Archive for category Business

Transmuting your Sales ‘Farmers’ into ‘Hunters’

Posted by Doctapaul in Business, Coaching, Selling, Training & Development on August 16, 2011

Since the current economic climate began, organizations have been downsizing, reshaping, restructuring, removing layers of management, centralizing, decentralizing… you name it. As conditions worsened the focus has gone from cutting costs to cash survival (+ cutting costs). I’ve observed that no-one has been harder hit than SME businesses where, even in good times, cashflow has always been a bit of a juggling act.

So we are now fours years on, this very August. Customers and vendors who get on stick through the mire. They’ve shared the pain. What’s next?

A few organizations I deal with are gearing themselves for growth. It would be nice if they could ‘farm’ that growth from existing clients. Maybe they can but they do not want to ignore the opportunities from ‘hunting’ for new clients nor be wholly dependent on the custom of existing ones.

They seek to transform themselves from Sales ‘Farmers’ into ‘Hunters’.

Here are some salient points about their journey.

There are 18 benchmarked critical success factors an organization can invest in to become ‘winners’ in hunting for new business (“superbidders” win more than 3 out 4 major bids). More on this later.
The F-to-H transition is more of an emotional journey than an intellectual one. It’s about making people motivated, confident and curious as well as competent. This starts by making selling (‘hunting’) as easy as possible.
Recent years of restructuring of reporting lines and reshaping of business processes will no-doubt have been for good reason. A key question remains – what changes will customers have noticed in your people:
– More fire and enthusiasm?
– Nothing?
– Or sloping shoulders?
Winning over the hearts and minds of (especially remote) people comes down to making their lives easier. Again, for salespeople (who follow the path of least resistance) – it’s about ‘making selling easy’ so that they can hit their sales-targets from hunting as easy as (or easier than) they can from farming.
Sales training in Industry, Function and Product areas will provide much of the intellectual content required but will probably have only a limited impact on all but the top 10-15% of your salesforce. Management reinforcement will help further to instill hunting practices. The research I’ve seen in this area points to single figure %age growth in sales from such training/coaching interventions. So I want to talk about 3 things that can take you well into double digit growth.

3 areas to consider should you want to go for double digit growth:

1. Benchmarking – only 4% of companies win more than 3 out of 4 major bids for new business

The largest research programme in the world into winning business (led by Prof. Colin Coulson-Thomas, Chairman of Cotoco Ltd [www.cotoco.com]. I declare my hand here. I’m a Non-exec Director.) has involved over 2,500 companies. This large sample size includes companies of widely differing performance in Winning Business. Overall the results are consistent industry to industry – and across sizes of organisations.

Key Points:
• 18 Critical Success Factors (CSFs) to winning major bids

• The top quartile: “Superbidders” win more than 3 out 4 major bids

• “Superbidders” make up less than 4% of the total population

• “Superbidders” only consider themselves to be “very effective” in 8-9 out 18 CSFs. There is plenty of headroom.

• Largest number of organisations in quartile: the median is between 1:2 and 1:3 win ratios.

• Organisations in the median or lower quartile consider themselves to be very effective in only a small number of CSFs.

The top 3 (CSFs) of the 18 differentiators are:

Understanding the value/benefits customers expect to gain from your products/services
Understanding the cost of ownership issues that impact customers’ decisions about your product or service
Establishing the superiority of your products or services over those of competitors

Organisations that spread themselves too thinly don’t catch up with the winners. I find that most organizations (I introduce this benchmark to) are already tackling a broad range of the CSFs. They do not realize that improving the CSFs you are very effective in from say 2-3 to 4-5 will have a huge impact on your win rate. So it’s about knowing the vital few to invest in first.

The benchmark informs you which CSFs to go for, to get the best RoI in winning major bids.

2. E-quipping every salesperson to engage with new C-Level clients the way top performers do – and save on your face to face training costs

This approach to enabling Customer Executive (C-Level) Engagement has been used by global companies like Cisco as well as SMEs for a number of years.

Having asked the right questions and done their research beforehand, we find that top performers engage with C-Level clients far more effectively because they use compelling evidence and messages to:

Underpin the trustworthiness of your company.
Raise your customer executives’ curiosity to investigate the broad range of services that your company can provide
Make it easy for regular (non C-Level) customer contacts to convey, to their own peers and senior management (that your salespeople might not get to meet), the superiority that your company has to offer.

