A while ago, I tuned into a conversation between two of our salespeople. One of them, a relative newcomer to sales, was commenting that given the experience of his first year in sales, selling was easy.
I’ve been selling for a long time, and I have never thought selling was easy.
In earlier entries, I had talked about sales as a profession. As in any profession, it’s difficult to make a call on how easy it is until you have a lot of experience under your belt. Early success in sales can be the result of factors outside of your native selling skills.
I remember my first order was for about $10,000. I was elated. The problem was that most people in the sales department are nice, and they pat you on the back for your first sale. But it wasn’t a sale; it was an order. I just took the customer’s call and wrote down the information. The guy whose territory I had just taken over did the spadework.
The more experienced you become at selling, the higher you rise, and the more challenging it becomes. You are now up against competitors whose maturity evolved from the same torturous path that you followed to become successful. If selling is easy, you have no competition and sometimes that is the case. Or, someone else is doing the work for you. But if your product is much the same as your competitors, and the salesperson you are working against has the same experience as you, selling will not be easy.
Every salesperson has to make presentations to their customers, and the most common tool they use is Microsoft PowerPoint. In an earlier post, I even talked about PowerPoint as a form of “persuasion technology” in sales. But PowerPoint is not without critics; some feel that it encourages a lazy way to deliver information: first, you get the bullets into PowerPoint, then, you read the bullets to the audience. Presentation done.
Lots of stuff has been written about how to do it better, but if you are already prone to using PowerPoint, are there any alternatives?
Flypaper is interesting, because it is free. No caveats or hitches here.
Download this software and you can immediately design impressive presentations for delivery locally on your computer, or over the web. You can include video, audio, animation, and choose from predesigned models and templates. Flypaper works using a “story model” of building your presentation, and it breaks away from the “bullet method” of doing things. With Flypaper, the emphasis is on Flash-based animation that is easy to put together. Highly recommended and well worth a try.
What I findparticularly interesting is that the man behind Flypaper is Pat Sullivan. As you may already know, Pat was the founder of ACT! and later, SalesLogix; two commercially successful customer relationship management solutions. Given Pat’s background in sales, it comes as no surprise to me that he would be involved with persuasion technology.
Strategic customer relationship management has been my focus for the last twelve years. During this time I have worked with sales executives, managers and directors at major software vendors and consulting firms. I have always faced one major challenge: how to sell software or services to people who just don’t believe it can help them. “This is going to waste my time,” they say.
Maybe that’s one of the reasons why CRM still does not have the same impact on sales as it does for marketing and service organizations.
Recently, I have completed some research which asked sales executives the major benefits that CRM brought to sales organizations. Most of them said that even considering indirect benefits related to their activities such as communications or reduction in administrative overhead, CRM did not help on its main promise: to increase sales productivity and revenues.
In fact, sales automation, when associated to mobile order entry is quite well recognized as an important tool. However, when associated with increased sales effectiveness with any kind of structured methodology, sales reps just turn their faces: “I’m afraid that it will take me too much time,” they say, “I do not see it as something that could make me work better.”
Working in the consulting business for the last 5 years, I could not find anything really new in this business. That is until a sales rep at one of my clients said to me: “Hey Enio, I´m in control of all my opportunities,” and showed me a PDA running a piece of software with an interesting dashboard. According to him, it was the first software that was worth using, because time invested on data entry results in fantastic results. He said, “You should try it yourself!”
It was the first time in many years that a sales rep told me that sales software was helping him to sell. I decided to check the methodology behind that software. And guess what? I found the book Sales Automation Done Right. Based on the ideas in the book, SalesWays was able to build Sales Cycle Manager, the software that makes the methodology come alive.
Enio Klein
Principal at K&G
I’m writing this on the way to Hawaii, on a cruise ship, a planned attempt at avoiding part of the long Canadian winter (which has actually been very forgiving this year). Cruises are always a good opportunity to read books, something that I find tough to do in life back home.
