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

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

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

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

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

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

Sales Training Programs: Putting the A back in KSA "Ability is what you’re capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it."  ~ Lou Holtz Pressure Creates Diamonds Corporate Learning and Development (L&D) departments are under pressure to produce results. This is especially true with sales training programs. Training budgets are often one of the first to get cut when times are tough and budgets are scrutinized.  While the number of L&D departments that have fully made the transition from training to a performance focus is still less than might be expected, there is certainly a welcome and growing focus on delivering Return on Expectation or ROI, changing behaviors, tying training to business objectives, and positively impacting top-and bottom-line business results. You won’t ever hear me complain about a focus on skills and behaviors, especially in classroom training for sales training programs.  In fact, I may actually clap or cheer whenever I hear that training is part of a larger change effort, with full-fledged learning systems and transfer plans, and especially change leadership and change management efforts. I encourage prework for knowledge transfer, using elearning and another asynchronous methods as well as synchronous virtual instructor-led-training (vILT), prior to classroom training. This just makes sense as part of an overall learning system (making learning a process, not an event). And Diamonds are Multi-faceted Given all this, I understand the prioritization and focus on skills and behaviors in a classroom setting. I support it, applaud it, and would like to see more of it in our sales training programs. I want to encourage you not to forget an important element of learning that I see many of us shying away from today. Yes, I’m talking about the A in KSA… which to me, still means "knowledge, skills and attitude." Note: To be clear, KSA was originally "knowledge, skills, and attitude" and to some, now refers to "knowledge, skills, and abilities." For a brief but interesting treatise on KSA in learning literature, visit Don Clark’s site at http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/history/KSA.html. Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude. ~ Zig Ziglar I’m sticking with attitude. Even ibstpi® defines a competency as "an integrated set of skills, knowledge, and attitudes that enables one to effectively perform the activities of a given occupation or function to the standards expected in employment." Without writing an academic dissertation or debating the nuances of various schools of thought, it’s also generally accepted that one’s beliefs and values lead to the formation of attitudes, which generate emotions (the affective domain), which often determine actions and behaviors (or at least what we decide to act on). As I’ve often joked, we do our best to hire someone for their knowledge and skills, but the whole person shows up at work. To a large degree, attitude and motivation determine our choices, course of action, and success. If that is the case, even in our skills- and behavior-focused training efforts, we should continue to attempt to positively influence attitude, shouldn’t we? I still believe the answer is "yes." How you think when you lose determines how long it will be until you win. ~ Gilbert K. Chesterton In the Beginning… In the sales training profession, there’s an intriguing division of what some consider "old school" and "new school." (These are not my terms, nor is "old school" necessarily meant derisively in this post.) The old-school approach often targeted individual reps that sought to improve their success. Very often, the primary focus in these sales training programs was on sales techniques. But what the trainers and advocates also did, usually quite well, was share the mindset of top performers and how to emulate them. Much of that content was about influencing attitude and creating motivation. I have no desire to return to the days when we thought "Always Be Closing" was good advice and approached sales as an art, rather than a science and a business discipline. But when people are involved, and you want them engaged, you still want their "hearts and minds" to follow you. To get them to learn and adopt new behaviors or earn their discretionary effort, you need to have their full buy-in. Funny, but when you think about it that way, persuasion and influence seem required for both selling and training, don’t they? So, how do we do this? Keep the Baby; Toss the Bathwater Aristotle had it right with Ethos, Logos and Pathos, and this early group of sales trainers and motivators certainly "got it" as well, using the same methods. (I’ll write more on Aristotle’s rhetoric in a future post on influence.) Many of your best instructors probably do this naturally, too, but here’s some advice from the Department of Educational Psychology and Instructional Technology, University of Georgia: "The trick with designing the ideal persuasive message is that it has to be of such quality that the recipients’ own cognitive responses to it are numerous as well as favorable" (Zimbardo & Leippe, 1991, p. 182). For example, studies (e.g., Allison, 1966; Wade and Pool, 1983; Bage, 1997) have found that persuasive videos were more likely to produce attitude change when post-viewing discussions were held. If the instructional unit begins with an emphasis on cognitive outcomes, continues with the persuasive media message, and concludes with a discussion session, then students will be challenged with several opportunities to develop and express their own cognitive responses to the information presented. Each phase of the instruction should present "plausible, important messages with new information [in order to] provoke more cognitions and hence increase attitude change" (Zimbardo & Leippe, 1991, p. 150). Thus, the persuasive component should not merely restate the information provided earlier, but should elaborate and expand upon it. This is a common design technique for general learning, but did you realize you could also use it to purposefully help shape attitude about what’s being learned? Put the A in KSA for Your Sales Training Programs Here are some other ideas that might help: In addition to teaching "what to do" and "how to" do a task, ensure participants understand the "why" behind it Share relevant studies or supporting research when possible Provide demonstrations, of course, but also have examples of real-world results Use testimonials or support from respected peers, top producers and authority figures Avoid defensive reactions if participants express skepticism Appeal to a larger purpose During all of the above, involve your learners in the discussion, encourage engagement, sharing, and story-telling - bring in their experience and perspectives Ensure frontline managers buy-in and support the ideas/training, so that they can continue the attitude and behavior shaping after the training While this is geared toward other forms of adult education, there is enough cross-over to offer it for additional suggestions: http://bit.ly/TeachingTechniquesThatIncreaseMotivation These suggestions are proven, but human behavior is complex. You can help participants open their minds and change attitudes during training. I’ve seen it. At the same time, it’s also known that emotion follows action, so don’t give up on the participants you may not be able to reach or influence during training. Occasionally, people begin to feel differently about something after they try it or start doing it. This is another reason why the post-training support and coaching from managers is so important. Hopefully, this post reminded you of the importance of shaping and influencing attitudes during your sales training programs, as well as teaching skills and behaviors. Perhaps it sparked some thoughts about how you might do that. Or, perhaps you feel differently. In either case, I’d enjoy hearing your thoughts in the comments. Just be sure to have a good attitude. Life’s battles don’t always go to the strongest or fastest; sooner or later those who win are those who think they can. ~ Vince Lombardi Related Reading: How Attitudes Form, Change and Shape Our Behavior: http://psychology.about.com/od/socialpsychology/a/attitudes.htm Teaching and Learning in the Affective Domain: http://epltt.coe.uga.edu/index.php?title=Teaching_and_Learning_in_Affective_Domain Shaping Beliefs and Attitudes: http://www.coedu.usf.edu/main/departments/seced/Faculty/documents/AttitudeChapter_H_johnston.pdf The Effect of Training and Development on Employee Attitude as it Relates to Training and Work Proficiency: http://sgo.sagepub.com/content/early/2011/12/27/2158244011433338.full.pdf+html Attitudes and Performance the Impact of Self-Fulfilling Prophecies: http://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/law-enforcement-bulletin/Dec2010/attitudes_feature Attitudes, Beliefs and Values: http://docmo.hubpages.com/hub/Teaching-and-Assessing-Attitudes The Affective System: http://www.edpsycinteractive.org/topics/affect/affsys.html Developing an Effective Training and Development Program, Part 2: Implementing KSAs http://ehstoday.com/blog/developing-effective-training-and-development-program-part-2-implementing-ksas   ——————————————————————————————————————- To learn more about Richardson’s award winning sales training solutions, please email us by Clicking Here! The post Sales Training Programs: Putting the A back in KSA appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

