Category: Sales

The Great Disconnect

The Great Disconnect

There has been a huge disconnect between sales and marketing for years.  Thankfully that is starting to change.  More companies are now focusing on the Smarketing department… the collaboration of sales and marketing to provide smart leads to their sales people.

However, there is another Great Disconnect that needs to be addressed if sales organizations are going to excel.  This great disconnect is in that many senior managers don’t really understand the tactics salespeople must use to generate sales in 2020.  Senior Executives seems more focused on the metrics and not on the structure of the sales staff.

Here are five common myths that many senior sales organizations believe about their sales organization:

Our Sales People Have Received Good Training

The reality is that most sales people are being trained to sell using methods and processes developed in the late 1990’s that are ineffective today.  Sales people today need to transition from selling to co-creating.

They Accept that 80% of the Sales Force Brings in 20% of the Revenue

They fail to realize that this is unsustainable and that most of the 80% need to find other jobs. Those of the 80% who are have exceptional skills in areas such as customer service, setting appointments, maintaining a CRM system, etc. should be retained to support the top producers—the 20%.  This will free up the top producers to focus more on new business development, collaborating and co-creating with customers, while becoming a Trusted Advisor to their clients.

They Seldom Have a Chief Sales Officer (CSO) Who Rose to the Top of the Company Through Sales and Marketing.  

Most companies who don’t have a CSO rely on a Chief Marketing Officer who has an MBA and no real sales experience and to whom senior sales managers report.

Yet most C-Level executives are the first to proclaim that their business is dependent on sales but don’t give it  representation in the C-Suite.

They Fail to Recognized That Both B-B and B-C Sales Have Become More Transactional and That the Role of the Sales Person is Being Marginalized Because of the Transparency of the Internet

Buyers value sales people who are there for them when they are ready to buy, when they need to collaborate, and when new products are being developed.  They need a Buyer’s Agent to fill that role and Top Producing Sales People need to learn how to be viewed as that Agent.

They Continue to Cling to the Old Adage, “Sell the Sizzle, Not the Steak”.

Today’s salespeople need to be experts in understanding the business challenges of their prospect’s and must be prepared to help them solve those challenges.   In essence, today’s salesperson needs to be part of the decision process with their customers in order to help their customers find the best solution.

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Harrison Greene is the founder of Unique Selling Systems and works with Senior Management to develop Sales People of the Future.

©Unique Selling Systems 2019

LinkedIn.com/harrisongreene   508-400-6193

 

 

 

 

 

Are You A Trusted Advisor?

Trusted Advisor

The Exciting Future of Sales is very bright for top producing sales representatives who can serve as a Trusted Advisor for their clients. Does this mean that if you are not perceived as a trusted advisor, there is not a bright future for you in sales? The short answer is Yes.

First, let’s define a professional sales representative. A professional sales representative who is capable of becoming a trusted advisor does not:

  • Misrepresent their company’s products or services.
  • Does not tell “little white lies” about their products or services.
  • Does not attempt to sell to a customer who will not benefit from the product or service.
  • Does not make claims that are not true.
  • Will walk away from a sale if it is not in the best interest of either the customer or the representative’s company.
  • Does not assert that they are salaried when they receive commissions or bonuses for attaining sales goals.
  • Does not promise anything that cannot be put in writing.
  • Does not sell for a company that tells them that they must do ‘anything it takes’ to make a sale without defining what that means.

So what is a trusted advisor? The Trusted Advisor by David H. Master, Charles H. Green, and Robert M. Galford offers the best description of a Trusted Advisor I have ever read. While this book breaks the goal of being a trusted advisor into three levels, “it is the third level that is the pinnacle of being recognized as such. This is the level in which virtually all issues, personal and professional are open to discussion and exploration. The trusted advisor is the person the client turns to when a problem first arises, often in times of great urgency: a crisis, a change, a triumph, or a defeat.”

There is no need today for transactional salespeople. Complex sales require those who have mastered different skills including negotiation, strategic and complex thinking, empathy, deep product knowledge, innovation, and a team approach to satisfying customer challenges.

The recognition of being a trusted adviser is vital if a sales professional intends to have a sales job in the future. Virtually all products and services purchased today will be made by buyers who don’t need a sales person to persuade them to buy because they can easily make the right decision by purchasing online. They have done their homework and have used big data to help them make an informed decision.

