Jonathan Farrington's Blog

During one of my senior management coaching sessions last week, I posed the question: “So just what is it that makes a company successful?”

I had the group whiteboard the exercise and brain-storm around it, with some interesting results.

Unsurprisingly, the finance orientated managers talked about healthy cash flow, strong financial foundations, low debtor days, controlled stock levels and robust management reporting systems.

Sales and marketing people, highlighted strong customer relationships, reliable products, good people, who were fully developed and understood their place in the grand scheme of things.

All, however, highlighted strong leadership as being the most obvious commonality, when identifying consistently successful companies – and of course, they are right.

Success permeates downwards and whatever happens in the boardroom, affects every single employee: As leaders, we have to accept the huge responsibility that we have to our people – they have given us their trust; their loyalty; their commitment.

I believe that there are in fact five main drivers that determine our success, but first let’s consider some other fundamental facts:

Change is continuous and will become more rapid as we move forward over time. Senior management must be capable of reacting to those changes and be prepared to take advantage of them and yet stay within the overall framework and agreed strategy.

The role of strategy is fundamental if the people within an organisation are to be enabled to make the level of contribution of which they are capable. Strategy, based on a good grasp of the core competencies of a business, is an essential precursor to achieving optimal shareholder value.

The world’s leading organisations continuously seek to improve their performance. There may be unlimited potential for achieving accelerated improvement but if this potential is not being realised, good change agents must line up and mobilise all the forces (or drivers) for improvement.

So what are the five main drivers for improvement in organisations?

• Strategy

• Lean operations

• Balanced culture

• Customer responsiveness

• Leadership

Strategy sets direction, and gives focus to improvement. It must however be deployed throughout the organisation to be effective.

Processes need to be mapped and analysed in a methodical way; projects must be managed; problem symptoms traced to root causes; data must be collected before decisions are taken; trends in customer preferences detached and fed back; improvement activity of any kind reported on and coordinated; improvement action measured. Just about everything should be done to a discipline.

A balanced culture means effective, creative management of people. Customers are served by people; processes are managed by people. Only people can deliver quality improvement. For them to work well they must be empowered, given direction, measured, and reviewed and success recognised.

Customer responsiveness keeps the organisation focused on customer needs, reactions and changing requirements.

Finally, leadership ensures that everyone is enthused and supported to work on the strategy, improve processes, served customers and active team players.

Today’s News: If you didn’t make it over here at the weekend, you will have missed the launch of the first TSE Roundtable, which is on Tuesday April 14th.

“The Future of Professional Selling” promises to be the most significant online interactive event of the year so far and lining up with me are: Jill Konrath, Linda Richardson, Dave Stein and Nigel Edelshain.

Do please scroll down to the last post, for full details, and then register as soon as you possibly can, as places have to be limited.

Over the weekend, we took the decision to make some significant changes to the way we manage Top 10: As the site approaches it’s second anniversary, we feel it is time change the ground rules and encourage greater reader participation.

So, from next week, we will no longer have a “Top Sales Article Of The Week” Instead, we will simply have a “Top Sales Article Of The Month” and the twelve winners will battle it out for the “Top Sales Article Of The Year” title in December.

We are also going to change the way we allow articles to be nominated, and I will let you have all the details, once I have spoken to all the current participating article sites.

Finally, we will be introducing a reader poll, to allow you to vote for your favourite article each month – your votes will account for 50% of total marks, the other 50% will be awarded by the expert panel.

Tomorrow: On the JF Guest Author Spot I welcome back Dave Stein – “10 Ideas That Will Increase Your Flow Of Qualified Sales Leads”

“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, not the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change” – Charles Darwin

If ever there was a need to re-examine the way in which we are all approaching business, it is now: It’s time to challenge paradigms; look outside the square; understand that just because that has always been the way we have sold, that it will work for us in the current climate. If we keep doing what we have been doing, we will keep getting what we have been getting.

Whatever got you where you are today will not be sufficient to keep you there. A rapidly changing environment is the regular background against which organisations must develop.

Change is continuous and will become more rapid as we move forward over time. Senior management must be capable of reacting to those changes and be prepared to take advantage of them and yet stay within the overall framework and agreed strategy.

The role of strategy is fundamental if the people within an organisation are to be enabled to make the level of contribution of which they are capable. Strategy, based on a good grasp of the core competencies of a business, is an essential precursor to achieving optimal shareholder value.

Dependence on salespeople is key to delivering the latent capability of a business. Our salespeople are the greatest source of competitive advantage we have and that is precisely why we should continue to invest in them and fully develop them. This is particularly true now that in most market sectors competitive advantage is continually being eroded – i.e. International barriers are coming down, selling time is becoming limited, competitors are getting smarter, fewer and fewer names are appearing on companies’ databases, and product uniqueness is rare. Conversely, undeveloped personnel can bring down a company through inadequate performance, leaving the competition to harvest the marketplace.

If your organisation wants to permanently increase it’s sales results then it needs to approach sales differently to create “the difference that makes the difference” in order to positively impact bottom line performance.

In Summary:
Organisations and salespeople who have 100% commitment to doing whatever it takes to elevate their sales to a whole new level are the ones most likely to succeed. Trying to operate a sales organisation without total commitment is like trying to drive a car without fuel. But every organisation has the potential to harness the power of their salespeople just as surely as oxygen pumps life into the human.

