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

Predicting Future Sales Performance

 

MacIver’s Algorithm

 

The most accurate predictor
of Future Sales Performance,
and it is FREE, my gift to you.

 

It can be used to Recruit and Select, to Promote

or to Identify your Future Top Sales Performers.

I am prepared to state that this is more accurate
and has higher validity than any Psychometric ‘test’
or any Recruitment Agency.

 

 

This simple three-factor algorithm will substantially out perform any and all ‘Tests’,
and will do at least as well, but usually far better,
at predicting Future Sales Performance than any Expert.

a.) Average (%) of Annual (actual) Performance against target (last five years.)
                (Reduce the total by twenty per cent for each year less than five years)

b.) BEST Quarter’s (%) MINUS WORST Quarter’s (%) Sales Performance (last five years)

c.) Current Sales Velocity (%)   (Last quarter´s Performance against target)

EXAMPLE:

Average last 5 year Annual performance = 87% 

Best quarter 137% minus worst quarter 48% = 89% 

Current Sales Velocity = 115%

 

(A times B times C) 87% times 89% times 115% = 89%

   

Then, 89% is the PROBABILITY of this Candidate achieving Target in their first 12 months; redo figures to predict year two when year one actual figure is achieved.

 

Thanks to Jeff Michaels of Intended Results (@IntendedResults) for encouraging me to Blog this.

 

Update 04/2013:  I have received a number of direct comments, and I am always happy to receive them here as well.  Based on this feedback and in particular some of the questions I have to caveat the USE of the Algorithm, not the Algorithm, but its use!

Possible fundamental limitations of predictive model based on data fitting

1) History cannot always predict future: using relations derived from historical data to predict the future implicitly assumes there are certain steady-state conditions or constants in the complex system. This is almost always wrong when the system involves people.

2) The issue of unknown unknowns: in all data collection, the collector first defines the set of variables for which data is collected. However, no matter how extensive the collector considers his selection of the variables, there is always the possibility of new variables that have not been considered or even defined, yet critical to the outcome.

3) Self-defeat of the algorithm: after an algorithm becomes an accepted standard of measurement, it can be taken advantage of by people who understand the algorithm and have the incentive to fool or manipulate the outcome.

Wikipedia

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Sales, Jobs for life!

 

Nobody has a lifetime Contract of Employment,

which is strange because Employers want Customers for life.

 

How do we understand a “Job for Life” in 2013?

I believe it is found in the concept of “EMPLOYABILITY”

An ‘employable’ person is one who has desired Skills and Competencies,
which they can use to generate Value for their Employers, they are always in demand.

 

 

As a Sales “Employee” you have the right that your Employer shall at least maintain your current employability.

It is to their current benefit
and it is of vital future importance to YOU.

Employability, for a Salesperson, is having a Portfolio of transferrable Selling Skills,
which will enable you to bring Value to your Employer whoever that is.

 

 

 

 

 

If a Salesperson’s Selling Skills are developed and maintained,
then I believe they will have a job for life.

Selling skills, FUNCTIONAL Selling skills, serve as a good foundation for Management and a great foundation for General Management.

Insist that your Selling skills, hence your future EMPLOYABILITY are at the highest level.

If your current Employer will not do this, then before you lose what employability you have.
Leave and find an Employer willing to maintain your Selling skills.

In all events, recognise that YOUR future employability,
YOUR Job for Life, rests in YOUR own hands.

Take actions to safeguard your employability, do it for yourself!

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!”

 

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Using Psychometrics and Personality Tests to recruit Salespeople.

 

Consider the opposite what if you are wrong?

 

You are caught on the horns of a dilemma!

If Sales Psychometric Tests and Sales Personality Tests DO NOT work, what are the consequences?

At the first level; if random results are being given, and then some potential Top Performers are being rejected some potential Poor Performers are being accepted.
The personal consequences of rejection for one and acceptance of the other could be dire!

The consequences for the firm are the second cost of hiring, the costs of firing and the lost business.

