Jonathan Farrington

CEO, Editor, Author, Keynote Speaker, Customer Experience Evangelist, Sales Futurist

Sandler Research Center - Survey results

When The Leaders Are Leading, The Pack Will Follow

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Unfortunately, most salesmen and women believe that a successful career in sales culminates in sales management, and yet there are of course far less management positions up for grabs than sales positions.

As a consequence, salespeople with this attitude concentrate on making sales rather than investing in themselves in order to become Top 5 % players and eventually most become disillusioned, resulting in a significant dip in achievements levels.

The knock-on effect of this is that many salespeople who move into management, take with them an underdeveloped view of selling – a “traditional” orientation and as consequence they help to create or maintain an unrealistic and short-sighted vision of what will be needed to develop their teams.

Because they lack Top 5% experience themselves, and an insight into the skills needed to make it at the highest level, the environment that they help to create fails to recognise the need for outstanding performers, and this is particularly noticeable in the compensation structures they build, which neither supports nor encourages their teams to break through that final glass ceiling.

As I have said often enough, both here, and on numerous other occasions, the single most common mistake that organizations make is promoting their number one salesperson into the role of sales manager, thereby depriving themselves in a single stroke of their best producer and hamstringing their sales force with an ineffective manager.

The skills required for managing, mentoring and developing a sales team are totally different from those required for selling. As a result, it’s not uncommon to find newly promoted sales managers who regret having taken a management position and may even leave to get back into sales – that is if they are not pushed first!

The majority of sales managers – new and experienced alike – say they do not have sufficient time to train and develop their sales teams. They are so focused on sales results – and so accustomed to achieving success through their personal pursuit of those results – that they overlook their greatest potential source of power, the power to increase sales performance by developing their people.

The sales manager’s role is transforming from evaluator to developer, from expert to resource, from teller to questioner. This change is no mere tweaking adjustment, it is a 180° shift from how most sales managers manage and how they are managed. Most organizations profess to want coaching, but they don’t really do anything about it. Just as students are lucky to have one or two special teachers in a lifetime, most sales professionals are lucky if they get one real coach. Organizations don’t have role models for coaching, they don’t train for it, and they don’t hold people accountable for it

You see, today, the role of sales manager is pivotal. It is the vital link, and ineffective sales leadership is the main reason why so many sales teams are failing.

All the current excitement surrounds lead generation – it seems that everything I read everywhere, is totally focused on finding, qualifying, and weighting leads. But what is the point of continually creating new opportunities and passing them to sales managers who are unable to cope?

At the end of the day, the sales leader needs to be a “model of excellence” – only then will the pack faithfully follow.

If you would like to read an abbreviated version of the Sandler Research Center report, “THE ESSENTIAL COMPONENTS FOR SUSTAINING OVERACHIEVING SALES PERFORMANCE” in which we further highlight the paucity of genuinely qualified sales managers please download your copy here 

Is Sales Technology Helping or Hindering Current Sales Achievement Levels?

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Here is the reality: Even companies that enjoy the luxury of clearly superior products realize that those products will not sell themselves. At a minimum, companies need a sales force comprised of skilled professionals who understand the application of the product range, have an in-depth knowledge of their customer base, market sector and, of course, the competition. But even all these elements together are not sufficient to ensure optimum performance levels and profitable sales.

So what exactly is a sales process? Put quite simply, it is a set of procedures which determine how a company wishes its sales team to operate – “The way we do things around here.”

The most successful organizations have implemented a process and an all-encompassing framework for defining performance standards. This involves assessing, appraising, developing, reviewing, providing continual feedback on performance, as well as implementing efficient and relevant process tools.

Over the past few years, we have witnessed huge investment in new sales technology solutions and sales process tools. However, that investment does not guarantee an appropriate return in terms of increased and improved sales performance.

In fact, the results from Sandler Research Center’s inaugural survey confirmed the following …

Whilst 73% of respondents said that they have a formal sales process in place, only 50% said that it has been fully implemented and only 37% reported that the sales team follows that process.

53% told us that they have not received an appropriate return on the investment they have made in sales technology and most alarmingly, only 38% said that their organization was “More Effective” or “A Lot More Effective” as a result of sales technology implementation.

