sales,habits,Joe Zente,TAB Austin,Z3,process,success

The majority of Salespeople are simply not good.   Most private business owners and sales managers would agree.   A huge percentage of salespeople do not consistently achieve desired results, and most consistently fall far short of their goals. 

Despite the fact that most owners tend to tolerate sales mediocrity and hang on to weak salespeople way too long, over 50% of sales representatives hired today will not last one year in their company.  

The statistics are overwhelming.  Mediocrity in sales is rampant.  And there is good reason.  Most salespeople wound up in sales by default.  They did not study Sales in high school or pursue a degree in Sales in college.  Most employees in the profession of sales are there because they attempted other professions that didn’t work well for them, or because they couldn’t earn the type of income they desired doing what they originally intended to do.  As a consequence, good salespeople are difficult to find and ineffective ones are everywhere. 

Those rare, excellent salespeople are effective not due to their intellect or fancy techniques.   They simply have good habits, while the ineffective majority of salespeople have poor habits.  Here are seven of the most popular habits of highly ineffective salespeople:

1.   They are Reactive:  Effective salespeople are proactive.  Ineffective ones are not.  Good salespeople have a Sales Plan, a Success Recipe, and a tracking system to monitor their daily activities.  Poor salespeople spend most of their time reacting to urgencies and just about any distraction that happens to come along.

2.    They Don’t Respect Time:  There is no such thing as Time Management.  There is only Self-Management.  Ineffective salespeople lack self-discipline.  They do not effectively manage their activities and the way they spend their time.  As a result, most of the activities that are absolutely critical to their success (such as prospecting for new business) fall to the bottom of their priority list and often do not get accomplished. 

3.    They Don’t Enjoy Selling:  Effective salespeople understand that sales activities are highly varied.  Some aspects of selling, like preparing proposals, giving demos, leading presentations, and following up on hot leads or referrals might be considered to be fun.  Other aspects, such as cold calling, new business development, and other rejection-laden activities might be uncomfortable.   Great salespeople always do the uncomfortable activities, and they do them FIRST.  Ineffective salespeople choose to do the fun activities first.  Next, they do everything else (like customer service, “researching” the internet, taking any incoming call, processing emails during the selling day, talking with friends…).   At the end of the day (or week), they notice that there was “no time” to do the vital work of prospecting and new business development.   This habit is epidemic among weak salespeople. 

4.   They Don’t Listen:  Most people, including most sales executives, would agree that great salespeople spend the majority of their time listening, and listening carefully.  Unfortunately, theory and practice do not align here.  In reality, most salespeople (the weak majority) do not listen carefully.  In fact, many don’t listen at all!  Ineffective salespeople cannot wait to talk about themselves, their company, their industry knowledge, and how great they think they are.  They talk way too much and way too soon.  Another profit killer…

5.   They Don’t employ a Process:  A Process (a series of steps that leads to a result) is efficient, measurable, improvable, and effective.  Every great salesperson uses a Sales Process.  Ineffective ones do not use a process.  Weak sales reps go into every new call or conversation winging it–hoping for the best and expecting the worst.   

6.   They Don’t have Control:  In the absence of a process, the ineffective sales rep grants control of his/her time, money and conversation to the buyer.  This results in a wide variety of time-wasters, including multiple proposals, plenty of worthless tap-dancing, and lots of wasted energy and resources.  Even if the rep happens to luck into a sale, their lack of effectiveness will cut deeply into their profit.

7.  They Choose Ineffectiveness:  This habit may be tricky to detect, because it often lies hidden from view.  Desire and Commitment are choices, and both are directly related to Trainability and Coachability.  Believe it or not, a very large percentage of ineffective salespeople are neither coachable nor trainable.  Many weak reps prefer to avoid, rather than embrace, training and coaching.  In other words, they do not treat their profession as a profession.  Again, there is probably good reason for this.  Despite the fact that effective salespeople often earn 10 times more money than weak ones, we are dealing with human beings here, many with large egos and very small comfort zones. 

Do your salespeople possess any of these ineffective habits?

