During my keynote speech at the One Source/iSell UK launch last week, I made reference to my success formula – you know the one, I mention it often enough – Attitude + Skills + Process + Knowledge = Success – yes, that one. It has become the foundation of all of my work, quite simply because it works. And it works because quite simply, it is simple.

It is simple to understand; simple to coach; simple to apply …

It is wholly relevant – in fact in today’s rapidly changing sales environment, it is more relevant than ever. But what was particularly relevant last week, was the emphasis I place on “knowledge”

In days gone by, whenever anyone mentioned knowledge, there would be an immediate assumption that they were going to discuss “product knowledge”  To an extent, that is understandable, because after all, even today, 80% of all training budgets are spent (invested?) on teaching sales teams all there is to know about the “product range”

The reality is that product knowledge is no longer a differentiator, rather, it is a very basic requirement of all successful frontline sales professionals – it is part of the entrance exam, and not a higher qualification.

Today, knowledge really is power, and that means …..

Industry knowledge

Sector knowledge

Competitive knowledge

Own company knowledge

Business knowledge (acumen)

As the discussions and debates continue unabated regarding the future of professional selling, one fact is very clear – the relevance of a salesperson in the “buying process” – yes, we have moved away from the “sales process” – is becoming increasingly diminished. This is quite simply because buyers, who are more self-educated than ever,  are entering the cycle so much later.

The realization that buyers are already “super-busy and frazzled” – as illustrated by Mrs Konrath in her last book SNAP Selling is obvious, but it is not the main reason why they will not entertain us as freely as they once did. The fact is that they don’t need to. However, her assertion that our interactions need to be wholly relevant, is well argued.

“Wholly relevant” means using our knowledge – our complete knowledge – to justify our right to be part of our customer’s purchasing process.

As we move up the food chain, our ability to use different “languages” becomes increasingly important. We have to become commercially “multi-lingual” because the residents of the C-Lounge rarely use the language of the technical department for example – who naturally have a completely different set of buying criteria.

In the very near future, having the right attitude; a broad range of sales skills and being comfortable with internal consultative sales processes will not guarantee survival: The key, will be the extent of our “commercial band-width” and that means our knowledge.

I will be releasing a recording of my complete One Source/iSell speech next week, so do look out for a link here.

News: No 1 son is currently completing a solo coast to coast tour of the USA, and as he prepares to leave Chicago on a Greyhound bus for Seattle (due to cancelled Amtrak service) you might just be as amused as I am by his exploits – now I know where I get my sense of humor from – http://www.joefarrington.co.uk/

Finally, I can confirm that Top Sales World 2 goes live next week, and this coincides with the publication of our new magazine – it really is superb…. more soon.

Yes, I realize that you are supposed to be still in mourning after I announced the retirement of this blog, but I am getting restless and not sure I can sit around waiting for my new blog, over at www.jonathanfarrington.com to be launched - so I might just post occasionally here in the interim - if I have something interesting to say!

This week, One Source/ iSell officially launched in the UK, and I have to tell you that it was the best product launch I have witnessed for many years!

The organization was faultless – thanks to Lena Stuart and her team; the venue was superb; the place was packed; the speakers were on top form – so all in all, an absolutely delightful experience, and everyone at One Source/iSell should be very, very proud.

Obviously the solution itself was the star of the show, as witnessed by the amount of interest and number of questions following Phil Garlick’s (President, One Source) overview, but the guest speakers - Craig Elias, Nick Hewer (The Apprentice) and I were honored to play our part.

So congratulations to Phil and Colleen Honan in particular - fantastic job guys!

Here is the official press release …..

“Infogroup, the leading provider of targeted high-value sales and marketing data, global research, market intelligence and innovative digital engagement solutions, today announced  the UK launch of OneSource iSell, the  award-winning SaaS-based sales intelligence solution. iSell transforms the selling process by creating a customised prospecting environment and delivering best-in-class account and contact information.  This innovative sales tool identifies sales triggers that alert sales professionals when to call and what to discuss, as well as empowers relationship networking with LinkedIn integration.

“We developed iSell UK so that sales professionals can spend more time increasing their sales and building customer loyalty, rather than sifting through static information from multiple websites,” said Colleen Honan, Senior Vice President, Global Sales & Services for Infogroup’s OneSource division. “We put our major focus on making iSell UK easy-to-use, with personalisation capabilities as well as the best possible content to uncover and unlock opportunities for sales to connect and engage with their most valuable audiences.”

OneSource iSell UK is powered by OneSource’s LiveContent Platform, which combines information from more than 50 premium content suppliers and thousands of information feeds including social media sources such as LinkedIn. This allows iSell to go beyond simply aggregating information; it selects the most accurate data from each source so sales professional get the best content fused into a single record. As a result, an iSell UK contact profile can combine a biography from Infogroup with an email address from another service and a photo from a corporate website.

