Your success in sales is a direct result of your daily habits. It’s simply a matter of taking the right action, at the right time, in the right order, over and over again. But your actions are the result of something more important: who you are. Your personal values, temperament, and motivation influence your actions; and therefore influence your success.
But what are the personal qualities that really matter? What separates salespeople who see success quarter after quarter from those who struggle? This a question that psychologists, social scientists, and business researchers have tackled over the last few decades. Thanks to their research, we now have a more accurate picture of what it takes to succeed in sales.
This infographic from NextGen Leads explains some of the most interesting and relevant findings. Some of the facts confirm conventional wisdom. For example, one study found that successful salespeople have a high level of grit, which is necessary to push through difficult times. Other conclusions challenge the traditional ideal. For example, one study found that “ambiverts” are more successful salespeople than traditional extroverts.
Take a look at these seven qualities. Do you recognize any of them in yourself?
Logan Strain is the Digital Content Specialist for NextGen Leads. His work has also been featured in Search Engine Journal, The Salesforce Blog, HubSpot, and other fine publications. He lives in San Diego with his wife and daughter. Follow him on twitter @LM_Strain.
As we begin 2016, some are predicting the death of the cold call. However, with more than 75 percent of senior executives reporting taking a meeting after a cold call, I have to disagree. Cold calls can work for you, too – as long as you have the right sales script in place and are using the call to build an interactive, two-way conversation.
Sales scripts are incredibly important, especially if you are talking with a prospect over the phone. It can be intimidating to make a cold sales call, and you may worry that your potential customer will be annoyed with you or just hang up.
Sales executives who want to turn their sales force into a lean, mean, cold calling machine have to make a simple resolution this year: develop a top-notch sales script. A good script will guide your sales reps through a natural, two-way interactive conversation with each prospect, and will help them get to the bottom of each prospect’s pain so they can articulate the value of your product or service most effectively.
Not sure how to write a sales script that will help you win tons of business – and be more engaging to your prospects? Take note of these tips.
Skip the Small Talk
When cold calling, ask for your prospect by name (first and last) and then introduce yourself, providing your title and company name. From there, ask if you are calling at an OK time in their day and if you can take three to five minutes of their time. If they say no, ask if you can call back at a specific time the following day. That way, you will have an appointment.
From there, launch into the reason for your call. Condense this explanation into three to four sentences that go into the precise assistance your company provides, how your prospect can benefit, and a short example of a similar company with which you have worked.
The most important thing here is to stick to business-speak. Show them that you respect their time by getting right down to business.
Do Your Research
Spend a good deal of time gathering background information on your prospect. According to a recent study by Vorsight, only 3 percent of your market is ready to buy at any given time, but 40 percent are poised to do so. You can keep tabs on who is moving from the 40 percent and into the 3 percent by asking yourself the following questions: Has the company been in the news lately for a new product? What pain points are they facing these days? How is the state of their industry?
The more pertinent information you can present during your initial call, the more likely they will be to take you seriously and listen.
Use Their Jargon
Read up on the jargon, acronyms, etc., relevant to their industry and try to incorporate those terms into your sales script. Only 13 percent of customers believe a salesperson understands their needs, so, by using their jargon, you are not only making them more comfortable, but demonstrating you’re knowledgeable about their industry or product, which will help you gain credibility in the eyes of your prospect.
Listen
Cold calling can be nerve wracking – and those nerves can cause you to speak quickly and not allow any time for the person on the other end to have their say. Try to speak slowly and pause between sentences. Ask authentic questions that show you know their industry and want to start a dialogue.
Have a Conversation
In sales, customization is key – your audience is busy, so they want to know why you and your product are relevant to their lives within the first few minutes of your call, or you’ll lose their attention. Instead of giving a monologue or a lecture, start a dialogue to find out what your prospects care about most while you’re giving the talk, and then adjust your content on the fly.