If so, how much do you think it may be costing you, and what do you intend to do about it?

The majority of effectiveness in sales is not a result of intelligence, tactics, or tools, but is primarily a result of choices, attitudes, and habits.  Effective salespeople are simply willing to choose and commit to do the things that ineffective salespeople are not willing to do.

Continued Success,

Joe   

Copyright ©   Joe Zente  2013.   All Rights Reserved.

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sales,sales management,market share,Joe Zente,Z3,TAB Austin,recruiting,profit

Are you the undisputed industry leader in your market?  Does your marketplace perceive your company as the safest, lowest-risk choice? 

If so, you need not read further.

For those of you who do not happen to fit into this very elite group of companies, you are faced with a brutal reality.  You are an underdog.  And as an underdog, your only path to consistent revenue and profit growth is to outsell everyone else.

“We almost won that sale” is much worse than it sounds.  We’re not dealing with horseshoes or hand grenades here.  In sales, “almost” simply doesn’t cut it.

Second place is the worst place to be.  In fact, when it comes to selling, “almost winning” usually costs far more than getting blown out of the water.  Second place always costs more than not being considered at all.  Fighting hard until the end of a sale can cost a fortune in time, travel, proposals, resources, energy, and profit.  In just about every selling situation, it is more profitable not to play at all than to play and lose.

In every industry, only one company is the market leader.  The rest of them are underdogs.  If you’re still reading, odds are high that your company may be one of them.

If your company is not outselling its competitors and consistently exceeding its sales goals, it is likely that the weak performance stems from deficits in one or more of the following areas:

• Salesperson Selection/Hiring

• Ineffective On-boarding

• Selling Skills

• Lack of Accountability

• An Entitlement Mentality

• Lack of Motivation

• Ineffective (or non-existent) Training and Development

• Ineffective (or non-existent) Sales and Sales Management Processes

Most of these issues point to a general lack of effective Sales Management, an epidemic problem among private businesses.

The results of this epidemic are staggering and very visible.  75% of private business owners rank their organization’s overall selling effectiveness somewhere between “Poor” and “Average”.  Not a very high bar.  This is great news for any business owner seeking to grow revenues and profit.  You may be wondering: “what is so great about that?”

Here’s your answer.  In most cases, an “Above Average” sales effort will allow your company to win an abundance of sales contests and gain significant market share over your self-proclaimed mediocre sales competitors.  Although it would be fabulous to have an amazing sales team, it is not necessary to win the majority of cases.

In less than one year, an effective sales manager (or the implementation of an effective sales management function) can quickly change everything.  Effective sales management, a function that deals with the bulleted items above, will have the single greatest impact on your market share, growth, and profit.

As business owners, it is up to us to decide exactly how to spend our very precious time, money and resources.  It doesn’t matter if your company has one salesperson or a thousand salespeople.  If you are serious about growing your business in 2014, there is no better place to invest resources than in the area of effective sales management.

Copyright ©   Joe Zente  2013.   All Rights Reserved.

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profit-killer,profit,sales,bottom line,joe zente,z3,zthree,tab,tab-austin

Many business owners invest significant time and energy attempting to build consistency and growth into their top line sales growth.  Few, however, pay much attention to the more important portion of the sales-effort scorecard, the Bottom Line.

Consequently, most companies burn up huge profits by confusing salesperson activity with productivity.

99% of salespeople become salespeople by default.   Few, if any, had any preparation or formal training before jumping into sales.  Most children do not dream of becoming a salesperson when they grow up and most were not encouraged by their parents to pursue a career as a salesperson.  You would be hard-pressed to find a curriculum (or single class) on Sales in most universities, and if you do, it is likely more focused on Marketing than on Sales.   And Marketing ≠ Sales.   As a consequence, the “profession” of Sales is loaded with incompetence and mediocrity.   This situation not only effects top line growth, but cuts deeply into the bottom line as well. 

Unfortunately, there is NO quick fix to this problem.  Building a consistent, predictable, world-class sales effort takes very serious commitment on the part of company leadership.  However, there are things you can do today to eliminate one of the biggest profit-killers in your company.  This profit-killer is called Premature Satisfaction™.

