Jeff Garrison

Honest Commitment to Sales Goals & Activity

Being consistently great at developing new business either as a sales person or a business owner requires that you HABITUALLY do the right things, the right way, at the right time, on a regular basis (which is usually daily or perhaps weekly). 

The Sales Habitues training program is about identifying those right things, learning to do them the right way, and consistently scheduling them at the right time.  This takes tremendous commitment because learning new sales skills and turning them into sales habits does not happen over night or in a two hour workshop.

Recently I met Brian Klemmer and I listened to him address a large audience regarding personal change and honest commitment.  Brian runs a $10 million company.  With his own staff, he emphasizes that when they make sales commitments in particular, he and other leaders will base their decisions based upon these commitments.  It doesn't work if people commit to what they think management wants to hear rather than what they are committing to doing without fail.

In fact, Brian will ask his staff what they are willing to lose or give up if they don't come through with what they have committed to doing.

This week, I was working with a sales professional on her planning.  She has a weekly objective to have a specific number of face-to-face appointments with prospects.  She confidently told me that she plans to meet with eight new prospects a week.

I asked her if she were willing to write her company's owner a $100 check that he could deposit and keep if she did not meet with eight new prospects next week.  There was an uncomfortable silence.

The point is, as sales professionals and business owners, we are often not honest, or at least not realistic, about our commitment to our goals and activity.  We can't hit our sales goals and our personal financial goals nor can we become great where we are if we are not fully and honestly committed to achieving what we say we are going to achieve.

Don't let falling short become a habit.  Don't let your company down.  Don't let yourself down.

Find a way to make honest commitments.  Find a way to put skin in the game to keep you honest.

Feel free to contact me for ideas as to how you can get more skin in the game.

Photo on flickr by eschipul

What is the Number One Mistake Sales People Make?

This was a question asked by Tracy Johnson, a member or the Linked In group Sales Gravy.  Close to 100 sales professionals have posted their thoughts on this question in the last month.  Most of those listed one of the following as the number one mistake.

•    Poor listening skills
•    Poor follow-up
•    Not qualifying prospects
•    Failing to keep the pipeline full
•    Failing to ask good questions
•    Failing to ask for the business
•    Poor planning
•    Poor handling (or no handling) of objections
•    No passion

With the exception of the last one, all of these things fall into one big category.

Failure to Execute a Good Business Development Process!

A good sales process should document what to do, how to do it, and when as it regards lead generation, lead nurturing, and the sales process.  It should also include a way to track results and make adjustments along the way.

Since I love sports analogies and the NFL, here is one way to look at it.

The lead generation and lead nurturing process is like the preparation and practice that an NFL team will go through each week before a game.  Their entire week is scripted.  Team meetings are the same time on the same day each week.  The same "on the field" practice and game preparation methods are done at the same time on the same day each week.  (Of course the actual activity may vary based upon the game plan for the week.)

Whether you are in a large business or a sole proprietor, you need to have a consistent schedule wherein you execute the same lead nurturing and lead generation activities every week.  This consistency and professionalism is what keeps the pipeline full.

Game time is like the sales call.  The NFL team goes in with a game plan that they intend to execute.  However, within that game plan there are all kinds of contingencies that they have planned for and practiced.  In other words, they know how to instantly respond to each situation as it is occurring.

The sales process is the same.  The sales person is prepared to ask the right questions.  They are prepared to listen to the answers.  They are prepared to respond to the different issues a prospect may bring up.  They are prepared to ask for the next appointment or the sale.  They know how to follow up when it is over.

Does this sound like a lot of work?  It is a lot of work to build the process and to establish the habit of execution.  But like the NFL, business and sales is not a recreational sport. 

Play to win or don't play at all!

If you have questions about how to establish executable Sales Habitudes for your business, please contact me.

Sales Goal Setting

My approach to goal setting may be a bit different than most and I am sure to get emails and comments.

Start by Setting Low Goals!

This is especially effective if you are a business owner trying to fit business development in to your everyday chaos.

Follow This Plan

First of all, you can only control activity, not outcomes.  So don't plan outcomes.  For example, don't plan to "schedule a meeting" with a client, plan to "call them for an appointment".

Identify the daily sales activities that you must do on a daily basis to succeed.  (Email me for a free list if your are not sure where to start.)  For tomorrow, make a plan that includes these activities, but make the level of activity so low you can't fail to complete the plan.  When you execute your plan, give yourself an appropriate reward.  (I crack open a Guinness.)

After a few days, increase the amount of activity that you plan by a little bit.  Get it done and reward yourself. 

Over time, keep increasing the amount of activity until you discover a your daily maximum.

Here are the reasons I suggest this plan of action.