In IT, Telecom and Finance sectors these figures based on a six month cycle total more than $500,000.

The cost of a Sales Personality Tests may be between $60 -$120, if a full process recruitment assessment was used it would cost over one thousand Dollars.

 

 

BUT, the $1,000 saving may cost you $500,000.

 

Further, it is only a matter of time before Legal Tribunals will make huge and punitive pay-outs to “Failed” or even “Passed” Candidates. The Test “users” would do well to ensure that the Legal Liability rest solely with the Test “provider”, the legal costs may well exceed the “value” of the test. This may well be why Test providers are using an “as is” clause to protect themselves and leave the user holding the liability.

 

What is in doubt?

 

First: let me introduce myself.

 

“My name is Brian and I have used Psychometric Instruments.”

“Welcome, Brian!”

Over the last 30 years at various times my Company BMAC Consultants have used MBTI, 16PF, DiSC, OPQ, and a variant called SPQ and lastly, but not least, KAI The Kirton Adaptor –Innovator Inventory.

My Partner is a certified user of KAI, which is used widely in Creative Thinking-Problem Solving workshops and University Courses.  To become “Certified” in KAI’s use she had to prequalify with an MSc in Psychology then undergo a “Pass-Fail” five day intensive training course led personally by the originator Dr Michael Kirton. Which enables the Certified Psychologist, a Member of the British Psychological Society, to both “administer and interpret” the results. 

This result is a single score on a single continuum from Adaptor to Innovator, it is non-judgemental and based on valuing difference. The output is a confidential counselling session to understand “your personal preferences” for Creative Thinking and Problem Solving.

 

WE Do NOT use any Psychometric or
Personality Traits in Sales Recruitment

Why then don’t Sales Psychometric Tests or
Sales Personality Tests predict future sales performance?

The use of the word “TEST” is inappropriate as they are, at their best, MEASURES.
In fact that is why they are professionally referred to as “Instruments or Indicators” because they only MEASURE.

The interpretation of these measures is considered a professional and highly skilled task, not “automated” or layperson.

The “test” part is in the “judgement” (often subjective) of the user NOT the candidate.

The answer lies in answering three Questions with a resounding YES.

A. Are there Sales Behaviours “associated” with, or predictive of, future Sales performance?

B. Can these Sales Behaviours be “Linked” to a Personality Trait or Characteristic CLEARLY?

C. DO Sales Personality Instruments actually “measure” the trait which is
believed to be an indication of the likely Sales Behaviour taking place in the future?

Starting with question

A.) Certain Behaviours have been identified as “associated” with sales success and Sales Failure.
e.g. Both Positive: Asking more questions and Negative: talking less features.

Neither is an actual predictor of Sales success or failure,
what we see is that some salespeople who ask more questions
and talk less about the Product features are MORE LIKELY to succeed.

What WE can do, and indeed have done, is further research to identify which SPECIFIC Question types succeed more than others or which Product “Talk” is more successful than Features. Indeed Rackham did this with SPIN(r) describing the Successful SPINFAB Behaviourally and deriving as evidence based Sales methodology. This gives us an evidence basis to the claim that certain “Sales Behaviours” have an element of predicting likely future Sales Success. Using those behaviours MAY lead to a performance improvement of 20-30%

This brings us to

B.) The Linking of a Personality “Trait” to a given successful Sales Behaviour. Will any “Trait” predict that a salesperson will ask more questions?  Perhaps, but will this trait predict that the Salesperson will ask the SPECIFIC type of question associated with Sales Success?  Not, likely!

Here is the SPI insurmountable difficulty…….
the linking of any “Trait” to evidence based sales specific behaviours.

Finally

C.)  For as long as Psychometric Instruments (and Indicators) have existed, the Question “Do they actually Measure, what they claim to measure anyway?” is asked. Perhaps they do, perhaps they don’t. It is very difficult for them to do so, there are many limitations preventing it. The ideal instrument would be extraordinary.

