View our profile on LinkedInFollow us on TwitterVisit our blog        MXL Partners  Michael Griego

MXL SalesNoteTM


December 2012

In this Issue
Coffee Break
Benefits of Sales Playbooks
Challenger Superstars
Dickens on Sales

 

Take a Coffee Break

 

Christmas at

Red Rock Coffee 

Mountain View, CA

Dec 12th & 19th

@ 7:00-9:00pm

 

If you're local to the Bay Area, take a work and Christmas shopping break, relax with a cup of coffee and listen to MXL's Michael Griego take a break from his day job.

 

On December 12th and 19th from 7-9pm, Michael will be performing classical and flamenco arrangements on classical guitar featuring popular Christmas music from his own  "Classical Christmas" CD recording.

 

Have a Merry Classical Christmas!

 

Red Rock Coffee

201 Castro Street

Mountain View, CA

7-9pm

 

                More...

_________________________ 

 
Quick Links
 

42 Rules  

42 Rules to Increase Sales Effectiveness

by Michael Griego 

Amazon.com  

 

Top Sales World

Visit Our Sales Center 

 


 Visit Our Sales Center
  

 

 

Join Our Mailing List 

Contact Us  

650-279-3467

 See SalesNote Archives

 see  September SalesNote 

 see  October SalesNote 

 see  November SalesNote

 

  

  

 

M E R R Y

C H R I S T M A S

Rethinking Your Selling Methodology
Top Sales Magazine
With all due respect to Michael Bosworth, author of Solution Selling, it's long past time to rethink "solution selling" or any of the legacy sales methodologies. Both the selling world and customer interactions have changed and require adjustments to common selling motions. 
  
Besides, after all the books and training over many 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 certainly a new generation selling in a different era. 
  
While my sales, management and consulting career grew up with Miller Heiman (Strategic Selling), Neil Rackham (SPIN Selling) and Bosworth (Solution Selling) over the past 30 years, today I'm seeing 4 challenges facing salespeople relative to modern selling: 
  1. 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.
  2. Blended Conversations- lead generation improvements require clear distinctions between call introduction, qualification and discovery. Reps need clarity of process and conversation flow.
  3. Convoluted Questioning - sales call questioning process fundamentals have been lost, forgotten or confused. Reps need talk tracks grounded in simplified questioning fundamentals.
  4. Lacking Insights- salespeople need to be bold and provocative, bringing insightful value to conversations that stand apart in a crowded marketplace....

Read Mike Griego's full feature article in the December edition of Top Sales World Magazine 

 

___________________________________________________

Benefits of Sales Playbooks

DSG Virtual Playbook
Click for Video

 

Aberdeen Research has concluded that which MXL Partners and DSG Consulting have known for some time. Their research has confirmed that Best-in-Class companies were nearly twice  as likely as Laggards (43% vs, 22%) to deploy sales playbooks.

 

There is a striking difference in performance metrics when comparing users of playbooks with non-users:

  • Customer Renewal Rates (+2%)
  • Overall Team Attainment of Sales Quota (+8%)
  • Percentage of Sales Reps Achieving Quota (+11%)
  • Lead Conversion Rate (+5%) 

Apart from these benefits, going mobile with virtual Playbooks is compounding the positives. Check out the next generation of sales enablement.

                                                                          See More 

  

___________________________________________________

Challenger Sales Superstars 

 

There is natural aligning of the 5 attributes of a Sales Superstar (see Rule #12) in 42 Rules to Increase Sales Effectiveness) and the 5 sales rep types from The Challenger Sale.

  

   1. Driver......................1. Hard Worker

   2. Technician................2. Lone Wolf

   3. Facilitator.................3. Challenger

   4. Empathizer................4. Relationship Builder

   5. Servant....................5. Reactive Problem Solver  

 

While the Sales Executive Council research reveals the Challenger Rep is the top sales producing profile in a post-2008 world, the message should be to balance out and develop all 5 behavioral areas. Nothing wrong with being an Empathizer-Relationship Builder, as long as you develop other areas, particularly provocative Facilitator-Challenger skills and actions. There's nothing like a capable Technician-Lone Wolf with a Servant-Problem Solving heart and honed people skills.

 

We all want to hire "the best" or be "top producers" - the real catch is the one who's the "full package." Bottom line: true superstar sales reps are balanced people. Great reps, sales superstars in my book, possess healthy doses of all 5 points on the star. The good news is that these are teachable; the challenge is that they be necessarily honed and developed in a changing world.

 

Are you a Challenger Sales Superstar?

                                                                        Read the full article...

 

___________________________________________________

Dickens on Sales

 
"Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has plenty; not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some. " - Charles Dickens, novelist