At ninety five 5 we believe that working with a coach, which we refer to as a guide, can make a BIG difference in individual performance.  Well, I need some help. I have fallen off the exercise wagon.  So I decided to find a program and a coach as soon as possible and talked my wife into tagging along (even though she is already fit).  Fast forward a week and my wife and I are seated in a conference room in a very corporate setting with a fitness coach.

Here was our coach’s approach to fitness sales.  She asked us typical questions for 10 minutes: what was motivating us, what were our goals, medical history and so on.  It almost seemed as though she couldn’t wait to finish her list of questions.  She was talking very fast and taking our answers as stated without clarifying or probing for more information.  And then she was finished.

Now for the good part.  Out came “the pitch book” and yes it was a book of laminated printed pages.  She couldn’t wait to tell us everything she knew about the human body, health, exercise, fitness and how her company’s approach was unique.  She went on for about 45 minutes.  We were never asked a question.  She never made a connection between our goals and her solution.  She never checked in with us by asking “Is this helpful?” or “Is this the right type and amount of information?”.  At one point my wife looked at me and gave me that “This is killin’ me” smile, which our fitness expert read as approval and a request for more.

An hour later I am back in my office and thinking about the sales fitness of the fitness sales approach.  While thinking it occurred to me that what happened to my wife and me happens every day in all sorts of sales situations.  Yes, everyone seems to get the idea that we need to understand the client first and that the client should do most of the talking.  But in reality, I have observed first hand something very different.  I have watched very experienced sales professionals talk and talk and talk as they attempt to sell multi-million dollar engagements.

Clients seem to put up with all this talking because it is so pervasive that they are conditioned to sit there just like my wife and I did.  So is it any wonder that the clients say “This is a tough choice, everyone sounds the same”.  In the spirit of good sales fitness the conversation could go very differently, something like this. 

1.      We give our discussion purpose: “By the end of our discussion you (Client) can decide if this sounds like a fit and we should keep talking or if we should stop.”

2.      We ask thoughtful questions to UNDERSTAND our prospective client instead of just checking questions off a list.

3.      We listen closely, clarify, explore where needed and summarize what we are learning.

4.      We ask “What would be helpful to know about us, our solution or approach?”.

5.      We present our thinking in the context of what we have learned about the client – nothing extra.

6.      We check in frequently: “Is this helpful?”, “Am I providing the right amount of detail?”, “What’s missing”?

You might be wondering how the story ended.  We signed up, it was her lucky day. We weren’t motivated to talk to a competitor – it’s only a few thousand dollars per year.  We really felt that while her technique was poor her intent was to help us. And intent counts more than technique.  Unfortunately most sales people don’t have prospects that are willing to forgo the competitive process and need both good intent and good technique.    

Sales can be a solitary profession.  At the end of the day it is up to you—there is no one else to blame or share in your success. Either you made it or you didn’t.  I am not saying that we don’t need the help of other team members; only that when you don’t make your numbers it is unlikely that your boss will say, “Oh, don’t worry. I know that so and so didn’t support you well and we have had some quality problems. Can we make it up to you with a bonus or something?”  It is your responsibility alone to make your numbers regardless of the situation.  While this can make sales lonely, it can make it very rewarding as well. 

Having worked with sales professionals (and being one myself) I have often pondered what separates those who consistently make their numbers from the one-hit wonders and the chronically inconsistent. 

One of the most important factors is great execution or more simply, the ability to get things done.  There are many popular books about execution and how to organize yourself to achieve good things.  I have read several of these books and have attended numerous training programs and seminars on the topic, and overall they seem like good stuff to me. 

Here is the big idea—buried in the works with which I am familiar (and I imagine those which I am not familiar) is a technique that is a potential silver bullet: Focus on the critical few things that, if executed well, will lead you to your numbers.  Let’s call these focus points. Now I know this isn’t sexy and wow-like; in fact it is kind of simple and boring. 

Simple and boring works! 

I would like to invite you to choose two focus points; things that, if well executed, will lead you to your numbers.  If you can’t do it right now, schedule a time on your calendar within the next three days and do it.  Once done, stick to those focus points for a month or two and evaluate their impact.  

To give you an idea of what I mean, here are  my two current focus points:

• Who I spend time with
• Obtaining referrals

These two things have a huge impact on my personal sales success.  Let’s explore them in order. 

I have defined my ideal client (who I spend time with) as a client who has been there before and who has tried numerous approaches to predictably increase sales volume and productivity and is not satisfied. These clients can be a VP of Sales, Chief Sales Officer, or CEO; they are open and accessible; I know them OR I have been referred by someone they trust; and their sales cycle is complex.  When I talk with firms and people who meet these criteria my likelihood of winning some business goes off the charts.  So my focus points are:

Focus point #1—if the client doesn’t meet these criteria we don’t talk.

