Jonathan Farrington's Blog

In my opinion, hundreds of millions of pounds world-wide are wasted every year on irrelevant, unnecessary or inappropriate sales skills development and there are four obvious reasons.

To begin with, the one off programme may supply a short term motivational buzz and provide the delegate with a number of thought provoking ideas. However, in reality, once they are back at the “front-line” the day to day pressures of hitting quota etc take over again and the reactive mindset returns. It is rather like the Chinese meal effect; when you leave the restaurant you feel full, but by the time you arrive home you want to eat again.

Secondly most, not all, but a very high percentage of courses on offer today, deliver what I term “generalised” skills development.

For example, a guy operating within the aerospace sector negotiating multi-million pound contracts can find himself sitting next to a young saleswoman who markets insurance policies and is based in a call centre. On her right is another guy who is developing a successful career in manufacturing, selling hydraulic components and next to him…..I think you will appreciate my point. To achieve sustained success in all of these disparate industries requires specific skills sets and the “generalised” workshops simply cannot deliver them.

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

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

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

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

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

This week’s FREE ebook includes a number of articles that I have published on the subject – all based on my experience as both a “delegate” and a “coach” Simply click on the banner below – as usual.

Today’s News: Over the past few weeks, I have pointed you towards Craig Klein’s excellent “Double Your Sales In 2009″ series and now you have the opportunity to download the superb final ebook for FREE – again, just simply click on the banner below – you will not be disappointed.

Finally, I promised to give you an early heads up on THE online sales event of the year:

TES Roundtables kick-off.

On Tuesday April 14th at 1pm Eastern, you can join in a live debate “The Future Of Professional Selling”

The panel will be: Jill Konrath, Linda Richardson, Dave Stein and me. Chaired by Nigel Edelshain and hosted by Paul Simon.

You will be able to book your place in the next seven days – places will be limited – more details soon.

Tomorrow: Nigel Edelshain of Sales 2.0, will be my guest, and will share his personal reflections on last week’s Sales 2.0 conference – very interesting stuff!!

Failing to focus salespeople’s activity reduces efficiency and consequently reduces results, because there is not a salesperson alive that believes they have enough time in their working week to complete all the activities they want to achieve! Time is a huge constraint on their activities so that when their manager asks them for more, it is no wonder that they are overwhelmed.

Secondly, but equally important, salespeople often are not clear about how to identify the prospects most likely to have a genuine need for their product or service. Without an objective way to prioritise which prospects to contact first and/or an efficient strategy for contacting them, salespeople are doomed to waste a large percentage of their time. Another huge dilemma for many salespeople is how to divide their time between servicing existing clients and generating new business from new prospects.

Existing clients frequently make requests for service that could be dealt with by support staff. But salespeople who lack a disciplined, future-orientated plan for generating new contacts and sales often find themselves spending more time attending to “urgent” tasks for existing accounts instead. A common approach among salespeople can be summarised in the saying “If you throw enough mud against the wall, some of it is bound to stick.” This approach is exhausting, demoralising, extremely unproductive, and very expensive in the long term.

Far too frequently, competent salespeople are expected to channel their own activities into the areas that will produce the quickest wins. Unfortunately, left to their own devices, they don’t develop and pursue a formal strategy for moving a sale tangibly forward during each prospect interaction; neither do they have a clearly defined set of goals against which to measure the progress they are making. Typically, their judgment is based on gut reaction and is purely subjective i.e., “Oh yes, I’ll get that order, he likes me”, because salespeople have to be optimistic by nature. They end up “dancing around” with prospects, in the hope that eventually they will get to their chosen point on the dance-floor i.e. -the sale. In this scenario, the customer has complete control.

Today’s News:

Over at Top 10 Sales Articles, we have announced the February Top Sales Article Of The Month, and you will most certainly enjoy it – just click on the banner above.