If you would like to read an abbreviated version of the Sandler Research Center report, “THE ESSENTIAL COMPONENTS FOR SUSTAINING OVERACHIEVING SALES PERFORMANCE” please download your copy here 

The Power of Failure

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There is no such thing as failure – right? Wrong: Of course there is failure.  For example, if we take a driving test or an exam we either pass or fail. Salespeople will either succeed in achieving their monthly/quarterly/annual sales targets or fail to meet them.

The key is how we perceive “failure”

Every failure can be looked at as a learning opportunity that is beautifully epitomised by Thomas Edison the inventor of the light bulb. Despite more than 10,000 failures, he stood by his dream until he made it a physical reality. He said that every discarded idea took him one-step closer towards finding the idea that would work.

One of the most powerful self-coaching questions salespeople can ask is, “What will I do differently next time?” or “What can I learn from this?”

Salespeople who make mistakes and learn from those mistakes have a tendency to do better than salespeople who are scared to fail. Therefore we should see that when we don’t achieve our targets we have an opportunity to learn, because we have been given great feedback on what not to do next month.

Accepting 100% responsibility creates transformation.

Every action we take creates a reaction that is based on the formula of cause and effect. Everything that happens is the effect of an underlying cause.

Most people spend their lives operating at effect “It’s not my fault I always end up in bad relationships.” “Life’s so unfair, things always happen to me.” “We’re in a recession, that’s why I haven’t achieved target. “If I could only match our competitor’s prices, I’d win more deals.”

True personal power can be achieved when we accept 100% responsibility for what we create in our lives.

To put it another way, we get one of two things; the result or outcome we want or the reasons why we did not (you may recognize these as “excuses”!)

The more we focus on the reasons (excuses) and blame circumstances beyond our control, we push away our personal power.

Therefore, if we believe that we are in control of the situations that life appears to throw at us, then we are in control of our thinking and emotions, and therefore in control of our own lives.

This belief has given thousands of salespeople the determination to break through so many barriers and overcome countless challenges when at times it was tempting to wallow in self-pity.

If something good or bad happens, we should ask ourselves, “How did I create that?”

This question enables us to tap into our brain’s infinite potential and it will give us all the answers we need.

If we are prepared to commit 100% to taking responsibility, the results can be extraordinary.

Quality Activity Equals Quality Results

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“The Less I See Of What’s His Name? The More I Forget Him.”

Failing to focus salespeople’s activity reduces efficiency and consequently reduces results, because there isn’t a salesperson alive that believes they have enough time in their working week to complete all the activities they want to achieve!

Time is a huge constraint on salespeople’s activities so that when their manager asks them for more, it’s no wonder that they are overwhelmed.

It is also abundantly obvious that salespeople often aren’t clear about how to identify the prospects most likely to have a genuine need for their product or service. Without an objective way to prioritize which prospects to contact first and/or an efficient strategy for contacting them, salespeople are doomed to waste a large percentage of their time.

Another huge dilemma for many salespeople is how to divide their time between servicing existing clients and generating new business from new prospects. Existing clients frequently make requests for service that could be dealt with by support staff. But salespeople who lack a disciplined, future-orientated plan for generating new contacts and sales, often find themselves spending more time attending to “urgent” tasks for existing accounts instead.

A common approach among salespeople can be summarized in the saying “If you throw enough mud against the wall, some of it is bound to stick.” This approach is exhausting, demoralizing, extremely unproductive, and very expensive in the long term.

Far too frequently, competent salespeople are expected to channel their own activities into the areas that will produce the quickest wins.

Unfortunately, left to their own devices, they don’t develop and pursue a formal strategy for moving a sale tangibly forward during each prospect interaction, neither do they have a clearly defined set of goals against which to measure the progress they are making.

Typically, their judgment is based on gut reaction and is purely subjective – i.e. “Oh yes, I’ll get that order, he likes me.” – because salespeople have to be optimistic by nature. They end up “dancing around” with prospects, in the hope that eventually they will get to their chosen point on the dance-floor – i.e. the sale. In this scenario, the customer has complete control.

