As a global sales training company headquartered in Philadelphia, this past week was quite exciting with the 113th US Open taking place at Merion Country Club in nearby Ardmore. First and foremost, congratulations to Justin Rose on a great victory and thanks to the USGA and all of the players for a very memorable event. Merion is one of several old gems in the area which date back to the late 1800s. On the surface, Merion looked easy.  At just under 7,000 yards, the course is over 500 yards shorter than some of the recent US Open courses.  Additionally, heavy rains would leave greens soft and vulnerable to the best players in the world pin hunting and shooting darts. Early buzz suggested record breaking scores, with the number 62 bandied about. When it was all said and done, not a single player broke par and many of the best players in the world fell to pieces: #1 world rank - Tiger Woods: +13 #2 world rank - Adam Scott: +15 #3 world rank - Rory McIroy: +14 #4 world rank - Matt Kuchar: +12 Merion was tough when the pundits said it would be easy. Yes, it was short, but what more than made up for length was: the tall, wet rough, stunningly difficult greens, blind shots, white sand bunkers, and the strategic precision Merion demands every minute a golfer is playing the course. Add to these challenges nerves, butterflies and jitters that come with playing in a major, and in hindsight it is easy to see why the pundits were wrong. Pundits in our industry talk about sales like it should be easy. All your people need to do is follow a sales process, use the latest technology, read the newest bestselling sales book and they will shoot the lights out, right? Well, in spite of what the pundits say, selling is very difficult. Back in April, CNBC (http://www.cnbc.com/id/100669506) reported that top-line growth has been anemic for over a year and appears to be getting worse. In Q1, only 39 percent of companies beat their top line, far below the historic average of 61 percent. Like the Merion rough, there are several factors that impact revenue growth over which your sales people typically don’t have much direct control: Implosion of a Eurozone economy or a recession in China Market conditions, especially those that prompt customers to curtail spending Turnover of executives in your customers that influences the buying process Regulatory changes that redirect customers from strategic initiatives to compliance initiatives Innovation and new technology that competes for mindshare with your core offerings Like a PGA professional in search of a US Open victory, your people need to deal with the course and the conditions over which they have no control, but you can help them (and yourself) by focusing on the conditions over which you have control: Consistent territory, account and opportunity management processes Effective sales management process and coaching Aligned marketing and sales messaging, lead definitions, and service-level agreements Consistent call planning and execution discipline Verifiable outcomes and metrics to track essential selling activities Equipping your reps with skills to hold compelling conversations with customers Providing access to subject matter experts when a deeper level of expertise is required Ultimately, success comes down to your people’s ability to execute in the moment and under extreme pressure. Like the US Open, selling is a test of skill, mental toughness, patience, and execution. This doesn’t happen without preparation, practice, collaboration, and coaching. Establish conditions to help them execute your plan, hold them accountable and you improve your odds of winning on the tough course of our business world. COMPLIMENTARY RESEARCH REPORT Download a copy of our newest research report, Content Marketing and Sales Effectiveness by clicking here The post What Sales Leaders can learn from the US Open at Merion appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

Top 10 Indicators that You Need a Sales Process Today’s Blog Appears Courtesy of Richardson’s Partners SalesLatitude and is Written by Co-founder Susan Spivey If you’ve managed sales teams for a long time, you begin to accumulate knowledge of the warning signs that a sales process is either ineffective or nonexistent. The importance of a sales process - that is, what will be done to work a deal to closure - should not be underestimated. These are the top ten signs that a sales process is needed in your organization: 1. Inaccurate forecasts and deals continue to appear in the pipeline quarter after quarter 2. Sales cycles vary greatly and lack consistency across similar markets and solutions 3. Use of the words " I think" when reps describe their deals, and a missing buyer’s point of view in their explanations 4. Absence of a clear strategy or set of guidelines when reps describe how they plan to win 5. Reps are stuck in reactive mode rather than controlling the next steps 6. Most of the opportunities being worked are lost at the very end of the sales cycle 7. Reps state your solution’s features as what is driving the customers to evaluate your offering 8. Your organization seems to have a low deal capacity per rep 9. There is no common language when reps are explaining deals to the needed resources 10. Reps are rushing to demos and meetings, or doing proposals as a key selling event with little knowledge of the key strategic initiatives, priorities or needs of the organization and/or key stakeholders Do any of these indicators look familiar? Take a moment to reflect on how your reps work deals and manage their sales cycles. It’s possible you’ll need a sales process that will help you establish a framework for more accurate sales forecasting and achieving your goals. Download our Complimentary Sales Force Change Report Managing Sales Force Change To learn more about the Managing Sales Force Change study, please click here to download the full report. The post Top 10 Indicators that You Need a Sales Process appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

