Sales Forecasting Carefully, or beating Target?

 

 

Sara Catz President and CFO of Oracle reports:

http://www.morningstar.com/earnings/earnings-call-transcript.aspx?t=ORCL&pindex=2

“Now, to the guidance, and I want to remind you that last Q2 new license and cloud revenue increased 18% in constant currency. So this will be a very, very tough comparison. Though our pipelines and potential transactions for the quarter look really very exciting, our sales leaders remain very careful about what they are forecasting to us.”

The phrase that catches my eye is

“our sales leaders remain very careful about what they are forecasting to us.”

“Sales leaders, very careful, forecasting”

The word ‘semantics’, has become associated with ‘imagined’ differences, we hear the expression

“It’s just semantics”.

However, if I apply double-indexing semantics to Sara Catz’s words,
a depth of meaning appears which should be of interest to ALL Salespeople,
but specifically to the Sales Managers and Salespeople in Oracle.

 

• “Sales Leaders”,

Catz is putting the responsibility, and accountability, for Sales Forecasting squarely on the shoulders of Sales Leaders.

• “Very Careful”,

last year, Catz attributed a ‘missed forecast’ to Sales, further she attributed it to the recruitment, on-boarding and under-performance of many thousands of new Sales people, who did not perform as “Forecast”. Hence, she is NOT looking for Forecasting to “remain” [optimistic], but is in fact signalling that “careful” means “conservative” forecasts.

• “Forecasting”,

in the context used is also “targeting” as it is
performance compared with last Quarter (Q2),
and has inherent risk, as expressed by Catz, in her use of “Constant Currency”,
when her Global Market is has a Volatile Currency uncertainty.

Catz is addressing the Investment and Analyst Community,
her audience expects to hear certain messages,
Risk Management, Growth, Returns,
so she inserts “safety” through “Very Careful”.

 

 

 

 

 

The stock performance was good after her report,
so her message, to her audience, was on song.

 

 

 

 

I am curious about the EXECUTION of her message INSIDE Oracle.

“Sales leaders, very careful, forecasting”

We have over the last 40 years, repeatedly looked at Sales Forecasting.

WHO owns the forecast?

HOW should it be done?

WHAT is the forecast used for?

The consensus from meta-analysis is that Forecasting should be owned at the level closest to the forecast event.
And, I am sure that Forecasting ‘starts’ at the Oracle Sales Executive level.
Should Sales Executives forecast “Very Carefully”?

In Sales, a very careful Forecaster is known as a “Sandbagger”.
They only forecast Rain, when it has already started raining!

The opposite  of a “very careful” forecaster is a very ‘careless’ forecaster, in Sales we call them “Dreamers”.

Every Lead is already a Sale!

Sometimes they are cynically optimistic, they present “Huge” pipelines, stuffed with opportunities which never happen.

The belief that a ‘Big’ pipeline protects poor performance, this is ‘reckless’ behaviour!

“Careful”, cautious, suspicious, precise, judicious, cautious or shrewd;
these are just some of the ‘semantic’ differences using the word “Careful”.

But when you add “Very” then the meanings can bounce from:
‘Actual’ if she used it as an adjective, to ‘Extremely’ if her use was an adverb!

Let’s take the desired case scenario: Catz’s words urge the Oracle Sales force from
Top [Leaders] to Bottom [Sales Executives] to forecast accurately, to be precise, not dreaming nor sandbagging.

Let’s imagine that by so doing, Oracle delivers a good set of results, much as the Forecast. Success.

Or, was it?

Let’s take a poor case scenario:
Catz’s words urge the Sales Leadership to be “conservative”,
they believe that it is better to be accurate than bold.

Meeting Forecast, becomes more important than exceeding Target!

Care to ensure that what you forecast actually happens, then your forecast becomes the “reality”.

The illusion of “See, I told you so” has never been Sales Success,
“better than expected”, “Upside”, “BOLD”, have always been hallmarks in Sales, Corporate and Sporting success.

I have discussed Sales Leadership as a function of their “Maturity”, through the lens of Forecasting and Targeting

http://brianmaciver.blogspot.com.es/2011/01/stretch-sales-targets.html

ORACLE’s results, and its stock performance, are dependent on Good Forecasting,
but they are equally dependent on PERFORMANCE in the Market and likely future performance.

 

It’s about Expectation AND perceived Performance.

It’s about how well you did against how well you ‘might’ have done!

Managing Expectations is OK, but Managing Maximum Performance is more important!

I believe that Catz and her Sales leadership will have to communicate a clear message to their Sales force about what “our sales leaders remain very careful about what they are forecasting to us” really MEANS.

The Sales Leadership will need to turn this into HOW we want Sales Executives to behave,
as neither dreamers nor Sandbaggers, but bold and right!

Big Data, Big Numbers are made up from individuals and their actions,
getting your Sales force to do what is productive, not just careful, is in these days of BIG, quite a challenge!

Let’s just review how tough any forecasting is,

never mind ‘very careful’ forecasting!

http://brianmaciver.blogspot.com.es/2010/10/sales-forecasts-are-just-estimates.html

 

.

Sales Managers and Poor Performers

 

Making 2014 the Year of the Sales Leader

Two other blogs, were published on this:

Mike Kunkle of Richardson http://bit.ly/186uW3G

and Dave Brock of Partners in Excellence http://bit.ly/19YQJA1

Both are worth reading and thinking about.

