Sales Management -Functions

7/29/2019 Sales Management -Functions

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Sales Competencies that are Keys to Building a Sales Culture, over the next two weeks Iwill detail My Top 10 Sales Management Functions. The list, in no particular order:

1. COACHING2. ACCOUNTABILITY

3. MOTIVATION4. RECRUITING5. DEVELOPMENT6. LEADERSHIP7. RELATIONSHIPS8. Tactics9. Strategy10. Systems and Processes

The following competencies, which are NOT sales management functions, do not appearon my list:

Personal Sales Account Management Closing Deals for Others

# - RELATIONSHIPS

There isn't a person in the company who must work more on developing relationshipsthan an individual in a sales management role, whether it be a line level sales manager or

the World Wide VP of Sales. But developing a relationship does not mean that oneshould become friends.

While it is inevitable that a friendship will evolve here and there, that is not and shouldnot be the goal. Friendship compromises rather than enhances your ability to be effectivein the other sales management functions.

In most sales management roles, relationships must be developed throughout theorganization with:

Sales managers;

Salespeople; Sales Leadership; Finance and Accounting; Manufacturing; IT Executive Team; Customer Service; Technical Support;


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HR.

It's important to build and maintain relationships with every department in the companyso that they all support the effort to acquire, maintain and grow the customer base. Youwouldn't want anyone getting in the way of that effort and you must have them willing to

do what it takes to help accomplish your goals.

In addition to your internal relationships, it is equally important to develop relationshipswith all of your key customers. Not just the big customers, but the accounts that couldbecome big, the centers of influence, and the ones you simply couldn't bare to lose. Yourrelationships with these customers are crucial in the event that the customer's salespersonleaves the company. Your relationship with that account may be the only power youhave to retain that business!

But all of the relationship building stops here. You don't want these relationships tobecome deep friendships which can compromise your ability to effectively do your job.

This article about what happens when you need your salespeople to love and respect you.

Instead, your relationships should be like the one I have with my dry cleaner. WhenChris sees me pull up, he immediately drops everything, gets all of the cleaned clothesfrom the prior week, brings them to the car, and hangs them. He opens the trunk, takesout the laundry bag with the current week's dirty clothes and brings them inside. He grabsa couple of Tootsie Rolls for our son and chats with him if he's in the car. We don't sortand count items of clothing, we don't exchange slips and receipts, and I never have towait. He knows our preferences without having to consult a computer, gives me theaccessories I might need, and will do anything in his power to make sure I'm happy. Wehave a great relationship, we are happy to see each other, and we know about each others'

families . But we aren't in a relationship. We don't have meals together, hang out, go outfor drinks, or visit each others' homes and we're not friends. We simply have a strongrelationship.

# - LEADERSHIP

Sales Leadership includes but is not limited to:

Strong relationships with the sales team Mutual Respect - you believe they respect you, but do they really? And do you

respect them? Credibility - how credible are you? Have you done what you're asking them to

do? Have you done it the same way with the same obstacles and challenges to thesame market? How credible is your coaching? How consistent are you?


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Mutual Trust - if you don't trust them, how can you expect them to trust you?What should you expect them to trust you with? Your coaching? Expectations?Goals? Personal Issues? Weaknesses? Challenges? Fears?

Presence -When you walk in the room, does everyone stop and listen? Track Record of Success - Well?

Reputation of Achievement - Same as above. Tough but Fair - It needs to be both but do you even have one of them? Too many

sales leaders are push overs and manage with their heart, emotions, andrelationships.

Strategic Thinking - The frequent finding here is that sales leaders are too tacticaland not strategic enough.

Leads by Example - Do you? Or are you guilty of limiting the leadership topreaching and motivating?

Provides Direction and Guidance - hands on, in the field, with concrete adviceversus in the office, inaccessible with vague comments about what to do.

Sets Expectations (here is some video on setting expectations)

Top grades the Sales Force with A Players Liaison to the Executive Team Takes Responsibility for the Team's Failures -vs. placing blame. Gives Credit for the Team's Success - vs. taking all the credit.

