Archive - December, 2011

Optimist? Pessimist? It takes both to exceed your quota!

December 31, 2011 in Attitude, Quick Bites, Skills with 0 Comments

genericbeach

Quick Bite:  With the end of the year approaching, I was thinking about finishing up this year and getting prepared for next year.

If you made your Quota this year – Congrats!  This was a tough year to sell in.  If you didn’t, I’m sure you’re thinking about how to make it next year.  Either way, it’s time we are all evaluating next year when the quota starts and we are all at zero.

The  first thing most of us in sales think about is the funnel – our pipeline – our forecast to management and to the business.  This is always the first and truest measuring stick of the sales professional.  Many companies use other metrics to measure – such as number of phone calls, number of meetings, number of workshops, etc. – but don’t be fooled.  A sales professional who makes his or her quota is easily employed and rarely fired – especially in this day and age.

Most of us in sales are optimists by nature – we always see the potential of the big sale and the associated big commissions.  We sales folks are pretty easy; make a sale – get a commission.  Like Pavlov’s dogs, when we hear the bell, we salivate….  And that’s exactly why we’re in sales.  We use our optimism to motivate us.  It is the drive in why we make hundreds of phone calls and go through dozens of “no’s” to get to one “yes.”  We are indeed a strange breed…

But there is a time a place for us to be pessimists. When?  When we are forecasting and evaluating our funnel.  We should always value and weigh each opportunity as a pessimist;  to its worst case, even if that is zero.  When our pipeline is pessimistically scored with the worst case for the opportunities and we have enough opportunities pessimistically scored to make our quota (be that an annual, quarterly, monthly, or weekly quota) – then we are best positioned to make our quota because not all of our opportunities will close as the worst case – some will come in at the best case and some will come in somewhere in between – meaning we should EXCEED our quotas and head to some sunny beach on the President’s Club award trip!   I like beaches.

Remember:

  1. Use optimism to motivate .
  2. Use pessimism to value our pipeline.
  3. Keep the funnel full of pessimistically valued opportunities.
  4. Go to President’s club!

Happy Selling!  See you on the beach!

My year 2011 “do overs”

December 30, 2011 in Skills with 1 Comment

It’s the last 30 minutes of the last working day of 2011.

Before I start working on the new goals and plans for the next year, I think this is the time to reflect.

Regardless of how your year ended from a performance against quota standpoint – above goal, behind goal, best ever year, worst ever year, or “just good enough to keep my job” – we all have experienced “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” and some things we’d just like to “do over,” like we used to do when we played with the kids in the neighborhood and things just didn’t go our way.

Unfortunately, there are no “do overs” in life.  We all know this. I follow the blog of Michael Hyatt and he had a guest writer today that had a great short article on leadership (I recommend you read the post “here”) that got me thinking about what I’m going to post today.  In his post, Mr. Rouse says the following:

“Failure is a wasted experience if nothing is learned. Learning a personal lesson is good, but teaching others from your mistakes is even better.”

This is a great quote.  This quote inspired this post from me today.  That thought has stuck with me all day. Being New Year’s Eve – Eve (December 30th for the timeline challenged) – it is the best time to reflect on the lessons learned from my sales year.   I encourage you to take the a little time do the following:

The “Good” Wins

What wins were “spectacular” this year?  Why?  What lessons can you learn from the success of the good wins?

The “Bad” Wins

You know what I’m talking about.  We all win those customers we wish we wouldn’t have.  They consume too many post-sale cycles; they are ever complaining; they are never satisfied; they are slow payers, or worse, no-payers; they consume too many company resources for way too little revenue… you know what I’m talking about.  We all have them occasionally.  So, let’s learn from them.

What could I have done differently this year to better qualify them OUT?  What are their characteristics?  How can I recognize one of these next year and spend my sales time somewhere more productive?

The “Ugly” Losses

Think of the one or two really bad lost deals this year.  What went wrong in this loss?  What could I have done differently (of only those things I have control over)?

As Mr. Rouse quoted in his article, “Learning a personal lesson is good, but teaching others from your mistakes is even better.”