Zen and the Art of Prospecting: Working with the Obstacles in Your Path This article was adapted from a post by Leo Babauta on his website www.zenhabits.net Selling and prospecting in this day and age is a tough job and it is easy for people who sell to get anxious, discouraged and give up. Let’s say you are prospecting and sitting at your desk with a new prospect identified to call, and you notice some anxiety, and an urge to go instead to one of your favorite distractions. And let’s also say you decided to adopt my approach, the Obstacle is the Path. So the anxiety, and the distraction are your obstacle … but how do you "work with them" as I advised? First, you don’t run from the obstacle. So instead of seeing the anxiety as something to be avoided (with distraction and procrastination), see it as the place you go to. Same with the fear of failure, the worry that things will go wrong, the cold fear that comes when you think of quitting your job and starting something new. Anxiety isn’t the worst thing in the world and is nothing to be feared. It’s just a feeling, and we can survive it. So sit with it. Second, you accept the feeling. If it’s anxiety, say, "Cool, I’m feeling some anxiety." Not, "No! I don’t want to be anxious!" The first actually calms the situation down, and allows you to look at it like an observer. The second makes the situation worse and makes you see the situation as a scared child. Third, you look at the cause. What is causing your anxiety? Is the prospecting really such a bad thing? No, actually, it’s not that hard. It’s simply taking the time to do your research, thinking about the value you will bring to your prospect, putting them down in writing, and picking up the phone. The prospecting itself isn’t giving you the anxiety — it’s the fantasy you have of wanting to say something excellent that people will think is good and judge you as competent and smart. The anxiety comes from the worry that you will fail at this and people will instead judge you as dumb. This fantasy, which isn’t real, is the source of your anxiety. Fourth, you see that it’s hurting you. You can’t let go of this fantasy, because you want it so much. But take a moment to see its effects — it is hurting you. It is causing you suffering. It’s causing you to not do the things you want to do. Be honest about its effects — the fantasy isn’t helping, and is definitely hurting. Fifth, let it go out of compassion. If you’re hurting yourself, and not helping, with this fantasy — why hold onto it? What’s so great about it? It’s not real. It’s totally manufactured in your mind. Instead, be compassionate with yourself, and let go of the fantasy. When you let go of this thing you’ve been holding onto, you can feel a sense of relief. Sixth, then go through the obstacle and be mindful. The obstacle was anxiety. It lessens once you let go of the fantasy. You can now get to prospecting, and once you do, without fantasies, you can see that it’s not that bad. In fact, if you are mindful in your activity, you can see that it’s kinda alright. Better than that perhaps — kinda great. And you almost missed out on it because of your obstacle. If you go through these six little steps, which aren’t that difficult each step along the way, you’ll not only be able to do the writing (or quit your job or start a new project or have a difficult conversation) … you’ll be better at dealing with similar obstacles in the future. You’ll be stronger, smarter, less afraid. This is why you should work with the obstacles instead of avoiding them — you learn from them. COMPLIMENTARY RESEARCH REPORT Download a copy of our newest research report, Content Marketing and Sales Effectiveness by clicking here The post Zen and the Art of Prospecting: Working with the Obstacles in Your Path appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

Intimate or Creepy? How to Prevent a Big Disappointment when Selling with Insights and Selling with Big Data I recently had the pleasure of re-connecting with an old acquaintance who is now an executive at a company called Lattice-Engines. The company helps sales and marketing organizations to transform customer data into deep, real-time insight about customer needs and behavior to make better decisions on which accounts to target and how to engage with decision-makers. We have a common client, and are excited about helping our client incorporate these insights into their conversations to create value for their customers and win more business. As consumers, we all know there is a fine line between an intimate customer experience and a creepy invasion of privacy. The Ritz-Carlton gets rave reviews for knowing its customers and anticipating their needs. They pay attention to details, such as knowing their favorite wine, restaurants or shops, and this drives immense customer loyalty. I don’t stay at the Ritz very often, but when I do, I really enjoy the experience. They make their customers feel special. Contrast this with an experience I had at a branch of a large national bank in the suburban grocery store where I used to shop. My wife and I had just sold an investment property and had a larger than average cash balance in our checking account. I was at the bank making a routine transaction, when a young bank teller processing my order nervously asked me if I would like to make an appointment with an investment advisor. I asked him why he thought that would be a good idea, and he couldn’t answer my question. He couldn’t even tell me in an open and honest manner that the bank’s computer system collects information to help its customers get the most value from their relationship with the bank. Curiously, I stopped by two other of the bank’s branches that week and I got the same offer from two other tellers, both who couldn’t answer the same "why" question. Evidently the banks systems were smart enough to identify a cross-sell opportunity, but not smart enough to note that I declined