There is so much happening over the next couple of weeks that I thought I should provide you with a heads up so that you don’t miss any of the action. In date order ….

We are delivering Modules 5 and 6 of the Top Sales Academy Sales Management Level next week.

On Tuesday May 21st, Nancy Nardin is presenting “The Key to Explosive Revenue Growth: Measuring Sales Productivity vs. Quota Attainment”

“Quota is the heart-beat of every organization because:

• It’s the revenue number management relies on for business planning purposes
• It’s how Sales Managers and individual performers know what’s expected of them if they want to meet their own income goals.

Here’s the problem with sales quotas: they only tell you whether you’re on target to meet or exceed expectations. They don’t tell you whether you could be selling more and what’s preventing that from happening. In this 45 minute session, you’ll learn about the concept of ‘sales capacity’ (and how to calculate it), and the two key elements needed to grow revenue substantially; sales capacity and use-of-time – both of which have to do with sales productivity.”

Then on Thursday May 23rd, Linda Richardson will present “Sales Coaching”

“Everyone in business says that ‘It’s all about the numbers.” And research shows that quality coaching is the single most important activity that a sales manager can provide to drive the numbers. Sales coaching increases sales productivity. It makes your reps more independent and accountable. It gives you back hours in your day by teaching you how to question in a way that helps reps learn how to solve problems, develop strategies, leverage resources as needed but close their own deals.

Although more and more organizations recognize that sales productivity lives and dies with their front line sales managers and are providing sales coaching training, productivity numbers show that much of the coaching is not working. Why? Because effective sales coaching is not an event or even informal sessions but rather a part of a continuous learning process, mind-set and skill set embedded in the sales culture.”

Both sessions take place at 1:00 pm Eastern (6:00 pm BST) and registration is FREE

Next ….

The Changing Sales Force: How the Latest Trends Could Affect Your Revenue

Tuesday, May 21, 2013, 11:30 AM – 2PM – Westin Copley Plaza Hotel, Boston, MA

Thousands of CEO’s and senior leaders have attended these keynotes and this is one of only two scheduled New England appearances in 2013.  This provocative presentation will help your company get on the path to greater and faster sales and profits despite the uncertain economy. Please click here for more information and to register.

Then ……

Best Sales Blogger 2013

It is time to nominate your favourite blog: Call for submissions. Closing date June 1st, so hurry! Details here

After that, we have two significant conferences coming up …

Sales 2.0 Conference – London

Just over two weeks until the Sales 2.0 Conference rolls into town, and I do hope that if you are UK based, you will make the effort to attend. There are some excellent speakers lined up – plus me. If you use this code – s2c13londontsw - you can obtain an additional £50 discount, so that is a total saving of £150! Register HERE

May I also remind you that I am “headlining” – their words, not mine – the SMP2013 Conferenceon June 6th, and that is free to register HERE

Finally ….

Women in Sales Awards

When it comes to Diversity and Inclusion sales is one area where companies are looking; probably because sales have traditionally been a male-dominated profession. It can be a scary thing to do for anyone and can seem especially daunting for women. Women in Sales Awards is designed to find the most exemplary women in sales across the UK and Europe. Full details here

PS: And in between that lot, don’t forget we will be publishing the June edition of Top Sales World magazine, with a supeb interview with Jeffrey Gitomer and the announcement of the 2014 Top Sales & Marketing Influencers list

When it comes to looking after our customers, quite often there’s a gap, a huge gap between theory and practice. There are books about customer relations; there are videos about customer relations; there are Gurus (mostly self-appointed) about customer relations. None of them actually have to deliver customer relations. That chore is left to what was known in the last two World Wars as the PBI – as in “Poor B….y Infantry”- the foot soldiers. The front line people, your front line people. So what do they make of it all?

You know about Pareto’s Law – I discuss it often enough – yes that one, the one that says 80% of the business comes from 20% of the customers? Well, it (almost) applies in this case. More than 80% of front line staff haven’t yet totally bought into the idea of effective customer relations. The other 20% have discovered a very enriching way of achieving a satisfactory outcome from interactions with customers. In other words, most of the time they succeed! And when they succeed, the customers actually thank them!