I add mine as a a contrast to both, as Sales Management is, in many ways, all about Managing Performance

 

HOW you deal with poor performers will
define your performance and your future as a Sales Manager.

© 2013 Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved

 

The fastest route to Poor Performance, by a Sales Manager,
is to focus on poor performing Sales People.

This is not a casual observation by a casual observer, it is a causal analysis by a trained observer!
We have studied the roots of the failure of Sales Managers for 30 years,
and one of the recurring causes of failure is a focus on poor performers.

We use a bell curve to ‘identify’, or as an ‘indicator’ of Poor Sales Performance.

The axis that we use varies.

 

 

 

At the simplistic level it is
Current Sales Performance,

at the Revenue Generation level.

This is easy to measure, and is acceptable to discuss at C-level.

 

But, really it’s a WHAT chart.

What happened,
not “WHY is it not happening?”

 

 

 

 

We then, put the Sales force through a FIVE level filter, five, separate, charts:

 

Activity,  Skill,  Knowledge,  Sales Attitude and  Sales Strategy.

            

 

We “score” on the ‘standard nine’ scale, where 7 is the lowest ‘desired’ score,

1, 2 and 3 is poor performance,

4, 5 and 6 is needs improvement,

7, 8 and 9 is performance to excellence

Simple Performance Turn-around can be achieved if, for example,
ONLY Activity is wrong, or low, this is ‘fixed’ by Management Control and Supervision.

Great Sales Management careers have been launched on the back of Diary Management!

 

 

 

Sales Strategy, is also a relatively straightforward fix.

If a competitive situation, changed product/market, or Customer shift has NOT been incorporated into strategy formulation and execution then,

Sales Management can re-direct.

 

 

 

 

 

However,

When the Poor Performance is associated with low levels of Selling Skills,
poor Product/Market knowledge and/or wrong Sales Attitude, this then is a Business calculation.

The time/effort ‘Cost’ of fixing the performance problem,
weighed against the likely Revenue ‘Benefit’ derived from fixing the problem.

Unlike the first two areas, Activity Management and Strategy Formulation and Execution the Sales Manager does not ‘own’ Lack of Skill, Lack of Knowledge or Poor Attitude.

 

The problem ‘owner’ is the Salesperson.

 

Salespeople, NOT their Sales Managers,
are responsible for their own Selling Skills,

their Product/Market knowledge and their Sales Attitude.

Fixing these problems is the primary responsibility of the individual Salesperson,
the Sales Manager has a secondary ‘supporting’ role.

These problems affect your personal employability, now and in the future, take responsibility for them!

In order to ‘earn’ Sales Management support, Poor Performers must demonstrate progress with their Sales Skills, increases in Product/Knowledge and improvement in Sales Attitude. The time and effort put into fixing these poor sales performers primarily comes from them, not from their Sales Managers.

Sales Managers, effective high-performing Sales Managers, will be far too busy working with the top and high average performers to make investment is Sales poor performers who are not prepared to invest in themselves. 

There is no ‘Pareto formula’, to define effective time/effort usage by Sales Managers. 

There is no magic formula, no ‘right’ way.  There is only contingency, finding the right answer to your given situation, your people, their poor performance.  You will need diagnostic skills to find the cause, then flexible Leadership skills appropriate to giving the best outcome, Directing, Coaching, Supporting and Delegating.

 

 

The “Learning from other High Performers”, is a decision which calls for good judgement on the part of the Sales Manager, and the willing cooperation and coordination from the High Performer. The poor performer MUST have great Sales Attitude, high energy and a real willingness to learn.

The Hollywood construct is “Master and Padawan”, the Jedi Apprentice. In Sales tradition it was “the bag carrier” and the Senior Salesperson. The success of this is not solely dependent on the Senior’s Selling Skills, Product Knowledge and Sales Attitude as well as the ‘trainees’ observation skills, but also on Senior's Training and Coaching skills, which are very, very rare!

In science ideas are tested for their fit with reality.

In business ideas are tested for their profitability in the Product/Market.

In Sales we MUST do both, fit with reality and demonstrate Profitability!

If you reduce it all to an axiom:

“Treat Poor Performers differently, and appropriately!

  Or, like a leaking ship, you will both sink.”

 

 

Further reading on Managing Poor Performers:

http://brianmaciver.blogspot.com.es/2012/01/coaching-challenger-selling.html

http://brianmaciver.blogspot.com.es/2010/10/over-boarding-poor-performers.html

Managing Sales Attitude for Success

 

Attitude, “Positive” Sales Attitude
is one of the five “leading indicators”
of a Sales person’s likely Sales successes.

We know this from repeated research.

 

Attitude is linked to motivation and if all other things are equal,
the more motivated Salesperson sells more than the less motivated Salesperson.

Adverts for Sales jobs frequently ask for “positive” Attitude,
every job Candidate claims to have it, but how do you measure it?

There are several Validated, and Reliable (in expert hands) Psychometrics,
which give insights into a Sales person’s likely attitude
to their Product, Company, Manager, Customers and to themselves.

Here is a simple exercise, which is a good indicator of a Salesperson’s Sales Attitude.

1. List the five most important tasks you completed last year.

2. Now, put them into two groups:

· Group 1 Tasks you did to avoid negative consequences or to receive promised reward.

· Group 2 Tasks you did because they had meaning for you or your company in the longer term.

You can now “measure” their engagement, the number of Tasks in Group 2;
which will give a percentage of their optimal Motivation, intrinsic motivation.
Sometimes this is called “Self-motivated”.

