Sales: Do This, Not That!  Today’s post is written by Emma Snider from HubSpot, a leading inbound marketing and sales platform.  I have an astonishing appetite for candy, and it probably would have done me in long ago if not for the "Eat This, Not That!" series. Thanks to the book, I can still eat a sizable amount of candy without having as disastrous an impact on my waistline. ETNT prompted me to make the switch from Butterfingers to fun-sized York Peppermint Patties. After the first few days of no longer indulging in my favorite treat, the initial shock was gone, and with Yorks in hand, my mood stabilized (I am now a confirmed junkie). My sweet tooth was still getting fed, just with not quite as many calories. While none of today’s sales practices are "junk food" per se, there are some areas that can be similarly tweaked for better results. And like my experience, the hardest part can be making the jump; once the changes are normalized, the result is often a healthier sales organization. With my candy experiment in mind, I present to you, "Do This, Not That: Sales edition." Do This: Research prospects before your first encounter Not That: Go into a cold call completely cold As Linda Richardson wrote in her latest book Changing the Sales Conversation, "Today, clients will respond to straight discovery questions and product talk with impatience." Salespeople should aim to learn as much as they can about prospects before they pick up the phone, send an e-mail, or swing by the office. With so much competing for potential buyers’ attention, salespeople who diligently do their research will stand a much better chance of being met with interest rather than brushed off with annoyance. Do This: Seek referrals Not That: Wait for them to trickle in Customer referrals are a remarkably effective channel to grow sales pipelines and revenue. Yet, salespeople are often hesitant to ask for referrals because they feel awkward or because they’re loath to spend time cultivating customer relationships when a new month’s quota is on the line. But, according to sales coach Rick Roberge, salespeople should proactively seek referrals (albeit gently). And it’s not as awkward if you work in the expectation from the start — Rick advises salespeople to bring up the topic of referrals even before a contract is signed. Do This: Optimize social accounts for social selling Not That: Use them as online resumes Social selling isn’t just learning how to spot a lead on Twitter or LinkedIn and following up in record time — it’s also about using these channels as a way to gain and demonstrate knowledge of your prospects’ industries and pressing issues. Therefore, social profiles and activities should be optimized for buyers, not for sales recruiters. Social selling expert Jill Rowley recommends that salespeople engage with buyers, thought leaders, and other industry influencers by commenting on, liking, and sharing their social posts, in addition to writing vivid profile headlines and summaries that are more than just mini-resumes. Do This: Read every day Not That: Stop learning when training ends Since buyers are much more informed about products and services today thanks to the abundance of online information, salespeople need to add value in other ways. Linda Richardson espouses the importance of insights — information that disrupts a prospect’s status quo by revealing a problem they might not be aware exists. Delivering insights sets the stage for trust and, potentially, a sale. Google can’t serve up insights — only a human can do that. Salespeople should keep up with their buyers’ industries by reading trade publications and following relevant influencers. Strive to set aside some time for reading every day. Do This: Conform your sales process to your prospect’s buying process Not That: Force buyers to fit your sales process Just like researching individual prospects and companies before you reach out, you should also learn as much as you can about your target audience’s buying process. This enables you to provide relevant information or assistance at just the right time and increases your chances of being treated as signal rather than noise. Do This: Recognize that sales hinge on you Not that: Rely on your product or service to make the sale In today’s sales environment, differentiation is no longer the realm of a product or service — it comes from the salespeople themselves. As Jill Konrath wrote in her book Agile Selling, "You know what buyers pick as the differentiator in their decisions? The sales experience — what it’s like working with you." So, how can you become a differentiator? With your knowledge. Buyers are looking for more than a canned sales pitch and a demo; they want people to work collaboratively with their team to solve business problems. If you develop the know-how to recognize and fix problems specific to an industry or type of company (here’s where reading comes in), buyers will take what you have to say — and sell — seriously. ——————————————————- COMPLIMENTARY RICHARDSON SALES TRAINING TECHNOLOGY BRIEF Click here to download our new brief, Selling in the Cloud - 8 Keys to Successful "Land and Expand" Strategy for SaaS Solution Providers. The post Sales: Do This, Not That! appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

Value Strategy: The Foundation of Collaborative Account Development Sales people must fully understand a client’s industry and business in order to bring real value to the client. This brings something into play called the value strategy, the way to gain this understanding. Value strategy is a plan of action designed to identify, generate, communicate and deliver the value that your company brings to the client. Why do you need such a strategy? If you cannot identify, generate, deliver, and communicate value, you cannot attain the status of a trusted advisor, one who is "at the table" not just when purchases are made but when decisions are being made. A good sales person is one who helps the client identify solutions to problems. A trusted advisor proactively helps the client identify problems and potential solutions. Communicating the value created is the key part of the value strategy process. Many salespeople believe that if they win opportunities in the sales process and their account teams implement the solution for the client flawlessly, the client will automatically recognize that