If the prospect is interested in getting more information, schedule a follow-up presentation that is designed to be a two-way conversation between the presenter and prospect. Tools like Prezi – which are interactive and provide a zoom-able canvas that offers both the presenter and prospect a more unique, compelling, and engaging experience – can aid in the selling practice and be used while you deliver your script.
We have also found conversational presenting to be an effective tool for many of our customers, including Verifone. At trade shows, Verifone’s mobile sales team uses a Prezi that runs on an iPad so they can leave the booth and have on-the-fly conversations with prospects with a presentation they can take with them wherever they go, so they can extend the conversations to after-trade-show-hours dinners and networking events.
Stick with the Timeline and Finish with an Ask
If you told your prospect the conversation would last three to five minutes, stick to that. If you are about to go over because you’ve gotten to talking, pause for a moment and ask if they are still OK on time. They will appreciate this courtesy.
Before you end the call, ask for another meeting. This could be another phone discussion or a coffee date – whichever is best for their schedule. Offer a few times that work for you and ask them for their preferred time. After you get off the phone, confirm over email and then look forward to landing that sale!
Karen Tang leads the sales, customer success, and support teams at Prezi, and is passionate about growing and delighting its customer base. She leads the charge in expanding Prezi into teams and businesses, and in helping these business users adopt and maximize value out of the product.
Sales professionals are inherently goal-oriented individuals. Achieving results and big wins drives most successful sales professionals. For most of us, that attitude started in the cradle.
When I started my career in sales (around the time Ronald Reagan was first elected president), goals were still a big part of the game, as they always had been. They were focused on a few key performance indicators (KPIs) such as prospects, opportunities, and, of course, sales numbers. It was a solid system that set goals to keep employees focused, yet allowed time for personal growth and development.
However, as the selling profession has evolved, so too has the focus on goals and metrics that sales leaders now utilize to measure the health of their organizations and the success of their sales force. With the invention of the CRM and dozens of other analytics programs, today’s sales leaders are immersed in data and new tools that allow them to create and track goals that span far beyond what was trackable in my early days of selling.
Today’s sales leaders have more KPIs than ever before. Some of these are fairly common, but many are completely customized based on experience and what forecasts the health and success of their unique sales organization.
The Overlooked KPI
Don’t get me wrong – sales technology has, for the most part, transformed the industry in a truly positive way. Today’s organizations have power and information we could have only dreamed of back in the day. However, along the way, I believe we lost sight of the most important KPI of all…the success of our people.
What I’m referring to is establishing and tracking goals that not only support the company’s vision, but also help foster the success and development of the individuals on the sales team. In my first management assignment (and every year since), I established goals for the professional success of my team and I held myself personally accountable for my team meeting those goals.
For my frontline sales professionals, I strived to have each member of the team meet their goals – and for at least one team member to be recognized by the company (in whatever award system they had in place). I also set a personal goal to have at least one member of my team be promoted.
All of these goals were incredibly important to me, because I felt personally responsible to not only motivate my team to push themselves, but to also help the top performers achieve their career goals – even though this would often mean losing a great member of my team. Fortunately, the personal satisfaction and loyalty gained in helping someone reach another rung on their career ladder significantly outweighed the loss of a key contributor.
Recruitment Benefits
This type of attitude and approach to the people you manage is also very helpful in recruiting. The more I helped others succeed, the easier it became to find quality leaders for the team. Good internal candidates started taking notice and became interested in working on my team. This also became a selling point in outside recruiting, as I was able to explain the reason the position was open was because the previous individual had been promoted. This, in turn, helped me attract the candidates I was looking for.
The environment for sales leaders and managers is difficult. The average tenure of a top sales leader is somewhere in the vicinity of two years, and it seems it’s about the same for frontline managers. The churn rate is high because these people are under tremendous pressure from the company to produce results…and quickly. This is why the CRMs and data analysis tools exist, and why KPIs are focused on measuring all of these data sources – to quickly identify sales gaps and subpar performance.
With sales leaders and managers under constant pressure to deliver results, it’s easy to move away from what we should be doing, and focus only on what we have to do. All this new information often results in taking time away from the one thing we should be investing in – our people.
