The Reseller Sales Model

Participating in a Manufacturer/Distribution/Reseller model can be one of the most challenging selling environments. The manufacturer wants exclusivity from their Resellers, but won’t extend exclusivity to the Resellers in return. Distributors break bulk and extend credit, offering little more in terms of value for their margin. And the Resellers, they carry multiple manufacturer lines and don’t fundamentally believe that one manufacturer has the solution to every problem. This tension creates for some interesting selling dynamics.

From the perspective of the OEM (original equipment manufacturer) who owns the R&D, manufacturing and distribution of the product, they view the Reseller’s motives and total sales engagement with skepticism. Somewhat analogous to the feelings experienced by the marathoners in the 1980 Boston Marathon where Rosie Ruiz crossed the finish line shrouded in suspicion. One minute she is with the runners, next minute she’s gone, fast forward to the finish line and she is raising her hands in victory as if she was there the whole time.

In a selling opportunity, Resellers who represent multiple Manufacturer lines are balancing their responsibility for objectivity to the client, while on the other side trying to balance their multiple partnerships and most recent commitments to any one Manufacturer. Because of the conflicted role the Reseller must play, they tend to wander in and out of the selling engagement with the OEM as they try to placate both parties.

To the client, they want to represent the best solution while defensively blocking any other competitors who may represent a similar or a different Manufacturer solution. The competitive threat creates a certain “hedge your bets” behavior that again from the OEM’s perspective looks like disengagement from the selling process. Each Reseller wants to win regardless of the solution, therefore potentially reducing their loyalty to anyone OEM.

To the OEM, it feels like they can never gain exclusive support from a Reseller throughout a sales cycle. To the Reseller, they have to represent the interests of the client and the OEM, while guarding against any flanking competition. For this reason, the Reseller/OEM selling relationship must be clear. Early, open, often and honest communication between both parties is a MUST.

Well defined rules of engagement for the selling motion, pre, progressive and post-sales must be clearly set forth. A Sales Engagement Matrix which outlines the key selling steps and interlock between OEM and Reseller must be in place. Dedicated Sales Liaisons must be employed between both OEM and Reseller for all of the elements of selling – Lead Generation, Collateral, Events, Pre-sales Technical Solution support, Solution Selling, Pricing and Sales Logistics. And lastly, a rationalization of Manufacturer solutions carried by a Reseller - think a 3 circle VEN diagram at the most, where there are competitive and collective solution benefits and technologies.

Selling Excellence: You need more than just "people skills"

That which separates the good from the great is often a minute detail that one refines and perfects through years of trial and error. However, in the world of professional selling, the gap between sales competency and selling excellence is very large indeed.

While the basic science of selling is not overly complicated, the art of implementing the full complement of skills required to be an exceptional sales professional is far more complex. To develop into one of the "top performers" that companies are willing to pay top dollar for, a sales professional must consider at least two realities:

1. Beyond following a proven sales process, the elite sales professional always possesses a critical balance of social skills, technical expertise and situational knowledge. To be lacking in any one of these areas will ultimately prove disastrous over time and more often than not, will really hurt you when the sales cycle becomes increasingly more complex and lucrative.

2. Like in any profession, the most effective way to perfect your craft is to engage a "coach" who can analyze and correct your approach in real time. Unlike traditional sales training where the student is required to recall and deploy learned skills at a later date, sales coaches work with sales professionals behind the scenes during live sales cycles and look to perfect your approach when it matters most.

The hypercompetitive landscape in which sales professionals now operate demands that you bring more to the table than just "a way with people". If you plan on making a long and successful career out of the sales profession, make sure you invest the time to develop the complete portfolio of skills required to be an elite performer.

Questions to ask when your sales team misses their targets

In 2008, 58.5% of sales people across North America achieved their sales quota, leaving 41.5% that didn’t make the grade (source: 2005-2009 CSO Insights Reports). And while every sales person should be personally accountable for the achievement of their quota, it is naive not to consider the organizational factors that contribute to the underperformance and resulting turnover (22.5% according to the 2009 CSO Insights Reports).

Do your sales people know what to sell? Do your sales people know how to sell it? Do your sales people understand their target marketplace and are they experts in the business represented by the vertical markets they serve?

