It is normally at this point that a weaker and more politically correct writer would begin by excluding groups of MBA graduates from this statement. Even though that would weaken ones stance to do so, watering down bold statements is just not my style. If you have an MBA and you are in charge of a sales and marketing department, you need to read the following words as much as the companies looking to replace or grow these departments. The proverbial bottom line is exactly what is called for here. The pursuit of new business and increased revenue from an academic perspective will only add layers of red tape between your sales staff and its’ collective goal. The reason for this is simple. If learning business strategy in a classroom predicated on books and the world views of professors, you must suspend the most challenging aspect to business; the rapidly increasing speed in which our markets are evolving. As you read a book about finance relating to venture capital for example, what you are actually reading is, at best, several years old. Chances are that the author spent 2-3 years doing research for that book, another year writing it, and then there is the process of editing and printing the book. Plus you need distribution time and time for the professor to acclimate themselves to the “new” material. So what we are talking about is 4-6 years from the time the data was actually relevant. In finance, that may be acceptable. (Probably not but I am not a finance expert) What I do know is that any specific sales strategies that are “learned” in traditional academic settings are inherently flawed because of the common challenge we all deal with in sales and marketing. What is working today will not work nearly as well in two years. This relates to the process strategies, the marketing strategies, the closing techniques, and even the vehicles we use to disseminate our message. Effective managers stay ahead of the curve instead of chasing the leader. The academic process both as it relates to the classroom dynamic and as it relates to the approach is simply out of touch with market realities.

This is true as it relates to the way MBA graduates are taught to analyze the processes themselves. The tools and methodologies in this area evolve and improve with technology as well. A perfect example can always be found within the real world applications. One of my clients has an MBA as their “Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing”. I never did meet their junior VP or even their regular VP of sales and marketing but that is indicative of the problem. After delving into their market dynamics, we saw a “seem” to exploit. Our client, along with most of their competitors had hired sales reps with impeccable backgrounds that were deeply rooted in industry circles. The problem, as we saw it, was that these circles were comprised of executive vice presidents and the like. The decision maker for their product was primarily office mangers. Essentially, everyone had surrounded themselves with elitists to sell to a middle class psychology.  They were not incapable of selling but we knew that changing our clients’ sales dynamic would greatly lesson the resistance. We wanted to pursue reps that were currently working in retail. I won’t get into why but the psychology just made sense. This recommendation was met with stringent objections from our SVP of Sales and Marketing. Even after detailed explanations, she fought us on making this change or addition. Their industry had operated this way for 50 years and she was not about to buck the trend. We went to the CEO and asked that she allow us to hire two or three to test our theory. Within the first two weeks it was obvious that we were not only right but that the failure to implement this across the board would simply cost them money. Lesson learned. The fact that we won is not what you should focus on. Instead, focus on the fact that we almost lost the argument. Academic elitism is flatly counter productive in the one department of your company that needs the ability to innovate quickly and adapt to real time data in real time. Red tape is not “careful deliberation”, it is costly and will weigh down your sales staff.

Two pieces of advice:

1. Never hire a man wearing spandex shorts, a white tank top, and hat that says “I’d rather be…….” For your next CEO.
2. Never hire someone for the most innovative part of your company that basis their decisions on CYA and “industry best practices”

        

You know your market. You know your prospects and their challenges. You know what they need to hear and what dynamic creates a good selling environment. What you are probably not doing, is articulating this formula for success in a way that allows your team to duplicate it. Imagine a major league baseball pitcher on the mound in a playoff game. The count is 2-2 and there is a runner on third with two outs. In the history of baseball has this scenario ever occurred? Has it ever occurred for this hitter, this pitcher and these teams? Of course! The pitch selection will not be based on what the pitcher feels like throwing. Instead, it will be based on statistical analysis of the hitter’s tendencies. Before he got to the plate, the pitcher, the catcher, and the manager already know what is most likely to get him out based on his past at bats. Business should operate this intelligently as well.

In order to elevate your sales game, you must build a system that is designed to engage your market. Hiring prospectors that can probe for information while qualifying prospects will allow you to tailor each sales pitch for specific dynamics. As your reps receive escalated leads from the sales machine, they also receive the kind of details that will tell them exactly how to close each lead. For example, I am sure that you are aware of how your competitors sell against you and how they sell to clients. That would mean that you also know where they fall short of your company. So therefore, knowing if your competitor has spoken to a client or if a prospect is using a competitor will allow you to pitch solely based on the advantages you bring to the table. This kind of comparative selling can be very effective given the right dynamic. However, if your reps are not aware of these details and they walk in to sell based on advantages, your client is now informed that there are other companies that not only do what you do, but that are obviously competitive. That is a very surface level example, but one that I know sales reps deal with all of the time.

