January 9th, 2012
While some criticize and only pool people into categories of 1% and 99%, we herald the achievers – the Sales 100%’ers.
Congrats to all 2011 sales winners who attained 100% of their quota. We know these sales producers worked hard to meet and exceed quotas and goals assigned in the midst of obstacles, difficulties and a host of customer and market challenges.
100%’ers and all those who work hard in producing and selling goods and services make the nation and world economy work. We could only hope that all people would have the heart, determination and work ethic of all those who achieve the Sales 100% Club.
Tags: sales effectiveness, Sales Goals, selling success
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January 4th, 2012
We wrote a couple of months ago about the end of the “Solution Selling” era. This month we’ll address the rebirth of sales enablement across progressive selling organizations. A new day (year) is upon us as enlightened companies, consultants and sales trainers develop and implement sticky, adaptable and scalable selling systems that help organizations run like fine-tuned, ultimate sales-driven machines.
The next wave available to companies is an explosion of sales effectiveness and new efficiencies. Prepare for a 10-year run of sales team upgrades and resets.
This new era of sales enablement is already underway in many companies like Citrix, Fujitsu, Adobe, Boeing and VMware, to name a few, that are investing in re-optimized sales tools and practices for their modern updated sales teams.
There are 4 components* to a revamped sales enablement program:
1. Strategy (where to go)
2. Messaging (what to say)
3. Process (what to do)
4. Leadership (how to coach)
* DSG Consulting, an MXL Partners affiliate partner firm.
The redevelopment and integration of each of these component areas into carefully tailored sales 2.0 manual and automated playbooks is opening up an exciting new frontier in a land filled with opportunity. We’ll break down each component in this SalesNote.
Are you “revamping” enablement of your sales organization?
Tags: Playbooks, sales effectiveness, Sales Leadership
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December 12th, 2011
Imagine enabling ALL your reps to sell like your BEST reps.
What if you could provide your salespeople with a selling “system” that enables them to consistently apply your company’s sales best practices to EVERY deal in which they compete. What if? Odds are your win rates would improve and that you’d be able to accelerate new-hire ramp up.
Now you can with Playboox Playmaker, an on-demand sales playbook application integrated with Salesforce.com.
For some time now sales teams have used manual playbooks to codify their best practices and provide sales process guidance. We’ve helped build playbooks for leading technology companies like Yahoo!, Ricoh, Nokia, ServiceSource, Telepacific, Datameer, Fusion-IO and HyTrust to name a few. Increasingly, we’ve heard the request for a way to easily develop and automate sales playbooks. From this was born Playboox.
Contact us if you’re interested in seeing how you can use Playmaker to equip your salespeople to prepare to win and win more often.
Tags: Coaching, Playbooks, sales effectiveness
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November 8th, 2011
It’s November and we’re deep into the fall sales quarter, football games and we’re fast-facing the holiday season. Just this past weekend we witnessed the game of century (LSU vs Alabama), Tim Tebow highs and lows, and depending on your favorite team, a slew of great and weak performances as teams vie for bowl games and playoff berths.
Reminds me of salespeople and sales teams as they wind down these last 2 months of the year. There are those that step up and those that check out; those that live up to the hype and those that disappoint; those that overcome adversity and those that crumble under pressure. We watch it every week on TV. And we watch it every year as it’s crunch-time season in the sales arena.
Tebows and turkeys abound.
Regardless of what you think of Tim Tebow’s NFL prospects as a productive quarterback, he’s a winner. What he did this past weekend in Oakland, CA is a great example of one stepping up, living up to the hype, and overcoming adversity. A VP of Sales would love to have a whole team full of Tim Tebows who can face knockdowns, disparagement, failure and come roaring back with tenacity, hustle, appropriated skill, mental and physical toughness, and a gracious winning attitude. Sorry if you’re a Florida, Tebow or Denver hater – gotta love a gutsy winner with heart.
