Building Confidence in Sales Negotiations by Understanding the Role of Power, Time, Information, and Skill Four basic elements determine how successful you will be in negotiation. These four factors are: power, time, information, and skill. Power Power is not what people might think. Power might be best defined as the ability to accomplish things — the ability to do, not necessarily the ability to order things to be done. Power is a state of mind. It is a multidimensional concept that involves how you think, feel, and act. Power is not related to position. If you think you have power and project it, you have it. If you don’t, you don’t. Power is confidence. If you feel powerless, you cannot be an effective negotiator. You will communicate your lack of confidence. How you experience and express your power stems from the way you think about yourself. If you allow levels, titles, experience, age, and the salaries of the people on the other side to hurt your confidence, you will hurt your effectiveness. Not only that, you will make your counterpart more powerful than he or she might actually be. If you approach your power as power to get something done, you are less likely to be awed by the people you face across the negotiating table. They will intimidate you only if you let them. The appreciation of "power to" can do much to equalize what could be an unequal situation. When you lack personal experience, you must leverage the experience of your institution and your colleagues. Your sense of confidence and power can be strengthened by: Your own knowledge and experience The knowledge and experience of your institution Your understanding of the customer’s situation/needs Your relationship with the customer Your alternatives/flexibility Competition for what you have Your tolerance for risk taking Your ability to walk away from the deal The amount of time you have Your institution standing behind you Documentation (printed word) or previous deals Your decision-making authority You, yourself Power is basically your presence in the negotiations, not just showing up but mobilizing all your resources to the task at hand. Time Time is part of power. Time in the negotiation situation consists of two distinct phases: 1) the lead time you have to prepare for the negotiation, and 2) the amount of time you have to complete a transaction. Each of these can work for you by giving you a comparative edge over your customers or against you by placing pressure on you. (An adversarial negotiator will try to use time, in the form of artificial deadlines, against you.) The party operating under the tightest time frame is at a disadvantage. You should use lead time as the time to gather information that will be more guarded or completely unavailable during negotiation. Lead time should be used to set the groundwork and build a positive foundation for the negotiation. Lead time is the best time to develop information that you will need to achieve your objectives. Use lead time to get closer to the decision makers and influencers, to gather historical information, to become more aware of both product and nonproduction needs, and to develop an information base that you need to negotiate effectively. Acceptance time is another important timing concept. It is the adjustment time that one party needs to adapt to something that at first blush seems totally unacceptable. What one party may flatly reject at the first hour may sound more than acceptable at the 11th hour. Timing is having a sense of when to do what. Timing is in many ways an art, but there are certain guidelines you can use to develop your sense of timing. For example, as previously mentioned, it is very helpful to know that you should expect to get major concessions right before a deadline and not any earlier. Because of this, you should guard against the temptation to make a big concession before or at the deadline out of fear. Key elements of time and timing include: Quick equals risk. The party working under the greatest time pressures negotiates at a disadvantage. Short time frames are the most risky for the party with the least information. Lead time should be used to gather information that won’t otherwise be available during the "formal" negotiation. Most deadlines are negotiable. Customers use false deadlines to pressure you. Negotiators can become their own enemies by placing time pressures on themselves. The toughest issues should be negotiated later after time and energy are invested and trust is established. The most important customer concessions will come at the last possible hour. Don’t panic and make your big concession then. Acceptance time is an important timing concept; today’s "No" is tomorrow’s "Yes." Information The third major negotiation element is information. Information equates to relationship. Information is money. Like time, information is part of power. A lack of information can render you vulnerable; so you should develop as much information as possible. You must test every assumption and get to know your customer. You should ask questions (for example, why a particular deadline is set when it is), do analyses, study files, consider your past negotiation experience with the customer, check and recheck your data, and determine what is at stake for all parties. Use your information to plan negotiations. Use information to develop the case for how what you can offer meets the client’s needs. The information you develop should include a full analysis of the customer, his or her business and personal needs, the company process for making decisions, alternatives, options, time periods, limits, and appetite for risk. This will help improve your negotiation position and reduce surprises. Do your homework. Keep doing your homework even after negotiations start. Observe your counterpart. Ask questions when appropriate, or even just to show interest. Some adversarial negotiators may deliberately deceive you, and unless you test and check out the information they give you, you will become their victim. Because they often appear to be fair, you must force yourself to test and check. Skill Time, power, and information are interrelated elements — information is power and time is power. Your skill level will determine how you use these elements. How skillful you are at the negotiating table is a key factor in how you fare in the negotiation. Skill is the how. —————————————————————— To learn more about Richardson’s comprehensive and award winning negotiation training solutions, please click here. You can also download a brochure by clicking here .     The post Building Confidence in Sales Negotiations by Understanding the Role of Power, Time, Information, and Skill appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

