How could the lubricants division of Chevron have a banner year with the three issues listed above? It looks like the perfect storm for reduced sales, not sales success. 
Coincidentally, there are three reasons why they were able to succeed and your organization could pick up some pointers from them regardless of your size, your situation or your capabilities.
Reason One: Leadership
When facing the "perfect storm" like they are, leadership must take a "burn the boats" approach backed by a tactical battle plan. Bob Stoltz is their sales leader. Bob sets the bar high and then gives the troops the ability to jump over it. Ability involves both training and coaching: teach your people how to do what you want them to do and then coach them through the development process.
Here's where he set the bar. Sales must be reported in three categories: volume (gallons, usually), revenue (total sales dollars) and net contribution to overhead (profitability). If you're like most sales leaders, the first two are familiar but that third one in less familiar. Bob is teaching and coaching his people how to determine the level of profitability of each sale. This can be done. Despite the fact that many clients tell me that salespeople cannot and should not be measured on profitability, it can be done. After all, companies survive and thrive on profit, not revenue. He gives them the training, coaching and tools to compute their effectiveness which leads us to the second reason.
Reason Two: Analytics
Sales analytics is one of the fastest growing concepts in professional selling. Being able to quantify the impact of your product or service on your customer's bottom line is the primary key now for selling around the price objection. Chevron is rarely the lowest priced alternative yet they are closing significant business. How? By giving their salespeople the most robust sales toolbox. I've seen it, it is powerful, rich and convincing. You may not need the level of complexity or diversity they do, but you do need tools. Simple tools, like paper forms, are a start; more sophisticated tools, like calculators, can make all the difference.
Reason Three: Supply Chain Selling
In a B2B world we don't sell to, we sell through. This is a critical understanding successful sales teams must have and use right now. It prevents us from beating dead horses and it allows us to answer the "who else?" and "what else?" questions.
Two of their largest accounts are Caterpillar and John Deere. As you might imagine, those giant machines require a lot of lubricant when being built and even more when the unit is in the field. Heavy equipment demand dropped severely with the slow-down in construction and other sectors of the economy. The best salesperson in the world cannot sell to a customer whose customers are not buying.
If my customer's customer is not buying, I need to either help my customer sell more effectively (not an option here) or I need to find other people whose customers are buying.
One of the best examples at Chevron Lubricants was an ambitious sales professional who approached CarMax, the supercenters of used car sales. Their customer base is becoming more active as people choose to buy previously owned vehicles. Since CarMax thoroughly refurbishes every unit they sell, they would use a lot of oil and grease. But he took it a step further. He suggested that CarMax include a quart of Chevron's best oil in the car, along with other products. This way, the potential buyer would see the quality of lubricant CarMax had used. It would give the CarMax salesperson an additional talking point. After all, car buyers rarely think about the fluids in the car, right? Yet the mechanical reliability is dependent on the quality of the parts and fluids and people are buying reliability first and appearance/features second.
How can you use this?
Some ideas:
Have you set the bar high enough? Is your sales performance lower than it could be if you were to establish higher objectives?
Are your people trained? Sales training is a process, not an event. It is never complete. Weekly Do-It-Yourself (DIY) sales training is a must, it's free and it helps everyone: CSO's, salespeople and, best of all, customers. (See the free White Paper on DIY sales training at www.SaleSSuiteS.com)
How's your coaching? Do you have individual development plans for each of your people along with your corporate objectives?
What tools do your salespeople need? Could calculators and other tools help them develop customer-focused cost justifications?
Are you asking who else and what else? Who else could you be selling to? What else could you be selling to your existing customers? Maybe it's time for a brainstorming session to creatively consider some new options.