Here is a better example that requires the tools that we use at Defiant Sales. If you are in a competitive selling process with a client, chances are good that your reps are trained to go in and sell predicated on “raw” product or service advantages. The problem with that can be illustrated by you spending five minutes online. Look at the articulated sales arguments that your company puts out. Now go visit your competitor’s web sites. See anything similar. Let me take a guess; better service, better quality, accreditations, number of years in business, client referrals, fast delivery or implementation, etc… These are all “me too” statements. While they may vary from industry to industry, the premise is still the same. Everyone is selling on the things that your industry perceives to matter to the prospects in that market. Now ask yourself this question; “How old is your industry?” Is there a chance that newer concerns may have surfaced in the last 30 years? How about 20 years? How about 5 years? It’s time to start doing your homework. What if the number one concern is the transition process itself? What kind of advantage would that be to your reps if they were the only company addressing what actually matters to the people you aim to do business with? Imagine four other companies talking about the “me too” statements put out by the entire industry. In walks your rep, addressing the real concerns and they are the only one even talking about them. Who has the upper hand? That’s right, you do! Delving into market dynamics and extrapolating meaningful data is a tool that we bring to the table.

Now imagine building your company’s market positioning around the actual things that matter to your prospects. Imagine plugging that into a sales machine that contacts hundreds of prospects a week and escalates the leads that are “warm” to your sales staff. The sales process you will have built cannot be touched by your competitors because they have no idea what you are doing! By the time they catch on, the market will have cycled and new elements of your industry will be the concerns of the day. Again, you will know, they will not! These are the kinds of advantages you must have to dominate your industry. Elevating to number one does not happen by blending in with your competition! It only happens when you are smarter, and more aggressive.

        

While most companies think they have a firm grasp on their internal sales process, very few do. The natural inclination of sales management is to exert a modicum of control over their reps and their reps actions. By doing this, they are able to report on things like daily movements of their staff, customers that appear to be close to buying, leads that are currently being worked, and the level of effort they get from members of the team. Given a few basic tools, they are even able to create reports on the progress and effectiveness of their staff. You take all of this and throw it in a mixing bowl and PRESTO!; you have what appears to be a very competent sales manager! If you are thinking that you are able to track more sales related details than this, I would say to you…..Purely semantics! The fallacy here is in thinking that somehow, success is directly correlated to statistical production. Granted, contact rates and closing percentages matter. In fact, there are a dozen relevant stats that can help guide decision making. But as a matter of management, there are more significant hurdles to deal with and track.

For example, if you send a rep out to sell predicated on the market position your company has developed, you must track the effectiveness of that positioning throughout your entire staff. The failure to do so says to your reps that the entire sales dynamic raises and falls with there ability to march in the exact manner that you have prescribed. There is no other way to get the statistical analysis to come out in their favor. Those of us that have been in sales for longer than 5 minutes understand that interpersonal dynamics are highly fluid. And a company that does not account for or support this fundamental fact simply does not understand what they are up against. Think about this; if consumer markets are cycling faster now than at any other time in our history, how long is the same market position good for? How long will the same approach, the same sales arguments, and the same sales process work? The only honest answer is that nobody really knows. That is, without doing the homework to find out. It is exponentially more important to have control over your message and methods than over your staff and the minutia of details that can be extrapolated from specific tasks. While boots on the ground will always be part of any sales process, the critical question to ask is, at what point in the process do they come into play? From the prospective of effectiveness and efficiency, companies must first create a process flow of everything sales related to begin understanding the market trends they are up against. The first priority is to understand the things that matter to your customers.

Selling based on a nut and bolt comparison may be an effective way to create a contrast between you and your competitors. It may also just serve to bore your prospects. Your prospects may not care about the difference in quality, service, years in business, reliability, raw material advantages, etc… Sometimes, there are assumptions made by the entire market. For example, safety is assumed in markets that it should not be. But the reality is that consumers feel that if you are in business, you must make a safe product. Otherwise, you would not be in business because the government wouldn’t allow it. No matter how wrong that thinking may be in a given industry, the facts are the facts! To this kind of company, it is imperative to understand what does matter to the prospects! When companies understand these kinds of market based elements, they are better able to prepare their sales staff for the sales environment. That’s control! The ability to send your rep out armed with the knowledge of what his prospects actually care about can and will be the difference in attaining high marks within your statistical analysis. This kind of understanding is relevant in every industry and can be applied with the same levels of success. Imagine selling an intangible service. Knowing the specifics of your market becomes the only way to stand out.