In our business we can teach sales skills, process and prowess. We can’t teach heart. Heart can be developed over time but must come from within. You know when you see it. It’s a great thing to watch in any field of play.
Tags: discipline, sales effectiveness, Sales Training, selling success, Thanksgiving
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October 11th, 2011
With all due respect to Michael Bosworth, author of Solution Selling, it’s time to rethink “solution selling.” Both the selling world and customer interactions have changed and require adjustments to common selling motions.
Besides, after all the books and training over 15 years, try to find one VP of Sales or Account Executive who can tell you what the 9-Block Vision Processing Model is or even what exactly are “the 9 Boxes.” While brilliant in theory and profound for a past generation, the practical application is often lost in the reality of today’s dynamic sales arena. There’s also a new generation selling in a different era.
While my sales, management and consulting career grew up with Rackham and Bosworth over the past 30 years, today I’m seeing 4 challenges facing salespeople relative to selling methodologies:
1. Shorter Conversations - customer conversations are often brief and on the phone. Reps need to be agile and skilled in the managing of short selling conversations.
2. Blended Conversations – lead generation improvements require clear distinctions between call introduction, qualification and discovery. Reps need clarity of process and conversation flow.
3. Convoluted Questioning – sales call questioning process fundamentals have been lost, forgotten or confused. Reps need talk tracks grounded in simplified questioning fundamentals.
4. Mistargeted Discovery – discovery conversations are often given short-shrift, prolonging or derailing sale cycles. Reps need clear discovery plays or templates that are simple, planned, manageable and trackable.
Do you need a revamping of your “solution selling” methodology?
Tags: sales effectiveness, Sales Training, Solution Selling
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September 21st, 2011
It’s our 10th Anniversary. MXL Partners has been providing sales consulting and sales training for companies for a decade. We’ve worked with sales reps and managers from over 150 companies in almost 200 engagements.
Over past years we’ve seen sales training change in the following ways:
- It’s not about packaged sales training programs.
- It’s all about custom-built and focused sales training.
- Experienced sales reps need and appreciate relevant training.
- Rookies need, want and seek practical and helpful training.
- Sales Managers want a return to strong sales fundamentals.
- Value Propositions are best as custom sales messaging built for specific target buyers.
- A well-defined, well-taught selling process drives best behaviors.
- Sales Management training is an effective and repeatable sales leadership/coaching system.
Do you have a clear and modern perspective on today’s approach to sales training?
Tags: sales effectiveness, Sales Leadership, Sales Training
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August 10th, 2011
If you’re a veteran to sales, when you see the topic of “Account Management” one’s mind goes to one of two places: 1) Managing and selling to large accounts, or 2) Managing existing customer account relationships. I’m seeing more organizations today that are structurally blurring the lines of “selling” and “managing customer relationships.”
Ideally, all customer-facing team members are selling and managing relationships. When existing accounts warrant full-time attention to customer service/support, implementation and care-giving, then Account Managers are needed to truly manage and service the account. They may have cross-selling and up-selling responsibilities as well.
But this does not necessarily mean they have account strategy responsibilities or even needed capabilities. Sales Account Executives need to quarterback the account. Without clearly defined roles and responsibilities havoc and missed opportunities may prevail.
Do you have clear delineation of roles and responsibilities between your Account Executives and Account Managers?
Tags: sales effectiveness, Sales Leadership, selling success
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July 8th, 2011
After 30 years of sales experience including the past 10 years coaching and training sales teams from Silicon Valley start-ups to Fortune 500 companies around the world, I’m still a proponent of the 5 key principles for success I was first taught in college by the late great Mort Utley, a sales motivational speaker for The Southwestern Company.
I recently listened to an old recording of these solid fundamentals for success in sales and in life. These resonate with me even after all these years. I realize that I’ve been consciously and unconsciously teaching these to my children and actually anyone else under my charge over my adult lifetime. These principles permeate my professional sales training, coaching, mentoring and sales management sessions.
They’re classic, never out of fashion, and they work.
