“Coffee is for…” and Other Fine Myths

What a great movie!  What a great scene!  Alec Baldwin laying down the law.  But for those of us in Sales, it’s not really that funny.  The conclusions that most people draw from this scene are actually…completely false.  Yet it does strike a chord with many of us- it’s time to close…

I’ve sat through some of the most painful meetings at the end of a quarter or the end of the year.  The folks in senior management have threatened, reasoned, rationalized, and even pleaded for their salespeople to make things happen.  Their most common question is “why not now?” and most salespeople answer…”budget cuts, challenging conditions…”  We’ll leave the details of forecasting and pipeline vitals for future posts, but for now I’d like to focus on what brother Alec calls his “ABCs” or “always, be, closing”

Anyone who’s been involved in Sales knows that it’s a lengthy process with alot of preparation, many steps (or phases), and a long timeline.  Even though I don’t have as much experience as many “closers”, I will share the simple questions I was taught to determine if, how, when, and why a purchase would take place.  It’s not important in which order they’re answered, only that they’re answered honestly:

• Need– Why would the prospect want your product, service, solution?  Is it mission critical for their business, i.e. will they shut down tomorrow without it, or is it nice to have?  Ninety nine percent of what’s sold falls in the latter category, so you better move on to the next questions…
• Time-frame– When are they going to pull the trigger, ring the bell, or “sign on the line that is dotted…?”  This is the most difficult question for most salespeople and/or senior management because it relates to forecasting and also accountability.  It should be addressed earlier rather than later and any dates given should be treated with extreme skepticism.  I remember a former boss, Mike, who drove home the importance of this question to me.  He’d stare at me with his merciless Irish-eyes and say “you promised me $35K…I rolled it up to the Board!  Get out your checkbook Pablo…”
• Authority– Who are you speaking with and selling to?  Does this person have the “juice” to make it happen?  All too often salespeople do a great job of selling…to the wrong person.  I was taught to ask this question in many ways…repeatedly- “who else needs to be involved in making this decision with you..???’  Hey! Let’s get them involved now!
• Money– I purposely avoided saying the word “budget” here because it makes me grind my teeth and get the shakes.  This is one of the toughest questions to ask, confirm, and believe.  I’ve seen alot of prospects be “mistaken” about where their budget(s) were for the year.  It’s here that a salesperson needs to get creative and add measurable value to the potential engagement / sale, not panic and start discounting.  They’re no easy solutions for this question, but that’s why we’re in Sales…
• Willingness– Many sales engagements end in..”no decision”.  The prospect gradually grows colder and eventually stops communicating.  The opportunity sits on the pipeline until senior management forces it off.  I say you’ve got to be direct-  Are they buying…now?  Why not next quarter or next year?  Have all the other questions be answered?  Pick up that coffee and start closing people!  Happy Hunting!

Paul Williams

COO

Across the Great Divide – Bridging the Gap Between Sales and Marketing

In many organizations there’s confusion around the Marketing Department’s actual role.  “I see alot of activity, but I don’t see them producing any results…” lamented one C-Level Executive to me recently.  “They host great events which our clients really enjoy attending, but I can’t grasp how they deliver real, concrete value to the bottom line…” he concluded.

This is unfortunately a commonly held opinion in many medium to large organizations and it’s especially troubling when the large annual Marketing budgets are taken into account.  “We need them to generate leads which result in new business!” exclaimed a Senior Sales Director at a recent networking event.  “Sales can make sure the clients are happy!”

Things are even more confusing in smaller organizations in which everyone “wears multiple hats” or is expected to make contributions in many different areas of the company and budget numbers are tight by necessity.  “Do we even need to allocate a significant amount to Marketing?  Shouldn’t Sales handle this as a routine part of doing business?” said one CEO / Founder.

Across the Great Divide the tone is similar, but the perspective completely different.  I have spoken with many savvy Marketing Professionals who are completely perplexed.  A colleague confided to me that Marketing “runs multiple lead generation campaigns which produce measurable results.  Yet when we pass the fruits of our labors on to Sales…well nothing happens.  The Sales people complain that the leads aren’t good and I don’t believe they make a real, consistent effort to follow up on them!”