This can’t be about you – can it?

So what’s the problem? The first answer is: ‘the Directors” the next answer is “the Managers”. “Nonsense” you say. “I’m one of those, and I have explained very earnestly why we must all focus on achieving first class relations with customers”

Mmmmm! Creating business and profit enhancing relations with customers requires the right environment, ethos, culture and philosophy. You can’t achieve it by simply telling other people to do it. You can tell them the technique for turning “difficult” phone calls around, but if they don’t feel like doing it, then they won’t.

If you and your whole organization don’t believe in developing good relations with all of your customers – it won’t happen.

When so much time and money is spent on training people about the need for constructive relations with customers, why is it often so bad? For much the same reason that when so much money has been spent on telling people that smoking kills you, they still insist on smoking.

No, the issue is the environment. There used to be spittoons in bars. What is a spittoon? It’s a bowl or bucket into which people spit. Oh yes, people used to spit into spittoons. They spat because they chewed tobacco; they spat because they had – please forgive the term – phlegm. For whatever reason, they spat. And so there were spittoons. So long as the environment accepted people spitting, there were spittoons. Once that environment changed, the very idea was repulsive. Which gets us back to relations with customers. So long as the environment in your organisation is tolerant of taking a patronising, competing or negative attitude to customers, some people will do just that.

What does that mean?

Jargon obscures. There are various terms used such as Customer Relations; Customer Care; Customer Service; Customer Support – and a few more besides.

Customer Relations refers to the principles and practice used by everyone across the board in a company in developing and maintaining a certain quality of relationship with customers and prospective customers.

Customer Care refers to the techniques and attitudes necessary to deliver a high quality of service to customers.

Customer Service / Support / Helpline refers specifically to a department set up to field enquiries and complaints from customers so that operational departments need not spend time dealing with them. The term ‘Customer Relations’ may also be used for this function.
Technical Support performs a similar function for technical reasons.

In discussing customer relations we are not just discussing the work of a Customer Service Department. We need to look at the whole company-wide approach to customers – that’s all of us, not one of us or a few of us!

News: Just over two weeks until the Sales 2.0 Conference rolls into town, and I do hope that if you are UK based, you will make the effort to attend. There are some excellent speakers lined up – plus me – and actually it is worth the entrance fee just to listen to Gerhard Gschwandtner’s words of wisdom. If you use this code – s2c13londontsw - you can obtain an additional £50 discount (which you could use to buy me a drink at the bar afterwards) That is a total saving of £150!

May I also remind you that I am “headlining” – their words, not mine – the SMP2013 Conference on June 6th, and that is free to register HERE

I better get off and spend the weekend preparing presentations and speeches.

Wherever you are, bon w/e a tous!

“The winners in life constantly think in terms of “I can” “I will” and “I am”. Losers, on the other hand, concentrate their waking thoughts on what they should have done, or what they don’t do” – Dennis Waitley

Allowing self-limiting beliefs to constrain performance will in turn limit sales results, because like everyone, salespeople hold stubbornly to private beliefs about themselves, clients, markets, competition, and even the economy – beliefs that can have an enormous impact, either positive or negative, on their sales achievement levels.

If salespeople do not see themselves as providing value for their prospects and clients, they will tend to approach customers in ways that appeal to reasons for buying, other than the genuine business need of the customer. This is what sometimes leads salespeople to oversell – for example, pressing a customer to act now in order to get a low price – or to be too accommodating. It also can lead salespeople to adopt unethical behavior, because they may try to sell a customer something that they neither need nor want. If they fail to take care of their clients’ best interests, salespeople will fail to build long-term relationships and lose customers.