Abused Stats and Figures: Maintain a Healthy Degree of Skepticism 100% of the Time Stats and figures help people make decisions or convince others to make a choice. Whether you’re a sales rep or a consumer, these numbers can be beneficial, but they are also easily misunderstood, misrepresented, or abused. Uri Simonsohn, a research psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, sensed that something was amiss with several sets of research findings published in his field. Upon investigating, he discovered that the studies’ authors had taken liberties with the data and were forced to back away from their published articles. For his efforts, he was labeled a "data vigilante," which paints a portrait (either white hat or black hat, depending on your views), but more importantly, presents us all with cautionary advice: be careful how you use and interpret data and statistics. (See the full article "The Data Vigilante" by Christopher Shea in The Atlantic from November 28, 2012.) The article in The Atlantic offers a somber comparison between massaging data to suit your study’s needs and doping by professional athletes: "Outright fraud is probably rare. Data manipulation is undoubtedly more common—and surely extends to other subjects dependent on statistical study… Worse, sloppy statistics are ‘like steroids in baseball’: Throughout the affected fields, researchers who are too intellectually honest to use these tricks will publish less, and may perish. Meanwhile, the less fastidious flourish." In essence, cheaters with more sensational findings will fare better than by-the-book do-gooders. Train Yourself to Be Skeptical of Stats and Figures After seeing the article referenced above, it got me thinking about sales stats and figures dropped into pitches, presentations, and marketing literature. How much of it is true? How much of it is used out of context? In their book Taming the Terrible Too’s of Training: How To Improve Workplace Performance In The Digital Age, authors Daniel and Ken Cooper illustrate why maintaining a healthy degree of skepticism is essential in order to avoid being duped: "In doing research on the effectiveness of various e-learning media, we ran across some useful research that is commonly quoted across the Internet: According to Albert Mehrabian, 55% of what we communicate is through body language, 38% is through tone of voice, and 7% is through words. As illustrated in The Learning Pyramid, after two weeks people tend to remember 10% of what they read, 20% of what they hear, 30% of what they see, 50% of what they hear and see, 70% of what they say, and 90% of what they say and do. Researchers at Simon Fraser University found that the average continuous attention span for literate humans is 8 seconds with a maximum of 30 seconds, and the average general attention span is from 10 to 12 minutes." After presenting these three critical sets of data regarding e-learning, the authors reveal that none of it is true! These are instead myths lurking on the web for anyone to stumble upon and consume or abuse. They provide three explanations for this dilemma: Too many people automatically believe everything they read, especially if it’s online. People don’t have the skills or don’t take the time to evaluate what they find online to ensure that it is true and in context. Once people find the information or data that satisfies what they’re looking for, they seldom continue their search to find contrasting opinions. Figures (especially ones from reputable sources) can be presented in a very compelling way and can be used to move buyers toward a decision. But how are these figures arrived at, by whom, how long ago, and under what circumstances? What is opinion, and what is fact? 7 Suggestions for Vetting Sales Stats and Figures As suggested by The Data Vigilante, if data looks too good to be true, it probably is. Few of us have the resources, time, budget, or inclination to conduct our own scientific, peer-reviewed research on a given topic. Therefore, we accept or carefully scrutinize the stats put forth by others in an effort to make better-informed decisions. You can’t personally vet each set of figures, though. So, you must approach each with balanced trust and skepticism. This goes both for consumers (BtoB or BtoC) receiving the data as well as sales and marketers to either conduct their own original research or collect and package stats to bolster their pitches. Source —Is it reputable? Have you ever heard of it? Anyone can whip up a quick poll on SurveyMonkey these days. You don’t always have to cite a McKinsey or Harvard Medical School study, but be careful not to bet your sale on a random blogger’s unsubstantiated poll. Is the source the company providing them? Have they conducted their own study among their clients or users? That can be okay, as long as they don’t mask their involvement. Objectivity — Not just questioning whether the source is reputable, but considering what the source has to gain by conducting and promoting the study. Is there any risk or interpretation of bias involved? Who gains from the outcome? Even third parties can benefit. Sample Size —It’s often said that you don’t need to ask more than 100 people the same question to get a meaningful data set. That may be true, and there certainly is a point after which gathering more data becomes meaningless because it fails to influence the outcome. but it is important to have quality respondents in your data set that represent their demographic. For example, it’s understandable that a survey of Fortune 100 CEOs may only include 15 responses because of how busy they are and difficult to reach. But if you’re trying to survey heads of sales, HR, or accounting from the same Fortune 100 companies, one would expect you to have greater participation rates for the data to be of value. Age —How long ago was the study conducted? Is it still meaningful? Some data sets can stand up for many years between studies, while others go stale in much less time. This is particularly