E-quipping (as opposed to the drudgery of e-learning) takes minutes. It provides the opportunity to cut out the high costs of face to face training. This can be a huge expense saving for global companies. It also means less time away from the field for your salespeople.

3. Coaching top sales performers to make the emotional breakthroughs to increase their sales by 30%+

And what about your existing top performers? How do you take them up and beyond their current levels of performance? They are already setting your company’s benchmark for what’s achievable – are they not?

The good news is that top performers are always curious about how to improve themselves. In my experience, good in-house management coaching will improve their performance by no more than say 5-10%. Going beyond (increasing their sales by 20-30% and beyond) requires coaching which (and an experienced coach who) will take them outside their comfort zones. For the journey to 30%+ is filled with emotional blocks: limiting beliefs about themselves, their client relationships and the tasks in hand. If it were purely an intellectual journey (these people are smart) they would be there already. The experienced coach gets them to dissolve these emotional blocks. And when they commit themselves to move beyond, their sales performance escalates.

Ω
Shine on…!
Paul C Burr
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How do you keep salespeople up to date?

Posted by Doctapaul in Business, Selling, Training & Development on August 16, 2011

Imagine you’re in corporate sales. You have 400+ (I’ve been quoted this) items in your email and your in-mail grows by the day. What should you read? Can’t decide? Take a day off from selling or delete them all?
Imagine you have a portfolio of say 20 products and services to sell. How do you keep up to date with what is important and relevant? You can only assimilate a tiny fraction of what is available – but is it the right fraction? How would you know? How would the people sending that information know?
Now imagine you have a portfolio of over 600 products and services. What chance, of keeping up to date, have you now?

A smarter planet means everything connects: across brands,across industries, across technologies… across everything. What does this mean to the customer? And the customer could be anybody.
Now you’re a sales director.
How do enable your sales people to have the breadth of conversation with a wide range of people (architects, hospital managers, mayors, CEOs, business owners etc. rather than CIOs/technical people).
You are no longer dealing with a bucket full of information but an ocean full.
How do you enable selling across a huge range of products and services?
Throwing e-learning at it will not work – there is just too much stuff.
Each sales person needs to be like a general practitioner – which means the patient that comes through the door may have one of thousands of ailments. How can an individual sales person be an expert in all of these at the same time?

An Answer:
Build ‘an expert on everybody’s shoulder’ to whisper guidance in their ear. The ‘expert’ will equip each salesperson with everything they need to generate trust, articulate value and inspire action with senior customer executives. Once they get the ball rolling for a particular opportunity then, hopefully, it’s business as usual for them.

Salespeople want information but….
3 critical factors I’ve observed about your typical salesperson:

Short attention span
Wants everything on a plate – won’t work at it
Wants the relevant up to date information in seconds – not minutes, hours or days

And:

“A common weakness: most sales support material (I come across) is designed “Inside-Out”, not from the customer’s perspective. Top performers take this material, massage it and whiteboard a powerful “Outside-In” story. This is what you capture and disseminate. (“Inside-Out” collateral lists features and benefits. “Outside-In” focuses on value, trust and evidence)
Content needs to be vetted by top and average performers, and technical experts, to ensure it is fit for purpose – i.e. will make selling easier.
No module of information lasts more than 90 seconds.
Everything needs to be at their fingertips
The approach focuses initially on getting the customer to say “tell me more”. Then it makes it easy for the customer to say ‘Yes!’. The approach e-quips the salesperson for this precise purpose. E-quipping isn’t e-learning. (Warning: e-quipping is vastly misunderstood by the Training and Development community because they look at it as learning. They don’t get it.)

Good selling!
Ω
Shine on…!
Paul C Burr
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7 key traits, CEOs use to break through those wretched “Corporate Firewalls”

Posted by Doctapaul in Business, Leadership on August 16, 2011

I’ve seen a wide variety of researched estimates of the average tenure of a CEO. They range from 2.5 to 7+ years. I don’t know many private investors who are that patient. The last two CEOs I met, gave themselves considerably less time to make their mark; 1 year and 6 months respectively.

CEOs seem to have a honeymoon period of around 18 months. By the end of which, if things aren’t significantly better, their ‘marriage’ with the investors will probably not last.

