Throughout the last several months ago, many CEOs have asked me if there is anything they can do to deal with the increasing number of sales delays and putoffs.  They would like to know if there is anything that can be done to increase urgency. 

There are MANY things you can do today to begin to shorten sales cycles, but here are some things that can get you started…

Increasing Urgency with Slow Decision Makers

Firstly, it is important that you have really covered all the basics:

–Who is the TRUE Decision Maker (DM)?

–What is the REAL Decision Process?

–Does the DM perceive there is a problem and is he/she willing to fix it?

–Do you really understand how much the DM is willing to invest to fix it?

–Are YOU differentiated?  In other words, does the DM really trust you more than your competitors?

Remember, hope is not a strategy and you can’t lose what you don’t have, so if you do not have the answers to these questions and if you have not uncovered the compelling reasons that the prospect has to buy (and buy from YOU), there is still plenty of work to do.

If you do have these answers and are looking to increase urgency, it is important to remember three principles:

• Organizations never make decisions.  An individual who works there does.
• ALL decisions are made emotionally.
• A person will never change unless the pain of changing is exceeded by the pain of not changing.    

So, if you are looking to get the Decision Maker to change and to act NOW, it is vital to appeal to their emotions and to help them discover more about their personal, emotional pain.  Doing so requires some skill, lots of listening, and some courage to ask what some people feel to be difficult questions.  I will be blogging more on this soon, so stay tuned…

Copyright © Joe Zente 2009.  All Rights Reserved.

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I speak with hundreds of small business owners each month.  Many have told me that they fear loss of control.  If you are feeling the same, let’s take a look at some fundamental truths:

*Today, more than ever, it is vital to use time wisely and efficiently. 

*The more we understand and take advantage of our strengths, the better our chances of success.

*Whining and complaining about things we cannot change will never help us regain control.

*Sometimes cuts are necessary, but you will never shrink yourself to Greatness.

*If your market has contracted, you will need to capture a greater market share to maintain the same level of sales revenue.

*If you have multiple competitors, an increase of just a few percentage points of market share can mean substantial increases in business.  This can mean big $$$$ for you!

So a message to the wise—Don’t overlook the role of your Sales Force in turning around your organization.

When your competitor’s are reeling from economic chaos, there is excellent opportunity for you to exploit the situation, upgrade your sales team, and capture major market share.  Here are just a few tips for managing your salespeople through the recession:

1. Change the Mindset.  The change begins with YOU.  Focus your thinking on Revenue Generation, not on cuts.

2. Understand what your salespeople are experiencing.   They are likely feeling hammered.  Hammered by more rejection.  Hammered by longer Sales Cycles.  Hammered by fewer leads.  Hammered by the media predictions of doom and gloom.  They are also likely being hammered by smaller commission checks and maybe even by increased pressure from you and or other sales managers.  Note:  Some pressure is good, but most salespeople will not perform at their best under intense pressure.

3. Shoot Straight with them.   Don’t tell them everything is OK or “normal”.  It’s not.   The economy IS slow and it is likely that things will not get a whole lot better for at least 18 to 24 months.  Let them know that things ARE tough out there and that you understand that many of them have NOT sold in this kind of environment before. 

4. Give them the Solution.  You can now outline the opportunity.  Explain that the strong will not only survive, but that they will thrive.  Then, explain the following realities:              

• It is vital to adapt along with the changing economy. 
• There will be tremendous opportunity for anyone who will focus and execute while weaker players are licking their wounds.
• Over-achievers will be rewarded handsomely.
• Over-achievement is expected in your company.
• Your company will provide coaching, training, encouragement and development.  You will give them the support they need.    

This is also a good time to ask your top performers to be team players and leaders.  Let them know that you know they can do it and that doing so is part of over-achievement. 

The greatest fortunes are made during turbulent economic times.  Your Sales Force holds the key.  Raise your expectations.  Then raise theirs.  Expect greatness, evaluate your sales team, and hold them accountable to over-achievement.  Great results will follow….

Copyright © Joe Zente 2009.  All Rights Reserved.

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What you can do about it.

Are your salespeople less successful today than in previous years?  Do you need to capture a larger percentage of your market share?   Let’s face some brutal facts:

• Unemployment is up.
• Employers are pressuring employees to conserve cash.
• Buyers are more fearful to make investments than in previous years. 
• Credit is tight.
• Risk aversion rules the day.

This all spells one thing for sellers in today’s market—Much more REJECTION.

If you industry or market is down and you don’t want to go down with it, you MUST increase your market share.  A higher percentage IS there for the taking, but only if you make the changes required to capture it.

