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Announcement
Top Sales
MANAGEMENT MXL founder selected to elite worldwide team
At last a resource site dedi-cated solely to sales leaders including Sales Managers, Vice Presidents of Sales, Sales Coaches, Sales Direc-tors, CEO's - ultimately any individual who is committed to developing their sales people's potential and results.
"We are pleased to have assembled a team of the very best sales management coaches in the world, including MXL founder Michael Griego, who will be contributing to a number of essential resource areas," says Jonathan Farrington, the founder of
TopSalesManagement.com.
A sister site to TopSales World.com, this elite team of international experts will in-clude (in alphabetical order) Dr. Tony Alessandra, Nancy Bleeke, Danita Bye, Kevin Eikenberry, Jonathan Farring-ton, Colleen Francis, Michael Griego, Mark Hunter, Dave Kurlan, Christian Maurer, Linda Richardson, Keith Ro-sen, Steven Rosen, Tibor Shanto, Colleen Stanley and Ken Thoreson.
According to Farrington, these sales management thought leaders will be providing various materials ranging from interviews, profiles, sales articles, process tools and fundamental sales man-agement skills. "This site is an absolutely 'must' for today's forward-thinking sales leaders."
Launches this week |
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Sales Tip of the Month
If you waste an hour, you can never replace it. The cumula-tive effect of competently and consistently performing priori-tized activities is profound. Without a prioritized attack plan one can become over-whelmed.
I see it all the time in the sales world. Large territories, num-erous leads of varying quality, then add customer issues and sales process complexities. Too many moving parts; too little time. What's a sales-person to do?
Don't panic - stay on it. Determine all valued actions, then scope and understand their impact and timing. Daily. Appropriately manage your schedule and make adjust-ments to the action plan as priorities move. Bottom line: do good things well and often, with an understanding and accounting for every hour. |
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Contact Us
650-279-3467
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Rethinking Solution Selling
With all due respect to Michael Bosworth, author of Solution Selling, it's time to rethink " solution selling." Both the selling world and customer interactions have changed and require adjustments to common selling motions.
Besides, after all the books and training over 15 years, try to find one VP of Sales or Account Executive who can tell you what the 9-Block Vision Processing Model is or even what exactly are "the 9 Boxes." While brilliant in theory and profound for a past generation, the practical application is often lost in the reality of today's dynamic sales arena. There's also a new generation selling in a different era.
While my sales, management and consulting career grew up with Rackham and Bosworth over the past 30 years, today I'm seeing 4 challenges facing salespeople relative to selling methodologies:
- Shorter Conversations - customer conversations are often brief and on the phone. Reps need to be agile and skilled in the managing of short selling conversations.
- Blended Conversations - lead generation improvements require clear distinctions between call introduction, qualification and discovery. Reps need clarity of process and conversation flow.
- Convoluted Questioning - sales call questioning process fundamentals have been lost, forgotten or confused. Reps need talk tracks grounded in simplified questioning fundamentals.
- Mistargeted Discovery - discovery conversations are often given short-shrift, prolonging or derailing sale cycles. Reps need clear discovery plays or templates that are simple, planned, manageable and trackable.
This SalesNote issue will focus on rethinking "solution selling" for the new day.
Do you need a revamping of your "solution selling" methodology?_____________________________________________________ |
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Shorter Sales Conversations
"How can I get my salespeople to 'create and reengineer vision' when their customer conversations are less than 2-minutes long?" So said the Sales Manager to me as he expressed frustration at his reps' brief sales calls.
While today's customer buyers are more technology savvy and knowledgeable and seem not eager to engage with salespeople, the truth is that they will engage with an engaging salesperson who brings value to the conversation quickly and deftly.
Knowing when, what and how to ask open and closed initial and subsequent questions should not be generic theory but actually spelled out for various prospect/customer/title situations. This combined with a clear and logical next-step objective will arm salespeople with tools for success, even in very brief conversations.
Can your reps manage customers with short attention spans? |
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Blended Conversations
Some sales calls are cold, some are warm, some are quasi-qualified, some are all teed up ready for the senior rep, some are follow-up exploratory calls. All calls need a crisp beginning and end and a purposeful middle.
The key is context and clear distinction between general Introductions and deliberate Qualification and Discovery purposes. I see many reps misapply solution selling precepts and blur these lines resulting in random meandering and/or missed information.
When there's no mindful, purposeful objective and logical call flow of Qualification questions (around budget or time-frame, etc.) and Discovery questions (need/solution/vision development), then even the most senior reps may come away with incomplete information and delay cycles.
Are you providing clear sales call guidance for your reps or letting them figure it out on their own? Read more...
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Convoluted Questioning
Most teams don't have the time or bandwidth to go through 4 days of training to get the Solution Selling questioning process ingrained into their brains. Doesn't mean they don't need help and a method, but there's got to be a better (and cheaper) and more effective way. There is!
The answer is in coherent Talk & Question Tracks designed for specific target audiences that adhere to a classic 4-Step Conversation Process. These are rich in substance, simple to learn and powerful in their tailored application for all sales levels: Inside, Outside, Channel and Support. Intelligent questioning - what a concept.
Multiple general, open, closed, confirming, qualifying, discovery and closing questions listed out on paper (spreadsheet or Powerpoint) for a sales rep doesn't cut it. The key is keeping it simple, flexible, logical, and real. The results when clarified and instructed are profound.
Do your sales reps have a clear sales questioning process? |
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Mistargeted Discovery
Sometimes sales reps are just happy to get a live person on the phone. They therefore give short shrift to full discovery and may even assume qualification status. Not a good thing. Many deals go awry or get delayed due to missteps here.
Think of having a football team score consistently if deliberate plays were not spelled out and practiced repeatedly. Wouldn't happen, certainly not consistently. Likewise in the sales arena, specific sales plays and audibles for various targets and situations can be thought through, mapped out for optimized impact, and executed to perfection with practice and discipline.
Sales teams need clear early-stage discovery plays or templates that are simple, targeted, well-planned, practical and useful. Managers and reps should be able to anticipate results and track their effectiveness. A well trained, disciplined sales team executing effective sales discovery plays is a beautiful thing.
Are your sales plays well designed? Read more... |
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Quotation about Sales Leadership
"He who has never learned to obey can never be a good commander." - Aristotle
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