Some will scan through this list and brag that they have some or many of the credentialson the list but I present two warnings:

1. You believe you have things like credibility, mutual trust, presence, etc. How doyou know if you've never asked the people who report to you through ananonymous survey or a third party? Same goes for Strategic Thinking - how do

you know unless you have others to compare your strategies with? Assessmentsare very helpful here!2. It is not enough to have most of the credentials on the list - you must have them

all and the list I provided is not a complete list, but the most important credentialson the list.

Jim is Sales Development Expert, who shared some great sales and leadership advice.Jim explains.-

What is your competitive advantage? If you were acquired, would your competitiveadvantage change? If not, you don't have one. If you asked each of your salespeople,would you get different answers from each? If yes, you don't have one.

Jim had some more sales leadership advice. He said, "As we go through the recession,businesses are in one of two buckets:

1. Your business or industry has been thrown off the path - and it will return - andyou simply have to hang on until then;


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2. Your business or industry has fundamentally changed - and it will never return tothe way it was - and you must change.

# - DEVELOPMENT

Development is the ongoing development of your salespeople. It includes - and goesbeyond:

the strategies and tactics learned in training; the accountability for the application of what was learned in training; the coaching on how to use those strategies and tactics on real sales calls;

Four important components of development that aren't mentioned above are:

raising and managing expectations; helping your salespeople overcome their weaknesses; the ongoing process of assuring they are stronger and more effective than last

month; preparing them for more responsibility and higher level role.

Expectations are tough. Raise your own expectations high enough and you are assured tohave endure stress, frustration and some failure. Do you believe you already have highexpectations but without the three symptoms I just described? Your expectations aren't

high enough. I just completed the first day of a two-day boot camp for a company and,almost to a person, their personal goals and expectations were too low. Given a choicebetween these four goals:

what I'm doing now what I need to do what I want to do what I'm capable of doing

...most of them were comfortable with "what I need to do" - two levels too low. Or youcan lower your expectations enough so that you're happy - no stress, no worries, no

problems - and along with that, no growth!

Helping your salespeople overcome their weaknesses is challenging too. You must havealready identified the weaknesses using Objective Management Group's Suite of SalesForce Evaluations. You must be familiar with their weaknesses, how those weaknessesget in the way, and they must be overcome. Finally, you must be able to coach anddevelop them in such a way that the weaknesses no longer have an affect. One of thepowerful tools you can offer them to overcome those weaknesses is a very cool CD Set


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called Salesmind. It's like development in a bottle! Have them work with the weaknessthat is getting in the way most often (just one at a time), twice per day, for three weeks,and watch the improvement!

Good managers promote good people.

# - RECRUITING

The most important things to understand about consistently recruiting strong, successfulsalespeople are:

You must have a process - not just any process, but a world class, effectiveprocess that consistently yields great hires.

You must use an assessment - not just any assessment, but a world class, sales

specific, predictive, customized assessment that will consistently identify peoplethat will be top performers for you, in your business, calling into your market,with your pricing model and competition.

You must be able to attract a large enough pool of quality candidates. The bestassessment in the world is only as good as the candidates being assessed.

1. You must know how to screen and interview salespeople - it's not the same asinterviewing for non-sales positions. Watch this video where I give a preview ofhow to interview salespeople.

2. You must have an effective orientation - a 90 day program to on board and rampup your new salespeople

3. Sales Management must be effective at coaching, motivating and accountability.4. Always Recruit - not just when you need someone.5. Each hire must be stronger than your best salespeople.6. Make no exceptions to this process.7. Have realistic expectations about how long it should take before you receive

consistent results from a new salesperson.


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#- MOTIVATION

Motivating your salespeople comes down to getting them to:

1. Do what they won't do on their own;

2. Change their behavior;3. Do more of what they are already doing;4. Have more of a sense of urgency;5. Over Achieve

The methods for motivating your salespeople include:

1. Fear - This is much more powerful than you know! They are afraid of losingtheir job.

2. Consequences - What will happen if they don't do what you need them to?Develop some consequences today and follow through. You won't have to follow

through more than once!3. Their Need for Approval - If they have need for approval, they have it from youand you can use that to your advantage. Use words like, "I am really disappointedby..."