Finally, let’s not forget good old Villfredo Pareto and his 80/20 rule

The sales that a salesperson completes today were made possible only by activities performed in the past. Equally, it’s what they do today that will create their future sales results. Because there is a time delay between activities and results, salespeople have an opportunity to improve their sales results by undertaking sales productivity planning and implementing an effective prospecting system. Generally, since 80% of sales are generated from 20% of customers, 80% of salespeople’s time should be focused on 20% of the biggest customers/prospects. Simple enough?

You see, Quality Activity = Quality Results, it isn’t rocket science.

Current Stock Market Thinking About Sales Training

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The dichotomy facing sales leaders is how they reconcile the fact that most corporations today provide less upfront training for their sales staff than in years past, yet attach increasing importance to staff development?

This should not come as a surprise, because current stock market thinking provides a powerful disincentive for firms to invest in their people on an ongoing basis. An organisation’s investment in their human capital, in the form of training and other forms of education, is not separable from general expenditure – it therefore appears as a cost on the corporate balance sheet.

Tough Choices

Unfortunately, as a consequence, those same sales leaders have concluded that their only realistic option is to cut back on training and, instead, look to recruit sales professionals who, in theory anyway, already possess the necessary skills needed to do the job. They then send them out to win business armed with what they know. However, most of those same sales directors are discovering just how difficult it is to find skilled salespeople who have all of the essential skills and personal traits. And anyway, it is not possible to equate experience or seniority with success.

In skills development, there are many similarities to sport – i.e. does an athletic champion stop training as soon as they win their first medal? In music, does a concert pianist stop rehearsing as soon as they have given their first recital? In art, does the artist stop improving after they have enjoyed the first exhibition of their work? The answer, in all cases, is obvious and we should apply the same common sense principals to the ongoing development of our sales teams.
The reality is that selling in today’s climate is both an art and a science. Selling is a profession that demands a far wider range of skills than ever before, skills that require continual fine-tuning and constant practice.

In Summary – Ongoing Reinforcement and Development Is Essential

The operative word here is ‘ongoing’. Even if salespeople have undergone progressive sales training, there’s no guarantee that they will be successful. It is common knowledge that skills grow rusty over time and salespeople are prone to pick-up bad habits along the way, or to simply skip steps and take shortcuts that can lead to long-term trouble. Perhaps even more important these days, is the fact that markets, competition, technologies, and customer preferences are all in a constant and accelerating state of change. This fact requires that sales people are able and willing to rethink their sales strategy and approach frequently and receive a regular top-up of skills and motivational coaching.

So, What Makes a Successful Sales Team?

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An organization’s vision is a guiding image of success formed in terms of a huge goal. It is a description in words that conjures up a picture of the organization’s destination. A compelling vision will stretch expectations, aspirations, and performance. Without that powerful, attractive, valuable vision, why bother?

A mission statement communicates the essence of an organisation to its stakeholders and customers, and failure to clearly state and communicate an organisation’s mission can have harmful consequences around its purpose.

As Lewis Caroll, through the words of the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland says, “If you don’t know where you’re going, it doesn’t matter which way you go.”

Guiding principles are the consequence of a mission statement that are intended to inform or shape all subsequent decision-making, which also provides normative criteria allowing policy-makers to accept, reject or modify policy interventions and activities. They are a guiding set of ideas that are articulated, understood and supported by the organisation’s workforce.

Values are beliefs which the organization’s workforce hold in common and endeavor to put into practice. The values guide their performance and the decisions that are taken. Ideally, an individual’s personal values will align with the spoken and unspoken values of the organization. By developing a written statement of the values of the organization, individuals have a chance to contribute to the articulation of these values, as well as to evaluate how well their personal values and motivation match those of the organization.

The “Human Capital Development Model,” created by Krauthammer International, is a logical process that can take top management concepts, and translate them into a context that has real meaning for staff at all levels.

The key to bringing this model to life is to answer the following questions:

o Do my team understand the organization’s vision and how their role moves the organization closer to achieving it?

o How can my sales team translate the organization’s mission into one that is relevant to them?

o How does the organization’s guiding principles impact on the day-to-day responsibilities of sales people?

o Which of the organization’s values does my sales team relate to?

o How can we interpret these values so they become compelling for each sales person?