Your methods will dictate the success rate of your staff in very much the same way. Knowing what matters to your prospects is critical, but knowing how to talk them will determine if you will even get the chance to start the discussion. From psychological information you gather in the first part, you can determine the vehicle that will best drive your message to them. Markets are fickle so the selection of your approach must not be taken lightly. The age old tactics of huge contact rates does not apply anymore. Would you rather have your reps talk to 100 prospects to sell 10 or talk to 15 to sell 10? The answer is obvious and your choice of method will literally dictate the success rates. Often, a combination of different contact methods will be the best way to go but you must understand the order and process by which this will take place. Understanding why will help you make the necessary adjustments as your market begins to cycle. There are as many ways to contact your market directly as there are things to say once you get their attention. Smart companies take the selection of this process very seriously and our clients will tell you that it makes a big difference. At Defiant Sales, we build these kinds of processes and profile for specific buying triggers. I can tell you first hand that these two components are the most important parts of your sales process.

When it comes to gaining control of your revenue generation, it is more important to understand what drives business. While sales reps can offer a positive impact, they are far less effective without the tools that matter. All companies should strive for control in this dynamic. However, real control comes from a diligent pursuit of the aspects that make everyone successful. Knowing what matters to your prospects and how to make meaningful contact will put you ahead of your competitors in any industry!

        

If you have ever wondered how a company can have a talented sales staff and still struggle with sales, you are not alone. The reason for this is because they lack a good process. As our economy continually evolves, so to do the individuals within in it. Attempting to engage prospects in the same way and with the same methods that worked five or ten years ago is asking for trouble. The introduction of so many multi media sources in our lives along with the natural cycles that consumers go thru has sped up the desensitization of marketing and sales tactics. The failure to recognize and adjust to these changes will cause a sales system to stagnate. Even when loaded with talent, a sales team will struggle if they are using tactics that have lost their effectiveness. Imagine a car dealership that goes door to door to generate sales. Imagine a printing company that uses residential telemarketing to increase its’ sales. Although these are exaggerated cases, not contacting your market in a meaningful way will have the same results.

If advertising for leads has been the model for generating leads in the past that does not necessarily mean that is the best way to do it today. People become desensitized to tactics over time and the sooner you can recognize this, the better off you will be. In the past, many companies have been susuccessful sending sales reps into the offices of their prospects. As the pace and speed of business continues to increase, this becomes less effective. Who has time to stop working and sit down with a sales rep anymore? This has been especially true in the medical profession. As doctor’s reimbursements have continued to decline, they have had to see more patients to make the same amount of money. What are the chances that they have the time or the inclination to talk about new products in the middle of their day? Our clients in this industry have had to completely redesign their sales structures to accommodate this situation. Those that have made the changes are successful while their competitors continue to knock on doors and deal with a very low contact rates.

For companies that must advertise for leads, they have seen the productivity of ads diminish. Whether we are talking about web based marketing, print ads, TV ads, or any other advertising source, the statistics tell the story. While a lot of companies think the solution is to have better ads, our clients focus on creating higher closing percentages. The internal process is often the culprit in ad based productivity. When the volume of qualified leads is reduced it is time to look at your internal sales process and focus on selling more of the leads that you get. It’s always about the process but when companies enjoy high volumes of leads, the need to get better at selling a higher percentage of them seems less important. These are the companies that struggle the most when the economy turns south.

The best way to tell if your company needs to review its’ sales process is to simply look around your industry. If you have competitors that are growing in a down economy while you struggle, you need help. In a good economy, your competitors should not be able to grow at a faster pace than you are. If they are, you need to evaluate your sales process. Putting its sales team in a position to be successful is the smartest thing a business can do. Your sales process will influence the outcomes of your sales team more than any other component of the revenue generating arm of your company. Understanding what kind of changes should be made requires an outside perspective as well as a level of expertise rarely found in the confines of an existing sales staff. Defiant Sales Consulting can offer this expertise and we will analyze your sales process for free.

        

Too often, sales people sell based on raw advantages of their product or service without qualifying the reason for their presentation. A detailed explanation may be accurate and may have merit but what this kind of selling lacks is a point. The first few moments of a pitch should directly address the reason for consideration and should be used to apply your product or service to the clients business. In other words, it should be about your client and not your company. You must face facts and realize that nobody cares about your business nearly as much as they do their own. Understanding this very simple premise is paramount to your success. If a client sees your company in the context of your market, you have lost them. Helping them see your company in the context of their market not only keeps them interested but also puts the entire pitch in a context that they can understand.  Start with the premise that you are there to make them more successful or that you are there to make their jobs easier. Whatever the case may be, you must position things in terms that they are familiar with; their terms. Let me fill you in on a little secret; nobody cares how great you are or how successful you have been in the past. If you don’t directly address the challenges facing your client they will show you the door and wonder what the hell you were talking about. Let me illustrate this using Defiant’s own sales process.