The number of Tasks in Group 1 which,
were sub-optimal motivated by external events of Punishment or Reward
show their Ratio to External or Manager-based Motivation.

During interview this exercise,
and YOUR subsequent inquiry,
will give insight into how the Salesperson works.

It applies equally to your current Sales team!

Repeat the exercise with every individual.

Diagnose their level of Engagement, by using the two lists.

The more Group 2 items the Higher their engagement,
they have the Positive Attitude to do the Task.

The more tasks they have in Group 1 the less engagement they have,
the more variable their Commitment and their Attitude.
Then, the more work YOU will have i.e. to manage them by punishment and reward!

 

As a Sales Leader, the Sales Manager’s role
is to connect the Salesperson’s work to meaningful outcomes.

The lowest form of motivation [the least effective] is Carrot and Stick; people are not Donkeys.

Understand and share the meaning of work, FOR yourself,
WITH your Salespeople and FROM your boss.

“Cutting stone is just poorly paid, hard, exhausting work,
  but, being part of building a great building that then brings meaning!”

 

.

Do NOT spend money on Sales Training without doing a Sales AUDIT first

 

Dealing with Recession and Market Downturn
is causing many Companies to consider expensive or extensive Sales Training and Coaching Makeovers.

Do a SALES AUDIT first, before you throw good money after bad!

“Our research [ The MAC Group, no connection to BMAC ] shows that in most firms,
more than half of all Customer accounts are NOT profitable.
Moreover, between 30%-and 40% are only marginally profitable.
It is only a mere 10%-15% of a Company’s Customer-Sales relationships
that generate the bulk of the profits”.

A Sales Audit MEASURES your sales force,
its individual and their total capability.

It measures your ABILITY to SELL your Product,
to your Market, against YOUR Competition.

 
A meaningful Sales Audit is a PORTFOLIO of appropriate
Sales MEASURES, for your particular Product-Market.

 

 

The Sales Audit is the baseline score (100) against which future Sales Performance, both Positive or Negative, can be measured and compared.

 

THIS IS NOT A QUESTIONAIRE OR PERSONALTY TESTS.

 

Sales Audits and Sales Assessments

The purpose of the Sales Assessment is to measure Key Performance Indicators and calculate the likelihood of Sales Performance Success. The process producing a Sales Assessment should involve a Sales Audit by an Independent Sales Assessment Professional; its purpose is to provide a measurement rather than to express an opinion about “quality” of Sales Performance.

Sales Audits should always be an Independent Evaluation, which will include some degree of quantitative and qualitative analysis, whereas an
Sales Assessment implies a consultative approach.

The Sales Audit includes both LEADING and LAGGING indicators as well as an overall Performance Benchmark.

 

 

A Sales Audit is an ESSENTIAL part of:

• Due Diligence, Pre-Acquisition, Merger or Joint Venture
• Pre-Training Project Management
• Pre-Investment (or Re-investment)
  the Sales CAPABILITY is a key indicator of likely future success.

Contact brian.maciver@gmail.com for details it’s a LOT cheaper than a mistake!

Three Times when a Salesperson MUST involve their Sales Manager.

 

1. Before a “walk-away” from an Opportunity

 

2. Before “No-bidding” an Opportunity

 

3. Before recommending a Competitor for an Opportunity

 

 

 

 

Over the last 3 years, all of these issues have arisen with BMAC Clients

and what was missing was the conversation between the Salesperson and the Sales Manager.

 

No Salesperson is allowed to take these decisions on their own, ever!

 

These three Decisions are Joint Decisions where the Salesperson “recommends”
but the Sales Manager “decides”.

 

This more than just a “sanity check”, it is good Business practices. Taking the Decision on your own is not only Bad practice; it can lead to your dismissal.

 

 

1. The walk-away.

Learning when to walk away from an Opportunity is a key skill common to all Top Sales performers (and Professional Gamblers).
It’s a complex formula of Cost/Reward based on you “Likelihood to Win” the deal. If the odds are stacked against you, then it makes no sense to throw good money after bad. The common failure of Poor Sales Performers is to waste huge amounts of time on “No Hopers”, because they have a near empty Pipe line!
The walk away review with the sales manager should involve a Joint Customer visit, to confirm the facts. A bold move is to inform the Customer of your intended walk away and your reasons for it. Again, this should happen if it needs to, but it should not happen on a whim! 

Sometimes we have to change the Salesperson and reallocate the account.

2. No-Bidding an opportunity.

This should be done during a “special” Opportunity review. It is based on risk/reward, pursuing “no-hopers” COSTS our Company money for no reason, no reward!  Bids are expensive processes, the biggest cost is the other business lost while using key resources on the bid! It is reasonable to expect a win possibility of better than 50% before bidding an opportunity. The no bid special review occupies the 20%-50%, range. Below 20%, why are you bidding? The no-bid decision should be reviewed with both the Manager and the Customer. Strangely, the no-bid announcement can have a dramatic effect on the Prospect, increasing the likelihood to win greatly!

Again, the Sales Manager may have to reallocate the opportunity to another Salesperson if there is a particular need for Skill or Knowledge which would bring the opportunity to a “likely to win” status.

