Most companies are looking for ways to manage their most important business relationships more effectively and more efficiently. It is not easy to do and it is not always enjoyable to do, but when a key account works well, it is extremely satisfying.

Key Account Management is a broad subject and this eBook is designed to help make the management of key accounts:

★ Easier
★ More Enjoyable
★ More Effective

Starting Point:
There are many definitions of key account management, but our favourite – and one we have used throughout our work – is from The Financial Times:

“The art of developing long-term relationships with selected customers”

It is simple, clear and it shows us what is important.

Simply click on the banner to download my FREE ebook.

Today’s News: Craig Klein over at SalesNexus has released Part 3 of his excellent series – “Double Your Sales”

“Your paying expense bills for lunches, meetings, flights and hotel rooms. Its the cost of doing business right?

How many of the clients you’re spending all that time and money on are buying anything? Not enough right?

Your artillery is firing at any target they can find. There is no other way is there? Yes there is!”

You can download it here

What an amazing launch yesterday – we had some gremlins during the first two hours, but the team sorted them, thank goodness.

If you have not signed up for this amazing no-brainer offer yet, you should do so right away – just click on the banner below.

Tomorrow: I am delighted to welcome Nancy Bleeke onto The JF Guest Author Spot

In 1906, Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto created a mathematical formula to describe the unequal distribution of wealth in his country, observing that twenty percent of the people owned eighty percent of the wealth. In the late 1940s, Dr. Joseph M. Juran inaccurately attributed the 80/20 Rule to Pareto, calling it Pareto’s Principle. While it may be misnamed, Pareto’s Principle or Pareto’s Law as it is sometimes called, can be a very effective tool to help us manage efficiently but it can also be applied to virtually every facet of our lives.

So what does this have to do with front-line selling? I hear you ask. Well it has everything to do with it because you see, recent exhaustive surveys suggest that only 5% of professional salespeople reach and remain at the highest level, which we call Level 3. A further 15% attain Level 2 status, but the majority, i.e. a massive 80% remain at Level 1 in terms of potential achievement.

It is true that most salesmen and women manage to advance from Level 1 to Level 2 fairly easily but unfortunately, many find breaking through that final glass ceiling extremely difficult i.e. moving from competitive sales professionals to collaborative sales consultants.

Top 5% salespeople are able to first identify and then capitalise upon the political component within the buying process. They develop and sustain strong commercial relationships at all levels within their accounts and these relationships endure because they are based on mutual respect and trust. Their clients feel secure, so secure, that they would be fearful of changing supplier.

In addition Top 5% salespeople rarely, if ever, lose an order that they really want because they are always in control of the sales cycle. They have identified that in marketplaces where product uniqueness and technical expertise are no longer enough, it is they themselves that make the difference i.e. their superior skills.

So What Is It That Top 5% Players Will Be Doing This Year?

• They will position themselves with the real decision-makers and avoid those without ‘approval power’ because they are able to first identify and then access the formal decision making unit.

• Not only get the order but a satisfied customer, repeat sales, enthusiastic reference sites and constantly increase sales penetration within their accounts.

• Know how to minimise the uncertainties of a cold call on a new account, by careful planning and rigorous opportunity assessment.

• Recognise when to treat an old account as a new prospect and keep the relationship fresh, alive and maintain profitability.

• Never entertain business they do not want because they recognise that it takes just as long to work an unprofitable opportunity through the sales funnel, only to lose it at the death, as it does a profitable one. They trust their own judgement but also rely heavily on objective assessment.

• Readily identify and know how to deal with the four different buying influences present in every sale i.e. Economic Buyer, Technical Buyer, User Buyer, and Ally.

• Understand how to prevent sales from being sabotaged by an internal enemy. They insulate themselves by developing strong allies within.

• Will be able to recognise fail-safe signals that indicate when a sale is in jeopardy. This comes from experience but also information supplied by their allies.

• They will be focused on tracking account progress and be able to accurately forecast future sales because they use proven methodology, which allows them to weight every opportunity in the pipeline.

• Avoid ‘dry-months’ by allocating time wisely to their critical selling tasks i.e. Prospecting for new business, covering the bases with existing opportunities and finally closing the best few.

Three additional areas, which set Top 5% players apart from the rest, are:

Commercial Acumen: Collaborative sales professionals have high levels of strategic awareness and they can communicate comfortably with board level players, i.e. the economic buyers using common language and terminology. Level 1 and 2 performers, unable to demonstrate credibility when discussing financial, commercial, and political issues, are usually left behind and require assistance from a manager or director.

Competitive Courage: In order to achieve consistent levels of success in today’s environment, it is necessary to be able to pro-actively target competitors and their client base. Any individual, who lacks the guts for a fight and is not comfortable with competitive selling, will severely restrict their potential.

