SalesGrok

Business Plans for Sales Dummies

Hope I don't get sued for using the "Dummies" title.  I'll put in a link to one of their books later to cover my tail...  I was reading through my copy of the Art of War yesterday (OK, I have to take a book into the dry sauna!) and I rediscovered an interesting phrase, "taking whole". 

Taking whole is a core tenant of Sun Tzu's work, which is heralded for its military AND business applications.  A relevant example you may have heard: "Know thy self, know thy enemy. A thousand battles,  a thousand victories."  So how do you leverage this principle to make your numbers? (Consistent) Attainment = Planning + Execution.  

Whether you are just starting out or a seasoned veteran, you need a business plan. It's so amazing to me how many salespeople don't prepare a business plan (call it a sales plan or territory plan of you like) unless they are prodded by their manager. Ridiculous! 

At the root your plan should look and feel like you are launching your own business...because you are. If you believe that you are building a franchise and put the enthusiasm, energy and brain power behind crafting and executing your plan, your probability of lasting success will increase many times over. 

Let's talk about how to develop your plan. Here are the basic elements including a bit of color:

Mission & Objectives 

Your mission is a statement that maps to your position (hint: exceeding revenue targets set forth by management is a great start...), while objectives are the support elements, e.g. maintain a pipeline of 5x quota, achieve $150,000 in sales commissions, generate new business, or grow existing account revenue by 40%.

Customers 

The most important section.  Without customers, nothing else matters!  What key attributes define your target customer, including industry, size, and territory?  Identify specific industry trends impacting your prospects - what changes are creating opportunities?  Who is your buyer and what does their buying process look like? What are the best approaches for penetrating new accounts and/or expanding existing accounts?

Solutions

Define your products and/or services in terms of unique features and value delivered.  What are your key differentiators? How does it stack up against alternatives?  Who are your top competitors? How does the customer benefit financially, operationally or personally, e.g. Will your solution reduce costs, increase revenue or both?  Outline  the specific areas of value and document each with customer examples.  How will your customer measure success?  BTW this is a great reason to call on executives at existing customers - many in our field don't follow up post-sale (hit and run??!) - so you will differentiate yourself and gain up-sell or referral opportunities. 

Action Plan

What strategies will you employ to maximize results (revenue)?   You know where your targets live so what are the best methods to engage?  Consider what resources you will need to execute on all levels of the plan from contracts to product training to services (Hoovers/EDGAR) .  Select the top 5-10 top priorities and build from there. Examples include building target customers lists, completing quality calls with top customers, and bi-weekly plan reviews.    

There are a ton of resources out there that dive way deeper. And here is that link to the Dummies book! (it's good!:) 

Try not to over-think it (the fast eat the slow) and make it yours.  If you make it happen and keep it current, you will outperform your peers and competitors quarter after quarter, year after year...guaranteed.

Do you Grok it?

The Danger in Relationship Selling

This post was provided by my friend and colleague, Duane Cashin.  Duane maintains over 20 years as a top salesperson and entrepreneur.  He helps his clients understand how to effectively differentiate themselves in today's crowded marketplace.  The first time I saw him speak was at the Rackspace User's Conference it was instantly apparent that his advice was as good as gold.  So enjoy and if you want more visit Duane at The Differentiation Zone!

 

The Danger in Relationship Selling by Duane Cashin

I'm sure we would all agree that people buy from those they like. So it makes sense that we find sales people putting a great deal of effort into being helpful and likable.

 

Typically sales people go about establishing their business relationships by providing lots of product information they feel the prospect will find useful in their decision making process. But is this approach effective? And does this strategy represent the essence of "relationship selling"?

If you ask executives and company owners how they define effective relationship selling they will often start with what it isn't. "It's not dropping off sell sheets with product information or tickets to some game or event. It's not a slick power point in a feature rich presentation. Heck my daughter, who is in high school, can put together a killer power point." So what does it take to develop a "meaningful" relationship with top decision makers?

Here are some of the key elements executive decision makers tell us they want in a business relationship:

1. "The bar has been raised for all of us today. Information for information's sake doesn't cut it. You have to be smarter than that. When you link the information to my situation and demonstrate it's relevance to me, then you get my attention."  

2. "I don't buy products! I buy support. I buy vision. Things change so rapidly today I need the people I buy from to stick around. I need them to be my eyes and ears as it relates to their area of specialty and give me a heads up when things change. I hate surprises."

3. "I want to do business with smart people. In fact I don't want to do business with "sales people" I want to do business with "business people". I will only give my loyalty to someone who can make it very clear to me they study, they observe and they understand. I want to do business with people that understand risk and what it's like to walk in my shoes. I want a competitive edge."

Over the last 12 months I have personally witnessed four individuals, who are new to sales, embrace the above three elements. I have watched them study, learn and apply the concepts. And I have watched them systematically capture the attention of top decision makers and successfully sell their products and services.

Relationship selling can give us all a powerful advantage and help us differentiate ourselves in today's crowded markets. If we take the advice of executive level buyers we will realize our greatest success in transitioning our approach from thinking and acting like "sales people" to that of "business people"!

Do you Grok it?

Timid Salespeople Have Skinny Kids - the other Ziglar!

My Pops sent me an old book he came across at a book sale and I think the title is going to stick with you… Timid Salesmen have Skinny Kids, by Judge Ziglar (yes, the younger brother of Mr. Zig Ziglar). Judge Ziglar broke the world record in 1964 for selling more than $104k in cookware. By 1978, he had made more than 40,000 sales calls. Just thinking about Judge’s plight makes me feel pretty damn fortunate. We get to sell stuff that’s a hell of a lot more interesting (no offense to cookware fanatics) and we don’t have to spend 80-90% of our time on the road to reach our revenue goals! It’s been awhile since I’ve used the Ben Franklin close – so I laughed my butt off when it happened to be on the first page I opened.

Working for Free

When I started in Sales, my boss threw me a call script and a printed sheet of company names to start calling (a few contacts were sprinkled in as a bonus). I remember how excited I got when someone on the other end was interested in what I was selling. Any of you that have ever cold called before, you know the feeling well! Let’s face it; cold calling has a negative reputation in sales and customer circles. “How dare someone I’ve never met call me and try to sell me something!” they say. I got news for you – if it weren’t for the tens of thousands of telesales reps out there plugging away at the phones, the world economy would be but a fragment of what it is today! So pick up the phone for goodness sakes!

Two thoughts before I tackle the topic of working for free. 1) How about we make everybody feel better and change “cold call” to “initial or intro call”? and 2) In today’s world, true cold calling is reserved for commodity sellers (and perhaps the lazy as you move up the value chain!).