the offer twice in the past week. The irony of all this was that I had a brokerage account with the bank and I had a financial advisor, but he apparently didn’t get the alert and never contacted me. So, in my bank’s attempt to leverage "big data", they both annoyed me and disappointed me. Companies implementing big data initiatives in sales must be extra sensitive to the customer experience. As buyers, we often give permission to the companies with whom we do business to collect sensitive data, but that permission is often given implicitly versus explicitly. This magnifies sensitivities. This insight derived from your customers’ habits, preferences and situations could create a Ritz-Carlton-like customer experience, but the strategy could also backfire in a big way if you’re not careful. The rise of social media has raised the bar forever on customer expectations, who expect vendors to invest financially, intellectually and emotionally in understanding and consistently meeting their evolving expectations. They expect a good experience, and when they don’t get it they can let the world know by posting on Twitter, Facebook or Yelp. Add to all of this the recent events around Edward Snowden the NSA’s surveillance activity, and it should not be surprising that people are becoming even more sensitive about online privacy. A new study that was released earlier this week showed that more than half of all Americans believe that we really are in the era of "big brother." A survey from the University of Southern California <http://www.digitalcenter.org/> showed that Millennials - and an even larger percentage of users age 35 and older - are uncomfortable with others having access to their personal data online or information about their web behavior. When asked about the statement, "No one should ever be allowed to have access to my personal data or web behavior," 70 percent of Millennials agreed, compared with 77 percent of users 35 and older. What this means to big data initiatives in sales If you want your people selling with big data, then we feel very strongly that you can’t just install a piece of software or send an email with instructions, and then be done. The risk of creating a creepy customer experience is just too high. And, if your people sense that customers are pulling back when they approach them with a big data-driven insight, then they will stop using the system and your big data initiative will turn into a big failure. We believe you start by clearly defining the customer experience you expect your customer-facing people to deliver. This experience must be perceived by your customer as putting them at the center of your world with a sincere desire to add value and delight them. You must ensure your people know what to say when approaching your customers with this insight, and ensure they have the skills to engage naturally in these conversations. Ritz-Carlton exceeds customer expectations because, among other things, they anticipate your needs. At a minimum, you should positioning big-data insights as anticipation of needs. However, the conversation needs to be authentic. This takes practice and coaching to perfect. Finally, you must identify the right metrics that drive the behaviors necessary to deliver the customer experience, and align rewards with expected behaviors and outcomes. All easier said than done, and I’ll drill deeper into this in a future post. While this might sound a bit soft, it doesn’t have to be that way. Cross-selling and growth can be aligned with providing a great customer experience. Your big-data initiative should identify opportunities to help your customers make money, save money or manage risk. If your people take the time to know the customer and personalize a unique value proposition to the customer, then everyone can win and your big-data initiative has a better chance of success. COMPLIMENTARY RESEARCH REPORT Download a copy of our newest research report, Content Marketing and Sales Effectiveness    The post Intimate or Creepy? How to Prevent a Big Disappointment when Selling with Insights and Selling with Big Data appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

Improving sales force effectiveness in this "Do More with Less" economy requires modern skills with interactive selling tools Alinean, empowering B2B sales and marketing to better communicate and quantify the value of solutions to frugal buyers, and Richardson, a leading global sales training and sales strategy execution firm, today announced a partnership to improve sales force effectiveness, creating an integrated offering of Richardson’s sales methodology and skills training with Alinean’s ValueStory™ interactive tablet-based selling tools. According to research by SiriusDecisions, "the number one issue preventing sales quota achievement remains the inability for sales to deliver value messages" says Jim Ninivaggi, Sales Enablement Service Director for analyst firm SiriusDecisions. "The ability to ask the right questions, understand and create buyer needs, and link those needs to the value your solutions provide are still very relevant today. Using tablet-based solutions that can enhance and guide those conversations, including the ability to provide hard dollar justification, enhances and elevates those conversations." For its’ existing customers and new prospects, Richardson will integrate customized sales methodologies and value messaging into Alinean’s ValueStory-guided value-selling tool, helping to dramatically improve the adoption and enablement of new selling capabilities, driving more interactive, data-driven, provocative and value-driven customer engagements. "To reinforce Richardson’s sales methodology and skills training, Alinean’s ValueStory guides sales reps to deliver the right value storytelling, provocative insights, and financial justification for every selling situation, " says Dario Priolo,  Chief Strategy Officer for Richardson, "This helps our clients reinforce the sales