Being Focused On Political Activity: You can of course question the legitimacy of politics, but you cannot deny their existence. The sales professional that fails to recognise the importance that politics play in virtually every complex sale, will almost certainly consign themselves to a career at Level 1. No one ever said that we must take part in the political game, but recognising that a game is being played, whether we like or not is essential i.e. what you understand you can manage.

However, I fully appreciate that most organisations will not necessarily need to populate their sales teams with Level 3 performers even if they could find and afford them. There will always be tasks, functions, and indeed markets where Level 2 or even Level 1 salesmen and women can comfortably exceed expectations. What is important is that we ensure we have the right Level where we need it most i.e. round pegs in round holes. If an organisation is attempting to compete in a market sector where Level 3 skills are required and yet their team is predominately at Level 2 in terms of expertise, experience, and development, they are unlikely to consistently win the business they need, in order to fulfil their financial ambitions.

What I can say for certain, is that successful selling has become an exclusive club of highly skilled professionals where, for example, product knowledge, time management skills, objection handling and closing skills are the cost of membership, not leadership.

Today’s News: Here is a message from a fellow Top Sales Expert and a very switched on guy, Steve Kraner.

THE SANDLER SALES BOOTCAMP

A two-day, precision selling skills training program

Overview

This hands-on course delivers the core principles of the popular Sandler Selling System—a unique, integrity-based system that promotes a more effective and coachable sales process. Revitalize your team’s outlook with a fresh perspective on the selling process and a crystal-clear understanding of the anatomy of a successful sales cycle. Members of your team will refine their ability to handle every buyer-seller interaction in as close to the optimum way as is humanly possible. Many sales training programs tell you what to do — talk less, listen more, stay in control, get commitment – we’ll show you the latest on how to do it.

Click here to see the two day agenda for the Sandler Sales Bootcamp.

If you are interested in attending the Sandler Sales Bootcamp please call our office at 703-689-0439 or email: skraner@hightechguru.com

Tomorrow: Don’t worry, just because I will not be posting, does not mean I’ll be taking the day off! One of my new colleagues posed the question earlier in the week: “Do you ever sleep?” I responded that I am I very rigorous in ensuring that I get eight hours every week – see you on Monday - JF

Why Review?

Obtaining continual feedback against a set of established criteria is vital if an organisation is to retain its existing top clients and seek to improve its standing and the quality of its service levels to them.

There are at least seven benefits of regular feedback.

• Feedback reveals your customer’s current and future plans.

• Seeing your business from your customer’s point of view allows you to answer the question “would you do business with you?” – if not why not?

• Feedback allows you to tailor your service levels so that you enjoy maximum customer satisfaction at a minimum cost.

• If you don’t ask you’ll never know how you are doing until it’s too late! Feedback is magnified by the ‘ice berg factor’ making it more critical than it originally appears.

• Feedback can reveal what your competition are doing helping you to be a consistently strong contender.

• Gaining a reputation for wanting to hear feedback can actually make money for you.

How Often?

This Will depend entirely On the importance of the account and revenue levels being achieved – or anticipated.

Assessing The Feedback You Receive:

If the feedback you have been receiving to-date has not been useful, ask yourself the following questions:

• Do I ask enough questions?

• Do I ask the right questions?

• Do I communicate effectively about why I am asking the questions?

• Do I ask the right people?

• Do I know how to use the data I collect?

• Am organised to respond to the information?

• Do I value and trust the information I receive?

What Do You Do With The Results?

Collate & assess

Communicate findings upwards & sideways

Act on vital issues

Feed back remedial actions

Confirm satisfactory resolve

Remember,The Account Review Process:

• Is a non-threatening meeting.

• It is a fact finding session not a sales event in the short term. But

• It is highly likely, that during this meeting you will uncover additional short, medium and long term opportunities.

Today’s News: We have just announced the Top Sales Article for November over at Top 10 Sales Articles, which means we now have eleven of this year’s twelve finalists in place and what a heavyweight crew: Paul Cherry, Josiane Feifon, Ivan Misner, Mike Brooks, Mark Satterfield, Zig Ziglar, Kevin Eikenberry, Jill Konrath, Paul McCord, Bill Cox and of course November’s winner, who is revealed here

So, just three more weekly winners before we reveal the final line-up and open up the voting – the winner will be announced at 12 noon Eastern on New Years Eve.

Tomorrow: The doors open for FREE registration to “The Online Sales Event Of 2008″ – just 1000 places available.

For a long time the only objectives I used for major accounts were very specific business objectives. “We will increase turnover by X%”. “We will introduce two new programmes and increase our profitability by Y%”.

