In the book Emerson’s Essays, there is a section on “Law of Compensation”, which can be summarised simply as “give more, get more.”

This is what most salespeople try to do, so they end up working harder when they could be working smarter.

This begs the question, are your sales activities deciding your strategy or is your strategy deciding your sales activities?

Developing A Consultative Sales Process:

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 effort efficiently.

Although many organisations 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 Intertia:

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 organisations 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 organisation 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 – is your organisation one of them?

Today’s News: At last!! My good friend and the author of the “2007 Top Sales Article Of The Year” Keith Rosen, is finally on the 2008 leader board - coming up on the rails again – you can catch his excellent piece here

We had some severe technical problems over the w/e: This site and JFC were taking up to two minutes to load, so we must have lost a lot of visitors – if you were one of them, please accept my sincere apologies, this is only the second time in three years that our ISP has let us down – oh, and the two JF Uncut posts were pretty good

Tomorrow: A very special guy, and possibly the most innovative member of the Top Sales Experts team

Special Announcement

Selling Through a Slump: Live Q&A on Selling in a Recession
2 p.m. EST November 19, 2008

These are tough times in the selling business. Customers are ordering less, postponing sold business, trimming the number of suppliers, and reducing budgets. It is taking longer to close a sale. Many of your sales staff may never have experienced a downturn like this before. How can sales organizations continue to thrive in an increasingly lean economy?

Tune in to a FREE live interactive discussion with a panel of sales experts, and get your questions answered:

What best practices can you learn from companies that have not only survived but thrived through past downturns?

What specific steps can you take to create a more valuable relationship with your customer?

Which tools should you be using to increase the effectiveness of your selling process?

What role can technology play in making you smarter about your best opportunities?

You’ll have an opportunity to gain valuable strategic knowledge by listening to commentary from proven thought leaders:

Learn what not to do.
Hear about effective methods that you can put in place now.
See the results of our TCC survey of top sales management experts, and learn how the recession is affecting other sales organizations.

Panelists will include Jill Konrath, author of Selling to Big Companies, Denis Pombriant, founder of the Beagle Research Group, and David Bonnette, Group VP of North America Sales at Oracle. Robin Carey, Co-Founder and CEO of Social Media Today LLC, will moderate.

Brought to you by The Customer Collective and Oracle CRM.

This is an event you should NOT miss if you are serious about surviving and succeeding in the worst economic downturn in history: It is going to get a whole lot worse before it gets better.

You have two choices; fight your way through it and come out at the other end stronger, wiser and intact; or do nothing and risk being taken down with it – for me, it really is a “no-brainer” -JF

Welcome to the conversation.

Now for today’s post:

A company’s performance appraisal process is critically important. It answers the two questions that every member of an organisation wants to know:

• What do you expect of me?

• How am I doing at meeting your expectations?

Regular assessments and appraisals are essential if individuals are to continually expand their “skills set” and should deliver three key benefits for an organisation:

• A clear career path for progression (which typically seems to motivate salespeople who operate in a business-to-business environment)

• Evidence of the return on investment made in developing people so organisations are encouraged to sustain ongoing development

• A clear benchmark for salespeople and sales managers, so that they know what is expected of them

Every manager has to appraise subordinates and the mechanics of it vary from ticking little boxes, through marking on five-point scales, to writing an open ended report. However, in all cases the primary purpose of an appraisal is to help the subordinate.

Why Appraise? – Reasons for an Appraisal:

• To provide feedback of individual performance.

• To plan for future promotions and successions.

• To assess training and development needs.

• To provide information for salary planning and special awards.

• To contribute to corporate career planning.

The five key elements of the performance appraisal are:

• Measurement – assessing performance against agreed targets and objectives.

• Feedback – providing information to the individual on their performance and progress.

• Positive reinforcement – emphasising what has been done well and making only constructive criticism about what might be improved.

• Exchange of views – a frank exchange of views about what has happened, how appraisees can improve their performance, the support they need from their managers to achieve this and their aspirations for their future career.

• Agreement – jointly coming to an understanding by all parties about what needs to be done to improve performance generally and overcome any issues raised in the course of the discussion.

So when considering the design of an appropriate sales team appraisal document, what are the areas you should consider including?

This will be very much a personal decision based on relevancy:

If you have read any of my work before, you will, in all probability, know that I work with a very simple formula when it comes to team development and measurement i.e.