I will leave you with this – one of the key things I’ve learned in my decades in sales leadership. People matter. In fact, they are the most important element of a successful sales organization. Investing your time and energy in supporting the development and career goals of your sales staff is a top priority, and you’ll be on the road to creating a top-notch, loyal sales team.
Karl Gustafson is CSO of SalesFitRx. Karl previously worked for Apple, Liveops, and Pearson, and has almost 30 years of experience in sales.
As a certified IFMGA/AMGA mountain guide and founder/CEO of Alpenglow Expeditions, I’ve led more than 100 international climbing expeditions on five continents, including six successful summits of Mt. Everest. Along the way, I’ve learned valuable lessons about leadership.
A climb is always a team effort. And, though the physical challenges are daunting, the key factor in achieving your goal is how well your team collaborates.
On the mountain, strategic decisions can literally be life-saving. Makalu is considered one of the world’s most difficult climbs. Our team – four professional athletes and four Sherpas – was attempting to become the first to ski from its summit. It was here, hovelled in our Camp 4 tent, just one day away from our goal, that our team faced one of the climb’s biggest challenges: team disagreement.
Earlier in the day, one of our climbers had been caught in a minor avalanche, luckily only bruising ribs during his fall. Still, he was injured and was incapable of shouldering his share of the team’s carefully designed load.
Now it was time for the team to make a decision. Our options were straightforward: continue pushing upwards in clearly dangerous conditions with one man down, end the expedition and try to descend safely, or retreat to Base Camp and hope for another summit window in the upcoming weeks.
It had taken us three years of planning, six weeks of trekking, and four long days of backbreaking work in deep snow and high winds to reach 26,000 feet. Some of us wanted to continue; others thought it best to turn back. After some initial discussion, it became clear our team of eight could not agree on one option. Whether the avalanche hazard would reduce in the next few days was the main point of debate – along with different personal feelings on whether individuals had the physical energy to attempt the summit.
At almost 26,000 feet, rational discussion is made much more difficult by the lack of oxygen. Each of us were displaying symptoms of altitude sickness – splitting headaches, deep exhaustion, and constant nausea. As expedition leader, it was my job to manage the team towards a decision we all could live with, and then execute on it. But how?
Here’s the system I employed to get our team back on track and focused on a goal that would best suit the organization as a whole.
Revisit the team’s mutual goals and their order of priority. In our case – (1) we wanted every member of the team to return home safely; (2) we wanted to leave the mountain as clean and untouched as we had found it; (3) we wanted as many members as possible to summit the peak; and (4) we wanted as many members as possible to ski from the peak. Revisiting our goals and the order of their priority helped us, as individuals, set aside our own personal goals and biases, and focus on the team’s goals.
Give each team member the time to express their individual feelings and opinions. Despite the extreme situation we were in, it was essential to take time to hear from everyone. We spent two hours after the avalanche discussing options, and then again another two hours the next morning – allowing ourselves “to sleep on it.” During this time, each team member – from the most experienced to the least – played a part in the discussion.
Respect each member’s opinion, even when you don’t agree. As the most experienced on the team (I have summited Everest six times and spent 20 years climbing in the Himalayas), I had my own strong opinions. But, to have buy-in from the team in a decision this controversial, it was essential I and everyone truly listened and tried to understand each member’s opinions.
Be strong, make the decision, and stick with it. After four hours of debate, it was clear our team was not going to come to a unanimous decision. But, through the act of group discussion, my opinion had been changed and clarified. While I personally wanted to stay and climb – to meet our team’s goals in order of their importance – the right decision was to descend and to clean the mountain. An upcoming storm made the chance of a later summit window unlikely, and the storm also meant it was likely any gear we left on the mountain would be destroyed and lost – essentially left as trash. With our discussions at a stalemate, I thanked everyone for all of their effort through the difficult conversations, announced my decision, and laid out a plan to quickly and safely get us off the mountain before the storm began.