true of anything driven by technology devices and habits. Relevance and Context —Do the numbers and findings make sense for how you are using them? Can someone question the connection between the numbers you’ve cited and the message you’re attempting to bolster or undercut? Don’t stretch the truth to suit your needs — if discovered, you’ll lose credibility quickly. Common or Unique Data Set —Has this study been conducted often, or is it a one-of-a-kind analysis? Do the findings align with previous studies or are they worlds apart? If the latter, can you satisfactorily justify or explain the difference? Defensible — Be able to defend your stats or don’t use them. Whether they’re your numbers or someone else’s, if you cannot easily defend them or justify their relationship to your message, then they should not be used. Find better stats to cite or else risk that these questionable figures will serve as a distraction or undermine your credibility. As a sales rep, when using data in a pitch or presentation, be conscious of avoiding manipulating data for fear-mongering or for leading your audience toward a mirage of false promises or hopes. If you aren’t, you’re just as likely to lose them as you are to impress them. And so, in addition to the points mentioned above, I’d also suggest these final two points: Beware the Data Barrage — Don’t overwhelm or numb your audience with too many numbers and stats. Your audience may feel bullied if you throw too much at them at once. Sell with Substance —Don’t expect to hang your entire presentation or pitch on a string of impressive stats. Even if they’re rock solid, you still need to be able to show them what you can do to make their company better or simpler. Learn more About Richardson’s Selling with Insights® Sales Training Solutions  Richardson’s Selling with Insights® sales training program teaches your sales reps advanced preparation techniques and dialogue skills to effectively present insights, challenge the customer’s thinking, add more value, differentiate your solution, and build credibility as a trusted business partner. If you would like to learn more about Richardson’s Selling with Insights workshops and full seminars, please email Jim Brodo at jim.brodo@richardson.com or click here to read more. The post Abused Stats and Figures: Maintain a Healthy Degree of Skepticism 100% of the Time appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

Be Quick or Be Dead — What B2B Buyers Expect When They Submit Your Contact Forms Clearly, the web has become a critical part of the buying process, and the emergence of mobile and tablets further influence the radical change in how buyers move forward. Zogby Analytics, a spin-off from the famous Zogby political polling firm, recently studied customer expectations online when purchasing significant products, services, or solutions. They came up with some interesting results. (http://www.slideshare.net/digitalinsurance/velocify-online-buyer-expectations) For a start, look at what happens with the "contact us" section of virtually every website. The Zogby study found that 70% of business buyers have had business inquires ignored. Responses often take a few days or fail to answer questions correctly. If you ask about bus service to Chancellorsville, you don’t want to be told that a company does not go to Charlottesville. People do not like to have to say "please sir, take my money." Business buyers do considerable research before they engage with your sales team. They already have some information, probably about other companies as well as yours. Roughly two-thirds of business buyers have spent three hours or more doing research. The same percentage has used mobile devices for at least some of their research. At least some of these buyers will use mobile devices for their inquiries. If your website cannot be clearly read on a mobile device as well as a laptop or desktop, fix your website. Potential business buyers have usually checked out other firms — frequently three or more — so it is very much in your interest to send them a rapid answer. A majority want an answer within 24 hours. An overwhelming majority want a response within 48 hours. Three quarters of business survey respondents said the first company to respond has a sales advantage. Fewer than 2% thought being first would be a disadvantage. So, we can assume that there is little disadvantage, and more potential, in responding to an inquiry quickly and accurately, setting the bar for the sale. Answer their questions by the method or methods they prefer — ask them and listen to what they say — e mail, phone, mobile media, carrier pigeon, even snail mail. You can be persistent and send a follow-up response; but don’t overdo it. Spamming a person does not mean a company cares. The business world is becoming more and more competitive. Sales are even more competitive. You have to convince customers not only to like your product but to like you and your company. A major part of effective sales is to relate your product or service to the client’s needs. You cannot relate to the client unless you communicate with the client, starting with a timely and accurate answer to the potential client’s initial inquiry. If you are selling something, a slow, inaccurate, or rude response is going to make the client wonder, "If this is what they are like before the sale, how will he or she be after the sale?" A polite, and quick, response, even if it does not earn the sale, leaves a good taste in the mouth of the potential client. They may seek you out in the future. They may comment favorably if a friend at another company asks about you. On the other hand, seeming not to care enough at least to answer initial questions is a very bad start to what you want to be a good business relationship. As a seller, you have to adapt to the new world — of speed and of a lot of choices. Ticking off clients runs a major risk of losing the sale and tarnishing your brand. People are not going to want to beg you to take their money. Potential customers expect speed, courtesy, accuracy, and signs of interest in them from the start. Buyers are looking for partners, not just vendors and suppliers. Give them what they ask for. Remember that you need customers more than they need you.   ————————————- Richardson and SAVO have partnered together to bring you  SAVO Sales Process Pro Richardson Edition™, an CRM-enabled application that allows sales and marketing leaders to reinforce training and execute best practices through coaching at each stage of the sales cycle. To learn more, click on the link above or the image below. The post Be Quick or Be Dead — What B2B Buyers Expect When They Submit Your Contact Forms appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