Today’s News: January’s “Article Of The Month” has just been announced over at Top 10 Sales Articles and it is a belter, written by….. well why not check it out for yourself?

Other than that, news is scarce today, I guess everyone is eagerly anticipating…

Tomorrow: It all kicks off, and I for one cannot wait – here is the countdown

“We are coming…Are you ready”

Traditionally, one of our largest clients ran its business from manuals. Staff who wanted to know how something should be done would be directed by a senior manager “to look in staff manual 108” for the answer. It was not a motivational style of management, and had become unsuitable for fast-changing modern business conditions. So eight years ago, based on our recommendations they created what they called “The ultimate service provision” by merging all the information technology (IT) and back-office functions. Management broke with old habits and traditional training, and decided to improve the leadership skills of the senior managers through coaching.

The outcome has been a resounding success, producing far better results than conventional development training. The evident superiority of coaching explains why more companies are taking the same route and making it a priority.

We believe that coaching’s rapid growth will continue. Forward thinking organisations are looking for alternative ways to lead and organise staff. The business world has experienced more upheaval in the past year than in the previous fifty: It’s no accident that this period of unprecedented change has witnessed a boom in executive coaching.

At the moment I am coaching a top executive who insists on becoming involved in every detail of the business, causing frustration amongst his junior executives. “If he’s not in a meeting, he feels he’s not working”, I was told. Time management and delegation courses had done nothing to cure his faults, which leave him no time for the sort of reflective thinking expected of a senior manager. Coaching, particularly by making him study his own diary and cutting down on the congestion in it, is already having an impact.

The signs are that the boom will continue. A recent survey that I read, which polled H. R. professionals from Europe, America, Australia and Asia found that 88% of the respondents were planning to make more use of professional coaching. A little more than half of the respondents had introduced the practice in the past 18 months.

Like our clients, 70% of those polled said that coaching has an edge over conventional development techniques and they would choose it to change the behaviour and performance of senior people.

Today’s News: Jill Konrath is recommending some excellent FREE sales resources here 

Niall Devitt posted “The Apocalypse, Four Sales Trainers and the 1st Commandment of Selling”  which you will enjoy very much and Paul McCord is asking: “What is Operational Excellence in Sales and Marketing?“

Tomorrow: On The JF Guest Author Spot, I welcome back Drew Stevens PhD – “The largest single issue with selling in a difficult economy is change. There is change in buying power, change in budgets, even change in decision criteria. However, what is not changed are goals, annual commitments, and a desire to excel.”  He will also give you the opportunity to download his latest FREE ebook – “Thriving In A Volatile Economy” – so be sure to join us.

If ever there was a time for true leaders to stand up and be counted, surely it is now.

In my view, we are in this predicament because of a combination of weak and corrupt leadership, but you know, there must be almost as many theories on leadership as there are leaders themselves and models for the best kind of leadership change with the times.

In the 15th century, Niccolo Machiavelli advocated a combination of cunning and intimidation as a way to more effective leadership. His philosophy, if not his practices, became unfashionable some time ago.
“Great Man” theories, popular in the 19th century and early this century, are based on the notion of the ‘born leader’ who has innate talents that cannot be taught.

An alternative approach that is still in vogue is based on trying to identify the key traits of effective leaders. Behaviourist theory prefers to see leadership in terms of what leaders do rather than their individual characteristics, and it tries to identify the different roles they fulfil. More recently, attention has moved away from the individual in the leadership role to embrace a more holistic view and investing less in what some commentators refer to as the ‘myth of the heroic leader’.

Requirements of a Leader:
It is my view that an effective leader needs to be:
• A good diagnostician, who can sense and appreciate differences in people and situations.
• Adaptable, in the ability to adapt the leadership style to circumstances.

A leader must realise there is no one best way to influence people.

In summary, to those who would suggest that great leaders are born not made, I would say this: We can examine all of the great leaders in history and identify some common characteristics but we cannot say they were “Born Leaders.” They all developed into their leadership roles over a period of time, learning the skills along the way. I do believe that leaders can be developed – I have to believe that because currently we have far too few of them in the world.

Today’s News: Fellow Top Sales Expert, Dave Brock published a great post last week: “Why Do Salespeople Have Such A Bad Reputation?” It was picked up by The Customer Collective and got more than three hundred and fifty views – plus it attracted a lot of comments. It also attracted the attention of this week’s “Horse’s Ass” – a guy called Axel Schultze.

Two other sales gurus who I both like and respect – Dave Stein and Niall Devitt  weighed in and you will enjoy reading all the comments here 

SalesNexus launch their FREE five part “Double Your Sales In 2009″ series today – just click on the banner below to register

Tomorrow: By pure coincidence, my guest on The JF Guest Author Spot is Craig Klein, CEO at SalesNexus – “Simple steps to identifying prospects that will buy“

For companies to remain competitive now, their sales organisation must be able to respond positively to changing economic tides. As businesses strive to establish customer orientation, sales partnerships and a strategic approach to selling, they are demanding more and more from their salespeople but ensuring that these new methods are widely practised and smoothly implemented falls to sales management.