An effective sales team understands the big picture and the context of their team’s work to the greatest degree possible. That includes understanding the relevance of their job and how it impacts the effectiveness of others and the overall team effort.

Too often, sales people are asked to work on an activity without being told how their role contributes to organization’s vision, much less how their efforts are impacting the ability of others to do their work. Understanding the organization’s vision promotes collaboration, increases commitment and improves quality.

An effective team works collaboratively and with a keen awareness of interdependency.

Collaboration and a solid sense of interdependency in a team will defuse blaming behavior and stimulate opportunities for learning and improvement.

Without this sense of interdependency in responsibility and reward, blaming behaviors can occur which will quickly erode team effectiveness and morale.

“New Age” Selling Requires “New Age” Management

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Whatever label we choose to hang on our preferred style of selling, there are now considerable implications for sales management. It is my view that for companies to remain competitive now, their sales organization must be able to respond rapidly and positively to the numerous changing tides.

As businesses strive to establish customer orientation, sales partnerships and a strategic approach to selling, they are demanding more and more from their salespeople, but ensuring that these new methods are widely practiced and smoothly implemented falls to sales management.

Building Productivity:

Sales productivity is a strategic issue. That’s why problems in this area stem from salespeople being unclear about their company’s priorities – i.e. what their message should be and what they should be selling.

The trend in industry – post economic meltdown – of removing layers of management between the sale force and the general manager presents a challenge to those sales managers who remain.

To begin with, the sales manager becomes an essential link between company strategy and what takes place in the customer’s office. He or she must not only grasp the corporate vision, but be able to communicate it to the sales force in terms of the real effects on sales practices.

Creating Direction:

Sales managers with an intimate feel for the selling process succeed, because their staff regard them as part of the sales team. But coaching the team is as important as playing in it. In other words, sales managers must be prepared to provide training, feedback and support to every individual within the team.

Once committed to the training process, they must routinely reinforce new ways of behaving in real sales situations. They must provide a clear sense of direction on a daily basis, not just at the monthly sales meeting / quarterly review / annual appraisal.

The very best sales managers engage in frequent coaching and feedback, even when their sales people work in remote locations. While encouraging salespeople to air their problems openly and discuss their concerns, sales managers must be able to offer clear and specific feedback for improving sales performance.

Rewarding Change:

The sales manager is charged with translating the company’s reward system into specific improvements in sales performance. Both salespeople and corporate managers count on the sales manager to recognize and reward outstanding achievement – formally and informally.

The process of promoting new attitudes about the customer and the role of the salesperson can be frustrating and slow. Reverting back to recent research there is compelling evidence to suggest that companies will see results sooner if they recognize and reward salespeople – “you get more of the behavior and results that you reward”

The trend in sales compensation appears to be away from commission to guaranteed salary; from compensation based on orders to compensation based on delivery and sign-off.

Interestingly, some of our clients base their ‘salesperson of the year’ award on the basis of customer satisfaction or customer retention, rather than sheer volume of orders or activity.

Summary – And Now the Good News

It is now a given fact, in any sales-related seminar or conference you may attend, that traditional sales methods are being relegated to the annals of history. The new, more discerning customers of today have seen to that. They now wield greater bargaining power, demand more value for money and have become more knowledgeable and professional when it comes to decision-making.

Suppliers are now faced with rising customer expectations and the need to become more flexible to the requirements of each individual client.

Yet, the key to differentiation lies within these expectations since more complex buying decisions lead customers to value closer links with their suppliers.

What Makes The Perfect Leader? – Do You Report To One?

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Let me begin today’s post by saying that in my opinion, the perfect leader has yet to be born – and I have studied most of the significant leaders in history.

I also took on my first “leadership” role at the tender age of eight, so you can assume that “leading from the front” has been a major feature of my commercial life.

The reality is that we all have room for self-improvement, but if at least we can agree upon what it takes to be a good leader – what are the traits of leadership; what are the skills – we will at least have made a good start. We should analyse every genuine leader we know and try to learn which qualities influenced us to consider them a good leader. We can probably agree upon at least six – these are mine – and you may well have a leader in mind as we consider these?