Richardson Named to Selling Power Magazine’s 2014 Top Sales Training Companies List Richardson, a leading global sales training and sales force effectiveness company, today announced that it has been named to the 2014 list of the Top Sales Training Companies by Selling Power Magazine. The list appears in the July issue of Selling Powermagazine and recognizes those sales training companies that excel in helping sales leaders improve the performance of their sales teams. "It is a great honor and privilege to be recognized by Selling Power Magazine as a Top 20 Sales Training Company," said David DiStefano, President and CEO of Richardson. "We are continuously working with our clients to develop customized solutions that provide value, address their critical sales challenges, and drive quantifiable results. I extend my sincere congratulations to all of our clients and to the Richardson team who collectively bring significant value to our organization and our clients’ businesses every day." Selling Power Magazine uses an extensive qualification process for determining the Top Sales Training Companies list, considering four main items, including: Depth and breadth of training offered Innovative and new offerings (specific training courses or methodology) or delivery methods Ability to customize offerings Strength of client satisfaction "A great sales-training program continues to be a staple of success for sales organizations," said Gerhard Gschwandtner, founder and CEO of Selling Power Magazine. "Now more than ever, sales leaders must make sure that salespeople are properly prepared to meet the expectations of today’s socially and digitally connected buyer. Our list of the 2014 Top Sales Training Companies serves as a guidepost for sales leaders who are looking for the training program that best fits their needs." Learn More About Richardson’s Award Winning Sales Training We are honored and proud of the awards and recognition we have achieved - and that our customers have won in partnership with Richardson. From Bersin Impact and CLO Magazine to the top sales training lists of Trainingindustry.com and Selling Power, Richardson has received dozens of awards in the past few years, in multiple categories, recognizing our innovation and impact in improving sales performance in companies around the world. Please click here today to learn more about how we may be able to partner with to help you improve sales effectiveness.      The post Richardson Named to Selling Power Magazine’s 2014 Top Sales Training Companies List appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

How to Amp Up Your Presence in Must-win Sales Presentations What is it that causes a group of clients to respond to one salesperson’s sales presentation and reject another’s? With similar solutions, and not always significant price differences, something else makes the difference. The difference is the way solutions are presented to potential buyers. Form (the who and the how of sales presentations) and content (the what and the why of the product) are not as distinct as they appear. What is discussed at a meeting or presentation is only as valuable as the credibility assigned to the presenter and to their information. This is where how and who come into play. With everything else basically equal, or close, people buy from people they have confidence in and with whom they want to do business. You bring certain basic skills to the game of selling to a group. You have to relate to your audience; to their needs, to their desires, and to their open and hidden agendas. You listen to your audience, observe them, question them, confirm what you are told, and deal with any objections. You need all of these skills for successful sales presentations. First, though, you need presence. When selling to a group, you are on stage. Presence is the ability to move and influence your audience. Presence is the ability to make every member of an audience feel that you are speaking to them. Presence can also be described as seeming to enjoy being there, as if you might want to make the presentation even if the sale had been made at the start. You don’t have to show the presence or the charisma (to use another term) of a major politician — of a Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a Ronald Reagan, or a John F. Kennedy. We all have at least some charisma, some presence, just maybe not to the extent of a Roosevelt. Fortunately, that level is not required to be extremely successful in selling to groups. For most of us, the degree of "presence" and charisma needed to be a powerful speaker to hundreds (or millions) far exceeds what it takes to sell to a group of two to 30 clients. The idea of presence is captured in the description both salespeople and clients use to describe a great presentation — "I was on," or conversely, to describe a poor presentation — "I was off." The keys to being "on" are to be your one-on-one self, to be prepared, to have mastered the fundamentals and nuances of selling to a group, and to seem comfortable before a group and able to make them comfortable with you. A high degree of client comfort is necessary, especially for big-ticket items. The decision-makers are in essence choosing a partner to stand beside them. They are placing their trust in you. You have to make them want to trust you. Some people have "presence" (stage presence) naturally. For those who get "thrown off" when facing a group, the first step to having "presence" with a group is to realize that your one-on-one self is your best bet. Once you understand this, you can do certain things to help your one-on-one self emerge before a group. Prepare fully and carefully. Nervousness before a group is much easier to overcome if you know there is substance backing you up. Consider bringing one or two trusted associates for moral support. Give them something to do at the meeting so it does not look like you are playing the "numbers game" with the client. Remind yourself that you probably would