A chat with Professor Colin Coulson Thomas prompted me to write this blog. Colin, author of Winning Companies:Winning People, is Chairman and fellow board member of Cotoco Ltd .

Here are the warning signs that CEOs fear most.

Bad earnings news: the most likely and quickest sign of departure.
Corporate programs don’t deliver: mergers and acquisitions “achieve 70% of their potential” at best.
Failure to turnaround ailing sales quick enough.
Change takes too long: “Corporate Firewalls” prevent people from getting it done. More on this later.
Investors don’t understand: a CEO spends 40% of their time articulating strategy and some argue that’s not enough.
Personal wealth at risk: e.g. missed deadlines can lead to private investors swallowing up the shareholding of a company
Lack of innovation: playing it safe is no longer an option these days. Competitors and customers are moving too quickly.
Talent gaps in performance: e.g. 20% of the salesforce bring in 80% of the revenue (and probably a much higher percentage of the profit).
Conflict in the boardroom: too much time spent looking inwards leaves too little time to focus on the customer.
Personal credibility at risk: any of the above means less likelihood of stepping up the ladder of success and/or lack of a legacy of note. These in turn can lead to…
Personal health at risk: where the stressed mind-body connection can have serious consequences. I know of one CEO who, after missing targets set by investors, developed terrible eye problems because he didn’t like what he saw. Another developed disabling back pain through a lack of self esteem. Another who was deemed too rigid and inflexible developed problems with their joints.

Getting the strategy right will largely depend on the advice the CEO receives from those around them and experts (those they know who have done it before). This is called mentorship. And many stop there because it’s traditionally acceptable to have mentors.

But the CEO’s job is not just about getting it right. It’s about influencing people who don’t want to be influenced at first. If they were easily influenceable they’d have done what was needed long ago. This leads us to those constructs that get in the way – I call them….

Corporate Firewalls
With a select group of people, the CEO works out what tomorrow’s reality for their organisation will look like – and the strategy to get there. They find the first firewall just outside this group. Everyone on the inside ‘gets it’. Those on the outside don’t – certainly not the whole picture. Which means they miss perhaps key pieces to the corporate jigsaw. The more select the CEO’s inner group, the higher or tougher the ‘wall’ is to breach.
The wall filters out some of the cognition and understanding of what went on inside. It only takes a small amount to create ambiguity. Once ambiguity kicks it can start a trail as follows:
ambiguity –> confusion –> stress –> dysfunction.
This occurs especially in organisational cultures where ‘not understanding’ is perceived as a weakness. And when a ‘senior middle manager’ (say, from outside the group) doesn’t get it, they tend to do one of 4 things. They…

Ask for clarity (’tis surprising how little often this happens)
Put their head down, pay lip-service, and hope it will go away
Push back (the larger the hierarchy the less egalitarian the culture)
(Most dangerous of all) Make up the missing pieces of the jigsaw for themselves

The latter habit creates the most confusion for everyone in the value chain right through to the customer interface or the grass roots level of the organisation. For just behind this ‘grass roots’ operational level we observe a second firewall. Curiously, those at the ‘grass roots’ level seem to get the gist of CEO messages quite easily. It’s how those messages are translated into action where the confusion lies. And they are sometimes less prone to keeping quiet when things don’t add up. So the CEO has the challenge of involving those who will carry their message wholly and articulately into the organisation on their behalf.

7 Key Traits
CEOs require a mixed repertoire of personal strategies to influence influencers. In my personal research (of several hundred top performers in organisations around the globe) I’ve observed 7 key traits (or characteristics) in those who influence the best:

Faith-in-Self – when there is no data (or time to gather it) to make big decisions.
Passion – if you don’t radiate passion how can you expect others to shine?
Sensibility – to see where others are at, where they come from and where they are headed, in their minds
Articulate – to simplify complex concepts and make them compelling
Curiosity – to explore what’s going on below the surface of things
Networker – it’s not what you know it’s who you go to, to find and share wisdom to get things done
Composure – under pressure or facing the unknown

We demonstrate traits. They describe how we come across to others. We do not learn them in a classroom through conventional training. We nurture traits. A good Executive Coach accelerates the process of how a CEO nurtures winning traits and behaviours (that may feel uncomfortable at first) – to forge a strategic personal-identity with those people whom they do not have personal contact with. If these winning traits were purely intellectual or comfortable they wouldn’t need a coach – would they? With this in mind, we can see the difference between mentoring and coaching.