A month later, our team got together just to debrief the trip and begin to dream up ideas for the next expedition. We stayed friends and colleagues, and can’t wait for our next adventure together. So, while our trip failed to achieve two of its goals, it also succeeded at two. And we have become a stronger team through the process – more ready for the next challenge.
Do you have big ideas for success? Do you know how to communicate those ideas to your team and to colleagues?
Without communication skills, sales leaders will flounder and their ideas will go unrealized. Don’t let this happen to you. Here are nine communication suggestions based on my 25 years of training and coaching sales leaders. To hear more insight, join me at the Sales 2.0 Leadership Conference in Philadelphia on November 16th.
People believe stories more readily than numbers or statistics. The listener processes stories in three ways: intellectually, emotionally, and visually (visual aids and the speaker’s movements). Start with a story, and then use a statistic or visual to emphasize or elaborate the point.
Remember the Who factor; audiences are people and they are interested in other people. Use stories about people, particularly heroes. Look internally and externally in the company for the stories of your own everyday heroes.
“Sound words” build tension. Crack! (Was that lightning?) Build tension in the leadership message, and then break it or relieve it as a means of holding audience attention. We all love suspense.
Smell and other sensory words also trigger the formation of memory. See, hear, smell, feel, taste what?
Twist a phrase, “You can’t teach a young dog old tricks.” – That’s a quote from billionaire Warren Buffet on why he consistently hires retirement-age managers rather than younger ones.
Add interest to your speaking with alliteration, repetition, and rhythm.
Statistics should be used sparingly and distilled. Startling numbers are effective.
Quotes allow us to borrow the best that has been said or written. They can convey authority, brevity, relevance, humor, etc. Quotes get the human voice in your leadership message. Use contemporary quotes if possible. Be accurate. Use tone of voice to convey the quote, rather than saying “quote-unquote.” Edit quotes down to the meat. Paraphrase quotes that are longer than one or two lines.
When discussing a complicated idea, break it down into small parts. Take the impact of the idea, and explain how that impact will affect a single person. In other words, tell the story of the war through the eyes of one soldier.
Hear Patricia Fripp speak live in person — register now for the Sales 2.0 Leadership Conference in Philadelphia on November 16. For more information or questions about the event, email larissa@salesdottwoinc.com.
For over 25 years Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE, has taught individual salespeople and sales teams how to speak more powerfully and boost their sales beyond expectations. Patricia is trusted by clients such as Microsoft, ADP, Visa, Genentech, Wounded Warrior Project, and the American Payroll Association. Her interactive virtual training platform offers a surefire shortcut to becoming powerfully persuasive and successful in sales. For more information, go to www.FrippVT.com.
One of the biggest obstacles to success for any sales executive is the “negative self-talk” that often results from the day-to-day realities of the profession: prospecting for new clients and customers, dealing with stalls and objections, inability to reach decision makers, increased competition in the marketplace, etc.
The most difficult to overcome, however, just may be the frustration of constantly hearing “no” or “I’m not interested.” Many sellers struggle with the fear of rejection without understanding or appreciating the fact that hearing “no” is natural and just part of the game. The best hitters in Major League Baseball fail seven out of ten times. NBA legend Michael Jordan once said, “I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” Some of the greatest business leaders throughout history were also some of the biggest failures; they simply didn’t let those failures affect them like others did.
The results can be devastating if sellers allow fear of failure and rejection to adversely affect their performance. Admittedly, easier said than done, but how does one combat the seemingly inevitable? Here’s what worked for one of our clients:
Andrew was still relatively new to his company and industry, and had been on the job only about a year. He learned the business quickly and his performance was a credit to the team. Having originally been hired in a customer service role, he was promoted to an inside sales position – although he had never previously been in sales or business development. A very likable guy, Andrew was ill prepared for the large volume of nos, voicemails, hang-ups and downright rude “suspects” he often encountered. Consequently, his attitude suffered, his confidence waned, he became rather withdrawn, and his passion for his company and the industry was greatly diminished. In short, he didn’t believe he could succeed in his position.