You Need to Build Planning Muscles.

If the failure to plan is not the number one reason that sales people fail, it is at least in the top two or three.  If you don't plan and schedule your sales activity each day, then eventually you will fail.  On the flip side, if you plan too much and don't execute them, you also fail. Either way, planning is not working for you!

This method helps you to establish the habit of planning.  You also learn the skill of making a realistic plan based upon the amount of time that you have.  Some days you will know going in that you have less time than other days for sales activity and you can plan appropriately.

Note that it should be the rare exception that you don't plan at least a bit of business development activity every day.  Just like going to the gym once every week or two won't get you in great shape, inconsistent sales activity barely gets any results.

You Need to Build Execution Muscles

Lots of business owners and sales people tell me they plan, but when I look at their plans, I see a lot of activity on today's plan carried over from yesterday.  They have no idea what is realistic because their plan is really just a giant to do list.

Finish your daily plan daily!  By the way, the last activity on the daily plan ought to be to plan for tomorrow. 

You Need to Build Positive Associations with Planning and Execution

I don't care how easy your plan is to accomplish. If you plan five days in a row and execute the plan every day, you will have done something that only a small percentage of business owners and sales people have ever done. 

You should feel great about yourself!

You Need to Build Your Confidence in Planning and Execution

Keep planning and executing every day and you will quickly start to see consistent results in terms of business development and sales.  After three months to six months, planning will be as habitual as brushing your teeth.  If you realize you forgot to plan, you may feel compelled to get out of bed to make your plan.

Finally, You Will Have Build a Pattern of Successful Planning and Execution

You may be thinking you don't have time to set low goals.  "Low" is subjective.  Just don't set daily activity goals that you will fail to execute more than 10% of the time.

You may be thinking that you can't afford to wait for your sales people to build their muscles.  Wrong, you can't afford to have them setting themselves up for failure most days.  Following this plan will foster the development of sales people that are far more effective, reliable, and happier than those of your competitors.

Tell me your thoughts.  Is this crazy or might it just work?

Do you have a daily sales plan?

Managing Sales Activity for Success

Discover how to Explode Sales for the Small Business and Sales Professionals with Sales Habitudes! 

Sales Compensation Systems

A question we get all the time is "how should we compensate our sales people."  Those asking fit into one of two categories.

1. They are hiring their first sales people and have no experience with incentive based sales compensation systems
2. They are frustrated with the production in general of their sales staff and they want to see if a tweak in their sales compensation system will make the difference.

There are a ton of ways to go about it and no one way is best.  However, there are some things to keep in mind when creating an incentive compensation system. 

For this post, I consulted with my father Ed Garrison.  He has been consulting for three decades with senior leaders in the financial services industry and has seen more convoluted sales compensation systems than most people alive today.

Here are a few of the things he would tell you.

1. Keep it simple.  If the salesperson has a difficult time understanding what they have to do to reach their personal goals, it can be demotivating.
2. Make sure that you understand what you want your sales people to do before you create incentives.  If not done carefully, people may behave in ways that you did not foresee.
3. You can't motivate lazy or undisciplined sales people by offering higher commission.  It only increases your cost of carrying a poor performer.
4. You can't increase performance of a poorly trained sales person by offering higher commission.  Spend the money on training instead.
5. You can't get a sustained increase in sales of a poor product or service by increasing commission.  Spend the money to improve the product or service value.
6. Sales people are not purely motivated by the commission.  They are also motivated by things like serving their clients and recognition for their accomplishments.
7. When hiring, it is generally better to decide upon your compensation structure before beginning to interview.  If you get very excited about a prospective job candidate, you may be too generous with compensation.
8. Don't cut commissions unless you can afford to lose your best salespeople.

What is your experience with good and bad systems?  What pieces of advice would you add to the list?

Photo on flickr by mysavingtips

 

Sales, Ethics, and Company Culture

I recently had a conversation with a fellow sales professional about one particular company and our personal experiences with their sales practices.  Their front line people are not transparent and they are manipulative.

Although this may appear to help the bottom line, questionable ethics in the front line sales process will have a long term negative impact on the company culture.

The sales associates who are the most successful with these tactics will naturally get promoted and they will train new people on their techniques.  The better their people are with these practices, the better their supervisors look leading to further progression in the company.

Subtle deception or worse is what leads to success in this culture.

If you were running this company, could you trust your direct reports to not deceive you?

If you were an employee, could you trust management?

If you were a customer, would you stay with this company?

What happens when these practices are perceived to define an entire industry such as banking, mortgage lending, auto sales, and government?

The bottom line is that long term health and success of both people and companies is tied to the level of their ethical standards and transparency as well as putting the interests of their clients ahead of their own.