I quickly read two excellent books, the kind that you can’t put down once you start. One of them was Bob Woodward’s account of “deep throat,” the contact who gave him and Carl Bernstein guidance while investigating the Watergate break-in. In a short postscript, Bernstein said something that caught my attention: “Reporters may believe they control the story, but the story always controls the reporters.” This triggered something. I have often talked about the story that resides within our OPM sales method, which originated out of my first book and which has been expanded and augmented within the framework of OPM sales training. A sales method must have a story, because it has to follow real life experiences involved in the process of selling. A good many sales methods have been developed over the past decades and only a few of them have survived and are accepted. The test of a sales method is that it has to work, and it takes a lot of time to establish that. It’s extremely difficult to get salespeople to switch methods, even to a good one. They don’t have much patience, and if they try something new that detracts them from their normal routine, they had better see results quickly. If not, they revert to their previous way of doing things. The point is, that it is difficult to introduce new methods to salespeople if they have spent any significant time in the field and have confidence in what they believe is the right way to do it. Because of this, bad sales methods will never go mainstream–they are like bad news stories, unless they stand up to scrutiny, people won’t believe them.
Bernstein says the “story” controls the reporters. He’s right. Nothing can change the story, because it should be, by definition the truth. Reporters grapple with the task of finding the truth. It’s the same with sale methods. We try to discover a sales “method” Sometime, under scrutiny the method breaks down, because we haven’t got it right. The method only works if it truly reflects what goes on in the sales process—figuring that out is as difficult as a reporter trying to unearth the details that will piece together the “story”.
If I seem like I’m belaboring this point, it’s because I sometimes wonder how we got to where OPM is today. We started in the early nineties in assembling the components and here we are fifteen years later with a method, a book, a training course, and a patent. But the process was evolutionary, just like Woodward and Bernstein figuring out Watergate. There’s no doubt that the OPM method controlled us. Sometimes when we tried to add stuff the method fought back—with the new material the method broke down. We had to change it and test again, until it was right. As we added pieces to the puzzle, the basis for truth was tested. If we passed, we locked up that stage, and moved on.
The method controlled us, as the story controlled the reporters.
In my last post I referred to Michael Schrage’s comment that the 2×2 matrix rated along with PowerPoint as the two most popular business tools. I don’t rate them equal—PowerPoint does not have the same depth as the 2×2 in the power to unravel problems—it is more a set of tools to get a more effective portrayal of an idea or message. In an effort to learn more, I went over to Wikipedia to check on PowerPoint. This led to a digression that is worth blogging about.
Wikipedia says that PowerPoint is a ubiquitous presentation program. I guess we all knew that, and the reason it is ubiquitous is because of Microsoft’s marketing clout. It goes on to say that PowerPoint “is among the most prevalent forms of persuasion technology.” That last term caught my interest—I’ve heard of information technology, change technology, but this is the first I’ve heard of persuasion technology. I ploughed on:
“Persuasion technology is technology that can be used for presenting or promoting a point-of-view. Any technology designed and deployed for those purposes can be considered a persuasion technology. Such aids are regularly used in sales, diplomacy, politics, religion, military training, cult recruiting and management, and may potentially be used in any area of human interaction.”
Wow, look at what heads up the list–sales! Click on sales and you get this:
“Sales, or the activity of selling, forms an integral part of commercial activity. It could be argued that it is the cornerstone of business as it is the meeting of buyers and sellers and all other areas of business has the goal of making that meeting successful. Mastering sales is considered by many as some sort of persuading ‘art.’ On the contrary, the methodological approach of selling refers to it as a systematic process of repetitive and measurable milestones, by which a salesperson relates his offering, enabling the buyer to visualize how to achieve his goal in an economic way.”
I need to say “wow” a second time. That definition of sales is right on. I try to emphasize the true meaning of sales in our OPM course. I use a slide that says “sales is the business of doing business.” One of our trainers asked to take it out. I let him do it—but on sober second thought, I won’t do that again.
There is so much to talk about just in this simple wander through Wikipedia (sales is a persuading “art”, wow number 3!!)
Must do this again.
