SMT: Center for Sales Excellence

Not your same old sales job anymore

by Susanne Conrad

I recently had a conversation with an L&D Director who talked about re-vamping their entire sales curriculum to meet the needs of the marketplace. Like many companies, this Director's customer base was narrowing - not only because of the poor economy, but as a result of consolidations, merger, takeovers, etc. The result, of course, is fewer but larger customers and significantly more at stake in every sales call.

Think of it this way, if you had 100 customers originally, and you make a mistake during one of the sales calls, you still have 99 more opportunities to get it right. So, you can afford to send some of your "greener" sales reps to call on the companies where potentially making a mistake and losing a sale will have, perhaps an impact, but not a "miss the target number for the period" impact. You can afford some time to bring your sales people up to snuff and let them "cut their teeth" before assigning them to your top tier customers.

Now, let's say your industry experiences a huge consolidation and you're left with 40 customers who have bought out, outlived, absorbed, etc. the remaining 60. A mistake in a sales call means only 39 more chances to get it right. Now, you may have a real problem. 

This is exactly what we're seeing with many customer companies. The result: Companies are loath to assign less developed sales people to accounts; they demand significantly better and broader skills, abilities and knowledge from their sales people. Does the phrase "we want a business manager not a sales person calling on our customer" ring a bell? Enter the Learning & Development professional!

I'll explore some of the topics relating to this issue over a few weeks. This week, let's start here:

THE QUESTIONS FOR YOU:
Have you experienced your management/sales management insisting that your sales people become business managers? What' 
s driving this at your company?

Breaking Teams Out of a Rut

by Susanne Conrad

Please welcome this week's guest blogger: Renie McClay. Renie helps companies to design and deliver innovative training solutions. She has authored the books Fortify Your Sales Force, The Essential Guide to Training Global Audiences, 10 Steps to Successful Teams, and Sales Training Solutions (Kaplan). She brings creativity to all she does, having studied with Second City and is certified with Accelerated Innovation.

Breaking Teams Out of a Rut
by Renie Mclay

Have you ever been on a team that struggled with original ideas; were entrenched in doing things the way 
they have always been done? I love creativity and enjoy bringing innovation and creativity to teams. Here are some ways to help team members take a break from left brain thinking!

1. Capture your ideas. Carry a notebook (like Thomas Edison did). Creativity happens when there is a space or break. So when there is idle time, capture what comes up!

2.  Brainstorm using non-linear methods. A mind map or diagram will help stimulate additional ideas. Avoid bullets when brainstorming.  

3.  Get out of the box by getting out of the box! Most meeting rooms and offices are 4 walls and a ceiling. Look for a more creative space to engage your creative self.  

4.  Get out of the rut. A rut is a coffin with the ends cut out. Vary your route and routine to stimulate different ideas.  

5.  Use analogical thinking. Another of Edison’s methods is to take two unrelated items, like the

Pacific Ocean

and a brick, and list everything they have in common. It is a good way to think differently and begin a brainstorming session.  

These are some beginning steps. My wish is for more creative teams! More info is in 10 Steps to Successful Teams, http://tiny.cc/Ogcyt 

THE QUESTION FOR YOU:
What have you done with team to successfully break them out of a rut?

Getting Learners to Apply the Learning

by Susanne Conrad

Please welcome this week's guest blogger: Bill Stinnett. Bill is the founder and president of Sales Excellence, Inc. (www.salesexcellence.com) and the author of two bestselling books: Think Like Your Customer (McGraw-Hill 2005) and Selling Results! (McGraw-Hill 2007). He can be reached at (303) 674-1288 or via email at bill@salesexcellence.com

Getting Learners to Apply the Learning
Bill Stinnett
 
As professional sales trainers, the biggest challenge we face is keeping salespeople and their managers 
engaged after a group training workshop. Oh, there’s plenty of enthusiasm at the end of the session. Like me, you probably hear a lot of positive comments and glowing praise for the material and the delivery. However, what we really want people to do is go out and use what they have learned. We want them to incorporate the concepts and techniques into their daily sales behavior. But all too often, when the sales team gets back to the office, they commence with “business as usual.” There are several reasons for this.

First of all, it’s hard to start applying everything you learn in an all-day (or two-day) workshop all at the same time. That would be like an aspiring golfer trying to master every club in the bag all at once. Secondly, the inertia of the status quo is very powerful. It’s easier, for many reasons, to just keep on selling the way we’ve always sold instead of enduring the pain associated with change. To combat this issue, I strive to employ several important strategies:

1. Make sure the training program is tied to a positive improvement in one or more specific measures of sales success. When learners know exactly what the training program is designed to accomplish – such as adding six new sales opportunities to their sales portfolio (pipeline) every month, improving our closure rate from 33 percent to 40 percent, or improving our gross margin percentage from 24 percent to 30 percent – it’s easier for them to appreciate why we need to apply new ideas in the first place. It also gives them a yardstick to measure the improvement in their performance over time.
   
   
2. Help people set individual goals for activity as well as results. If an individual buys in to the objective of adding six new sales opportunities to their sales portfolio every month, for example, help them translate that result goal into to weekly and daily activity goals that ensure the achievement of their desired outcome.
   
   
3. Sell sales management on the value of reinforcing the skills being taught. My personal observations working with hundreds of sales teams all over the world suggest that if sales managers don’t start asking their sales reps different questions after the workshop than the questions they were asking before, most salespeople fall back to operating exactly as they did prior to the training. Salespeople tend to mimic the attitudes and behaviors of their leaders, whether they be good or bad.
   
   
4. Conduct regular reinforcement and follow-up sessions. You don’t necessarily have to fly everyone back in to town for a follow-up. Leverage web conferencing technology. But rather than just reviewing segments of the onsite training session, get participants to report on their success in implementing and using the skills and techniques they have learned. This adds an element of accountability that drives adoption and application . . . especially when the participants know that every month they will have to report on their progress toward their goals.

HERE’S THE QUESTION FOR YOU:

How do you keep salespeople, their managers, and company executives focused on and committed to the tangible objectives of your training programs?

A Greater Share of Learning Becomes "e"

by Susanne Conrad

Yesterday I read an article by Forrester Research titled "Questions Senior Executives Ask About eLearning Specifics." The article noted the following: "eLearning has become an expected approach for an estimated 40% to 60% of formal learning content in organizations today." WOW!

I know, I know. Some of you are probably saying, "WOW! Isn't that great. We're so excited about all the cool eLearning we're doing/how effective it is/how well received/etc./etc."   Others of you are probably saying, "WOW! We don't do nearly that much eLearning. What are we missing? How do we do some eLearning?"   And yet others of you are probably saying, "WOW! There's no possible way we can even begin thinking of doing any eLearning. Will that impact the success of our learning programs as we go forward?"

My perception (without any scientific evidence or data to support this) from working with my clients is that the Forrester Research info is probably right on track.

HERE ARE THE QUESTIONS FOR YOU:
What percentage of your learning content is eLearning? Do you believe you are typical of companies in the amount and/or type of eLearning components and volume you use? How much more eLearning, if any do you do today vs. previously?