Building Productivity:
Sales productivity is a strategic issue. That’s why problems in this area stem from salespeople being unclear about their company’s priorities i.e. what their message should be and what they should be selling.

The trend in industry of removing layers of management between the sale force and the general manager presents a challenge to those sales managers who remain. To begin with, the sales manager becomes an essential link between company strategy and what takes place in the customer’s office. He or she must not only grasp the corporate vision but be able to communicate it to the sales force in terms of the real effects on sales practices.

Creating Direction:
Sales managers with an intimate feel for the selling process succeed because their staff regard them as part of the sales team but coaching the team is as important as playing in it. In other words, sales managers must be prepared to provide training, feedback and support to every individual within the team.
Once committed to the training process, they must routinely reinforce new ways of behaving in real sales situations. They must provide a clear sense of direction on a daily basis, not just at the monthly sales meeting / quarterly review / annual appraisal.

The very best sales managers engage in frequent coaching and feedback, even when their sales people work in remote locations. While encouraging salespeople to air their problems openly and discuss their concerns, sales managers must be able to offer clear and specific feedback for improving sales performance.

Rewarding Change:
The sales manager is charged with translating the company’s reward system into specific improvements in sales performance. Both salespeople and corporate managers count on the sales manager to recognise and reward outstanding achievement, formally and informally.

The process of promoting new attitudes about the customer and the role of the salesperson can be frustrating and slow. Reverting back to recent research there is compelling evidence to suggest that companies will see results sooner if they recognise and reward salespeople – “you get more of the behaviour and results that you reward.”

The trend in sales compensation appears to be away from commission to guaranteed salary, from compensation based on orders to compensation based on delivery and sign-off. Interestingly some organisations we know, base their ‘salesperson of the year’ award on the basis of customer satisfaction or customer retention rather than sheer volume of orders or activity.

Today’s News: Three Top Sales Experts are presenting over at Business Expert Webinars this week: Cheryl Clausen, Anne Miller and Leslie Buterin – you can get all the details here

Tomorrow: On The JF Guest Author Spot, Colleen Francis – “Make 2009 the Year You Reinvent Your Sales!”

Customer care has become one of the most important issues facing businesses in every market – there are less customers, spending less and making fewer purchases. There has never been a more appropriate time for every organisation to examine it’s approach to customer retention.  

Customer care programmes come under a number of titles – customer services, customer satisfaction, customer focus, customer orientated etc.

Their common theme is meeting the customer’s requirements and ensuring that all aspects of the business contribute to customer satisfaction. The intention is to build repeat business if customers are satisfied with the product and the standards of service they receive, they will return again and again.

Inconsistent Customer Care
 
Inconsistent customer care performance can have a negative effect on customer perceptions. Petrol companies for example, know that every time a customer walks into one of their outlets, wherever they are in the country, they should expect to receive the same standards of service. Nation-wide consistency is essential when customers are likely to visit multiple outlets – one poor performance can threaten the customer’s perception of the entire operation.

What Is Customer Care? 
 
 Customer care is about addressing three sets of requirements:
 
• Customer
 
• Staff
 
• Organisation
 
These requirements are interrelated, i.e. it is more difficult to deliver consistently high standards in customer care if the needs of both the organisation and the staff are not taken into account

Customer Requirements
 
• Excellent personal service – feels valued, listened to, treated as an individual

• Products that meet expectations

• Encouragement to express views and give feedback

• Effective relationship with the organisation

• Problems and complaints are handled effectively

Staff Requirements
 
• Effective management style

• Suitable working environment – pay and conditions / tools for the job

• Relevant training to develop skills

• Career potential

• Clarity of role / job description

• Performance standards and appraisal systems

• Sense of involvement / value

• Open communication

• Teamwork

• Rewards / Recognition

Organisational Requirements
 
• Mission statement
 
• Corporate structure
 
• Feedback and communication systems
 
• Profit
 
• Human and technical resources
 
• Demonstrated commitment

Who Are Your Customers?  
 
If you are not serving the customer, you should be serving someone who is. Harmonious relationships with customers and colleagues are essential to service success, because providing outstanding customer service is primarily a team effort. For excellent customer service to exist it has to be practised on an internal basis

The What And The How
 
 The “What” is the material and the “How” is the personal element. To be outstanding, organisations must deliver excellence in both material and personal service. Customer service is no longer just a question of interpersonal skills

The difference between you and your competitors is achieved when expectations are exceeded. Doing the unexpected, going the extra mile, moves us from meeting expectations to exceeding expectations

How To Delight Customers:
 
• Be enthusiastic enthusiasm is the driving force of quality service.Customers do not just want products they want products plus enthusiasm
 
• Be professional the word professional does not go with the job it goes with the person
 
Be The Best
 
• Someone, somewhere has to be the best at this job – why not me?

• Decide to be outstanding
 
How To Be The Best
 
• Use positive self talk – e.g. tell yourself ‘Everyday in every way, i get better and better’

• Don’t be ordinary

• Develop a ‘How can I do it better?’ mind set

Today Everyone Sells
 
 In a successful company the number of sales people equals the number of employees

• Everyone sells something  – either products, services or the image of the company
 
And Finally: How To Help Yourself Sell
 
• Pay attention  – give people the benefit of your attention

• Customers like to give their business to those who show they want it

Ready to overhaul your customer service approach? You’ll find a lot of helpful advice here

Today’s News: I’ve talked about the number of “Social Media” sites that I have been tempted to get involved with, but you know, I always come back to just four. That’s not to say that all the others are not good, they are, but for me it is a time issue.