“The rise of social networks, blogs, and web media creates a challenge for sales professionals. On the one hand these can offer some useful nuggets for sales prospecting.  But on the other, it can take a lot of searching and mining to find the right information.  Customers and prospects expect salespeople to do their homework so it is critical to find a way to search these sources efficiently. The goal is to be effective with their client-facing time, and sell more.  iSell UK allows you to do just that.” said Elizabeth Vanneste, CMO of Miller Heiman, the leading sales performance company.

“iSell UK empowers sales professionals with information that helps them engage in compelling and relevant conversations with decision makers during the crucial first few moments of a prospecting call,” said Craig Elias, Creator of Trigger Event Selling™. “Decision makers are up to 8 times more likely to buy when they experience a trigger event that allows them the time or money to make the purchase. That is the value iSell’s trigger events bring to sales professionals. ”

Recently, iSell was named the 2010 Top Sales 2.0 Solution by Top Sales World, an international online community dedicated exclusively to the profession of sales.

iSell UK continues Infogroup’s commitment to leveraging platform technology to create innovative products for marketing and sales professional.  Infogroup’s focus on new products and services are designed to continually improve client effectiveness.

About OneSource Information Services, Inc.
OneSource, an Infogroup company, delivers business and sales intelligence on millions of companies and executives worldwide – optimising clients’ sales and marketing efforts and assisting with business-to-business research activities. The OneSource LiveContent™ platform combines content from over 50 world-class suppliers and thousands of information sources, providing unparalleled data accuracy and depth, delivered through the Web, CRM integrations, and information portals. OneSource has offices in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia. For more information, please visit www.onesource.com.

About Infogroup
Infogroup helps companies increase sales and customer loyalty through our high value data, market intelligence and innovative digital solutions.  We uncover and unlock revenue growth by enabling our clients – from local businesses to Fortune 100 companies – to connect and engage with their most valuable audiences millions of times each day.  Infogroup data powers the top 5 internet search engines and 90% of the GPS systems in North America.  Infogroup is also the exclusive provider of the CNN/Opinion Research Corporation Poll.  For more information, please visit www.infogroup.com.

So, here we are, my final post at this location.

I believe that everything has a “shelf-life” and I also believe that it is important to move on whilst you are at the top of your game: It has been my experience in life, that whatever comes next is always better; more exciting; more fulfilling; more successful.

The reality is that I am over-committed with projects right now, that something has to give, and as all my other initiatives involve other people, it is only right that I take the unselfish route.

Don’t think for one minute that I intend to give up blogging – far from it. When the new JF site is completed over at www.jonathanfarrington.com you will discover a brand new blog, and so much more. We anticipate that we should be good to go at the end of July.

However, before then, we have Phase Two of Top Sales World to launch on June 28th, complete with new magazine and a host of new and exciting additions.

Then I have to complete my contribution for a salesmanagement book which I am co-authoring with Linda Richardson and Keith Rosen: Then we have the makeover to ASP Profile. After that, we launch Sales Leadership Zone. Then comes my own new book Tougher at the Top, before we begin turning our attention to this year’s Top Sales & Marketing Awards. I think you get the picture?

Writing here since October 2006 – almost daily – has been so much fun. Visitor numbers have doubled year on year, and it has brought me into contact with so many people that I may not have otherwise have met.

I do want to thank everyone who has supported me, and turned up regularly to read my thoughts on all things sales related.

This location will stay live until the new one launches – again over at www.jonathanfarrington.com

My Best

JF

Everyone should be allowed at least one day off every year on their birthday, so I am claiming mine: I tried fishing once and I hated it, but I was only nine years old, so maybe it has got more exciting than it was fifty years ago? … today, I’ll find out.

Thank you – all of you – for your very kind wishes!

I’ll be back tomorrow - older, and maybe wiser – and this just in from “Bill the Graphic” – JF

Although the debate has been raging since someone first sold something to someone else, it is my personal belief that selling is both an art and a science.

To put it another way, a salesperson’s skills determine their level of artistry at selling and their strategic planning provides a scientific platform for their sales activities.

One of the characteristics that makes a salesperson successful is careful use of their selling time: Time is something that doesn’t stop, yet how it’s used affects performance that can leverage the impact of sales activities.

To influence sales results you need to work on your sales activities. For example, all the sales activities you have undertaken in the past have produced your current results. So then logically, the sales activities you perform today will create your future results. Therefore, there is always a time delay between activities and results. Focusing on activities in a well-planned way naturally increases results.

The Sales Platform concept is a sophisticated process for analysing, planning, directing and monitoring the activities of sales people.