We get what we project.
CEOs get people to copy what they project. The onus they face: to transfer the above traits and characteristics to others. Some CEOs see coaching as something for other people with problems. They are part right. It is. But the problems I talk about are all associated with an inability to influence those people who will block/thwart even the best thought out plans. CEOs might not even know what those that hinder are up to – because they are hidden behind a Corporate Firewall.

Shine on…!
Paul C Burr
Business/Personal Performance Coach & Author
Facebook: Beowulf (>16,000 followers)
Follow @paulburr

accountability, boost sales, business relationships, daily thought, law of attraction, Law of Reversibility, mindfulness, responsibility, sales, sales management, sales productivity, self help, tip, tip for the day

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Bean counting to boost sales performance – the antiquated way to sell more beans

Posted by Doctapaul in Business, Leadership, Selling on August 16, 2011

“We count the beans in the sack, by size category. When we don’t have enough beans, we count them by colour – then by shape – then by country of origin. We find out who’s not selling beans very well and lean on them to get their act together. We find out who’s selling beans really well and incraese their quota to sell more beans. That’s how middle and senior management spend most of their time.” – Top 5 Global IT firm’s European Sales Director

Data when syntaxed and grouped becomes information, becomes knowledge when we understand what the information means, becomes wisdom when we know what to do with it.

A (perhaps over) simple example…
Information: Sales performance data is varied across the organisation. We categorise by product, region or individual so we find out what’s selling well, where it’s selling well and who’s selling well.

Knowledge: So far so good but as yet what’s going on below the surface? What is that the top performers are doing differently to everyone else?

Wisdom: How can we get everyone else to mimic them, fast?

When everyone has access to the best wisdom available and can apply it – you have the opportunity to take a quantum step (20%-30% more?) up in people’s performance. It doesn’t matter whether you’re in sales, marketing, engineering, supply chain mgt, finance – you name it. BUT….

In order to make this transformation happen you need to totally transform your approach to learning (from your top performers), training, development and equipping people to do their work well. For this to work properly it all needs to become real time. There are only a handful of organisations, I know of, in the world trying such a “real time approach”. It takes a bit longer to explain than this blog permits.

“To increase sales you need to get in the sack with the beans and use the wisdom of the biggest and better beans to grow the little beans and more beans at the same time.”…. me

Ω
Shine on…!
Paul C Burr
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The Fear of Fear

Posted by Doctapaul in Business, Healing, Leadership, Personal, Pitfalls I've Fallen Into, Relationships, Self Development on August 16, 2011

"Fear" by lilith_abi

Fear is a strong word. It can be an uncomfortable word. If we over-embrace fear, we end up doing nothing about it. Paradoxically the fear of fear; not talking about fear, not thinking about fear can lead to….. denial – of the conscious and unconscious fears (“let’s not go there”) that hold us back.

(Image sourced from lilith_abi.)

So it’s about creating a structure and process where we can acknowledge our fears and vulnerabilities. When we deny fear, we deny our Truth. Research shows, living our Truth is the key to creating a healthy level of self worth.

This presents a challenge to the fiefdoms in politics and business in this “winner takes all” world we’ve created. A world where one man’s vulnerabilities and mistakes are seized by another for their own gain.

It points to a new world where property, wealth and “ownership” is based on equitable negotiation and usage, not forfeiture. Where one serves all as part of our social contract. Leaders do the leading, rulers do the ruling, Kings and Queens do the king-ing or queen-ing. They are jobs with reponsibilities and accountabilities, not titles. Ah-ha – I feel a whole new blog coming on.

Shine on…!
Paul C Burr
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Astrological musings: align your management team with planetary forces

Posted by Doctapaul in Astrology, Business, Leadership on August 11, 2011

Photo credit to Salvatore Vuono

Big business needs to and will change. To change, leaders need a new (and Ancient, I suggest) way of going about business for the benefit of all mankind, not just the shareholders and wealthy.

I have a book , in me, that I was gonna write two yrs ago – Druidism in Business. Here’s an extract that I will turn into a chapter or two. I intend, in later blogs, to delve into specific relationships twixt planets – and twixt Sun and each planet respectively.

