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.

When does it make sense to hire a consultant?

Other than "what does your company do?", the most common question that I am asked with regard to our practice is "when do people hire you?". While there are certainly a plethora of reasons why businesses engage professional consultants, it has been my experience that companies are primarily looking for one of three things when they approach our organization:

1. Specific expertise that is only required on an ad hoc basis - Whether it is a need for a strategic presentation (i.e. investors, etc.), an operational review (i.e. efficiency measurements, etc.) or professional facilitation (i.e. executive meetings, etc.), seasoned business consultants can provide world-class solutions on relatively short notice.
2. Strategic resources that can backfill a role in transition - Regardless of whether the leadership is required to develop the skills of internal resources (i.e. up-and-coming executives, etc.) or required as a stopgap while the company searches for a new candidate to fill an executive position, senior consultants can buy you some much-needed time.
3. Tactical capabilities to assist in flattening the demand curve - There are major fluctuations in supply and demand for every business and both the highs (creating a scarcity of resources) and the lows (resulting in hiring freezes) create major obstacles to generating relatively stable financial results. Consultants are resources that align well with variable demand.

In a perfect world, companies would be able to attract and hire full-time employees to fulfill each and every one of their business requirements as they arose. In the real world where uncertainty and Murphy's Law reign supreme, the need for capable business consultants to augment your team has never been so acute.

Three critical questions rarely addressed in the diligence process

Having been on been on both sides of the fence through multiple due diligence processes (i.e. both a buyer and a seller), I can state with confidence that more often than not, far too much time is allocated to redundant financial analyses and far too little time is dedicated to getting answers to a handful of questions that ultimately define the success or failure of the investment and/or acquisition. The reality is that 95% of what needs to be known about a company's current financial capacity is uncovered within the opening forays of the diligence process, regardless of whether that diligence was done by an individual investor or a small army of analysts employed by a private equity firm.

This is not to say that capable financial analysis is not a fundamental component of an effective evaluation because it definitively is. An investment opportunity that cannot at the very least illustrate a healthy return on paper need not be considered any further. I would suggest, however, that if more time and resources were focused on the "not-so-obvious" factors influencing a company's future performance and capacity, there would be a significant increase in successful corporate investments. While there are a number of these not-so-obvious elements to consider, our experience has been that the following three questions usually solidify a prospective company in the hit or miss category:

1. What is the sustainability of the opportunity pipeline? - Most company's can paint a pretty picture that is represented by a snapshot in time. The true measure of a company's medium and long-term capacity will be uncovered once you have assessed its ability to generate and replicate an opportunity pipeline that will generate the type of annuity that aligns with your valuation.
2. How capable are the critical members of the management team? - While biographies will provide you with an elementary history of the individuals running the company, nothing can or should supplant comprehensive interviews that will allow you to form your own assessment of whether or not the existing team is capable of delivering the results on which you are depending.
3. What role, if any, do external parties play in defining the company's direction? - A Board of Directors, a Board of Advisors or a significant shareholder can all exert tremendous influence on a company's management team. It is imperative that you gain some reasonable insight as to the likelihood that a third party may alter the strategic direction of your new investment.

Interest will often be piqued when a company's financials align with your investment metrics. However, positive answers to these questions should provide you with the confidence that your investment will actually deliver on these metrics weeks and months after the diligence process is complete.

To invest or not to invest, that is today's question

Indeed the raging debate over the past eight or nine months for nearly every commercial entity across the globe has been centered around where and how deep to make financial cuts in order to survive the current economic downturn. However, one could (and possibly should) argue that perhaps the better questions to be pondering are how and where to make strategic investments.

Having led both private and public companies, trust me when I say that I do fully understand the complexities involved here. A decline in the demand for your products or services will definitively result in a drop in revenues and inevitably bring increasing pressure from the external entities that influence your organization; your investors, your customers, your Board of Directors, etc.. This pressure can be all-encompassing and will almost assuredly involve frequent (i.e. daily) assessments of your personal performance and career standing.

The decision to do anything other than to divest along with 95% of today's business community is both difficult and complex, but I personally believe that the advantages to overcoming this pressure and investing forward far outweigh the burden of the pressures that we are ultimately paid to absorb. Among other things, making strategic investments in tough economic times allows for the following:

1. Your company can acquire relevant resources and materials at market prices that are at unprecedented lows.
2. Your business will be positioned perfectly for the inevitable economic rebound that other businesses will constantly be one step behind.
3. Your organization will have the satisfaction of knowing that it is not contributing to the vicious cycle of divestment that will undoubtedly prolong the current economic downturn.

As for the second guessing that always accompanies a journey down a road less traveled, be sure to document and communicate the logic and projected returns associated with your investment strategy. Keep in mind that most people inherently want to invest in the future but in economic times like these, they will require a little more convincing if they are to break from the general tendency to retract and retrench when the going gets tough.

Related readings:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtuous_circle_and_vicious_circle ("vicious circle" definition/reference)

http://www.financialpost.com/story.html?id=1311004 (investment in technology saves time, increases productivity)

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2008/12/productivity_report.html (corporate investment fuels growth)

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?"