methodology, messaging, and skills needed to drive sales success, and understand what is being delivered in each engagement, tracking success and adoption, so critical to coaching and evolution." At the same time, Alinean will offer its customers Richardson’s sales and tool training, helping to drive better adoption of Alinean’s ValueStory™ sales tool, improving the competence and credibility of using the tools to prevent stalls, accelerate sales cycles, and improve sales force effectiveness. "Just like a golfer with a new set of clubs, new tools can help improve performance, but combine the tools with the right methodology, skills training, and coaching delivers the most success." Says Tom Pisello, CEO and founder of Alinean. "Our partnership with Richardson provides our customers with the perfect combination of methodology, tools, and sales training so crucial to achieving selling success." In combination, the program includes sales methodology and value-message consulting services, tool customization, SaaS licensing and skills training. Please contact Jim Brodo, SVP Marketing of Richardson for additional information.   Richardson Richardson  is a global sales training and performance improvement company that helps leading organizations drive sales results. We do this in three ways. We analyze the structure and talent of your sales force, we train and develop your sales team, and we continue that development through coaching and reinforcement. We equip your sales leaders and sales force with the skills and strategies they need to win in today’s complex selling environment. What is unique about Richardson is how we create truly-customized solutions that change behavior and provide measurable results. http://www.richardson.com Alinean Alinean empowers B2B vendors to Fight Frugalnomics and sell to today’s economic-focused buyer via the development and delivery of interactive value selling and marketing tools. Alinean-powered interactive white papers, benefit estimators, ROI / TCO calculators and ValueStory™ iPad App create more compelling value-based connections, presentations and proposals — generating more demand, challenging the "do-nothing" buyer into action, accelerating sales cycles and increasing deal size. Leading B2B firms leveraging Alinean tools include: HP, IBM, Microsoft, Dell, Intel, OfficeMax, IDC/IDG, AT&T, BMC Software, Siemens, NetApp, Citrix, Cisco and SolidWorks. http://www.alinean.com     COMPLIMENTARY RESEARCH REPORT Download a copy of our newest research report, Content Marketing and Sales Effectiveness  The post Richardson and Alinean Partner to Deliver New Sales Force Effectiveness Selling Tools and Training appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

Sales Call Preparation: The Ultimate Checklist to Cover your Bases We all know how difficult it is for your people to get time with buyers these days, so when they get these opportunities, it is essential that your people make the most of them. According to Forrester Research, only 19% of the more than 400 US-based IT and Executive Buyers surveyed believe that meetings with salespeople is valuable and lives up to their expectations. This data suggests a significant opportunity for selling organizations to improve the quality of these interactions.  Effective customer interaction starts with pre-call planning and preparation.  Prepared sellers have a better chance of getting the information and commitments they need to create, qualify, and advance opportunities. It also demonstrates that they have their act together to the buyer, which helps build the seller’s credibility and trust. I have pulled together a comprehensive checklist of potential activities and sources for your sales people to consider. How you prepare really depends on your objectives. The main streaming of social media in sales (a.k.a. social selling), the options available, and the potential time your people invest in preparation needs to be tailored appropriately. While preparation is extremely important, there are diminishing returns on certain activities. Preparation is a process, and like all processes, you will benefit by defining the process, training to the process, and continuously improving the process. I encourage you to use the list below as a starting point and edit this list based on your selling situation and your call objectives. Your Strategy This is a bit of a "chicken and the egg" situation. You may need to iterate through and validate your response to these questions as you uncover more information through the preparation process. Where is the buyer in their decision-making process? Where are you in your selling process? What are your objectives for your call? What information, support, or decisions do you need to achieve your objectives? What’s going on in the buyer’s company? Whenever you can tie your capabilities to a company’s strategic initiatives, you stand a better chance of getting executive attention. Focus some of your preparation on creating relevance. Look up the company in your CRM system to see if you have worked with the company, or if anyone in the company has responded to any marketing offers. Google the company’s name, click on a few links to see what’s going on. Have there been any "trigger events"? Google the phrases "<company name> problems" and "<company name> strategy" If the company is publically traded, visit the investor relations site and watch recordings of recent CEO’s analyst presentations. If the company is private equity (PE) owned, visit the PE firms website to learn about their investment strategy and philosophy. Also, identify the Principle at the PR firm responsible for your target company. What’s going on in the buyer’s industry? It is my personal belief that if you want your people to be successful selling to sophisticated buyers, they need to develop expertise in the buyer’s industry. Staying current on industry trends should be a continuous process. Look up other companies in the industry in your