value has been created. This is a mistake. Value not communicated is value not perceived by the client. Four factors make up a value strategy. Identify the business environment and business needs: There are trends in the clients’ industry affecting their business. In addition, the client has company goals, objectives, and challenging issues. Out of these trends and challenging issues arise opportunities to work together in order to improve the client’s performance. This includes identifying, and formulating, how the client defines value. Generate new ideas: One of the key behaviors of trusted advisors is that they bring new insights and ideas to their clients. These insights and ideas seek to change the status quo at the client in order to help the client keep up in a fast-paced and challenging business environment. Communicate the value to the client: How can your company deliver value to the client? Be sure the client also is told, and understands, how you can deliver value to the client’s stakeholder, including the client’s customers. Deliver: After you have worked hard to identify and generate new opportunities, your account team needs to deliver the solutions that deliver value to the client. This part of the value strategy is largely out of your control as company specialists take the lead in implementing the solution. Remember, though, that high-performing salespeople stay in regular contact with their clients to monitor client satisfaction and correct any problems that might arise. Client stakeholders want you to: know them, know their business, and come to them proactively with insights to improve the business. This is the way to increase your business from the particular client and to develop methods viable and appropriate from your other clients. Your client will see you as providing value to the business when you: Help the plan proactively for change, threats, and opportunities in the business environment. Understand the industry in which the client works. Have a deep understanding of what the client’s business needs to perform better. Build a persuasive business case that gets senior company leaders’ attention Advocate strongly for client interests within the vendor company. Assemble an expert account team that works well with client teams Make client feel you have the authority to make decisions, or at least strongly influence decision making. Make client feel you are "one of them." Improve client experience with your company. Help client be more effective and efficient in their business. Create a strong sense of urgency to seize opportunities in client market or markets. Provide an objective, strategic view of client business that is both accurate and informative. Have a compelling vision for how client and the sales person’s company should collaborate to co-create value. Solve problems and issues promptly and fairly. Meet and exceed agreed- upon performance requirements on a regular basis. Navigate company organizational politics in a way that gets things done. Act as a catalyst to create consensus among multiple stakeholders ———————————————————————————- Complimentary eBook Richardson is excited to announce the launch of our new eBook, A Leader’s Guide to Successfully Sell with Insights. The eBook highlights helpful tips that sales teams can use to deliver insights that provide more value to customers and win more deals. Download it now and help your sales team improve your sales conversations with insights and dialogue. Click here to download: The post Value Strategy: The Foundation of Collaborative Account Development appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

Why a Collaborative Approach to Account Development Creates Better Outcomes Ask most people, "What word stands out to you in the phrase ‘Collaborative Account Development?’" Most point to the word "collaborative" — working together. In the case of sales, this is working together, with a client, to meet client needs. However, a tendency of companies is to try and sell by telling the clients what they can do for them rather than by working together as partners to build solutions. Why should you consider adopting a more collaborative approach to working with large clients? Being collaborative allows you to differentiate your personal brand and create mutual gain for your client’s organization and for your company. As a result, you become known to your client, and within your own company, as a person who can bring real value to both organizations. Because the business environment in which your clients operate has become more challenging, you need to increase your proficiency in identifying and meeting needs in order to have credibility as a trusted advisor, one who helps the client decide how to buy and doesn’t just sell. In the current business environment, strong external forces are shaping how companies act and react. Globalization has changed who companies sell to, who they buy from, and where they locate operations. Fewer resources have intensified the search for value at a specific price point. People are less certain and more anxious about their jobs and financial security of both their firms and themselves. There is more regulatory oversight and consumer scrutiny of firm’s actions. Four major challenges are emerging for most businesses: Renewed Emphasis on Price — Price has always been important in business. In today’s environment, there is much more reluctance to spend (or invest money), and thus funding is carefully scrutinized. Clients feel like they have to look longer and harder in order to justify why they are buying a particular solution at a specific price. As pricing pressures increase, more and more firms find clients trying to "commoditize" the solutions that vendors provide. Greater Complexity — The business environment has become increasingly complex. An IBM study of more than 1,500 CEOs cited increasing complexity as a major challenge to the managerial and leadership ranks of most companies. A majority of the CEOs in the study did not feel confident that their organizations had the ability to successfully adapt and respond to this complexity. Higher Levels of Ambiguity — Ironically, as access to information has proliferated, the level of ambiguity in the business environment has increased. This uncertainty makes it hard to determine what long-term strategies and short-term tactics will be most effective