Over at TSE Dailies, today Maureen Blandford is in interview with: Dave Brock, of Partners In Excellence

Try COUNTERintuitive

“In these challenging times, many of us think that we need to drive harder to keep up. Not so, says Dave Brock, with Partners In Excellence. There’s not a selling organization today who couldn’t benefit from letting up on the gas to better gauge their situation.”  Another banner click away below.

Tomorrow: News of a brand new book and an upcoming event, plus of course the JF Guest Author Spot – so be sure to join me.

The Sales Funnel concept has been around for a few years but I took it and tailored it to meet the needs of my own teams very successfully. Essentially, it is designed to assist salespeople in managing their sales time more effectively, subsequently translating that time into real money.

It is also a time-management tool, which will help them to accomplish the following essential selling tasks:
- Collating their numerous sales objectives into three categories or levels of the Sales Funnel.
- Monitoring each sales objectives progress as it moves from one level into the next.
- Setting priorities for working on the objectives in each level of the Funnel to ensure they do not neglect any one of the three.
- Dedicating time to the objectives in each level of the Funnel in a way that is appropriate to their specific situation.
- Forecasting future income, based on how their objectives are moving through the three levels of the Funnel.

Sales Funnel is conceptually divided into three distinct parts, or levels, which correspond to the three different types of selling work.

To enable salespeople to utilise the Funnel concept efficiently they must first sort their sales objectives into these three levels:

Above the Funnel – Prospect & qualify.
In The Funnel – Cover the bases.
Best Few – Close the order.

Above the Funnel:
The pre-requisite is that they have data that suggests a fit between their products & the prospects needs, all of this type of work requires qualifying.

In The Funnel:
The pre-requisite here is that all the opportunities have been qualified and at least one buying influencer has been met. They then need to “cover the bases” i.e. identify all the buying influencers and ensure each one is contacted by the person best qualified to do so.

It is important that the salesperson understands the response mode of each buyer, identifies the results each buyer needs in order “to win” and ensures they understand that the proposal will serve his/her individual criteria.

Finally, at this stage of the cycle, they need to continually reassess the sales picture and eliminate areas of perceived weakness within their bid using the principle of capitalising on their strengths.

Best Few:
Logically, the pre-requisite here is that they have all but eliminated luck & uncertainty as factors in the final buying decision. -this can of course be subjective!

The tasks involved are end-tasks, like overcoming last minute objections, agreeing terms and conditions and signing orders etc.

As sales professionals they must be able to do all three kinds of work, but obviously they will have several possible orders that they are working on at the same time. Since they will all be at different stages of completion, they will not be doing the same kind of work on all of them at the same time.

By following this system they could potentially reduce the normal sales cycle by 50%!

Using Sales Funnel over time, helps to plan time required ahead of time.The eventual objective in utilising the Sales Funnel concept is to be able to move the various sales opportunities down the Funnel at a steady and predictable rate. This in turn will mean that income and achievement level is steady and predictable.

To achieve this, there is a need to work on two interrelated tasks:
- Setting appropriate priorities for the three kinds of selling work which need to be done.
- Allocating limited selling time so that the three kinds of work always get completed on a consistent basis.

The simple rule of thumb is: “Every Time You Close Something; Prospect or Qualify Something Else”

Finally, Let Us Not Forget Good Old Villfredo Pareto And His 80/20 Rule:
The sales that a salesperson completes today were made possible only by activities performed in the past. Equally, it’s what they do today that will create their future sales results. Because there is a time delay between activities and results, salespeople have an opportunity to improve their sales results by undertaking sales productivity planning and implementing an effective prospecting system.

Generally, since 80% of sales are generated from 20% of customers, 80% of salespeople’s time should be focused on 20% of their most important customers/prospects.

Today’s News: Jill Myrick of Meeting To Win, posted an excellent piece yesterday: “The Sales Manager On Auto-Pilot”  I think you will really enjoy it. In fact, you can catch Jill in interview with Maureen Blandford over at TSE Dailies, simply click on the banner below.