Current Practitioners and Marketers of Instruments, Tests and Questionnaires argue endlessly, they debate “Normative or Ipsative” methodologies or specific applications. I am reminded of “Alchemists” arguing over which stone will turn lead to gold, when all that is in the room are a variety of “stones and a lot of lead!”

In layperson’s terms a Ten Factor (traits) “test”, with a 10 point scale range (0-9) would appear to be an Instrument trying to measure on a 10x10 matrix, giving a neat “Score” out of 100.
A Percentage, easy to read, easy to understand if only that were true!!!!

A 10 Factor Instrument using a 10 Point Scale Instrument actual could measure 10¹⁰ (the tenth power of 10) or the instrument could measure 10 BILLION distinct individuals. It is sufficiently sensitive to measure every human being alive DIFFERNTLY. And, that is precisely what makes them so DIFFICULT to interpret!  If you had specified a single profile; you would be looking for one individual currently alive on the planet. This may be more expensive, and take more time than you thought. As those who search for the reincarnated Dali Lama would testify!

 

The likelihood of error
is highly probable.

 

In conclusion:  I ask you to consider the opposite, Personality “Testing” For Future Sales Performance may not work. The consequences are not just the loss of a little time and a little money. It is the loss of a great deal of time, a great deal of Money and is potentially damaging to both to the Candidate and the Company.

 

 

Consider the opposite, consider the consequences.

further reading on:

http://brianmaciver.blogspot.com/2010/10/personality-testing-in-recruitment.html

Can a 21st Century Sales Methodology be built on Proverbs?

 

I had the great fortune to know my wife’s Grandmother. Born in 1900, at the province of Soria, Castile and León, Spain. She lived to be 93 years old. She left her village Castillejo de Robledo for the first time when she was 65 years old. Leaving behind the three story house which had been the family home for 4 generations, without the benefit of running Water, Gas or Electricity. The family had lived off the land for 200 years, a few acres of Vines which made the fine Ribera de Duero Wine, a few pigs, chickens and goats in a “corral”, a Burro to help till their wheat field and a “huerta” to grow vegetables besides the river.

It would be easy to label her a Peasant Farmer or even “Peon”, and she had had no formal education being unable to read or write.  Yet she and her husband had raised and ensured that her three children were well fed and educated. All of her children left the village and they came back to take her and her husband with them when they were able to. The house now with all utilities including Broadband, has passed, along with Vineyards, to her son who summers and harvests the grapes with some of his family.

http://www.cellartours.com/spain/spanish-wine-regions/ribera-del-duero.html

I met “Abuela Germana” in her early eighties, by turns she could be talkative or silent. She was a very interesting Old Lady.
Although she had no formal education, she could neither be described as ignorant nor un-educated. She was wise.
Her wisdom was expressed by Proverbs.

“You know a person by the company they keep.”

She repeated this to her Children, her Grand-children, and Great-grandchildren.
She would deliver the saying then explain what it meant, and how to apply it to life.

We reckon, for nobody ever counted, she had more than 500 proverbs. I first noticed that her “recipes” for Cooking were expressed this way, to give the ingredients and their ratios. She recounted Proverbs for Life, for married life and family life, for Farming, relationships with the land and water, when to sow and when to harvest, the best time for the “matanza” to turn Pig into Chorizo and Jamon, for relations with friends and neighbours:

“Good walls make for good neighbours!”

Many sayings were derived from the Biblical Book of Proverbs,
but even more clearly came from folk wisdom,
garnered through centuries living and working in the same part of Spain.

You will be glad to know that I will spare you from lists of examples,
mainly because she spoke them in Castilian Spanish, but often in a dialectal form.
They were understood by her and were “her way of thinking”.

So, I am no stranger to Proverbs.

My question is “Can a 21^st century Sales Methodology be built on Proverbs?”

We could use expressions like :

· Haste makes waste

· A stitch in time saves nine.

· Ignorance is bliss

· Better late than never

· You can catch more flies with honey than
   you can with vinegar.

· You can lead a horse to water, 
   but you can't make him drink.

 

 

 

 

· Those who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

· A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

· A little learning is a dangerous thing.