We realize that there are many salespeople and sales leaders who do not believe this to be true, but the reality is that most sales positions are no longer needed. 22% of the 4.5 million B2B sales agents now in the United States, will lose their jobs to e-commerce by 2020.  This projection is from Andy Hoar, a Forrester, e-business analyst.  Other analysts have projected that 95% of salespeople will be replaced with lines of code within five years.

Most salespeople do not want to hear this and claim that it is just not true. But, stop and think about it. What do salespeople offer today that buyers need? In the past, buyers wanted information about the products/services they wanted to buy, and they would interview 3 or 4 salespeople to learn how to separate the peanut butter from the jelly. Today, most buyers know more about the products/services they want to buy than salespeople do.

Other sales professionals insist that the relationship they have with their customers is vital.  To a certain extent, this is true. But, the nature of the relationship has changed. The previous relationship between wining and dining, giving tickets to the ball game, and other signs of appreciation have run its course and are forbidden by many companies.  Buyers no longer love Willy Loman

Top Performing Salespeople today are in demand as trusted advisors. They are the resource to which senior managers turn when faced with vital decisions about strategy and tactics necessary to help them change direction, design better products, or to gain a market advantage.  Buyers don’t view them as someone who will buy them lunch.

These Top Producers are dependent on support from within their company to help them develop products or services that fit specific needs. They spend most of their time working strategically with their client’s top management. They are supported by customer service representatives, assistants, and product specialists who help them craft meaningful solutions for clients.

You might be among those who ask who will do the prospecting, who will set appointments, and who will develop new business? Well, it won’t be salespeople. These functions will be performed by AI and Machine Learning. Top Performers will be supported by assistants who put them in the position to succeed. They will not spend hours entering info into a CRM. They will not make prospecting calls. They will not generate leads. They will not set appointments. Systems and Support will do that for the top producer.

Top Producers who are Trusted Advisors will play a vital role in the buying process. The marketing process and automated systems will put them in the position to do so. The Exciting Future of Sales is here today, and it’s going to get better.

You can learn more by reading The Trusted Advisor by David H. Maister and Charles Green. Amazon carries it. (And you don’t have to talk to a sales rep. to buy it.)

Harrison Greene is the Founder and Principal Consultant of Unique Selling Systems.  His blog is TheExcitingFutureofSales.com.  He lives in Lake Nona, Florida.  Email Harrison@HarrisonGreene.com

Do Salespeople Lie?

LyingOuch!  This very question is a thorn in the side of most salespeople and sales managers.  Most CEO’s and V.P.’s of Sales don’t want to discuss it.  Yet, when ordinary consumers are asked “what is the first word that comes to mind when you hear the word “salesperson”, it is most often Liar.  Followed by Arrogant, Loud, Egotistical, Poor Listener, and Relentless to name a few.

Who would want to associate with anyone fitting this description?  Since sales are the vital link in the success of a company, you might think that employees who behave this way should have no role in any enterprise. It is surprising that most companies tolerate (and sometimes depend on) those salespeople who bring home the bacon at any cost.

Why would any company owner or senior executive tolerate those salespeople who lie, misrepresent, and shade the truth about the product or service they sell? When asked, these leaders usually quote the company policy that forbids dishonesty while disclaiming any responsibility for encouraging it.  When aked to explain why a salesperson lied, the most common managerial retort is, “I didn’t tell him/her to say that.”  They often point to a formal reprimand or point out that a salesperson was fired for lying to a customer.

Recently I had some experiences with a major corporation in the time share sales field that was replete with customer claims that they had been lied to by the sales representative.  These customer complaints were so pervasive that the company set up a department to assuage the customers by offering something free or refunding a portion of what they paid.  The company sales training program is based on sales techniques and tactics from the 1960’s and their policy is that they do not hire managers or salespeople with other types of sale experience.  Their sales techniques are purely emotionally based sales pitches that are based on a one call close because they know if the customer does not buy when emotionally high, they have no chance of landing a sale.  This operation is driven quantitatively, not qualitatively.

This is not a new phenomenon.  I have seen few sales organizations that demand straight talk, complete transparency, and that are based on doing what is best for the customer.  The demands for growth that is levied on publicly owned corporations that focus on quarterly sales goals encourage senior management to drive sales, not ethics.  Companies need revenue and few know how to drive it ethically.