3 Pitfalls that Still Make Sales Teams Waste Time and Lower Sales Effectiveness Today’s blog is guest blog written by George Bronten, CEO of Membrain The Internet is creating paradigm shifts in many industries and professions. New technologies such as inbound marketing, social media and mobility is changing how buyers find information to solve their business needs. When products and offerings look the same to buyers, I am convinced that how we sell will become an even stronger differentiator. Despite all of the technology and valuable information available online, I would argue that there are still three fundamental pitfalls that lower complex b2b sales effectiveness. Unless you have complete control of these, it will be difficult to rise above your competition, no matter how good your products and services are. The three pitfalls are: Poor qualification  - All too often, sales people spend time with prospects that will not become profitable clients. The first thing in optimizing sales effectiveness is to make sure that we are spending time with the right type of prospects. Sales leaders need to clarify qualifying criteria for sales teams, after analyzing win/loss data, with clear insights of why deals are won or lost and then provide guidance to focus on the right prospects. Missing "sales maps" tied to process, methodology and analytics - Formalizing a structured sales process and integrating a proven sales methodology is the foundation for successful sales operations. Nothing new. Nothing fancy. Still difficult. Done right, we get detailed insights into our pipelines and sales projects and can work on continuous improvements. We can free up valuable sales time by not spending time on the wrong opportunities and knowing when to timely walk away from opportunities that won’t close. Having sales maps allows us to prioritize and keep momentum to win more business. At the same time, it provides sales managers a platform for effective coaching and sales leadership with valuable sales analytics and insights. Not enough quality coaching - In order for sales people to make contact with potential buyers and engage them in an intelligent dialogue, they need an understanding of the customer’s industry, organization and the business acumen to relay how to help customers become more profitable using our products and services. They need the right communication skills to: listen and connect with different personalities, understand the competitive landscape, see and create triggers, and focus internal resources on a shared outcome. One of the best ways to increase these skills is to provide continuous hands-on coaching on different levels. Time is of the essence One fact of life is that we all share the same limited time to drive new business. Sales professionals and colleagues on the selling teams need to spend their time wisely and effectively. Focusing on these three fundamentals will save time, increase sales effectiveness and add more money to the bottom line. If you were to pick the Top 3 pitfalls for complex b2b sales teams from your perspective - what would they have been? Please comment. About George Brontén George Brontén, founder of Upstream Software and Membrain, a life-long entrepreneur with 20 years of experience in the software space, has always been passionate about sales and marketing. With the life motto "Don’t settle for mainstream", George is always looking for new ways to achieve improved business results using innovative software, skills and processes. In 2008, after realizing that the sales profession needs to evolve because of the Internet and global competition, George had a vision to increase b2b sales effectiveness using modern saas technology. Since then, George and his team have worked with thought leaders and studied research to identify the success factors behind successful sales organizations and build technology to support these. About Membrain The result is the premium web-based sales pipeline management solution MembrainTM that can quickly and easily be customized for any sales process and methodology. The easy-to-use user interface makes it popular among sales professionals, who are tired of traditional, data-entry focused, CRM systems. The core focus around process and analytics captures the hearts of sales management and leadership. Modules are available for Smart Prospecting, Active PipelineTM Management, Sales Coaching and Sales Analytics. MembrainTM was founded in 2009 and released its first version in May 2012. MembrainTM is promoted and implemented by leading sales development experts around the globe. For more information, please visit www.membrain.com. ——————————————————————————————————————- To learn more about Richardson’s award winning sales training solutions, please email us by Clicking Here! The post 3 Pitfalls that Still Make Sales Teams Waste Time and Lower Sales Effectiveness appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