And easily make them apply to Sales and Selling,

“People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones” could apply to relationships with the Competition.

A commonly used proverb is “Don’t knock the Competition”
but what does that mean in a 21^st century “Modern Selling” setting.

Is it glib? Has it become a cliché?

Does “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush” mean that in Sales we should only pursue “sure things?”
or only take small deals or stay out of the sales underbrush and beware of Poison Ivy?

Could a Salesperson justify keeping damaging information from a customer by declaring
“Ignorance is bliss?”

Can unethical behaviour by Salespeople be justified under cover of Hyperbole
“All is fair in love and war [or sales]”

Or should we use the nemesis to successful Selling “ABC Always be Closing!”

In these “modern times” the anti-proverb is more widely used:
"Nerds of a feather flock together” could describe Facebook or perhaps better Twitter!

My answer to the question is NO!

A 21^st Century Sales Methodology,  CANNOT be based on Proverbs.

 

It leads to Sales Myopia and a Dysfunctional Selling situation.

Sales time and energy is wasted on a simple quick answer inappropriate to a Complex Selling. The basis of all FUNCTIONAL Sales methodologies is in Sales Behaviour. DOING the right thing, in the right way, at the right time, during the right circumstances not regurgitating a cliché.

 

Evidence Based Selling Skills

rest in Identifying FUNCTIONAL Selling Behaviours,
in LEARNING how to execute those Behaviours
and in actually DOING them.

Here is a little evidence, a BMAC Study of 150 Salespeople identified as Sales “Poor Performers” by their Manager and Peers’ opinions, as well as by their actual Sales Results and confirmed by the results of Sales Skills Assessment;

90% described themselves as “Skilled in Sales Methodology.”

Almost all long-term “Poor Performers” describe themselves as able to sell,
yet the evidence is overwhelming that they cannot!

 

The use of Proverbs as a Sales methodology
I would simply describe as:

“A little learning is a dangerous thing.”

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!

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.

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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 it true that 87 cents of every dollar spent on Sales Training is wasted.

 

87 per cent spent on Sales Training is wasted.

Google shows: About 555,000 results (0.22 seconds)

The “87 per cent belief” is widespread,
it is quoted endlessly,

But, is it TRUE?

 

In “The Challenger Sales” Book they write:

“Research by Neil Rackham has shown that 87 per cent of sales training content is forgotten by reps within thirty days”   (location 2705 the Challenger Sale - Kindle edition)

What is this REALLY all about?

The 87% Statistic was first published in the “American Society for Training and Development Journal” November 1979 and is credited as a Huthwaite Study. At first Publication it was an “87% loss of a “New Skill”, later in Neil Rackham’s 1991 book “Managing Major Sales”, the Graph fig 5.1 Page 130 is titled as : “Sales Training without systematic coaching wastes 87 cents in the Dollar”. However, seldom quoted is the comment on the previous page 129:
“Some Sales people showed a skills GAIN.
Where this happened, they had been systematically COACHED following training.”

And in 2001 Neil Rackham published an impassioned white paper
“The Coaching Controversy”, where he puts the context thus:
http://www.ascenticg.com/hw_survey/hw.htm

“The Xerox Corporation carried out several studies, one of which showed that
in the absence of follow-up coaching 87 per cent of the skills change brought about by the program was lost. That’s 87 cents in the skills dollar. Knowledge training, on the other hand, generally shows a much smaller loss.”

So, now we have a clear view of what it is all about.
Neil Rackham uses the 87¢ (cents) statistic,
taken from a study made before 1979,
(Part of the “Newcastle” Study?)
at Xerox based on the SKILL loss post-Sales Training of Photocopier Salespeople.

Indeed it is qualified, to distinguish between
SKILLS and KNOWLEDGE,
the latter showing far less “Loss” than the former!
And, then it is further qualified (logically) to be
“The loss of the Skills ‘Gained’ during the Training”.

 

 

 

 

This is a long way from:

The '87cents' has grown and changed into a "proof".