 

3. Recommending a Competitor.

(This would be a Firm which competes with you directly in the same Product/Market, not a Complimentary Product which you don’t have!) For many of my Clients this is NOT allowed. However, during the last decade, the rise of the “Trusted Advisor” has led to this occurring more and more often. There are two reasons, why salespeople may recommend a Competitor. The first is in a reasoned way, in the hope of winning TRUST and credibility with the Prospect which will pay off in a big way later. The second reason is because the Sales person is CRAZY. Both are really good reasons for NOT taking this decision on your own, but involving your Sales Manager to review your recommendation and for the Manager to agree or disagree, i.e. The Sales Manager makes the final decision. A key question which must be discussed internally is “What if I am wrong?” The consequences of giving your Competitor Account access AND your endorsement may have devastating and long term consequences. If the Competitor performs well, you could find yourself “locked-out” for years; if your Competitor performs poorly you may share the blame, thanks to your Recommendation! Lose, lose!

BMAC Consultants believes this is ALWAYS wrong.
If you are using it as a “technique” to gain trust, ultimately the prospect will realise you are manipulative. If you are foolish or crazy then you are likely to lose your job.

 

DON’T DO IT.

No-bid, or Walk-away.......
come back to fight another day!

 

Further thoughts on difficulties with Trusted Advisors:

http://brianmaciver.blogspot.com.es/2011/12/dont-trust-trusted-advisor.html

 

.

Ignoring the Sales Forecast and missing Targets

 

The first Monday of the Month is when we “review” last month’s Sales Performance at the weekly Sales Review. It’s a bigger than normal audience with “guests” from Marketing, Tech Support and Finance. We were honoured today by the attendance of the CFO and the CMO, the meeting was chaired by the CEO.

Why such an illustrious audience?

Because we have missed two consecutive Month’s Sales Targets and
we are NOT on track to hit the quarter’s Target!
This gets the attention of the Investors and the Board.
There was a smell of fear in the room.

They say wolves sense the fear of their prey and that’s when they start howling!

What the wolverines in the room didn’t know was the Sales VP and I had spent three days preparing for the encounter. We knew it was going wrong three weeks ago.

The early signs were “weak signals” an unusual Discounting Campaign from our prime Competitor announced in December, launched on Jan 1, was beginning to bite.

Despite Sales giving Both Finance and Marketing early warning, the signals were ignored.

Marketing decided they were NOT going to respond, Sales were told to SELL VALUE not discount.
Along with the Price Discounts, the Competitor offered great financial terms,
90 day payment terms with installation and setup charges delayed for 12 months.

Their offer was keen pricing and easy payment terms,
both very attractive in these “Frugal” times.

At the First Monday Monthly Meeting in February we had Presented Marketing and Finance with a list of 14 identified “at risk” Sales Forecast opportunities. They had stonewalled and not responded, we had escalated this to the CEO as a Valentine present of a visit with the CEO to an “at risk” Prospect.

“I like your Product, functionally its better, we have a great relationship,
BUT I can’t justify the extra cost. Comeback when you can compete financially!”

We lost the order.

The Sales VP and I had reviewed 6 lost opportunities during February, and a further 14 which were forecast for February close which were being delayed or postponed. The Competitor’s Disruptive Pricing had been a well executed Marketing Campaign, into a Product/Market with reduced budget and a drive for Cost Reduction.

So, “Who lost the Sale?”

Sales had brought early warning of the Competitive Threat to the table in December. Marketing and Finance had ignored them as “weak signals”. Sales had brought “proof” in February, Marketing and finance wanted to “wait and see”. The CEO had first-hand experience, a real time “Battlefield Intelligence”, but he had not reacted.

 

We closed the Presentation with the January and February “WINS” despite the competitive Disruptive Pricing. Sales had a 100% success where that Competitor was NOT present, Sales had only lost one time in five (20%) when the Competitive “Offer” was present.

 

Finally we offered the meeting this thought:

Consider the case of Bertrand Russell's Inductivist Turkey

“The turkey found that, on his first morning at the turkey farm, that he was fed at 9 a.m. Being a good inductivist turkey he did not jump to conclusions. He waited until he collected a large number of observations that he was fed at 9 a.m. and made these observations under a wide range of circumstances, on Wednesdays, on Thursdays, on cold days, on warm days.

Each day he added another observation statement to his list. Finally he was satisfied that he had collected a number of observation statements
to inductively infer that 
“I am always fed at 9 a.m.''.
However on the morning of Christmas eve he was not fed
but instead had his throat cut.''

You cannot predict the future from inductive reasoning on past data,
a key lesson for Turkeys, Marketing and Finance.

Now, stop being Turkeys!

 

Here are TWO excellent blogs on why Forecasting does NOT work:

http://wp.me/p1pSwe-as

http://awareci.com/2012/03/05/analysing-weak-signals-for-competitive-intelligence/

 

Learn why the “Competitive PRICE Campaign” was so successful?  

http://brianmaciver.blogspot.com.es/2012/09/selling-against-value-with-price.html

Is there a Generation Problem in Sales?

 

As a Sales Consultant I get to work with Salespeople of all ages.

 

And, I love the diversity.

Gen Y	Gen X	Baby Boomer
Diversity	Self-centred	Optimism
Social	Disloyal	Involved
Now!	Impatient	Go the extra Mile
Anti-Authority	Distrustful	Achieve
Community	Independent	Family
	Influencing Factors
I-Phones	MTV	KFC
Ninja Turtles	AIDS	Woodstock
‘Indignados’	NIKE	Equality
NYC twin towers	Kuwait/Falklands	Vietnam

 

 

This is my list, how I see ‘difference’.