The Sales 2.0 Conference has just wound up in San Fransisco and I am wading through a mountain of information that is coming back – two interesting facts, that will affect how we develop our Sales Funnel:

Companies are losing 10% of their sales due to lack of insight into their sales activity and their target market. ~ Gartner Group

Sales cycles are 20 – 30 % longer. ~CSO Insights  

Both Jill Konrath and Nigel Edelshain have been there this week, and I will pass on their thoughts next week.

Tomorrow: Some downtime at last! I am off to Cambridge to meet with No 1 son, and catch up with all his news – and he with mine.

As ever, have a great weekend yourself, and be sure to join me on Monday – JF

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 email 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 $1500 – 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.

To help companies meet this challenge, we need to examine how outstanding achievers have adapted to the rigorous demands of current markets.

In essence, we can draw seven primary conclusions and taken together, these findings paint a picture of the current state of the sales environment and you can discover what they are by downloading this week’s FREE eBook - simply click on the banner below.

Today’s News: So, now you can listen in to the “TSE Dailies”

“As you put the key in the ignition of your day, tune in to a power-packed interview with one of our experts – specifically designed for our subscriber community.
 
We know you have a variety of challenges and opportunities. In Sales of course, but also in Management, Teaming, Economic Conditions, and more. We’ll stay on top of issues critical to you.
 
We designed this tool to be an easy add-on to your morning office routine. And, all interviews will be archived, if you miss one or you want to share with your team.”

Yesterday, my Irish friend, Niall Devitt was in the hot seat and you will not want to miss his words of wisdom – it’s a pleasure just listening to the accent! Just click on the banner below to listen in.

Tomorrow: My guest is one of the real “big-hitters” when it comes to sales team development – my good friend from Texas, and best selling author, Paul McCord

Pick up a typical company report today and what words do you find? Verbs like analyse, forecast, plan, assess, and schedule, are used in pursuit of organisations that are efficient, productive, and predictable.

What set of people are required? Obviously, people who are efficient, effective, proficient, competent, productive, and co-operative.

I believe we need to go beyond – we need to be inspired, motivated, creators, who are enthusiastic and able to consistently deliver against our key objectives.

We should be developing individuals who are not afraid to challenge paradigms, who are prepared to go that extra yard in search of excellence and who understand that success is 80% attitude and only 20% aptitude.

For a group of people to remain consciously competent at optimum performance levels, they require frequent injections of stimulation, motivational guidance, prompting and directing, otherwise they can easily lapse into becoming unconsciously competent or worse, unconsciously incompetent.

The primary objective of a professional Sales Manager has to be:
“To achieve consistently superior results, through the performance of every key individual.”

The Acid Test: When thinking about your own sales force:

- Do you understand their motivators – what is driving them?
- Do you have visibility of their numbers – year to date, forecast vs. required performance?
- Activity levels – are they working hard and smart enough?
- Engagement – are they talking to the right level in their prospects/accounts?
- Messaging – are they capable of delivering an appropriate message at the right level?
- Qualification – are they only spending time on deals where they can compete and ultimately that they can win?
- Closing – are they constructing successful campaigns and closing business?

Summary:
Top performing Sales Directors and Managers understand instinctively when a situation requires them to Direct, Coach, Support, or Delegate but learning these skills takes time and practice and underpinning this advanced approach to management must be a range of core competencies…

Today’s News: I am convinced of the value of “social media” of course. I am a big fan of LinkedIn, Twitter, Plaxo et al, but I am still not getting the most out of the experience, and I have written myself a “must try harder” note. If you are like me, you will enjoy this excellent post from Brian Carroll, over at The Customer Collective: “Can a social media like Twitter boost your lead generation results?”

Earlier in the week, Jill Konrath asked this question: “Are you still trying to figure on how to get LinkedIn to work for you?”

“If so, then you need to meet Patrick O’Malley. He’s a true LinkedIn Wizard who has helped me take my profile to the next level. Check out this video.”

Click here to learn more about Patrick O’Malley, his LinkedIn expertise, coaching & training programs. He has more great articles, videos and tips on his website.  