4. Their Dreams - What they want more than anything, as in, "how close are you togetting that new boat in the water?"

5. Compensation - They are money motivated, right?6. Incentives - If you structure an incentive program correctly - no more than 90

days, they pick the prize, many categories and many winners - this can be quitepowerful.

7. Public Recognition - for some, nothing is a greater motivator than being

recognized throughout the team, region, company, or industry.8. Awards - There is a spot on a bookshelf just waiting for that trophy...9. Praise - Especially if you don't give it out very often, what they will do just to

hear a positive word from you...10. Growth - Often overlooked, some salespeople are there for the growth

opportunity and career path. Think promotions.11. Sales Meetings - The most under-utilized, misused, opportunity to motivate,

ever!

# - COACHING

In its simplest form, sales coaching consists of the following two activities:

1. Pre-Call Strategizing - coaching prior to selected calls to make sure that thesalesperson has a good reason for having the upcoming call, a desired outcome, agame plan or strategy, and the appropriate questions/dialog to achieve the desiredoutcome.


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2. Post-Call Debriefing - coaching after selected calls to discover the true outcomeof the call, why the salesperson got that outcome, and what they could have donedifferently or more effectively

Coaching should be performed on the following time line:

daily 10-15 minutes with each salesperson pro actively not passively

Coaching has the following hierarchy:

facts strategy role-play

lesson-learned action plan

# - ACCOUNTABILITY

In its simplest form, sales accountability consists of the following:

Holding salespeople accountable to something measurable - metrics - on a dailybasis

Being more demanding - being firmer and tougher Eliminating Excuse Making - people take responsibility for their results No more under achieving - everyone achieves and over achieves or else...

Accountability is an ongoing function and takes place on the following time line:

in a daily huddle no more than 5-10 minutes with your entire team (in person or by teleconference)

using the power of peer pressure everyone reports on the metrics on which they are being held accountable (it isn't

necessary for everyone to be reporting on the same metrics)


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# - IT'S NOT ABOUT YOU!

Believe it or not, there are a lot of people in sales who mistakenly believe that the worldrevolves around them. If my previous sentence said "show business" instead of "sales" itwould make sense but this isn't show business.

Roles and titles make no difference on this one. I have developed and coachedsalespeople, managers, VP's, Presidents and CEO's alike whose biggest challenge waslearning that it's not about them. Some of the things they've had to learn are thatprospects and customers (and employees) don't care about:

what they did over the weekend their hobbies their opinions their likes and dislikes their reasons to buy

why their company is so respected why their product/services are so cool why they do what they do their excuses their problems their value proposition their goals their desired outcomes their expectations their process their quota

their end of the month/quarter pressures whatever it is you usually tell them what they just bought how much money they have where they vacationed them.

I've seen sales managers who put their own needs ahead of their salespeople, failing todevelop, encourage and support them.

I've seen salespeople who just don't hear their prospects' positions, instead stating andstanding by their own positions with more vigor and volume than their prospects.

It's terribly shocking to those who make it all about them - that the only thing that trulymatters is what their prospects and customers care about. And they don't care aboutself-centered salespeople.

So if prospects and customers don't want to hear about any of it, what's left?


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Ask questions. Lots of questions. Good questions. Tough questions. Timely questions.

Use questions to develop a relationship, to build trust, to demonstrate expertise, to showyou care and to show that you're listening.

#, The Enemy is Resistance. .

The gist of Resistance is this: Selling would be far more simply for many more of yoursalespeople if they would focus on recognizing the resistance rather than attempting toovercome the many forms it takes:

lack of interest happy with who they're using price quality features

benefits claims satisfaction problems reputation service questions put-offs timing perceived need

Rather than dealing with these objections individually, if your salespeople could justrecognize the earliest stages of resistance...

a certain look a change in posture a nod "well..." "maybe..." "I'm not sure..." "but..." a shoulder shrug

a stated objection a loaded question etc.

