by Steve Braverman, Director of Sales & Marketing Programs

Does it seem like the NFL season plays out on TV or sports talk radio 365 days a year?  I was watching ESPN this past weekend and one NFL analyst was discussing the recent 2012 draft.  He noted three intangibles that would ultimately predict a player’s future success in the NFL: Energy, Focus, and Toughness.

While we believe that systematically hiring sales stars is the result of a disciplined, behavior-based hiring process, sales managers should also consider intangibles.  And energy, focus, and toughness are intangibles that can be readily applied to the sales world.

Energy:

Football players who bring high energy to both practice and then game day are consistently more successful than those who just go through the motions.  In the sales world, reps who just go through the motions rarely last in the long-run.  Customers can sense low energy and they typically don’t want to engage with those types of reps.

Focus:

Great football players can block out the crowd noise and hyper-focus on their jobs.  Likewise, successful sales reps need to be able to tune out all of the daily distractions that can get them off track and focus on the limited number of key activities (e.g., prospecting) that can move the dial.

Toughness:

It goes without saying that football players are physically tough, but they also must be mentally tough to manage injury, adversity, and pressure.  By the same token, it is not uncommon for sales reps to hear “no” 90% of the time, so they, too, need to be incredibly mentally tough and be able to bounce back after repeated setbacks.

Energy, focus, and toughness can be the difference makers that set your sales stars apart from the non- or low-producers, ultimately keeping them from being relegated to the bench, or even worse, released.

By David Jacoby, Managing Partner

We have blogged extensively on sales coaching here, here and here  because we believe that consistent sales coaching is a great way for sales managers to improve results.

One common challenge we see with sales managers is that they often spend too much time coaching the wrong sales reps.

Move the Middle

Let’s first clear up a common misconception of sales managers have about sales coaching: namely, that all sales reps should get an equal amount of coaching time.  Managing a sales team is not about treating everyone equally, it is about achieving results.  Given the time pressures most typical sales managers face, they must be ruthlessly efficient about allocating coaching time.  Some sales reps will produce better return on investments of coaching time than other reps.  The two key factors for estimating ROI for coaching are a reps skill level and “coachability.”

With regards to skill level, the highest ROI on coaching time is with sales reps with “medium” skills. This is because the highest ROI from coaching comes from moving the middle.  Ideally, a sales manager should spend about 60% of their coaching time with these “medium” sales reps.  Next, the sales manager should spend 25% of their coaching time with high-skilled reps.  Even though these reps are presumably achieving quota, everyone can do better.  Finally, sales managers should only spend 15% of their coaching time with low-skill reps (note: newly hired sales reps are an exception).

In our experience, most low-skilled sales reps are not worth a significant sales coaching time investment.  Unfortunately, a common trap managers fall into is spending too much time with low-performing reps.

Coachability

What about the coachability factor?  A rep’s coachability can be determined by asking questions such as:

• Are they receptive to (new) ideas?
• Is there a desire to improve?
• Are they passionate about the work?

Sales reps with low coachability (admittedly a subjective factor), produce low ROIs on your coaching time.  Accordingly, we recommend reducing coaching time for reps with low coachability and increasing it for reps with high coachability.  Reps who are low performers with low coachability are probably not worth keeping on your team.

While there is no magic formula for improving coachability, it is fair to ask, “Why is this person not receptive to change and what can I do to increase their receptivity?” It may be appropriate to examine your approach and style for this individual.

Time is the one factor that a sales manager has the most control over.  They should allocate their coaching time based on ROI.

By Steve Braverman, Director of Sales & Marketing Programs

For a sales manager going on a call with a sales rep, nothing is more painful than watching the rep crash and burn.

The natural reaction is to rescue the sales rep.  After all, why loose the sale when all you need to do is jump in and take over the sales call.  But is that the best choice?

It depends.

Joint Call vs. Coaching Call

Let’s first make an important distinction between a joint sales call and a sales coaching call.  On a joint sales call, a sales manager’s role is to help the sales rep sell.  Perhaps the sales rep has specifically asked for help with an account, or maybe the opportunity is so significant that the sale manager wants to accompany the rep on the call “just in case.”

The primary goal of a joint sales call is to close business.  So on a joint call it is entirely appropriate for the sales manager to takeover a call and rescue a sales call if the sales rep is struggling.  One point of caution: a sales manager should only go on a limited number of joint sales calls (as opposed to coaching calls).  If you find yourself going on too many joint calls, you are in effect doing the sales rep’s job for them.  A sales manager should be primarily managing, not selling.