So if you want to contact me, link with me or even follow me, just click on one or all of these banners -

Tomorrow: It’s the w/e, and that means it is JF Uncut. Tomorrow, I am going after the biggest horse’s ass that I have ever listened to – stand up Brad Blakeman, I am coming. Be sure to join me

Most sales leaders will not have experienced such a severe economic downturn before.

My advice is quite simple: “Stay focused, constantly challenge paradigms, but always keep the overall sales strategy sharply in focus”

One of the key tasks of a sales manager is to continually seek ways to improve the way in which their team operates – constantly challenging paradigms and questioning “the way we do things around here”, will ensure the team remains at optimum performance levels.

However, it is also important to stay within an overall long term strategy and not effect change for change’s sake. Here are some thoughts on moving forward in a structured manner.

First, keep the key management functions in mind:

• Define objectives (your own and others)

• Plan (and time) action

• Communicate (throughout the process)

• Support others’ action

• Evaluate performance (and link to the future)

• Then relate this to the task, the team and the individual people

Keeping the Overall Management Process in Mind:

Define Objectives:

• Task – Identify task and constraints

• Team – Set targets and involve the team

• Individual Needs – Agree targets and responsibilities

Plan:

• Task – Establish priorities

• Team – Structure and delegate

• Individual Needs – Assess skills, train and delegate

Communicate:

• Task -  Brief and check understanding

• Team – Consult, obtain feedback

• Individual Needs – Listen, advise and enthuse

Support/Control:

• Task – Monitor progress, check standards

• Team – Co-ordinate, reconcile conflict

• Individual Needs – Recognise, encourage and counsel

Evaluate:

• Task – Review, re-plan and summarise

• Team – Reward success, learn from failure (and success)

• Individual Needs – Appraise, guide and train for the future

This view encapsulates, and simplifies, the whole process.

With this picture in mind certain key issues are worth a mention:

Link to the Future:

Ongoing success as a manager is influenced by:

• The attitude you take to the transition

• What you do before you move into a new appointment

• The early focus you bring to bear on key issues

• The relationship you thus cultivate with staff

• The working habits you create for yourself (and others) in process

Together, all the above influence early success in the job – and how you take things forward into the future.

Key Issues:

From the beginning, always operate on the basis that managing people:

• Takes time – you cannot get so bound up in your own workload that you skimp on time you should spend with others

• Takes effort – it is challenge, there are no magic formulae or quick fixes that will do the job for you

• Needs thought – the obvious or immediate answer may not be best, things may well need research, analysis and thinking through

• Is not a solo effort – seek and take advice from where you can, including your own staff

• Will not always go right – as Oscar Wilde said, “Experience is the name so many people give to their mistakes”: admit your mistakes (publicity if necessary) and learn from your experience

Remember too that managing people:

Is a process of helping others to be self-sufficient – this implies trust and that management works best when you take a positive view of what people can do (and do not see your role as a sort of corporate security guard)

Is based on good, regular and open communication – something that pervades many issues.

Needs to be acceptable to people before it can be effective– hence the crucial role of motivation as part of the management task

Become self-sustaining when it works – i.e. if people find your management helpful (to the job, the organisation and to them) then they will support it and support you

Overall, management is not what you do to people but the process of how you work with people to help prompt their performance. Work with people from day one, and go on doing it throughout your management career.

At the end of the day success comes down to a considered approach. Charge in, desperate to make an impression, go at everything at once in order to make an impression, and disaster may closely follow. ‘Twas ever thus:

“First organise the near at hand, then organise the far removed.

First organise the inner, then organise the outer.

First organise the basic, then organise the derivative

First organise the strong, then organise the weak.

First organise the great. Then organise the small.

First organise yourself, then organise others”.

General Zhuge Liang

Perhaps we should highlight the last sentence: “First organise yourself, then organise others”

Last Word:

Being a manager is a challenge but it is also almost infinitely rewarding to create and maintain a team of people who deliver excellent performance and produce whatever results are targeted. It is a task that takes time, requires effort and needs a considered approach.

All sorts of things can help, but only one person can guarantee that you become a good manager – and that’s you.

You may also enjoy:”What Is Successful Leadership Really About?”

Today’s News: OK, the upcoming gig I am presenting with Jill Konrath and Kendra Lee, is filling up – here are the details:

Ask the Experts: 3 Leading Sales Gurus Answer Your Most Pressing Sales Questions
Free Webinar brought to you by Landslide Technologies
Wednesday November 12th, 2008 – Free!
1:00 PM Eastern
Register Today! - CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

“How can I keep my sales team focused and producing results in the current business environment? ”

“How do I increase my team’s close ratio to compensate for a smaller pipeline?”

“What are my customers and potential clients thinking right now? ”

“How can I best position my company and its services to decision makers?”

Right now you probably have a lot of questions similar to these and would like to have some answers.

Please join Jill Konrath, best-selling author of Selling to Big Companies, Jonathan Farrington internationally renowned sales consultant, and Kendra Lee, best-selling author and expert in selling to SMBs and IT decision makers, to answer these and other questions you may have about selling more effectively to BtoB prospects.