“Research by Neil Rackham has shown that 87 per cent of sales training content
is forgotten by reps within thirty days” (The  Challenger Sale)

This “Proof” is used to support
“Sales Training doesn’t work!”
usually followed by the Hollow Claim
“Except MY Sales Training, which is the only one which works!”

Neither is likely to be true!

Here are some other Statistics from before 1979:

http://info.cancerresearchuk.org/cancerstats/types/lung/smoking/#percent

In 1979 40% of males smoked versus 20% today a 100% change.

If we used the 1979 Data we would be 100% WRONG in its usage!

Why didn’t we instead focus on the KEY Information
Published in Neil Rackham’s Classic book “SPIN Selling”. Page 12

“Potential Customers remember just over 5 key points from the 8 key points presented during the Sales Presentation.  Just SEVEN DAYS later,
they can only recall just over 2 Key points.
A 50% Memory loss and a drop from “likely to buy” to “unlikely to buy!”

And “statistically speaking” it’s not just Sales:

“The average organization is losing an amount equal to 7% of their annual sales because of poor leadership practices.
The three main side effects of poor leadership practices are increased employee turnover,
decreased customer satisfaction, and reduced employee productivity,
according to David Witt, Program Director at The Ken Blanchard Companies.”

http://www.kenblanchard.com/Business_Leadership/Management_Leadership_Newsletter/December2011_main_article/

Really I just will not leave without talking about MY own Sales Training Courses

By design, my Sales Training Design takes “Skill Loss” into account. The use of Aide-memoires and Practicing the new skills in Simulation with both Video and Observation feedback helps. I recently had a comment from a delegate whom I trained over 25 years ago, he remembered vividly the story I told so he could learn the Sales Skill of “Supporting” !  I haven’t trained that particular skill for some 20 years,
but it was a very vivid story!

 

However, I cannot stress enough that Sales SKILLS Training includes
BOTH Training and Coaching, you MUST do both.

I don’t call Sales Skills Coaching “On-the -job Training” because it IS NOT.
Sales Skills COACHING is the COMPLETION of what you learned during the Training Event.
On-the- Job ‘training’ is somebody showing you how
to fill in your monthly expense report!

 

The right way to Sales Skills COACH can be found at:

http://brianmaciver.blogspot.com/2011/10/true-secrets-of-sales-coaching-for.html
and
http://brianmaciver.blogspot.com/2010/09/how-do-you-make-great-sales-people.html

Sales survival of the fittest

Does Darwinism (Survival of the Fittest) apply to sales?

Salespeople today are very diverse, young and not so young, male and female, of every creed,
colour and educational achievement – so, who is going to survive?

It has been predicted that 80% of Salespeople will be without their jobs by 2020.
Who are the fittest? The business environment, the habitat where salespeople live
is in constant change and the rules of the buying game have change dramatically.

The fittest are those who develop the ability to change, to evolve at least as fast as their environment changes.

It is ADAPT or become unemployed and a part of the archaeology of Selling and Sales.

Globally, business is changing, continuous variation. Some change is good bringing fresh opportunity and some change is threatening bringing extinction. Some Sales jobs will disappear due to poor Management Practice. Many Sales jobs will disappear due to Sales Training of ‘dysfunctional’ Selling Skills. Wherever you sell and whoever you sell to; you no longer enjoy geographic isolation.
We salespeople now live in a competitive environment where the best adapted sell, and those who can’t or won’t adapt – Fail!

 

Dramatic “Silver Bullet” change will NOT save you, nor will “big bang” Crash programs.

Please don’t wait for messiahs, Gurus or Experts they can’t save you either.

The only thing that will save you is FITNESS, and the fittest Sales People and Sales Organisations are those which opt for flexibility and adapt to a constantly changing environment.

Continuous Learning, EVIDENCE Based Selling Skills will develop their fitness to be part of the fittest who survive. Continuous Learning means never ending Continuous Improvement, which is a career long journey of adaptation to your Product/Market and Competitive Environment.