in reaching business goals and even whether those goals are still relevant. High levels of ambiguity create a tendency to preserve the status quo, although this is rarely an effective means of increasing revenue, saving on cost, or proactively managing risk. Decreasing Client Loyalty — The last decade has seen a divergence between client satisfaction and client loyalty. It used to be that when you checked with a client and the client said they were satisfied, this meant they would pick you over your competitors. Now, a client may say that they are satisfied or even very satisfied and still switch to a competitor. Long-term client loyalty is eroding. What is the result of these forces on how you sell to your large clients? Clients take time to really weigh value vs. price, which puts an emphasis on being able to quantify the value that you bring to the relationship. Clients are struggling with complexity, so trusted business advisors are needed to help them organize that complexity and, whenever possible, simplify rather than add to it. Higher levels of ambiguity means that most buying decisions are now made by consensus. This involves many more stakeholders than before, and salespeople need to develop coalitions in favor of changing the status quo. The decrease in client loyalty means that salespeople need to be continuously bringing new insights and ideas about how to help stakeholders improve their business performance and gain recognition from those stakeholders for the value created. Collaborative account development helps you look at your client’s needs from the point of view of the client while bringing in an outside objectivity. You will be able to elevate the level of your relationships with specific clients in order to have a "seat at the table" as their trusted business advisor. Clients don’t care about your latest product or your industry-leading service if it is not relevant to their goals, objectives, and business challenges. What your clients want from you are ways to better manage their businesses, which is what a trusted business advisor does. By consistently following this process of understanding your client’s business intimately, aligning your account team with the client, and engaging stakeholders to validate and modify opportunities to work collaboratively together, you create value for that client and earn a place in their decision-making process. —————————————————- Learn More About Richardson’s Collaborative Account Development Sales Training Programs Richardson’s Collaborative Account Development solution ensures your team has a consistent and repeatable account development process combined with superior dialogue skills. To learn more about this program and to download a complimentary brochure, please click here The post Why a Collaborative Approach to Account Development Creates Better Outcomes appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

Insight Selling - How to Move Beyond an Inward Focus and a Product-based Message The Problem - Ultra Informed Buyers Today’s buyers are savvier than ever, which makes selling to them a greater challenge for sales reps and teams. Whether they’re interested in a one-off transaction for a particular product or service, or a long-term strategic partnership, customers from companies of any size and industry can research just about anything they desire online, which puts them in a position of strength over sellers. If your salespeople are selling the same old products the same old way, then you could very well be deep in a rut. Have you backed yourself into a corner as a commoditized order fulfillment broker rather than someone who can truly add value? As an example of what’s going on in the Financial Services sector, all buyers from individuals and wealthy families to investment committees, chief investment officers, and corporate treasurers are shielding themselves from sales pitches - using RFPs, consultants, procurement officers, and other gatekeepers. They are instead looking for insights and solutions relevant to their goals and challenges. This most obviously changes the game for the new business development officer who is finding it increasingly difficult to break through the clutter and get an appointment. However, this impacts every member of a client-retention or new-business pitch team, including senior leaders and subject matter experts, and their ability to communicate with clients in a way that causes them to engage rather than withdraw. Who can blame them? "Why should I buy (let alone listen to) what you’re selling? If I’m interested, I’ll research it myself and will contact you if I think you can help me." We’ve been so conditioned to Google everything and to keep those purse strings tight for so long that it’s now Pavlovian. (I’d also add that Caller ID has also further conditioned us to avoid picking up calls from unknown senders, which further confounds sellers, but that’s another topic.) With these barriers, how can sales reps regain some control and influence in the selling process? The Solution - Engaging and Selling with Value-Based Insights Many sales teams are anchored by experienced client-facing professionals who over time have developed a set way of talking about industry issues, your organization’s capabilities, and their own qualifications and experience. Even if they’re credible and brilliant, too often these ideas sound generic and frequently fall short of compelling clients, prospects, referral sources, and colleagues to act. It is easy to become complacent and inwardly focused. Unless you’re in a fast-changing business and have a lock on what the market needs, your salespeople need to find a way to move away from an inward, product-based focus and find a more enticing scenario to sell. Developing and delivering insights and solutions that resonate with clients, prospects, gatekeepers, and centers of influence is a remedy to overcome the same old approach. But as with many dialogue skills, execution is a trickier matter. Effective insights and solutions require preparation, deep and current industry and client knowledge, and a communication framework and skills that connect an issue that is relevant to your client with your organization’s ability to help. This should include examples of how this work has impacted others. Finally, value-based insights and solutions require practice to ensure that your