Enthusiasm:

Everyone should agree that enthusiasm for what one is doing is a critical leadership trait. No man or woman can install much enthusiasm in anyone else for something about which they themselves are not enthusiastic. Genuine enthusiasm does not mean a glib, backslapping, plastic smile type attitude. More often, the genuine leader’s enthusiasm is likely to be of a more quiet nature – but it is there! It is shown by the manner in which they go about their work. Their manner of handling their job seems to say to everyone. “This is important! It must be done right. It must be fairly and squarely done! And -you can do it!”

Unless a person feels right down in their bones that the work they are doing is worthwhile, they can never consistently (day in and day out) act as though they do. So, if they have any feelings or doubt about the importance of their work and cannot become enthusiastic about it, the trouble is in the person himself or herself. Whether they realise it or not, those around them sense their feelings, their attitude is showing!

Courage:

Leadership takes “guts.” The true leader has the ability to “take it” when the going gets rough. Often the leader has to “take it” for the whole organisation to keep morale high. The leader has to face up to new challenges all the time. Indeed, many successful leaders invite difficulties just for the sheer joy of coping with them. The genuine leader approaches each day with a sort of “joy of battle”.

Courage in leadership sometimes takes unexpected forms; it may mean standing up for a principle. (Has anyone ever known a real leader who was a “yes person”?) It means having the character to stand up for what you believe in without comprising or cutting corners.

It may mean taking a bold approach to a new idea – sticking your neck out in support of something which you think is worth trying. It means loyalty to your convictions.

Self Confidence:

Another important requirement for the leader of today is self-confidence. However, in making decisions about people, their motivation and the way they act or react, the leader can never feel completely sure they are right. The best they can do is to make a sort of “educated guess” based on the facts they can assemble and then rely upon their past experience and knowledge to interpret them.
A great help is to know and work within their personal assets and limitations. They know what they can personally do and what they are unable to do. They are willing to listen to other opinions, assess them and be big enough to adopt the meritorious ones even if they do not square with their original thinking. They can take small reverses in stride.

A self-confident leader is never satisfied with their present accomplishments; does not spend their time in useless longing for things they cannot have. Rather, they set about realising their immediate and realistic goals.

Integrity:

A leader keeps promises: They keep their promises to their associates as meticulously as those made to their superiors. They keep promises made to themselves, which are the hardest to keep and failure in this is the easiest to rationalise. They can keep all these promises because they never commit themselves rashly; but always within the limits of reality and their present capabilities in terms of personal ability.

Part of this matter of integrity is certainly, unquestioned loyalty to their organisation – to its reputation as well as their own. Also they must have loyalty to their products and to their associates and loyalty to their industry. Loyalty to one’s associates is extremely important in any leader. They should never allow themselves or others in their group to ridicule, or down grade other leaders or people in the industry, as it is a sign of jealousy and this is one trait that cannot exist in a true leader. Part of this loyalty is a sense of stewardship – a feeling of responsibility for the welfare, progress and security of the industry as a whole, and that includes everybody who ethically runs a business, everyone in their organisation, their customers and their family.

Interest:

Even the Oxford Dictionary has difficulty in defining the meaning of the word “friendliness”. Of “friendliness” it says, “it signifies befitting or worthy of a friend.”

A leader has a genuine and sympathetic interest in and a respect for people as individuals. A very high percentage of any leader’s day is spent working directly with individuals.

Be careful – do not go overboard. Here there could be a danger signal. Friendliness can, of course, be overdone. Although interested and sympathetic, the true leader stays firm – never getting so involved in the personal lives of people that he forgets the implications of their role as a leader. They never play favourites – and should never play one personality against another. They know where to draw the line.

Humour:

Whilst not advocating that a leader be the ‘life and soul of the party’, it is essential that they have a keen sense of humour. There will be times when an appropriate joke or light hearted remark, will do more to relax and motivate than all the arranging in the world.

These then are the six basic characteristics which help a person to become a successful leader. Think of others. Upon reflection, you will probably agree that your ideas are closely allied to or even a part of the six detailed here.

They are not by any means a guaranteed panacea that will assure success as a leader. Though all leaders possess them to a varying degree, all of us have known people who have had them all, but were still unsuccessful as leaders. Characteristics or traits by themselves do not make leaders, certain “core skills” are equally necessary.