I am convinced that all of this is going to change as the sales process becomes an automated buying process.  I believe that Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Voice Response  systems will dramatically replace the selling function by enabling buying. I think that sales will focus on marketing that drives interest and systems that make it easy for the consumer to buy.  Top-tier, highly skilled  representatives who are expert at collaboration and consulting will thrive.

After all, who wants to have to endure salespeople who lie, are arrogant, who don’t listen well, and are relentless in their drive to ‘land that sale”?

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Harrison Greene is the Founder of Unique Selling Systems. He helps companies prepare for and capitalize on the changing role of salespeople today.  Email:  Harrison@HarrisonGreene.com — 508-400-6193

Selling With An Outward Mindset

Selling With An Outward Mindset

Professional sales people instinctively know that to be effective they must focus on the needs of their prospects, customers, or clients and not on their product or service.  This is often referred to as needs-satisfaction selling.  Sales Professionals have been trained  to place their client’s interests first by asking questions using a needs analysis and to finalize the sale only when the customer perceives that their needs will be satisfied.    Often referred to as a “consultative selling method”, it has been the engine of professional selling since the 1970’s when it was first introduced by Xerox as Professional Selling Skills.

There have been hundreds of books written about selling.  A quick Google search on ‘Books About Sales’ brings up about 202 million entries.  Their authors include highly respected sales experts like Neil Rackham, Robert Miller, Stephen Herman, Brian Tracy, Jeffrey Gitomer, Art Sobczak, Anthony Iannarino, and Tony Alessandra.   If you understand and apply what you learn from any of these authors, you will gain insight into how you can increase your sales success.

I recently read The Outward Mindset©, subtitled “seeing beyond outselves”, produced by The Arbinger Institute.  Arbinger helps people and organizations achieve breakthrough results through a profound change in mindset.  In my view, they have a vital message that business professionals, parents, clergy-people, educators and social workers must read.  It is an extremely practical, simple, and meaningful approach to leadership at any level.  It does not focus on sales, sales training, or sales technique.  And that’s why every person who engages in any aspect of sales or customer service should read The Outward Mindset.

The Exciting Future of Sales depends on sales professionals who can collaborate and communicate with others by having an outward mindset.  They must be able to change the way they see and regard their own connections with and obligations to others.  It is simply a matter of learning to see beyond yourself.   It elevates the consultative sales approach to a new level of effectiveness.  Here is an example of how an outward mindset can apply to a salesperson who wants to help a cleint:

John has a meeting scheduled with his client, Adam, whose company has  unexpectedly told him that he cannot renew contracts unless they have been reviewed by senior management.  Adam has lost his authority to renew contracts without approval.  Clearly, Adam feels his judgement and professionalism are being threatened and has concluded that  his job is on the line.  Adam tells John about his inability to approve John’s renewal and that he wants a completely new proposal that justifies why he should renew his contract with John.

Now John feels threatened because he thinks Adam feels that he has been price gouging him or thinks that John takes his business for granted.  John wants to react quickly, but what he really needs to do is to think with an open mindset.  He needs to ask himself what it must feel like to be Adam.  Adam is clearly threatened by this new procedure.   How can he help Adam gain the confidence of senior management to convince them that he is professional and competent?  How might he help Adam ensure senior management that he is acting in the best interests of the company with every contract he renews.

Having an open mindset like this might be difficult for a sales person who has always won business by dropping the price at the first sign of resistance.  Or he or she might have been trained that they need to establish a better ‘relationship’ with their customers and interpret that to mean they should entertain their clients, take them to football games, or to lunch and dinner more often.

With an outward mindset, John decides that he can help Adam learn how to negotiate better with his boss and with upper management because Adam has never had to do that before.  And, John knows of a negotiation seminar he can invite Adam to attend with him.  He is focused on helping Adam regain his confidence.

Addressing the question, “what must it be like to be Adam,” is far different than having a closed mindset that will cause John to want to make deals, delay the deadline for the decision, or figure out how to manipulate Adam to do what he wants Adam to do.

Sales professionals face an exciting future when they realize that the mark of a professional sales person is not tied to his or her ego and their need to be the best.  It is understanding that professional selling is not about selling; it is about helping the buyer succeed.

An Outward Mindset can guide you into an enhanced understanding of professional selling today and in the future.  It should be recommended reading for all sales, marketing, and customer service leaders and their teams.