people are at their most confident in delivery and, with the help of feedback, that the language they choose is easy to follow and relevant. Properly prepared and practiced value-based insights have wide application in building your business, enabling: Business developers to gain initial meetings; relationship managers to expand perceptions about your organization’s capabilities in a new area; you and other senior managers to differentiate your organization in a client or sales meeting; and subject matter experts to distinguish their ideas as being not just smart, but relevant to the client. Winning leaders engage their teams in this area by modeling and coaching on the preparation and delivery of relevant insights and solutions. Instead of allowing your sales team to go out and sell more widgets or widget-based services, teach them how to sell the value and need of those widgets through insights. "Here’s what’s happening in your industry. Maybe this is a surprise to you, or perhaps you knew about it, but didn’t realize the scope of the issue. We’ve helped other clients to overcome this problem (or take advantage of this unique opportunity), and here was the impact. We believe can help you, too. Would you be interested in learning more?" —————————————————————————- Help your Sales Team Sell More Effectively by Selling with Insights  Click the following to learn more about Richardson’s Selling With Insights sales training program.     The post Insight Selling - How to Move Beyond an Inward Focus and a Product-based Message appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

How to Transition Your People from Taking Orders to Developing Key Accounts Strategically Without process and metrics, it is difficult to determine if your account managers are taking orders or managing key accounts strategically. It is tempting for salespeople to enjoy the easy money of fulfilling orders and avoid "rocking the boat" to push the customer to do more with you. However, that complacent behavior can backfire quickly if a key contact in an account leaves or changes positions. Forget about growth — your business in the account could evaporate instantly. You can’t take that risk. You need better insight into the account and activity. Protecting and growing key accounts is essential to the well-being of any organization and is too important to be managed reactively. Account managers are part of a business and need to have both short-term and long-term plans for that business. An account development process provides this type of short-term and long-term planning for your large accounts. Good account plans provide checkpoints; measurable objectives that allow you to see if progress is being made. Equally important are checkpoints that let you spot and correct small problems before they become major issues. Plans often change, but they can provide a place to start. Some organizations have specialized account managers, and others expect their salespeople to play the role of both hunter and farmer. However, planning is not typically a salesperson’s favorite part of his or her job. Planning takes time and does not provide immediate gratification. It is an investment of effort up front for an uncertain return later. We see this challenge over and over in organizations with these hybrid roles. The key is finding the right balance, setting the right expectations, and reinforcing the expected behavior through management feedback and rewards. When you don’t plan and are focused on the short-term with large accounts, you are typically taking orders as they arise; you are not focused on the client’s long-term business objectives or the bigger picture for your company. You are seen as a commodity rather than a Trusted Advisor, and when you’re a commodity, your customers are usually very price sensitive and not loyal. Planning links your company’s products/services to your customers’ important long-term goals, making them real solutions. You get more visibility with the business and with key stakeholders throughout the company and become more integrated into the client’s organization. This makes it harder for competitors to unseat your position and creates more sustainability when budgets get tight. So, how do you ensure that key accounts are receiving the right focus? Good planning includes verifiable outcomes. These are checkpoints — signposts that forecast the health of the company‘s relationship with a large account. Verifiable outcomes are leading indicators based on the client’s actions (not the salesperson’s actions) that demonstrate the company’s level of alignment with the client. Have you ever had a client that you thought your company had a great relationship with and then lost that client a few months later to a competitor? This happens to every salesperson at some point in their career. Wouldn’t it have helped you to have an early warning system or indicator that would have allowed you to take action to prevent the loss of the client? Verifiable outcomes are leading indicators embedded throughout the account development process. They enable you to understand how well-aligned the client and company are at any time. There are three characteristics of verifiable outcomes: They involve client feedback or action. The outcome requires some reaction from the client. It is OK if the reaction is not wholly positive. The reaction has occurred and you collected feedback, which is more important. They are observable. The salesperson should be able to produce some evidence (e-mail, document, etc.) that the outcome has been achieved or be able to answer some specific questions about his or her interaction with the client that would lead the sales manager to conclude that the interaction with the client has been sufficient. They increase the confidence of the salesperson that the client and company are well-aligned. The Completion of the outcome should give the salesperson greater confidence that the relationship is healthy. Verifiable outcomes allow us to objectively determine the status of the relationship. Wishful thinking and anecdotal evidence are reduced, which makes your assessment more accurate. Losing a relationship with a large account or being forced from a Trusted Advisor or technical expert position down to a product provider will have a direct and dramatic impact on your book of business. Verifiable outcomes help you to identify risks to the relationship and take corrective action before it is too late. When you set the right expectations; provide the processes, tools, and skills; and then reinforce the desired behaviors through inspection and rewards, you stand a much better chance of protecting your downside and enhancing your upside in key accounts. —————————————————- Learn More About Richardson’s Collaborative Account Development Sales Training Programs Richardson’s Collaborative Account Development solution ensures your team has a consistent and repeatable account development process combined with superior dialogue skills. To learn more about this program and to download a complimentary brochure, please click here. The post How to Transition Your People from Taking Orders to Developing Key Accounts Strategically appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

