The Sales Pro Insider Building Performance Profits and People

TGIF -  Thank God It’s Friday!  Do you feel like that this week? You don’t have to.  Let’s make today – FUF!  Follow-up Friday. 

Fridays are great days for follow-up.  Many people are at their desk today trying to wrap up their week and tie up loose ends before the weekend starts. It’s often a GREAT opportunity to for you to catch them!  You can make it a very productive day to:

• Send information of value to a prospect
• Telephone contacts in your pipeline – prepare in advance what to leave as a voicemail message (just checking in doesn’t cut it)
• Respond to emails that have been sitting for days
• Complete the paper work that you have not had time to do the rest of the week
• Prepare for next week’s calls
• Set appointments for next week and the week after
• Review your goals and decide what you will focus on next week
• Take 60-90 seconds and just sit and breathe thinking about what you HAVE accomplished this week.

For me today is about preparation and opportunity.  I have a really great sales appointment this afternoon that I am excited about.  It’s with a long-time customer of my sales training. Today we are broadening our discussion to see how I might help them meet their broader human resource objectives of recruiting, training and coaching a top notch sales team. I know I can help them move that needle to save time, money and their effort! 

A good sales appointment today will mean I have a follow-up Monday

What do you do on Friday to wrap up your week?

Filed Under: Uncategorized, focus, maximize sales productivity, sales tips

I hope the series of Sales Predictions for 2010 that wraps up today has given you some ammunition on actions, strategy and maybe a boost of hope and confidence that THIS year can be whatever you want it to be.  As we wrap up the first full work week of 2010, I share my predictions for sales leaders and sales professionals. 

I am optimistic about this year – with a caution.  The business landscape is different.  There is hesitation on ‘is it over yet?’ and maybe a lack of commitment to MOVE.  This leads all of us in sales – really the driver of our economy in so many ways – to need to think differently, find different paths and collaborate more consciously.  And it will be worth it because there is a LOT of opportunity to ‘light up the sky’ with and for our customers!

My specific predictions:

Sales Leaders

Leaders at all levels will continue to have to do more with less.  Problem solving and finding proactive activities to equip and engage their sales team will be critical.  Retaining top and average performers will need attention as the markets start to show signs of strengthening and sellers realize there are new opportunities. 

Sales Reps:

The gap between high performers and mediocre performers will widen.  Top performers will seek skills, habits and tools to sell even more.  The ‘noise’ of social media and the internet will become louder.  Filtering to find the right tools and right information will be key to focus on what sales people need to do:  get in front of prospective buyers to determine how they can provide value with and for them.  Collaborative approaches in marketing, nurturing, selling and account management will reign.

And there you have it.  A full week of 2010 sales predictions from credible sales expertise sources - Jill Konrath, Nancy Nardin, Jonathan Farrington, Jeb Blount, Anne Miller and Alice Kemper.  What they’ve learned from their contacts with many companies and sales reps globally, and their attention to the economy allowed all of us a glimpse into what we can focus on this year to capture more sales.  If you’d like to have all the predictions in one, easy to access document for your review, click here.    

Now what?  Well, that’s up to you!  Your focus on setting your targets and goals for this year and then acting to achieve them is critical.  That’s why these next sales resources might be very helpful!

Timely Tips to Achieve Your Goals  – a new ebook I’ve written with a turn-by-turn route for you to set and achieve goals.  It even includes an effective Goal Planner!   

I’ve put all the best tips I have shared over the last 18 months into one easy to follow document.  I’m putting the final touches on Timely Tips to Achieve Your Goals and it will be available next Tuesday FREE!  Come back for the link.

The eBook will be ready in time to be a companion to the upcoming Top Sales Expert Roundtable on Tuesday, January 12th on Time to Get Into Gear Early!  (This roundtable can be free if you are a VIP member – only $25 a year! for dozens of sales sessions and tools.)  Plus, as a presenter, I have a free seats to offer you today!  (Who says the holiday gift-giving is over?) Click here to be a part of this roundtable that is sure to be helpful and entertaining.   

 One final FREEbie today, a FREE Ready-to-go sales training booster kit for you now.  Sharpenz…Half Hour of Power boosters were designed to help EVERYONE in the sales profession efficiently stay at the top of their game!  And YOU can get a free booster to equip, engage and energize your sales team!  Visit theSharpenz site for the FREE booster. 