Many salespeople (and selling principals) possess limiting traits that are hidden during more prosperous times.  These weaknesses can be devastating during a weak economy.  Some of the most dangerous are:

• Fear of Rejection
• Need For Approval
• Emotional Involvement

Here’s an example:

John was asked by one of his “hot prospects” to call him back on Tuesday.  Responsible John did just that, but the prospect wasn’t available.  The phantom suspect had cancelled a previous appointment.  John was getting vague responses regarding a re-schedule and was feeling a blow-off coming.  He is now mired in paralysis.  He wants to write an email and begins spending hours of time and energy asking co-workers what it should say.  All this time can be spent finding new opportunities, improving his pipeline, collecting referrals and growing sales, but the soap opera proceeds anyway.   John’s emotional involvement is not only wasting time and effecting John, but also the morale of other employees.  Why does this happen and what can you do about it?

Let’s get to some root causes:  

1. ALL salespeople get rejected.  The costs to your business are never due to rejection or to the fear the rejection.  They are due to how long it will take salespeople to recover from them. 

2.  John’s need for approval has him so twisted up about the prospect’s response to the email, that he wastes massive effort creating and agonizing over the actual wording.  “Will the prospect still like me if I send this?”  If John recovered from rejection quicker, his need for approval may not have been triggered. 

If John didn’t possess this pervasive rejection weakness, he would do what successful salespeople do–deal with the cancellation on the phone, in the moment.   He could have avoided wheel spinning and rescheduled or ended the “opportunity” right then and there.  But even without the rejection problem, his requirement for approval may have prevented John from confronting the suspect fearing he would be offended and go away.

So John wastes a day on an email to a person that would likely disappear anyway.  Sound familiar?  If not, congratulations, because this happens many thousands of times each day.

You Can’t Fix What You Can’t See 

The good news is that the limited traits described above (as well as others) can all be objective predicted with great accuracy.  They can also be remedied, resulting in greater market share, more consistency and dramatically improved performance.  If you would like to receive a complimentary assessment that will rank the performance of your Sales Force, click the button below and insert “Z3 Performance Development” on line 26.

Happy Selling…

Joe

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Are your B2B customer’s REALLY engaged.  This new poll indicates that most B2B companies MISTAKENLY subscribe to conventional wisdom, believing that they need to appeal primarily to price, speed, and efficiency.  This mindset leaves them extremely vulnerable to competition.

B2B Customers Have Feelings Too

Retaining existing customers typically costs much less than acquiring new ones.  If you are looking to expand your market share and increase your profitability, UnCommon Sense can help you to appeal to your customer’s emotional requirements.

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I recently met a CEO who was asking for advice on maintaining profit margins.  He was frustrated by his sales manager, who kept requesting permission to offer give-aways and discounts.  He wanted to know if Z3 Performance Development could train his people to become better negotiators.  After a bit of probing, it became obvious that this CEO possessed a popular misconception, one that had him believing that salespeople should be “negotiating” (aka: dropping prices or offering concessions in exchange for a promise to buy).

Negotiation includes built-in conflict.  It has potential to break down trust.  It occurs when salespeople (or principals) try to convince or “sell”.  If you are committed to helping your clients succeed, you will need information from them.  To gather information, you will need to ask questions and listen actively.  The intent of a person’s questions is a vital determinant of their effectiveness. Your clients and prospects are constantly making decisions about what questions are safe to answer.  As they make these decisions, they are continually sizing up your trustworthy-ness.  In this dialogue, intent is always more important than words.  So if you are a person who “sells”, I would suggest you look into the mirror and ask yourself this honest question.  “Is the intent of my questions to help our clients get what they want in a way they feel good about, or is it to help me get what I want in a way I feel good about?”  In other words: Whose agenda are you really on?

It is difficult to understand why anyone would intentionally choose to create conflict with a client.  However, I watch salespeople and businesspeople do it everyday.  Trusted advisors and superior salespeople do everything possible to AVOID negotiating.  They seek to facilitate the mutual discovery of costs (both tangible and emotional) of buyer’s problems.  They will then determine what level of commitment and resources are available to solve them before discussing the best solution.

The majority of people like to listen selectively and to avoid “tough” questions, the ones most vital to successful transactions.  They avoid selling properly because they are not comfortable talking about things like money and decision processes, so they defer any conversation of these topics as long as possible—forcing a conversation into a negotiation.  When trust deteriorates and they begin to feel separation occur, fight or flight takes over and they try to close the sale, setting up all sorts of problems.

Salespeople who find themselves in frequent negotiations likely possess one or more of the following (extremely costly) symptoms or blind spots:

• They are uncomfortable talking about other people’s finances
• They feel the product or service they sell is expensive
• They believe that buying is an intellectual process, not an emotional one
• They don’t gain an understanding of the costs associated with the problem.  If they do, it is typically far too late in the discovery process.

I’m not suggesting that great salespeople never need to negotiate.  However, if you, your partners or your salespeople are finding that price reductions and concessions are occurring too frequently, it is a good idea to evaluate your people to see if the blind spots above are present and to implement a system to erase them.  The results will fall quickly to your bottom line.

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