Posts Tagged ‘Sales Training’

Tebows and Turkeys

Tuesday, 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.

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Rethinking Solution Selling

Tuesday, 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?

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Sales Training Truth

Wednesday, 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?

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‘Roll Your Own’ Selling – Ad Hoc Sales Messaging

Thursday, May 12th, 2011

There’s a growing trend in the sales kingdom. It’s ad-hoc sales messaging. Not necessarily bad if you’ve got a hot and compelling product. Certainly some sales teams can still be successful while they vary in their adherence to the purity of whatever target sales messaging was produced by Marketing. It’s like winning a game with a team of great athletes in spite of a less than coherent game plan.

The problem catches up to you eventually. Wide variations of a team’s sales messaging (direct, phone or email) will leave openings for the competition to exploit if they’re better at this than your team.

There are 3 keys to effective sales messaging:

    1. Audience Specific Targeting
    2. Clarity of Market Trends, Audience Objectives and Challenges
    3. Short and Long Sales Talk Tracks, Questions and Visuals

In the absence of effective control of these, any sales team will “roll their own” – that is, they will create their own versions of scripts and emails and anything that they believe they need to be successful. Sometimes what they create is worthwhile; many times it can be quite ugly. Multiply this across an aggressive and frustrated sales team and you have a recipe for confusion internally and in the marketplace.

The fix takes work and involves (re)alignment or sometime wholesale (re)creation. It’s critically important though to avoid an ad-hoc sales organization.

Do you have an ad-hoc messaging, ‘roll your own’ sales team?

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More Research or More Sales Calls?

Wednesday, April 6th, 2011

It’s an age old question: Do I spend more time researching companies before I call them or do I make more “cold” phone calls? This topic is too much debated. It’s a qualified no-brainer. You want to make more calls. Let me explain.

If you make 10 calls in a 2-hour period because you’re studying lead prospects’ web sites, social media sites and rooting around your CRM, and I make 30 calls in the same 2-hour period, all things being equal, I’m going to outsell you. Over a period of weeks, months and year, I will cover more ground in the territory, uncover more opportunities and drive more revenue.

Now I didn’t say zero research or no entries in the CRM. It’s about intelligent balance. Here’s the trick – 3 keys that will separate Producers from Meanderers:

1. Know Your Targets - if I know my vertical or target audience, then I can do cursor research, i.e., quick specific info checks on web sites or other sales intelligence resources.
2. Know Your Pitch - if I know what I’m going to say then I have No Fear and will boldly make great quality calls and leave great quality messages all day long.
3. Know Your Metrics - if I know my cadence metrics and results then I will confidently and systematically work the numbers game.
4. Batch Your Updates - if I keep my calling notes separately on a spreadsheet as I make my calls I can update the CRM appropriately at the end of day or night without losing my calling rhythm.

These keys result in Focus, Confidence, Accountability and Speed. You don’t need a manager to guide you; you can manage yourself. I will gladly take a team full of smart focused, confident, productive self-managers any day over a team of over-organized, plodding, CRM perfectionists.

Are you or your team really as productive as can be?

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Assessing Sales Teams

Tuesday, June 15th, 2010

There are a variety of Assessment Tests out there that managers use to try and determine viability of current or future salespeople. Here’s a sampling of types:

  • Psychological Test
  • Personality Test
  • Behavioral Styles Test
  • Aptitude Test
  • Salesperson Evaluation Test

Most common, but a big mistake, is to use Personality and Behavioral Styles tests for salespeople. While accurate, the results do not provide answer or actions that management can use for selection/recruitment, coaching and development. An effective assessment tool must answer the following questions:

  • What makes a particularly salesperson successful?
  • What makes a particular salesperson unsuccessful?
  • Can this salesperson improve or not?
  • In what specific areas must the improvement take place?
  • Which obstacles are preventing sales success?
  • How much improvement can we expect?
  • What actions must be taken for improvement?
  • How do the problems impact their performance in the field?
  • What sales competencies are impacted?

If you want to accurately predict which existing salespeople or hiring candidates will succeed in a particular sales position, at your company, selling your products or services, into your target market, against your competition, with your pricing model, performance requirements and compensation package, there is only one assessment tool that will provide this.

Contact us to learn more about a proven and affordable and comprehensive salesperson/team assessment test.

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Posted in Sales, Sales Management, Sales Training | 11 Comments »

A 90-Day Sales Team Upgrade

Friday, January 15th, 2010

Some say it takes 21 days to change a habit. We maintain it takes 90 days to upgrade your sales organization. And it’s not about a wholesales change-out of reps. It’s done through 3 core areas of sales team and management focus:

  1. Sales Competency Training – Month 1
  2. Sales Activity Inventory – Month 2
  3. Sales Forecast Process Review – Month 3

Many executives and sales leaders come to us seeking help in improving sales revenues through sales training and consulting. They say “Help our team Close better” or “Our team needs Negotiation training” or “Our team needs to improve Probing skills” or “Our sales pitch is all over the map.” These are all legitimate concerns and competency areas that can be improved, however it’s not the full story. It’s like trying to improve a car’s performance by installing leather upholstery, a new sound system and higher grade gasoline. It’s better, yes, but there are other areas that need a check-up and potential overhaul.

It’s a new year. How’s your team going to perform in Q1? What are you doing today that will ensure your team is the ultimate selling machine by Q2 and the rest of 2010?

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