#1 Trips

#2 Face-to-face recognition

#3 Entertainment/dinner/sports tickets #4 Merchandise

#5 Awards/plaques

#6 Mention in company newsletter

1.    Forget wait and see. Procrastination is the worst trait any salesperson can have in a recession. Salespeople who increase prospecting during hard times may take customers from those who decide to cut back until the economy improves.

2.    Control the sales process. Control is one of the key elements for success in slow times. Control is not manipulation but it’s acting in the best interests of prospects and customers. Discover what your customers want and need. Ask questions to try and find out where they “hurt.” Then plan to do everything you can to solve their problems.

3.    Identify products or services your customers could buy but don’t. Increasing sales to existing accounts may help you weather the storm. Try to make a customer’s life easier by looking behind the numbers to understand the customer’s business strategy and financial situation. What are the biggest profit makers and drains? How can you help the customer expand business?

4.    Keep adding value. The most important contribution you can give to prospects and customers is your knowledge and expertise. What information do you have that could benefit prospects or customers? Define value in their terms. The possibilities are limitless: faster service, better delivery, unique features, etc.

5.    Move beyond your circle of activity. Breakthroughs just might happen if you leave your comfort zone to go after new business. Create a top 10 list of prospects you’d like to close and go after them aggressively. As you close each account, try to replace it with another prospect.

6.    Have a high tolerance for pain. No matter what crosses your path, you must handle it. If you lose key customers, work harder to get them back. If you’re turned down for an appointment, learn more about the prospect and come back with a different approach. If prospects stall, it’s because you haven’t captured their interest. Go back to the beginning. Learn enough about them to be able to show how your product or service will help them during these tough economic times.

7.    Push the limits. Sales leaders are never completely satisfied with their performance. They push themselves on a daily basis to outperform the previous day. Motivation is what keeps them moving, regardless of the economy. They recognize that success now comes from sacrifice and maybe a little pain. They make more calls each week. They spend more time on customer follow-up to ensure results. They set their sights a little higher. Taking these steps propels them forward and provides the energy and enthusiasm to fuel each day, regardless of the economy.

Every year, enthusiastic and confident men and women start businesses with creative products and services that they sincerely believe address real industry needs.These entrepreneurs are absolutely certain that nothing will stop them from succeeding.  Unfortunately, 33% of businesses fail within 2 years; 56% fail within 4 years, and 97% fail by10 years.  These are devastating numbers, but you can avoid being a statistic if you choose to be a leader who delivers results.

It’s critical for salespeople to come up with the specific reasons why they lose a customer. They may be in jeopardy of losing other customers for the same reasons. Salespeople who take the time to listen to their customers and gather, manage and analyze their feedback may not only survive but may thrive in attracting, retaining and competing for customers. Research shows that gathering customer feedback can increase customer retention by 15 to 20%.

Salespeople have been warned for years about the economic impact of losing customers. With the advent of the Internet, here are new hidden costs that should be considered:

• Negative word-of-mouth, especially with the advent of bloging and social networking where people can now broadcast their points of view to thousands or millions of people.
• Substantial costs involving in trying to recruit and acquire new customers to replace lost customers.
• The amount of time it takes for a customer to become profitable to a company.
• Lost opportunities for customer referrals/recommendations.
• The toll that losing customers take on a company’s employees caused by layoffs and office or plant closings due to lost revenues.

Building relationships with customers that last requires feedback in three areas. Share them with your salespeople.

1. Why your current customers continue to do business with you?
2. What specific factors are causing customers to leave?
3. Which of your products or services do customers care about most?

These questions are best asked in person or on the phone. A good opening statement might be “We are working on our marketing plans for the second half of the year, I’d like to ask you a few direct questions. The first one is why do you do business with our company” Take careful notes and look for the common answers between customers.
Here are tips that may increase your customer retention rate:

1. Find out what customers think, want and need, and the factors causing them to stay or leave. Survey your existing customers to find out. Are customers unhappy? Are there any changes and/or additions that your company should be making to its products or services?
2. Continually collect and promote customer feedback. Try not to wait until there’s a problem to contact or follow-up with customers. Research shows that gathering customer feedback can increase customer retention by 15 to 20%.
3. Address customer concerns immediately. Up to 70% of customers will buy again if their complaint is resolved. That figure jumps to 95% if the customer feels the complaint is resolved quickly. Customers whose complaints are resolved satisfactorily tell an average of five people about their good treatment.
4. Let customers know whenever your company initiates change as a result of their suggestions or feedback. If you’re not able to use a customer’s suggestion, let him or her know that you heard the suggestion and appreciate their feedback. Measure the results. Study the impact of the changes you make based on customer feedback. Some of the areas you may want to consider include customer retention rate, revenue per customer, customer referrals and customers saved due to feedback.