Knowing how to sell a product or service isn’t as simple as understanding the product data sheets, but rather it’s understanding the true value proposition of the product or service. How does the product or service materially affect their client's business? What are the quantifiable examples where your clients have received material benefit from the use of your product and service? Do your sales people have access to and fluency with these examples?

What has your marketing department provided in terms of competitive information? What are your competitors' go-to-market strategies? What are their competing value propositions? What is their differentiated value for winning deals?

Are you coaching the right segment of your sales staff? 20% of your sales staff, your top performers, are typically driving over 60% of your revenue. What tools do they have at their disposal to drive additional revenue? Does it make sense to top grade your sales team and re-invest your resources in sales support (administrative or inside sales capabilities) to assist your top performers?

These are just a few considerations that must be made in pursuit of achieving your revenue targets, lowering your turnover rate and ultimately building a high performance sales team.

Value Proposition - The new language of differentiated selling

It seems everyone these days is talking about their company's "value proposition", but few organizations have truly changed their selling approach or language to reflect a new, differentiated selling model.

It was E.K. Strong in the early 20th century that brought us Feature/Benefit selling. And while Mr. Strong was absolutely correct, features are without context until you equate them to a benefit that's meaningful to a prospective buyer, Feature/Benefit selling doesn't fully represent the convolution of the complex selling environment or product offering.

It is my belief that the Value Proposition sufficiently represents all of the significant selling steps in a relatively simple selling language that differentiates product and company offerings. A Value Proposition is a construct. Its made up of three key elements; feature/function/benefits of the solution, favorable points of differentiation, and lastly the resonating value.

Feature/Function Benefits (FFB)

- These are what we have come to rely on as professional salespeople when asked about our product or service offering. These are the characteristics of the offering, the differentiated features and functions but always couched in a context of benefits relevant to our prospective client.

Favorable Points of Differentiation

- These statements and examples represent the FFBs in the hands of our organization. What do we do DIFFERENTLY with the FFBs versus our competitors? How does our frame of reference and experience related to the deployment or integration of these solutions differ from our competitors?

Resonating Value

- What are the quantifiable benefits our clients have received as a result of the FFBs, in the care and operation of our company. What were the efficiency gains, effectiveness improvements, dollar savings, etc.?

So, the next time someone asks you for your value proposition, remember to ask yourself one important question: "Did I build a construct that differentiated my organization?"

So you think you can sell?

Nearly every sales professional that I have ever met, trained or coached wholeheartedly believes that they have mastered the art of selling. Unfortunately, the reality is that professional selling is a complex balance of skills, knowledge and experience that very few within this profession ever master (i.e. <1%).

However, there are at least three fundamental rules that every sales professional must incorporate into his or her philosophy if they are to transform their daily effort into a sustainable and successful career:

1. Value your time as if it were your client's - Most sales professionals have never worked through an exercise designed to quantify the value of their time and therefore find themselves investing countless hours investing potentially productive time into less than productive pursuits (i.e. redundant internal meetings, responding to unqualified RFIs, etc.).
   
   MTM's recommendation? Identify the value of your time (i.e. $100/hour? $200/hour?) and subsequently observe how easy it becomes to prioritize where you will invest your time on any given day.
   
   
2. Learn to effectively qualify your customers - The most underdeveloped skill in the world of professional selling is that of customer qualification (i.e. probing for the client's need, budgetary capacity, etc.) and therefore most sales professionals invest their time pursuing opportunities that are highly unlikely to progress in their favor.
   
   MTM's recommendation? Seek professional instruction from a reputable source that has had consistent success with progressing through a sales cycle.
   
   
3. Accept that there is a time to cut bait - The most difficult decision a sales professional will ever have to make is to walk away from an opportunity before the sales cycle is complete. However, the reality is that if the sales professional is following a disciplined process, they will have all the information they require to make a timely (and economical) decision to withdraw from an ill-fated pursuit.
   
   MTM's recommendation? Develop, implement and trust a disciplined sales process that is designed to take the emotion out of the decision as to when to reinvest your valuable time elsewhere.

My personal experience has been that if a sales professional adopts these three relatively simple rules into their day-to-day approach, their productivity and consistency will increase by a factor of no less than ten. The trick, of course, is convincing people in this particular profession to acknowledge that there may indeed be ways to improve or refine an approach that may have worked on occasion in the past.