The Sun (does the CEOing) – Shines Truth and Wisdom on all aspects of the business. In the noon day Sun we cast no shadow. Nothing is hidden, everything is revealed.
Mercury – Articulate, deep thinker, shares wisdom. Communicates on behalf of the organisation, internally and externally. The winged messenger of the Gods; the harbinger of Truth.
Venus – Creates the wealth through canny and passionate financial management. The financier of abundance within the organisation. Values beauty and elegance – especially in finance. Breaks the traditional mould because she balances her Love for success with her Love for the organisation’s people. Gets on well with Sister Moon.
Moon – Cares for the emotional well being and intelligence of the organisation.
Mars – The warrior, the go getter, especially when the going gets tough. Needs to work well with Venus and Moon to avoid “blood on the tracks”.
Jupiter – Responsible for the growth and development of people and resources. Prepares everyone and everything, “to surf ahead of the wave that Neptune sends his way.”
Saturn – Grounded, manages the infrastructure, business processes, governance and compliance of the organisation. Attention to detail. Anything that isn’t working is dealt with quickly.
Neptune – Strategic Business Developer, looks at the global picture, swims the uncharted seas of opportunity. Discerns opportunities for growth aligned to the purpose (porpoise? J) of the organisation. Avoids waters of illusion.
Uranus – (Che Guevara) works fast, agile, non-mainstream, challenges traditional thinking and the modus operandi. Manages projects (Skunk Works) that bring about abrupt changes to the power structure and processes. Always on the lookout for new (low cost) technology (weaponry) that will transmute the organisation’s effectiveness rapidly. Needs to integrate with Saturn’s down to earth approach to day to day business life, and fill the Moon’s emotional chalice with security – once the revolution is over. Call for Che when something needs fixing fast but beware there might be blood on the tracks, metaphorically speaking.
Pluto – Manages those areas of the business that are better brought to a close and those that will (re)born as a consequence. Looks at the total energy available. Needs to work closely with the Moon to manage transitions.

I want to add 3 more influences to make 13 in total. I’m still musing but ask for your suggestions please.

Shine on…!

Paul C Burr

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How do top salespeople sell new products and services to new customers fast?

Posted by Doctapaul in Business, Selling on August 6, 2011

As well as sell, salespeople have to market themselves well too. They need to be confident, passionate, competent, knowledgeable, motivated, curious, articulate, great networkers, show self belief, practice sensibility and stay cool under pressure. That’s quite a lot to demonstrate and when they meet a new customer, for the very first time.

NEW-NEW: So how can salespeople go about selling a ‘new’ product (or service) well to a new customer?

Answer: understand the sequence and the nature of the questions all customers ask.

What questions?

Customers Only Ask 4 Questions
I haven’t found a customer question that can’t be allocated to 4 fundamental questions. All customers will ask:
1. Can I trust you?
2. What value do you bring to the table?
3. Are you right for me/us?
4. How will we make it work together?

1. Can I Trust You?
When we consider trust, we can think of intent and effect. We may set out in a business relationship with good intentions BUT will it work? Do we really mean to deliver the value we promise to customers? Are we confident? Can we commit confidently our intention to deliver this value? (Or do we fall into the trap of sometimes overselling to get the contract i.e. selling what we can’t deliver?) And even if we do commit, can we convey assurance of our ability to deliver?

Trust thus has two dimensions: Integrity and Capability.
Integrity
As soon as a new customer has interest in what we sell they start to ask (albeit in many instances to themselves):
• Do I feel comfortable with you?
• Will you to keep your word?
• Will you to be reliable?
• Will you be loyal?
• Do I believe your intentions are sincere?
• Do you give me the sense of security I seek in a business relationship?
• Do I want to face the unknowns in this deal with you?
• Will you be there with me should things go wrong?

And they want to know what underpins our credibility and integrity.
Capability
With these types of questions a customer discerns our ability:
• Can I trust your ability to deliver what you say you will?
• Do you have the resources, intelligence and wherewithal to deliver what I expect?
• What track record, evidence, research or testimonies exist to back your proposals?
• Is your contract clear and concise?
• What risks exist? What contingencies have you put in place?