By contrast, on a coaching call a sales manager’s role is to observe the sales rep in action and then later provide constructive feedback following the call.  Ideally, the sales manager would also have a coaching plan for each of their reps, allocate sufficient coaching time, and follow a structured coaching process.

The primary goal for the coaching call is to develop the sales rep’s skills.  A best practice for B-to-B sales organizations is that the sales manager spends 25%-40% of their time going on sales coaching calls.  Why so much time?  Because research shows that sales teams that get consistent coaching produce better sales results than teams that get little or no coaching.

Sometimes, the best coaching happens after a sales rep makes a mistake.  In the short run, this can be painful to watch, but in the long run this results in better sales reps.

Defining Roles

Prior to going on a coaching call, the sales manager and sales rep should clearly define their respective roles.  On a coaching call the best role for the sales rep is the seller, and for the manager is the observer.  Managers can coach most effectively when they when they’re not actively involved in the selling process, focusing their attention on observing how well the sales rep demonstrates a few specific skills and knowledge areas.

In a few limited cases, though, it’s better for the sales manager to sell on the coaching call and have the sales rep observe.  For example, this is appropriate for a new sales rep that doesn’t yet have experience or confidence, or has a persistent development need that a manager can best address by demonstrating the “right” way.

To the Rescue!

But what about “rescuing” the sales rep on a coaching call? If necessary, it should be done consciously, not as a knee-jerk reaction.  For example, if what the rep says could potentially have legal or company policy misinformation ramifications, the manager should tactfully provide accurate information, and then turn the call back to the salesperson.

Other factors to consider in deciding when to rescue include:

• Progression of events during call may jeopardize the sale or account relationship
• If stepping in and helping salesperson will seriously damage rep’s credibility
• Enhancing or impairing salesperson’s development, such as their confidence/attitude

Bottom line: Coaching, which includes learning through failure, leads to better sales rep skill development and this improves performance.

By Steve Braverman, Director of Sales & Marketing Programs

Last week I blogged about some highlights from the recent Sales 2.0 Conference in San Francisco. One recurring theme was how traditional selling is being transformed into “social selling,” and how LinkedIn has become a key social selling tool.

Let’s face it. Nearly all of today’s business professionals and/or their respective employers occupy some sort of social media presence. While there are many great social networking tools (including the usual suspects of Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter), LinkedIn is the premiere social networking tool for sales professionals. And why not? There are currently 150 million members on LinkedIn and counting, to the tune of two members added per second.

Leveraging LinkedIn for Prospecting

Mike Derezin, LinkedIn’s Global Head of Sales/Sales Solutions, shared some intriguing comments and statistics at the Conference relating to prospecting:

• Only 4.5% of sales reps ultimately engage in a live conversation with a key decision maker.
• There is an 87% higher likelihood of a response from an InMail with a second degree connection (assuming you mention that second degree connection) than an InMail without a second degree connection. Note: Don’t ignore your first degree network. After all, they are theones most likely to introduce you.
• LinkedIn generates the highest visitor-to-lead conversion rate: 277% higher than other social media channels.
• LinkedIn’s exciting product, SalesNavigator, which includes:
• LeadBuilder, which helps sales professionals prospect and map a path to key decision makers
• InMail (see above)
• TeamLink, which enables companies to leverage their entire sales organization’s connections

Improve Your Social Presence

In addition to prospecting, Derezin explained how to improve your social presence during the sales process. This requires sales professionals to engage in more online conversations. Sixty percent of decision makers use some form of social media on a daily basis, so engage them.  Per above, providing a strong presence on LinkedIn is a great place to begin prospecting and strengthening relationships, whether sharing Insights and/or joining various LinkedIn Groups.

Derezin further added that leaders in social selling should do the following:

1. Create strong LinkedIn profiles
2. Continually share insights or best practices
3. Aggressively build their network
4. Leverage other tools (E.g., join Groups, etc.)

And those who don’t might watch the competition pass them by.

Steve Braverman, Director Sales & Marketing

I recently returned from the Sales 2.0 Conference in San Francisco which offered some unique and interesting insights into today’s selling environment.

From the Top

During his keynote address on the “New Standards of Sales Success,” SellingPower’s founder & CEO, Gerhard Gschwandtner, shared several insights and statistics from the current sales culture. These included but were not limited to the following:

• Effective sales coaching can increase sales productivity by nearly 20%.
• 57% of a customer’s buying process occurs online before ever connecting with a sales professional.
• Sales reps need to learn to “manage the message.” Only 13% can demonstrate an understanding of a company’s business.
• Connecting via email only gets a .5% response rate, whereas utilizing social media tools such as LinkedIn’s InMail, can generate a 30% response rate.
• Blog. Persuade and educate your potential customers by providing timely, insightful information.
• Social mindset: Create a flat company organization, not a hierarchy, where both fun and functional environments/meetings can occur.
• Social proximity trumps geography by creating “casual collisions” online.