The true secrets of Sales Coaching for Success

 

Traditionally Pre-call Questions:

"What are your goals for the call,"
"Do you have stretch goals,"
"What is the worst thing that might happen in the call, how do you plan to handle it?"
"What's the value the customer will get from this call?"

 

After the call, your Sales Manager might ask:

"Did you accomplish all your objectives,"
"Is there anything more that you might have accomplished,"
"Is there anything you would do differently?"

Many of us were coached this way, therefore some of us Coach others this way too. There is not a lot of empirical evidence to support any style of Sales Coaching. So, we have no rules, no right way or wrong way, just the ways we know of, or the ways we experienced as Salespeople.

 

Let me ask you a question:

“Would you use the same methods to Coach Children to read and write,
   as your School Teacher used to Coach you?”

 

I have been blest by having been coached in Golf by three of Golf’s Top Coaches,
David Leadbetter, Butch Harman and Dave Pelz.
Each Coach in their own way is unique and very special.

Dave Pelz

is Golf’s “Scientist” he has produced more empirical evidence on the behaviour of the Golf Ball on the Putting Surface and in the air than anybody! His expertise in the short game is encyclopaedic. He “Demonstrates”, using a perfect Putting Machine called “Perfy” which can repeat the same perfect putt as often as you like!

Butch Harman

is, along with Tom Watson, just one of Golf’s Gentlemen, great company and you could listen to their discourse on the Great Game forever. Butch’s approach is “feel “and “shot making”, you will use clubs in new ways and play great shots as never before. His success in Golf Coaching is unsurpassed.

David Leadbetter

is a golfing phenomenon, he is sometimes called “The Swing Mechanic”, but if that makes you think of the guy who services your car, DON’T. Think of the “mechanic” who tunes the Ferraris to racing perfection before a F1 Gran Prix.
The DL Golf Academy’s proud boast is that they can help ANYONE to play better golf.

Three completely different approaches, three different styles YET they all coach the SAME WAY.

The True Secrets of Coaching are:

Analyse, Demonstrate, Prompt, Release, Four Stages,
repeated over and over until the Golfer Learns and Improves.

Analyse:

They ask you to show them how you currently play the shot,
you show them maybe three of four times.
They see your “problem”.

 

They “Demonstrate” the right way, to play the shot.
Then YOU attempt to make changes while they give you “Prompts”,
little changes to increase the chances of a good shot.

Then when you have reached a reasonable level,
they “Release” you to practice on the range or apply it on the course.

Before you leave they set expectations of “good performance”
so that you can analyse for yourself in the future.

 

 

 

Is there empirical evidence that this works, you bet!

I unhesitatingly recommend all three Golf Coaches.

For about fifteen years now I have used the same Analyse, Demonstrate, Prompt, and then Release approach to both Sales Skills Coaching and to Sales Strategy Coaching, with empirical success.

What Golf Coaches don’t do is:

Pre-Shot Questions:
"What are your goals for this golf shot,"
"Do you have stretch goals, for the shot"
"What is the worst thing that might happen in the shot, how do you plan to handle it?"
"What's the value your game will get from this shot?"

Nor do they ask you post shot:
”Did you accomplish all your objectives,"
"Is there anything more that you might have accomplished,"
"Is there anything you would do differently?"

They already knew the answers to all these questions,
and they want to change your behaviour using a simple process Analyse, Demonstrate, Prompt and then Release.

Sales Coaching for Skills are best done with a Customer Visit, and then three more visits.
More on:

http://brianmaciver.blogspot.com/2010/09/sales-coaching-do-it-right.html

Coaching for Sales Strategy is best done in the office, or on SKYPE, NOT the Customer’s Office

http://brianmaciver.blogspot.com/2010/08/sales-strategic-success.html

Is there empirical evidence that this works,  you bet!

 

Being a Sales Coach is great fun,

it’s really rewarding and it brings great results.

     

But, Coaching demands we learn
how to Coach effectively,

and that WE should be “coached” in Coaching.

But, like Golf, Coaching, after you learn how ‘to play well’ it’s a lifelong friend.