Filed Under: Sales, focus, maximize sales productivity, sales tips

It’s January 7th and Day 4 of the Top 2010 Sales Predictions.  So far the predictions include hope that the economy is on the upswing and what sales leaders and sales reps should focus on to build their sales, company and market share.  Today we have two sales experts with a more years of combined experience than most of you have been on this earth. 

Anne Miller, author of Metaphorically Selling and the Make What You Say Pay blog and Alice  Kemper, President of Sales Training Consultants and Principal of Sharpenz, Inc. share their predictions.

For sales leaders:

A slow rebound in business as companies will still be gun-shy about spending money until employment picks up. (Anne Miller)

Leaders in any industry are going to see that they can gain market share from the weakest competitors.  Cream will continue to rise to the top with the inferior companies suffering greater than average loses and in some cases, going out of business altogether. (Alice Kemper)

Sales Reps: 

Success will come to reps who develop (prudent) pit bull persistence with clients; who think out of the box like Steve Jobs; and who  become MBAs on their clients’ business. (Anne Miller)

If they survived the last year and a half then they have developed skills to navigate the new terrain of this economy.  The most successful sellers will continue to seek opportunities within the new terrain.  Q3 and Q4 will reward sellers who have intelligently “laid pipe” through the tough times. (Alice Kemper)

I guess the messages here are that we need to help our prospects aim and fire and MOVE from ‘wait and see’ to leaders in their markets.  This is only possible by differentiating the sales force with great information, skills and tools. 

If what you realize you need to do is find more viable prospects, A resource for today - Ardath Albee shows you how to: 

• Build a foundation for eMarketing based on buyer perspectives.
• Develop contagious content to engage prospective customers.
• Increase your pipeline and nurture prospects till they’re sales ready.

You can click here to download two free chapters of eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale for some great ideas to get you started.  And if you are ready to order the book that is full of examples, tools and exercises to help you translate the strategy into practice to achieve dramatic results?  You can order on Amazon: http://bit.ly/6KfVM5

Filed Under: Sales, focus, maximize sales productivity, sales tips

Ready for more 2010 sales predictions? I am!  Each day this week I am sharing with  you predictions from top sales experts from around the globe. We started with two awesome sales women and yesterday gave time to someone ‘across the pond’ – thanks Jonathan!

Today, Jeb Blount, CEO of Sales Gravy and author of the book Power Principlesshares predictions from his perspective as the most visited job search site for sales professionals.

Jeb’s predictions for 2010:

1. Sales leaders will be faced with the challenge of retaining top sales talent as competition for sales talent heats up with sales employment improves on the leading edge of the global economic recovery.

2. Sales Professionals will find an improved jobs picture with companies hungry for seasoned sales talent. With more choices 2010 will be a great year to make a career move though base salaries, perks, and benefits may lag behind expectations.

Thanks Jeb!  For many salespeople that might be great news!  Lots of opportunity and an economic uptick.  If you know someone looking for work – visit the Get Back to Work Faster site.  Chock full of FREE resources to help in creating your own job opportunities.  

For leaders , job opportunities from your  competitors might bring changes you hadn’t planned for.  It’s not too late to start NOW to coach, provide open communication and most importantly RECOGNIZE and show appreciation for your salespeople.  It is true that people leave managers more than they leave companies – YOU have more to do with retaining your salespeople than the you might think. 

Tomorrow’s predictions might be a little ‘colorful’.  Can’t wait! 

Filed Under: focus, goal setting, sales tips

 It’s Day Two of the Top Sales Predictions for 2010. 

The answer posed to international sales experts: 

• What will the new year bring for sales reps?
• What will the new year bring for Sales Leaders?

Today, Jonathan Farrington, a British bloke yet all-around collaborative and intelligent chap who happens to be the CEO of Top Sales Associates and Chairman of The Sales Corporation – based in London and Paris. Jonathan’s personal site The JF Consultancy, offers a superb range of unique and innovative sales solutions and you can also catch his daily blog at The JF Blogit .

What is the New Year is going to bring for our sales leaders?