Remember to include improving your customer retention rate whenever you forecast sales. If your annual retention rate is 85% and you are projecting a 10% increase, you really have to focus on a 25% increase to get the 10% projection. It’s amazing how many sales managers ignore reality when projecting sales.

• How do they think?
• How do they act?
• What motivates them?
• How do they interact with other people?

All four apply when considering how to recruit and select sales­people.

What should sales managers keep in mind when recruiting and selecting salespeople?

The most critical ingredient for the survival and growth of any organization is talented person­nel. One problem many man­agers have is they hire quickly and fire slowly, when actually managers should be slow to hire and quick to fire.

First, know what you’re looking for. Take time to develop a pro­file – a benchmark that defines the best candidate for the posi­tion. If you’re selling a big ticket item like a software sys­tem or a $1.2 million CAT scanner, you need a different salesperson than someone sell­ing shoes or office copiers. For big ticket sales, we look for discerning people who can adjust to the styles of different decision makers. Their job is to find out what the customer needs. Going for the throat aggressively is outdated. The fact is trying to change behavior is a waste of time.

Once today’s consultative salesperson establishes the customer’s needs, closing the business is just the next step in the process. A certain amount of assertiveness is required in sales, but it varies depending on the selling environment. In addition to discernment and assertiveness, we look for an achiever trait – someone who’s motivated to succeed in a com­petitive environment. Salespeople need to relate quick­ly to the prospect, empathize, and persuade.

How can you find out if some­one is persuasive?  One of the best ways is to let them show you how persuasive they are in the interview. Has the applicant persuaded you he or she is the best person for the job? Remember you’re hiring, renting, or leasing behavior. From what you learn in the interview, how will the appli­cant behave?

Can’t behavior be changed, if an applicant has other strengths? Sure, there are plenty of ways to change behavior. Psycho­therapy for about 27 years might work, or maybe a frontal loboto­my, if they’re legal where you work. You might try religious conversion, drugs, or send them to California. No, the fact is trying to change behavior is a waste of time. Sales managers ought to get out of behavior modification and into behavior selection.
 
Don’t you put any weight on what the applicant knows or is capable of learning?
You need to ask yourself these questions about a prospective salesperson:

• Can I work with this person?
• Can he or she do the job?
• What does the person know about our business?

But the knowledge can be learned. One of our clients markets sophisticated medical instruments. They told me the sales­people have to have college degrees. We looked at their 15 best sales reps. About six or seven of them had no college degree. You should be focused on who can deliver the behav­iors you need.

Another company I know raised eyebrows when they hired a guy out of a clothing store to sell mainframe computers. He knew nothing about computers, but he knew how to relate to people. He picked up the computer knowledge very quickly. First thing you know, he sold a $7.6 million order to the office of a prominent state officeholder, despite the fact that the comput­er company had supported that politician’s opponent in the last election. That’s overcoming the odds, without knowing much at all about computers.
Interviewing is something of an art. Why are so few good man­agers also good interviewers?
Most managers admit they don’t interview well, and here’s why. First, they’re not sure what they’re looking for, so they don’t ask the right questions. Get through theory to behavior. Instead of asking, “Are you assertive?” ask, “Can you give me a recent example of when you were assertive?” If the can­didate can be very specific with the example, then very likely that behavior is practiced.

Second, they’re not well pre­pared. Instead, they think of questions as they go along. Finally, they’re strong boosters of their own company, so when there’s a chance to sell the com­pany, they’re off to the races. The interviewer ends up doing all the talking. Managers have to be much more disciplined in interviewing.