Attitude + Skills + Process + Knowledge = Success

I arrived at this conclusion many years ago and my initial reasoning was this:

Attitude is fundamental to any achievement because individuals with the right Attitude are far more likely to embrace the essential Skills, recognise the control that Process brings and have the desire to continually expand their Knowledge.

Skills are the ‘tools of the trade’ and have to be developed on an ongoing basis. They also need to be specific, because too much time can be wasted over-burdening employees with inappropriate and irrelevant skills without any identifiable plan for their future requirements.

Process brings organisation, efficiency and control, both for the individual and for management. Effective process provides objective analysis and indicators which can be benchmarked and accurately measured.

Then there is of course a need to build in Knowledge and that must include knowledge of products, industry, market sectors, competitors, business, own company and last but not least, self!

Therefore, when measuring my teams, I always ensure that I benchmark against that criteria, plus I, and all of my clients, use ASP Profile

Today’s News: This is going to be a particularly hectic week, so do stay tuned if you can: First up, if you missed the “Ask The Experts” webinar that I co-presented with Jill Konrath and Kendra Lee for Landslide Technologies last week, you can download the entire show here

It was incredibly well attended and as we begin planning for the first Top Sales Experts Roundtable on December 9th, featuring: Leslie Buterin, Colleen Francis, Jill Konrath, Paul McCord, Keith Rosen and me – we just know that this inaugral event is going to be fantastic – more details soon.

Over at Top 10 Sales Articles, we have a very special winner this week – you can check them out for yourself here

And over on my other blog “Sales Manager’s Mentor Blog” – I ask: “Are You A Boss Or A Leader?”

Lots of very good webinars coming up this week on Business Expert Webinars, and I’ll be announcing those tomorrow.

Tomorrow: News of a special book launch.

There has been increasing evidence – unsurprisingly - that sales professionals and sales captains are working longer and longer hours, thereby putting health and family relationships at risk. This is not a topic that we can simply sweep under the carpet, it is not going to go away, and I am witnessing it more and more frequently.

Pressure to complete and meet the ever-increasing demands of customers (as well as the need to achieve higher sales quotas) and finishing the year strongly, is forcing people to spend more of their time working -not to mention a stagnant market, that will only become more so in 2009.

Whilst stress does have its benefits, too much can cause errors of judgement, mistakes, accidents and damage to health. Some people are more vulnerable to stress from overwork than others.

American researchers have identified two types of managers – Type ‘A’ who, though thriving on stress, are vulnerable to its effects, and Type ‘B’ who rarely let events disturb them.

Not only are there Type ‘A’ managers but also Type ‘A’ organisations – is yours one?

Types A & B:

Type A: 
• Try to do more and faster 
• Concerned with speed, performance and productivity 
• Tend to be aggressive, impatient, intolerant, hard driving and always hurried 
• Preoccupied with time
• Start early
• Strong competitive tendency
• Always want to succeed
• More likely to have heart attacks

Type B: 
• Easy going
• Take difficulties in their stride 
• Spend time on what they’re doing
• Rarely harassed
• Less prone to heart attacks 
• Take time to ponder alternative
• Usually feel there’s plenty of time
• Not as preoccupied with time

Stress What Is It?

Popular definitions include: ‘the result of a person being pushed beyond the limit of their natural ability’ When used in physics, stress is defined as ‘the external pressure applied to an object’, the resultant change is called ‘strain’

Applied to people, we mix up the two terms, using ‘stress’ to refer to both the pressures we’re under and the effect it has on us

What Causes Stress?

• Where you work – Red tape, changes, demands from customers, uncertain future

• Your Job – Volume of work (too much/little), deadlines, pressures, being responsible for staff

• Your career to date – Still not found your niche, no clear goals, reached your plateau

• Your Relationships – Colleagues, friends, partner, boss, staff, children and families

• Conflicts – Unable to find a balance between work and home; worried about money

• Self-imposed – Giving yourself a hard time, low self-image, poor self-management

What Are The Signs?