Personally I love them all, but that’s because I’m a Baby Boomer. Two parents, male and female, two brothers and loads of girl cousins, stay at home Mom and working Dad. Encouraged, but not forced, to study. Stand for the national anthem and honour the flag. I have 5 kids from 42 thru 26, and an 18 year old grand-daughter so I have some insights.

The thing is; there is a clear difference between GenX and GenY which is causing them problems in Selling together. In fact, in my experience, it’s easier for GenY to sell WITH (not always to) a Baby-boomer. It’s got to do with their views about (or their attitude to) Independence-Interdependence.

Baby -Boomers and GenY are comfortable with ‘inter-dependence’ in one case its small community ‘Family’ in the other its bigger community ‘Friends’. And in both cases it extends to both Friends and Family.

If you don’t believe me compare 20 of each BB, GenY, GenX on Facebook for both ‘community’ type, size and activity. However, GenX limits themselves to close friends, few family and the acquaintances who may be ‘useful’ to them.

How does this effect Sales? Quite a lot!

As the Baby-boomers
are leaving Sales, GenX isn’t too happy with their new GenY colleagues and subordinates.

 

GenX find GenY “NEEDY!”

The GenY Subordinates and Colleagues find their GenX Bosses and Colleagues Distant and Cold.
GenY preferred the warmer and more involved Baby Boomers!

I am seeing ‘step-overs’ happening more and more. GenY’s are going directly to their Baby Boomer CEO or other ‘B-B’ C suite contact for support. ‘B-B’ CEO’s are more comfortable in the community of GenY Sales people than the individualist GenX Sales Manager!

How are we going to cope?

• VALUE Diversity! Strive for an inclusive mixture,
  be part of a broad Community

• DON’T rush the Baby-boomers out the door.

• STOP trying to make the GenY’s in your image.

Have a look in the mirror, YOU are not as young as you were,
and you will be the previous generation soon enough.
GenY isn’t going to put up with your demands,
they have their own way of doing things.

Looking at some Sales Centres of Excellence in Big IT,
I couldn’t help but notice how well GenY and the Baby Boomers ‘got on’,
and that the GenX’s were sometimes a resentful minority!

“Coaching and Counselling” is easier between Grandchildren and Grandparents than it ever was between Parents and Children.
Perhaps its natural, when you ‘rebel’ against a Parent, you become more like your Grandparent!

Baby-boomers have been slow to Sales Social Media because they didn’t know HOW,
but GenX are being slow because they don’t see WHY,
and GenY simply live there!

The Secrets of a Sales Expert

 

Familiarity does not mean understanding.

 

Making “familiar” things intelligible to others is very difficult.

 

Understanding the things that you are very familiar with is also very difficult.

We are all familiar with learning to talk; almost all of us did it! Both as Parents and family members we have seen infants develop from smiling mutes into talking machines.

We expect it to happen;
we worry when it doesn’t happen.
We become anxious when,
in our opinion, it happens too slowly.

We feel inordinate pride when it happens quickly;
we associate the speed of learning to talk with “clever”.

“Isn’t she clever, only 18 months
and just listen to her talk and talk and talk!”

 

 

 

Yet, with all of the “familiarity” we have with learning to talk,

the process by which it occurs is unintelligible to most of us.

 

WE DO NOT UNDERSTAND IT.

 

A few, a very few, researchers have some understanding but far less than complete.

How many of us would claim to be Speech ‘experts’?

How many of us would ask for the title
“Trainer” in helping infants to learn to speak?

 

Yet, in Selling, any ‘familiarity’ with Sales is a claimed qualification to be a “Sales Trainer”. We even have the ludicrous situation where self-appointed bodies, who at best have “familiarity” with selling claim a right (By Charter, God given or simply self proclaimed) to accredit Salespeople and Sales Trainers. In medicine such people would be dismissed as QUACKS, yet in Selling they abound.

LinkedIn, has given us all a tool to look at people differently. We only see what the person uploads but it is more the absence than the presence that impresses me. “SALES EXPERT” have a look at their history, where was the point where they earned this title?   Nowhere?

“Many years in selling”, often not there. And we know from research that “Tenure in Sales” doesn’t equal
‘understanding Selling’ nor does it ‘predict’ sales success.

 

 

There are a growing number of “Sales Gurus”,
who have never been in Sales,
who have little or have no understanding of Sales and
instead substitute pseudo-sales knowledge of “Marketing”,
“Software” or “Social Media” as their qualification and justification.

But, how if you have no intelligible grasp of a familiar process,

can you claim ‘expertise’ in it through
a familiarity with an ancillary process?

Speech Therapists, work with the ancillary processes of:

phonation, producing sounds;

resonance, use of vocal chords;

intonation, pitch changes; and

voice, the use of diaphragm Breathing for the ‘mechanics’ of speech

Yet, the actual Brain Process of Speech remains unintelligible.

 

BMAC Consultants focus on understanding the actual Process of Selling.

You can benefit from our 20 years of research into the Selling Process
as well as 20 years worth of knowledge and practice
helping Adults learn how to sell.

We scan Evidence Based Sales Research
looking for new insights to bring to light for you.

You can avoid dysfunctional Sales Behaviours

(the curse of current Sales Training)
from our Training and Coaching because we make every effort to exclude them.

We believe that the Research into the Buying and Selling process over the last 10 years has negated much of the myth and nonsense trained to unsuspecting sales people for the last 40 years.
However even a casual look at current Sales Training Content and Sales Trainers shows a woeful amount of Myth, Magic and Folklore still being sold
as “Magic Bullets”.