CRM system to see related work you’ve done Google "Recent challenges in the <insert buyer’s industry> industry" Google "Top issues facing <enter buyer’s role>" Google "Top issues facing <enter buyer’s role> in the < insert buyer’s industry> industry" Google "<insert client’s industry> industry associations" Google "<insert client’s industry> industry study" Google "<McKinsey, Deloitte, BCG, Bain, PWC, KPMG, E&Y…> industry report" What’s going on in the buyer’s career and life? It is always better to relate to your buyer on a personal level. We live in a world of information overload, spam email, and automated messaging. Mass messaging falls on deaf ears. Link to the buyer on LinkedIn and follow them if they are active on twitter Google "<buyer’s name, title and company>", and pay attention not only to what is happening in their business life but in their personal life as well See if the buyer has spoken on YouTube or shared presentations on Slide Share See if the buyer is active in associations or has presented at conferences See if the buyer is active on social media or blogs See if you have any mutual connections on LinkedIn, and reach out to any connections you believe would be willing to share insight to help you understand the buyer better Who else will influence the buying process? Try to learn, in advance, who will influence the solution and the decision-making process to buy from you. People have a tendency to link to their colleagues on LinkedIn, some of whom you can infer will be influential. See who the buyer is linked to on LinkedIn, people have a tendency to link to colleagues and others in their functional area. Visit each buying influences LinkedIn profile, pay close attention to whether they are linked to any of your competitors, if they are, then that’s a red flag. Get smarter on the issues Your people may be about to engage in a conversation that could go beyond their level of comfort and expertise very quickly. They need to get smart fast enough to add value to the conversation, but they can’t lose credibility. Talk to your internal subject matter experts Google "research on <issue of interest>" Google "<McKinsey, Deloitte, BCG, Bain, PWC, KPMG, E&Y…> report on <issue of interest>" Brush-up on your solutions to the issues Your people need to know how to begin bringing your company’s capabilities together to formulate solutions to potential challenges or opportunities. They also need to know the limitations of your capabilities so that they don’t promise the customer something you can’t deliver. Visit your own website and read how your company is positioning the solutions that you think will be relevant to the buyer How does your solution address the issues that you want to discuss? What objections do you anticipate and how can you proactively resolve them? How do different products and services you offer link together into a comprehensive solution? What additional internal resources should you consider lining up to support your pursuit? Sharpen your customer conversation skills All of this great research and preparation won’t deliver results if your people can’t deliver the message to the customer. Encourage them to take the time to practice so that they will be more confident in the moment. Anticipate how the call will play out and find someone to help you practice! COMPLIMENTARY RESEARCH REPORT Download a copy of our newest research report, Content Marketing and Sales Effectiveness  The post Sales Call Preparation: The Ultimate Checklist to Cover your Bases appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

Using Tailored Post-Program Sales Coaching to Get Results from Sales Training If you read this blog or know much about Richardson, you know we’re advocates of implementing sales training effectively to change behaviors, achieve desired business results, and deliver a return on the training investment. (Otherwise, why bother, right?) Developing a full-scale learning system with a well-led and managed change plan is the most effective way to do that. Are you ready for a shocker? One of the most important post-training tools in such a system is sales coaching. Big surprise? Yeah, probably not. Yet… Sales Coaching is underutilized … as much as we all seem to recognize the power of sales coaching for training transfer and sales performance improvement, research consistently shows that we underutilize it. A Nightingale Conant study reported that 67.21% of managers are not doing or sporadically do sales coaching/development and 52.34% of sales managers say they don’t have the time or are too busy to develop and coach their sales teams. According to the Objective Management Group, Inc., only 15% of all sales managers spend as much as 25% of their time on coaching and the time they do spend on coaching is generally ineffective. The Sales Management Association has reported that front-line sales managers spent only 26% of their time, or an average of 3 hours per rep per month, managing performance (which includes expectation setting, performance monitoring, coaching and development). There’s uncertainty about how to reinforce training programs Aside from the organizational obstacles (meaning: how we bog our sales managers down with non-essential duties that interfere with the primary task of improving the sales performance of their reps), and challenges with coaching in general, I’ve heard a lot of feedback over the years from sales managers, saying they simply don’t know how to most effectively reinforce training content and coach to specific programs. Fortunately, this is not a difficult problem to solve, organizationally. It does, however, require advance thought and action to prepare your sales coaches. (I’ve rarely seen it happen on its own, except with perhaps the top 4 or 5 percent of sales coaches.) The coaching itself isn’t different than any other good developmental coaching session. In this case, the thoughtful and very specific preparation is what makes the difference. Framework