Internim Sales Management

We are currently seeking three companies who would like to transform their sales in the coming year.

As some of our interim projects coming to an end, appleton are looking for three new companies to work with in 2011.

Could this be you?

• You are too busy running your business to devise and implement an effective business development strategy.
• You often have creative ideas on how to develop your business but need someone to make it happen.
• You would love to introduce a more efficient sales process to your business but aren’t sure where to start.
• You would love a blue chip sales director to lead your sales operation, but can’t justify the salary.
• You feel you could get more from your sales force, but aren’t sure how to approach it.
• You are not sure whether or not your customers will accept a price increase, or whether your sales force is capable of ‘Selling a Price Increase’ professionally.
• You have invested in sales training before but not achieved the expected return on investment.
Well appleton might just have the solution you are seeking.
read more about our Interim sales management

Why Sales Training Can Benefit ALL of Your Sales Team

They look something like this:
Star Performer: Limited in numbers, worth their weight in gold!
High Pressure Closer: Wins their share of business, - fails to build long lasting relationships.
Relationship Specialist: Builds good customer relationships, - can fail to spot sales opportunities.
Sales Scholar: A professional student of sales, NOT a sales professional.
Systems Specialist: Knows their way around the systems, - doesn't spend enough time with customers.

Depending on the size of your team there will be a number of different types within your overall team, and it is highly likely that the majority of your sales team will not be made up of 'Star Performers' , it is therefore important to ensure you do everything you can to develop your team and create more 'Star Performers'

Often when a sales training initiative is being considered, reasons for NOT training certain groups are identified, some examples are listed below:

Possible Reason not to train
Star Performer: Too valuable to take off the road!
High Pressure Closer: Would be offended if they believed we think they need training.
Relationship Specialist: Will always be a good account manager, but not proactive enough to warrant training.
Sales Scholar: Has probably heard it all before.
Systems Specialist: Don't spend enough time in face to face selling situations to deliver an acceptable ROI.

It is not a good idea to exclude these groups from sales training events
here are some reasons why:

Star Performer: As they do such a good job they will be upset from being excluded from such an event. These people are eager to learn and open to change.

High Pressure Closer: Send this group on the pilot programme the more they are involved the more they will tell their peers what a great course it is.

Relationship Specialist: Managing an account is not enough in today's business environment. Developing new business from both existing and new accounts is critical.

Sales Scholar: This group need to understand how to implement their ideas. Behavioural change is the key.

Systems Specialist: Even utilising today's technology, salespeople in this group need to develop better influencing skills so they are more confident in the face to face selling situation.

Location, Location, Location, most people understand the significance of this in the property market so why not adopt a Training, training, training mentality when considering the ongoing development of your sales team?

The more you train your salespeople, the better they will become. They will be able to adapt their selling style to accommodate different types of buyer. They will be equipped to ask better quality questions and by listening to the answers create more proposals that meet the requirements of your customers. They will be more motivated to make important changes to their everyday routines. They will make more of an effort to differentiate themselves from your competitors' sales people. The potential benefits are endless.

In order to realise these benefits there are three key elements that need to be in place:
1. Pre training communication
2. The training event
3. Follow up

Pre training Communication:
The more a sales person understands why they are being asked to attend a training event, and more importantly what's in it for them, the more they can link the corporate benefits to what impact it will have of their personal motivators the more they will want to participate.

The Training Event:
These people are used to being out and about. Make sure the event is interesting, relevant and participative. They will all know what it is like to fight to stay awake as a trainer waffles on for hours demonstrating their new Power Point skills! The more involved they are the more likely they are to discover how new ideas could impact their results.

Follow up:
From action planning to coaching, there are many ways to follow up the training itself. In order to achieve the maximum return on investment you will need to decide how you are going to measure the results. Remember -You can't manage what you don't measure!

The Profession of Selling Debate.

I recently had an interesting after dinner debate with a group of people regarding careers. In the room there was a solicitor, a doctor, a marketing manager, an accountant, a bank manager, and of course myself the salesman!
A number of the people in the group were somewhat surprised to learn I had devoted my entire career on sales. It was even suggested that selling isn’t really a career. Many years ago I would have reacted in a slightly different way but this is not the first time I have been involved in a discussion of this nature.
The initial argument was centred on the point that of all of the professions represented, ‘selling’ was the only one that did not require a qualification. I do concede this point and think more should be done to introduce a professional selling qualification that should be mandatory before a salesperson is allowed to practice. This would prevent any potential buyers from being exposed to the ‘cowboys’ or the ‘sales sharks’. The main point I wanted to get across though was the irony of the debate, because every one of the qualified professionals were in someway dependant on ‘Sales’, even more ironic was the fact that most of them had regularly played a part in the selling process. Some of them even admitted to attending some sales training, at some point in their careers.
The fact is whatever department you are in there will be some dependency on the sales team. Without people continuously selling your products or services your company will not attract sufficient revenue, if you don’t have orders you don’t need anyone to fulfil them!
More importantly, businesses have to recognise exactly who does play a part in the sales process and ensure that no matter how well qualified they are, they are given the required training to ensure they integrate with the sales team. I personally believe that whatever your chosen career, you are better equipped for long term success if you are competent in selling.
Whether or not you are an accountant, an architect, a lawyer, or a bank manager, you will almost certainly meet customers from time to time, is that not selling? You will want to convince internal and external customers that your particular viewpoint is the best way to proceed, is that not selling? You may even sit with prospective clients in an attempt to convince them to leave their current service provider and give you their business, surely that is selling.
I am pleased to write that most of the people in the group admitted that ‘selling’ is often overlooked as a both as a profession and as an important business unit, and in the absence of any regulation that is unlikely to change. More importantly as long as companies are allowed to employ people with little or no sales experience, who deploy devious tactics to entice people to place an order with them, the image of the sales person is unlikely to change and we will continue to have these debates for a long time.