However, I began to understand that these business objectives were not enough and for my companies, multi-level objectives have proved very powerful in winning and keeping business.

There are four levels of objectives and together they create objectives that excite and motivate the team and which are also very practical.

First we set visionary objectives. We picture what the result could be if everything went well. We discipline ourselves not to be limited by history or today’s issues. The outcome is a very strong vision of what the account could be like in two or five or even ten years.

Secondly we set relationship objectives. Everyone in the account team needs to know what we want the relationship to feel like. Imagine you could hear your customer talking about you in two years time. What would you want to hear them saying? It might be statements like “We trust them completely”, “They always give us new ideas”, and “Things do not go wrong often. But when they do they always make things right quickly.”

We have found that these relationship objectives help us do everything in the way we should and in the way the customer wants. In the past it was more difficult to be consistent and customer-centred.

So far, we have talked about quite “soft” objectives – how we want things to feel. The first two objectives are about emotion and imagination but we need some “hard” objectives as well.

The third level is the level of business objectives. These objectives are specific – very clear. “By the end of this year we will have increased sales of product A by 25% on the last year’s volumes and maintained our profit margins.” They are also measurable (if we cannot measure them, how will we know how we are progressing?). They must be agreed within the account team and maybe even agreed with the customer!

They must be realistic – other people will be depending on our forecasts. Finally they must have a time-scale. Those business objectives provide the strong disciplines that we need to know in order to understand whether or not we are succeeding.

The final level of objectives is the level of stage goals. We may say that we will achieve a result of X by the end of year two within the account. If this is to happen we need to be planning where we should be at important dates.

If the objective is to be selling five products to the customer by the end of next year and we’re selling two today, we probably need to plan to have three in place by this October, four in place by next March and five by next September. The stage goals make sure we are on target and allow us to solve problems before they become impossible to solve.

We have found that using these multi-level objectives helps to motivate each major account team member but can also help us significantly increase the amount and quality of business being transacted with our major accounts.

I think you will also enjoy:”How To Create A Major Account Strategy”

Today’s News: One of the key objectives for the Top Sales Experts team in the next few months, is to broaden our horizens and take a more global view – despite what many Americans may think, the world is not flat and in fact there are hungry markets beyond their boundaries. This blog post illustrates my point: “Leverage Your Brand Internationally Or Someone Else Will”

I always enjoy reading Dave Stein’s blog and here is another interesting post from him: “What If Your CEO Gets Hit By A Bus”

Tomorrow: On The JF Guest Author Spot is the highly engaging Joan Paul – you will not want to miss her.

There are four personality types or social styles – Analyticals, Drivers, Expressives and Amiables – and all four have their own unique approach to business, their own language and thought processes etc. As a consequence, the very best sales professionals have become adept at recognising which personality they are dealing with and adapt their approach and communication style accordingly.

In every boardroom, you will always find three of the four personality types, occasionally, all four: I have discovered over the years which personality is likely to fill which position on the board, but more on that later.

The Driver:
Let’s begin by looking at the characteristics of the Driver. Drivers are action and goal oriented, need to see results and have a quick reaction time. They are decisive, independent, disciplined, practical, and efficient. They typically use facts and data, speak and act quickly, lean forward, point and make direct eye contact. Their body posture is often rigid and they have controlled facial expressions.

They rarely want to waste time on personal talk or preliminaries and can be perceived by other styles as dominating or harsh and severe in pursuit of a goal. They are comfortable in positions of power and control and they have businesslike offices with certificates and commendations on the wall. In times of stress, drivers may become autocratic.

The Analytical:
Analyticals are concerned with being organised, having all the facts, and being careful before taking action. Their need is to be accurate, to be right. precise, orderly, methodical and conform to standard operating procedures, organisational rules and historical ways of doing things. They typically have a slow reaction time and work more slowly and carefully than Drivers. They are perceived as serious, industrious, persistent, and exacting.

Usually, they are task oriented, use facts and data, and tend to speak slowly. lean back and use their hands frequently. They do not make direct eye contact and control their facial expressions. Others may see them as stuffy, indecisive, critical, picky, and moralistic. They are comfortable in positions in which they can check facts and figures and be sure they are right. They have neat, well organised offices and in times of stress, Analyticals tend to avoid conflict.

The Expressive:
Expressives enjoy involvement, excitement, and interpersonal action. They are sociable, stimulating, and enthusiastic and are good at involving and motivating others. They are also ideas oriented. have little concern for routine, are future oriented and usually they have a quick reaction time. They need to be accepted by others, tend to be spontaneous, outgoing, energetic, and friendly and focused on people rather than on tasks. Typically, they use opinions and stories rather than facts and data. They speak and act quickly; vary vocal inflection, lean forward, and point and make direct eye contact.