for reinforcing training The steps are: Understand the content and prepare to reinforce it (before training) Plan to support post-program application (before training) Establish a diagnostic evidence chain to prepare for coaching (before training) Conduct gap analysis (after training) Coach to close the gaps (after training) Note: This list of steps is tailored to our topic of tailoring post-program coaching to get results from sales training. This is not meant to be an exhaustive list of actions that a manager should take before, during and after training to support learning and foster training transfer. Let’s look at these 5 steps more closely. STEP 1: Understand the content and prepare to reinforce it Identify the expected knowledge to be retained Identify the performance support to be used Identify the expected behaviors (observable) Review participant action plans (the bridge from program learning to post-program action) -       Activities: Learning reinforcement plans, if any -       Activities: Application/Actions to be taken to use content In this step, managers should attend the program (with or before their reps, whenever possible), and also work with the training team and their reps, to clearly understand content, identify expectations, and review student/rep post-program action plans developed at the end of the course. STEP 2: Plan to support post-program application Establish verifiable outcomes (watch this video for more information) -       Leading indicators -       Verifiable evidence: objective or anecdotal -       Improve confidence -       Capture customer reactions Document expected results (including any expected improvement) Establish meeting/coaching schedule Plan to communicate expectations and schedule coaching sessions In this step, managers should clearly identify metrics, establish expectations, and plan to set a recurring meeting schedule, as determined appropriate for the rep’s tenure, confidence, competence, and performance compared to the program content and manager’s expectations. The first post-training meeting should occur quickly after the course ends, to review action plans and establish expectations. (In fact, some of the expectations should be a review, since a manager should establish a few expectations for their reps before they attend training.) STEP 3: Establish a diagnostic evidence chain to prepare for coaching Common elements include: Program knowledge Discussion about sales activities, customer interactions, and outcomes Use of performance support Observed behaviors Review of verifiable outcomes (leading indicators) Review of sales results (reporting/lag indicators) In this step, managers determine what elements they will consider to determine whether their rep has learned the knowledge, can use the skills, is applying both, can use performance support appropriately, and is getting the desired results. STEP 4: Conduct gap analysis Follow the diagnostic evidence chain to: Test or verbally question the required knowledge or watch for other evidence of knowledge retention of key content Confirm that planned activity has been completed, and to what degree of effectiveness Verify that appropriate performance is being used, and used correctly Observe behaviors related to program content (observe firsthand: listen to calls, make field visits) Obtain client feedback, as appropriate Review verifiable outcomes and results In this step, the manager uses the planned diagnostic evidence chain to determine what their reps know, that they are using what they were taught, that they are following their action and activity plans, and that they are getting the results they need. The manager must also focus on how and how well reps are using the knowledge and skill, to be able to coach for mastery. Reports and data analysis can point managers in a direction, discussion can verify knowledge and determine rep’s opinions, perspectives and beliefs, and verifiable outcomes can predict the likelihood of achieving results, but the most valuable diagnostic tool managers have is the direct observation of their reps on the phone or in the field. The content of the program (such as prospecting, selling, negotiation, presentation skills, etc.), and indications from reporting and discussions, will point managers in the right direction for what to observe. STEP 5: Coach to close the gaps Conduct a developmental coaching session, per our Sales Coaching book or our developmental sales coaching program, Coaching for Results. In this step, managers conduct the actual coaching session (some of which may have started with the diagnostic discussions and questions about activities, what’s happening, what’s working, and what’s not). Done well, this step will foster a cycle of ongoing planning, execution, review, and coaching. This creates an endless loop of learning and coaching, leading to improved performance. At some point, the specific coaching related to a program will fade and be replaced by coaching for another program or segue to a cadence of regular coaching activity. I won’t detail the developmental sales coaching methods, since that’s not the point of this post, but I do want to provide some additional reading, if interested: http://blogs.richardson.com/2013/06/12/dont-be-a-jerk-coaching-and-mentoring-sales-reps-leads-to-more-effective-knowledge-transfer/ http://blogs.richardson.com/2012/02/22/questions-the-fabric-of-an-effective-coaching-conversation/ http://blogs.richardson.com/2013/01/17/17-guiding-rules-for-giving-developmental-feedback-part-1/ I hope this post has provided helpful advice that will allow you to improve post-program reinforcement, coaching and training transfer. I’d enjoy hearing your comments. And, as always, if we can answer questions about this post or improving sales coaching in your organization, please reach out and let us know. COMPLIMENTARY RESEARCH REPORT Download a copy of our newest research report, Content Marketing and Sales Effectiveness    The post Using Tailored Post-Program Sales Coaching to Get Results from Sales Training appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