In an offline conversation with Andrew, I learned that he was working hard to support his nine-year-old son. Andrew was divorced, and he himself came from a broken home. The difficult childhood he and his siblings had endured had torn his own family apart, and he was absolutely determined not to have history repeat itself with his son. As he related to me the countless hours he spent with his son on homework, on trips to the ball field and basketball court, and on weekend outings, he became quite animated. His voice rose, he began sobbing uncontrollably, and his passion for his life’s devotion to his son was unquestionable. A very moving discussion!
At that point, I asked Andrew two very simple and direct questions: “What do you suppose might happen if you could harness the same level of conviction in your job that you have in your son? What if you truly believed that rejection is normal and that some prospect out there actually does need your product/service – your job is to simply find them?”
Andrew’s perspective (and performance) turned around in a matter of days, and he is now one of the top performers at his company. He now takes pride in the fact that he can get a “no” from a prospect quicker than anyone else on his team, and he has come to the same realization that many sales professionals have long embraced: every “no” he gets from a prospect puts him one step closer to a “yes.”
Whenever I’m considering a new business purchase, my standard operating procedure is to research alternative products or solutions online. In fact, I take months to make a decision because I spend the time to evaluate how the new application will fit into my existing processes and integrate with other business apps. I’ve also learned (the hard way) to read review sites for ratings and feedback before making a purchase.
B2B buyers operate in a very similar way. Marketing hype, however, would have us believe that people make spur-of-the-moment decisions. Vendors develop their websites with this expectation in mind – that buyers will come to the website, read a few pages, and presto, will immediately convert by calling, emailing, or signing up for a trial offer or demo.
Thinking through my own research process for the last three applications I’ve purchased – accounting, CRM, and application syncing – I can now see that the vendors I chose all had content-rich websites that supported my research process.
The findings from the annual B2B Web Usability Report – launched in conjunction with my colleagues at KoMarketing – support this thinking. For example, consider what we learned from our 2014 survey:
37 percent of survey respondents indicated they’ll visit a website three to five times
33 percent of respondents said they do so because they want to research third-party references.
Our 2015 report reflects responses from 262 people, including presidents and CEOs; COO, CFO, CTO, and CMO positions; managers and executives; directors and vice presidents; analysts and specialists; and consultants. Our questions were designed to uncover the factors that cause a buyer to leave a vendor website and perform further research.
What did we discover? The number-one reason B2B buyers leave your site is to evaluate competitive products or solutions.
As you can see in the chart, 87 percent of survey respondents indicated this is why they leave a vendor website and then come back – multiple times.
Whether you’re offering a software app or you’re an industrial manufacturer, you need to create content assets that help buyers through this research process. Here are five elements you need to incorporate into your B2B website to keep buyers engaged.
1) Authentic testimonials – I do appreciate when a company provides extended testimonials that include the person’s name, company name, a photo, and the person’s words just as if he/she were speaking, as you can see in the following PieSync example. Testimonials like this are authentic, which helps build credibility and trust (one of the key research findings for our 2015 survey).
PieSync testimonials
2) Features – Explain to buyers how your product or solution works. Give information about how it syncs with other apps or works on a smartphone. Use lots of screenshots so buyers can see how it works. Let people know the benefits of these features.
I like how Freshbooks uses whimsical graphics to explain the software features. The whimsy shows that Freshbooks is easy to use and built for small business owners rather than accountants.
Freshbooks illustrated feature
3) Capabilities – If you’re a manufacturer or service provider, help people see the talents, skill sets, and expertise you bring to the table. Use graphs and short paragraphs to explain how these all tie together and how they benefit the prospective buyer. Help buyers understand what makes your company the right choice for them.
In this screenshot, you can see how Acme Wire Products used a graph and text to explain their turnkey wire forming capabilities.
Acme Wire Products capabilities page
4) Ratings – If buyers can rate your product on third-party review sites, list the rating on your website – even if it’s not a 100 percent rating. Most people don’t expect perfection; what they really want to know is that you’re responsive and will help them if they run into a problem. By being honest about your product or service, you’ll build credibility and trust.