Premature Satisfaction™ occurs when a salesperson spends precious (and often expensive) company resources in behaviors they enjoy versus behaviors that effectively produce profit.

Most salespeople spend a lot of time being rejected.  They rarely “feel the love” in their selling efforts.   When they finally stumble upon a “hot prospect” or “buying signal”, most experience an adrenaline-rush and immediately launch into pitch-mode.   This is often the beginning of the end—the end of profit.  

The vast majority of salespeople love to be “the expert”.  They enjoy talking about things that are comfortable – their company and product benefits, “unique” features, industry “intelligence” and competitive advantages.  They often start dropping names and presenting solutions.  Many strive to arrive at the perceived Holy Grail – the Demo and/or Proposal.  

As salespeople progress through this dysfunctional journey, few ever consider the large COSTS associated with each of these steps.   Some of these costs are relatively easy to quantify (e.g.:  the cost of proposal creation).  For some organizations, proposal costs can be enormous as a percentage of revenue (engineering, design, preparation,…).   Even more surprisingly, many companies routinely send MULTIPLE proposals in pursuit of a single opportunity.  What a huge waste of money!!!

For most companies, the true bottom line costs of Premature Satisfaction™ are dramatically under-estimated.   In fact, Premature Satisfaction™ has a cost in 100% of cases.   In the best case, there is wasted time and lower margins.  In the worst case, there is lost business, destruction of trust and perhaps company reputation.  These types of costs can sometimes be difficult to quantify.  They are silent killers that can send a company into bankruptcy.

All solutions begin with awareness and acknowledgement.  Is Premature Satisfaction™ an issue in your company?  If so, you can begin to re-capture many thousands of lost profit today.   It is easier than you think.  Here’s how to begin:

• Declare that you will no longer tolerate Premature Satisfaction™.
• Measure your true cost of demonstrations and proposals.
• Develop metrics around conversion rates and proposal effectiveness.
• Use a Qualifier Checklist to improve Sales and PROFIT Growth.

By following these simple steps, most companies can realize a doubling of profit in less than one year.

Copyright ©   Joe Zente  2013.   All Rights Reserved.

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sales,recruiting,training,onboarding,management,performance,Joe Zente,z3,zthree,tab austin

Most business owners understand that landing and keeping a true Sales Superstar is like finding a needle in a haystack.

After suffering through multiple sales hiring failures and wasting tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, many entrepreneurs often throw in the towel and engage a headhunter or recruiter.  The expectation is that the recruiter will succeed in finding the silver bullet—that wonderful salesperson that will deliver some new additional sales and a night or two of sleep.  The owner also hopes that the effort will inject consistency into improving their long-term revenue and profit picture.

In most cases, both the hopes and expectations of the owner are not fulfilled.  How can this be????

During the last year, I’ve been asked by over one hundred business owners for help in recruiting a great salesperson.  Many come to ZThree AFTER they’ve wasted money and squandered their hopes and dreams on headhunters who promise to deliver sales superstars. 

Z3 Performance Development has been helping companies build consistent, scalable, World Class Sales Organizations for 15 years.  As such, we have located, landed, launched, trained and coached many hundreds of highly successful salespeople.  So whenever someone asks me if ZThree can recruit a sales ninja for their company, I respond by asking:

“Why do you think that recruiting a sales superstar will solve your problem?

I ask because they are usually asking the wrong question.  Sales Recruiting (in the absence of other essentials) almost always fails to deliver the desired result and ROI for a wide variety of reasons, including but not limited to the following:

• The salesperson has industry experience, but simply can’t sell:  Many business owners (and headhunters) dramatically over-emphasize the importance of industry experience a salesperson requires to be successful.  A great salesperson CAN sell anything, a weak one can’t sell a thing.  Period.