How do you define what you’re looking for? It takes time. You have to estab­lish what traits are required for success in your marketplace. Then build “behavior profiles” for each position. The best way to develop a behaviors profile is to identify your top employees in any given position. Then ask: What makes him or her so good? Water runs downhill. In any organization, so does talent.
 
You mean hiring someone bet­ter than you are?
Yes, and that’s hard. You need people smarter, better, or at least as good as your best peo­ple, including yourself.

What’s the best way to find ideal job candidates?
The very best way to find can­didates is through referrals. As a guideline, 70 percent of your people should come from refer­rals, though most companies are at about 40 percent.

What are the most common mistakes sales managers make in recruiting and selecting salespeople?

First, they’re often not clear about what they’re looking for. They tend to be over-impressed with candidates who look right, dress well, and present them­selves effectively. Second, they look at resumes and make choices, when resumes are no more than balance sheets that don’t list the liabilities. Third, they’re not trained in interview­ing’ and they often end up doing most of the talking.

I know that at first glance this all looks complex and time consuming. Before you dismiss the process, consider what it costs you to hire the wrong person.

Why then, amidst all the fanfare, do some sales managers find their “pay for performance” plans to be ineffective in gener­ating desired sales and profits? Why do their salespeople appear to be somewhat non-aggressive and demoralized? In many cases, the answer lies in the four-letter word: GOAL.

THE UGLY. Perhaps one of the greatest reasons “pay for performance” plans fail is that management assigns stretch goals, which is often code for unrealistic goals that sales man­agers know the sales organization will have difficulty achieving. Although some degree of stretch

may be desirable in certain envi­ronments, often such goals result in a “lose-lose” situation for both the company and the sales organization.

Why then does management set goals in such a manner? In most cases, management convinces itself that if the goals are set 20% to 30% higher than the firm’s true expectations, the company will still reach its goals even though the individual salespeople may miss their personal goals.

Unfortunately, under such scenar­ios, the sales organizations not only miss by 20% to 30 %, but often by as much as 40%. The reaction of most sales organiza­tions is quite typical. The sales­people begin to question their own skills and management’s judgment. Morale plummets and resumes begin to circulate. The hidden and not-so-hidden cost consequences to the firm are usually enormous under such circumstances.

THE BAD. In setting goals, many sales man­agers frequently follow the dic­tate we so often preach, set the individual sales goals equal to the internal goals of the firm. Such an approach will help ensure that the organization either rejoices together or cries together. Although their intent may be commendable, often their processes break down when selecting the information upon which they will base their deci­sions. The most common mis­take made by sales managers is to base the goal setting process solely on sales history. A com­petitive sales environment does not allow long-lasting success for those companies continually looking to the past for answers.

Why do managers continually set goals based solely on sales history? One explanation may be rooted in the idea that many sales managers do not know what other data to use in mak­ing their decisions. Perhaps an even better explanation is that some sales managers are uncer­tain how to identify, size and account for potential, economic conditions, channel shifts and other factors typically included in solid goal setting processes.

An example of a bad situation that often arises when sales managers fail to consider poten­tial in setting goals is penaliz­ing good salespeople who have deeply penetrated their markets. Better performing salespeople will have a limited number of prospective customers, while poor performers will continue to have significant opportunity. As one salesperson has stated, the best solution under such a sce­nario is to “quit and then get re­hired to sell in a territory which has been under penetrated.”

THE GOOD. Good goal setting processes will link the individual sales­people’s goals to the firm’s goals. Tougher environments may require that the goals be set slightly lower than the inter­nal goals to ensure a significant, portion of the sales organiza­tion “remains in the game” and a positive morale is maintained. It is also essential that goals be set based upon a combination of considerations: sales history, potential,. economic conditions, channel shifts and any other market conditions impacting the selling effort.

Good goal setting processes will attempt to encompass all of the above considerations where appropriate. Although such a process will undoubtedly require a significant degree of thought and analysis, many sales man­agers find that the subsequent returns more than offset their efforts. Often the resulting goals will be viewed as highly equitable by the salespeople. More importantly, they will be supported by solid rationale. Good performers will not be penalized and thus will be encouraged to aggressively pur­sue sales growth. Areas requir­ing additional or reduced staffing and resources will also be more evident.