• Physical
Headaches, indigestion, throbbing heart, allergies, infections, twitching, nausea, tiredness, weight loss/gain, vague aches and pains

• Mental
Indecision, making mistakes, forgetfulness, poor communication, easily distracted, worrying more, making hasty decisions

• Emotional
Irritability, anger, alienation, nervousness, apprehension, loss of confidence, tension, cynicism, job/life dissatisfaction

• Behavioural
Unsociable, restless, unable to unwind, appetite loss/gain, diminished/increased interest in sex, increase in drinking/smoking, taking work home, too busy to relax, poor personal management

In Summary: Stress Techniques for Handling Stress

Remember, you have some choices – do nothing, fight it or learn to manage it by:

• Identifying what causes you stress and how it shows itself (this will give you a clue about what you need to tackle)
• Concentrating on what must be done and cutting out all those non-essential meetings phone calls and visitors
• Learning to delegate and trust others; none of us is indispensable
• Pacing yourself; have 10 minute breaks throughout the day
• Being tidy and organised; untidiness creates its own problems
• Learning to relax and switch-off, don’t take work home  
• Learn to say ‘no’ – don’t take on everything that comes your way
• Get a balance between work and home; your life is important too!
• Eat properly, avoiding too much fat and sugar
• Improve you listening skills; many busy and energetic people are bad listeners
• Take breaks – make sure you use all your holiday entitlement
• Get yourself on an anti-stress programme if necessary
• Develop breathing and relaxation techniques eg: yoga
• Keep fit – try swimming and/or walking
• Learn to manage your time more effectively

And Finally – Prime Time, When Are You At Your Best?

We all have a ‘prime time’ during the day when we are at our best and fully alert, the secret is to recognise this and complete those activities that require energy, application and thought, when you’re at your sharpest.

When energy is low, we are sluggish and tend to make mistakes, so watch what you eat – a heavy meal and wine make a lot of people sleepy; a healthy meal can provide energy hours.

Work in periods of time; a maximum of an hour before you give yourself a break – this way you’ll concentrate better.

If you want help in identifying your time robbers, this originally titled article will help: “How Identify Your Time Robbers”

Today’s News: I did suggest that the latest Top Sales Experts e-book, would be the last – we plan to go into hardback in 2009.

However, I have relented, and we are producing a Special for Christmas – “How To Sell & Survive In An Economic Downturn – And Have A Great Christmas”

In fact, we are going to install a unique area on the TSE site very shortly, to provide advice and support for front-line sales leaders and sales professionals, including an “Ask The Expert” facility, providing direct access to fifty of the world’s leading sales gurus – more soon.

I cannot tell you how much I am enjoying writing JF Uncut on Saturdays and Sundays – if you missed this week’s posts, simply scroll down.

Finally, to make you smile: “McCain versus Obama – The Dance Off“ - well it made me smile

Tomorrow: On The JF Guest Author Spot I am delighted to welcome back a very good friend and one of the foremost leadership gurus on the planet - best selling author and good all round egg, Kevin Eikenberry – you will not want to miss his pearls of wisdom. 

Even companies that enjoy the luxury of clearly superior products, realise that those products will not sell themselves. As a minimum, companies need a sales force comprised of skilled professionals who understand the application of the product range, have an in-depth knowledge of their customer base, market sector and of course the competition. But even all these elements together are not sufficient to ensure optimum performance levels and profitable sales.

So What Is A Sales Process?

Put quite simply, it is a set of procedures, which determine how a company wishes its sales team to operate – “The way we do things around here”

The most successful organisations have implemented a process and an all-encompassing framework for defining performance standards. This involves assessing, appraising, developing, reviewing, providing continual feedback on performance, as well as implementing efficient and relevant process tools

Lack Of Direction

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.

A Discouraged Sales Force Diminishes Sales Efficiency

When their efforts don’t pay off immediately, even experienced salespeople tend to become discouraged. They spend more and more time struggling to meet their sales quotas and working less and less efficiently.

Feeling increasingly powerless to influence prospects, they may also begin to press for a sale in ineffective ways – for instance, by arranging formal product presentations to prospects that they have not even qualified or who haven’t yet agreed that they need the solution. They allow prospects to milk them for information without getting a commensurate commitment first – and even worse, they fail to defend margin and make unprofitable sales in order to achieve quotas. The details of what goes wrong differs for each individual salesperson but the net result is always the same, a discouraged sales force, diminished sales efficiency (i.e. wasted investment of sales time and resources that fail to produce high quality sales) and, consequently, increased cost of sales which inevitably drastically reduces net profit.