• The salesperson is good, but there is no path to success:   Most companies, especially small ones, are clueless when it comes to on-boarding salespeople.  Many entrepreneurs breathe a deep sigh of relief when they have finally made an offer and arrived at mutual terms with the selected candidate.  Unfortunately, your job is not over after your new hire has accepted.  In fact, this is just the beginning.  Whether you have hired a superstar or simply a good soldier who is willing put forth the effort, make sure to define and execute a very clear Sales Plan, Success Recipe, and 60-90 day on-boarding program.  If you don’t have an on-boarding process, create one.  As part of this process, make sure to assess your salespeople and help them to create personal development plans to improve their selling effectiveness. 

• There is a Sales Management deficit:  The expense of hiring another sales dud can be huge, so effective management is CRUCIAL to success. This is especially vital with new hires.  In the absence of an effective sales management structure, the best salespeople WILL leave.  Great athletes love to play on great teams.  If you want to keep your best, be your best.   Many small business owners think sales management is unnecessary if they only have 1 to 3 salespeople.   This misconception has sent many companies into bankruptcy.  If consistent growth with strong profit is your ultimate goal, the sales management function is one of the two most important functions in your company—independent of your company size.  Sales management does NOT require a lot of time or expense, but DOES require a lot of focus.   

If you haven’t figured it out by now, I am actually a huge proponent of sales recruiting—EFFECTIVE Sales Recruiting.  However, I would also advise against the use of a recruiter UNLESS you are ready to make other commitments involving infrastructure, process implementation and accountability.   Without these, you will likely be wasting your money. 

The bad news is that doing this may require an investment larger than the price of your new salesperson’s comp plan.  The good news is that the rewards far outweigh the commitment and will continue to pay dividends far into the future.  Doing so will also make it much easier to recruit future sales superstars onto your team.

There is no rocket science here.  Great teams consist of great players, great management, and great processes.  Great athletes will not be attracted to, or stick around on mediocre teams.

Even the best sales recruiting process will produce lackluster results if conducted in the absence of the basic blocking and tackling of an effective sales effort.  If you need help getting started, you can click here to request the UnCommon Sense^© Sales Upgrade Checklist.

Implement these simple processes and experience the feeling of having a consistent, predictable sales organization.

Copyright ©   Joe Zente  2013.   All Rights Reserved.

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sales,differentiation,price,salespeople,buyers,pain,questions,Joe Zente,z3,zthree,tab austin

5000 senior executive B2B decision makers were recently asked: “When faced with a buying decision, what makes the final difference in your purchase selection?”

Paying close attention to the results of this survey can make a enormous impact in your top and bottom lines, so here goes…:

• 19% of respondents said their purchase decision was based upon Company Brand or Reputation.

• Another 19% said it was based upon their perception of Product, Service or Quality.

• Contrary to popular belief (and to the #1 excuse you probably hear from your salespeople and sales manager), only 9% said that Price was the deciding factor.

• Interestingly, 53% of surveyed senior executives said that the Field Sales Interaction was the #1 factor in their decision.

In other words, the interaction that buyers are having with your salespeople have a greater effect on buying decisions than all other factors combined.

Surveyed buyers also felt that only 14% of conversations with salespeople had any significant or commercial impact.  This means that salespeople are perceived to be flapping their gums in the vast majority of their conversations, creating ZERO value or differentiation 86% of the time.  Burning up valuable time in this way is a huge waste and is no way to win points with busy decision makers.

Additional research indicates that the vast majority of all value and differentiation is not perceived as a result of comparisons, presentations, benefit statements, testimonials and demos, but instead from personal, emotional connections, effective facilitated dialogue, pain discovery and good questioning.

If you own a business or run a sales organization, these statistics and data should inspire many questions, including but not limited to…:

• Am I spending my money and resources wisely and proportionately?

• How do MY salespeople really stack up compared to our competitors?

• How effective are they at messaging, listening, questioning?

• Can my sales team really take me where I want to go?

• Am I selecting the right salespeople who are capable of differentiating?

• Is my sales training, development and management program effective?

Answering these questions and addressing them effectively can be the difference between blowing your competitors out of the water, or being left in their dust.

Best wishes for a spectacular 2013 and beyond!

Copyright © Joe Zente 2012. All Rights Reserved.