In sales automation done right I make extensive use of one of my favorite business analytical tools, the 2×2 matrix. It’s a given that if a complex idea can be framed into two counter or opposing issues, the four quadrant result of a well-planned 2×2 matrix can throw a huge amount of understanding on a problem.
One of the most well known examples is Stephen Covey’s wonderful grid for managing personal resources. Covey says that tasks should be viewed from the two aspects of importance versus urgency. Some stuff that requires urgent attention may not in fact be important, and vice versa.
For instance, Covey categorizes personal recreation as something that is important to get done, but usually not urgent (you can wait four hours until you are out of the office before having a game of tennis). Conversely, he puts many intrusive telephone calls into the urgent, but not important category. According to the quadrant that people tend to focus on most, Covey can predict whether a person is heading for burnout, or is leading a well-paced, creative and crisis-free life. The simple four quadrant perspective allows Covey to disassemble troublesome conflicts that are potentially stressful in a busy business environment such as sales. Most will have read at least one of Stephen Covey’s books, but if you haven’t, a good place to start is with First Things First, which is excellent for salespeople who want to hone up their organizational skills.
If you need to know all there is to know about the 2 by 2 matrix you should look at this book: The Power of the 2 x 2 Matrix: Using 2×2 Thinking to Solve Business Problems and Make Better Decisions. It discusses scores of examples of the four quadrant model in a host of business environments. Well worth a read.
There is a review of the above book here by business thought leader Michael Schrage. Michael’s article is interesting because he considers the 2×2 and Microsoft PowerPoint as the two most popular business analytical tools. But he also points out that they are not always used effectively. A good 2×2 is difficult to construct (we’ll take a look at my attempts in future posts). But PowerPoint especially is often thrust at audiences by presenters who haven’t put too much thought into the slides. We’ll take a look at that in the next post.
Most salespeople arrive in their profession in a roundabout way. Most have already spent some time in their industry doing something totally unrelated to selling. But if they get involved, as many do, with supporting the direct efforts of the company’s dealings with the customer, they are often enticed to cross the line—to get permanently involved in the most important customer facing process, that of sales.
A direct result of this circuitous route to the job of selling is that many salespeople never get a logical step-by-step grounding in the language and science of their profession. A recent article in the Wall Street Journal pointed out that most Universities shy away from implimenting comprehensive programs that teach sales, even though corporate America wants them to do it.
I’m not saying that salespeople don’t get trained, they do. But the training is almost always centered on the immediate needs of the sales team, driven by strategic and tactical considerations. Consequently salespeople are drilled on what to do and say in front of a customer without having a firm understanding of the sales cycle and the fundamental characteristics of the sales opportunity itself. This is why so many salespeople have trouble with forecasting—they don’t understand how to recognize the value of the sale, and what factors determine it. This ignorance is compounded by misunderstanding the underlying dynamics of the customer’s buying process, which means that it becomes impossible to make worthwhile predictions on when the sale will conclude. Faced with this, Managers have a tough time in predicting future revenues, which in lean economic times can have an adverse effect on the health of the business.
The last post introduced the idea that two basic selling styles dominate the salesperson’s efforts to capture customers. We can see what the two styles are if we look closely at the idea of the conversation between customer and salesperson that happens through the sales cycle. The end game of the conversation for the customer is to obtain a product or service that will solve some form of immediate need. The end game for the salesperson is that they supply the solution to the customer, rather than a competitor.
Multiple interactions occur between the two parties throughout the sales cycle. The customer is engaged in a buying process and the salesperson is reciprocally pursuing a sales process. This is a business transaction and both customer and salesperson will be using certain sets of skills. The customer needs value, and the salesperson must show that they can provide it. Value will be determined by capability and price.
The skills that the salesperson uses can be learned or acquired through experience. The degree that he or she can use them effectively will partially determine whether they will win the sale. There will be others who present different solutions – each will have their own spin, highlighting strengths and minimizing weaknesses. The skill of the salesperson to boldly present what he or she believes to be the truth will lead to gaining the customer’s confidence.