A Few Do’s and Don’ts for Better Lead Nurturing and Follow Up   Lead Nurturing and follow up are crucial steps in content marketing - from strategy to process to the overall program. Organizations are spending significant dollars to develop content with the hopes of building awareness, strengthening thought leadership, and driving leads. Here are some critical do’s and don’ts for becoming more efficient and effective in your lead nurturing and follow-up strategy. And, who knows, you may even better align marketing and sales along the way. Do’s 1)      Do Develop Simple Lead Criteria - Too often marketing is accused of not providing good leads and sales is accused of not following up on leads. Both sides need to work together to develop criteria for leads that should be followed up and by whom. It doesn’t matter whether you break leads into Marketing Qualified Leads or Sales Qualified Leads, both need easily identifiable criteria. Some companies even develop a formalized Service Level Agreement between marketing and sales on this point. Others have developed robust and complicated lead-scoring practices, automated and manual, but it’s best to not over-complicate things. Decide on five or six simple and clear points that link back to your organization strategy. It could be as easy as: company size, audience size, title of the lead, lead location, existing client, or a one-off verses growth opportunity. 2)      Do Personalize the Follow UP - With the growth of marketing automation, it’s easy to fall back on just creating workflow and automatic responses for prospects who click an email link or download a document. Personally, I receive far too many follow-up messages that never reference what I downloaded or requested. Email has become so pervasive that generic responses are almost worse than no response at all, as they provide no value, incentive, or compelling reason to respond. Here, for example is what to avoid, I get these kinds of generic, nondescript follow-up emails regularly "I hope you received my previous email. Let me know if you have any questions or require any further information. If you feel I should talk to someone else in your organization in regards to this, I would appreciate it if you forward this email to the right person." 3)      Do Connect with Your Lead - Social media is a great way to connect with a lead. See if the person is on Twitter, Google+, or LinkedIn. If they are on LinkedIn, look to see what groups they belong to and see if they’ve commented on any specific issues or blogs. 4)      Do Research Your Lead - In addition to social media sites, do a Web search on your lead. Then tie the information you find back to the follow up. This extra step shows you’re taking the time to connect, and that you’re no auto-responder. 5)      Do a Multi-Channel Follow-up Communication Plan - If you can, use various spoken and written approaches. I suggest email, phone, and voicemail for sure, but it’s also worth mixing in connecting or linking on social media sites, as previously mentioned. One word of warning: make your online presence known; don’t be a stalker. 6)      Do Test, Test, Test and Track - Each target market and potential buyer is different, and they will respond differently in a given market or territory. Test different ways to respond for each segment. Just make sure you track the effectiveness of the responses to see which ones work best in which circumstance. 7)      Do Update the CRM - One of the most important things anyone can do during the follow-up and nurture process is update the CRM. Seems like an easy-enough task, but one that is not done on a consistent-enough basis.  Way too often I have heard about multiple resources following up with the same leads because no data was updated. Don’ts 1)    Don’t Over Follow Up - This point bucks the conventional wisdom.  "They" say it can take up to seven to 12 contacts to close out a lead. IMHO, if someone hasn’t replied after four or five touches, move on. Just do the math. Let’s say a C-level executive has 20 people calling on her/him, and each follows up 10 times, on average. That is 200 pieces of communication. Even if you’re personalizing the communication down to the name of her dog, and providing great insight and data along the way, if she’s not ready to buy what you’re selling, you’re spinning your wheels - and potentially wearing out your welcome. I had someone call five times and send five emails over just eight business days; that is a lot of time spent on a non-qualified lead. Ideally, according to your multi-channel communication plan, you would send a follow-up email, call and leave a message, and connect on LinkedIn. Then try one or more follow-up emails and, if you must, one more call. If there’s no response, it’s time to move on.  But even when you stop contacting them, there should be a longer-term nurturing plan in place, so send a goodbye message before walking away. In many cases, I was able to get a response from my goodbye. 2)      Don’t Pounce on Responses - Try not to pounce on leads immediately (key word: immediately). Give them some time to breathe. Think about how many times you have gone into a retail store and within 30 seconds someone asks if they can help you, before you have had any time to look around. But don’t wait too long to respond. According to the Harvard Business Review, companies that contact potential customers within an hour of receiving queries are nearly seven times as likely to have meaningful conversations with key decision makers as firms that contact prospects even an hour later.  You definitely want to be speedy in your response; just don’t pounce. 3)   Don’t Deviate from Your Lead Criteria - It’s easy to stretch your lead criteria occasionally, especially when a lead looks OK at first glance, the pipeline is a little low, or the quarter is light. However, try to maintain discipline regarding lead criteria. Good follow up takes a lot of time, and you want to try to alleviate wild-goose chases. 4)   Don’t Product Pitch - This relates to the "Do" suggestion on personalizing the follow up. Too often I get emails that don’t acknowledge or relate to my interests; they just jump right into a company or product overview. Follow-up communications have to have some sort of hook in them that reference why you are following up. 5)   Don’t Send Out the Same Follow-up Email as the Initial Campaign - You would be surprised how many follow-up emails are exactly the same as the initial campaign, with just a few changed words. That’s plain lazy. 6)   Don’t Just Leave a Phone Message to Call You Back - Two things sales people do consistently is leave me messages without explaining who they are or why it’s important for me to call them back. Here’s a perfect example of a message left the other day: "Hi Mr. Brado (My name is Brodo), this is Mike from XYZ Company, please call me back at 555-1212." Huh? I had no idea who he was, what he wanted, or why I should call him back. There is not one bit of value to me in that message. 7)   Don’t Mess up your Email Response Code - This may seem a no-brainer, but 20% to 25% of the follow-up email responses I get have incorrect codes for a merge. Here are two examples I got in the same email: "Dear {Add first name} Jim," and "As a director or vice president of marketing, you are certainly aware…" The title was the exact field I put on the online form. 8)   Don’t Send out Duplicate Responses - Many marketing automation tools have de-duping capabilities to knock out duplicate responses. On occasion, I will fill out forms as Jim Brodo or James Brodo and receive the same response from different sales people. The only thing I changed was my first name, but the company did not knock out similar emails or last name. Word to the wise: Make sure your marketing automation tool has de-duping capability. Good lead nurturing and follow up will help fill your sales pipeline. Set and stick with simple lead criteria. Personalize each message, and use a multi-channel communication approach to ensure all your bases are touched. Following these do’s and don’ts should make your lead nurturing and follow up more efficient and effective, earning a good return on your investment in content marketing. ——————————————————————— To learn more about Richardson’s award winning sales training solutions, please email us by Clicking Here! The post Some Do’s and Don’ts for Better Lead Nurturing and Follow Up appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