What’s the bottom line? Sales never result efficiently and with maximum revenue unless the sales process is continually and closely managed. But before the sales process can be managed, it must be manageable.

Developing A Consultative Sales Process

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 organisations 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 Intertia

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 organisations 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 organisation 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.

Today’s News: What a great reception we received to our first two JF Uncut posts at the w/e: If you missed them, just scroll down.

The next Top Sales Experts ebook, has been delayed and will now launch next Tuesday – October 21st – I am certain the wait will be worth it!

Over on Top 10 Sales Articles this week, we again have a very strong ten nominees – so be sure to check them out here

Tomorrow: On the JF Guest Author Spot, is the very wise and very smart Kendra Lee, who last week sent me this message:

“Now for a story of how small the world is thanks to the internet and those of us who network. This week, I was working with a new client in a planning session for his sales managers. We had a facilitation session to get their buy-in and agreement on their next steps. During the session the EVP of Sales pulled out a definition of consultative selling “from a fellow named Jonathan Farrington” and quoted it to me!!!! It was so cool to say, “I know Jonathan well. We work together.”

Now, that is cool!

The JF Guest Author Spot

Paul McCord

Are you a salesperson, professional or business owner who is trying to market to anyone and everyone in your market that might even remotely have a use or need for your product or service? If you are, why?

Why would you try to do something that most salespeople and professionals can’t possibly do well? Marketing on a general scale is expensive—just ask Coke, Microsoft, Old Navy, Sears, State Farm, UBS, or any other major company. They spend hundreds of millions of dollars every year trying to do what you’re trying to do on a shoestring.

But, you say, you’re only working in a very limited area? Fine, do you have the budget of a major, local auto dealership, or major, local furniture store, or any other major, local business that is trying to do what you’re trying to do?

But, again, you say that you’re not marketing to the general consumer but to a specific industry. OK. Do you have the budget your major competitors have to do direct mail, sponsor association events, advertise in industry specific publications, and all the other things your big competitors do?

No, you say, but you don’t need the sales volume they do in order to support all of those things or the massive staff they have. Good, now we’re getting somewhere.

You don’t need the sales volume they need, you don’t have the budget they have, and you don’t have the staff they have. So, why are you trying to capture the same general market they’re trying to capture? You don’t need it and you can’t afford it.

Rather than spreading your time, effort and marketing budget so thin, why not focus on one or two very specific segments of the market where you can become a real player? Instead of trying to spread your marketing budget over say, 40,000 people, why not focus on a small, but highly focused segment of maybe 5,000 people? Instead of trying to get to 11,000 companies, why not focus on 2,000 companies that fit within your ideal prospect template? Better yet, why not focus on 800 companies that are perfect fits to your ideal prospect? 5,000, 2,000, or 800 is still a large number.

By defining your ideal prospect in as detailed terms as you possibly can and then focusing only on that group, you increase your likelihood of selling each prospect, you are more capable of making inroads with each since you can focus your message to that group specifically, and you maximize your marketing dollars. You also can become the expert to really understand and resolve their issues and problems.

Finding and exploiting one or two niches is a far more effective marketing format for most salespeople, professionals and small businesses. Unless you have the time and money to compete with the big boys, you’re better served to do what they can’t—concentrate on and become the expert in a highly focused segment of the market.

Why don’t more salespeople, professionals and business owners focus on niche markets? Fear. Fear of possibly losing a sale. Fear that the niche may not be big enough to find enough clients to stay in business. Fear that they won’t be able to penetrate the niche. Fear that they’re leaving money on the table.

These fears are unfounded for the most part. Becoming a niche player does take time. It takes effort. It takes discipline. However, there is a lot of money to be made being a big fish in a very small pond—and no money to be made being a dead fish in a very large lake.

Today’s News: Most salespeople are looking to finish the year strongly and over at Salesopedia, Clayton Shold is in conversation with Jim Messenheimer about this very topic.

Clayton says: “I refer to Jim Meisenheimer as a sales expert; he refers to himself as a lifetime student of the selling profession. Which ever way you look at him he is a “player” in the sales game having trained tens of thousands of sales producers and thousands of sales managers. He knows what is required to finish the year strong. This podcast examines if you have what it takes to nail the fourth quarter. Jim walks you through six critical questions which strategically look at your business. He professes if you invest at least one day working through these questions you will not only have a banner last quarter but set the pace for next year.”  Simply click on the banner to listen in.