...and deal with it right then and there - at the earliest stage - by simply:

agreeing ("Yeah, I would have reacted that way too" or "You're right" or "Youdidn't react too well to what I just said...")


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acknowledging ("I understand") questioning ("Out of curiosity, why do you feel that way?") questioning ("Can you explain?") questioning ("What if it (or I) could?") etc.

Resistance itself is pretty easy to deal with because you can lower it very quickly. But ifyour salespeople aren't able to recognize it early, or worse, they ignore it, then they'llhave to deal with the objections. When they deal with objections, as soon as they attemptto overcome them, by using:

reason logic facts figures features

benefits selling points explanations validation rationalizations charts graphs testimonials defending

...they will be seen as putting on the hard sell, resistance will go up, not down, and their

position will worsen!

Make sure your salespeople become masters at overcoming resistance.

# - You Can Talk - It's Your Mind that Has to Shut Up

I've written about this subject before -Beyond Listening Skills.

For more than 40 years, sales authors, experts and trainers have been telling their readers,subscribers and clients about the importance of talking 30% of the time and listening 70%of the time. That ratio is not etched in stone. Even 50/50 is acceptable. The stage of the

sales process dictates the ratio more than the ratio itself. For instance, if your salespeopleare following the Baseline Selling process, they would talk 100% in the earliest phase ofGetting to 1st Base, and probably 10% in the later phase of Getting to 1st Base. Theywould probably talk 10% of the time while Getting to 2nd Base. They might talk 50% ofthe time on the way to 3rd Base and 90% of the time when Running Home.


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So it's not how much they can talk as much as it's when they can talk. But moreimportant than whether they talk or not, is whether their minds are active. When theytalk to themselves, several things might be going on in their minds:

plan several questions ahead;

strategize on the fly; create solutions as they hear problems; qualify in their heads; worry about lack of progress; get excited as they react to progress.

Their active minds will cause them much more trouble than talking too much. If they arein a talk 10% of the time stage of the sales process and their minds are actively engagedin one of the activities above, they won't hear what their prospects are saying. Whenthat happens they won't be able to ask the right follow up questions. Instead, they'll askthe next question on their list, an appropriate question to ask at some point, but not as a

follow up to what they likely just missed. This important miss will cause them to beineffective at going wide and deep, preventing them from uncovering the real problemsand identifying the compelling reasons to buy from you.

So what can you do? Send them back to school for the 3 R's.

Role Playing Repetition Reinforcement

The 3 R's will help IF they have been taught, shown and demonstrated the proper

listening and questioning skills in the first place. And if they have any of the followingweaknesses, the problem might be complicated further:

Need for Approval Getting Emotionally Involved Difficulty Recovering from Rejection Being Too Trusting Outlook Problem Excuse Making Problem

# - Get a Sales GPS

These days you wouldn't think about getting into your car and driving to a newdestination without typing the address into your car's navigation system. Why? Severalreasons:

fear - you don't want to get lost first impressions - you don't want to be late stress - you don't want to worry about it


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progress - you want to know how far away you are safety - you want to watch the road, not read directions control - you don't want any surprises efficiency - your GPS knows the way to carry the sleigh

There are probably more but you get the gist of it. And selling is the same way. Eachone of those 7 reasons for using a GPS applies to a sales cycle, so it makes sense thatyour sales force should have a sales GPS or a process.

My guest on last week's episode of Meet the Sales Experts was Bob Lobos. One of themany things Bob discussed was the importance of having a process driven sales force.Yet, Objective Management Group's statistics on assessing more than 450,000salespeople and 8,500 sales forces shows that fewer than 15% of them have and/or usea sales process!

In an age where so many of us are talking about Sales 2.0, most businesses haven't even

adopted the simple Sales 0.0 best practice of having a sales process.