14 Tactics of Adversarial Negotiators and Countermeasures to Level the Playing Field Adversarial negotiators deal through manipulation. These buyers use a range of pressure tactics to defeat you and get what they want. Fortunately, adversarial negotiators are easy to spot if you know what to look for, and once you recognize the tactics they quickly lose power. Below is a list 14 common adversarial negotiation tactics you might encounter in the course of closing a sale along with some brief countermeasures. 1. Gives False Deadlines Issue:  Pressures you to agree to terms before you are ready. Solution:  Don’t allow yourself or the sale process to be rushed. If you are forced to fast-forward through demonstrations and explanations, you could be accused of glossing over important details later on. Be prepared, test with questions, and realize that everything (including time) is negotiable. 2. Delays the Decision and Ignores Deadlines Issue:  Creates anxiety, provokes concessions. Do they really want to buy? Is this a priority, or are they fishing? Solution:  Determine what is causing the delay. Perhaps other projects have gotten in the way, but they need to realize that your time is important too. Probe initial deadlines and what may have changed. Do not feel pressured to make concessions due to the buyer’s (lack of) movement. Protect yourself (C.Y.A.!) by documenting your communications, being sure to note deadlines and key steps in any voicemails or emails left for the client as well as the consequences for any delays. 3. Starts Over in Middle of Negotiations Issue:  Reopens the negotiation to keep what he/she has gotten and tries to get more. Solution:  If one term is to be changed, reopen all of the terms. Fair is fair, and both seller and buyer should feel like winners. 4. Uses Surprise Issue:  Causes you to negotiate before you are prepared. Solution:  It could be an oversight that something wasn’t brought up sooner, but it could also be a sign of other problems to come before or after the sale. Do not handle the issue there and then. Call time or table it until you are prepared. Remember the old commercial tagline: "Never let them see you sweat." Turn the tables on them to delay your reaction or response. 5. Wants to Negotiate too Soon (i.e., demands price up front) Issue:  Gets you to give an estimated price or ballpark and then holds you to the lower figure. Solution:  Say that you want to provide pricing information, but ask for data so that you can give specific, accurate pricing. Begin the trading process — give information to get information. You might also provide general high-, medium-, and low-priced options before you know what’s to be included in the sale and committing to a price. 6. Negotiates the Future Issue:  Dangles a carrot with a promise that it will materialize later. Solution:  Get specifics from the client in writing. If something seems too good to be true, assume that it is. What you do on this deal will set parameters for the next one. Yes, perhaps a concession now could yield a larger opportunity down the road, but get authorization from your sales manager before committing. 7. Creates an Uncomfortable Environment Issue:  Tries to gain an unfair advantage — sunlight in your eyes, hot room, long hours, no food or break, and changes in negotiators. Solution:  If this is done intentionally, then that is pretty low and speaks to the type of person you are dealing with. Confer with your team to verify that it’s not just you feeling under the weather. Ask to change the environment (e.g., turn down the temperature, adjust the seating, move rooms) and don’t be afraid to call for a break or reschedule the meeting. 8. Suddenly Loses Interest Issue:  Makes you think you will lose the deal in an attempt to gain better terms. Solution:  Don’t panic. Ask what changed and recognize that it may be a tactic. Use emotional muscle and be patient. Don’t nag, but stay in regular contact and document your communications, key milestones and decisions, and consequences for the sale if delays persist. 9. Outnumbers You Issue:  Intimidation through a large contingent of buyers in the meeting. Solution:  Ask for clarification of attendees’ roles in advance of the sales meeting. If the sale will affect other functions or areas of the business, it is logical that the buyer may want to include his colleagues in the sales meetings. If the sale or delivery is large or complex, consider expanding your sales team accordingly. But if you find yourself being bullied, hold your ground and schedule a follow up meeting when you can return with reinforcements! 10. Plays Dumb Issue:  Gets you to back down by feigning a lack of awareness, expectation, or assumption. Solution:  Do not allow the buyer’s "not knowing" to impact your thinking or terms. You should not have to alter the deal or make sacrifices due to your client’s lack of knowledge or attention. You’re the expert, so it is incumbent that you clearly and thoroughly spell out each step along with pricing, timing, delivery, etc. to avoid any misunderstanding. 11. Uses Past Experience (negative or positive) Against You Issue:  Makes you feel guilty or less confident in an attempt to tip the scales in his favor. Solution:  Acknowledge past situations such as customer loyalty or delivery-gone-bad, but keep your eye on the ball and stay in the present. You shouldn’t feel as though you owe the client anything. See through any such emotion by thinking of how you would explain a discounted or padded sale to your boss. If you can’t easily justify it, then move on. If it’s a reasonable request offer to check with your boss, but make no promises. 12. Uses Silence Issue:  Pressures you to concede — the first to talk after the price or a demand is on the table is the first to fold. Solution:  Keep quiet! Be silent after you state your price. Don’t stammer on, making excuses or explaining this or that - you will only be feeding them ammunition that can be used against you. 13. Uses "Broken Record" Issue:  Wear you down by repeatedly barraging you with demands, concerns, budgets, limitations, or expectations. Solution:  Be a "broken record" yourself and ask questions. If you don’t receive a satisfactory answer, ask again until you are  comfortable. Call them out by acknowledging that "You’re obviously concerned about xyz, yet you still haven’t answered my question. I’m trying to help you, but you either don’t know or don’t want to tell me the answer. Let’s resolve this so we can move on." 14. Uses the "Nibble" Issue:  Gets a last-minute concession. Solution:  Do not let down your guard at the end of the negotiation when you think you have a deal. Don’t let that feeling of elation that the deal is done cause you to agree to a concession no matter how small it may seem. Ask yourself: "What does it do to my profitability and future deals?" Many of these issues can be managed through clear communication and by documenting steps, interactions, decision milestones, and consequences throughout the sale process. Both sales reps and buyers should operate under the assumption that they are building a long-term vendor relationship and not just making a one-time transaction. When making a purchase of any kind on any scale, both seller and buyer should feel confident in the deal. When something goes awry, it might be unintentional and easily explained, but it could also signal larger problems to come down the road. Your bottom line: be willing to walk away and let the client know it. Do you agree with our list? Feel free to add additional tactics and countermeasures in the comments section! If you don’t know the countermeasure, we’ll be glad to help you think it through. ———————————————- To learn more our Richardson’s award winning Negotiation Sales Training please click here.   The post 14 Tactics of Adversarial Negotiators and Countermeasures to Level the Playing Field appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