What the Kleiner Perkins Internet Trends Report Means for Sales Organizations As many of us return from an extended holiday weekend in the US, I thought that I’d give you something juicy to think about — and I am not talking about steaks and burgers! Venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins recently published their Internet Trends 2013 presentation on Slideshare. (If you have issues seeing the SlideShare, please click the following - KPCB Internet Trends 2013 from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers) Not surprisingly, the report finds continued robust online growth. Below are a few key findings: There are now 2.4 billion Internet users around the world, and the total continues to grow. Mobile usage is expanding rapidly, while the mobile advertising opportunity remains largely untapped. The report reviews the shifting online landscape, which has become more social and content rich, with expanded use of photos, video, and audio. Looking ahead, the report finds early signs of growth for wearable computing devices, like glasses, connected wrist bands and watches - and the emergence of connected cars, drones, and other new platforms. What do these trends mean for sales organizations? The Report brings to life, quite vividly, changing behaviors and preferences in the way we interact with each other and consume information. We believe that your sales people will be more successful if they align their selling activities and approaches to your customers’ behaviors and preferences. You need to make it ridiculously easy for your customers to do business with you.  In the ecommerce world they call this "removing friction". It is the reason that Amazon.com patented its "One-Click" ordering concept. Instead of manually inputting billing and shipping information for a purchase, a user can use one-click buying to use a predefined address and credit card number to purchase one or more items. Amazon makes it real easy to buy. Business-to-business and sophisticated business-to-consumer sales are different from ecommerce sales, but reducing friction and making it easier for customers is highly desirable. Given the trends, here are some ideas to help sales organizations and people involved in business-to-business or sophisticated business-to-consumer sales get better aligned with their buyers: 1. Review your ideal customer profile and get clear about how your customers and prospects prefer to consume information, communicate, and transact business. Are they behind a desk for most of the day, in meetings, on the road? Are there times of the day, week, month or quarter when they are more accessible? Do they prefer to use a desktop computer, tablet or smartphone? Once you know this, you can better align your activity to their preferences. 2. Optimize your website, blog, marketing campaigns, collateral, and selling activities for mobile. Have you ever tried to navigate a website or fill out a detailed web form on your iPhone? How about trying to read a PDF of a whitepaper? Activities that are easy to complete from the comfort of your desk and PC are much more difficult on a smart phone. If you can’t or won’t do it, neither will your customers. 3. Encourage your sales people to build personal relationships, credibility, and trust. The more online, mobile and connected we become, the less likely we are to open spam email and answer unfamiliar telephone calls. My office phone is becoming a glorified intercom system where I can buzz co-workers in a moment of need or participate in a conference call. Email is OK to communicate with working groups, capture important communication strings, and quickly connect with people who I know in a relatively unobtrusive manner.  Otherwise, I don’t answer my work phone unless I recognize the number on caller-id, and I rarely open spam email. However, I answer my mobile phone and return text messages quite promptly. I only give that number to people who I know well or with whom I’m doing business. In essence, I’ve entrusted them with my mobile phone number, and if they abuse that trust they can forget about ever doing business with me. I think my behavior is pretty typical. You have to get to know people at a personal level and build trust for them to respond to you. 4. Encourage your sales organization  to embrace social media as a starting point for building personal relationships. People have no issue with connecting to people on LinkedIn who they don’t really know. But, rarely do I see people thoughtfully try to convert that connection into a personal relationship. There’s really no excuse for this since there is so much information available online to make a reasonable assumption about what might be important to your customer and how you can help them. Add to it that many of us check LinkedIn on smart phones and tablets, and this gap represents a tremendous opportunity. The simple act of "liking" someone’s LinkedIn update, commenting on their blog post, or re-tweeting their tweets gives you an opportunity for them to get to know you. Show interest in them, and over time, you will build familiarity and potentially a relationship. Ignore them or spam them, and your connection will add little value to you or anyone. COMPLIMENTARY RESEARCH REPORT Download a copy of our newest research report, Content Marketing and Sales Effectiveness  The post What the Kleiner Perkins Internet Trends Report Means for Sales Organizations appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