Relationship Selling: Don’t Propose Marriage on the First Date!

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You have to sell and prove yourself first before you can hope to develop a relationship… Leading with the notion that you can build any sort of relationship from the outset is hopelessly out of touch, but that is precisely what around 90% of front-line sales professionals are still trying to do.

But be assured, relationship selling is alive and well, and reports of its death have been wildly exaggerated.

I think that, in order to fully comprehend what I mean, you need to imagine a couple on a first date – think of this in sales terms as the “exploratory meeting”. The two have never met before, but they have both done their homework: They have asked friend’s opinions; they have checked out each other’s Facebook profiles, etc. In fact, they have conducted as much research as possible so that, when they finally sit down to eat, the conversation is flowing and they discover considerable synergy. But this early attraction, and discovery of mutual interests and values, in no way leads either of them to instantly think of marriage – the desire to grow the relationship is established, but they are not ready to open joint bank accounts!

Our commercial relationships are very similar to that scenario if you think about it: Trust, which is the basis of all symbiotic business partnerships, cannot be created overnight – it takes time. Don’t ever mistake lust for love!

You see, on day one of any new potential relationship, we are simply in the “Me too” bracket: Lots of other companies may be bidding; we have not yet had the opportunity to demonstrate and prove our uniqueness, let alone our superiority.

If we are lucky enough to win that first order, we establish a foothold – it is never more than that.

At this point, we work diligently to ensure that all of the after-sales tasks are performed reliably, efficiently and on time. Our aim is to reach that next stage “Me first”. In other words, every time this customer has an additional requirement, they call us first for a quotation. We are not yet trusted advisors, but we are preferred suppliers.

Finally, we reach the hallowed ground – if we have followed all the rules of engagement, and if we have continually worked to “earn the right”. We become the chosen ones and we enter “Only me” territory. We now work with our customers to define strategy; we are not only trusted advisors, but also long-term allies. We have a relationship and both parties work very hard to maintain it, both aware of the costs of starting all over again from scratch – not unlike a marriage!

So in summary, I repeat, relationships take time to blossom and grow. There is no instant magic dust. But when a strong commercial relationship is formed, it can provide rich benefits – including substantially increased profitability and stability for both partners.

Leadership: The Debate Continues – Coaching versus Traditional Training?

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People may learn a great deal on development courses, but when they return to the workplace they often have difficulty integrating what they have learnt into their day-to-day work. Quite often, what they may have learnt simply slips from their minds.

I believe that between 50% and 70% of an organization’s climate – and hence its effectiveness – can be traced to management style. Effective leaders create a favorable working environment that boosts performance. This is where coaching comes into its own.

Leadership is a set of skills, competences and attitudes that individuals can develop through practice and by reflecting on their own actions and the impact this can have on others.

Most leadership programs are too general to provide opportunities for such intensive personalized work.

Coaching, by contrast, enables individuals to gain insight into their own motives, interests and concerns and these link explicitly to the challenges they face in their leadership or management roles.

Coaching can also help executives acquire a greater awareness of their own leadership style. This is crucial if they are to develop the variety of styles needed to manage and lead in different situations.

All too often leaders rely on a command-and-control style, which has a negative impact on all but a crisis.

Coaching people on leadership styles produces positive results in most situations by creating a supportive environment in which employees feel empowered to give their best and find the solutions to problems.

Not unnaturally, some diehards still hold with an old-fashioned view that coaching can be used only for remedial purposes, but those organizations that have embraced the concept fully, have discarded that level of thinking. Their approach concentrates on leadership and personal development as part of building a high-performance organization – they are committed to moving away from managing by a culture of process to managing as leaders.

Typically I find that my clients are not interested in adopting the style of coaching used by many companies to focus on simple issues – particularly how to get on with fellow team members. They choose us because they believe we offer a more challenging style that digs more deeply into behavior and personality. This leaves executives with something more permanent that they can take away from the coaching sessions and use during the rest of their careers rather than just a one-off.

It is not always easy to convince executives that they should submit to a scrutiny of their personalities and behaviour, but in reality, those executives who balk at taking “the journey of self-development” could soon find themselves isolated and lesser leaders than many of their contemporaries.