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Harrison Greene is the founder of Unique Selling Systems, focused on helping senior sales management prepare their sales people for the exciting future of sales.  He is the author of The Exciting Future of Sales blog.  EMail:  Harrison@HarrisonGreene.com

A Million Sales Reps Will Lose Their Jobs To E-Commerce by 2020

Yes, you read this headline correctly.  A million sales representatives will be displaced.

That is what Paul Demery, Managing Editor, B2B E-Commerce reports in an article that appeared on the Internet Retailer website.  He writes that those most likely to lose their jobs take orders for commodity products.

Paul’s website is https://www.b2bcommerceworld.com

He also cites a report “Death of a (B2B) Salesman by Forrester e-business analyst Andy Hoar, that projects 1 million sales reps, or 22% of the 4.5 million B2B sales agents now in the United States, will lose their jobs to e-commerce by 2020.

If you are a B-B Sales Representative or Sales Manager, you must read the rest of this article.  Your career and your income are in jeopardy and you need to be pro-active now.

Here is a link to the complete article:  http://bit.ly/2iENN5i

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Harrison Greene is the founder of Unique Sales System and specializes in help sales representative and their companies prepare today for the Future of Sales tomorrow.

He can be reached at 508-400-6193 or via email at:

harrison@uniquesellingsystems.com

Are You Like The Cobbler Whose Kids Have No Shoes?

cobbler

Buyers rule!  Remember that.  Today selling is different.  Sales people should understand that when a buyer seeks out that which you are selling he or she has probably done the research they need to decide if you are the vendor they want to consider.  If your company is not able to back up its claims on their website, the buyer will wonder why.

The last thing a buyer wants to hear is ‘we don’t have time to make sure that our website reflects the reality of what we are selling because we are too busy making quality products for our customers that we can’t keep our website current’.

If your company is unable to devote the time to keep its website current, why do they have it?  If the services, they offer are not accurately reflected in their public image (their website) how can they expect their prospects or customers to believe anything a sales representative tells them?

Recently I was told by the V.P. of Sales for a web development company that offers search engine optimization services (SEO) that the reason they don’t rank higher in their own web page listing is because they are like the cobbler whose kids have no shoes.  Well, if they can’t devote time to ensure they are ranking well themselves, why would I expect that they will know how to ensure that their customers rank well?

Is your company too busy to ensure that their public information and the tools you need to sell are current?  Can you engender the trust you must have to succeed when your company doesn’t provide accurate and timely information?

When was the last time you checked your company’s website?  Are you telling your customers the same thing they have read before they even contacted you?

Or do your kids have no shoes?

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Harrison Greene is the founder of Unique Selling Systems and specializes in helping sales organizations prepare today for the Future of Sales tomorrow.  He can be reached at 508-400-6193 or via email at Harrison@HarrisonGreene.com

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Watch Your Language

pitch-me

Are you using sales terminology that was created in the last century?  Does your sales language reflect the professionalism that you must have today to resonate with prospects and customers?

What do you imagine your customers or prospects think when you tell them you want to ‘pitch’ them?  How do you think they feel when you refer to the proposal you are presenting as a ‘deal’?

What does a prospect think when you call them and refer to them as a lead when they were simply requesting information?

Does the language you use reinforce in the minds of buyers and prospects that you are only looking for a sale?  Or, do they appreciate someone who speaks to them as someone who is interested in their challenges, problem, or opportunities?

Today’s sales professionals use language that focuses on collaborating to find the right solution for their customers not on finding the best deal for themselves.  They view requests for information as just that and do not consider the request to be a lead.  They view it as an opportunity to answer questions and find appropriate solutions.  And when the present their solution they never refer to it as a ‘pitch’.

There is a distinct difference in the mindset of a sales person who ‘pitches’ and of the sales professional who provides service, recommends solutions, and collaborates with his or her customers.

This is the second decade of the twenty-first century.  Have you evolved?  Or are you still out their ‘pitching’?

Harrison Greene is the founder of Unique Selling Systems and helps prepare sales people today for the Future of Sales tomorrow.  He can be reached at 508-400-6193 or by email at Harrison@HarrisonGreene.com

The New ABC’s of Selling

always-be-closing

At some point in the last century it became hip to teach sales representatives that they should…

Always Be Closing

Perhaps sales trainers who taught this mantra were under the impression that potential customers would love it if their sales representative greeted them with “It is nice to meet you. “Are you ready to buy today”, like the experience we encounter on the automotive dealership lot when we are greeted with a similar statement. And if the customer didn’t buy immediately, they were trained that they should be closing during every opportunity during the meeting. They were instructed to ask for the sale each time the prospect said something positive. Like, “gee that’s an interesting point”, followed by the sales representative saying “fine, let’s get started right now” or some other canned phrase.