Focus point #2—obtain referrals to clients who meet my "ideal" criteria. 

When I think about referrals, I place them into buckets: proactive and reactive. 

A proactive referral is one where someone who trusts me refers me to someone else.  He does so by contacting me and saying something like:

•  “I told Bill Smith that I thought you could help him.  Would you contact him? He is expecting your call.”
• “If Bill Smith contacts me and says he has heard good things about you, I can give you a referral.  Do you have time to talk to him?” 

A reactive referral is a referral where I ask someone who trusts me to introduce me to someone else.  I don’t make general requests like “Do you know anyone who needs such and such?”  I make very specific requests, like “I am trying to get in to see the VP of Sales at XYZ.  Is that something you could help me with?”  Sites like LinkedIn are making this easier by the day. 

Every Monday from 1:00 p.m. until 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time I work on my referral network. To give you an idea of how important referrals can be, I looked back over the last 18 years and did some “back of the envelope” math.  I found that more than 50% of my sales revenue has come from referrals!

It really is this simple (I have found that many of the most productive or fun or fulfilling things in my life are very simple).  Let me know what your focus points are and what results are produced when you focus on them.

Selling Power magazine interviewed dozens of industry experts in an effort to create a universal definition of what Sales 2.0 means (and what it doesn’t).  After extensive debates, the experts agreed on the following: 

“Sales 2.0 brings together customer-focused methodologies and productivity-enhancing technologies that transform selling from an art to a science. Sales 2.0 relies on a repeatable, collaborative, and customer-enabled process that runs through the sales and marketing organization, resulting in improved productivity, predictable ROI, and superior performance.”  Check out the full article at http://www.sales20conf.com/2009/includes/Sales2.0Feature.pdf 

While this might sound like the latest silver-bullet claim, there is potential for a big payoff if you can implement the right productivity-enhancing technologies for your business.  I have been reading and researching Sales 2.0 recently.  Here are some thoughts to consider. 

1.      Don’t fall for the idea that selling is an art OR a science and that if you just master the science somehow drones could achieve 100% of quota year after year.  I suggest that selling is an art AND a science. Work on both aspects to consistently perform well and achieve the best return.

2.      Take one step at a time.  There are more than 1000 technology solutions for improving performance across the entire sales cycle and more emerging every day.  It can be overwhelming and often the hype has many of us feeling left behind.  There is no doubt that these Sales 2.0 technologies can help.  Consider focusing on one aspect of the sales cycle where you would like to see and measure improvement as a result of implementing a Sales 2.0 approach. 

3.      Watch out for hidden costs. One thing I have noticed about many of these technologies—they are cheap.  For the cost of a nice lunch, a monthly subscription is yours...as well as the hidden costs of lost productivity through experimentation and implementation.  Many of these tools require a fair amount of knowledge and time from the sales person.  Define how much time you will invest and include these costs in your analysis before you buy.

4.      Commit time to expand your knowledge of Sales 2.0 approaches.  In as little as 20–30 minutes a week you can get smart on what works and what doesn’t.  Try some free trials, talk to other users, read and share what you learn. 

One final observation—I work with sales people and sales managers every day.  Most use just the basic technology to do their jobs: computer, MS Office, cell phone, and CRM.  The promise that technology will somehow transform the sales profession and deliver consistent and predictable performance has eluded most.  This is going to change.  Get started and ride the wave.

·         “My client wants to place an order with us but they can no longer approve purchases.”

·         “Every purchase must now be approved by the CFO.”

·         “HQ approval is required for all purchases over $200k; it has been $500k for as long as I can remember.”

·         “I have been told that all vendors must reduce prices by 20%; agree or we will go elsewhere.  It’s not me—I am sorry about this.”

·         “It is all about the numbers now—lowest price wins.”

Here is the good news—customers are buying!  More good news—most of us want higher-level relationships with our customers and higher-level people are now involved.  Even more good news—I forecast that there will be less competition because many sales people will do nothing to adapt to this situation, so they won’t meet with these new players.  And the best news of all: The gatekeepers you have been dealing with now need you to meet with their bosses or they won’t have anything to do…and we all know what that leads to.

So it seems that we would need to get access to these folks and then meet with them about their decision criteria.  Let’s look at access first. 

Call your normal contact and say something like this.  “It sounds like there are some changes and that Bill [the new Decision Maker] is a new member of the decision-making team.  I want to make sure that you have our best proposal and I would like to talk with Bill so that I can understand his criteria and ensure that our proposal addresses them.  Seems like this would be good for all of us; how can we set this up?”

The next step is the meeting.  The purpose of this meeting is to capture the issues that the solution must address from this new decision-maker’s perspective; the steps he will take to decide yes OR no; and the criteria that he will use to decide among alternatives.