How do you lose market share, with the best product and best price?

 

It’s easy, give Marketing control over Customer Relationships.

I have just finished a long assessment for Big IT, they told me to find a problem with Sales.

I did, they were losing deals to a ‘softer’ product and the customer was paying the same or even more.

When I made my initial report, they asked me to recommend a “Sales Training”. I could have said anything. But, I replied that I knew what was wrong, but we didn’t know what caused the problem.

They agreed reluctantly to fund some more Sales Consultancy, but they really wanted “Sales Training”, a good two day event that would ‘energise’ the sales force and bring the lost business back!

 

 

My role as a Sales Consultant is to eliminate mistakes.

That is it. Simple!

Find the mistake, then eliminate it.

At BMAC we call it “error detection and error recovery”.
(At least one of us used to design, test and repair Hard Disk drives).

If YOU are not doing something wrong (or not doing something right) then your business would be booming!

At big IT, we did the usual lost business reviews,
with some remarkable and consistent results across a wide range of
Salespeople, Customers, Customer Segments and Geography.

· Did we lose on Price – NO?

· Did we lose on Product – NO?

 

We drilled down, what was the price difference, little or none.

What was the product difference little or none.

Several (sincere) Lost Customers, even admitted that they had bought more expensively and
they believed the product that they bought although good enough may not be as good as Big IT’s.

So WHY did we lose? We asked. It came down to RELATIONSHIPS.

Over the last three years Marketing has taken over ‘Customer Relationships’. Marketing were responding to incoming queries and contacting “quiet” Customers. Sales were told to focus on ‘Closing deals’.

“Show the Prospect that we have the best Product and the Best price”.

Marketing had installed, at great expense, a new CRM. It collated web landing, Social Media searches, recorded incoming and out-going telephone contacts and had hounded Sales for their “Black Contact Books” to be put in the system. The initial results were great; the sales ‘lag time’ had dropped from entry in the pipeline to Order from 7 months to 4 months. Sales were only working ‘qualified’ leads. Marketing was holding ‘pre-qualified’ leads and “nurturing” them.

So, what was wrong? Where is the error?

The Customers had interpreted Marketing’s new CRM approach as:
“We are Not Interested.”

 

 

 

 

The Customer wanted Sales Engagement!

So, they got it from the “interested” Competition.

 

Interesting?

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.

Advanced Selling Skills in 30 minutes, the long version.

 

How long does it take to learn Advanced Selling?

Recently, I was asked what could be done in 30 minutes?

 

A One Minute Message:
Advanced Selling Skills are competences
which only the top 5% of sales people have.

The 3 Minute Message:
Advanced Selling Skills which are held by less than 5% of Sales people are Interactive Skills ,
composed of 20 Verbal Behaviours.
Interactively Competent Salespeople, Practitioners of Advanced Selling Skills, know the Behavioural Effect of the 20 different Verbal Behaviours.
They are able to use Behavioural Modification (BMod.), on themselves in order to increase significantly successful outcomes in interactions with Prospects and Customers.

 

 

 

The 9 Minute message

include details of the 20 Verbal Behaviours, how B. Mod changes other people’s verbal behaviour,
e.g. How to double the chances of a Prospect agreeing to your offer.
It is supported by 9 slides using Beyond Bullet points to tell the Story.

The 27 minute message

gives examples of Gaining Agreement, avoiding Disagreement and Managing Successful Interactions.
It identifies 5 “deadly” behaviours and 3 “Golden Behaviours”
It is supported by 25 slides (Beyond Bullet points) to tell the story.

The 40 minute Presentation

“Why Advanced Selling Skills?” is an interactive version of all 4 of the above Messages,
it has a reduced Pack of 14 slides, requires two flip charts and a 3M post-it pad and a medium point Felt tip for each person.

 

If YOU still want to do ‘something’ in 30 minutes then.
I suggest that YOU:

Spend the 30 minutes “interactively” establishing (by them) how important it is to have Advanced Selling Skills.  You can do this by asking THEM to list the implications of NOT having Advanced Selling Skills and the Value of having better Selling Skills than 95% of their Competitors.

If your Salespeople have written long lists in both columns,
then run a 2 hour Interactive session with "Desert Survival" from the Copyright holder Human Synergistics, Inc.
(Don’t use a plagiarised copy, it is probably wrong anyway!)

http://www.humansynergistics.com/products/survival.aspx

While the Delegates solve the Survival Problem in groups of up to 8,
YOU use Behavioural Analysis (Observation and Categorisation) to identify the Behaviours they currently use (pretty basic).