Tomorrow: What do doctors and salespeople have in common?

You would think that particularly now, as we shiver under the dark clouds of financial uncertainty, we would be compelled to leave our comfort zones, and go off in search of greater security?

Not “most” people, because “most” people are too afraid.

I often quote this:

“Prince Rabadash’s army lay close behind them, Anvard ahead. If they did not reach Anvard before Rabadash and his horde, their journey, their entire lives, would have been wasted. The horses, Bree and Hwin (both of whom could, of course, talk) galloped. Certainly both horses were doing, if not all they could, all they thought they could do; which is not quite the same thing. But a lion appeared out of nowhere and with the spur of terror; Bree now discovered that he had not really been going as fast, not quite as fast, as he could“.

This extract is of course taken from “The Chronicles of Narnia”, that fount of a million, simple and usually overlooked truths, and it illustrates perfectly what it takes for some of us to be steered out of our comfort zone.

Perhaps of all the temptations we meet in life, money, power, sex, alcohol, drugs and fame, the subtlest of all is the comfort zone, that invitation to settle for less, to go for content when the stresses of over achievement beckon. The way that takes you out of the comfort zone is the route less travelled by. Most of us when we come to that place where the two paths divide prefer the one that leads to safety, to warmth and to comfort.

Both in sport and in business, I have witnessed countless companies, friends, colleagues and team mates that underachieved, despite having far superior skills and talents when compared to others who have made it to the top. The reasons have always been the same, fear of leaving the comfort zone and entering into the unknown, the land potentially of failure and rejection.

However, I believe there is another way to motivate individuals and coax them out and it relies on one simple fact; most people do not know what they want from life. Certainly, the majority working in a commercial field will say they crave success but without understanding what success means for them. Of course, describing success is difficult, because it will be different for all of us. The definition I prefer is ‘The achievement of a worthwhile goal’

I also believe that I can speak with authority about the comfort zone, but in my case, I was lucky enough to discover Earl Nightingale, probably the greatest motivational speaker and personal development guru of our time,and yes, I include Anthony Robbins, Brian Tracy, Tom Peters et al in that assessment.

If you haven’t yet had the opportunity to listen to Earl, I strongly recommend you seek out his work - I can honestly say that no other single person has had such a profound effect on my own work. 

My experience is that you cannot have everything you want, but you can have anything you really want – you just have to know what it is.

Today’s News: Over at Top 10 Sales Articles, we have just announced the Top Sales Article for September – we now have nine finalists for Top Sales Article Of The Year and just three more places up for grabs

They will join a very illustrious group of world-class authors and sales gurus:

Paul Cherry, Josiane Feigon, Ivan Misner, Mike Brooks, Mark Satterfield, Zig Ziglar, Kevin Eikenberry, Jill Konrath and…..

Just click on the banner below to find out who this month’s worthy winner is…….

You have just over a week to claim one of the last few seats at THE New York event of the month – just click on the banner right at the end of this post

Tomorrow: On The JF Guest Author Spot, my guest is good friend Keith Rosen, who having sent me his latest book, was horrified to have it returned on Saturday: Unfortunately, he sent it to my home address and the rules are now that if you are not in when the postman tries to deliver a package, they don’t try and re-deliver, they return to sender??? Such is French customer service these days.

The JF Guest Author Spot

Billy Cox

Do you wake up in the morning thinking, “This is going to be a lousy day” or “Nothing good ever happens to me”? If you have an important presentation to make, do you tell yourself, “I don’t have a chance at closing this sale”? If you routinely think this way, how does your day turn out? Do you make the sale? I’d be willing to bet you get exactly the results you expected.

Winners wake up every morning with excitement, enthusiasm, and confidence, knowing that success is in store for them. Top performers set their minds for victory; they set their minds for success.

Setting your mind for success doesn’t happen automatically. You have to constantly tell yourself “today is a great day, good things are happening, and new and exciting doors are opening.” Go out each and every day believing success will come your way.

Now, you may think, “My business isn’t doing well, nobody will buy from me, and I can’t pay my bills. How can I live with enthusiasm? How can I be positive when I have so many problems?”

You gotta make a decision that you’re going to have confident expectancy about everything you do. You have to continually expect that things are going to get better. Positive expectation is a conscious choice and a habit of faith. It is a conscious choice to see a positive outcome instead of a negative one. As you think, so it is created. As you believe, so it is done.