Senior B2B Execs Use Social Selling Tools When Buying and Influencing — Are Your Sales Reps Part of the Conversation? Don’t be fooled by age or seniority. Old dogs, who happen to be seasoned, executive-level buyers and influencers, have not only adopted social media but are using it professionally as well as personally. A white paper from IDC ("Social Buying Meets Social Selling: How Trusted Networks Improve the Purchase Experience" by Kathleen Schaub, IDC, April 2014) provides some eye-opening statistics for skeptics regarding just how much senior executives are using social media in B2B buying and influencing. According to the paper: 75% of B2B buyers and 84% of C-level/vice president (VP) executives surveyed use social media to make purchasing decisions. Online professional networks are the number-one information preference of buyers in the final stage of the purchase process. Social buying correlates with buying influence. The average B2B buyer who uses social media for buying support is more senior, has a bigger budget, makes more frequent purchases, and has a greater span of buying control than a buyer who does not use social media. B2B buyers find the greatest benefit of social media is gaining greater confidence in and comfort with their decisions. The paper provides a wealth of data that clearly demonstrates how important social selling tools are becoming to buying and influencing among B2B businesses. The question then becomes whether your company, and specifically your sales reps, are poised to leverage social selling efforts? Take Advantage of Social Buying and Influencing Your Own Social Habits Are your sales reps using LinkedIn and other social selling tools to build their own profile and history of knowledge and interest in topics related to your business and your customers’ needs? Are they sharing via LinkedIn and Twitter great headlines about your firm or concerns happening in your sector? Use your sales reps to extend the reach of your thought leadership efforts and promotional campaigns by encouraging them to develop and nurture their own networks and then share your content with them. Your Best Customers’ Social Habits Think about your best clients. Are they on social media, and if so, do you engage with them? Do you know what they’re saying about themselves, their needs, and their priorities? Does any of that concern the services you provide to them? Would you ask them to be an advocate for you and your business? These are prime people to become influencers through testimonials, retweets, favorable quotes, and reviews. Don’t overlook them, but also, be careful not to overstep boundaries or abuse the relationship. Where Are Your Prospects? This can be a fun exercise but requires thought and planning. Keywords — What do people search for when buying your products and services? Issues — What causes someone to want or need to buy your products or services? Trade industry groups — Who is already writing about these issues or services? How your products and services are used — Think about your range of customers and how your business fulfills their needs. Be sure to cover the obvious and not-so-obvious angles. Who typically buys from you — Think about job titles and roles, and try to find where they congregate online. Who might also influence those purchases — Who are your buyers’ bosses who may approve a purchase or colleagues that are needed to help implement (e.g., IT, HR, Accounting, etc.)? Answer questions, such as these, to engage your buyers and prospects online while developing your sales reps’ personal brands and expertise. Identify and Develop Visible Experts A word of advice: Especially if you have large sales teams covering the same ground and issues, don’t have them tripping over each other in the same forums. Leveraging social media to find influencers and buyers should be a positive thing but can easily turn into a turf war among your sales reps. Hopefully it won’t come to this, but if you must, be prepared to set boundaries and divide coverage of forums, and perhaps a hierarchy of experts, in order to manage and avoid internal conflicts.One way to prevent sales reps from tripping over each other is to identify and develop specific experts on various products, services, issues, industries, and the like. Over time, those experts will generate enough of an online social history to demonstrate their knowledge, wisdom, and interest. Look to your top sales reps and bona fide experts first, but if they’re too busy to engage online or unwilling to adapt, then look for a lieutenant to take the social reins. Adapt or Die! Well, not quite. But, you can’t ignore the impact and influence of social buying. And, you can pretty much guarantee that if there’s a void to be filled, if you’re not doing it, then your competitors will. Don’t be left out of the conversation — even if you’re a market leader. If you don’t have a formal process for monitoring and engaging in social buying and influencing, now’s the time. If you have such a policy, be sure to revisit it often to ensure that it remains current with ever-changing trends. Finally, this is a perfect opportunity for sales to get in sync with marketing colleagues to work in concert — and not against — each other. —————————————————— COMPLIMENTARY RICHARDSON SALES TRAINING TECHNOLOGY BRIEF Click here to download our new brief, Selling in the Cloud - 8 Keys to Successful "Land and Expand" Strategy for SaaS Solution Providers. The post Senior B2B Execs Use Social Selling Tools When Buying and Influencing appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