Ah! Yes!  So it goes…The results are countless meetings, “new and improved” Marketing plans, a lot of time and money wasted, and continuous rounds of “office politics”.  Everyone likes to make a great show of group solidarity at the quarterly / annual meetings, but anyone with any level of professional experience knows that’s just not the case.  Inevitable?  Unavoidable? “Us vs. Them?”  Let’s break it down as my daddy used to say:

Communication Rocks the Nation! (or at least can shake-up your organization in positive ways)

Sales and Marketing are supposed to work closely together. Yet often they are as far apart as possible, both physically and culturally, in a company.  “The Sales people are disruptive, always on the phone, and joking around.  I can’t get anything done when they’re around” says Marketing.  “Why are the Marketing people in meetings all the time?  They spend all their time creating charts and graphs?  What do they do?” says Sales.

I believe that this Great Divide must be bridged and therefore Sales and Marketing should be working closely together…in every sense of the word.  Marketing should be able to listen to Sale’s calls and recognize directly which messaging actually works.  There should also be an informal atmosphere of collaboration.  I know you’re tired of hearing this word, but it works.  In addition Sales must also commit to a greater level  of accountability in which they will not only make every effort to use what Marketing produces, but also give honest visibility into their pipelines.

At the end of the day everyone suffers if the Great Divide isn’t bridged successfully.  I think that people can get lost in the idea of “playing the hero” and trying to make themselves and their department look good.  In the end…everyone loses.  So climb out of those trenches and take a walk down the hall.  Ask your colleagues what they’re working on and share your work with them as well.  Here it is again:

1. Communication
2. Collaboration
3. Accountability

Get it together…get together people!  Happy hunting and Happy Halloween!

Paul Williams

COO

The Four Most Dangerous Trends for Any Sales Team

Have I got somethin’ for you!

Have you ever created and lead a Sales Team directly?  Not from the lofty height of C-Level, but day after day in the trenches with your people?  If so here’s a quick post for you the Sales Manager.  In my experience there are four trends that are very common for most sales teams:

• Vanishing

Your sales executive schedules an initial call with a prospect and it goes extremely well.  You have a rather high-level discussion with the prospect and there’s definitely a lot of interest in your solution.  You discuss some possible next steps and things seem promising.  Unfortunately that’s as far as it goes…the prospect gradually drops out of sight and eventually you make the sales executive take them off their forecast…poof!  They’ve vanished!

• Telephone

You’ve finally secured senior management support for additional resources for your sales team, i.e. more marketing dollars for events, new lead sources, inside sales reps etc.  You plan and execute a new lead generation strategy and it produces…well…nothing!  You solicit feedback from your sales executives and discover that they never got the hot new leads or that they we not viable or “real”.  Often there isn’t even a common understanding / definition of a lead and different departments have completely distinct ideas about “what is a lead…”  Communication breakdown.

• Tomorrow

The new quarter starts off after weeks of planning, training, and discussions with your team.  They’ve been tasked with creating a pipeline of prospects and opportunities in excess of five times (5X) their quota.  You have weekly reviews of all opportunities and everything looks good until shortly before the quarter’s end when your sales executives begin to move their “hot” opportunities to the next quarter.  What’s even more troubling is that the sales executives can’t usually give you any specific reasons why they had difficulty forecasting.  Now you have to be accountable to senior management while your team says…maybe tomorrow…

• Information

You’re spending a lot of time putting together sales activity reports for senior management.  You have a CRM which you’ve used for years and the sales team constantly complains that it “takes them too much time to update it.”  After making a business case to senior management, you get a new CRM solution with all the extras…the sales executives are now too busy to learn how to use it correctly.  In addition, your “top” salesperson leaves unexpectedly…he takes all the relevant information about your clients / opportunities / prospects with him because he never put it into either CRM solution.  Now senior management is asking for…information.

If you’re a Sales Manager and you’ve faced these challenges, share your experiences with us!

Best regards and happy hunting,

Paul Williams

COO