not have been invited to give the presentation unless the potential client was at least open-minded about your product. The client can be convinced. Tell yourself that you can be successful. Realistically, the worst-case scenario for a bad presentation is that you won’t get the sales. It is not life or death. Breathe deeply a few times, but do not sigh, and step out of range of a microphone so it does not sound like you are sighing. Dress appropriately for the presentation. Don’t dress too casually, but also, don’t dress too formally. Your initial research should give you an idea of what to wear. When the presentation begins, start making eye contact with as many different members of the audience as possible. This will add at least some of the person-to-person intimacy of one-to-one selling. This technique can also be used to monitor how the presentation is going. Be careful with your body language. Avoid such obvious errors as folding your arms over your chest, which projects being unreceptive to feedback. Do not show negative reactions on your face. It will be detected. Do not look at your watch, as it will make you look bored. If you must keep time during the presentation, have an associate do it and signal you. Move around if you can. This adds life to your presentation and also helps decrease the psychological distance between presenter and audience. Do not speak in a monotone voice. Put life in your voice. Monotones work if you are Clint Eastwood but not in presentations. With these in mind, careful preparation and adjusting and up-scaling your one-on-one skills can help you to be effective in selling to a group. If you offer a good solution and believe in what you offer and your ability to offer it, you will have presence and should be successful. ————————————- Richardson and SAVO have partnered together to bring you  SAVO Sales Process Pro Richardson Edition™, an CRM-enabled application that allows sales and marketing leaders to reinforce training and execute best practices through coaching at each stage of the sales cycle. To learn more, click on the link above or the image below. The post How to Amp Up Your Presence in Must-win Sales Presentations appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

Sales Process Optimization: Don’t Throw the Baby Out with the Bathwater! In this time of tremendous change in the buying and selling dynamic, we’ve seen a real spike in client interest in updating and optimizing their sales processes. Your sales process has to reflect how your customers buy. Your sales process has to be designed to help your customers through their buying process. Your sales process has to be based on your best and most effective practices and support your strategic direction. So, as the buying process changes, it only makes sense that selling processes need to change. At Richardson, we believe in a dynamic sales process that is clearly defined and followed that but gives reps and managers support as opposed to strict directives. Research from CSO Insights supports this approach over a process that is purely random or one that is formal but overly rigid.                          Source: CSO Insights A dynamic process acknowledges that customers likely are well informed and increasingly savvy about their needs. It recognizes that sales reps need more latitude to challenge customers and to think outside the box and get creative about creating value for the customer. However, before we even start talking with clients about a "dynamic" process, we start by finding out the degree to which a client understands their own sales process. According to Harry Dunklin, our Sales Enablement Practice Leader, "When we start to ask questions about whether they have a sales process, sometimes we will hear that they do. We asked one company, for example, a new client. What they showed me was a book on professional selling skills … To them, that was their sales process. In some situations, when companies have developed their own sales process, it is very inwardly focused. Their process is based on internal processes, procedures, stages, and expectations. In some cases, we have been successful at getting the decision makers to think differently. A sales process has to look at things from the point of view of the customer. If you can map out how your customers buy and then mirror that with selling, you have a sales process. The sales process is designed to help customers buy. "We have to understand our client’s perspective on their sales process because we work with what works in the client company. We don’t try to reinvent the wheel; we improve how the wheel is used. This frequently has to do with change management principles. This means that if we impose something, it is much less likely to be adopted. If we develop it based on what is already working and part of best practices, and then enhance it with what we know to be the experience outside of their company — outside of their industry — what we have is a really strong process. "This is much more likely to be adopted because it is based organically on what already works in the company. We are not asking people to do things that they have never done before. We collaborate to create together a sales process rather than trying to import something." This is less risky since it links the new system to what is already there. For an aside, this is good sales — relate the new to the old. Dunklin continues: "What we do is define those stages and the activities within each of those stages. More importantly, it should be integrated into the work stream. We call that a work product. The work product that we deliver is a published sales process. In addition to the steps and stages and activities in the sales process, we are also delivering predicted, verifiable outcomes. They are, for example, the nine or ten key transition points in any sale process that, if they are done right, predict success. If they are not done correctly, or if they are neglected, they predict failure or stalling. "We work really hard to identify what those things are and then, in addition to the verifiable outcomes, we also create a set of coaching questions that tie to each verifiable outcome. This gives the manager the ability to diagnose the status of an opportunity or a relationship, or both very quickly, before they feel the need to coach." Once the sales process has been optimized, it can be embedded into your CRM workflow through a tool, such as Richardson’s Sales Process Pro. This approach significantly increases adoption and impact. If your buyers have changed and your sales process hasn’t, then we encourage you to contact us about how we can help you optimize your process with minimal disruption to your business. ——————- LEARN MORE To learn more about Richardson’s Sales Process Consulting Services, please click here.   The post Sales Process Optimization: Don’t Throw the Baby Out with the Bathwater! appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