One of the very few things to come out the deepest recession in living memory was that sales leaders in most industries, faced with decimated training budgets, were forced to roll up their sleeves and coach their teams themselves.

They no longer had the option to abdicate sales team development to external providers – and do you know what? Many of them actually enjoyed it – in fact they discovered they were pretty good at it.

As a consequence, I believe that in 2010, more and more sales leaders will develop their coaching skills, and look for external mentors themselves, because it is highly likely that sales skills training budgets will never be the same again – ever. An item that appears as a cost on the balance sheet with no tangible return is now going to be subjected to the most rigorous scrutiny – shareholders will insist on that.

What is the New Year is going to bring for our sales reps?

I believe that top sales professionals will accept greater responsibility for their own development in 2010 – in fact the most successful already started doing this in 2009.

With massive cuts in training budgets, they had no choice. They were not prepared to sit around in the vain hope that someone else might eventually make them successful: They work with the mantra “If it’s to be, it’s up to me”

Traditional generalized classroom training will be consigned to the annals of history as organizations look to adopt a more blended approach, which will include tailored in-house coaching, together with the more cost effective online training and mentoring.

Whichever way you look at it, 2010 is still going to be tough for front-line sales professionals in most market sectors, but providing they remain focused, diligent and committed to their ongoing development, they will win through.

Thank you Jonathan, and while I love the “If it’s to be, it’s up to me” motto – I’m still very hopeful that organizations will dig in and demonstrate that they value their sales team and invest in their development.  Getting people together in person - especially sellers – has so many additional benefits than the training curriculum!

What do the rest of you think?  What do you predict is ‘up’ for sales professionals this year?

More predictions by the ‘experts’ tomorrow. 

Filed Under: focus, maximize sales productivity, sales tips

A few days left in 2009.  What are you doing?  From the number of Out of Office notices to messages sent yesterday, many of you are enjoying time OFF!  Yeah for you.  I hope you are rejuvenating yourselves!  For those still ‘in’ this week- its a great time to to close 2009. 

 How?  If you aren’t able to get in front of prospects and decision makers (though I do have 2 sales calls via telephone tomorrow), its the PERFECT time to do all the activities that we say we are too busy to do the rest of the year.  A recap of the actions and then tips follow.     

1. Organize.  Yes, the dreaded organization.  Take time to go through files, drawers, stacks of paper.  
2. Set goals.  Many say there is no time to do this the rest of the year.  Today is the day!
3. Plan. Once the goal is set – putting together the plan is next.
4. Rest.  Give your body and mind time to regenerate.

Tips for each action:

Organize – it’s more than straightening and getting things out of sight.  Start with this 3-step process:

1. Review.  What is in your hand?  Scan it over and then,
2. Decide what to do with it.  Is it something you will need again?  If you discard it, would you have access to it in some other way without it taking up your ’space’? 
3. Keep, toss or file.     Yes, each item – once you get started this is only seconds per paper, item, etc. 

Once you have control of the stuff – set up your files for next year – electronic or paper files.

Set goals.  I’ve written about goals many times, they are THAT important.  A few posts to help you: Ready, Aim, Action and  4 Rs of a  Great Goal Process,  

Plan.  Planning is a different activity than setting the goals.  The goal is the target, the plan is the how you will get there.  If you would like a copy of an effective goal planning form, email me and I’ll send you a Word document.  This document not only allows you to write your goal (an important part of goal achievement) it also has places to write your actions and planning considerations. 

Rest.  As a person who ‘gos’ full steam all the time.  The resting is something I have had to condition myself to.  And I realize the benefits every time.  Make time to get enough sleep, get your ‘head’ out of work, enjoy yourself and others without work pressures!  A previous post speaks to the benefits of rest.

And there you have it.  Make these days work for you!

-     -     -     -     -

Special Note:  If one of your goals for next year is a more productive sales team – we have a great resource for sales boosters!  Sharpenz…Half Hour of Power sales boosts.  Get a FREE Booster here.  And then take advantage of the 30% off sale through 12/31/09- a full robust training library for under $1000!  A great way to use year-end budget dollars. 

Filed Under: focus, goal setting, maximize sales productivity, productivity, sales tips

I remember the public service announcement that used to be on the TV/Radio at 11 p.m.  “Parents, do you know where your children are?”  Well, the curfew signaling the end of 2009 is nearly upon us, so my public service announcement is:  It’s mid-December, do you know where your sales stand?