You can either come loaded with questions or sit back and listen as some of the best sales consultants in the business talk about the realities of today’s selling landscape and answer the sales questions that keep you up at night.

Register Today! – CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Tomorrow: I will be back with the latest instalment of JF Uncut, so do please join me.

During the 1970s and 1980s, it was common for large corporations such as Hewlett Packard (Compaq) and IBM to put their new sales recruits through a twelve to eighteen-month training programme. I know, because I went through one myself, before designing the next generation.

Today, salespeople consider themselves “lucky” if they get an initial two weeks of training.

Have companies discovered that training doesn’t really pay off?

On the contrary! Training appears to be even more important today than years ago and it is getting more important all the time.

This extract from one of my favourite books ‘All Together Now’ by Sir John Harvey-Jones articulates the last point perfectly.

“There is practically no area of business where the difference between rhetoric and actuality is greater than in the handling of people. Every businessman will always claim that it is the people in his organisation who are the key to its success. Indeed it is difficult to argue anything else. A company consists of money (which can ebb and flow almost with the speed of light), of fixed investments (which by definition are obsolescent from the very moment that they have been made), and a range of products – and hopefully a market position – which are under continual attack from competitors who are trying to produce better and more desirable products for less costs.

What a company does have, and handled rightly can maintain, is the commitment, skills and abilities of its people. This is constantly attested to by the statements in company annual reports – I cannot remember the last time I failed to see the chairman’s last sentence paying tribute to his people. Yet despite all these facts our skills at enabling our people to give their best, and continuously beat the best that come against them, are remarkably tenuous. Moreover, this area of activity is seldom subject to the sort of analysis, debate and experimentation so readily devoted to fields such as production or marketing.

Even though we are all welded to the concept of continuous improvement, when did you last see an improvement plan for the management of your people? If you have seen one, I would bet long money that the plan referred to reduction of administration costs or overheads, rather than being a plan consciously adopted to enable more of our people to contribute more.”

In 1990, I had dinner with Sir John, and I was able to clarify a number of points with him face to face: He remains one of my most significant mentors.

Less Training With Higher Expectations
So, what’s going on here? How should a Sales Director reconcile the fact that many corporations today provide less upfront training for their sales staff than in years past, yet attach increasing importance to staff development?

This is hardly a surprise, because the current stock market ethos creates a powerful dis-incentive for firms to invest in their people. A firm’s investment of human capital, in the form of training and other forms of education of staff, is not separable from the general expenditure of a corporation. It therefore appears as a cost on the corporate balance sheet.

Difficult Times
Alas, many Sales Directors, having concluded that their best strategy is to cut back on training, look instead to hire people who already possess all the talent and skills needed to do the job and send them out into the field armed with what they know. But many Sales Directors know how difficult it is to find skilled salespeople. And anyway it is not possible to equate experience or seniority with success.

Huge Demands On Salespeople
The fact is that selling in today’s climate is both an art and a science. Selling is a profession that demands a far wider range of skills than ever before – skills that require continual fine-tuning and constant practice.

Lack Of Ongoing Reinforcement And Development
The operative word here is “ongoing”. Even if salespeople have undergone progressive sales training, there’s no guarantee that they will be successful. It is common knowledge that skills grow rusty over time and salespeople are prone to pick-up bad habits along the way or to simply skip steps and take shortcuts that can lead to long-term trouble. Perhaps even more important these days, is the fact that markets, competition, technologies, and customer preferences are all in a constant and accelerating state of change.

This fact requires that salespeople are able and willing to rethink their sales strategy and approach frequently and receive a regular top-up of skills and motivational coaching.

The key word here is frequent – long gone are the days, when professional salespeople could attend a “one-size fits all” program, and consider themselves qualified for life, that mentality, as I say often enough, is being relegated to the annals of selling history.

Today’s top performers, the “Top 5% Players” wake up and smell the coffee every day, before the majority have even stirred from their slumbers. 

Today’s News: Is again scarce, as I am still with clients in the “Heart Of England” – but I’ll make it up to you tomorrow.

I will just mention, that I made a decision with this client to introduce in a number of trusted and highly respected friends, all internationally renowned sales experts: The experiment is working superbly.

Last month, Leslie Buterin brilliantly addressed a small group of young sales professionals on “cold calling techniques” and today it was the turn of Paul McCord, to coach a group of more senior sales team members on “referral selling”

Despite the fact that he already had a mentoring appointment at 7.30am CT with his own client, he delivered a two hour session at 5am CT, to my group here in the UK. That is really quite an incredible thing to do, and indicates why Paul is another member of my “inner sanctum” of high commitment, high intelligence, high profile and high integrity friends, who will form the nucleus of something very special, which is due to launch very shortly – The Global Sales Council – a small, unique, band of brothers and sisters, with a “big-picture” international focus. More soon, I promise.

Oh, and the feedback from Paul’s session? – “Superb” “Extremely useful advice” “Excellent, thoroughly enjoyed it” ”Brilliant, what a really great presentation” “What a pleasure to listen to a master” 

I have another treat in store for the team tomorrow – Nigel Edelshain will be giving them an overview of the implications of Sales 2.0 - yep, I do spoil them.