As I’ve been greatly impacted by these 5 Principles for Success, I am devoting this issue of our new SalesNote publication launch to these keys.
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1. Think Big
When you think big, something always happens. Many people think small and achieve something less than they really could have achieved. Winners see the possibilities, reach out farther and swing for fences. Big dreams, big thoughts and big goals yield results far beyond the masses.
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2. Know What You Want
Understand what you want to achieve, then set goals to get there. I was taught once and now always say: “There are those that make excuses and those that find a way.” Focus and determination need to chase a goal. One has to know the target before one can hit a bullseye.
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3. Do Your Homework
Knowledge and skill breeds confidence and competence. Get the prep work done and study what needs to be mastered and understood. There’s but a small difference between successful and highly effective people and those who are not: successful and effective people do their homework.
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4. A Positive Mental Attitude
Think yes, never no. Smile, never frown. You are what you think and the attitude you bring to any situation. Certainly problems abound in a broken world, yet you can be a source of peace and light. How you approach these mentally is critical to your own well-being and for those around you.
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5. Value & Manage Your Time
If you waste an hour, you can never replace it. The cumulative effect of competently and consistently performing prioritized activities is profound. Determine all valued actions, then scope their impact and timing. Appropriately manage your schedule. Bottom line: do good things well and often.
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Tags: Coaching, sales effectiveness, Sales Motivation, selling success
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June 17th, 2011
When it comes to sales productivity, sales coaching certainly comes into play and is crucial for a successful sales organization. If you’re going to make adjustments, the team has to to be coached to understand the new game plan. Likewise, individual contributors may need sales coaching to fully develop their field effectiveness.
But which ones? Your stragglers, high-performers, or future high-performers? Logic says leave the high performers alone and coach the others. After all, the manager/coach is there to manage and help, right? Watch your logic.
CSO Insight’s 2011 Sales Performance Optimization – Sales Management Analysis rated managers’ ability to proactively identify which reps needed coaching or mentoring. The percentage of firms rating Needs Improvement was 37%, an all-time high, and the Meets Expectations group was at 44%, an all-time low. Firms rating Exceeds Expectations grew to almost 16%.
What does this mean? Means there’s lots of room for improvement. Yes, you’ve got to coach, but do it wisely. The best firms (effective sales management) coach to metric bars and performance analytics set by their top performers, then proactively identify (dashboard visibility) players that need help. The coaching is objective and helpful, not belittling or damaging. High-potential players develop; weaker ones become clearly identified for a new opportunity, elsewhere.
Interesting also that there is a correlation between rep turnover and effective coaching visibility. There was a 10% higher turnover rate for Needs Improvement vs. Exceeds Expectations firms.
Better coaching environment; lower turnover.
Tags: Coaching, sales effectiveness, Sales Leadership
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June 7th, 2011
Getting close to mid-year (non-calendar fiscal year excepted, of course). Should be pretty clear now whether you’re hitting the number, over-achieving, or missing the mark. Go heads down, all out and finish strong. No arguments there – but open your eyes and see a looming 2nd half.
You’ve got enough At-Bats through previous quarters to make intelligent sales adjustments at this point. The new product is gaining or not gaining market acceptance; the sales message is or is not resonating; the territory re-alignment is working or not working; the new sale hires are starting to cut it or are struggling. Keep at it this month but with an observant eye toward the future.
Tough calls here require clear wisdom and discernment. The danger is to jump the gun and not see the slow ramp of a genius strategy or pull the trigger on a weak and sorry mistake. If you care, your reputation can be at stake in environments and cultures where knee-jerk reactions are frowned upon or lauded.
Great salespeople and effective sales leadership see the trends, sense the momentum or stall and see the big picture. They’re already tracking activity metrics and numbers and already have a hunch of what has to happen after this quarter ends to finish the game with a win.
Yes, plan your half-time talk and half-time adjustments. There’s not a lot of time between halves.
Tags: sales assessment, sales effectiveness, Sales Goals, Sales Leadership, selling success
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