The Slippery Slope

Typically, salespeople who believe that, if they had lower prices, they would win more deals, tend to attract more price objections. This, in turn, leaves them feeling scared or reluctant to talk to prospects about what they have to offer. Their downward spiral then becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Salespeople’s desire to succeed may be so dominated by a need to be liked, that they’ll avoid asking prospects for information that is needed to identify the prospects’ compelling reasons to buy. When this happens, closing becomes a real issue because salespeople, fearing rejection, perceive that asking for the order might cause a breakdown in the relationship with their prospect.

Fear of Calling

Recent studies have confirmed the obvious, that is to say that “fear of calling” in sales can contribute to a significant proportion of lost sales revenues. One study that I read recently found that as many as 40 % of established salespeople experienced periods of “fear of calling” severe enough to threaten their future in sales.

Stemming the ever-increasing costs of the “fear of calling” syndrome cannot be addressed by training alone. It requires an experienced coach or mentor to work with each salesperson’s particular set of beliefs, so that they feel truly empowered to breakthrough their self-created mental barriers. One particular statistic, in the following survey, should give any salesperson suffering from “fear of calling” renewed confidence.

How Customers Regard Salespeople Survey

• Salespeople who do not bother to make appointments - 45%
• Salespeople who know nothing about the customer’s business - 60%
• Salespeople who know little about their products and services - 60%
• Salespeople who call too often - 9%
• Salespeople who don’t call often enough - 49%
• Salespeople who do not have the authority to negotiate prices - 45%
• Salespeople who do not ask for the order - 40%
• Salespeople who are not properly or sufficiently organized - 55%

Most desirable quality customers want to see in salespeople?  Competence!

News: We have announced this year’s categories over at Top Sales Awards - almost – we just have two new sections to add, and next Tuesday we are open for nominations. I am confident that 2013 will be as exciting as 2012. I am particularly looking forward to the Top Sales Book of the Year contest, with an absolute plethora of  books coming out shortly from some of the biggest hitters in the sales space.

People have been debating the nature of leadership for as long as records have been kept – certainly as far back as Homer and his peers. The topic continues to fascinate and enthral us today, but the way in which we assess leadership roles is changing.

Where once we looked to military and political leaders for inspiration and insight, now it is increasingly business leaders who hold our attention and provide role models.

Ask someone to name a leader whom they have admired and they are just as likely to name Richard Branson as David Cameron; Bill Gates as Barack Obama. This focus is reflected in the growing number of books and articles about business and the main players.

Most writing on good management – and what it takes to get to the top – focus on leadership. It is regarded as one of the most important areas of personal development. This also explains the growing interest in leadership courses.

Defining just what makes a leader effective, however, remains as difficult today as it ever was. But that does not prevent us from seeking to distil their secrets – quite the reverse.

Of course, 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.

Behaviorist 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’.

Much recent work in this area has concentrated on trying to understand why some leaders are more effective than others by looking at their environment and the context in which their acts have been carried out. Situational theory views leadership as specific to the situation, for example, rather than to the personality of the leader. It is based on the idea that different situations require a different style of leader.

A leader must realize there is no one best way to influence people. We need to adopt different leadership styles, in different situations, with different people.

In essence, an effective leader needs to be:

• A good diagnostician who can sense and appreciate differences in people and situations

• Adaptable – have the ability to adapt the leadership style to circumstances

In summary I would say this to those who would suggest that great leaders are born, not made. 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 commercial world.

News: Sadly I have to report that Thursday’s Top Sales Academy presentation has been postponed because Dan McDade has undergone an emergency procedure, and we wish him a very speedy recovery. We will not be substituting an alternative module, but rather we will re-organize Dan’s session at the end of the program.

In the meantime, we have published details of this week’s Top Sales Book of the Week, together with a brand new white paper. You will find full details over on the TSW home page

On Wednesday we will reveal this year’s Top Sales Awards categories, and nominations open next week

Leadership has been defined as “the ability to inspire willing action”

Emphasis is placed on the “willing.” But to understand leadership, we need to delve a little deeper than that.

One thing which experience has proven over and over again down through the ages is that when any group of people are thrown together for any length of time or for any project, a leader will emerge from the group – one to whom they will listen and give their confidence and support.