Tomorrow: I have a real surprise for you on The JF Guest Author Spot – you will enjoy it!

The traditional customer call once seemed indispensable to the selling process; the time and expense involved were just a basic cost of doing business. In recent years, however, the business community has come to regard the sales call as an expenditure for which there are substitutes. For many companies telemarketing and direct mail have made the sales call a choice not an inevitability. This is not surprising when various studies suggest that getting one sales person in front of one customer now costs $1000 – this cost has trebled since 1983. As a consequence professional salespeople have to be more effective than ever to justify the investment in a face to face effort.

In essence, we can draw several conclusions and when taken together, these findings paint a picture of the current state of the sales environment.

Customer Focus Creates Competitive Advantage:
• The one term that sets top performers apart – customer focus

• Outstanding sales results depend on:
- The ability to think from the customer’s point of view
- Understanding the customer’s agenda, buying cycle and best interests

• Beyond a superficial reading of immediate customer needs, salespeople must gain a deeper understanding of both the buyer’s long-term goals and the overall business climate

• At the heart of customer focus is the art of listening constructively – the best salespeople are masters at capturing information

• Customer focus means taking the customer seriously – to-day the salesperson who clings to the product orientation of a decade ago is losing ground

• As client companies branch into new markets and unfamiliar territories, they are demanding unique, flexible solutions from their vendors – customised to support specific goals

• Another myth which can be exploded is that whilst customers value flexibility, being too flexible can undermine the sales relationship. On the whole salespeople imagine that customers value a vendor’s responsiveness above all. However recent research shows that their primary concern is reliability.

In summary, in order to maintain customer focus the best salespeople become facilitators, creating a partnership that extends the selling relationship within the customer’s company. The motivation to achieve this should be strong – it costs five times as much to attract and sell to a new customer as it does to an existing one!

The right to do business has to be earned and never assumed:
Rather than doggedly asking for the business, the very best sales people work to keep the relationship moving towards a sale. They realise 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% 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 only make such ‘return’ calls for 10% 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.

Customers are persuaded when they are part of the process and not part of the audience:
Sales success to-day 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. I.e. 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, that stimulate curiosity and that reveal the customers underlying needs.

Businesses need to re-define selling and what constitutes basic selling skills:
In to-day’s world of selling, there is less and less room for apprenticeship. Selling has become an exclusive club of highly skilled professionals where product knowledge and time management skills, for instance, are the cost of membership not leadership.

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

Building an up-to-date foundation in sales competence does mean sacrificing some old notions of what it takes to succeed in a competitive marketplace. For example, a salesperson can no longer just “win by knowing”.

Every company needs to test their assumptions about what skills really contribute to sales success. Too often operating on old sales theories means training and rewarding people to do the wrong things.

When the buyer and seller act as partners, they are building a bridge to profitability:
Successful selling is definitely not about the “hit and run” sale. Sales achievers regard their relationships with key customers as a partnership and cultivate it as such. When customers face tough business challenges and complex technological choice, they rely on sales people who can assist them in making the right decisions.

The primary objective of a sales partnership has to be, to create and sustain a mutually productive relationship, which serves the needs of both parties, now and in the future. The key word here is symbiotic.

Partnership does not mean eliminating the tension between buyer and seller; it means that top-performing salespeople know how to strike a balance between achieving immediate results and developing the relationship fully.

In Summary: Why Do We Need A Fresh Approach To Selling?
Many organisations 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 organisational 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.

You will, in all probability, also enjoy: “What Are The Characteristics Of The Very Best Sales Performers?”

Today’s News: I haven’t mentioned Top 10 Sales Articles for what seems like ages, and yet everyone keeps telling me that the standard of articles that are being nominated each week, just gets better and better.

Only five more monthly winners to announce and then it’s Top Sales Article Of The Year time again!

Do check out this week’s superb nominations and last week’s winner by simply clicking on the banner below:

I recently mentioned that this blog had been chosen by Alltop and last week I learned that my Sales Manager’s Mentor Blog had also been selected – that’s a real honour! Have you been over there recently? It’s just a banner click away again – see the cool avatar below:

Tomorrow: This week’s “Featured Expert” over at Top Sales Experts is good buddy Jeb Blount, which means he also fills The JF Guest Author Spot, with something very topical tomorrow.

Has your business started to take a turn for the worse recently? Are your cash flow worries keeping you awake at night?

The following ten questions will help you to determine if your business is the lean mean fighting machine you believed, or a bed-ridden sick note, coughing and spluttering its way on a wobbly pair of last legs.

1.Increase in staff turnover

If you’ve watched a number of your key employees walk away from the business recently you should sit up and take notice. Staff is arguably a company’s most valuable asset and if your people are leaving, it’s often the first sign that something is going wrong.

The problem is not just the associated cost of recruitment, but also training new starters and the additional burden on remaining staff while the new team members get up to speed, that add further strain on the business.

Remedy

One of the best ways to keep track of staff morale is to hold regular reviews where employees can air their views on both the business and their specific concerns without fear of recrimination.

2. You lose a key account

It’s believed that winning a new customer is seven times more expensive than keeping an existing customer happy. Small businesses are often too reliant on a couple of main customers, as demonstrated in the collapse of MG Rover and Courts a few years back.