Finally, you may also be astounded at some figures I read yesterday:

“LinkedIn adds 400,000 users a WEEK, Facebook is adding over 400,000 a DAY. Twitter has grown 900% in 6 months. A year ago, MySpace and Facebook were the same size.  Now Facebook (at 160 Million) is twice the size of MySpace and the gap is widening.

What is happening?  Business users, predominantly LinkedIn users, are adopting these other well-known platforms as a sort of “add-on”.

Twitter recently turned down a $500 Million offer from Facebook!  LinkedIn is valued at $1 Billion, Facebook was once valued at $15B (now estimated closer to $4B), General Motors is worth $2.5 Billion.  None of these make a dime.

Their value is in YOU and their relationship with you.  They are built to be sold and you go with the sale.  This is not necessarily a bad thing.  You wouldn’t want to be left behind would you?

With 30+ Million customers, LinkedIn has 350 employees and recently had to layoff 35 people.  People wonder why they can’t get their problems resolved.”

If you would like to follow me on Twitter, you will find me here

Tomorrow: I am travelling and writing next week’s blog posts on the hoof – as ever, wherever you are, have a great weekend – JF

On Monday, I suggested that far too many front-line sales professionals are adopting a “Quixotic” approach to opportunity assessment, as the need to hit targets and put runs on the board, intensifies.

But you know, with selling time becoming limited; International barriers coming down; competition intensifying; product uniqueness becoming rarer and rarer, rigorous qualification has never been more critical.

Personally, I believe that the first exploratory meeting is the key element in the entire sales process.

Typically the meeting will have been arranged after qualification via the telephone and a decision made by both parties that it would be mutually beneficial to meet.

It is the exploratory meeting that will allow the professional salesperson to set the ground rules and get a ‘feel’ for the client and their needs. As this is normally the first meeting it is also where the potential client will get his first impression of you, therefore the way you look, act and conduct the meeting will have a direct bearing on whether or not you are able to proceed to the next stage. Finally, the objective of the meeting is to gain commitment to the next stage and NOT to try and get the order.

What is the essential information that must be gathered? Read on here

Today’s News: My friend and fellow sales blogger, Dave Stein, posted an interview with Jill Myrick of Meeting To Win - a company who we now have close ties with. You can listen in here, and also grab an excellent FREE download

Hot news off the press – early in March, I will be launching a brand new daily blog, which will be of particular interest to sales managers, Sales Directors, sales leaders, VP Sales - in fact anyone who has responsibility for leading sales professionals: I promised that Sales Leadership Zone  would make a comeback – and it is. More soon.

Tomorrow: I have a book(s) proposal to write, so I am going to be fully occupied. As ever, wherever you are, have a great weekend and be sure to make it back on Monday – JF

In bringing together this collection of articles that I have published on the art of presentation skills and public speaking, my primary objective is to share with you some of the secrets I have learned over the years.

I don’t believe that anyone is a “natural” presenter or orator. Yes, certainly some people are naturally gifted communicators with an outgoing and attractive personality; some people have an extensive vocabulary; others know their subject inside out. But all of these will not necessarily guarantee that you can deliver a professional and compelling presentation.

This small book will hopefully guide you through each stage of a professional presentation, from understanding what audiences want, preparing your presentation, the delivery stage (including structure, verbal and physical delivery plus the question and answer session) and finally how to handle and harness anxiety.

I hope you enjoy it! – Just simply click on the banner below to download it.

Today’s News: It is all happening over at Top Sales Experts, following the launch of TSE 2.0:

The shelves are getting stacked – more than 2000 articles in the Article Vault, “How To” guides, Jobs Board, Podcasts…….and so much more. For example, we have just launched the TSE Daily Interviews, which this week have already featured Wendy Weiss and Billy Cox.

Very soon, we will be launching TSE Webinars, presented by an all-star line-up of sales gurus, and do look out for the very first TSE Roundtable.