Their position on the organization chart or their title alone cannot make a person a genuine leader. They must have certain traits and skills, or they will surely fail. In business, it has been shown again and again that these skills can be learned and the traits can be developed in any individual who is willing to exert an effort based on strong desire and a true hunger for success.

Generally, a leader or teacher does not actually “develop” another person. They encourage and inspire that person to develop themselves from within. Thus, leadership is, in a large sense, self-initiated.

Once we understand and identify the methods and characteristics of admired leaders, we can take steps to develop these skills and traits ourselves. We can analyze ourselves — honestly, ruthlessly, objectively – and identify which skills we need to acquire or improve (and those which we need to play down).

However, it is my view that the “perfect leader” has yet to be born. We all have room for self-improvement. If we can agree upon what it takes to be a good leader – what are the traits of leadership, what are the skills – we will at least have made a good start. We should analyze every genuine leader we know and try to learn which qualities influenced us to consider them a good leader.

And that is what I have done: My first experience of leading was thrust upon me at the tender age of eight years old, when I captained my soccer team – since then I have always been the captain – it is as well, because I am not a very good follower, however hard I have tried.

Does your leader inspire you into willing action … or uninspire you into unwilling action?

Final question: Are great leaders born or made? It seems that everyone has a view on that – every man, his dog, and most of his dog’s best friends: I’ll share my views shortly….watch this space.

News: No doubt about it that today’s highlight is Steven Rosen’s Top Sales Academy presentation @ 1:00 pm Eastern (6:00 pm GMT) Still a handful of places left, but not too many after a flood of registrations on Monday. Grab your place here

Also over at Top Sales World we announced this week’s Top Sales Book and recommended White Paper – full details here

Here’s an interesting question for you: How much is it costing your company to generate one lead?

Here’s another equally interesting question: How many leads does your company need to generate to create one sale?

I have spent the past two weeks asking those two questions of friends, colleagues, fellow sales commentators, clients, prospects – in fact, everyone with whom I have come into contact. And do you know what? Nobody really knew the answer. Of course, there were some pretty wild, finger-in-the-air guesses, but not one rock-solid, convincing response that you would bet your children’s inheritance on.

Don’t you find that somewhat alarming?

I do, particularly when there appears to be such a concentrated focus these days on creating new opportunities. No wonder sales departments are viewed with so much suspicion by the “grey men” in finance, they must be totally convinced that we are completely out of control.

So, what’s the answer?

The reality is that there are so many sources of leads that the process of generating leads can sometimes cause sales people to feel overwhelmed when tackling this vital sales activity.

Every organization is unique and can employ a variety of approaches in their quest to attract the attention of their target market. (This will become even clearer once you have created your Ideal Customer Profile). That’s why it is essential to invest some time analyzing which lead generation initiatives worked well in the past, why they worked well and what improvements can be made to optimize their effectiveness.

There are three areas that you must consider that can help evaluate different lead generation initiatives with greater objectively.

1. Effectiveness – which lead generation activities produced the most quality leads?

2. Cost – what were the tangible costs for each lead generation initiative?

3. Time – how much time did it take to initiate and follow-up on each initiative?

1. Effectiveness

● What number of leads were generated?

● How many of these leads became qualified prospects?

● What business was generated from these leads?

● What is the projected probability of business generated from these leads for the next 12 months?

2. Cost

● How much did this lead generation initiative cost?

● Using the number of actual leads generated, what was the cost per lead?

● What profit contribution was made from leads generated over a 12 month period? (Gross margin from sales, minus the cost of the initiative.)

3. Time

● How much time did salespeople invest in following up on these leads?

● How much time did they spend on leads that did not become qualified prospects?

● What was the cost of salespeople’s time spent on this lead generation initiative?

Unless we have an accurate handle on our lead generation activities, our salespeople will continue to be overwhelmed, whilst those grey men will continue to be underwhelmed!