There are a number of reasons key accounts could defect: Your product or service is not of the standard promised or expected, or you could be beaten on price, quality or service.

Losing a key account can have a serious impact on your cash flow. Credit companies such as Experian offer a credit scoring service which can be invaluable when setting credit terms for key accounts. This is important: You wouldn’t lend a stranger £20,000, so why offer new customers this kind of credit facility without checking their financial strength? In order to manage this risk further, there is a wide range of bad debt protection policies available which pay out in the event of your customer going under.

Remedy

Take a long, hard look in the mirror and discover the underlying reasons for your clients’ lost faith. This way, you’ll have a much better chance of either winning the client back, or at least making sure you don’t lose others going forward.

If your customers’ satisfaction isn’t a priority for you already, it should be now! Paper trails for every transaction can be an extremely effective way to guard against disputes and to keep an eye on quality control. Obtain written purchase orders to back up your invoices and always get a signoff from the customer to say goods have been received or a service completed satisfactorily.

3. Orders are rising fast

This is not something that would be immediately cited as a sign of problems. However, when your business is growing quickly you need to be even more careful about your cash flow.

We’ve all heard the phrase “cash is king” and this is never more true than when you’re struggling to keep up with increasing demand for your products or services.

While most resources will be occupied meeting that demand, it is worth remembering the income from these orders may take three to six months to come in. That means you’ve got to be able to cover your costs for at least that period to keep the business afloat.

Remedy

Two of the most effective ways to manage your long term cash flow are to use factoring or invoice discounting services and to lease your manufacturing or office equipment.

Factoring and invoice discounting raises up to 90% of your invoice value ‘up front’, enabling you to invest back in the business. You get the remaining monies when your customer pays the debt, less a fee.

4. Waiting longer for payments

If your customers are taking longer to pay your invoices but you’re still working to fulfil a growing order book, you’re going to start having problems. And it may happen sooner than you think.

A customer who puts in repeat orders is important for your business success. However, if they take too long to pay, you have to ask if it is worth accepting their next order until some agreement has been made about payment.

Remedy

Too few small businesses employ a designated credit controller to collect invoice payments and chase up late payers. If you’re starting to notice customers taking too long to pay, it’s worth sitting down with them and discussing the reasons.

Business is built around mutually beneficial relationships and the better you, your suppliers and your customers understand each other, the more flexible the relationship will be.

Be understanding when you’re asking for payments but remember that you have rights, including being able to charge interest on overdue invoices. Make sure that all credit terms are stated on each invoice, along with the due date for payment. If you don’t, your customer can quite rightly say they didn’t know when they had to pay.

Remedy

Factoring companies can also collect your outstanding debts. They’ll effectively buy your outstanding invoices, release up to 80% of the value and take their fee from the remainder when payment is collected. If you do not need an external credit control facility but would still like the funding it can generate, an alternative product is available called invoice discounting.

5. Unrealistic assets on your balance sheet

Many businesses have valuable assets on their balance sheet, including machinery or equipment owned outright. All assets depreciate over time – how long has it been since your business assets were valued?

Out of date and inaccurate valuations make a business look healthier than it actually is and may cause problems when you’re looking for growth investment or calculating your profit and loss statement.

It’s also worthwhile considering that older assets lose their market value very quickly and can start costing more in operating and maintenance costs.

Remedy

Leasing and asset finance services can help simplify cash flow by enabling you to use the equipment you need without actually owning it outright. This financing mechanism is available for both existing and new machinery.

6. Increasing stock levels

Unused and unsold stock isn’t just cash tied up in the business, it’s also a depreciating asset with a diminishing return on the money you invested to produce it. In other words, it’s a waste of money.

Although this is more relevant to manufacturing businesses, the underlying factors behind this problem should be a concern for all businesses – if you’re producing something that isn’t selling, how long do you expect to last?

Remedy

Keeping a close eye on patterns of supply and demand and having the flexibility to adjust to these changes is the difference between a growing business and a dying business. By automating your ordering process, wastage is minimised and the business has moves closer to a just in time delivery structure.

7. Cutting prices

While a popular tactic for promoting new products or gaining short-term market share, reducing your prices without cutting your production costs can seriously damage your business prospects.

Remedy

Instead of cutting prices if sales start to fall, try to find the reason sales have slowed. It’s possible that your market sector has reached saturation point or it could be a problem with the quality or perceived value of the product.

There are a number of ways to differentiate products from the competition. There might be an alternative to cutting prices that will strengthen your business and its prospects, rather than eating into your profit margins.

It’s often worth spending a bit of money to market your product more effectively, or by hiring a designated sales person to reverse the downturn in sales.

8. Rising debts and slowing growth

Getting into more debt is not the best way to finance business growth. The quicker you can get your business trading on profits rather than debts, the better.

That said, some forms of borrowing are more sustainable than others and can reduce the time it takes your business to begin trading on your profits.

The debt to asset ratio of the business becomes serious when your assets (including book debt) are outweighed by liabilities (including creditor’s ledger and longer term liabilities such as director’s loans).

Remedy

VAT and PAYE payments are often tricky to keep on top of if you are experiencing a change in your sales volumes. While many companies pay their VAT quarterly, if it might be easier to pay monthly. Many VAT offices will be happy to change to this structure.