You then present a Benchmark Model Behavioural Analysis of Advanced Sales Behaviours, together with the EVIDENCE that previous delegates, with Advanced Selling Skills achieved substantially better results at the exercise, than they did. My, BMAC Consultants, Behavioural Bench mark has n=1500 approx., but the copyright holders have a substantially larger one, for all kinds of people.

 

EVIDENCE BASED
SALES SKILLS WORK,
so use them!

 

The real answer is;
Advanced Selling Skills is a 3 day learning event,
it takes 3-9 months of coaching to “internalise” the skills and
about 2 years for the Salesperson to be a “Confident Practitioner”.

 

Imagine, your Cardiologist telling you,
just before he carries out the by-pass,

“I learned this off of a 30 minute YouTube video”

 

…good luck!

 

 

Send me a request for the 5 “deadly” behaviours and 3 “Golden Behaviours” to brian.maciver@gmail.com

Or, ask me to send you a copy of the 1, 3, 27 or 40 minute messages.

.

.

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?”

Cost saving or shaving costs?

 

I don’t want to blame “Porter”, although his promotion of the Lowest Cost Provider has confused and caused a few problems over the years.  The idea is blindingly simple, and once known is obvious, the Lowest Cost Provider wins. 

If you have the lowest costs you can sell at Market Price for more Profit or you can sell below Market Price and win market share grow your volume and make more Profit.   Great!

However when you turn the company over to the Accountants, take care.

Financial Engineering was another FAD that I survived.

But, only just!

Enter the Cost Accountants and let the dance begin.

Ketchup has the key ingredient of Tomatoes.

Our Cost Accountants showed how we could reduce costs by reducing Tomatoes in our Ketchup. We put 10% less Tomatoes on our Ketchup and changed to a lower cost if lower quality Tomatoes. Total saving was 20%. No complaints, so apparently the consumer didn’t notice.

 

‘Flushed’ with success, the Cost Accountants were back with more proposals “Packaging, Storage and transportation” cost savings. We changed from a bottle size of 500 grams to 1000 grams; Marketing not only supported the change but insisted we use 1200 grams to enable a 20% extra free campaign. Our Consumers seemed to accept the changes, but our Distributers, Wholesalers and Retailers grumbled about ‘problems’ in the background.

 

To achieve all of the changes, involved some costs, but these were justified by the Cost Accountants Graphs, Charts and Tables all of which agreed that break-even, cost recovery and profits would flow shortly. Marketing agreed and talked of Product “consolidation”, improved Margins, Market share capture and increased Profits. In Sales we just raised our eyebrows.

After a set of disappointing Sales results, the Cost Accountants cut a further 15% of Tomatoes used in our Ketchup, we now bought our Key ingredient on the open Market at a “Tomatoes Commodity Auction”; it came from any part of the world and was always the cheapest they could find.

During a Product Management review the Cost Accountants refused to allow a new Self-seal dispenser to be used as it put 4 cents on the cost line. But, it was being advertised heavily on TV by our Competitor.

 

Our next two quarters Sales results were terrible.

Big and loyal customers were only placing maintenance orders, or cancelling. Or, they were trying to return stock they described as ‘non-spec’. In Sales we knew what was wrong, but nobody listened.

So, Sales organised a Customer Engagement Event (paid for by Marketing)
and brought our Executives, our Distributors and our Consumers together Face-to-face:

“You can’t taste the Tomatoes!”;
“the bottles are too big for their fridge”;
“We can’t shelf the product!”;
“The Box is too heavy to lift!”

In summary “We don’t like your Product, anymore!”

 

 

This Parable really took place in Information Technology;
it was not “Ketchup”.

 

The moral of the story is:
to “Listen to your Customer”

and put tasty and plentiful ‘Tomatoes’
in your ‘Ketchup’.

 

 

 

Heinz® Tomato Ketchup, America's Favorite Ketchup®,

is made with only the firmest, juiciest, freshest tomatoes.

 

 

Heinz make, and have always made, a truly great product!

TQM or Total Quality Madness

I am a survivor.

I have survived 17 different management “initiatives” during a 40 year working life. One of them was TQM, Total Quality “Madness”.

Like most fads it started with a Prophet, but now the surviving “Disciples” argue over who the true ‘Prophet’ was. I will not enter their debate, I don’t care who invented it or whose fault it was.



Like all fads, TQM begins with some good ideas and catchy slogans. The ‘higher’ thinking is kept secret and instead anecdotes replace research. “Right first time” was an enchanting idea, which soon cast its spell over millions of workers. But, How?

