple enough?

You see, Quality Activity = Quality Results - it isn’t rocket science.

News: I am sure I must have previously mentioned that over at Top Sales World, the Global Sales Council are publishing a monthly white paper? This month, Dan Waldschmidt has produced – “An Edgy Analysis of the Menagerie That is CRM”

It is extremely well researched, well written, and thanks to Bill the Graphic, very well presented. There is even a link to Dan’s superb Masterclass on the same topic, and you can download it for FREE, by clicking on the banner below …