Richardson Clients Honored with Eleven Awards by Brandon Hall Group Seven of Richardson’s clients have been recognized with Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals by the Brandon Hall Group’s annual Excellence Awards for Learning, Talent Management, and Sales and Marketing Awards. The award-winning categories included: Gold, Best in Competencies and Skill Development — Cargill Gold, Best Program for Sales Training and Performance — Cargill Gold, Best Learning Program Supporting a Change Transformation — Cargill Silver, Best in Coaching & Mentoring Program — Bank of Montreal Silver, Best in Competencies and Skill Development — QTS Silver, Best Program for Sales Training and Performance — ITS Silver, Best Program for Sales Training and Performance — WellPoint Bronze, Best Leadership Development Program — Bank of Montreal Bronze, Best in Competencies and Skill Development — Chevron Bronze, Best in Competencies and Skill Development — SunTrust Bronze, Best Sales Leadership Development Program — ITS A full list of winners can be found by clicking here. The 2014 Brandon Hall Excellence Awards are presented by Brandon Hall Group, one of the leading research firms in training and development. The entries were evaluated by a panel of veteran, independent senior industry experts, Brandon Hall Group Sr. Analysts, and Executive Leadership based on the following criteria: fit the need, design of the program, functionality, innovation, and overall measurable benefits. "Our Richardson team congratulates our client teams for their exceptional accomplishments and recognition from Brandon Hall," said David DiStefano, President and CEO of Richardson. "We are privileged to be strategic partners with such forward-thinking companies and to help them strengthen their sales culture — and to build a competitive advantage. Today’s selling environment has never been more competitive, and we at Richardson are committed to helping our clients execute their sales strategies through a proven process of talent and organizational readiness, sales force development, and sustainment-of-change initiatives." "I’m honored to recognize this group of elite organizations with phenomenal programs across HCM functions," said Rachel Cooke, COO of Brandon Hall Group. "The winners truly exemplified excellence around the critical business dimensions across the award categories, including a high standard of performance in their organization and demonstrated clear, measurable business results through these innovative programs." "Our company is proud to receive submissions from organizations all over the world that have demonstrated major successes across their HCM business areas," said Mike Cooke, CEO of Brandon Hall Group. "The beauty of our new HCM Excellence Conference is that some of these elite executives will now be able to share lessons learned through panel discussions, Q&A discussions, executive roundtables, and peer-to-peer networking. We are delighted to be able to share the winners’ insights and case studies with a larger circle of colleagues." About Brandon Hall Group Brandon Hall Group is an HCM research and advisory services firm that provides insights around key performance areas, including Learning and Development, Talent Management, Leadership Development, Talent Acquisition, and Workforce Management. With more than 10,000 clients globally and 20 years of delivering world-class research and advisory services, Brandon Hall Group is focused on developing research that drives performance in emerging and large organizations and provides strategic insights for executives and practitioners responsible for growth and business results. (http://www.brandonhall.com) LEARN MORE! Click here to Learn More About Richardson’s Award Winning Sales Training Programs   The post Richardson Clients Honored with Eleven Awards by Brandon Hall Group appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

Why You Must View the Customer as "Them" not "It"  A theme we keep returning to in this blog is the idea that the most effective sale professionals focus on creating value and building trust with customers. You don’t just put your product or service in front of the public and say, "This is good. Buy it." — however good your product or service may be. Other companies will also have good products. They will also be able to offer good services, possibly even as good as those offered by your company. We hear the term "solution" often today. It may even be overused, particularly as a fancier and quicker way of saying "product or service." The way to make a sale today is to convince the client that your "solution" actually is a solution — that it actually solves a problem your careful research has identified. You start with planning, creating what might best be called a flexible contextual relationship with the client. You work with the client collaboratively to create value for their organization and make them more successful. You become a valued partner, helping the client identify needs as well as just finding places — hopefully your company — where the client can meet the needs. All too often, sales professionals build account plans only in terms of what they can sell the customer instead of what the customer really needs. What customers really need is a strategic partner who can dig deep into their business to analyze the current situation, identify the possibilities, and pursue relevant opportunities. When you view a major account from your customer’s perspective, you find more ways to significantly enhance performance. When you can link your solutions, making them real solutions (that solve problems) to your customer’s goals, to your customer’s objectives, and to your customer’s challenging issues, you build your personal brand as a trusted advisor rather than just a product provider. You build your company’s reputation as a place where people solve problems. One complicating factor in dealing with customers is that a customer is not just a monolithic body where one approach and one focus will be sufficient. There is a good chance that your customer will have one decision maker who can say "yes." But even here, he or she will have other opinions to take into account. You must be able to consider the perspectives of many stakeholders within your customer’s organization. At a basic