In fact, a WhichTestWon Monarch airlines case study proves this point. SPOILER ALERT! By adding the trust icon, Monarch improved landing page conversions. What I found interesting, however, is Anthony’s comment:
Comment from WhichTestWon case study
5) FAQs – Before the Internet, prospective buyers would call a company and ask lots of questions to determine if the company could help solve specific challenges. (I know this for a fact because, in the old days, I used to answer four phone lines and had to answer these questions!) Help buyers educate themselves by providing this information on your website and include answers to everything – from how your product works and your business hours to how to receive free samples or move forward with an RFQ.
Here you can see that Kays Engineering, manufacturer of deep hole drilling machines, answers people’s general questions about machine build time, shipping internationally, and technical support.
Kays Engineering FAQ page
These are a few examples of how to help buyers determine if your product or solution is right for them. You’ll find lots of other great research and takeaways from the 2015 B2B Web Usability Report, so be sure to check it out.
Dianna Huff is a marketing consultant for small, family-run industrial manufacturers. She’s also the co-author of 101 Ways to Market Your Website, a guide for small business owners, consultants, freelancers – anyone with a website.
After 25 years of interviewing thousands of people about every topic under the sun, what has billionaire media mogul Oprah Winfrey learned about human nature? Everyone wants to be validated.
In a fireside chat about leadership and career at Stanford University, she revealed that everyone she interviews asks her the same question at the end of the conversation. “Was that okay? How did I do?” This pattern holds true for the very famous and powerful as well as ordinary citizens. “Everybody says that, and now I just wait for it,” she says.
Winfrey says that we all share three basic concerns when we interact with others.
1. Did you see me?
2. Did you hear me?
3. Did what I said mean anything to you?
“That’s what everything’s about,” she says.
If you want to start becoming the kind of leader who validates others, you must first understand that validation is different from praise or positive feedback.
In psychological terms, validation is not about agreeing with others or approving of what they’ve said or done. Rather, it’s about accepting the person – no matter what the person is saying or doing. As Karyn Hall, Ph.D., author of The Emotionally Sensitive Person: Finding Peace When Your Emotions Overwhelm You, puts it, “Validation is a way of communicating that the relationship is important and solid even when you disagree on issues.”
Here are four ways you can lead salespeople by validating them.
1. Give the person your undivided attention.
The first rule of validation is to listen wholeheartedly to whoever is talking. In other words, show the salesperson that you’re not simply waiting for your turn to speak or keeping one eye on your email while he or she talks.
This can be a tough practice for leaders who are used to multitasking and juggling many priorities at once. If it helps, think of how disheartening it is when you talk with someone – whether a client or your own boss – who’s constantly texting or interrupting your discussion to take phone calls. Doesn’t feel great, does it? When a rep comes to you to discuss something, set aside all distractions and really tune in to what he or she is saying.
2. Pause to restate and reflect.
Sometimes sales leaders assume that reps want them to provide immediate answers and solutions. While it’s true that your role is to help and give direction, be aware that sometimes salespeople just need someone to listen to them so they can get some perspective on their issues.
A simple pause to restate what you’ve heard shows that you’ve been listening actively and helps the salesperson hear what he’s said. For example, you could say, “So what I’m hearing is that you’ve sent three emails to the prospect this week and received only one reply in return, which you found vague and confusing.” This simple restatement makes the salesperson feel validated.
3. Notice and remark on the person’s emotional state.
Sometimes people are unaware of the way they’re feeling. This can prolong their distress and make problems more complicated as they’re unable to separate facts from emotions. If you say something like, “What I’m hearing right now is that you’re feeling frustrated and anxious,” you help the person start to identify his or her emotions and gain clarity.
Notice that you are not necessarily saying it is right or wrong to feel frustrated and anxious; you are simply making an observation. This creates greater openness and trust. Because you’ve validated the salesperson, he or she now feels safe in communicating with you in an authentic fashion.
4. Commit to what you have in common.
Again, validation is about underscoring the importance of the person and of your relationship with the person. It is entirely possible for a leader to disagree with someone and still validate him or her.