They use their hands when talking; have a relaxed body posture and an animated expression. Their feelings often show in their faces and they are perceived by others as excitable, impulsive, undisciplined, dramatic, manipulative, ambitious, overly reactive, and egotistical. They usually have disorganised offices and may have leisure equipment like golf clubs or tennis racquets. Under stressful conditions, Expressives tend to resort to personal attack.

And Finally – The Amiable:
Amiables need co-operation, personal security, and acceptance. They are uncomfortable with and will avoid conflict at all costs. They value personal relationships, helping others and being liked. Some Amiables will sacrifice their own desires to win approval from others. They prefer to work with other people in a team effort, rather than individually and they have an unhurried reaction time and little concern with effecting change. Typically, they are friendly, supportive, respectful, willing, dependable, and agreeable. They are also people-oriented.

They use opinions rather than facts and data, speak slowly, and softly, use more vocal inflection than Drivers or Analyticals. They lean back while talking and do not make direct eye contact; they also have a casual posture and an animated expression. They are perceived by other styles as conforming, unsure, pliable, dependent, and awkward. They have homely offices – family photographs, plants etc. An Amiable’s reaction to stress is to comply with others.

Most people’s first reaction after reading the four profiles is to believe that they fit into more than one category and this is absolutely right. However, everyone has a dominant style and no-one should believe that they fit into more than two because they don’t.

So, which Social Style do the various residents of the boardroom typically have?

Managing Directors/CEOs are typically Drivers, as you might expect.
Finance Directors are usually Analyticals
Sales Directors are nearly always Expressives
Marketing Directors are also Expressives
Technical Directors are almost always Analyticals

And Finally: In Sales
Level 3, Top 5% Achievers, are normally Drivers
Level 2, Sales Professionals, are typically Expressives
Level 1, Emerging salesmen and women are almost always Amiables

It is of course dangerous to generalise and there will always be exceptions, however based on my experience, I have very rarely been mistaken using this concept of personality identification, which makes communication so much easier and indeed relevant.

If you want to learn more about the four social styles and how to influence them, you will enjoy this: “How To Relate To And Influence The Four Personality Types”

Today’s News: After much anticipation, the Sales SheBang 2008 Conference  kicks-off tomorrow, and we couldn’t resist creating a “Good Luck” card for the seven Top Sales Experts who will be presenting; To Jill Konrath, Leslie Buterin, Kim Duke, Lori Richardson, Colleen Francis, Anne Miller and Kendra Lee, we send our very best wishes.

Tomorrow: Another Top Sales Expert, Tim Wackel is my guest on The JF Guest Author Spot, and he has some timely tips for selling in a sluggish market.

As the recession begins to bite hard, now is the time to make the very most of our most important customers.

A vitally important sales activity is that of managing existing customer accounts to consolidate and grow the relationship. Yet unfortunately, when compared over time, the customers’ interest levels increase while salespeople’s interest levels tend to decrease. This creates a “relationship gap” and is due entirely to complacency.

Another major issue is that too often the salesperson fails to expand his “contact base” as this next survey proves which results in vulnerability and exposure to competitive activity

Periodically, the Financial Times conducts a survey of British industry to establish how companies go about their purchasing. The survey is very comprehensive, broken down into many kinds of products and services.

From a Sales Director’s perspective, these are very worrying statistics.

Customer size (Number of employees): Less than 200

Average number of buying influencers: 3.43

Number of influencers visited by salespeople: 1.72
Customer size (Number of employees): 200 – 400

Average number of buying influencers: 4.85

Number of influencers visited by salespeople: 1.75
Customer size (Number of employees): 401 – 1000

Average number of buying influencers: 5.81

Number of influencers visited by salespeople: 1.90
Customer size (Number of employees): 1001 +

Average number of buying influencers: 6.50

Number of influencers visited by salespeople: 1.65

In essence, without a sustained approach to ongoing servicing and support activities, customers that took months to win are ultimately lost because there was a lack of interest from their supplier.

To-days clients/customers are looking for vendors who can be business-partners, who are willing and able to share risks and who are able to properly manage the entire sales process.

Fact: It costs seven times as much to locate and sell to a new customer
as it does to an existing one.

Are you making the most of your customer base? Answer the questions below honestly and find out.