The Sales Platform features three main elements:

1. Buying Platform – This comprises of existing customers who are purchasing from you on a one-off basis or a regular basis. This segment of the platform requires two strategic sales approaches:
• Sales actions that reduce the risk of losing customers (a proportion of customers are lost over time due to a variety of reasons)
• Sales actions that can generate incremental business from existing customers (it’s easier to get new business from existing customers compared to prospects)

2. The Working Platform – This comprises of prospects that have been visited, yet aren’t currently buying. This segment of the platform is extremely time intensive, yet is a crucial part of the development of an ideal customer base. The sales approach in this segment is to accelerate prospects through the pipeline until they become a customer.

3. The Market Platform – This comprises of leads that have not yet been qualified as prospects that have the potential to become customers. This segment of the platform is the vital preparation phase to replace lost customers and grow existing business in the longer term. The sales approach in this segment is to select the right type of opportunities that have the potential to become prospects. Banks of qualified prospects can be built up if appropriate – ready for a concerted attack on a targeted part of the market place.

In an ideal situation and based on the market conditions there should be a good balance between all three platforms.

Excess Buying Platform activity will constrain the growth of the business into those areas that are identified as the opportunities of the future. It is also a symptom that the organization has got itself into a rut or a ‘comfort zone’ that the communication of policy is poor, that management is not controlling the work, or that people lack the confidence to tackle new areas (or a combination of all of them).

Too much emphasis on the Market and Working Platforms is inefficient and will increase the cost of sales unnecessarily. Without a strong base of long-term customers, this will dramatically reduce the potential for growth, and could well lower the reputation of the organization.

In my experience, the quality of the planning phase significantly affects the quality of the final result …

Learn New Techniques for Sales Success - Be the first to see iSell at their UK launch event on 22 June

Are your sales team focused on the best prospects all the time?

Are you leveraging social media in your selling efforts?

Do your sales team find it difficult to generate new business?

Are they struggling to build a strong pipeline of great prospects?

Join us for a complimentary event to find out how our new prospecting tool, iSell can help you smash your 2011 target.

You’ll have an opportunity to learn new selling best practices, see iSell in action, as well as hearing the inside story of TV’s The Apprentice and enjoying a glass or two of excellent wine from the Vinopolis cellars.

Date: Wednesday 22 June 2011
Venue: Vinopolis, London’s City of Wine, No.1 Bank End, London, SE1 9BU
Map and Directions
Time: 15:30 – 19:30
Register here

Hear from sales industry experts on:

• Sales Triggers, time-sensitive events that can lead to immediate selling opportunities. Craig Elias will discuss how sales prospects who are influenced by critical trigger events may be up to eight times more likely to buy than other prospects.

• Professional selling has reached an “inflection point”, with the arrival of Sales 2.0 and Social Media. Some commentators are suggesting that as many as 80% of sales jobs will disappear by 2020. Jonathan Farrington looks at who will survive and who will perish and what it will take not only to survive but also to thrive within this new sales landscape.

• OneSource iSell, a social selling tool, creates a personalised prospecting environment. Winner of the recent Top Sales 2.0 Solution Award, iSell provides a view into the optimum targeted prospects, the trigger information to help turn them into sales opportunities and the best connections to those prospects via LinkedIn, emails and other sources.

Get thought leadership from industry sales experts, see OneSource’s iSell, network with peers over a glass of wine, and let Nick Hewer take you behind the scenes of The Apprentice. What’s more, you’ll have the chance to win an Apple iPad in our prize draw!

Space is limited for this event. Register today to guarantee your place and take one step closer to sales success in 2011 and beyond …

Nick Hewer is Alan Sugar’s right-hand man on The Apprentice. His facial expressions, borne of wonderfully dry humour and a lifetime’s business experience, tell you exactly what he thinks of the contestants. Nick’s speech will take audiences behind the scenes of The Apprentice, before turning into an extended question and answer session. With The Apprentice consistently topping the ratings, this is certainly not one to miss.

Craig Elias is the creator of Trigger Event Selling™ and the author of SHiFT! Harness The Trigger Events That Turn Prospects into Customers. His knowledge of Trigger Events has resulted in a 20 year track record as a top sales performer.

Jonathan Farrington is a  …. well that bit you already know!!

Looking forward to seeing you there!!

This may seem obvious, but it cannot be emphasized enough: You are not selling to an organization or to a conglomerate, but to actual, real people.

It is important to remember that all people are different, so you cannot sell the same way to everyone.

Second, no two sales are the same, even if they are made to the same company under similar circumstances.

To become a good salesperson, it isn’t enough to know how to sell. You must aim to become a people expert. It may sound shocking, but the best professional salespeople actually like people!

How can you ensure that you approach people in the correct way? Here is just one example:”Knowing About Social Styles” developed by Merrill and Reid, is very useful.

In the Social Styles Model, there are four basic “styles” or preferred ways of interacting with others.

Merrill and Reid believe that a person’s Social Style is a way of coping with others. People become most comfortable with that style, in themselves and others.