The Crown has lost its preferential creditor status and so is under increasing pressure to secure payments from companies which look a little shaky. If you do anticipate problems paying the Crown, you should immediately meet your tax officer to discuss a payment plan.

Agree in writing to clear your arrears and guarantee future payments. As long as you stick to the terms, this should stave off further action from the Crown on outstanding monies.

Most businesses have a number of assets that can be used to secure much-needed capital – including your outstanding invoices, machinery, equipment or company vehicles. Two of the most effective ways to manage your long-term cash flow are to use factoring or invoice discounting services and to lease your manufacturing or office equipment.

Factoring is essentially selling your outstanding invoices to a company that will release a percentage of those funds immediately for you to invest back in the business, for a fee.

Also, don’t be afraid to have another look at your business plan. The most successful businesses have management teams that can spot opportunities and have the flexibility to adapt to these opportunities.
Don’t rely on your yearly accounts for the day to day financial management of your firm. Even simplistic management accounts, if kept up to date, can be invaluable.

9. You don’t admit the truth

Are you still trying to convince yourself that everything will be alright? Do you find yourself hiding from bills and avoiding contact with your accountant, investors and staff?

Covering up the truth about your financial situation will not only stop you getting out of the mess you’re in, it may get you into deeper trouble. Investors aren’t going to penalise you for getting into problems – every business faces financial difficulties– but if they don’t know what’s going on, they can’t help.

Remedy

Investors will be far more likely to help if you are open and honest with them, so that potential problems can be caught earlier rather than later.

Your investors will have put a significant amount of money into the business and would undoubtedly prefer to invest more money than to lose it all because they were never told of the difficulties.

10. It’s not fun anymore!

Think back to the reason you first got into business. It’s generally because of the excitement and the challenge, rather than the opportunity to make a quick buck.

If you wake up in the morning and can’t stand the thought of going to work or is it that the company has evolved beyond your interest or control, then perhaps it’s time to consider getting out.

Many entrepreneurs enjoy the challenge of getting a company off the ground but once the business has become reasonably self-sufficient, they lose interest and need to move on to the next challenge.

Remedy

Perhaps it’s time to start thinking about how you can start delegating more authority to employees that you trust as part of your exit strategy.

By giving some of your key employees the authority to make decisions, you can free up more of your time to concentrate on the parts of the business that still excite you, and potentially even get the passion back that made you start the business in the first place.

The main thing to remember in all of these cases is that they do not necessarily mean that your business is on its last legs. If you catch any of these signs early enough, they can all be turned around so the business ends up stronger in the long run.

For more informative articles on Organisational Development, please go here

Today’s News: The excitement is building and places are being filled rapidly. The 2008 Sales SheBang is gathering momentum – you should really consider booking early – this promises to be THE sales event of the year. Just click on the banner below for full details.

Complimentary Sales SheBang Preview Calls – here are the details:

You don’t want to miss these COMPLIMENTARY Preview Calls where Jill Konrath will be interviewing the Sales SheBang presenters. You’ll have a chance to learn from these savvy sales experts – even before the conference.

These calls are open to EVERYONE! Even if you can’t make the call, sign up. As soon as it’s posted online, we’ll send you a link to listen at your convenience.

Wednesday, August 20th at 1 pm ET

- Leslie Buterin, author of Secrets to Scheduling the Executive-Level Sales Call, will discuss the challenges selling to senior management and tips you can leverage to get in the door.

- Brooke Green, the Ultimate Sales Chick podcaster, is passionate about claiming your worth. She’ll give you ideas you can use to strengthen your personal and professional value.

- Anne Miller, author of Metaphorically Selling, is the force behind “making what you say, pay.” She’ll share tips you can use to sell, explain and persuade anything to anyone.

COMPLIMENTARY Preview Calls! Register now:

Wednesday, August 27th at 1 pm ET

- Kendra Lee, author of Selling Against the Goal, will talk about traps that sellers encounter that derail their consultative sales efforts – and how you can get out of them.

- Ardath Albee, power blogger at Marketing Interactions, will share what it takes to catch and keep your prospects’ attention – especially when they’re busy decision makers.

- Michelle Nichols, former savvy selling columnist former Savvy Selling columnist for BusinessWeek and founder of Hug Your Kids Day will talk about the fallacy of work-life balance.

COMPLIMENTARY Preview Calls! Register now:

Wednesday, September 3, 1-2 pm ET

- Kim Duke, founder of SalesDivas.com, will talk about why you need to stop being just like everyone else as well as strategies you can use to stand out from the crowd.

- Lori Richardson, AllBusiness.com sales blogger is a master at setting up alliances and partnerships. She’ll share useful strategies you can apply right away.

- Debbie Mrazek, author of The Field Guide to Sales, will give you insights into what prevents sellers from achieving their goals as well as tips you can use today to have your best year yet.

COMPLIMENTARY Preview Calls! Register now:

Finally, I recently accepted a request to publish my work on a brand new site called Insightory – I have been really impressed with their professionalism and I think you will be too – just click on the banner to find out all about them.

Tomorrow: One of the most recent recruits to the Top Sales Experts team Shane Gibson, makes his debut on The JF Guest Author Spot, with an excellent article about team selling – it’s true, the “Lone Ranger” style of selling, really is consigned to the annals of history!