Oh, how in control that was supposed to make the sales representative feel… just thinking that he or she was on the road to super success simply because they had the courage to ask if the customer was ready to buy right now! Did they believe that the customer appreciated being asked to decide before establishing that the customer had a need for the product or service being sold and a right to ask for the sale? Or did they think that just because the customer expressed an interest, they were just waiting to buy right now?  Did they think that the customer liked being treated that way?  Do they like being treated that way?

Well, apparently, some customers were so intimidated by the Always Be Closing approach that they bought immediately. But then… they frequently cancelled their contract or voided their purchase order as soon as they could. Sure, some sales stuck. But what about all those buyers who simply tuned them out and said ‘we’ll get back in touch with you” and never did? And then purchased from a sales representative who was more interested in determining their needs and if the product or service would benefit them? How quickly do you think customers who were pressured to buy would recommend that sales representative to anyone else?

Today, in the second decade of the twenty-first century professional sales representatives should…

Always Be Collaborating

The Internet has changed the way buyers want to do business. Today’s buyers, whether in a business or in a consumer environment, have done their research and know what they want and what they want to pay for it. They desperately need a sales representative to help them sort through their options, to help them develop ideas, and to collaborate with them from the moment they express an interest until they have decided how they should proceed. In short, today’s customers want their sales representative to collaborate with them through the entire buying process.

Collaboration is the sensible way of selling today. Collaboration means that both the buyer and the seller are vested in the buying process to determine the right solution for the buyer. The goal is not simply to get a sale, but to develop the right product or service for the buyer while respecting the buyers buying cycle. Done correctly, acting in the customer’s best interest can sometimes result in recommending another company’s product or service. When that happens, the sales representative establishes a level of Trust with that buyer that results in an opportunity to be called upon again when that buyer has another need. And, it results in referrals from a customer who believes in the sales representative’s integrity.

Does collaboration mean that the sales representative should never discuss helping the customer get started? What is does imply is that if the representative has collaborated and feels trusted, the next steps will easily occur and usually, the customer will ask what he or she needs to do to get started.

Tomorrow’s sales representatives who can adopt the mindset that their job is to help their prospects and customers find the right solution at the right time and at the right price will be Top Producers.

An excellent book that is helpful reading is: From Selling to Co-Creating by Regis Lemmens, Bill Donaldson, and Javier Marcos.

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Harrison Greene is the founder of Unique Selling Systems and specializes in The Future of Sales. You can read more about the Future of Sales at uniquesellingsystems.com.

Harrison Greene can be reached in Lake Nona, Florida at 508-400-6193 or by email at harrison@uniquesellingsystems.com and his Linked In profile can be accessed at linkedin.com/in/harrisongreene.

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A Career in Sales?

A career is sales is a career full of conflicting energy. It is a career that most people can’t endure because rejection and resistance coupled with a parent-inflicted warning that ‘strangers mean danger’ outweigh the positive attitude necessary to become a professional sales person.

Sales professionals focus on positive results and it is the success they receive that energizes their soul. The success they realize is not only financial. Pros view success as helping their clients solve their problems with solutions that are effective for their clients. They never succumb to the old adage that snake-oil selling sales managers often evoke: “Sell it to them whether they need it or not, just make the sale.”

The salesperson of the future must learn how to unlearn many of the maxims and old sales adages they might have been taught.  Slogans like “Always Be Closing” and asking ‘Why Am I Here” are remnants of days long gone.

Professional sales people are proud of the service they render to their customers. They feel that if they really understand the needs of their customers and find solution that help their customers, the financial reward with be realized over and over again because they know that satisfied customers will recommend their sales person to others.  They view collaboration as more important than closing because they know that if they truly collaborate, their clients will ask to get started when the client is ready.

So, if you are considering a sales career, determine if you can provide more positive energy that will endure during the inevitable rejection and resistance that you will receive. And, tell your parents that talking to strangers is fun.

Remember, selling has very little to do with winning. It has everything to do with helping.

______________________________________________________________________Harrison Harrison Greene is the founder of Unique Selling Systems and helps sales organizations prepare for The Future of Sales. He can be reached by email at harrison@uniquesellingsystems.com or by phone at 508-400-6193.

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