You can enjoy all of this and more for the miserly price of $25 per year – and we give you a free gift pack worth $2000. It really is a “no brainer opportunity” to join the most significant sales related site ever created.

What are you waiting for? Come and join us today

Tomorrow: On The JF Guest Author Spot, one of the most accomplished and talented sales experts in Europe – my good friend and colleague, Niall Devitt. “Guidelines For Men Who Sell To Women” - you will most definitely enjoy it.

During the seventies, eighties and nineties, it was common for large corporations such as Hewlett Packard, IBM, and Compaq etc to put their new sales recruits through a twelve to eighteen-month training program.

Today, salespeople consider themselves extremely fortunate if they receive an initial two weeks of induction training or product familiarisation workshops.

So what has changed? Have companies discovered that training is not necessary?

On the contrary, training appears to be even more important today than it was thirty years ago and it is becoming more critical all the time.

Lower Training Budgets But Higher Expectations:

The dichotomy facing Sales Directors is how they reconcile the fact that most corporations today provide less upfront training for their sales staff than in years past, yet attach increasing importance to staff development?

This should not come as a surprise, because current stock market thinking provides a powerful disincentive for firms to invest in their people on an ongoing basis. An organisation’s investment in their human capital, in the form of training and other forms of education, is not separable from general expenditure. It therefore appears as a cost on the corporate balance sheet.

Tough Choices:

Unfortunately, as a consequence, many Sales Directors have concluded that their only realistic option is to cut back on training and instead look to recruit sales professionals who, in theory anyway, already possess the necessary skills needed to do the job. They then send them out to win business armed with what they know. However, most of those same Sales Directors are discovering just how difficult it is to find skilled salespeople who have all of the essential skills and personal traits. And anyway it is not possible to equate experience or seniority with success. As I often say: “Some sales professionals have ten year’s experience, most have one year’s experience ten times”

In skills development, there are many similarities to sport i.e. does an athletic champion stop training as soon as they win their first medal? In music, does a concert pianist stop rehearsing as soon as they have given their first recital? In art, does the artist stop improving after they have enjoyed the first exhibition of their work? The answer in all cases is obvious and we should apply the same common sense principals to the ongoing development of our sales teams.

The reality 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.

In Summary – Ongoing Reinforcement and Development Is Essential:

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 sales people are able and willing to rethink their sales strategy and approach frequently and receive a regular top-up of skills and motivational coaching.

Unfortunately, the task of selling never becomes any easier and as competition continues to intensify, sales people will face issues that can be extremely difficult to deal with i.e. decreased product uniqueness, increased competition within ‘safe’ markets, longer sales cycles and shorter product life spans. Every organisation that intends to survive in the re-engineered environment which arrived with the new millennium must, in my view, respond to those realities.

Today’s News: I am delighted to confirm that Top Sales Experts have formed an alliance with a dynamic  new company called Meeting To Win, who have a very innovative solution:

“Sales Managers, have your Monday morning sales team meetings gotten boring and routine?

It’s a challenge to come up with new ideas every week to keep meetings interesting, motivating and productive. Wise managers are outsourcing this challenge to Meeting to Win.

You can take meeting preparation off of your to-do list for good! All you have to do is add Meeting to Win to your team. Each and every week a new, fresh, creative team meeting agenda will be sent to your inbox. You simply follow the agenda for weekly sales team meetings that your team will love and actually look forward to.

Our goal is that each week your sales team leaves your weekly sales team meeting better equipped to compete and win.

Subscribe today and your first 3 agendas are complimentary. Once Sales Managers are using this resource, they don’t know how they ever lived without it and, even so, you can cancel at anytime.”

Just click on the banner below to find out more about them

Tomorrow: We still have a lot of cosmetic work to complete on TSE 2.0, so I will be very busy, but wherever you are, have a great w/e, and be sure to join me on Monday – JF

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

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

★ Easier
★ More Enjoyable
★ More Effective

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

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

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

Simply click on the banner to download my FREE ebook.

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

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

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

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

You can download it here

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

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

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

“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”