Understanding your own style and those of others can help in making meetings more productive. The main objective of Social Styles is to help people develop versatility in dealing with others.

I learned about the “Social Styles Model” many years ago and it has helped me enormously.

Remember, people buy from people — they always will!

● Recommended reading: “How To Relate To And Influence The Four Personality Types”

Tomorrow: A chance to meet me in London this month … it might be fun!

Just as you are selling to people, you must also remember that you are not only selling and representing a product or service, but you are in effect selling yourself. When beginning a sales relationship, it is important to remember a few key aspects to representing yourself well.

First, be interesting. If potential customers are bored by you, they have less of a chance of being enthralled by any product or service you are representing.

Develop intellect. Of course you are an intelligent person, but can you converse in an intelligent manner? Can you discuss related subjects with thoughtfulness and hold your clients’ interest? You are in their territory now, can you speak their language?

Never be arrogant — never talk up or down to your potential clients. It’s rude and will serve only to alienate them.

Respect the buyer, and they will respect you.

Along the same lines, develop your empathy levels. If you can relate to your customers’ situations authentically, it helps to build rapport.

Rapport is the most important process in influencing others. It is vital if you want to maintain relationships. Without it, you are unlikely to achieve willing agreement to what you want. People who have excellent rapport with others create harmonious relationships based on trust and understanding of mutual needs.

Do also remember that you cannot rely on logic. Emotion drives 84 percent of all buying decisions, not logic.

What are the chief buying emotions?

They include ego, security, pride of ownership, greed, health, prestige, status, ambition, and fear of loss.

Be well aware of these emotions as you approach, engage and deal with your customers.

● Recommended reading: “Who Needs Empathy?”

This is an extract from “MY TWELVE GOLDEN PRINCIPLES OF SELLING” which you can download for free here

Finally, as I mentioned yesterday, greatest compliment a customer can pay you is to describe you as “professional”

Don’t worry about being liked — be respected! Customers do not buy from you because they like you, but rather because they are prepared to trust you.

Being professional is not one thing, it is three – It is what you do, what you say and how you present yourself.

You know, one of the distinguishing characteristics of the most successful salespeople you know is to get things done: Have you noticed that they always seem to have time – they make time - for you; for colleagues; for family and friends; for relaxation … So how do they do it?

Here are twenty essential questions you should get used to asking yourself about your daily time planning:

• Did I accomplish all of my high-priority goals?

• Did I reach or surpass all of my other goals?

• Did I invest as much time as I planned in persuading others?

• Did I contact every prospect that was on my list today? If not, why not? What prevented me?

• How much time did I spend prospecting for new clients?

• How much time did I waste procrastinating today?

• What is the most productive thing I did today?

• What is the least productive thing I did today?

• Of the things I consider a waste of time, could I have avoided them or eliminated them?

• How much did I spend doing something that will profit me? Can I devote more time here?

• Was today a productive day for me? For my company?

• Did I take care of all the paperwork I needed to care of?

• How many of today’s activities have helped me achieve my goals?

• How much time did I allocate to my family, friends, etc.?

• What can I do to improve the quality time I need to spend with my family/friends, etc?

• How much time did I allocate to me?

• If I could live today again, what would I change?

• What did I do today that I feel really good about?

• Did I send ‘thank you’ notes to the people who gave me business and to those who helped me secure that business?

• What or who wasted the greatest amount of any time?

Finally, And In Summary, Here Are Ten Common Time Traps To Be Avoided

• Desperately seeking what should not be lost – Become more organized

• Failure to do the job right the first time – Work to ‘Right First Time’ principles

• Procrastination – Get to the point

• Unnecessary or unnecessarily long telephone calls – Be succinct

• Unnecessary or unnecessarily long meetings – Be rigorous

• Check lunches that last for two or more hours – Be honest

• Negative thinking – Be positive

• Travelling time – plan

• Unconfirmed appointments – Be realistic

• Laziness – Be diligent – Productivity = Results

Remember:

The most important word in time and self-management is………NO!

I made the time today to share these tips with you, will you make the time to analyze how you can become more efficient?

Tomorrow: There is a bit of a fascinating debate taking place at the moment regarding the importance of being “liked” by our customers and prospects. In one email with a highly esteemed colleague and friend last night I wrote:

“Like” is such a grey word. “Nice” is another grey word, as in “Nice to meet you” usually accompanied with a very limp handshake! How many times have you heard a salesperson say “Oh yes, I’ll get that order, he/she likes me” My response to that? “They may like you, but will they respect you in the morning?”

I think companies buy from salespeople and other companies they respect, and for a customer/prospect to tell you that they respect you, is the greatest compliment they can pay you.

If anyone dare put “Here lies Jonathan Farrington: He was a nice guy and everyone liked him” on my gravestone, I promise I’ll come back and haunt them!!

More tomorrow …