News: The Top Sales Academy is in full swing, as I keep reminding you, and the next module is being delivered on Tuesday by Steven Rosen – “Managing Performance for Results” It is FREE to register HERE

Lots of very kind comments and posts about Academy, and I particularly like this one from Lori Richardson – “Top Sales Academy Offers Online Sales Education” 

Ignite Your 2013 B2B Sales Strategy.

Improve your ability to implement and execute your 2013 strategy by attending the Sales 2.0 Conference, London

This conference will connect you with top sales management experts and sales endorsed by both Selling Power Magazine and Sales 2.0 organizations.

Hear the latest research on building and maintaining a winning sales organization, along with proven sales management tactics.

Topics covered will include:

• The Impact of Sales 2.0 on Sales Performance & Results
• Customer Buyer Behaviour
• Sales & Marketing Alignment
• Social Media & Selling
• Coaching/training sales
• Sales process optimization
• The New Sales Score Card – How to Measure Sales Performance
• Motivating/compensating Sales Reps Effectively

I will be speaking and I very much hope you will be able to make it.

This is the most significant conference on the circuit and you really should be there.

PS: You can listen to my recent interview with Gerhard Gschwandtner  here …

In a recent post, I made a case for “confidence” being one of the defining factors of all successful people we know, and I wrote …

“It is their inner belief that they can achieve anything they want to achieve, and enjoy as much success as they wish – however they personally define success.”

The post prompted this comment  …

“This was another (always) interesting post. Thanks. I am wondering how best to test for the confidence level you discuss when interviewing prospective sales personnel. (If it has not been clearly demonstrated in past performance records). I believe “over” confidence displays itself in cockiness and conceit and that amount of confidence is harmful (to me, my company and the salesperson himself) in the long run. Any thoughts on how to test for the “right” confidence level ???”

My response …

There is a huge difference between confidence and arrogance (cockiness). Confident people understand the need to continually learn and expand their commercial bandwidth. They understand what they know, but equally recognize what they don’t know. Conversely, arrogant people think they know it all, and as a consequence, don’t know what they don’t know!”

And that really is the point: Crossing that line from confidence to arrogance is so, so easy.

One can very easily formulate a list of political leaders; military leaders; artists; sporting icons; and even so called sales “gurus” – whatever interpretation you apply to that word – who were the architects of their own demise, because quite simply, they allowed their egos to rule their heads. They forgot their roots. They forgot the people who helped them on the way up – the same people who would inevitably suffer a similar loss of memory as our heroes travelled in the opposite direction downwards.

When thinking about the most successful people I know, I realize that their common characteristic is that word again – HUMILITY. For example, whenever I need to communicate with them, I always receive a very prompt response. It is never “I am free at 11:45am Eastern next Thursday” but rather “Jonathan, I am free on xxxxxxx, which is best for you?” I do not receive special treatment. I know that they are equally generous and thoughtful with everyone, because quite simply, they are not arrogant – they are quite simply confident!

“Getting it” means different things for different people: To me, it means “Win-win” and “Give and take” but usually “Give first (and generously) and ask questions later”

The underlying message of this post is this: It really doesn’t matter how good you think you are, there will always be people who are better, and your ambition should be to emulate them.

Even if you think you know everything there is to know about your chosen topic, respect others who know everything there is to know about their chosen topic – being myopic is a very unattractive trait.

Everyone you meet in this world will know something you don’t know – do not be misled by their status, because status has no relevance when it comes to wisdom. Some of the most interesting and mind-expanding conversations I have ever had, have been with people in very humble situations – they probably couldn’t spell “arrogance” let alone describe it!

News: We have just published a brand new selection of resources over at Top Sales Management today, which I think you will enjoy, plus we have announced last week’s Top Sales Blog Post, together with this week’s Top 10 Posts - it is a pretty “meaty” selection!

Do look out for guest articles over the w/e – but wherever you are, have a good one! – JF

As a young man obsessed with driving rapid sports cars (often far too rapidly) I considered myself very fortunate to have my very own mechanic who would regularly tune my latest “beasts” to perfection. He was a genius, and to watch him go about his work – which was his obsession – was an honor and a privilege. He rarely lifted the hood (bonnet) until he was ready to perform his magic, but rather he just listened – not unlike the way a master piano-tuner listens. He was using his well trained ear to identify the slightest imperfection.