You probably don’t need convincing that Trust comes first. Just in case – in recent research, across 120 b2b customers worldwide, the three most important determinants of a healthy sales relationship are:
I. Keep commitments
II. Listen – demonstrate understanding
III. Be trustworthy, honest and loyal (Before a customer’s trust, we must trust ourselves. For if we can’t trust ourselves, how can we expect a customer to trust us?)

So what about Value? This leads to the customer’s second major question.

2. What Value Do You Bring to the Table?
The ‘science’ to determine value discovers what’s important to the customer. And once we understand the customer’s priorities – how do we stack up (against our competitors) to deliver against them? What expectations do they have of us as a supplier? Can we over-deliver? And if we do, will the customer gives us any goodwill/credit for it?

Here are sources of value (business drivers and problems to fix) that I find CEOs look for:
• Cash – Will your proposal improve our cash position?
• Cost Down – Will we reduce costs?
• Revenue/Market Share Up – Will we make competitive gains?
• Agility/Speed – Can we move, reshape, transcend quickly?
• Security – is it safe?
• Governance – Am I compliant with Company Law.
• Product/Service/Cost Leadership – Will our own customers notice/value the changes in our organisation that your proposal offers?
• Innovation (e.g. Technology, New Business Models) – Do I want (to be seen) to be first in the marketplace, to do something differently? Does your proposal accelerate the process?
• Personal Credibility – Can I use your proposal to advance my own career prospects?
• People – Will your proposal raise the effectiveness and job satisfaction of people?
• Something else? – If you don’t know, ask. Even if you feel you know, ask anyway.

Put concisely, we need to understand profoundly what’s important in the hearts and minds of customers – and convey the value we bring to the table in their language, not ours.

This leads to the “crunch” question where the decision to purchase or not takes place.

3. Are You the Right Person/Organisation (to give me/us what I/we want)?
Sounds straight forward but this question has two dimensions:
I. The Tangible or Intellectual
II. The Emotional

I. The Tangible or Intellectual
Over and above all the questions asked so far:
• What’s the business case for your proposal?
• When’s the payback period?
• What’s the upfront investment?
• Am I willing to afford what you ask for?
• What are the risks?
• What are the contingencies to avert or defend against such risks?
• Do I have the OK from my board and my technical people about your proposal?

II. The Emotional (this is where we win or lose the customer decision)
Here the customer takes in everything they’ve seen, read and heard about us and our proposal. They go inside themselves. They internalise the answers to one or more of the following questions….
• Can I see your solution working in my organisation? Will my people embrace it willingly?
• Can I see our business relationship working?
• Does is sound right? Are the bells ringing of joy or tolling a warning?
• Does it feel right?
• Does it smell right? Clean and fresh or something that could go rotten?
• Does it give me a sweet enough taste in my mouth?
• (And when we get a ‘yes’ to the above questions.) Am I inspired enough to go ahead with this relationship?

So now we have a favourable decision to “let’s go” from the customer – a signed and committed contract. We may have had a number of further customer questions to answer, to arrive here. They concern how our proposal will work.

4. How Will We Make It Work Together?
The customer CEO may well delegate some or all of the questions below. They all need answering in due course. The ‘science’ of selling here determines the right time and amount of information, required by the customer in order to make a decision. Our answers set the customer’s expectations about division of labour, responsibilities and consequences when things don’t go as planned.

These are the customer’s “doing questions”…
• What’s the business strategy or migration plan?
• Who will do what, where and when?
• How will we work together?
• How will we measure results?
• How will we track progress?
• What new skills do we need?
• How will we finance the deal?
• How will we get buy in from those affected adversely?
• How will I communicate with stakeholders?
• What do we do if we go off-track?
• And so on…

Tip: Many of us start by leading with: here’s how (we or our products) work, here are the benefits and here’s the business case – i.e. we start with Questions 4 and 3. We work from the inside (of our product or service)- out. Top sellers leave these (still important) messages until later. They work outside-in. They start with Trust and Value.

Conclusion
The process to answer all the customer’s questions that they require to make a buying decision is not linear. The above sequence points where to focus our attention but be prepared to flex if the customer so wishes. If we miss out answering any of the questions, we can end up losing a winnable deal. Pay attention to all the questions a customer asks and those that they don’t. If the customer doesn’t ask any of the above types of questions – find out why.

Good selling!
Paul Burr

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