Team Selling: 8 Questions to Select the Right Players and Screen Out the Deadweight As solution complexity, buyer expectations and competition intensifies, the more likely your sales people and account managers will require additional firepower to help them win business. However, bringing new players, such as product specialists, sales engineers, technical experts and senior executives into a deal increases complexity, risk and cost. While it is important to work as a team and support your people’s success, consumption of scarce, precious resources requires forethought and accountability. Before your subject matter experts start jumping on airplanes to support your sales team, consider the following questions to help you make better decisions. 1. Does the opportunity/relationship merit their involvement? The opportunity should be sales qualified, large enough and realistically winnable so the risk and effort justifies the reward. It is better to define these criteria in advance. For example, do you have a relationship with the economic buyer or are you merely responding to a blind RFP? Establishing criteria gives you rationale so that decisions to support or not support an opportunity don’t seem arbitrary or political. 2. Will the resource provide a clear benefit and add value to the buyer or client? Don’t leave your buyer questioning the value of anyone involved in your pursuit. If someone’s value to your team isn’t clear, that person should not be involved. The only possible exception could be when onboarding someone new. When this is the case, assign them some tasks that will help them learn and be a productive part of the team. 3. Do they add or balance technical or industry expertise? As I mentioned in my opening, solutions can be very complex and situations may require specialized expertise to craft the best-possible solution. This is especially the case when there are legal and regulatory concerns, special licensing requirements, or highly-technical content or skill requirements. Additionally, there may be important nuances that must be taken into account to adapt solutions for certain industries. 4. Do they add or balance skill expertise (i.e., negotiations)? Having a team member who can not only add value based on their subject matter expertise but also their sales expertise is a huge bonus. Often this is related to experience. If someone has been in a situation and has learned firsthand what it takes to succeed, that tribal knowledge will benefit the team. Think about your sales process from prospecting to close and to retention and growth. Then, identify where you have strengths and gaps across the process to execute. As you choose team members, consider those who can fill gaps in addition to providing technical expertise. 5. Do they add or balance senior presence? In complex sales, it is crucial to identify the buy influences and decision makers. If the buyer has a very senior-level team and if they are highly influential, then to the extent possible, you should balance and align your team by rank and role. Brining senior-level executives into an opportunity demonstrates commitment. Additionally, senior-level peers can relate authentically to the concerns of each other, and provide reassurances that address concerns. This can often be the difference it takes to win. 6. Do they have an existing relationship with a client decision maker we can leverage to help us win the business? This is a bit of a no-brainer, but in large organizations it is difficult to know who knows who. However, LinkedIn can be a very powerful tool to even navigate your internal networks. You should start by connecting with key influencers in the buying organizations. Once you’re connected to a buyer, then you can often see in their immediate connections if they are connected to anyone in your company. This is quick and easy, and you just never know what relationships may already exist that you can leverage. 7. Will they be responsible for any ongoing relationship or implementation? Involving these people on your team makes the hand-off process much smoother because they have the benefit of hearing any preceding conversations firsthand. Managing client expectations is always very tricky, especially when the solution requires a lot of customization and services. Having that consistency of personnel from the sale to implementation helps prevent scope creep and unproductive conflict. 8. Can they devote the time to win the deal? Big opportunities create big excitement, but also big demands and big commitments. Everyone wants to be on the deal team and be part of the glory and reward of winning, but not everyone can put the time into what it will take to win. This puts stress on the rest of the team to pick up the slack for incomplete or shoddy work. It creates conflict in times that require cohesiveness. ——————————————————————————————————— To learn more about Richardson’s award winning sales training solutions, please email us by Clicking Here or by visiting our web site at http://www.richardson.com The post Team Selling: 8 Questions to Select the Right Players and Screen Out the Deadweight appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

Richardson Named to 2013 Selling Power Top 20 Sales Training Companies List Richardson is honored to announce that we have been selected to the 2013 Top 20 Sales Training Companies list published by Selling Power magazine. The list appears in the Summer (July/Aug/Sept) issue of Selling Power, which will be mailed to subscribers in the second week of August. Selling Power went through an extensive evaluation and selection process in determining the companies included on the 2013 list. The criteria used for selection included: 1)   Depth and breadth of training offered 2)   Innovative offerings or delivery methods 3)   Global capabilities 4)   Ability to customize offerings 5)   Strength of client satisfaction Richardson has over 30 years of experience creating customized sales training programs and solutions that build organizational ability and improve individual skill necessary to grow profitable sales. Richardson works with some of the largest and most sophisticated companies in the world, and has won numerous awards for sales training excellence. "To be included in the Selling Power Magazine list of the 2013 Top 20 Sales Training Companies is truly an honor" says David DiStefano, President and CEO of Richardson. "The selection criteria and rigor with which Selling Power used to select the Top 20 makes this achievement a meaningful award."  "When a company has adopted an excellent sales training program, the proof is the reaction of the customer," says Selling Power founder and CEO Gerhard Gschwandtner. "Good sales training actually enhances the buying experience for the customer. A high-quality sales training initiative is one of the best investments a sales leader can make to become more successful and more competitive in any market." For more information or to order a copy of the Summer issue, visit sellingpower.com or call Selling Power headquarters at (540) 752-7000. About Selling Power  In addition to Selling Power magazine, the leading periodical for sales managers and sales VPs since 1981, Selling Power Inc. produces the Sales Management Digest and Daily Boost of Positivity online newsletters, as well as a five-minute video series featuring interviews with top executives. Selling Power is a regular media sponsor of the Sales 2.0 Conference. CONTACT: Larissa Gschwandtner, 713-874-0898 larissa@sellingpower.com. About Gerhard Gschwandtner Gerhard Gschwandtner is the Founder and CEO of Selling Power and the publisher of Selling Power magazine. He conducts a popular Daily Report video series featuring interviews with top sales and marketing executives and CEOs and regularly hosts the Sales 2.0 Conference. He is a recipient of the Sales & Marketing Executives International, Inc. 2010 Ambassador of Free Enterprise Award. Read his blog at blog.sellingpower.com.   The post Richardson Named to 2013 Selling Power Top 20 Sales Training Companies List appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