A Day In the Life of a Sales Rep: Advice on How Sales Enablement Tools Can Increase Efficiency and Success from SAVO CEO, Mark O’Connell Mark O’Connell is the President and CEO of SAVO, a fast-growth enterprise SaaS company and strategic alliance partner of Richardson. SAVO’s technology solutions improve productivity and performance of sales organizations and salespeople. This is the second part of our interview with Mark regarding sales enablement technology. (Read the previous post here.) Dario: Are CRM and marketing automation tools enough to help sales reps? Mark: The life of a salesperson has become more difficult with the pressures of time, complexity of selling, and ability to meet buyers’ needs. The simple idea of sales enablement having presentation material and content available at the right place and time is still a central idea, but the way it is served today has changed tremendously in recent years to align with how salespeople sell and how buyers buy. Most companies have invested in CRM technology and marketing automation tools, which either create more opportunities or provide a place for salespeople to report on their progress on their current opportunities. Prior to implementing SAVO, most of our clients’ sales reps begin their day by opening Outlook and CRM. Most salespeople believe CRM is a management tool that they have to support. They are required to update their CRM system with information about the status of an account and progress they have made in individual meetings. Then they have to upload documents and presentations into the system so that the management team can have better insight into deals and the revenue forecast. But few salespeople will say they love their CRM system and that it helps them get their job done. Most tell us it is "not one of the most inspirational experiences of their day." They require a lot of manual effort and duplication of effort to execute common sales activities such as creating presentations and proposals. Today most people cut and paste from Word documents, which is a sinkhole of time that salespeople spend to get them right (including the numbers, messaging, and branding) - when you think about how much time salespeople put into a commercial proposal, that is a huge amount of effort! Finding the right content to use at the right time in the sales process is a constant challenge and quality is inconsistent. The bottom line is that most reps in these situations experience a drain on productivity, efficiency, and image as well as a lack of focus on the buyer and content and message needed to sell to them. Dario: How about after implementing SAVO Sales Process Pro? Mark: Our focus for sales enablement is a productivity platform where salespeople go to work. We build our applications for mobile first, since most salespeople are on the move. When you get up, you open your iPad to view your opportunities and SAVO tells you what you should do. It gives you real-time coaching to refresh your memory on the products relevant for each opportunity, the talk track on how to present their value, and the discovery questions you should ask when in the meeting later in the day. SAVO helps reps get organized and prepare for meetings by pushing the best presentation material based on the situation as well as background information, tips, and guides that not only tell you what to do, but also what to say. Sales reps no longer need to guess or spend time searching, and they are more confident because the materials have been prescribed by sales management, product management, and marketing to be used within each specific sales stage which eliminates the guesswork for sales reps. Other tools in the software allow me to see whether people have looked at the material I’ve sent in advance (including digital "postcards" using my voice), which enables me to prepare and gives me insight into their level of seriousness and how engaged this customer really is on what I am considering an important sales opportunity. I can customize my presentation through the same window based on the buyer’s level, industry, and business problem I am trying to solve, the sales enablement software will guide me to the solutions and products to present, assemble the presentation, and allow me to make any necessary modifications… then I am ready to go. All of this drastically reduces the amount of time, effort, and guesswork that reps typically spend in preparing for a custom presentation. The fact that it can be done anywhere on an iPad or mobile device at the reps’ convenience makes it even better. ————————————- Richardson and SAVO have partnered together to bring you  SAVO Sales Process Pro Richardson Edition™, an CRM-enabled application that allows sales and marketing leaders to reinforce training and execute best practices through coaching at each stage of the sales cycle. To learn more, click on the link above or the image below. The post Advice on How Sales Enablement Tools Can Increase Efficiency appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