 

Pity!

If you wish to discuss evidence Based Sales development contact brian.maciver@gmail.com

Does Sales Training increase Top Line Revenue?

 

a) What is the effect of Sales Training on Revenue?

b) Is there any evidence that Sales Training impacts on Revenue?

 

 

Evidence Based Sales Training, when completed by Sales Coaching, can change the Sales Behaviours of the Salesperson. There is ample evidence based information (e.g. SPIN(r) and The Challenger Sale) to show that SOME Sales Behaviours are more effective than others.

Also, we can show from an evidence basis that some Sales Behaviours are Ineffective (waste of time) and finally that some Sales Behaviours are counterproductive (Dysfunctional).

 

 

 

 

By reducing or eliminating ‘Dysfunctional’ and ‘ineffective’ Sales behaviours
and by increasing the use of Effective Sales Behaviours
the following “effects” can be measured.

 

 

 

a) Increased Pipeline (more opportunities)

b) Better Qualification (eliminating no hope-opportunities)

c) Improved win rate

d) Shorter Sales Cycle (from Lead to Close)

e) Increased Revenue

f) Improved Margins

In 2013, all of this and much more “real time” data can be pulled off of your CRM or SFA, quite easily.

When writing my MBA Dissertation “Performance Measurement and Management of a Sales force” (1999)
I found that there is always difficulty of proving ‘cause and effect’,
especially when using ‘Proxy Measures’ and ‘Success Indicators’.

Instead, we often have to use factors “associated with success”
to plough our narrow furrow!

Evidence Based Sales Training has the following Flow:

a) Identify Behaviours associated with Sales Success and Failure

b) Measure the presence or absence of these Behaviours in the Sales force

c) Complete a Training Needs Analysis (PDP at the individual level)

d) Design the Behaviour Based Sales Training Program

e) Run the Training and the associated Coaching to modify their Sales Behaviour

f) Internal Validation – Did the Salespeople LEARN the new Behaviour?

g) External Validation – Are the Salespeople USING the New Sales Behaviour?

h) Evaluation – is the new behaviour producing the expected results?

You could read more about this in Leslie Rae’s Book
http://www.amazon.com/Assessing-Value-Your-Training-Evaluation/dp/0566085356/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_1

Or by using the Kirkpatrick Model

http://www.kirkpatrickpartners.com/

All of BMAC Consultants’ research, and the measured outcomes,
is bound by non-disclosure agreements with Clients.

But, from experience and exchanged anecdotes from other Evidence Based Sales Trainers
the expected Group or Line of Business Revenue result during the year of Sales Training
is between +15% to +30% improvement to Top Line Revenue.

At the individual salesperson level, a fully trained and competent (Evidence Based) Salesperson
after 3 years of planned curriculum (at an 80% Competence) can be expected
to perform at +200% to +300% more Revenue Performance
above the “average untrained” Salesperson.

 

How can we “prove” that
Evidence Based Sales Training
delivers Revenue Improvement?

Personally, when asked to do so,
I ask for 6 “stuck” deals from the current pipeline and
then I DEMONSTRATE the capability of the Sales Skills
to UN-stick or Close the Deals.

If you will settle for two anecdotes [not sourced] :

a) A deal worth £17M in Revenue and £4M in Margin had been “stuck”
or more accurately “lost” for
370 days at ‘Proposal made – Decision pending’. 
I reframed, we constructed and wrote a new Value Proposition
(reducing it from 103 pages to 4 pages),
presented the new Value Proposition and Closed the deal all in 10 days.

b) A €4M Revenue Renewal Negotiation “stuck” by the Customer’s demand
“for a 30% discount to match a Competitor’s offer”,
it was rated as a “Lost” deal in the pipeline!
I met with the Decision Maker, we reframed the deal increasing its Value to €7M,
and then we discounted by 12% against a Delegation of Discount Authority maximum of 15%.
From meeting the Account Manager, Planning the Call and Agreeing the Deal - 180 minutes!

This fits because People just want the success secret;
they just want the recipe to imitate success.

.

How to Change the way your Company Sells

 

The way Buyers “Buy” Products and the Markets that they buy from,
as we know changes, thus the WAY We Sell MUST also change!

The way a Company actually sells,
and they way individual Salespeople are selling,
is a function of the presence, or absence, of these Four Forces and their relative strengths.

Pragmatic Change is, without any doubt the most successful Sales Change,

but it needs the Conservative ‘restraint’ to prevent it running off-the-rails.

In my MBA Dissertation (1999) I identified FOUR Forces which cause Selling to “Change”,
i.e. from the Orthodox Approach or "Traditional" to the "New" or Unorthodox Approach. 

Four forces which cause the Sales Approach to Change:

primarily a “fall” in Sales Performance,
changes in the “Product/Market”,
changes by the “Competition” and “Economic” Change.

But, what was even more interesting was not the CAUSE of change,
but HOW Companies went about “changing” the way they Sell.

BMAC Consultants identified Four Ways that people CHANGE their Sales Approach

 

  

1. Pragmatic Change, based on evidence, what works?
This is akin to Mintzberg’s view of “Emergent” Strategy. 

Different Salespeople try different things with different Customers and
a "New Way of Selling" emerges, based on evidence.  It has basic Validation.

2. Conservative Change attempts to stop Pragmatic Change,

fearing that it won’t work, or is changing Selling too fast.