If done incorrectly, goal setting will often create significant productivity problems in the sales organization, resulting in a “lose-lose” situation for the firm and the salespeople. Good goal setting processes will link the individual salesperson’s and the firm’s goals. They will be based on a number of considera­tions, not solely on sales history. Most importantly, they will be realistic and obtainable.

In my years in sales and general management I’ve observed this phenomenon around the country many times, including right here in Orlando. While it’s not limited to sales management, it seems to be more common in that arena. In fact, it’s so common, there’s actually a name for it: The Peter Principle.

The idea that high-level incompetence is inevitable was formulated in the 1969 best-selling book The Peter Principle: Why things always go wrong. Its authors, psychologist Laurence Peter and playwright Raymond Hull, started from the observation that while jobs generally get more difficult the higher up any ladder you climb, most people only come equipped with a more or less fixed level of talent that corresponds to their intelligence, knowledge and energy. At some point, then, they will be promoted into a job they can’t quite handle. They will, as Peter and Hull put it, “reach the level of their own incompetence”. And there they will stay, fouling up operations until they either retire or some egregiously inept act gets them fired.

The problem is what they get up to in the meantime. They end up distracting us from their crummy work with giant desks. They replace action with incomprehensible acronyms, blame others for failure, and cheat to create the illusion of progress. Meanwhile, the actual work gets done by those who have not yet scaled the summit of their own incompetence. That would be you and me, then.

The employee’s incompetence is not necessarily exposed as a result of the higher-ranking position being more difficult – simply, that job is different from the job in which the employee previously excelled, and thus requires different work skills, which the employee may not possess. For example, a factory worker’s excellence in his job can earn him promotion to manager, at which point the skills that earned him his promotion no longer apply to his job. Or a sales administrator excellent in tracking sales, who gets promoted to a sales management role which requires a lot of people skills that the individual simply does not possess, or worse, does not believe is necessary. Thus, the real work is accomplished by those employees who have not yet reached their level of incompetence.

The “Peter principle” undoubtedly appeals to the cynic in all of us. It is also quite possibly true, if subsequent academic studies are to be believed. The longer a person stays at a particular level in an organization, the more most measures of their performance fall – including subjective evaluations and the frequency and size of pay rises and bonuses. It is a finding entirely consistent with the idea that people eventually become bogged down by their own incompetence.

But what happens if the conventional idea is false and employees’ ability to perform at higher levels has no link to their competence at lower levels? The result is profoundly different, as you might expect. Promoting the best-performing employees merely takes people out of positions where they are doing well and pushes them upwards until they arrive at a position for which they lack the requisite skills. Their promotion history then comes to an end: the Peter principle wins out.

The cure for this problem? We should return to what Dr. Peter wanted: rewarding ordinary competence and being wary of feats that come too easily. Perhaps the late Ray Kroc is the right role model here. One of his first steps in building the McDonald’s empire was to run his own outlet—he cooked, cleaned bathrooms, picked up the trash. The focus on doing ordinary things well was, he believed, key to McDonald’s success. Imagine a V.P. Sales actually making sales, traveling with sales reps, coaching them to success, attending trade shows and meeting with customers. Makes sense to you and me, but not to the self absorbed manager.

Simple competence was central, too, for former U.S. Marine Lieutenant Donovan Campbell, who led a platoon in bloody street battles in Iraq. As Campbell’s account, Joker One, tells us, he earned his men’s respect and protected them through simple acts: training them to get in and out of a Humvee quickly, reminding them to eat, and arguing with superiors when those under his command were unnecessarily put in harm’s way.

Finally, consider how Captain Chesley Sullenberger III explained his astounding emergency landing of US Airways Flight 1549 in New York’s Hudson River last year. “I know I speak for the entire crew when I tell you we were simply doing the jobs we were trained to do,” he said. As Dr. Peter might have observed, there were no pretenders, blowhards, or shared delusions that day, just the deftly coordinated actions of people who had not reached their level of incompetence.

What is your wait time strategy?  Many customers are worth waiting for.  Start with the externals.  What do they want you to see?  Membership in trade associations hung on the walls, back issues of trade magazines they read, company or product history pictures on the walls—whatever it is, take it all in.  Company newsletters are often left out for you to read or take a copy of.  Once you have given the place the once-over, don’t be shy about making a friend of whoever is in charge of the reception area.  They can often track down key people if they think you are worth the effort.