The importance of shared vision

For today's leaders, the past year has presented more challenges than many of them have experienced in their entire careers. These challenges have been relentless for many leaders as they have attempted to navigate their organizations through the intense economic negativity and uncertainty we have all witnessed in this past year. Leaders are being tested as they never have before; some are not able to rise to the new challenges, but some continue to succeed at all levels. What is the difference from one leader to another? Although there are many answers to that question, my belief is that one of the most important elements of sustaining leadership excellence is the ability to create and nurture a shared vision in an organization.

An organization is a collection of individuals. Therefore a significant challenge in leadership, and one of the most critical, is how to create a shared vision amongst all those whose passion, skill and commitment is required for an organization to be successful. This shared vision must ensure the passion and energy of this collective group is directed and sustained towards a common desirable future. As Senge (2006) reminds us in The Fifth Discipline; The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization:

A shared vision is not an idea. It is not even an important idea such as freedom. It is, rather, a force in people’s hearts, a force of impressive power. It may be inspired by an idea, but once it goes further-if it is compelling enough to acquire the support of more than one person-then it is no longer an abstraction. It is palpable. (p. 192).

Creating shared vision is the domain of leadership, not the domain of just the individual leader, but the collective leadership that exists within the organization.

To create the vision of a company, emotionally intelligent leaders need to move beyond a solo scrutiny of an organization’s vision to drawing on the collective wisdom of followers:

Side by side with the rest of the organization, leaders co-create the vision that will serve to rally and energize the group as a whole. Involving people in a deliberate study of themselves and the organization-first by looking at the reality and then at the ideal vision-builds resonance and sustainable change. (Goleman, Boyatzis, & McKee, 2001, p. 206).

The responsibility of leadership is to foster the ongoing pursuit and continued development of this vision, managing the creative tension that exists between it and current reality. In today's uncertain times there is both challenge and opportunity. The ability to meet the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities that arise is, to a great degree, dependent upon how well your organization follows a shared vision that encourages everyone to work in concert to create the powerful force that can drive success.

The incremental value of PS teams in a tough economy

Those businesses involved in the practice of providing professional services (PS) to their client base have not been immune to the current economic downturn. It is hard to believe that only twelve months ago, business leaders were facing the most challenging hiring environment in years – the challenge: how to find and attract great people to the business. Twelve months later, these same leaders are looking for ways to ensure that they can pay and retain the staff they spent all that time looking for.

The metrics in a professional services environment are very easy to understand, but very difficult to master. Three key metrics often discussed include utilization, pricing models and overhead management. Many businesses will make the mistake of only looking at the metric of utilization when making staffing decisions regarding net new hires or determining adequate resource levels. With everybody so focused on running hard the last couple of years chasing new clients, the existing client base was left in the position of fighting for scarce resources, getting little attention from those companies that worked so hard to gain their trust in the first place. The result is that it was often only the professional services team that carried the ball on behalf of the organization through this period and have since established deep relationships with the company's key clients. As a result, when companies decide to downsize the professional services team in a stagnant economy, they may ultimately need to ask themselves a second question – “Are we losing clients with these personnel decisions as well?”

Times like these represent a great opportunity to reengage with your key clients through a combination of focused business development efforts along with creative initiatives from your professional services team. If you are in a position to provide solutions through your professional services team that promote cost efficiencies, you may be able to provide significant value to your clients while helping your own organization weather the storm at the same time.

Start with the end in mind

An old cliche to be sure, but one that has certainly proven to be invaluable within our engagements with clients looking for assistance in defining/refining their corporate strategy. Nine times out of ten our clients are initially looking to document a description of who they are today but are often unwilling to articulate who they want to be tomorrow. As a result, they find it excessively difficult to determine how much capital they will need to inject/raise, how many employees they will require to operate the business, etc.. Without at least a vision for where you want to end up (i.e. how much revenue, what level of market share, etc.), it will be next to impossible to identify your next steps.

Our experience has been that the very first exercise you should run through before making strategic decisions of any kind is that of drafting three year pro forma financial statements that are founded on the best information available to you at any given point in time. On the surface this may sound like a trivial exercise but ultimately your projections will serve to provide the logical backdrop for nearly every strategic decision you will have to make going forward:

• Don't know who to target with your product? Do the math to determine how many sales it will take to achieve your revenue targets and then assess how many target markets will be required to support these sales levels.
• Don't know how many people to hire for the upcoming year? This answer should flow easily from the previous math coupled with your understanding and/or expectations for best practices around employee productivity.
• Don't know when you should sell your company? Your financial projections will give you an accurate assessment of the value of your company over the next three years and from there it is all a matter of your personal objectives.

Just like being in a car, you can drive around endlessly forever but if you at least have a map that points you in the right direction, chances are that you will end up significantly closer to your preferred destination.

ADVERTISEMENT: March 25/09

MTM's consultants can complement the vetting process

March 2009 - Having worked with many companies that have pursued private or public equity, it has been the experience of the Marketing the Mousetrap (MTM) team that one of the most overlooked components of the due diligence process is that of the company's ability to implement and sustain an operational model that will actually deliver the financial results that are projected through the company's pro forma financial statements.

An accurate assessment of the strategic and operational elements of the business are as critical as the financial due diligence undertaken when evaluating investment opportunities. Utilizing MTM's consultants to augment your team when generating these assessments (i.e. strength of the existing management team, health of the opportunity pipeline, etc.) can save you a tremendous amount of time and almost assuredly will provide you with the level of confidence required to make those critical investment decisions.