But there is another important factor that determines selling style. The better the relationship between two negotiating parties, the more chance the deal will go through. Salespeople who have the ability to gain the respect and the loyalty of their customer will have a much more solid platform off which to build on their true selling skills. This kind of skill is usually inherited and driven by the intrinsic personality of the salesperson. In Opportunity Portfolio Management we refer to the style of relying on selling skills as being opportunity focused. The style relying on relationships to win sales is being relationship focused.
Salespeople naturally are inclined to one of the two styles, but the most successful ones are comfortable with either, and moreover, have the ability to blend the two styles to match a particular stage or point in a sales cycle. This idea is at the heart of Opportunity Portfolio Management and represents a key opportunity for salespeople, whether seasoned or newcomers, to test themselves in their strategic interactions with the customer. We’ll talk about how to do that in future postings.
The people who come to this website for some guidance in using technology in sales may feel this question is almost too cryptic or fundamental. But those who have read sales automation done right will know that my pet peeve is that, most often, salespeople are not (but should be) fully aware of the language of sales, in the same way that lawyers should understand the language of law. If laws are written in an ambiguous way, how can the courts decide if someone is right or wrong? In some cases where the lawmakers have not been careful, decisions can take an awful long time to make.
In my last entry, I talked about the oldest sales book on my shelves dating from the fifties. It has a small section that is titled “What is Selling?” The answer goes on for three pages, but here is essentially what it says:
“The successful sale consists of the following elements:
1. It induces others to buy a commodity or service
2. Which confers some needed benefit on them, and
3. At a price which yields a profit to the company”
Here is my paraphrase:
Selling is the ability of the salesperson to persuade a customer to purchase their company’s commodity or service, yielding a benefit to the customer and a profit for the company.
I’ve used the word persuade in place of the original word induce. Both words imply that the customer has an alternate choice to yours. I’ve always thought that the act of selling must imply competition. Selling has the end point of achieving the customer’s choice of your product over the competition. If the customer proactively goes to your company’s web store, sees something they want and places an order—this is order taking and not selling. It can be argued that the marketing department, or the product design department, through their efforts to promote the product, did the selling. But no salesperson was involved.
So an important aspect of selling is a conversation between the salesperson and the customer in which the salesperson attempts to convince the customer that they have a better solution to suit the customer’s needs than other possible alternatives. That conversation happens over time, and the time period is called the sales cycle. There are two overriding styles of selling that can occur during the sales transaction (the conversation in the sales cycle). The ability to handle both styles is critical to good selling, and there will be more on that in future entries.
For the previous entry, I had to dig around in some dusty areas of my sales library. The oldest sales book was part of a series of twenty volumes called “Modern Business” dating from 1958. I bought them for $5 from our next door neighbor’s garage sale. His wife had made him toss them out, and my wife was mad at me for buying them (they require three feet of shelf space). Although I consider 1958 as almost yesterday, these books are nearly fifty years old. Most of the people I work with in SalesWays were not yet born then.
In 1958, I was living in the UK. Buddy Holly had recorded “That’ll Be The Day” in 1957. The Beatles were listening and they would do their own great thing five years later. I was not thinking at all about sales. But somebody was, because the volume called “Salesmanship” has a lot of good stuff in it. When I wrote Sales Automation Done Right, I had not read these books—they had been gathering dust, waiting for my wife’s next garage sale. There are some gems here, and now, there is no way that I will ever let them go.
Here are just a few of the ideas that will be just as appropriate in 2008, sixty years on from when they were written:
1958: “When one accepts the idea that selling is a process, he has started on the right path.”
1958: “While selling seems to be primarily an art, it still has certain aspects of a science. . . as a science, it requires the mastery of certain fundamentals which have evolved from success by others.”
1958: “In selling your product, a prospect needs conviction if you would close him.”
1958: “Analyzing a sales opportunity. If a sales opportunity arises, it is important that you carefully study it before reaching a conclusion as to whether you should make an effort to take an advantage of it.”
1958: “Value of planning. In the process of selling, planning plays a major role . . .”
Of course, the most influential factor in the progress of sales is not mentioned in “Salesmanship.” It would be another 35 years before personal computers would develop as the technology tool of choice for salespeople everywhere.
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