You can use wait time to do the details that must be done.  You can check phone messages, go over account records, make sure your appearance is at its best, and if you know you will be there for a while, you can get through a must-read file carried along for just this purpose.  Finally, you must decide on the potential return on investment on your waiting time. A morning wait time limit can be coupled with a leave-behind note saying you will return later in the day, which might get you in.

Leave-behind materials are seldom worth leaving behind.  Make a meeting your objective.  Minimize and maximize your waiting time.

All animal life (including human life) revolves around two powerful motivators:

• Pain
• Pleasure

Every minute of every day, you and I are either trying to avoid pain (problems, frustrations and dissatisfactions) and/or seek pleasure (dreams, desires, goals and aspirations).

Of the two motivators, pain is by far the greater. People will do almost anything to get out of pain. (Think of the desperate people who travel to Mexico to purchase highly questionable drugs that are illegal in their country to treat their illnesses. Think of the Cubans who risk their lives on flimsy rafts to get to America in search of a better life.)

If you know the specific pain your prospects are concerned about and the pleasures they’d like to experience, and if your products and services and/or your business products can help meet those needs, the odds of them being attracted to you and your business are extremely high. (This is, of course, conditional upon your presentation not being the pushy or aggressive type.)

What Motivates People To Take Immediate Action?

All significant buying decisions are based on emotion. It doesn’t matter whether someone buys a toy for a child or a multi-million-dollar office building, emotion plays the major role when making buying decisions.

Now, think about this: The more emotional a person becomes about particular issues, the more likely he or she will take an action to address those needs.

Emotion plays such a major role in buying decisions, it often leads to actions and decisions not previously considered. For example, a person who would normally not consider your services becomes worried about layoffs or downsizing and then your offer is considered. Insecurity sets in. All of a sudden you become more attractive.

When approaching potential prospects, your first goal should always be to uncover specific problems they may have. Once you do that, you can (through a dialogue exchange) elevate those problems to such an emotional level that your prospects are ready to look for solutions. Then, and only then, do you show them how your products, services and your business program are the solutions they need.

This is the sales strategy of the most successful salespeople, business people, and corporations on earth. we call it, “Total Quality Selling.”

So, how do you get people to talk about their problems? That’s easy.

We start the emotional ball rolling by getting our prospects to reveal their dissatisfactions, needs and desires. Asking the right questions does this.

We then elevate those emotions by asking even more questions (reverses) that cause them to elaborate on the pain and / or pleasures they are concerned about. As they begin to discuss and think about their situation, they begin to see the emotional impact of not having solutions to their present and future needs.

Note: Keep in mind that you’re not creating pain for your prospects, the pain is already there. You’re simply helping them to see and “own” the pain for what it really is. You’re helping them see the impact on their lives and their families.

Isn’t that what a good doctor, attorney, coach or therapist is trained to do? Why should it be any different for a professional, consultative salesperson?

Good selling,

Dave Rothfeld

Powerful words, to be sure, as they relate to success and setting and reaching goals. If you can visualize already having attained your goal, you’ll be able to reach it. If you say, “Sure, I’d like to have a Mercedes, but I could never earn enough to make the payments,” forget about it. No chance. Similar logic can be applied to sales and the buying process.

KEY SALES POINT: People are most likely to buy when it’s easy to see themselves already enjoying the results of your product or service.

Make that visual and sensory image easy for them. One way to do this is to refer to objects in the person’s environment, or to relate to images that are familiar to the listener. For example:

• “If you take a look at your computer keyboard, it’s about that same size.”
• “It’s very lightweight … about the same as your standard office stapler.”
• “The unit would easily fit on the corner of a desktop, without hindering the ability to spread your work all over the top of the desk.”
• “The texture is comparable to regular commercial grade office carpet.”
• “If you took your hands and held them about twelve inches apart, that’s how wide it is.”
• “I’d say the color is the same as a manila file folder.”
• “Take a look at the top of your desk. It’s about that tall from the floor.”

The more senses you can engage; the better. Get your listener actively involved, and you enhance your chances with them.

Good selling,

Dave Rothfeld