How to Get Your Ducks in a Row for Effective Team Selling Team selling has become a way of life today. Because of the increasing complexity of business, the need for specialists, and the need to match up with players on the client’s team, you will often find yourself involved in team selling. I have been discussing various aspects of team selling in other articles. This article is about selecting the team. There are clear advantages to team selling: bringing in expertise, balancing the numbers, matching client levels and types, pro viding a learning ground for juniors, and increasing resources since two (or more) heads are better than one. Additionally, team selling can shift some of the pressure off you and demonstrate to your client the depth of your company. However, there are risks in team selling. During the sales presentation, everyone on the team (junior associates, colleagues, specialists, and seniors) will be under scrutiny. Almost nothing can be more damaging to your sale than letting your team show lack of unity. Clients will not only be evaluating you, they will also be judging each team member. So, if you are selling with a team, in order to reap the benefits and avoid the perils, demonstrate teamwork. And this takes work. Since nearly everything gets done informally in most organizations, you need to build an internal network to ensure the support you need when you need it. By establishing a positive, personal (not email-based) network across divisional lines throughout your organization and in your own department before you need your colleagues, you will be positioned to mobilize resources to achieve and get the support you need. First and foremost, there should be one team leader ultimately responsible for "calling the shots." One salesperson describing how his firm won an important contract said the real challenge came from inside his organization, not outside. Initially, the product specialist refused to participate if the sales generalist— a buffoon, is his opinion— participated. The team leader finally said, "I’ve worked hard for this and I’m calling the shots. I know what we need and we need both of you. I’ll talk with him but I need your support. I’ve been there in the past for you!" This unified team won the deal. One pressing problem organizations face is deciding who should and who should not participate on the team. Too often political and territorial considerations interfere with assembling the best team. Teams with too many players or the wrong players are at a disadvantage. How many should be on your team should be determined by what skills are needed. What resources and skill you need on the team? Who is on the client team? What skills/people do you need to match the client? Whom do you think is best qualified to make the sale? You don’t want to overwhelm your clients by sheer numbers or make them feel you are ganging up on them. A group of three clients is apt to feel overwhelmed if seven of you descend — unless each of you is essential to the deal. In addition to this, if you include unnecessary people on your team, you could inadvertently communicate to the client you are insecure. Do not allow internal pressures to weaken the team you ultimately put together. Some say that you should not worry about hurt feelings in picking your team. But you should be able to avoid this by having a good reason for each person included on the team. Make sure those who don’t "make the cut" understand it is nothing personal. You need to find ways to convince all involved parties what is best for a particular presentation. Coordinating your team on the plane, in the cab, or in the elevator simply is not good enough today. As a team you need to agree on a strategy, concur on your objective, and define functions and roles. Everyone—generalists, specialists, seniors, associates, operations people, and anyone else you need to include — needs to know what is going on and what will be expected of him or her. Once you organize who will lead and who will be on team, involve them early to help you formulate your proposal. Decide before you head out to the meeting, well before, actually, Who will lead? Who will make introductions? Who will open? Who will present technical information? Who will handle the broad issues or political questions? Who will discuss pricing? Who will close? Who will take notes? (This is not the lead presenter’s responsibility, but may well be a good role for a junior associate otherwise there just to observe.) How and when will you signal or correct one another? Where will team members sit/stand? Who will write the follow-up letter? If the meeting is to be held at your site, plan: Who will schedule the conference room? Who will make sure all players know what, where, and when? For out-of-town clients who want to come to your home office— what entertainment—dinner, theatre, sports events— should be planned? With whom? When? Carefully pick a team designed to augment and strengthen what you personally can offer. Give everyone a role of some sort, so it does not seem you are trying to overwhelm the client with sheer numbers. Find out whom the client will have present, and match them with the appropriate members of your company. Remember that your team represents your company to the same degree that you represent your company. —————————— Download our newest E-book,  A Financial Services Leader Guide for Sales Success.  The post How to Get Your Ducks in a Row for Effective Team Selling appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

The Benefits of Sales Enablement Tools for Sales Managers In a previous blog post, Advice on How Sales Enablement Tools Can Increase Efficiency,  SAVO’s CEO Mark O’Connell talked about a number of benefits from sales enablement tools for sales reps. Here’s what he had to say about benefits for sales managers. What is a Chief Sales Officer’s biggest gripe about their forecast? Many point to CRM algorithms used to identify at-risk opportunities. These don’t improve visibility because they’re dependent on data input by sales reps, and sales reps only tell sales leaders what they want to hear. As a sales manager, I need to know the productivity of my teams, a deal’s likelihood of closing, and when it’s necessary to intervene on a deal.  