What Is Your Sales Effectiveness with Leads? You Decide. Leads If you work in sales, they stink, right? Marketing couldn’t find an iron "sales-ready" lead with a magnet. If you work in marketing, sales reps couldn’t convert a good lead if their lives depended on it. The reality varies by company, but in my experience the truth is usually somewhere in the middle. I want to be clear about that before I go on, because I don’t believe that the challenge with lead gen is just a Sales problem.  Get together like big boys and girls, and figure it out. Now, having said that, sales reps can make a conscious choice to capitalize on what they have while they work through any issues with their marketing cohorts. That’s what this post is about. I recently wrote about "attitude" in my recent blog, Sales Training Programs: Putting the A back in KSA. In my experience, a sales rep’s attitude about the leads greatly influences his or her sales effectiveness. To illustrate that point, I have a story for you. You Get What You Pay Work For In one company, from my past that shall remain nameless (not a Richardson client), sales reps could: be given leads (as new reps, or as incentive later) earn leads (based on their sales results), or purchase leads (at any time, through a future commission-offset program). All leads were potential clients who had expressed an interest in some way, although there were a variety of lead types… some were (allegedly) exclusive; some not… some were recent; others were "cold case" files. During our sales effectiveness research on top-producer practices, we surveyed, interviewed, and observed a wide berth of sales reps… top-producing, above-average, average, and below-average. From that study, and our CRM analytics, we learned many reps made one or two calls to a lead, and possibly sent one email, but simply stopped after that. (Oddly, there was no statistical difference on follow-up behavior whether the leads were free or purchased.) When we discussed the poor follow-up with reps and front-line managers (who sold), the reasons that we heard, were: Got busy / distracted Too much time went by Other leads responded Tired of "no response" Too many sales meetings, not enough time to call and get everything else done Had too many sales appointments to constantly follow-up on "no response" leads And… Coffee is For Closers …most interestingly, we also heard that the leads were "bogus" in some way (and sometimes this was true).  "Bogus" meant stuff like "wrong phone number" or "name = Donald Duck" or "email bounced." This was a small number in reality, but when you talked to reps, if you did/didn’t actually follow-up behind the scenes to check, you would get the impression that every third lead was bogus. Not so. It was maybe one in 20 (if purchased, they could get credit). By contrast, the top two producers in the company loved leads. They eschewed all other lead generation advice to build their business solely on leads. They purchased a massive amount of them, and called each new lead 6 to 8 times per day, dialing as soon as possible after one arrived. They did this for the first two days, and also left one voicemail per day and sent one email per evening. After that, the lead went into rotation to be called fewer times per day, and then weekly, then into a quarterly rotation. (Sometimes, these leads converted months down the road.) These guys called from the car, from their kitchen, in the office, and walking out of appointments. (I have no proof but suspect they called from the bathroom.) If they weren’t in a sales meeting or appointment, they were dialing. As I mentioned, these were the top two reps in the company. And when I say "top two," it was by a HUGE margin - almost double the production of the next nearest reps (who were also far above the mean and median averages). Top Producer Sales Effectiveness In terms of sales effectiveness, they had great conversions at other pipeline stages, but they attributed much of their success to their disciplined focus on calling leads and setting appointments. They did this in the same environment as everyone else: They purchased the same type of leads from the same sources. The CRM and mobile CRM app they used to do this was available to every rep in the company. There was nothing magical about their smartphones. They had the same hours in a day and worked about 50-55 hours per week on average (the same as many other top and above-average producers). They encountered the same percentage of "bogus" leads. Interestingly, in terms of how they approached leads and what they said… they were positive, friendly, smooth and polished, but it wasn’t any different than what we heard from above-average reps across the country. The prospecting approach was relatively the same and the way they resolved objections was the same. What was different? Their attitude toward leads… they loved them. Their approach toward calling… they made it a game and saw it as a challenge to be conquered. Rather than complain, they told funny stories and laughed about their "bogus" leads, and then moved on. (Lower-producing reps got very negative and dwelled, losing time and momentum.) If there was no answer on the first attempt they called back in a short amount of time, which substantially improved their connect-to-lead ratio (although not their calls-to-connects ratio, since it doubled their calls). More connections meant more appointments which meant more sales. They worked on improving conversion at each stage, but just the raw numbers of calls and connects, made a difference. They maximized the systems and tools that the company provided. They created a plan and executed it with extreme discipline. Food for Thought Questions for you or your team: What’s your sales effectiveness with leads? What’s your attitude toward your leads? What choices are you making? Is there really a problem with the leads? If so, could you be doing better while you’re addressing any problems? Are you maximizing the opportunities you have? Do you have a plan? Are you executing with discipline? Are you tracking results to identify conversion issues and improve each ratio? I hope this post has given you food for thought or ideas to explore. If so, I’d love to hear your thoughts. If not, I’d love to hear your perspective, if it’s different. Download a complimentary copy of our ebook - The Roadmap to Scalable and Sustainable Sales Transformation The post What Is Your Sales Effectiveness with Leads? You Decide. appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