I knew him well …. he was my father, and he was one of the most intuitive people I have ever known.

Very occasionally I have witnessed the same thing in my commercial life, but sadly, far too rarely. It is that trait that distinguishes the great manager or leader from all the rest.

Being intuitive means that we “feel” we don’t just see or even hear. We are completely in-tune with our team; we understand each of them; we know what motivates every one of them; we are able to stimulate and goad them in equal measure, in order to elicit optimum performance levels from them, and as a consequence, we have a team that can achieve remarkable things.

Can anyone become an intuitive manager or leader? Yes of course they can, it is something that I specialize in coaching: I have always believed that if one person can do something then we can all do it – if we really want to that is. Example? I could give you so many, but this is my personal favorite …

Up until that balmy May evening in 1954 at the Iffley Road track in Oxford, England when Roger Bannister ran the mile in under four minutes, everyone believed it to be impossible – but then later that same year another sixteen athletes also ran sub-four minutes, because it had been proved to be possible.

In order to become a truly intuitive manager you first have to have an interest in people – a genuine interest - and you also need to genuinely care about them too. Then you have to know and understand yourself well; you have to be comfortable and confident with who you are and with your management/leadership style.

When I communicate with my team - and in fact my client’s teams too – I listen for what is not said as much as what is; I understand and recognize gaps in written communication; I immediately notice facial expressions, body posture and voice tone. It is more than a skill; I have honed it and developed it over the years, and it has stood me in good stead. It is like a sixth sense, and I feel privileged to have it.

So, the next time you survey your team, ask yourself this question: “Do I feel my team; do I understand each of them – do I need to lift the hood (bonnet) to reach them, or can I just listen and hear their imperfections, and then fine-tune them to peak peformance levels?” If you can, congratulations, you are practicing the fine art of intuitive management!

News: Excellent interview with one of the world’s leading “social selling” experts, the effervescent Barb Giamanco  just released HERE

Congratulations to Jim Cathcart who wrote last week’s Top Sales Article, and all this week’s Top 10 nominees

Babette Ten Haken has a great new report out - “Selling to Technical Professionals” which you can download for free HERE

And finally, I think you will enjoy Todd Schnick’s interview with Bob Burg over at   Sales Thinker Radio

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

The reality is that product knowledge is no longer a differentiator. It is a very basic requirement of all successful frontline sales professionals. In other words, it’s part of the entrance exam — not a higher qualification.

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

• Industry knowledge
• Sector knowledge
• Competitive knowledge
• Company knowledge
• Business knowledge (acumen)

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

Do You Speak the Customer’s Language? 
The realization that buyers are already “super-busy and frazzled” — as illustrated by Jill Konrath in her last book SNAP Selling – is obvious. But it is not the main reason why buyers will not entertain us as readily as they once did.

The fact is they simply don’t need to deal with us. That’s why Konrath argues that our interactions with buyers need to be wholly relevant.

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

As we move up the food chain, our ability to use different “languages” becomes increasingly important. We have to become commercially “multi-lingual” because C-level executives, for example, rarely use the same language as members of an information technology team. And both groups naturally have different sets of buying criteria.

In the very near future, having the right attitude, a broad range of sales skills, and familiarity with internal consultative sales processes will not guarantee our survival. The key will be the extent of our “commercial bandwidth” — and that means our knowledge.

News: Despite horrendous technical challenges (Paris is a beautiful city but in terms of technology it can feel very “Third World” sometimes) I managed to present the first module of Sales Academy yesterday - ”Making the Transition from Sales Manager to Sales Leader” If you weren’t able to be there, a recording will be available later this week.

Tomorrow (Thursday) Anthony Iannarino is presenting Module 2 – “Winning New Business: How to Create Compelling, Differentiated Value” which I am very much looking forward to. It is live at 1:00 pm Eastern (6:00 pm GMT) and of course it is FREE to register HERE