Surprised? You shouldn't be. Most companies still see selling as something that thesales folks should intuitively know how to do but the statistics prove that not to be thecase.

Even with companies that are well-known for their efficiencies, controls and processes;even in the divisions led by executives who had successful sales management careers;even when leaders told us that they had implemented sales processes; the evidence justisn't there. The data still shows that even when companies believe they have introduced asales process, the salespeople and the sales managers don't use it. There are several

possible reasons:

They introduced an inefficient process that wasn't intuitive, memorable orapplicable

The process could not be utilized in their business - it didn't fit There was a lack of commitment to follow the process The company failed to integrate training and reinforcement on how to apply the

process The trainer was ineffective and failed to make it easy and fun

Bob said there are 5 things that companies should be doing right now - whether it's about

sales process or excuse making - another topic we spent considerable time discussing onthe show.

1. Invest in your people2. Assess for strengths and weaknesses3. Develop your sales force and its capabilities4. Top grade your sales force and get the right people in the right seats5. Position the sales force now to take advantage of the upturn that is coming


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SLOW DOWN TO SPEED UP

Your salespeople can't wait to do the things at which they are:

most competent

most comfortable having the most fun in control in the spot light

The problem with all of that is with what they do:

present demo tell your story provide capabilities

give references do proposals give quotes use company resources

and when they do it:

as soon as they can!

When your salespeople do what they are most comfortable with and most adept at, andthey do it early in the sales cycle, they fail to develop any urgency for action and the

result is an opportunity that doesn't gain traction, move, or close.

In the process I introduced in Baseline Selling, all of the above activity would take placebetween 3rd Base and Home Plate, but your salespeople are doing it between 1st Baseand 2nd Base.

So what should they be doing between 1st and 2nd Bases?

slow down ask more questions than anyone else ask better questions than anyone else

ask tougher questions than anyone else listen care identify problems they can solve develop a relationship demonstrate their expertise (through questions, not presenting) develop trust slow down some more


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when they think they've asked enough questions, continue asking questions

The slower they go between 1st and 2nd Base, the more quickly the sales cycle willflow. If you want to shorten their sales cycle, get them to slow down!

#2 Prevent Happy Ears

What exactly is a case of Happy Ears? A salesperson has Happy Ears when she hearswhat she wants to hear. Example: Your salesperson asks her prospect about the budgetand the prospect says, "we'll try to find the money". Your salesperson hears, "We havethe money, and we will spend the money, and there isn't a limit." Another example: Yoursalesperson asks his prospect who is making the decision and the prospect answers, "I'llbe involved." Your salesperson hears, "I'm the decision maker!" A third example: Theprospect says, "We should do this." Your salesperson hears, "We're going to buy."

Here are some of the things salespeople with Happy Ears tend to do:

make assumptions accept vague statements fail to question things not ask specific questions fail to make sure the answers are to the questions they asked fail to make sure the answers were as specific as the questions draw false conclusions not ask the right questions about incumbents and competitors not ask the right questions about motivation, incentives and reasons not confront

never have the actual amount of money a prospect will spend never have the time line for the decision right never quite understand the concept of what can go wrong see the world through role-colored glasses be too optimistic

Ugly. So what can you do about it? Understand that many of the people with HappyEars also have Need for Approval. You have to help them overcome that before you cansolve the problem with Happy Ears. The fastest way to overcome Need for Approval isto have them use the SalesMind CD twice daily for 3 weeks. Then begin interrogatingyour salespeople (who have happy ears) during post-call debriefs! Ask every skeptical,

doubting, question you can. Be consistent with the questions and the frequency of yourinterrogations. Make your salespeople so uncomfortable that they start asking thesequestions themselves, just so they'll have the answers to the questions they now knowyou will ask. And then, finally, their happy ears may just begin to disappear.

Everyone likes options, right? So here are three options:
http://www.objectivemanagement.com/SalesMindInfo.htmhttp://www.objectivemanagement.com/SalesMindInfo.htm


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1. I'll be the guest on Hubspot TV on this Friday's show which airs at 4PM ET. Youcan watch it live from your desktop.