1. How many regular clients do you have?

2. Has that number increased in the last twelve months?

3. How many of them have bought in the last three months?

4. Of those ‘regular clients’, how many have you contacted in the last month?

5. Of those, in how many have you progressed upwards from the user/recommender?

6. With how many of them do you enjoy exclusivity i.e. preferred supplier status?

7. How many of your clients have bought more the ‘second’ time around than when they originally bought from you?

8. With how many of your regular clients have you conducted an account review within the last six months?

Study your answers – are you still confident you are making the most of your most important accounts?

You may also enjoy: “How to Conduct A Formal Account Review”

Today’s News: I promised to share with you the second interview I recently did with Eyes On Sales, which focuses on achieving what I call “Top 5% Status” – you can listen in by simply clicking on the banner below.

I can now update you on the tremendous strides we have made towards the re-launch of TSE 2.0, which will be taking place in about four weeks time – it might be four and a half, you know what a perfectionist I am!

We will be adding ten new sections to be housed in a brand new “TSE Resource Area,” which will be available to subscribers.
 
1) TSE Article Vault

2) “How To” Guides

3) Podcasts

4) Webinars

5) TSE Radio

6) Ask The Experts

7) TSE Newsletter

8) TSE Blog

9) The Expert Interviews

10)  TSE Round Table

In Addition:

Of course, we will continue to release the quarterly e-books – next one is due for release early October, BUT, here is the exciting bit, Jeb Blount of Sales Gravy Press has agreed to publish us in hardback twice a year and rather than just compile a collection of our articles, we are going to make the books topic related – for example: “The Top Sales Experts on Business Development”

We will also have a Jobs Section, re-routing visitors to Sales Gravy and Salesopedia and naturally, we will continue to add new facilities as demand requires.

Ambitious? Of course, but we do not plan to put this all in place in one go. Rather, we will stagger the section launches and it should all be there by the end of November.

This really is shaping up to be the most innovative and ultimately, we believe, the most successful venture of its type.

Tomorrow: Paris is enjoying some warm Autumn sunshine right now, such a contrast to the drab grey summer we had to endure, so I will be out and about. Wherever you are, have a great w/e, and do make it back next week. – JF

Lee Salz

There is no bigger insult to a sales person than being called a “vendor.” Are you the reason why prospects see you that way? In this article, you will learn how to be seen as a partner.

So, it’s been another round of price squeezing. Very painful! They want it cheaper and your company has tasked you with protecting margin. To make matters worse, the prospect called you one of the worst things possible… a vendor! At this point, you have probably decided that sales really isn’t fun. There is hope! You can change the entire playing field by changing your style, your approach, and your game.

Let’s look at two restaurants… McDonald’s and Morton’s. When you go to McDonald’s, you are there because you are hungry. When you go to Morton’s, you want a dining experience. McDonald’s offers value meals. Morton’s offers a high cost a la carte dining experience. If you are concerned about price, Morton’s is not for you. The McDonald’s experience involves you ordering a meal and the order is provided quickly and accurately for you. The question asked of every order at McDonald’s is, “would you like fries with that?” (Apparently, fries go with everything.) At Morton’s, the wait staff make initial recommendations, listen to the diner, make additional recommendations based on the dialogue, finish receiving the order, and the end result is a stellar meal. While both are successful restaurants, this is a metaphor for the vendor/partner relationship.

With that in mind, consider these definitions courtesy of Websters.com…

Vendor: someone who promotes or exchanges goods or services for money.
Partner: one who participates in a relationship in which each member has equal status.

Now consider these…
Customer: one that buys goods or services
Client: one that depends on the protection of another

So if you put this together, customers have vendors, but clients have partners. Let’s make a deal, we won’t call them customers anymore and they won’t call us vendors because at the end of the day, people really want to be treated as clients. Vendors don’t have clients. I suspect that this isn’t overly revolutionary for you, but let’s contrast the vendor/partner relationship.

Vendors provide data, but partners interpret the data, analyze it, and make recommendations. For example, if you were having a business review meeting and told them how many widgets and gadgets they bought, you behaved as a vendor. If you asked them why the location in Missouri bought 30% more than the past, you behaved as a partner.

Vendors take orders, partners inquire as to why they want what they want. Out of the blue, you are asked to provide a different service than you have previously provided to your client. The vendor gets it done, and probably pretty quickly too. The partner asks questions to understand why this is desired and determines the optimum way to solve the business challenge at hand.

Vendors are reactive, or even responsive, but partners are proactive. Many sales people confuse handling issues quickly as being a partner. However, a true partner looks at the business and makes recommendations before challenges are experienced by the client.

Vendors take a narrow look at the world, but partners see the world in totality. If you were selling windows and your discussions exclusively focused on the windows and their benefits and functionality, you function as a vendor. If you discuss the entire house in conjunction with “the how” the windows purchase is related, you behave as a partner.