Just the Tip of the Iceberg

Throughout the two-day conference there were several more breakout sessions, too numerous for yours truly to attend (Hey, someone had to man our sponsor booth, right?). However, I was able to attend four or five, and not only found some of the topics and content enlightening, but also somewhat surprising.  Mindjet’s Abe Smith indicated that, believe it or not, texting and chatting can get the attention of a potential customer…in a good way. He noted that one rep made five attempts to contact a key decision maker using standard means of communication, such as by phone and email, before deciding to attempt a text message. The result? The rep received a reply within 10 minutes.

And Don’t Forget to Turn on Your Webcam

Finally, it wasn’t just Gerhard who echoed how much (57%) of the buying process takes place online before there is an initial connection between parties. The importance of utilizing social media to get to decision makers in the selling process permeated throughout many of the event’s sessions/seminars. However, in addition to the intriguing and somewhat shocking “texting” highlight above, perhaps it was Todd McCormick’s (PGi’s VP of Sales) comment that resonated with me the most: Have a better call by turning on your webcam.

In today’s sales environment where inside selling greatly reduces inconvenient and expensive travel, 93% of communication is missing from not being engaged during a sales call, according to McCormick. Meetings become more productive because people are now forced to pay more attention. He added that the webcam not only creates 93% better communication, but video is more persuasive and immediate (than audio). Moreover, the webcam enables you to differentiate yourself in inside sales by emphasizing more non-verbal cues, such as a person’s energy, including enthusiasm or lack-there-of.

Since buyers trust online relationships more, and since video conveys more information per minute than other media, video is how people learn best. Am I ready to turn on my webcam you ask? Well, we’ve taken sales training to the cloud here at SRG, so that’s one small step for man. Getting me to use a webcam on a daily basis? Perhaps that’s one giant leap I’ll likely take sooner than later.

In our current slow growth, budget constrained economy, sales teams have to do more with less. Quotas keep going up, while selling resources don’t. A simple but powerful method to improve sales performance is to assess how your sales reps are utilizing their time.  Many factors that influence sales results are outside of the sales reps control, but time is the one variable that sales reps have maximum influence over.

When we analyze how sales reps at many sales organizations typically spend their day, we routinely see two major time wasters.  First, sales reps spend too much time on non-sales activities during prime selling hours.  This problem can be best fixed by frontline sales managers actively managing the behaviors of their sales reps.

The other big time waster is that reps often spend too much time with the wrong accounts.  This can manifest itself at the top of the sales funnel during prospecting.  While we have previously blogged on how to improve prospect targeting, it is worth mentioning again that poor prospect targeting has a ripple effect throughout the entire sales process: (1) calling on the wrong prospects, (2) results in meetings with the wrong prospects, (3) which in turn results in proposals to the wrong prospects etc.  The net effect of all of this is a significant amount of wasted time.

This problem can also occur at the other end of the sales funnel: spending too much time with the wrong existing accounts. Research shows that in any given territory,

• the top 15% of the total accounts produce 65% of total sales – let’s call these accounts “A” Accounts;
• the next 20% of the total accounts produce only 15% of total sales—let’s call these accounts “B” Accounts; and
• the bottom 65% of the total accounts produce only 15% of total sales—these are “C” Accounts.

Without a systematic approach to allocating time to existing accounts, sales reps are likely to spend too much with their “C” Accounts.  We have all seen this before, a rep spending too much time with an account that has limited upside (i.e., a C Account).  Maybe the sales rep has a great relationship at the C Account, or maybe there isn’t much competition.  Whatever the reason, this is a key driver of wasted time for many sales reps.

The key factor to consider in efficiently allocating time with existing accounts is to always consider the expected yield of each account. 

So here is a simple three step system for allocating time with existing accounts:

1. Determine the expected value of each account – how much can the sales rep reasonably expect to sell to an existing account over the next time period.
2. Categorize accounts according to yield (“A” Accounts, “B” Accounts, and “C” Accounts).
3. Finally, Allocate call frequency according to yield. A simple and intuitive way of doing this is determine how much time a sales rep should spend calling on existing accounts (as opposed to prospecting) and then allocate this time as follows:

• “A” Accounts – reps should spend 65% of their time with these accounts
• “B” Accounts – reps should spend 20% of their time with these accounts
• “C” Accounts—reps should spend 15% of their time with these accounts

By utilizing this straightforward system, your sales reps will spend more time calling on their “A” Accounts and not waste time on their “C” Accounts.