2. Speaking of guests, Ed Kleinman was my guest onthis week's edition ofMeet theSales Experts. Listen to the the show (we spent a lot of time talking about JohnLennon). Ed, who is a well-respected coach to sales experts, provided an

excellent demonstration of what happens when great salespeople, who do itnaturally, are promoted to sales managers, and aren't able to articulate how theydo what they do.

3. Continue to read this article, the 7th in my series on the 10 Kurlan SalesCompetencies that are Key to Building a Sales Culture.

They aren't really options because you may do all three whereas with options, you canusually choose only one.

Competency #7 - Present No Options

Salespeople love to present options. It makes them feel like they have more chances towin the business. It's such a popular approach that it's one of the few parts of the salesprocess that is universally accepted and named. You know it as Good, Better and Best.Companies actually have alignment on Good, Better and Best, sometimes using it in theirretail stores and catalogs to provide category options. How many times have salespeoplepresented you with 3 options? Just last week, I was presented with 3 options at the LexusDealerwhere I got my LS460.

So, what happens when you present 3 options to your prospects and customers? Do theythink to themselves, "Wow, isn't this great? - I have options"?

To understand what happens with options we need to differentiate between salespeoplewho sell the right way and those who don't.

Salespeople who don't sell the right way typically spend most of their time presenting,talking about capabilities, giving demonstrations, presentations, and tours, creatingproposals, giving quotes, and explaining features and benefits. They do it almost fromthe beginning of the sales call, meeting or cycle. The typical reaction of a prospect that isprovided with 3 options, after being presented to in this way is, "I'm confused, I don'tknow what I need, I don't even know if I need this at all, at least right now, so I need timeto figure this all out and better understand my choices." That's right - your salespeopleeither get a "think it over", a "no" or a put-off. As you can guess, when it was time for me

to sign the paperwork last week, I was presented with my3 options. I was in a hurry, andI'm not smart enough and certainly wasn't focused enough to process everything I heardin a two-minute presentation of the 3 options. As a result, I was not able to decide whatwas best for me at that moment. So, unable to decide, I said, "None of the above", andsimply drove my new car home.

Salespeople who do sell the right way spend time doing what I talked about in SalesCompetency #6 - they slow down to speed up. They build a strong relationship,
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demonstrate their expertise and create a sense of trust and credibility. They ask lots ofgood, tough, timely questions and learn about the issues and problems they can solve. Ifthey continue to work their way through the sales process by asking questions,stimulating productive conversation, and thoroughly qualifying their prospects, there canbe only a single, ideal solution that is both needs and cost appropriate. If salespeople

who sell the right way present 3 options at closing time, not only would they turn an easydecision into a "think it over", they will have contradicted the notion that they areexperts. If your salesperson is an expert, and fully understands his prospect's issues,problems and finances, yet ignores all of the data points collected and presents optionsinstead, then what kind of expert could he really be? Only one of those options couldpossibly address and solve the issues and problems at the right price point. So it must beanother salesperson who doesn't listen to his prospects!

#8 - It's Only a Numbers Game if You Use the Right Numbers

We received a bank reconciliation statement yesterday - not the checking account

statement, but the statement that justifies their monthly fees. Take a look- they charge us:

$1.00 each time we make a deposit $50.00 for having a digital deposit device attached to my PC $ 0.05 for each check we deposit digitally $ 0.15 for each check we deposit $ 0.14 for each credit card deposit to the account

I expect to be charged for checks and debits for money taken from the account but ourbank has found 5 ways to charge us when we put money intothe bank! Believe me, it'snot about how much this account to each month, it's about their stupidity in two areas:

1. They are paying attention to the wrong numbers. We expect banks to charge usfor using theirmoney. We don't expect banks to charge us when they get to useour money!