When our reps meet with clients, their first job is to gain an understanding of the market they are selling to. In other words, my reps do their homework. Walking in with a handful of testimonials and pictures of past projects only serves to prove that we are a company. That’s it! What every CEO understands is that past performance does not guarantee future results!!! Also, just about every executive thinks that their industry is unique and requires “special” consideration. Explaining how great you were last month means far less than a detailed account of how you fit into their picture right now. Once our reps have done industry based analytics, we begin to form a picture of the trends and dynamics that directly impact our client. Knowing what they face allows us to understand what they need to do in order to meet these specific challenges. That combined with getting their perspective makes for a powerful tool.  We spend the majority of our time with prospective clients in a conversational format. Engaging them shows that we are interested in meeting their challenges and not in applying past sales models we have used. We do this even when we know what they need to do and even when the solution that will work for them is obvious to us. This level of engagement helps to ease the tensions for our clients and also allows us to ensure that our analysis is correct. Putting together a “canned” pitch in a power point format for example, only serves to lecture clients. Again, nobody cares how great you think you are or successful you have been in the past!

No matter what kind of product or service you sell, it must make sense to the buyer if you are going to be successful. Learn how your product affects your target whether you are selling to a business or a consumer. Once you understand what matters to them you must mirror those concerns and address them in the context of their dynamic. Phrasing the same statements in the context that is relevant to the buyer will have a substantial impact. After all, how do you make buying decisions?

        

Needs based selling, branding, top down selling, and 100 other solidified tactics crack me up! The mere assumption that selling can be done in the parking lot before the meeting ever takes place is laughable. Let’s take some of these one at a time.

Needs Based Selling; the name gives it away. Identify the need and then sell them that! The problem with these kinds of tactics is that they remove situational dynamics. For example, what if you have done an extensive amount of research and know that they need “X” but they are sure that they need “Y”? This situation happens all of the time. Just the other day I was in the office of a prospect that told me they needed more “branding” and that the path he sees as viable is through print ads. The problem with this is that his conversion rates are horrible so the ROI on any campaign will not be good. Should I sell him something that will not work very well, or explain the merits of building an internal sales machine that will use his current lead generating efforts to grow his business and will have a lasting and sustainable effect? The “Needs Based Selling” principals tell me to do a few ads for him and let his marketing budget shrink over the next year thus losing him as a client.

The other situation not addressed by “Needs Based Selling” that comes up as often is the client that thinks they have no need for you at all. This situation can be volatile and can stem from a protectionist point of view.  Often, employees view outside vendors as a threat. “Needs Based Selling” will simply not work in this situation. In fact, the more probing questions you ask the more defensive they will become. The only thing these people “need” is for you to go away!  Forging ahead with qualifying questions will act as a catalyst to being shown the door. Furthermore, assessing their need is only fruitful if you already have a good idea of what it is. Going on appointments or sales calls hoping to run into the right people according to need is ridiculous.

In fact, walking into a prospects office with a predetermined strategy is ridiculous. “Top Down Selling” is another great way to sabotage your sales efforts. Like “Needs Based Selling”, it works with some of the people, some of the time. Kind of like fooling them! The theory here is that you sell the premier level all of the time and walk them down if you have to. This way, goes the theory, more of your customers walk away with the top level of your product or service. There are flaws with this theory. For example, this theory completely ignores economic conditions. As arrogant as we want to be, nobody is immune to more people and companies searching for price reductions. Even the best of the best are forced to deal with the situation as it is and not how we want it to be. Secondly, there are buyers that will never go for the premier level even if they need it. It is important to remember that losing a sale is losing entire referral networks. For companies that are need of cash flow, taking some over none is the difference between staying open and closing the doors. Again, a canned approach is less effective almost always.

I have new sales tactic! Let’s call it “Hire people with a natural aptitude to think on their feet and persuade other people, feed them qualified leads, and then put them to work in a system of accountability……..selling!!!”. I like it. This one works every time and yet for some reason, our profession can’t seem to stay focused on it. By constantly coming up with these canned tactics, all we accomplish is extending an overtime period to the terminally unskilled. These tactics aren’t designed for productive reps that produce year in and year out. They are designed to do one thing; make money for seminar hosts that prey on people that are searching for anything that will help them sell. The problem is that the people seeking these kinds of tactics do so to fill the huge void where genuine talent normally resides. These people don’t need this stuff, they need a career change. I wanted to be an astronaut but I can’t do all of the wildly difficult math! I’m a sales person!