Vendors ask for the business, but partners share their perspective of the synergies that have been identified and ask how to put a marriage together. One of my favorite vendor questions is, “what will it take to get your business today?” There was a lesson I learned at a very young age when using a similar approach. I was selling to someone and we offered a point of sale incentive for buying on the initial visit. After presenting this, the man stood up and said if the deal isn’t good tomorrow, it isn’t good today. It was over seventeen years ago, but I remember it as if it were yesterday. No one wants to be sold. Trite sales expressions create the vendor aura.

Vendors make sales, but partners formulate mutually beneficial relationships. This is all about matchmaking which will be explored further.

In the movie “Wedding Crashers,” true love is defined as the soul’s recognition of its counterpoint in another. Wouldn’t it be great if client relationships worked the same way? Well, they can and they do. When true business partnerships are formulated, both parties grow as a result. In essence, one plus one equals four. But how do you find a match?

As a sales person, it is all about the mindset. If you wake up each morning with the goal of selling something to someone, the likelihood that you will formulate a partnership is probably equal to, or less than zero. Your mindset is about peddling your wares, not understanding and solving business problems. Business partnerships come together by identifying the synergies between organizations resulting in strong benefit for both.

The mindset of a matchmaker is very different than that of the traditional salesperson. Matchmakers wake up each morning with the goal of finding common bonds with business associates. Think of Velcro. The tighter the bond between the two surfaces, the more difficult it is to separate them. Thus, the ideal business partnership is created.

But what does it take to do this well? First, you have to master your half of the equation. You need to know every bit of what your company does and who the right audience is for it. You need to understand industry challenges and issues impacting your users. The best sales people are often viewed as industry experts because they understand the pertinent issues impacting their clientele. They have invested time to study and learn what is important to their clientele and mastered those elements. Most sales people never do this. They continue to repeat the same boring sales mantra over and over again. “Can I have your business, please?”
The second component is the ability to ask key questions of the potential business partner and synthesize the information. Launching questions into the air and failing to process the information is a common mistake. When preparing for the meeting, you should know what questions you will ask and the possible responses that you might hear. You can then prepare the appropriate direction for the conversation based on those responses. Another common mistake is asking questions that have little or nothing to do with matchmaking. There are just so many questions that someone will tolerate in one session, and in totality. Therefore, you need to ask the most relevant ones. Again, proper preparation on your part will help you to avoid this pitfall.

As a salesperson, there are a number of things you can do to establish partnerships instead of vendor relationships.
• Learn and understand your company’s capabilities so you can clearly articulate them.
• Study the industry you are in. Become well-versed on the issues impacting users of your product or service.
• Ask global questions to understand the overall perspective and direction of the company, not just relative to your solution.
• Analyze your client’s data. Ask questions of them and make recommendations based on responses.
• Focus on match-making, not selling.

Lee B. Salz is President of Sales Dodo, LLC and author of “Soar Despite Your Dodo Sales Manager.” He specializes in helping companies and their sales organizations adapt and thrive in the ever-changing world of business. Lee is available for keynote speaking, business consulting, and sales training. He can be reached via email at lsalz@salesdodo.com, his website at www.salesdodo.com or by phone at 763.416.4321.

Today’s News:

Business Expert Webinars (BEW), an international community of business experts, comprising best-selling authors, award-winning speakers, and business gurus, announced its launch on Monday with more than 100 speakers and 700 live business education webinars that begin airing in May 2008.

“We are using webinar technology to deliver business eLearning,” said Lee B. Salz, President and CEO of Business Expert Webinars. Topics include all genres of business –sales, networking, public relations, marketing, real estate, human resources, entrepreneurship, management and many others.  Visitors interested in participating can view the extensive schedule and sign up for webinars here 

Each webinar is taught by a live presenter on the phone and is supported by a presentation delivered over the Internet.

“People are frustrated with the free webinar offerings where the price of admission is a sales and marketing pitch. Either the entire webinar is an infomercial or the content is delivered at a high-level in the session and concludes with, ‘if you really want to know how to do this, buy my CD, DVD, book, etc.’ Thus, they aren’t really free,” said Salz.

Business expert and author of “Selling to Big Companies,” Jill Konrath, said, “What attracted me to deliver content with Business Expert Webinars was that the experts pick very specific topics and go deep into the subject matter. This is strictly business education. Participants come away from BEW webinars with actionable information they can implement immediately. It is a great way for adults to learn valuable information inexpensively, without leaving the office.”

About Business Expert Webinars:
Business Expert Webinars is an international community of business experts that comprises best-selling authors, award-winning speakers, and business gurus. For more information, visit BusinessExpertWebinars.com.