The “Magic Circle” was invented. Workers who had never had any “voice”, who had never been heard were invited to speak; Assembly Worker, Production Operator and all. “How could we do it better?

Brainstorming, Coffee and Flipcharts soon became a ‘heady’ mixture. And, more anecdotal “results” than you could read on a quiet rainy Sunday.

Up 3%, down 7%,

improved by 13%,

decreased by 5%

and saved 100%

I remember that TQM came with a distant Japanese High Priesthood - their message of Purpose, Process and People conveniently translated into English still seemed somehow ‘Oriental’. But, then “Local Priests” began appearing, people we had known as of little importance and scarce education. Now, these Demi-gurus spoke in parables, “Zero defects”, “Hassle free” (or friction free), “Delighted Customers” and “Employee involvement”. Soon, many otherwise quite smart people had “bought-in.”
They began attending the Circles listened to “Quality” talk from the Local Priests.
Quality, quality, quality was the answer to everything.
Quality assured our collective future.
Quality assured our Profitability.
Quality assured our jobs.



The sceptical few (myself included) asked “Quality at what cost?”
When we tried to change the slogan to “Quality, at a profit” we were howled down, named as “negative non-co-operators” (as opposed to “Collaborators”, which we thought was politically incorrect French.). Our “resistance” was short lived, the Local Priests issued the “Book of Compliance”, and there could be no dissention, Total Quality Rules.

It was then that a most curious thing happened. Those same self-important, not too bright people who had become Local Priests, they underwent a metamorphosis!

Using their “Book of Compliance”, they first became TQM Assessors, and then they became the TQM Police.

At the same time “results” were beginning to come in, both Customers and Sales were being affected. Customers were being asked to accept “Quality” exceeding their requirements. Good enough wasn’t any good, only “Right” was what we now offered!



Along with the “Quality” came cost, building-in quality isn’t cheap,
in fact building-in more quality than the Customer wants is very expensive.



So, now we began losing sales, “more quality than we need, at a price we can’t afford” complained long term Customers, who left for cheaper Competitors. “It’s Sale’s fault” howled the TQM Police,
“They can’t sell the Quality!” And, they were right, we could not even find the "Quality" Market, never mind sell to it! We just couldn’t find Buyers who bought more than they needed for prices higher than ‘good enough’ Quality.

Capitalism, has an inbuilt “evolution system”. It’s not the strongest that survives; it’s the most appropriate for the Product/Market. Don’t build more “quality” than your Market wants, don’t price higher than your Market is willing to pay. And, don’t give people who have never succeeded in any Commercial environment the ability to destroy your Company in the name of Compliance.

If you need a Slogan, use Nike’s “Just Do It!”
But, do it at an appropriate Quality with an acceptable Price.

That’s why you have a sales force.

The Voice of the Customer!

.

The Success of a Sales led Business

I recently consulted for a “sales” led firm, a Software Company.  The CEO had been a Sales Professional, very successful and very wealthy.  He had taken a year out completed his MBA, then came back and bought the Company.

He changed the Culture of the Company from Product “centric” to a focus on Sales, a ‘Sales’ culture was established.  Everybody worked in, on and with Sales. 
His results were spectacular, he doubled the business each year for three years.

Having spent three years as CEO and having proved his point, that Sales Led = Success,
he wanted more.  After attending a Software ‘Jamboree’ run by the charismatic boss of another Software Company, he whole heartedly adopted and installed a state of the art CRM and SFA, (at great expense!)

Overnight his people who had been treated as ‘Professionals’ felt they were now being treated as ‘naughty children’,  They felt that they no longer could use initiative or judgement, they felt that they were no longer “trusted”.

In public and in private the CEO continued to treat his people with confidence, but the new Software ‘systems’ were running the day-to-day business.  According to the ‘systems’ 21 DIFFERENT things were all “high” priority. 

Sales success was no longer appreciated,
compliance with the system was more valued.

The ‘crunch’ came when his top ten sales people were taken off-the-road, to play in a “sandbox”, before the release of of yet another version of the SFA and modified Sales Process. 

His leading Sales Manager and six Sales people left and joined their competitor.

The CEO’s ambivalence has proved to be very expensive, wanting to trust yet being afraid to trust at the same time.  Make up your mind, choose, then have a consistent set of behaviours. 

Enjoy the success or accept the consequences. 

Leadership is owning the Company’s Culture. 

Know which culture you want and do not change it by accident.

“You can turn fish into fish soup,

but you can never turn fish soup back into fish!”