“Let us just keep going” the Market will shift in our favour.

The old way is best and we have “evidence” that it USED to work,
even if it no longer works!

 

These first two were “evidence” based, the next two are NOT!

 

3. Utopian Change to a ‘new, ideal and perfect’ Sales world,
without evidence of its likely effectiveness.
Based on a New Book, a Charismatic Sales Trainer, a ‘Cult’ like approach
where blind faith, hope and trust in a Method, Process, Software, ‘Guru’ or ‘Expert’.
When initial performance reports say it’s NOT working this is explained by
the Change not being fully “accepted”, it then forms into “Disciples” and “Rebels”.



   
4. Restorative Change is going back to the “Golden Age of Selling”.
This is again NOT evidence based.
It simply requires that the Sales “Techniques” believed to work in the past,
e.g. as used previously in IBM, XEROX, APPLE
or one of the ‘Door to Door’ Sales Companies be re-adopted.
It usually has several Senior Executives sponsoring it
and the introduction of the Sales Trainer who trained them.

Often, you will find both ‘Utopian’ and ‘Restorative’ Change at work
in the same Company, at the same time, as neither is "Evidence" based.

I collected substantial evidence that Evidence Based Selling works.

 

So, By Accident or by Design?

How are you Changing?

 

But, sometimes LUCK works too!

There is such a thing as the right product,

in the right place, at the right time;

it just doesn’t last!

This blog was originally entitled “Modern Selling”

Modern Selling will always be of its own age, and it will always be ‘unorthodox’.

‘Orthodox’ Selling will always be the one just before it.

 

The Key Constructs in this Blog are Copyright ©BMAC Consultants 1999,
and if used should be acknowledged.

Don’t Trust the Trusted Advisor.

 

I have just read TAS Group’s white paper “Moving from Vendor to Trusted Advisor.”

http://www.thetasgroup.com/whitepaperdownloads/new/The_TAS_Group_White_Paper_Moving_from_Vendor_to_Trusted_Advisor.pdf

It’s well written. It is a typical piece of Marketing ‘Content’ designed to excite and to promote their “Product” TAS Deal Maker. However, it falls between two stools.
It neither excites, nor was I left gagging for a demo of the Product!

What struck me was The Story of “Salesman Matt”, published by the CEO of The TAS Group
Donal Daly’s “Select Selling Sales Field book” - about a man called Matt.

 

Daly describes Matt as: “the ‘personification’ of the Trusted Advisor.”
And, it is Daly’s detail of
what a Trusted Advisor actually DOES that disturbs me!

A lot!

“Over the 15 or so years we’ve known Matt,
he has had three different employers,
but he has always retained the same four major customers.”

They don’t say that Matt left Employers to join Competitors taking the “HIS” customer with him or not.
But, it is clear that Matt as a “Trusted Advisor” to ‘his’ Customer
should not be treated as a “Trusted Employee”.

 

 

The flaw in this ‘Trusted Advisor’ thinking is that Matt “OWNS” his Customers.

 

HE DOES NOT!

“HIS” personal ‘relationship’ is bought, and paid for, by his Employer.

Those ‘Customers’ are Customers of Matt’s Employer;
Matt simply has stewardship of the Account.

I have had the pain of Managing Salespeople like Matt;
they withhold Key Data about “their” Customers,
while spending Company money on developing “their” relationship “Trusted Advisor”.

Trusted Advisors accept both a Salary and a Bonus,
but reserve ‘their rights’ to act in their own “best interest”.

They are really ‘self-employed’ Agents,
earning their living from exploiting an Employer to fund ‘their’ Business and
their Employer’s Customer to pay a second time for ‘their’ results.

Trusted Advisors should not be trusted.

Not trusted by their Customers as their income depends upon their “Sales”, not their advice.
Not trusted by their Employers in whose interest they are paid to act, to sell,
not to give ‘Trusted Advice’ to a Customer.

Thankfully, we have some Evidence to base our Sales Decision on.
The evidence based models of The Challenger Sale,
would show that the “Trusted Advisor” is in fact part ‘lone wolf’ in ‘relationship’ clothing.

The Secrets of Sales Success in 2015

 

Many of you will be planning your 2015 Kick-off,

here is your BIGGEST Challenge for the sales Year

A 12% Sales Target hike!

 

“In 2015, you are going to have to produce
the work of 9 Salespeople from 8 Salespeople!”

So, BMAC what are my options?

There are only TWO options
Train or Coach your existing team!

 

Your are going to have to make existing Salespeople
both More Effective and More Efficient.

 

I suggest that you begin by Sales Assessment of your current Team,
what do you think?

Here are some ideas of what to look at:

http://brianmaciver.blogspot.com/2010/12/what-makes-top-salesperson_01.html

 

Having Assessed your Team into Top Performers, Average performers

and Low Performers, then I suggest you overboard poor performers:

PRESS HERE

 

http://brianmaciver.blogspot.com/2010/10/over-boarding-poor-performers.html

You will fail to meet Target again in 2015 if…. 

You do not take this action NOW!

http://brianmaciver.blogspot.com/2010/09/how-long-do-we-as-sales-managers-accept.html

Organise the Sales Training they need, but don't do it yourself,

unless you happen to be a Sales Trainer working as an interim Sales Manager.