For example, it might annoy you when a salesperson complains that entering information into CRM is a waste of time. You might be tempted to explode and say something like, “Quit being so lazy! This is something I told you to do, so you’d better start doing it!” However, this is not going to leave the salesperson feeling validated (and probably won’t get the behavior you want, either).
Instead, validate the person by focusing on a commitment the two of you share. In this case, your shared commitment is to the success of the salesperson and to the sales organization as a whole. Accordingly, you might choose to say something like, “I know how frustrating it can be to feel like you’re being asked to do something that wastes your time. Here are three ways you and I both benefit when you enter data into CRM, and here are three ways your actions then benefit the entire company.”
If the salesperson continues to repeat unacceptable behaviors, then you might eventually have to end the relationship. However, if it comes to that point, you’ll be able to do so with compassion – knowing you’ve always practiced the principles of validation.
For more insight about life and leadership from Oprah Winfrey, order her book, What I Know For Sure.
Lisa Gschwandtner is Editorial Director at Selling Power and Media Manager of the Sales 2.0 Conference. Find her on Twitter @SellingPower20.
In their book, Stone and Heen discuss the case of “Zoe,” who prided herself on the way she nurtured her team’s creativity during weekly brainstorming meetings. She didn’t realize, however, that people called her Annie Oakley behind her back. “As in, ‘she shoots down every idea,’” write Stone and Heen.
Zoe might never have become aware of the problem had she not decided to have a team member record a few of their meetings using a smartphone. “Zoe was stunned when she listened to the recording,” they write. Here are some of the phrases she heard herself utter:
“Here’s why I doubt that can work.”
“Here’s what I’m worried about.”
During brainstorming meetings, you might think you’re setting high standards or providing constructive feedback when, in fact, others see you as hypercritical. Try these three tips for leading a terrific brainstorming session.
Tip #1: Don’t worry about controlling the meeting.
Zoe truly believed in the benefit of new ideas. The problem was that she was afraid of wasting time during the meetings. Remember, creative energy needs room to breathe. Allow the ideas to flow, and stop worrying that you need to keep the meeting on track.
Tip #2: Stay open, positive, and curious.
Negativity quickly stifles creativity. Even if you can tell that an idea is not going to work, avoid saying so right away. Instead, see if you can pick one aspect of the idea that you immediately like, and focus on that.
For example, if someone suggests a customer-loyalty initiative but you can tell the plan is going to be prohibitively expensive, you might respond by saying, “What I like about this idea so far is that it addresses our key accounts. Let’s see if we can build on that.”
Brainstorming sessions are not the time to challenge ideas. There will be plenty of time to apply critical thinking after you develop ideas more and decide if you want to pursue them.
Tip #3: Plan ahead to capture ideas.
Although it’s ideal to let ideas flow freely, the lack of structure can sometimes mean that ideas become lost once everyone goes back to their desks. If this happens more than once, your team members are likely to be left feeling as though you’ve wasted their time. As a result, they might invest less effort in volunteering ideas.
Ask a good note-taker who’s not a core part of the team to attend the meeting and devote his or her full attention to capturing the ideas. Before the meeting ends, review the notes aloud to make sure they’re accurate and reflect the spirit of the discussion.
If you’re a sales leader, remember that your tone, attitude, and behavior sets the tone for the rest of your team. Also bear in mind that the way you perceive yourself is not necessarily the way others perceive you. Even if you don’t have doubts about how you’re coming across, try recording a meeting or two the way Zoe did. That way, you’ll hear the evidence for yourself.
How do you encourage the free flow of ideas when brainstorming with your sales team?
Lisa Gschwandtner is Editorial Director at Selling Power and Media Manager of the Sales 2.0 Conference. Find her on Twitter @SellingPower20.
Imagine two competing salespeople who are about to call on the same customer. Salesperson A is making his call at 10:00 a.m., and Salesperson B is making her call at 11:00 a.m.