There are many ways a sales leader can improve the sales performance of his/her team.  A great (and no cost) starting point is to make sure your sales reps are managing their time efficiently.

Many managers get so immersed in tracking past performance that they neglect to focus on how they can improve the effectiveness of their teams.  As a result, they focus their discussions with sales reps on missed results instead of coaching their sales reps on how they can become more effective salespeople

Creating a coaching culture begins at the top with a clear message that management’s role is to support, develop, and empower sales people. This message allows sales managers to begin a series of positive discussions that focus on how reps can improve going forward, as opposed to a critique of historical performance. A key aspect of this message is that everyone has room for improvement so coaching should not be seen as something that is seen as remedial for reps who are underperforming

Instead, we can look to the sports world as an example where even the top performers seek ongoing coaching (as an example, pro golfers are always looking to improve their swing). Setting the tone for a positive coaching culture is the first step in implementing an ongoing coaching program that improves sales force effectiveness. The second step is implementing programs that help front line managers develop coaching skills so they can effectively coach their reps. 

By creating a coaching culture where coaching is an ongoing part of a sales reps development, and training managers how to become better coaches, sales organizations can implement highly effective coaching programs that improve sales results.

By 2013, 75% of all workers will be mobile workers.  This isn’t surprising given the rapid pace of technology and the efficiencies of working from a home office. From a sales perspective, this is an excellent trend since it allows sales people to spend more time in the field working with their customers.

At the same time, mobile sales teams are disrupting a lot of the ways we have traditionally managed sales reps, including how we train them. Sales training has historically been event driven and conducted in a formal classroom setting.

Simply stated, it is just getting too expensive and time consuming to fly mobile teams to a central location for training on a regular basis.  Maybe you can train your team once a year at the annual sales meeting, but those “training events” usually aren’t very effective.

To address these challenges, companies should leverage technology and make training ongoing as opposed to event driven.  One great example of this type of technology is the live virtual classroom which can be used for training and ongoing reinforcement.

With live virtual classroom technology, small groups of sales people are taught sales skills by a live facilitator using their computers or mobile devices.  These virtual sessions are short and spaced out over time, highly interactive and have proven to be very effective.  In addition, the training sticks because live virtual training makes it easy to provide on-going reinforcement.

If you haven’t already made the switch to virtual learning, make continuous skills development your 2012 sales training resolution.

As we approach year end, I wanted to share with you our thoughts on how sales leaders can improve the effectiveness of their sales organizations in 2012.

Sales Management Development:

Companies can gain maximum leverage by increasing the effectiveness of their sales managers. Since most managers are promoted into management from the sales ranks, they typically lack the new skills they need to be effective in their positions.  As a result, they resort to inspecting results (i.e. backward looking), and trying to “help” their sale people sell (i.e. taking over sales calls and/or providing unwanted guidance).  This is unfortunate because a sales manager with the right skills will be able to improve team performance by:

• Creating and communicating a sales vision (where are we going and how are going to get there)
• Making better decisions by considering the relative importance and the potential implications
• Influencing and motivating the individuals on their team
• Coaching and reinforcing selling skills
• Recruiting and selecting new hires by focusing on key competencies that best align with success
• Managing the behaviors that drive results

Improving Selling Skills:

Selling skills are at a premium because it is increasingly difficult to reach decision makers, and, when you do, the level of scrutiny is much higher given current economic conditions. Today’s buyers are also much more empowered because they have the benefit of conducting online research and are no longer as reliant on sales reps to understand industry trends and best practices.

To respond to these trends, sales organizations should focus on helping reps develop better selling skills. This can best be accomplished by making skills training an ongoing process as opposed to a one time training event. Highly effective sales training programs should:

• Focus on the key skills that are most important for your sales team
• Use spaced learning for better retention and application
• Incorporate online assessments to ensure that sales reps understand key concepts
• Provide reinforcement sessions focused on skills application
• Actively involve sales managers in the training so they can provide ongoing coaching

By developing better managers and improving selling skills, sales organizations will realize increased effectiveness and produce better results.

Best wishes for a highly successful 2012!!!

Managing an underperforming sales  team is always a challenge.  As you think about the underlying causes, consider whether your team has the necessary skills to be successful in today’s economy.

Watch video as Marlaiana Williams (now Marlaina Capes) discusses why teams underperform, and what sales managers can do to improve sales performance.