For this final FULL week (if you will be out for any of the  year-end holidays), its time to MAKE it happen.

M - Move!  No idle time this week.  Make your to do list to contact everyone! 

A - Advance! Ask for a decision to what comes next (is it review of a proposal, a decision to use/buy, a meeting time?)  Advance the prospects to the next step of your sale!

K - Know what your objective and approach is for every contact you make. The more clear you are, the more effective your contacts will be.

E - Extra.  Yes, this is the week to for extra! Extra effort, extra time, extra care.  It all matters!

Simple, isn’t it?  Put the peddle to the metal as they say.  A fitting ending to the entire series of Countdown 2009.  To review the past 7 weeks:

I’m charged and ready to roll (which is why I am still working this evening – I don’t want to stop!)  Not only to complete this week -but all the contacting has me set up with appointments for the first week of 2010!

What abut you? Do you WANT to make it?  Consider this Yiddish Proverb:

 If you don’t want to do something, one excuse is as good as another.

Then decide. 

Filed Under: focus, goal setting, maximize sales productivity, sales tips

A full two weeks, if not more, left to work your sales magic in 2009!  Today’s post is to help illuminate your way  through these last couple of weeks.

We started on the 2009 countdown six weeks ago and if you have been following along, I hope you are finding success.  We are – as of this morning, our proposals and sales are now 13% higher than in November – a great step on the sales road!

As I look at the preceding actions in this year-end process, I think the biggest ‘oh my goodness’ came in Weeks 1 and 2 and now we are in execution mode! Here are the links to the first weeks’ posts:

Today we took the time to take a momentary stop in the action to lift our heads up and look again at how we are doing.  I knew it was time for a process check - sometimes I can be so singular focused on moving forward  that I lose track of the bigger picture and take short cuts.  I was reminded of this tendency this weekend. 

Ever have your Christmas tree decorated and then days later notice a part of the tree is no longer lit?  Diagnosing why and which lights are really burnt out is always tricky – we need to be careful not to ruin the other decorations on the tree as we try to get to the light strand.  It is a delicate process – and painstaking to test each bulb to find the culprit (and this with lights that are not supposed to go out when one bulb burns out).

I tackled this process on Friday night.  I determined the outage was just part of a long strand on lights.  Then I started the process of testing each dark bulb – only to get to the end and find that even after replacing the only bulb that was burnt out, the strand did not light! 

My husband told me to change the fuse.  I humored him though I didn’t believe that could be the problem -  and changed the fuses which took a while because I didn’t have the proper tools – and still no lights.

What to do?  I started at the end and worked backwards this time.  Know what I found?  That a few of the bulbs at the beginning were not pushed in all the way – when I corrected that – voila’ – lights!   How much quicker I would have discovered that if I had followed my process and started again at the beginning!

What does that have to do with our sales countdown and what we should do this week?  Sometimes we need to step back and look at our process to make sure that we are moving forward effectively and efficiently.  Ask yourself these questions:

1. Am I taking shortcuts in my process right now?  Are they smart-cuts?  Or just short-cuts?
2.  Is that going to get the results I need today AND in the long-run? 
3. Who else is pointing out things I should do that, without thought of process, might detract me and delay me from the goal?
4. How am I using the tools available to help me work through my sales process?

What did you discover as you considered these questions?  Now, on to what to do with your answers!

1. Identify the adjustments you need to make today to ensure processes that work are working for you.
2. Eliminate the “noise” of others telling you what to try different (this blog post exceptioned).
3. Use your tools!  These might be tech tools or people ‘tools’.
4. Work your process!

After this illuminating review, spend this entire week working your process-make your contacts, do your followup, etc.  Action, action, action.

Filed Under: focus, maximize sales productivity, sales tips

Ready to get the most out of this week?  Though some of you may feel a bit ’stuffed’ from holiday eating last week…the good news is that you can work it off with action this week!

We have three full weeks of work remaining in 2009 (assuming you have time off at Christmas and New Year).  That’s at least 15 full days to make it happen!

The Countdown 8 week challenge to finish the year strong began in November.  Below are links to the first 5 tips and strategies.  This week is about DOING!   