Tomorrow: “Negotiation – How To Prepare For The Early Stages”

The right to do business has to be earned and never assumed.

Rather than doggedly asking for business, the very best salespeople work to keep the relationship moving toward a sale. They realize the need to identify how to turn their company’s products into real solutions, which must meet specific needs.

Unfortunately, our surveys confirm that the average salesperson drags the customer over old ground as much as 52 percent of the time. They are unable to provide continuous stimulation and never know when to treat an existing customer like a new one.

Conversely, exceptional salespeople make such “return” calls only 10 percent of the time. Above all, earning the right to proceed requires gaining the customer’s trust, and top salespeople work diligently to establish a climate in which the customer is willing to share information and feels comfortable doing so. The key here is integrity.

Part of the Process

Customers are persuaded when they are part of the process and not part of the audience.

Sales success today demands a radical shift from the “peddler” mentality of merely demonstrating products and expanding on their features. It requires treating the customer as a participant. More often than not, a flashy sales presentation alone alienates rather than persuades.

The best salespeople regard the sales call as a two-way conversation – not a one-sided pitch. They have developed active listening skills. Average salespeople score fairly well in their ability to provide customers with facts and figures, but top performers dramatically outscore the rest when it comes to gathering information.

In addition, how a salesperson collects information still distinguishes exceptional achievers from the rest of the pack. Top performers ask better questions and, as a result, gain much better information. Essentially, they aim to engage customers in the buying process with questions that require thoughtful answers and stimulate curiosity. These questions reveal the customer’s underlying needs.

A Fresh Approach to Selling

Many organizations have developed without objective analysis of their purpose and structure. The buying power in many industries is no longer evenly distributed — in a large number of markets, a few big firms control the majority of purchases.

The development of new marketing techniques has meant that some tasks traditionally performed by the sales team can be more effectively handled by other methods. The prime objective of all sales staff is to gain business.

From an organizational point of view, however, how they all achieve their goals must be defined in order to identify what kind and the quality of skills that are required.

Today’s News: “In a single sentence, what’s the best advice you can give us about succeeding in sales?” That’s the question posed over at Dave Kurlan’s excellent blog, and he received some very interesting responses, which you can view here

Tomorrow: Lots of preparation for a big week ahead; my good friend Keith Rosen launches his new book on Tuesday; we are heading towards the announcement of a brand new initiative – “To 100 Sales Gurus”; Top Sales Experts is being re-branded; the first edition of The JF Journal needs to be completed – so I might take a couple of hours off

As ever, wherever you are, have a great w/e and be sure to join me next week – JF

Kendra Lee

Effective consultative salespeople know how to keep their customers up at night. By that I mean they know “how to get in their customers’ heads” by asking questions that will force them to think about the issues that are important to their business. It’s up to you to become their business conscience.

True, not everyone wants to be reminded of the difficult challenges that may be confronting them, but by filling this role, a consultative seller will further enhance their credibility and value to their customers. You’ll be the person who attracts their attention and keeps their interest because of your ability to get them to focus on the important issues at hand, that can’t be overlooked.

For example, one of my customer executives was concerned about the fact that only 19% of his sales force was making their quota. At the same time, he saw an opportunity to greatly improve their revenue position based on the fact that 76% of the remaining sales force was regularly within 20% of their quotas. Last November he told me that he wanted to make it a priority to find a way to get the sales people, who were within easy reach of their quotas, to achieve their sales goals.

Viewing myself as his sales consultant even though he had not yet purchased anything, I have stayed in touch and prodded him – always to hear this was still a priority but that no action had been taken. His many business priorities had gotten in the way. I then posed one very well thought out question.

“Why was he avoiding taking action when he had already quantified the lost revenue this situation was causing?”

Based on my question – one that certainly got his attention and made, by his own admission, for some sleepless nights – he and I have established a plan that he’s now following through on. Without the prodding and attention I displayed, the opportunity to find a way to increase revenue may have been lost while he continued spending money and time, and losing revenue, on the wrong sales strategy.

In my situation, the questions to ask were fairly obvious, but it’s not always easy to know what the most effective and strategic questions to ask are. With this in mind, there are three thought-provoking questions any consultative salesperson can use that will cause their customers to hesitate and give a situation serious consideration:

What are the strategies you’re not focusing on?  — This question will cause a person to think about what they may be overlooking or not giving enough time and attention to. People frequently lose sight of even the most basic strategies for success, and you can help them become grounded again.

What is the return on investment you’re not getting, but should?  – This question will help your customer to consider if they’re achieving the results they expected, and if not, why. It’s an excellent way to address any problems or issues before they become unmanageable.
What is causing the biggest issue; your people, processes or budget?  — This question will help your customer pinpoint where their biggest challenges exist and begin to develop a plan to resolve the situation.