2. They are successfully unsellingthe commercial customers who choose to dobusiness with them. Airlines have figured this out too. Not only are most of them(not Southwest) charging to check bags (creating a chronic scenario where there isnever enough overhead space anymore and it takes longer to board and deboardplanes), but this week I was charged $50 just to get on an earlier shuttle. Insteadof "happy we could accommodate you - thanks for your loyalty" I heard, "thatwill be an additional $50". If it was a bargain economy fare to begin with, I could

understand it. But this was a $738 one-hour round-trip between Boston andWashington DC! More unsellingat its ugliest.

Is selling a numbers game? Not the numbers your grandfather used to pay attention to!

Key Performance Indicators or KPI's abound for sales. However, most companieschoose to pay attention to the wrong ones. They look at lagging indicators like:


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revenue margin number of accounts average sale revenue by salesperson

Instead, they should be looking at leading indicators that can be used for coaching,accountability, motivation, recruiting and development, like conversion ratios:

attempts to contacts contacts to conversations conversations to appointments 1st meetings (suspects) to prospects prospects to qualified qualified to closable closable to closed

length of sales cycle new opportunities in existing accounts new opportunities in new accounts new opportunities in new markets opportunities from inbound marketing opportunities from advertising opportunities from referrals opportunities from trade shows opportunities from cold calling

Those KPI's will tell you more about what willhappen than numbers that tell you what

already happened. Additionally, these statistics will tell you who is selling versus who istaking orders, managing accounts and living off their past efforts or worse, somebodyelse's efforts.

Where do you begin? You must start with the pipeline. Using a monthly goal, averagesale, and closing percentage, you must determine, for each salesperson, the quantity- how many opportunities and how much in dollar value - must be in each of the fourstages of the pipeline at any given time, in order for the goals to be achieved orsurpassed Then, staging the actual opportunities using the criteria established for eachstage, compare what is necessary for each stage to what is actually in each stage. You'llbe shocked - frightened and angry - when you do this comparison. Then, you mustdetermine what each salesperson must do - each day - to fill the first stage of the pipelinewith the number and value of opportunities required each month.

If you pay attention to the right numbers, the game is on and you guarantee your salesforce repeated wins each month. Look at the wrong numbers and it's game over. Youlose again.

#9 - PRACTICE MAKES PERMANENT


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Let's take the last piece first. Permanent. Without question, the biggest challenge for me,my colleagues, associates, and the salespeople and sales managers we develop is thepermanent problem. All of the stuff they have been doing, including the order in whichthey have been doing it, is usually wrong when we begin working with them - andpermanently so. It's harder to stop doing the permanent stuff than it is to learn a more

effective way. Think of an elastic band. The information from the new lesson stretchesthe band a lot. Then the natural tendency to do what has become permanent snaps theband back into its original shape. Solution?

Repetition - as with exercising Let go - as with a massage Reinforcement - as with variations of the same messages Role playing - as in practice Mistakes - as in golf or tennis Coaching - as in private golf or tennis lessons Commitment and Discipline

Now comes the Practice part. What exactly does one practice so that excellence becomespermanent?

Strategies - only the effective ones please Tactics - only the ones that work consistently The difficult scenarios - not the easy stuff - like:

o resistance

o push-back

o ambivalence

o pricing

o

competitiono incumbents

o relationships

o renewals

o delays

o complaints

How often should one practice "selling"? Most salespeople never practice - ever! Let'stake a look at some of the top professional athletes in the world. Not only do they allhave coaches, but their practice schedules and disciplines should embarrass you.

Tiger Woods, the best golfer of all time, practices 6.5 hours a day - afterhe works out!

1.5 Hours fitness 4 Hours of ball striking 2 Hours of playing 2 Hours of short game


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Michael Jordan used to take from 125-300 practice shots, sometimes afterthe actualgame!

It doesn't happen any more since the advent of batting gloves, but most of the members ofbaseball's Hall of Fame, as well as former major leaguers who weren't elected, used to

take batting practice until and after their hands were bleeding. Pete Rose, Ted Williams,Carl Yastrzemski, Mickey Mantle and Joe DiMaggio, were among the knownbleeders.