First 5 Countdown 2009 links:

1. Take a hard look at where you are and answer questions that helped you identify and diagnose potential roadblocks.
2. Set specific targets and plans for reaching them. 
3. Focus on  accountability, activity, and action!
4. Your tool check up.
5. The 4Rs to Hit your Target

Now to DOING!  This list is not focused on new prospects – your actions should focus on your current pipeline to maximize your time in the next few weeks.

1. D – Decisions.  Your role in sales is to help others decide.  Decide that they are ready to purchase, get you in front of the right person, or that they don’t need what you have (better to know than keep wasting your time).  Look at your pipeline. What is the decision you need from each person on the  list?
2. O – Offer.  What can you offer to to help move the sales process along?  It doesn’t need to be a discount of price.  An offer to get something done for them, an implementation suggestion, offer of assistance in completing paperwork or having a meeting with someone they need to include may be just what they need to move forward.  Be creative.
3. I – Initiate.  Who do you need to proactively contact?  Who is stalled in your sales process?  Write down their names – all of them. Then get their contact info and add that.  When are you going to make the contact?  Email? Telephone?  Write down when and how. 
4. N – Negotiate.  Negotiate as in problem solving.  Do you know why someone hasn’t moved forward?  Have you asked for their concerns in a non-confrontational way?  “Please tell me what is keeping you from moving forward.”   Or bring up the concern yourself. “John, others have told me that budgets have been tight all year and that is why they can’t commit. How true is that for you?” If you don’t ask, you may be making assumptions that aren’t true.  See this post on assumptions.
5. G – Go!  Yes, Go!  Right now, start by writing down 10 actions you will take today and then DO them!

The time is now.  Access your pipeline data- electronic or hard copy.  Then start DOING! 

Filed Under: focus, maximize sales productivity, sales tips

Five FULL weeks left to achieve your 2009 goals!  Ready to make it happen?  You can still make great strides in your sales for this year AND set yourself up to start 2010 with a BANG!  This week’s challenge is to maximize the use of your “tools” to gain time and efficiency.

We started 3 weeks ago with the 8 week plan to end the year strong.  The challenge of the past three weeks was to:

1. Take a hard look at where you are and answer questions that helped you identify and diagnose potential roadblocks.
2. Set specific targets and plans for reaching them.
3. Focus on  accountability, activity, and action!

We still need to focus on accountability, activity and action – and to be smart with our activity and action by using the tools available to us.  What is a tool?  A tool is something regarded as necessary to the carrying out of one’s occupation or profession (this definition brought to you by dictionary.com).  So what are the ‘things’ necessary to carrying out your occupation?   This is a starter list.

The Basics:

• A telephone
• Email
• Some type of program to keep your notes, customer details (could be a database or a full CRM system)
• Written information that can be shared – this might be a hard-copy brochure or electronic documents

Advanced tools:

• The right people around you – a coach, a support system and internal team that supports your efforts
• Lead generation or prospecting tools

Doesn’t seem like a lot does it?  It doesn’t have to be!  The key to a good tool is your use of it!  A tool is only as good as its’ user – the input, the use and care of, the access to the tools is what makes them work.

Over the years in my work with companies, I have observed HUGE investments in the “tool” that is going to solve their problems.  In 2002 a Fortune 100 company invested millions in a new tool – and eliminated all other investments for 18 months to fund it.  Guess what?  This new “tool” didn’t do what they hoped, productivity did not increase and the productivity they lost during the 18 months was a huge LOSS!

Your tool check up this week is to look at what tools you have and how you are using them – in crunch time its not usually wise to figure out something new – its looking at how you are using what you have.  What are you now doing that could be more efficient if you spent 20-30 minutes this week in getting it up to speed? 

For example:  I have been very lax on inputting some details on prospecting activity into my database.  Tomorrow i have a 60 minute block of time just to get this done.  The efficiency this is going to bring is going to help me stay focused and productive the next five weeks.

So a tool check up is the challenge for this week.  What tool do you have that you are not using well?  How are you going to change that?

Speaking of tools – some free sales tools (and reviews on many more) can be found at www.smartsellingtools.com. 

Filed Under: focus, goal setting, sales tips