What has been your experience regarding manipulative business practices?

Photo on flickr by philobiblon

Sales Process Versus Art

There are a variety of sales approaches and systems that a company can employ.  When designing these things, begin by figuring out where the company should lie on the Process and Art Sales Spectrum.

On the far left of the spectrum is sales as a pure Process.

• Variability in products and/or services are not valued by customers.  They don't want choices or they only need a few simple choice options.
• Prospects are easily identified and the message is easy to deliver.
• Prospects are highly sensitive to price.
• Training is basic and focuses more on order taking and customer service.
• Best practices are easily codified, trained, and monitored.

On the far right of the spectrum is sales as an Art.

• HIgh output variation creates customer value.  Sophisticated solutions or provocation is expected.
• Prospects, specifically decision makers, are sometimes difficult to identify and are hard to access.
• Prospects are value sensitive and focused on ROI.
• Training of sales professionals is critical for long term effectiveness.
• Creativity and problem solving ability are highly valued skills.

Of course, there is no such thing as a sales process without art nor can an artist succeed without process.

All companies are going to fall in between the extremes, especially if they have multiple products, services, or client profiles.

Where a company and their products and services fall on this spectrum impacts how they market and to whom, the sales systems they develop, and the people they hire to do sales.

Are your companies sales processes and people aligned with your position on the spectrum?

Sales System Pitfalls

There are many sales system pitfalls that can slow down or stop the growth of an organization.  ("System" refers to policies and procedures, not necessarily an electronic system.)  Here are three pitfalls that I look for right away.

1.  No Sales System

Obviously if everything is done randomly and inconsistently, loads of opportunity will never be captured.  This occurs a lot with small businesses that market to get leads, but don't have a pre-determined method for working with the prospect to turn them into a client.

2.  Cumbersome Sales System

In an attempt to handle every detail and contingency or to capture a lot of metrics, the sales system can get in the way of real productivity, especially in smaller businesses where there may be little to no support such as a customer service center.  The sales person can wind up spending a lot of time navigating non revenue generating activity. 

When designing the system, was it designed primarily as a support tool for talented sales people, or was it designed primarily to monitor the activity of of average sales people?  Be careful, a lot of policies and procedures are created in corporate America to try and compensate for poorly trained, poorly motivated, and poorly hired employees.

3.  Inflexible Sales System

This has to do as much with sales management as it does with the sales system.  Three successful sales people selling the same product for the same company in similar territories can achieve their success by employing different tactics. 

One may be extraordinary at prospecting with tools such as Linked-In or Twitter.  The second is extraordinary at prospecting IRL (in real life).  The third gets extraordinary results cold calling.

All three have leveraged unique strengths and styles that get great introductions that lead to sales.

A system developed with prejudice towards one style will obviously impede the other styles.  For the small business, it may cause them to go through several high potential sales people until they find one that fits their rigid system.

With a large businesses, it can cause the sales force to become homogeneous.  This may be appropriate in some businesses and even support a brand, but in others it may crush the diversity of your client portfolio creating some risk management issues.

It seems like common sense, but developing and managing the use of a sales system can be a real balancing act.

What are your thoughts and experiences regarding sales systems?  Does your company have one? Is it supportive and flexible or is it cumbersome and inflexible?

Photo on flickr by blisspix

Sales Management: Hire Cats, Not Dogs

Intuitively, small business owners want to hire dogs when they start hiring sales people when they should hire cats.

Simply put, a well trained dog will follow your commands.

The dog will come, sit, stay, shake hands, and heel on command.  They eat when you give them food and they are not picky.  They'll follow you around all day waiting for you to tell them what to do.  They will work together and can be led in packs.  Some of them will even help you hunt for game.  But when it comes to hunting, they don't work independently and they don't close.  They'll locate, point, and even retrieve your game, but they will never pull the trigger on their own.  Dogs are extraordinarily valuable but they are better in departments like customer service, IT, and marketing.

You can rely on the dog for many things, but if you rely on them to bring in business, you will starve!

The cat on the other hand will not sit, stay, heel, or do anything else that you ask.  They don't take well to the pack or team structure.  In fact, we all know they are typically aloof.  They don't need your attention and rarely want it.  All they really want is a place to retreat to every once in a while.

But the cat is a closer!

Turn the cat loose in its territory and it will hunt naturally.  The cat can't help it.  If a "prospect" gets near it, the cat gets excited and will pounce.  They will pounce on anything and everything in their "target market."  They go after mice, birds, snakes, bugs, anything that can crawl, walk, or fly.

As a small business owner, which would you rather hire, the dog or the cat?

Photo on flickr by fauxto digit