So if the best professional athletes in history practice more hours than they spendperforming, how can salespeople complain about practicing for 30-60 minutes per day?

Practice makes permanent.

#10 THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS AN OBJECTION

There is nothing worse than when salespeople handle objections. Not only does it causethem to rack up reverse progress, they are usually not even handling the real problem.

Here are the things you need to know about objection handling that should cause you tostop handling them forever:

if you handle one you'll get another one they object when you get too close (to closing time) for comfort handling objection increases their resistance the objection is not usually the real problem objection handling, by nature, is a correction and people don't like being corrected

how often have you handled an objection, only to have the prospect say, "thenlet's do it!"? Right.

So if you can't handle objections what should you do instead?

First, it's even more important to stop getting objections all together. Sounds good,doesn't it? Just the simple act of identifying an objection will cause trouble for you.Every time your prospect says something and you say to yourself, "@#$%, a !@#$%objection", you'll tend to become emotionally involved, and then go into some kind ofpresentation mode (bad), and while causing an increase in your prospect's resistance,attempt to solve the wrong problem.

Do you remember the singer formerly known as Prince, who before that and after thatWAS Prince? Do the same thing with objections, except skip the formally known aspart. When your prospect says something that you used to identify as an objection,simply hear it as their opinion. You don't handle opinions, you engage in discussions.So if your prospect has an opinion that is different from yours, you can ask any of thefollowing questions:


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why do you feel that way? when did you start feeling that way? what if that wasn't the case? how does that manifest itself?

And you would use words like:

Of course I agree I understand You're right

The other thing you can do to eliminate objections is to sell the right way!

Speaking of objections, putting them in the same sentence causes me to object to just howquickly people can steal material these days. Thanks to this platform and the fact that

most people aren't creative enough to come up with their own content, they just borrow itfrom others. Don't believe me?

Baseline Selling - How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Knowabout Baseball. Believe it or not, it was the first interview where the interviewer actuallyplayed around with the Baseball theme!

I'm often asked about the sales management side of Baseline Selling so I'll include a fewwords today. In the table below, I've included the four bases in Baseline Selling, the salescriteria for reaching each base, challenges your salespeople must overcome to reach thebase. In the last column I've included the sales management functions required to helpyour salespeople execute the process.

Base Criteria Comments Sales Management Function
http://www.objectivemanagement.com/baselinesellinghttp://www.objectivemanagement.com/baselinesellinghttp://www.objectivemanagement.com/baselinesellinghttp://www.objectivemanagement.com/baselineselling


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1st Salesperson got first appointment

The path to first baserequires that the salespersonconduct lots of prospectingand pipeline building.

Motivation (to get started), Accountability (forcalls and appointments),and tactical Coaching are allimportant.

2nd

Prospect Needs What You Sell;They Have Compelling Reasons toBuy;

They Have Compelling Reasons toBuyfrom You;Salesperson Has Differentiated YourCompany from the Competition byBuilding a Strong RelationshipAsking Lots of Good Questions,Showing Expertise, etc.

The path to 2nd Baserequires your salespeople

to have great listening andquestioning skills,relationship building skills,and no need for approvalso they can actuallyexecute.

Coaching (Pre-Call Strategy),Pipeline Management,(basemoves) and Motivation (toexecute) are important.

3rd

Prospect is completely qualified todo business with you and you arecompletely qualified to do

business with your prospect.

The path to 3rd baserequires your salespeopleto ask the tough questionsthey are often uncomfortableasking.

Coaching (Post Call Debrief ),Accountability (for complete qualification), andPipeline Management(base moves) are important.

Home Salesperson got the business.

The path to Home Platerequires the salesperson to make

both a needs and costappropriate presentation or

proposal.

Coaching (Post Call Debrief), Accountability (for onlyappropriate proposals and

presentations), PipelineManagement

As you can see, coaching, albeit different coaching , is required for each base.Motivation is most important for getting your salespeople to first base while pipelinemanagement and accountability are crucial along the way.

Sales Management -Functions

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