level, executives have similar goals: to make money, to save money, and to manage risk. But, the way they think about achieving these goals differs depending on their function. So, if you view each interaction through the lens of functional focus on what each stakeholder does, you gain greater credibility and relevance to these stakeholders. Take, for example, the goal of increasing organic growth by 8% over two years. A CEO might focus on enhancing the company’s profile with key constituencies. A CFO might raise capital to finance a special project with growth potential. An R&D leader might accelerate the development of new products. All have the goal of making more money, yet each has a different functional strategy to get there. You have to be able to speak their language and relate to their world to gain credibility and build trust. This will enable you to earn the right to demonstrate how you can bring value to the table. You need to view the situation through their functional lens and prepare for meetings and presentations accordingly, planning to be both relevant and meaningful. Understanding the different perspectives and what each executive cares about allows you to be more effective in tailoring your message to each stakeholder’s interests. Otherwise, with a more generic approach, your presentations will be less relevant and less useful to everyone. Businesses today are facing more volatility, ambiguity, complexity, and uncertainty than ever before. If you can demonstrate a keen understanding of your customers’ issues — and align yourself with their goals and strategies — you have a much better chance of helping them become more successful. This makes you more successful — today and into the future. ————————————- Complimentary eBook Richardson is excited to announce the launch of our new eBook, A Leader’s Guide to Successfully Sell with Insights. The eBook highlights helpful tips that sales teams can use to deliver insights that provide more value to customers and win more deals. Download it now and help your sales team improve your sales conversations with insights and dialogue. Click here to download: The post Why You Must View the Customer as "Them" not "It" appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

Insight Selling: Essential Skills for Shaping and Creating Sales Opportunities Opportunities to grow your business with a major account come in three different modes: Respond, Shape, and Create. When you respond to an opportunity, the customer has already identified the issue, the solution, and the expected outcomes. Now, a provider is sought. This is the most reactive style of account development. The scope and budget are usually already set. Pressures on both price and competition are often high. By no means should you ignore such opportunities. Flexibility is a key element of business. You have to be able to respond as well as initiate. But, responding is not the best way to develop and grow a business relationship. High-performing sales professionals tend to focus more on shaping opportunities. This is where you help the customer in defining the issue, the most likely outcomes, and even possible unintended consequences. This is a much more proactive style of account management — one where you may be able to preempt the competition. And even though some opportunities might initially appear to be "respond" situations, if you have a different opinion or broader view, you might be able to shape a respond opportunity in new ways. The third selling mode is the most ambitious and creative. Here you create an opportunity. You bring forward insights to challenging issues that are not even on the customer’s radar but will likely have an impact sometime soon. This is the most proactive style of account development, and it is the most difficult because you are teaching the customer something new and are creating both the need and an opportunity. This allows you to become actively involved in defining the scope and budget. You may even be able to shut out the competition and forestall or lessen price pressure. So, how do you identify or create opportunities from insights? Tie the insight to a challenging issue. Where do you find those issues? Marketing should provide you with a list of issues that your client’s industry is facing — or, do the research yourself. Then, you select the challenging issues that will resonate the most with your client. When positioning the risk of the typical approach, choosing your success stories, or describing the impact that your company can have on the issue, use numbers to grab the client’s attention and enhance credibility. Asking questions to understand the client’s situation, goals, objectives, initiatives, success factors, and thoughts is important. However, when it comes to positioning insights, you need to communicate a point of view. Clients need and expect you to have a perspective. This is what elevates you to a Trusted Advisor position. Your point of view should be concise, easy to understand, and defensible. Presenting both sides of the issue shows that you’ve given thought on all aspects of the issue upon which you’ve based your point of view and conclusions. The risks you are highlighting are linked to a current approach, which the client may be taking. Don’t exaggerate these risks, and if possible, quantify the negative consequences. Word choice is so important, as the client may be feeling pain or resistance around a particular issue. Avoid directive language, such as, "You should …" and instead, make suggestions with phrases, such as, "Imagine if …" and "You have several options. For instance …" Clients do not usually just come up with great ideas all by themselves. They rely on others for ideas. Those that consistently provide good ideas establish credibility over time and become a part of their inner circle. They have the opportunity to develop into a Trusted Advisor. It is important to understand that an idea does not always need to be fully developed. Instead, providing an idea or point of view provides a starting point from which a discourse begins and a collaborative discussion can take place. It is through this collaborative process that clients can refine their thinking, establish their own point of view, and determine their course of action. When you don’t present a point of view, what are the risks to your personal brand? Proactively sharing a point of view is perceived as valuable by a client. The opposite is also true. When you consistently don’t present a point of view, you risk the perceived value of your brand being diminished. This limits your ability to elevate your relationship into being a Trusted Advisor, and over time, you risk becoming irrelevant to your client. This opens the door for competitors to fill the void, and if they are able to consistently provide insight and ideas, they will ultimately win the business, and you will be replaced. Selling modes are important because they affect where you enter the customer’s buying cycle. The earlier you enter the buying cycle, the better.  ———————————————————- Help your Sales Team Sell More Effectively by Selling with Insights  Click the following to learn more about Richardson’s Selling With Insights sales training program.     The post Insight Selling: Essential Skills for Shaping and Creating Sales Opportunities appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

Successful Negotiations: Why it’s Critical Not to Lose Sight of the Big Picture "Are we negotiating?" "Always." That succinct bit of dialogue from the 1997 movie "The Devil’s Advocate" serves as a good reminder for sales professionals to heed when selling to prospects or existing accounts. Don’t take for granted that it is a mere formality or confined to the period leading up to inking an agreement. You are constantly negotiating and should not only realize this, but practice their approach. Negotiating is certainly about prices and fees, but also about so much more. What’s negotiable? Pretty much any aspect of a sale can be negotiated from delivery date, warranty, and payment or service terms to product features, account team, and the like. What’s important to realize is that each bit of dialogue and revelation throughout the sale process enlightens both seller and buyer alike with information that will influence this deal - or the next. It’s the tail end of the contract building process, but as the quote above suggests, negotiating really starts at the beginning of the relationship and continues long after the deal is done. Off-hand comments, questions, and observations made by your clients can cue what they’re thinking about when the time comes to re-up. How you approach them can either shore up or undermine the chances for future success. Ingredients of Successful Negotiations When negotiating, keep these points in mind to avoid derailing while strengthening your relationship: End-game. Have a clear image of the end. What do you want to achieve as a result of the sale? What does a successful agreement look like for you? For your buyer? Dialogue. Negotiating is an art that requires a delicate but effective touch. Realize that even when the deal’s done and the ink has dried that further negotiations are happening. The trick is to keep a checklist of variables and factors that could change or impact the deal, but don’t waive it in your client’s face at every opportunity. This gets old fast and makes you seem like you’re constantly keeping score and not focused on the big picture. Rather, focus on a fluid dialogue that recognizes variables and addresses them more naturally between contracts and more directly when negotiating an agreement. All dialogue should happen in a friendly, relationship-building manner. Flexibility. You don’t want your sales professionals to be pushovers, so you must train them where they need to stand fast and where they have wiggle room. Always maintain some area of flexibility and maneuverability. If you’re completely inflexible, then your buyer might assume that you’re not even making an effort to meet their needs or requests. What Not To Do: Successful Negotiations Do Not Look Like This There are several things that you should not do when negotiating in order to avoid torpedoing the deal and thus your relationship. Here are a few examples: Don’t be adversarial or combative or try to get one over on them. If you’re adversarial in negotiating, you risk blowing up the deal and relationship. That’s akin to winning the battle but losing the war. While you don’t want to be unfair to your clients, you also can’t go back to your boss and say that you’ve given away the store. Your company is in business to make a profit, which is not unreasonable. Don’t allow your desire to please your client undermine your ability to be effective. Don’t weigh deals down with goods or services that are unwanted or needed. This "bloatware" will go unused, will be unappreciated, and cause the buyer to feel like they overpaid for the value they received. If something is truly necessary, then make sure that the end users know what it is, why it is important, and how to leverage it. Otherwise, they’ll be skeptical and resent it making future sales or renegotiations difficult for you. The Ultimate Goal: Create Value and Build Trust Both parties in a negotiation have priorities: the buyer to receive something of value for a reasonable price, the seller to deliver services or goods for a reasonable profit. The key elements in this exchange are value and trust. If either is missing, called into question, or obviously deficient, then closing the deal becomes more difficult (and could cause the relationship to falter). Encourage your sales reps to structure deals in a manner that highlights the value that you will bring to your buyers and the trust you hope to instill in them by delivering as per the terms of the agreement. At the end of the day, your goal should be for the long-term success of the relationship you’ve developed and cultivated. If your mindset is focused on a transactional sale, then your goals and motives are one-sided and clearly not in the interest of your buyer. Sellers with a lock on the market might be able to get away with that for a time, but as soon as a viable alternative appears, what respect have you shown by taking advantage of them? Negotiate for the sake of the relationship, not the deal, and both parties will win. ——————————————————— LEARN MORE ABOUT RICHARDSON’S NEGOTIATING TRAINING To Learn more about how you can partner with Richardson’s to raise the quality of your team’s negotiations with your clients and prospects, please click here.   The post Successful Negotiations: Why it’s Critical Not to Lose Sight of the Big Picture appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.