Expectancy is about seeing beyond where you are. Look out into the future and see yourself as successful, happy, and enthusiastic. See sales coming your way, see yourself having all the contacts you want and watch your income soar. See things better than they are . . . see them as you want them to be. Develop a habit of focusing on what’s right in your world instead of what’s wrong, on what you have instead of what you don’t have, on your talents instead of on your weaknesses. You’re probably asking, “What if I do that and it doesn’t work?”

My question to you is, “What if you do it and it does work?”

If you will consistently think about and focus on what you want, you will ultimately get it. By focusing on positive thoughts, you open up your mind to start attracting success. This is why top salespeople seem to effortlessly sell so much more than average negative-thinking salespeople. People want to do business with positive, upbeat, successful individuals.

When things look impossible or you’re tempted to go through the day negative and self-destructive, that is when you have to step up and change your belief level. Expect good things to happen. Expect to rise above your challenges. Expect victory!

When those around you predict doom and gloom for everything from the economy to your dreams and goals, remember that success in life, business and sales is mostly a mental game. Your thoughts will drive your results, your success, even your destiny. So proactively focus on the positive, defend your mind against the negative, and expect victory. You have the power to choose your thoughts and your attitude and, therefore, your success.

 
Billy Cox is a Top Sales Expert and an internationally recognized business leader, author, and inspirational speaker he energizes people to dream big, take action, and achieve results. His message comes from the authenticity and credibility of his own inspiring, all-American success story. Billy Cox now teaches the essentials that led to his own success – he has lived what he speaks. Billy pairs his powerful message with a high-energy, passionate, and down-to-earth style.

You can find out more about Billy here: www.billycoxinternational.com

Today’s News: You could be forgiven for thinking that today is officially “Billy Cox Day” – well it is here!

Now you have the opportinity to listen to Billy in conversation with Clayton Shold – the topic is “Positive Mindset” - over at Salesopedia, just click on the banner below.

Tomorrow: My own thoughts about salespeople and limiting beliefs – I think you’ll enjoy it!

The JF Guest Author Spot

Joan Paul  

This morning when I opened my calendar, everything looked different. Surely someone’s been playing with my computer. I could swear I had appointments booked and paying clients taking every available spot for the next two months. I must be having a bad dream. Pinch myself. Nope. It’s true – I’ve hit the dreaded dry spell!

Entrepreneurs talk about it all the time as part of the game, but being in it is an entirely different thing. If you are like most business owners, you haven’t yet managed to balance the feast and famine phenomenon. The question is, “What do you do when the famine hits?”

First of all, BREATH!!! Preferably without hyperventilating. Don’t panic. Don’t throw in the towel. Don’t check the employment ads. Do remind yourself why you started your business. Do remind yourself of all the successes you’ve enjoyed and will once again enjoy. Do remind yourself if you are just starting up, that it takes time to build an active business. Do park your negative self-talk and replace it with positive affirmations, like “Today I am one step closer to experiencing the wild success that I’ve dreamed about!”

When things are looking a bit slow, do the following:

-Go to your database and call all the people you’ve been meaning to stay in touch with. Arrange to meet and exchange ideas or just have a coffee and find out how you can help them with their objectives.

-Apply a referral selling process. In No More Cold Calling™, The Breakthrough System That Will Leave Your Competition in the Dust, Joanne Black puts forward a practical approach to building your business through referrals. This simple system can propel your business through the roof without wasting business development time.

-Attend to the business planning that you may have been procrastinating about. Revisit your business and marketing plans. It will likely re-energize you.

-Find a coach. Whether hired or a business buddy, it’s very helpful to have a thinking partner, someone to share with and encourage you to keep your eye on preparing for the next delectable feast.

-Learn something new. Take the opportunity to read the last business book you bought and put on your nightstand or attend a training program that’s been on your to do list.

Most of all, remember dry spells are temporary and keeping perspective is critical to your success. The objective is clearly to have fewer dry spells and more feasts. However, dry spells are inevitable for most entrepreneurs. If you find you are stuck in dry spell, do get some guidance from someone who can provide insight for you and be prepared to explore difficult possibilities. As Jim Collins says in “Good to Great,” Confront the brutal facts, yet never lose faith.”