Before they go into the call, they both do the exact same thing: they open their laptops to review the customer’s information. As they scroll past the customer’s contact information, the two salespeople see two different things.
Salesperson A sees the projected revenue for this customer and the anticipated close date that he promised his boss.
Salesperson B sees five boxes labeled
1) customer environment,
2) customer goals,
3) customer challenges,
4) what success looks like for this customer, and
5) what lack of success looks like for this customer.
Each box contains a succinct summary of the information Salesperson B has gathered on her previous sales calls.
Which salesperson is going to make the better sales call, Salesperson A, who goes into the call after being reminded about his quota, or Salesperson B, who was just reminded about the customer’s goals?
Who is better prepared to discuss the customer’s most pertinent business issues? Who is going to do a better job of aligning the solution with the customer’s key goals?
If you were the customer, which screen would you rather your salesperson look at before calling on you? Who would you rather do business with, Salesperson A, who shows up thinking about his quota, or Salesperson B, who is thinking about what matters to you, the customer?
Salesperson B is going to make a better call because she’s going to be more focused on the customer. Salesperson A might not be a bad rep, but his customer relationship management (CRM) system set him up for mediocrity.
Why Most CRM Systems Promote Sales Mediocrity
Sadly, Salesperson A, with his pipeline-oriented CRM system, isn’t the exception; he’s the norm. His system set him up to make a mediocre sales call because it focused him on information that’s important to his company (pipeline, revenue projections, close date, etc.), not what’s important to his customer. Without being prompted to focus on the customer’s goals and challenges, Salesperson A will do what most average-performing salespeople do: provide a generic description of his products and services and hope he closes the deal.
Salesperson B has a big advantage: her CRM system set her up to make a customer-focused sales call. By putting up front all the information about the customer’s environment, goals, challenges, and success factors, her system prepared her to connect the dots between the customer’s high-priority goals and her solution.
If the two salespeople’s products and pricing are about the same, the person with the customer-focused CRM system will win. Additionally, even if Salesperson B is selling a higher-priced product, she’ll still win the business, because while Salesperson A’s company has focused him on his quota, Salesperson B has a more noble purpose: to help the customer.
The Huge Mistake People Notice Only When They Start Losing Business
As a sales-leadership consultant, I’ve seen firsthand just how much CRM affects sales behavior. Several years ago, I was working with a major manufacturing firm that had recently implemented a new CRM system with all the bells and whistles. There was just one problem: the expensive new system hadn’t improved the close rate one bit. Company execs brought me in to figure out why. The answer was obvious to me after I spent a few hours in the field with the reps.
The CRM system captured the information that mattered to the company, but nowhere was there a space to record the information that mattered to the customer. There wasn’t a single screen or even a box to record the critical customer information that should be the centerpiece of every sales call. No wonder the reps were getting a reputation as product pushers. We fixed the problem, and not surprisingly, the close rate went up dramatically.
Here’s the big mistake most companies make: they tell salespeople to focus on the customer, but the CRM system is more focused on internal metrics and pipeline management. The result is mediocre sales behavior.
Look at your own CRM system and ask, where is the information about the customers’ goals? Is it buried, or is it right up front? What do your salespeople see when they open their screens? If the information is more company focused than customer focused, you have a big problem.
A good CRM tool delivers useful analytics and reports, but don’t make the mistake of letting the tail wag the dog. The ultimate purpose of capturing customer information is to drive more sales. The information you require your salespeople to gather about their customers influences their sales behavior. Capturing the right information about your customers and pulling it to the front and center of your CRM gives you a huge competitive advantage.
You can be a me-too sales force that says you want to make a difference to customers, or you can be the rare company that actually does. If you want to be mediocre, keep focusing on your pipeline. If you want to be outstanding, choose a more noble purpose; focus on your customer.
Logan Strain is the Digital Content Specialist for NextGen Leads. His work has also been featured in Search Engine Journal, The Salesforce Blog, HubSpot, and other fine publications. He lives in San Diego with his wife and daughter. Follow him on twitter @LM_Strain.