Take a few minute to reflect and then post your comment on your most valuable lesson learned for 2011.  Let’s all learn from each other.  I will put my most important lesson in the comments of this post also.

Happy Selling.

Relationship Equity

December 20, 2011 in Skills with 1 Comment

handshake

I’m in the midst of reading the book “The Challenger Sale” by Matthew Dixon and Bent Adamson.  (I mentioned this book in an earlier post – and yes… don’t worry – a book review will be coming).

Part of the premise of this book is that “relationship” sales person has historically been perceived as the best sales folks to have – you know the type – those “relationship” sales people who excel at building good, deep relationships with their customers and prospects.  Those folks most people just “like” after meeting them and working with them for any sort of time… “People” people….  I won’t spoil the book, as they have ideas and research that might make you think differently.  However, I want to expound on that sales “type” of sales person for a moment based on a recent experience.  Again, the research and the content Dixon and Adamson put forth in their book is very compelling and quite interesting so far and I look forward to finishing the book over the holidays.

If you read my previous post, “Communication: The Art of Silence (part 1 of 3)“, you remember that I got tossed out of “Bill”‘s – my prospect – office on the closing meeting a month or so ago.  To conclude that story and kick off this discussion, after that meeting I spent the next month strategically and regularly reaching out to this Senior Vice President of Sales in a very consistent manner and finally got him to agree to meet with me.  He told my sponsor that he liked me and wanted to meet with me alone – no one else from our company.  This – in my opinion – is one reason it so critical to build good relationships with your prospects and customers.  You just never know when you’re going to need to cash in on what I call “relationship equity”.  Over the previous months and meetings with him, his team, his peers and his bosses, I had been clear in my communication, collaborative with his team, concise with his peers and the executive management team.  I had worked diligently to be attentive and responsive to their questions and prepared so that I could answer the questions asked by him and those we met with.  He trusted that I knew his business, his need, my solution and how my solution addressed his needs.   Because of the relationship I had built with “Bill” over the previous several months and because I didn’t let go when the deal was “dead”, I was able to eventually get back in front of him, show him I understood his perspective and current reservations, remind him of why we were the best solution and ultimately craft a resolution that me his business objectives, addressed his reservations and met our internal corporate goals and ultimately closed a fairly sizable deal.

If I had not built that relationship with “Bill” – I honestly do not believe we would have had a chance to win his business.

Relationship Equity impacts every part of our lives – our sales lives, our professional lives within our companies, our personal lives as spouses, parents, children, and friends.  It’s something we have to learn how to get correct.

Leave a comment on your experience where your relationship equity – or lack thereof – impacted a prospect, customer, or internal colleague.  We can learn from both successes and failures.

 

 

“This isn’t a good time” Objection

December 9, 2011 in Skills with 0 Comments

What do you do when your prospect tells you “…this just isn’t a good time…“?   I hate walking out of a meeting not really knowing where I stand and where my prospect’s interest lies…

Here are some good practical ways to get behind the excuse/objection and uncover not only the real issues (if they exist) but also discover the reality of where you stand with the prospect… is there real interest in your offering, or is this just an excuse?

Following his advice will also help you piece together the other requirements that are important for you to make your sale.  Enjoy.

TimingIsNotRightObejction – YouTube.

Happy Selling!

Resource: Presentation Skills

December 2, 2011 in Skills with 0 Comments

I enjoy reading Roger Jones’ blogs. Here’s one I found particularly interesting and thought I’d share it with you.

Before you read this, think of one of your favorite public speakers – be that a motivational speaker, a pastor, a business executive, or whomever.  When I read this article, I could visualize each of these points in that speaker and why I enjoy their delivery as well as their content.

Leaders’ Storytelling Network Group News | LinkedIn.

Roger Makes some very good points here some of which I give a big “AMEN!  PREACH IT BROTHER!” – coming from my Southern heritage…

Especially point #1, #2, and #4 – which also apply to giving presentations remotely, over a web meeting.

 

Happy Selling!