 Joan Paul is a Certified Executive Coach and Sales Strategist. Her company, J. Paul Training Inc., provides customized training, strategy development and is the distributor of No More Cold Calling, TM, The Breakthrough System That Will Leave Your Competition in the Dust, and The Sales Activator®, an international sales management system. Joan can be reached at (403) 607-1979 or through her website http://www.jpaultraining.com

Today’s News: Over at Salesopedia, Clayton Shold is in conversation with “Mr Inside Sales” the very genial, Mike Brooks – “Throw Away Your Funnel” – “Suppose someone told you to throw away your sales funnel. Would you think they are contrarian or just crazy? Mike Brooks suggests the top 20% of sales producers don’t use a funnel, they use a sales cylinder. He explains how to dramatically improve your closing ratio by using a cylinder and disqualifying prospects early. Mike has a special message for the sales leaders in the audience who have grown up with, and continue to promote sales funnels.”  As usual, just click on the banner below.

In “Wall Street And Broken Social Trust” Charles Green articulates very well what most of us are thinking right now – you might enjoy the read.

My own view is that there is only one thing uglier than a fat cat, and that’s a dead fat cat. Once upon a time in the UK, if someone introduced themselves as an estate agent, you would count your fingers after shaking hands – the banking industry has now been passed that baton and is viewed with considerable disdain by anyone with an I.Q. of more than 30.

Tomorrow: In response to the question: “What is THE most important leadership trait?” I provide the answer – for me, it is a “no-brainer” 

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

The JF Guest Author Spot

Kendra Lee

Sooner or later it happens to the best of salespeople – a sudden slump that starts slowly and then snowballs.

Conventional wisdom says the best way to break out of a slump is to keep doing the things you’ve always done.

Avoiding the deep slump.

To get back on track and avoid a deeper slump, try these six tactics:

1. Retrace your steps.

Are you leaving anything out of your presentation that’s worked in the past? Maybe it’s a word or phrase, a transition you skipped, or a step you omitted.

Ask yourself if you’re stressing the same things. Or, are you including something that may be turning prospects off?

Compare a call you made before the slump started to one you’re making now. Can you see or hear a difference between the two?

2. Be persistent

Selling, like football, is a contact sport. If you don’t stay in contact with your customers, your competitors will.

Can you trace your slump to a period when you didn’t stay in touch with customers as much as you should?

Maintaining regular contact so you’re there when the customer is ready to buy is a great way to avoid slumps.

3. Try to keep your confidence up

Confidence and morale are usually high when sales are good. When sales are harder to come by, it’s difficult for salespeople to stay up.

You’ve proven that you can sell in the past. Now it’s a matter of finding out what’s missing and getting back on track. Once your confidence is back up, your sales will probably follow.

4. Set specific goals

Yogi Berra once said, “If you don’t know where you’re going, you’re sure to end up nowhere.” The same can be said of a salesperson who tries to break out of a slump without setting specific goals. Maybe you should make more calls or do more prospecting than you did before the slump hit.

5. Plan each step

Salespeople who spell out the steps they’re taking to break the slump are more likely to get results than those who simply go back to the plan they used when things were good. The slump may have nothing to do with you or your sales techniques. Maybe the market has changed, and unless you adjust your plan accordingly, you’ll have difficulty ending the slump.

A plan is not just a means of breaking out of a slump. It’s a process for learning from and building on the past, a confident way of knowing that the steps you’re taking at the moment are actually in a forward direction.

6. Never relax the tension

Some salespeople blame “burn-out” and “stress” as the major cause of slumps. Salespeople who keep up the pressure usually stay ahead of the pack. To never let up may be the smartest way to avoid “burn out,” “stress” and “slumps.”

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 in the Small & Medium Business (SMB) segment. 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.

KLA publishes an industry-leading online newsletter. To subscribe and get a free Quota Gap Calculator ($18.95 value) visit www.klagroup.com. For information on sales training, call 303-741-6636.

You can read more about Kendra here

Today’s News: Over at Salesopedia, Clayton Shold is in conversation with Shannon Smith, the image guru – interesting stuff!! Just click on the banner below:

Thanks to everyone for the fantastic feedback on The JF Journal, it really does make it worthwhile.

Finally, a great blogpost for you:”Is This Describing Your Product Or Service?”

Tomorrow: “How’s Your Elevator Pitch? Mine’s OK!”