Once these questions are presented, it’s critical for you to continue to follow-up on what’s been asked. You may make suggestions and recommendations, but until you see your customer take action, don’t let them off the hook. And, don’t let them try to provide easy answers, otherwise nothing will be accomplished. Your interest and attentiveness to what’s being done might cause some discomfort for your customer, but by following-through, they will realize the benefits of the exercise and having you on their team.

Kendra Lee is author of “Selling Against the Goal” and president of KLA Group. Specializing in the IT industry, KLA Group helps companies rapidly penetrate new markets, break into new accounts and shorten time to revenue with new products.  Ms. Lee is a frequent speaker at national sales meetings and association events. For more information, contact the company at +1 303.741.6636 or info@klagroup.com or visit www.klagroup.com.

Today’s News: Over at Salesopedia this week, the hot topic is “Time Management” – so if you have time, you can catch some great articles here

Tomorrow: Thoughts about Ernest Shackleton and what we as leaders can learn from this incredible man.

Many organisations do not know who their major accounts are. Certainly many of the people who manage the relationships do not know and even if they know, very few people understand why this customer is a major account but that one is not.

A quick way to test this is to ask ten people in your organisation who your ten most important accounts are. You can be sure that you will receive more than ten answers. In one company we worked with, we received 56 different answers from 10 senior managers! The clarification of major accounts has been a critically important part of our work with a number of the organisations with whom we have worked.

Understand:

We need to understand our major accounts better than our ordinary customers. We need to understand the world they work in, the challenge of their markets, the competition they face etc. We need to understand the individual projects (be it fighting to win new business or managing an existing project for maximum profitability). Major Account management involves understanding who takes decisions and how, who are our competitors, how does our offering impact on the customer’s business? Those who manage, need to keep developing their skills of questioning and listening, of networking and analysing.

Plan:

If a customer is worth being called a major account, then they are worth a plan. It is of course possible to sell successfully in an unplanned way, there are always opportunities to be seized by chance. But if we are serious about developing a long term relationship and if this customer is really important to our success as a business, then we need to plan. We will look later at two types of planning. One of the most encouraging spin-offs in our work with clients is when we see the emergence of succinct, professional business plans for major accounts that cascade down into satellite plans for other parts of the business.

Influence:

There are many people to influence. We need to influence technical people and commercial people; we need to influence our customers, their clients and our colleagues. The major account manager often has little authority to tell people what to do. Instead he or she needs to influence and persuade.

Deliver:

It is good to plan and understand and influence, but our business will depend on our ability to deliver what we promise. This is often seen as the responsibility of customer service but in fact the whole organisation needs to be committed to delivering what the customer needs, the right quality, at the right time and to do it in such a way that the customer feels good about it.

Manage:

Any major account needs managing because success does not just happen. By manage, I mean doing all those things which make things go smoothly. It may be arranging a regular review meeting with the customer, or training the account team to understand the customer better or handling problems or managing complex projects. If we work hard on all six areas of account management and if we gain the trust of our customers, then we will greatly increase our chances of long term, sustainable success.

Today’s News: Very interesting message in my inbox this morning:

Hi Jonathan,

I am sending you this note to let you know about an initiative that you may find interesting for your blog.
 
Third Core works with enterprise sales organizations to hone the execution of sales and sales management behaviors. We come across many organizations, of all sizes, who either don’t have access to training and information on the basics of business-to-business sales or simply don’t know where to find it.
 
To help companies and individuals who find themselves in this position, we’ve produced a collection of video material that covers these common-sense principles of business-to-business sales and sales management. The collection also contains interviews with senior business executives as well as a number of principles-focused role plays. Our goal is to provide a collection of resources that sales organizations and individuals can use to augment their professional development efforts.
 
The material, which we will be updating regularly, can be viewed and downloaded with no controls or constraints. Best of all, access to this material is absolutely free. This means that organizations or individuals with limited to no funds can access useful resources without worrying about the cost.
 
Third Core is one of Canada’s fastest growing companies. We help our clients achieve great successes in performance by improving their sales and sales management execution capabilities. We really hope the video resources we are providing can help to share this success with organizations of all size, and look forward to hearing feedback from people who use the material.
 
The material is available at www.professionalsellingnetwork.com. No personal information is collected. There are absolutely no strings attached. We hope it helps.

Do check them out

Tomorrow: I am still on my travels, so it’s another w/e of catching up with everyone and working on ASP Profile so as ever, wherever you are, have a great w/e and be sure to be back next week. Oh, and please bookmark any posts you enjoyed this week – thanks.