Creating a Culture of Accountability for Sellers and Enablers… and Why it Matters Today’s blog post appears courtesy of Daniel West, Executive Vice President, Strategy & Corporate Development at SAVO Group Look closely at any enterprise level sales organization today and you’ll likely find a team struggling with a common set of issues: "There’s too much information and I can’t find the stuff I need when I need it." "My sales team can’t adapt quickly enough to new messaging and go-to-market initiatives." "It takes too long for our new sales hires to get up to speed and be productive." "Our sales process isn’t delivering an accurate forecast or predictable revenue." Do any of these challenges sound familiar to you?  If so, don’t worry.  You’re not alone…whether you’re a sales rep in the trenches, a sales leader managing a territory, or a CEO struggling to get the value you expected out of your sales investments, these are all very common roadblocks. Over the last decade, I’ve had the benefit of working with companies like Mercury Interactive, HP Software, Informatica and the SAVO Group to resolve these issues, and many others related to driving maximum efficiency and effectiveness from a direct or indirect sales organization. During that time, I’ve learned that when executing a sales enablement initiative there are a number of focus areas that can make the difference between success and failure, namely: Efficiency Repeatability Alignment Measurement While all of the above are critical to long-term success, establishing a measurement framework must be an immediate priority as it is key to creating a "culture of accountability."  The American Management Association (2011) defines a "culture of accountability" as:  "A personal choice to rise above one’s circumstances and demonstrate the ownership necessary for achieving desired results—to See It, Own It, Solve It, and Do It."  Clearly, a culture that values ownership and responsibility is essential for driving the alignment and clear expectations required to address the challenges highlighted earlier and for transforming your sales organization into consistent high performers. So, how do you create a culture of accountability for sales enablement when most organizations struggle to define exactly what this term means and what the function is responsible for inside their company?  In some organizations, sales enablement equates to competitive intelligence, and in others it’s new hire sales training, and for some it’s a strategic function or discipline responsible for delivering the knowledge, process and tools necessary to maximize output from the field. No matter which definition of sales enablement is right for your organization, the right metrics, clearly communicated, ensure alignment across the goals and priorities of stakeholders and help establish a common language and framework to measure progress against stated objectives. The "holy grail" for sales enablement functions is defining and reporting against a set of metrics that directly correlate the execution of enablement initiatives with positive changes in field behavior and ultimately improvements in sales performance.  Without this, it’s all too easy for enablement to be relegated to a hygiene factor - when results are good, it’s got nothing to do with enablement; but when performance falters it’s suddenly because the sales reps weren’t trained, couldn’t deliver the right message or didn’t understand how to follow the sales process. As such, a primary goal for sales enablement functions should be transitioning from measuring "consumption" to measuring "IMPACT."  While consumption is an important metric - it’s important to understand what content is being downloaded, viewed, discussed, and used by the field - you can’t stop there.  The more important question is whether you’re changing the behaviors required to deliver the desired improvements in sales performance, hence impact. Impact can be measured by marrying data associated with enablement consumption to performance data typically tracked in CRM, thus providing enablement organizations with the opportunity to drive a correlation between the execution of enablement programs and changes in sales performance, answering questions like - i.e. did the reps that attended a cross-selling workshop display better results in cross-selling sales campaigns several months later vs. their peers that didn’t attend the program?; did the latest batch of new hires that went through the new on-boarding program ramp more quickly than their predecessors? By measuring impact, marketing organizations can understand if the content they’re developing is being used by sales to drive results. Does it enable a high impact conversation with a prospect? Does it help a seller advance more quickly through a deal stage?  Does it satisfy an important customer buying criteria?  Does it clearly articulate solution capabilities, differentiation and value? By providing metrics focused on sales performance, the enablement function increases it’s visibility at the executive level and can expect accountability in return.  For example, at one organization I’ve worked for the WW head of sales made it clear that any sales rep that didn’t complete the enablement pre-work required for sales kick-off would have their "ticket" to kick-off revoked. Not surprisingly, there was 100% compliance with pre-work completion that year. Accountability has to be a two-way street. In addition to developing the right criteria for measuring enablement impact in your organization, consider these additional approaches: Build a framework and measurement structure to demonstrate the impact of enablement across both leading and lagging indicators and agree that is how constituents will hold themselves accountable on a quarterly basis. Implement an infrastructure that is capable of managing enablement on a consistent and scalable basis, worldwide. Provide senior sales leadership visibility to which sales teams and people are consuming the enablement assets and programs provided and how they’re performing against any assessments created to measure knowledge retention and application so they can help drive accountability through sales management and to the individual field rep level. Create a quarterly reporting process that ensures stakeholders stay aligned and progress against key objectives. To support the focus on accountability, consider grounding your strategy in these fundamental principles: Internally align the enablement function and the field, marketing and the product management organization Align with the customer through the development of a buyer-oriented sales process Drive consistency across roles, geographies and functions to improve re-use and ROI Leverage technology to drive scale in a cost effective manner In the world of enablement, the old adage "you can’t manage what you don’t measure" is just as true so start defining your metrics now! About Daniel West: Daniel West is the Executive Vice President, Strategy & Corporate Development at SAVO. In this role, Daniel is responsible for defining the growth path, programs and priorities for SAVO, including strategic partnerships, alliances and market expansion programs. With nine years of executive-level sales enablement experience, he comes to SAVO with a reputation as one of the industry’s thought leaders and innovators. He has built and managed the sales enablement function in three of the software industries’ most successful companies, as well as managed global strategic alliance programs and direct sales teams. Originally from Sydney, Daniel has a BA in Journalism and a Master of Commerce in Marketing from the University of New South Wales - See more at: http://www.savogroup.com/executive-team/#sthash.Q5qBlNsX.dpuf About SAVO Group: Founded in 1999, SAVO is the leading provider of sales enablement solutions.  SAVO’s on-demand sales enablement platform maximizes the sales team’s ability to communicate value and differentiation in clear, consistent and compelling ways. Combining proven sales and marketing best practices with award-winning technology, SAVO addresses all aspects of the sales enablement challenge — spanning people, process, insight and technology. For more information, visit www.savogroup.com or follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter. See more at: http://www.savogroup.com/one-third-of-companies-report-the-majority-of-their-leads-return-for-more-nurturing/#sthash.TebRewzR.dpuf ——————————————————————————— Sales Organization Change Checklist Click here or on the image below to learn more about how ready you are to effectively implement change within your sales organization with Richardson’s Sales Organization Change Checklist The post Creating a Culture of Accountability for Sellers and Enablers… and Why it Matters appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