Is now a good time to consider investing in sales training?

The easy answer is of course ‘NO’, however, is there ever a good time? We are moving close to, or getting over Christmas, then waiting for the start of the new tax year. Then we have Easter, quickly followed by the summer holidays, and before we know it we are once again preparing for Christmas.

There is of course another viewpoint, we are trying to recover from a tough period of recession, there are not as many sales leads coming into the business as we would like, there are fewer new opportunities out there and your competitors are trying harder than ever to penetrate your account base.

Maybe now is the time to consider investing in sales training!

What can sales people learn from David Cameron and Nick Clegg?

The forming of the first coalition government for sixty five years has given salespeople the opportunity to learn from an unusual source.
When Clegg and Cameron first started negotiating there were some significant differences between them, how often is this the case when sales people initially sit down with prospective customers?
The Tories, under David Cameron, seemed to understand the demand from the electorate for a new kind of politics better than many in Old Labour, and responded to it with speed, understanding and a good deal of statesmanship.
There is a huge lesson to be learned here, put simply it is, ‘The quicker you understand what your prospective customer wants, and the faster you respond, the better your chance of beating your competition to winning the business!’
If salespeople asked more questions and understood the issues their potential customers faced they would find it a lot easier to propose a solution that created a desire to proceed, unfortunately many salespeople prescribe solutions before they fully understand the requirement of their customers. Sales training in the UK has not always made this clear. The aim of a salesperson should not be to simply ‘Sell’ a concept or idea. Their primary objective is to make their customers want to buy whatever they offer.
You can't build the new politics of partnership without both sides making compromises, is this not also true of any new business relationship? We all know that certain buyers will ask for every conceivable extra without paying for it. We also know there are salespeople who attempt to ask a high price for their product or service without explaining the value proposition to their customer.
So ask more questions, put the interests of your customer before your own interests, find out exactly what they need, and the value it would deliver to their business and their customers’ businesses if you were able to provide it. Once you have established those facts you can shape a proposition around their needs. If you have done your job well and proposed a real solution for them you will create some initial desire. (Something Gordon Brown failed to do with Nick Clegg!) The moment you have created some desire you can begin to negotiate. It is after all pointless asking someone to compromise when they do not really want what you are offering in the first place!
Remember if two parties really want to make an agreement they will find a way to move forward. It doesn’t mean that once an agreement has been reached the ensuing journey will be without problems. However as long as both parties want to continue working together solution will be found.
So as I wish the new coalition government every success as they work towards solving our national crisis, I wish all of you salespeople whose main priority in helping solve your customers crisis’s an equally successful future.
Make sure you continue to get your customers’ vote!

Is social networking having an adverse effect on the sales profession?

With the massive growth of sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, My Space, and You Tube, are we in danger of instigating a gradual loss of the skills and competencies that are vital to a successful salesperson?

As with all technological developments there are positive and negative outcomes, and the positive benefits of this element of the technical revolution are clear for all to see. Without doubt social networking sites are playing an ever increasing role in the business world. However, are some people becoming too dependent on them?

My concern is that if we only focus on one outcome, the overall strategy can be diluted. I don’t believe that being on page one of Google can be the only marketing strategy for winning new business. If we fall into this trap we will gradually lose the marketing skills we have developed to help inform us which campaigns are delivering the best return on investment. We will also lose some of the sales skills that are crucial to the success of a business, if we are reliant purely on the amount of traffic we can steer towards a particular page on our web site.

There are a number of traditional key performance indicators that are being overlooked in our quest to be seen in the most positive light by our online peers, for example would you rather have a salesperson whose LinkedIn profile is so well documented they are being headhunted by your competitors every month, or would you prefer a salesperson who had an adequate online presence, but whose primary focus was their sales funnel. Who measured the amount of new business potential coming from their new accounts?

I am working with a growing number of people who are spending less time in face to face selling situations. Who are losing sight of the real market demand for their products and services and what market share they have, and whether or not that figure is increasing in line with corporate expectations or not. I have two concerns about this trend.

Selling is an interactive process, a salesperson should use their interpersonal skills to create sales opportunities and turn those opportunities into sales, buyers will have a number of questions to ask before they are in a position to proceed, and if we spend less time with them we run the risk of missing some of those opportunities. Using the internet to communicate with potential customers at critical times in the sales process can have a massive impact on the outcome.

In addition to this if we spend less time with our customers we can miss out in gaining access to some critical facts about our business, and if we don’t have that information how can we revisit our sales training and marketing plans and make any necessary tweaks to them?

The key is doing exactly what needs to be done to ensure your online presence creates the desired effect, whilst retaining a focus on your sales measurement criteria.

'Well Done' to one of my students!

Yesterday, I received an email from a delegate who attended one of my courses about four years ago. From the moment he entered the room I could detect his appetite to learn more about sales best practice from whoever he could. He told me he wanted to become successful in the job he was in, and develop a long term career in sales. At the end of the three day training course he told me he was more confident than ever before in succeeding thanks to some of the new tips and techniques he had discovered. In the coming weeks I received a number of emails from him telling me how well his new sales approach was working for him.
It was no surprise to see him become one of the top salesmen in his company and a regular winner of sales incentives. Inevitably, he was headhunted into a new position and our contact diminished. I was delighted to hear from him and even more pleased to learn that he had just landed his first six figure order for his new company!
I can’t begin to describe the feeling you get when you know that you have played a part in shaping the future for someone who spent a relatively short time with you. But in that time discovered new ideas and techniques that will stay with them forever.
It is simply wonderful to help somebody shape their future!