Selling Advice for Bankers, Consultants and Solution Providers from NASDAQ’s CFO It is not every day that a senior executive candidly discusses how he or she likes to be sold to. So, if you are a banker, consultant or sell high-value solutions to senior-level executives, then you should find the selling advice in this video very enlightening. NASDAQ’s CFO, Lee Shavel invites you inside, and navigates through, the need to establish a broader set of relationships within your organization and how sellers should address potential conflicts of interest. When it comes to pitching deals, Mr. Shavel, a former investment banker himself, wants to see a balanced presentation, thoughtful analysis, and the ability to break down a complex transaction into one that can easily and quickly be digested. More importantly, a clear point of view is what Shavel looks for. The mere communication of data points does not make the cut, he says. To be really compelling, you must be ready to present not only the "what" and the "why", but also the "how". If you are having problems viewing this video, please click here. ————————————————————————————————— Click the following  learn more about Richardson’s Selling with Insights(TM)  Sales Training Solution. The post Selling Advice for Bankers, Consultants and Solution Providers from NASDAQ’s CFO appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

Presence: 80% of success -The role presence plays in "showing up" to an effective sales meeting Woody Allen has been quoted as saying that 80% of success is showing up.  The accuracy of the 80% notwithstanding, my focus here is to break down what "showing up" means in the context of an effective sales meeting. Based on my experience as a sales leader, coach, and facilitator, sales professionals know the importance of showing up as defined by: being on time, going to the right place, remembering to bring the presentation, wearing a clean shirt or blouse, and brushing and flossing their teeth.  Well maybe not always the flossing part. Showing up requires presence, one of Richardson’s "Six Critical Skills" of communicating.  When I ask salespeople to define presence, they typically use words such as charisma, confidence, and knowledge. Defining presence by its Latin and root word means to be present, attendant, close.  It is also interesting to look at its antonym, or opposite meaning: absent.  Being fully present in a conversation can be a struggle for salespeople, many of whom have an attention span on the, ahem, shorter side. Let’s look at some of the ways a salesperson comes across to a client when they are either present or absent through the basic parts of a typical consultative meeting: Dialogue Stage Present Absent Opening Energetic, engaged, purposeful, patient, authentic, eye contact, confident tone, alert posture, flexibility to modify agenda based on client needs Talking too much, not listening or hearing, disengaged, disorganized, disingenuous, energy level mismatched to client’s, lack of eye contact, passive body language Discovery Creates conversation through relevant questions, able to pick up verbal and non-verbal cues, takes notes and gains insights into client Talking more than listening, interrogation rather than dialogue, abrupt topic jumping, interrupting, no follow-up questions, seems not to listen, care or understand, yawning Recommendations Relevant to client’s needs, well-organized, sincere, "gets" what we’re about Product names and specs, reliance on presentation materials Closing Patient, authentic, motivating, appropriate, complete Commitment questions avoided or too aggressive, impatient, insincere, loose ends   Presence, like any selling skill, can be refined.  The good news is that, even if you fall into the short attention span category, no medication is required.  Here are eight best practices, based on my own experience and my work with other salespeople, for building presence: Identify the benefit:  discover (or rediscover) your genuine interest in helping this client.  This is one of the reasons many people decide to pursue a sales career but get distracted, even away from the office, by revenue and financial pressures.   An alternative is to identify the benefit to you by being present. Prepare:  though the amount of time will vary, set a benchmark such as:  by the time I arrive in the seat across from my client, I will have a clear objective and agenda, an open mind; and, depending on where we are in their buying cycle, priority questions or a visible link between my ideas and how they will help the client accomplish his or her goals. Compartmentalize:  draw hard lines between what happened before and what will happen following this meeting.  Something as simple as budgeting an extra 15 minutes before a client meeting gives you the time to transition, take some deep breaths and gather your thoughts. Arrive feeling your best:  don’t underestimate the value of being well-hydrated, well-rested, starting your day by upping your heart rate and oxygen intake with a nice walk or run, and eating a healthy meal.  Persuading people takes a lot of energy! Self-talk:  stay focused on the here and now by replacing the future tense "I need to" or past tense "I should have," with the present tense "I am" and "they are." Expect the unexpected:  reality trumps even the best plans.  There will be unexpected turns; have a process to react and adapt. Listen more, talk less:  this requires pausing, breathing, not assuming or jumping to conclusions, and not interrupting the client when they are processing and thinking. Checking in:  make sure that you and the client are aligned throughout the dialogue. So, if Woody Allen was right that 80% of success is showing up, consider how many salespeople don’t.  An absent salesperson is easy to spot and dismiss.  Avoid this by showing up — being fully present using the tips above.  In doing so, you set the stage for an effective sales or client meeting, strengthening your ability to advance relationships and business opportunities. ——————————————————————————————————————- Want to learn more about Richardson’s award sales training solutions? Please email us by Clicking Here! The post Presence: 80% of Success -The Role Presence Plays in "Showing Up" to an Effective Sales Meeting appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.