Here is WHY YOU should NOT be the Sales Trainer:

http://brianmaciver.blogspot.com/2011/10/major-problem-in-selling-has-been.html

 

After the Sales Training YOU MUST do the Sales Skills Coaching

Here is how you can be a GREAT Sales Coach:

http://brianmaciver.blogspot.com/2011/10/true-secrets-of-sales-coaching-for.html

Well if you stuck through all that,
things are looking a lot better for 2015:

You will have finished ALL your Recruitment by August 2015

You will have a performance improvement of 25% by June 2015,

You should easily make your Sales Target by November 2015.

 

Congratulations and
HAPPY NEW YEAR in 2015!

Is a Sales Methodology needed? Only if you want to succeed!

From Dave Stein's research area five of
The Real Reasons Sales Training Fails and What To Do About It

#5 Is an inadequate or completely absent Sales Methodology

(the organising principles underlying Selling)

In more than 20 of my Clients medium and small I have discovered that there was no methodology at all to their selling. They had a Sales Department, a Sales Manager and Salespeople but NO methodology for Selling. That is usually why I get called in because: “not having a Sales Methodology”
like “not having a Sales Strategy” means that you usually fail!

Dave Stein’s ESR site has a good enough definition of Sales Methodology and how it differs from Sales Process on http://davesteinsblog.esresearch.com/2009/12/02/more-excuses-for-not-doing-...

In my view, it is also about having a Sales Process that is driven by
YOUR Product/Market BUYING METHODOLOGY.

That is Selling the way your Market wants to Buy.

“Easy to Buy From!” is always the highest rated characteristic of a Supplier in the eyes of the Buyer when you survey Buyers.
“Trusted Advice” scores low at 30%.

How do you know if you have a working Sales Methodology,
a broken Sales Methodology or no Sales methodology at all?

Well, you can retain a Sales Consultant like me, or you can ask your Customers:
“How easy are we to buy from?”

Ask some of your Lost Business Prospects:
“Were we easy to buy from, or did the difficulty in dealing with us play a part in why we lost the deal?”

Fixing a broken Sales Methodology (or a partly working Methodology), really does need a Consultant (internal or external). The output is ‘This is what we do wrong and why (PROOF),
and this is HOW through Changes we will put it right and these are the measures to prove its improving’.

Perhaps the toughest part of SALES METHODOLOGY is when you finally realize you cannot BUY one,
you have to CONSTRUCT one. Some great Companies like Huthwaite (SPIN is only a Part, you have to buy the Package), Miller Heiman, TAS, or Holden will sell you the components, BUT YOU will have to do the Assembly and the heavy lifting IMPLEMENTATION.

You can, if you are smart enough even mix and match
getting the Right, not just good enough, Components.

Sales Training without a Sales Methodology doesn’t work.

 

IBM (referring to their Structured Selling Methodology)
calls them their Cash Generating Machines!

So, save all your wasted expense on novelty courses
and one day training events, daft books, sales blogs and sales tips.
And, invest the money and time to build a Working Sales Methodology.

A Major Problem in Selling has been identified

A major problem in Selling has been identified by the CSO 2011 Sales Training /Sales Effectiveness key trends Survey.

It is the following simple statistic:
65% of Sales Managers are actively involved in Sales Training delivery and development and 35% of the Sales Managers act as Sales Training Instructors!

Let me use a simple metaphor:

What would happen to the standard of driving if 65% of parents were actively involved in the development and 35% in the delivery of driving instruction?

Further if there was no driving test to measure Competence, Driving Skill, traffic awareness, decision making and attitudes to other road users.... then I guess we would never know the impact!

I carried out an Assessment of 350 Sales people at Big Telco, to measure their Product Knowledge and Selling Skills.  We did this first by testing their product/market Knowledge, and then their Selling Skills in Sales Simulation. Before the assessment we asked their Sales Managers to “rate” their own sales people. Previously, the Sales Managers had actively taken part in the development and delivery of the Sales Training.

The Sales Mangers gave 90% of their Salespeople a pass mark. 315 passes, and 35 Fails.

After external assessment,
185 of the Salespeople FAILED to pass the Assessment (their “Driving” Test).

The Sales Managers had a 500% error in Assessment of their own people .

7 of the 35 “failures” rated by their sales managers passed the external assessment,
and 150+ who had been passed by their Sales Managers “failed” the test and/or the simulation.

30% of the Sales Managers themselves failed the Assessment first time and 10% STILL FAILED THE RE-SITS 6 WEEKS LATER.  125 ‘failed’ Salespeople passed their re-sits 6 weeks later after receiving external Sales Training (not mine!) and on-demand Product training.
They also received some coaching from some Sales Managers.

My conclusion is the skill set for a Sales Trainer is a lot more than PowerPoint Operator.

 

Sales Trainer skills include Validated Selling Skills and Adult Trainer Skills including training needs analysis, diagnostics, training delivery and training evaluation.

 

Realistically, how many Sales Managers have both
Current Selling Skills and Adult Training Skills?

The truthful answer is very few.

 

The “Sales Skills” that Sales Managers do have are being used less and less, may be out of date and in many cases are dysfunctional (ABC, Objection Handling, Steps of the Sale etc.)

Adult Trainer Skills include, as well as subject matter knowledge, adult training techniques.
An understanding of Learner Motivation,
both how to generate it and how to maintain it. 
This is the minimum for the Sales Trainer’s Tool kit

 

CEO’s, VP’s Sales and CMO’s have to ask themselves two hard question:
“Is it worth saving a little money to do a poor job of Sales Training ?”
and “Can just ‘anybody’ really do Sales Training?”