Companies make significant investments in sales training and methodologies they hope will improve the sales organization’s effectiveness and productivity. When it comes to adoption, your top sellers may not, but you give them a pass because they produce. The challenge is selling the 80% of sales reps, whose productivity you need to improve, on the new tools, assets, and sales training. You need the average sales rep to accept the prescribed sales training or methodology before you’ll see organizational change. Sales managers are responsible for hitting a number. At the same time, they need to ensure that their teams are leveraging the appropriate company resources to bring real value to clients. Is the average sales rep presenting your products and services effectively? Are they presenting and delivering the value that other customers receive from a top sales rep? If sales leaders could get all sales reps to apply best practices, the adoption would impact both your organization’s productivity and brand value, which, in turn, would positively impact your customers’ experience. That is the centerpiece of the Richardson-SAVO partnership: our joint vision is to help our clients improve overall business results by enabling them to be more effective at delivering greater value to customers. Sales enablement platforms used to be a storehouse for digital assets. Sales reps would have to sort through hundreds of files just to build a 30-minute presentation deck. Luckily, sales enablement has evolved dramatically over the years to meet the needs of today’s sales reps. A mature sales enablement strategy empowers individual sales reps to be efficient, effective, and engaging. Within a sales enablement framework, a sales rep’s tasks should be focused on applying the Three E’s to these two main areas of productivity: Preparing for a client meeting Executing during a client meeting The goal is to shorten sales cycles, increase the value of deals, and help sales reps improve their productivity as measured by reaching quota. Sales managers using sales enablement strategies will see metrics above the industry average because they focused on this productivity model and invested in tools focused on serving the individual sales rep. ———————— Download our newest E-book,  A Financial Services Leader Guide for Sales Success.  The post The Benefits of Sales Enablement Tools for Sales Managers appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

Insight Selling: The Next Frontier of Sales and Marketing Alignment If you think back five or ten years, the focus of sales and marketing alignment at that time was on the sales process. The emergence of usable CRM systems like Salesforce.com and marketing automation platforms like Eloqua and Marketo enabled tracking across the customer lifecycle from lead to close and beyond. As companies made investments in these sales and marketing platforms, it made sense to agree on a single integrated process enabled by the integrated systems and operationalized through concepts like the "lead waterfall," marketing qualified leads, sales accepted leads, service level agreements, and the sales funnel. Many organizations are making great progress in this area, and others no doubt have a ways to go. However, from an operational standpoint, there’s been tremendous progress. The next phase for sales and marketing alignment should focus on content. "Content Marketing" and "Insight Selling" are all the rage — just as CRM and marketing automation were five years ago. But in most organizations we talk to, marketing and sales are not even close to alignment on content. Marketing departments generate heaps of keyword-optimized content to support their SEO and search engine marketing efforts, but they create content without any involvement from sales. It’s ironic, but marketing automation has moved marketers even further from the customer and their true needs. The result of this disconnected process is that sales isn’t aware of the content or doesn’t buy into the point of view the content is promoting. At best, content goes ignored by sales, and at worst, content puts sales on its heels because the customer has consumed the content and may be more knowledgeable than the sales rep responsible for follow-up.  It is only after the customer informs the sales person that they’ve read their latest piece of content that the sales person truly appreciates the fact that "marketing is sending stuff out." So, how should sales and marketing better align on content? Consider how we accomplish this through our Selling with Insights program, facilitating alignment through the Insight Blueprints we create for our clients. Start by identifying the challenges you help your customers solve and opportunities you help them unlock. If you don’t know these, then don’t guess. Get on the phone with your existing customers and ask them about the challenges or opportunities they faced that led them to look to the market for a partner. While you’re at it, ask them what about your company led them to choose you and what they believe are your capabilities and differentiators. Now that you have this information, you can infer the "Aha Moment" that will help a prospect make the connection between their challenges or opportunities and your capabilities and differentiators to help. These "Aha Moments" can then become topics to help drive your content marketing and insight selling programs. Best of all, when the content is based on actual input from your customers, there should be very little debate about who’s right or who’s wrong. The customer is always right! We often get asked how we operationalize this process — what are the roles, responsibilities, and expectations. For example, we get asked if salespeople should be writing their own insights. Typically, our answer to that question is "no." Most sales leaders want their salespeople spending time using the insights with customers, not researching and creating insights from scratch. Additionally, you don’t want a salesperson (unintentionally) misrepresenting functional specifications of a product or service if you work in a highly technical field or violating a law if you work in a regulated industry. In most situations, the insight creation and management process should be owned by marketing, and marketing should tap subject matter experts throughout the organization and then validate the insight with some representation from sales before they distribute insights to the sales team. We also believe that marketers should take the same Selling with Insights program with their sales counterparts so that they can appreciate how their work will be applied by a salesperson face-to-face with a customer. Interestingly, marketers are some of the most active and engaged participants despite a bit of trepidation about sending them through because some fear that you’re mixing oil and water. As buyers get smarter and savvier, there’s a real need for marketing and sales to work as a single unified team in both process and message. —————————————- Learn more about Richardson’s Selling with Insights sales training program.   The post Insight Selling: The Next Frontier of Sales and Marketing Alignment appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.