Which Top Producers Should You Study to Develop Sales Training Programs? Huh? Isn’t that a silly question? This is pretty clear, right? A top producer brings in the most revenue. You study them. Well, maybe. It depends. Some questions I’d ask first are: What’s the context for "top producer?" What does exemplary performance mean in your company? Are you truly looking at the right things? What exactly are you trying to accomplish with your sales training program? What behaviors do you need to replicate to do that? Context is the New Black If revenue is what you pay for, as your primary criteria for variable compensation, those who bring in the most business will receive the biggest rewards.  That’s your decision, based on your company objectives, and those are the producers who will likely: be lauded with recognition, walk across the stage, take the trips, and reap the financial rewards. In many cases, if that’s your sole criteria, I might question your decision, but that’s another discussion and not the topic for this post. If you’re studying exemplary sales performers to gather top-producer practices to provide content for sales training programs, however, "bringing in the most business" or "highest revenue production" is usually not the only criteria you want to consider. This may seem counter-intuitive to some. If that’s you, suspend disbelief for a moment and I’ll explain. Let’s start by looking at the performance of some reps. Imagine you’re conducting a study of top producers compared to mid producers, to develop Continue | Start | Stop content to improve the performers of the middle 60 percent of your sales force, and move them up a notch. Out of the 80 reps in your company, you’ve asked your sales leaders to give you their "top 10 percent" A-Players and another 10 percent that is representative of the middle 60 percent B-Players. The graphic represents what you were given by Sales Ops for the top ten percent, for the last quarter. And, as you’d imagine, it’s all about revenue. > Question 1:  So, is this the group you should study? Correlation Doesn’t Prove Causation My answer is, "I don’t know." I need more information to make that decision. What if I added this information to the mix? Andrea has been with the company for 18 years and is managing more accounts than anyone in the company, many of which she has inherited over the years as other reps left. She obviously does a great job with her accounts as an account manager and continues to grow them steadily. She is not doing any business development. Phillip took over his territory from Sally, who left the company 10 months ago. At that time, Sally was the top revenue producer with $54K in her final full quarter. Phillip has lost one major client to a competitor and the vast bulk of production for this quarter came from one large client that he inherited. He has a very weak pipeline, closed no new business, and hasn’t grown any of his other assigned accounts. Rayelle started 4 months ago, in a new territory with no inherited clients. The $18K from this quarter was produced in the last two months, once her training was completed, all from her own prospecting efforts. Based on her pipeline, she could give Jon and Peter a run for their money next quarter. > Question 2:  Does this change anything for you? Probably. But not so fast. Connecting the Other Dots Let’s layer another detail… the desired outcome of the training we’re building. Now let’s say that your senior sales leader shares the goal from the majority of sales leaders surveyed in the last CSO Insights survey. Sixty-seven percent of those sales leaders stated their primary objective for the year as new account acquisition, yet 65 percent of them rated their sales team as "needing improvement" in lead generation. > Question 3:  Does that change your opinion again? I’d imagine so. We could play this game all day, so I’ll stop here, but this is the game of real life, isn’t it? and a common failing of generic "best practices" methodology. To get the best results, context matters. I strongly suggest that you consider internal top-producer practices study (instead of general best practices), conducted in context with a specific sales performer analysis that is connected to the organization’s strategic sales goals.  Strike Up the Bands In most of my sales performer analyses, I band performers in the following categories. Top 20% (divided into top 4% and remaining 16%) Middle 60% (divided into above average, average and below average) Bottom 20% But to do an analysis to determine who falls where, I start by defining what results we’re hoping to achieve and which shapes our definition of top producer. The part that confuses many linearly thinking people is that the reps in the categories may change, based on the definition and desired outcomes - sometimes, even within the same study. Skim Milk Masquerades as Cream As an example, I once did a study where a small subset of performers excelled at cross-selling, which was a strategic focus for management and needed to be included in the resulting sales training program. Oddly, these exemplar cross-sellers were not all part of the general Top 20 Percent category (although some certainly were). For that part of the study, these cross-sellers became the Top 20 Percent and were analyzed separately in a spreadsheet and with SPSS. To have even more impact with your training content and sales training reinforcement (including sales coaching), once you determine the practices that produce the best results in one band, you can compare that to the band directly under it, and create a Continue | Start | Stop list, to help sales managers coach those team members up a notch or completely in the next band. But that, my friends, is an entirely different post for the future. In the interim, identifying and studying various bands of performers compared to top producers can fuel great gap-closing content. You can include what you learn whether you build your own courses, or work with one of the few sales training leaders like Richardson, that will deeply customize courseware to accomplish your goals and get the results you need. For now, I hope this has given you some food for thought about what you consider a Top Producer when developing sales training programs and how you might approach it differently, driven by context and your desired outcomes. As always, I’ll leave you with some additional reading and hope to hear from you in the comments. It would especially be interesting to hear your responses to Questions 1-3, as they were presented in the post (given what you knew at the time). Additional reading: Increase Sales with Top-Producer Practices http://www.mikekunkle.com/2013/03/17/how-to-increase-sales-with-top-producer-practices-part1/ Is Your Top Rep a True A Player? http://www.salesbenchmarkindex.com/bid/86090/A-Sales-Management-Dilemma-Is-Your-Top-Rep-a-True-A-Player Business Needs for Customized Sales Training http://blogs.richardson.com/2013/02/13/12-business-needs-for-customized-sales-training/ Tracking Progress and Learning from Top Performers http://www.mikhailklassen.com/2013/04/tracking-progress-and-learning-from-top-performers/ Best Practices Aren’t http://www.forbes.com/sites/mikemyatt/2012/08/15/best-practices-arent/ Top Performers Produce 4x More Output and Higher Quality Referrals http://www.ere.net/2013/05/06/top-performers-produce-4x-more-output-and-higher-quality-referrals/ Sales Dashboards http://chandoo.org/wp/2010/01/04/sales-dashboards/ Sales Organization Change Checklist Click here or on the image below to learn more about how ready you are to effectively implement change within your sales organization with Richardson’s Sales Organization Change Checklist The post Which Top Producers Should You Study to Develop Sales Training Programs? appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

Making Sales Training Stick: Building a Continuous Learning Environment You know the feeling. You’re driving in your car, trying to get where you’re going, but are frustratingly slowed by every traffic light on the road. Oh how you’d rather be on a smooth highway, free of traffic lights (and traffic) and motoring on toward your destination unimpeded. Sound familiar? That scenario represents a good analogy for the difference between a training culture and a culture of continuous learning. When companies  provide training once or even a few times per year and view the programs as independent, standalone events are driving the first car. Rather than building momentum, the constant starting and stopping can be a drain on your resources as well as limiting the driver’s (your sales reps) capabilities. However, if you choose, you can remove those obstacles and set a course for cruising down the highway unimpeded towards your goals, getting there faster than your stop-and-start peers. Need more convincing? A continuous learning environment is a business strategy, not an L&D strategy. Organizations with a strong learning culture significantly outperform their peers in several areas: Innovation: 92% more likely to devise novel products and processes Productivity: 52% greater employee productivity Customer Satisfaction: 53% better response to customer needs Costs: 50% greater ability to manage costs Time to Market: 56% more likely to be first to market Profitability: 17% more likely to be a market share leader Source: High-Impact Learning Culture: The 40 Best Practices for Creating an Empowered Enterprise (Bersin, June 2010) Those numbers can significantly enhance the effectiveness of your sales organization and directly translate to your bottom line. A Continuous Learning Environment Approach Requires an Enlightened Mindset What does it take to transition to a continuous learning approach? Of course getting senior-level buy-in is critical along with enlisting key supporters and influencers down the line to help reinforce the change, but there also are some fundamental changes in "doctrine" that will be necessary for you to accept and espouse. A training curriculum isn’t enough. Having an organized set of training programs - even if they contain pre-learning and prep work as well as follow-up activities - is still mired in the old way of thinking. A traditional approach to learning places the overwhelming majority of the focus, time, and resources on the intervention itself. (It’s not a bad thing that L&D managers and their staffs have event planning skills, but that should not be where they place their emphasis.) Some might give attention to pre- and post-training, but only as an afterthought and "if I have time" and "if there’s anything left in the budget." The bottom line is that L&D feels little ownership or responsibility for what happens between interventions. Conversely, in making the leap to a continuous learning environment, there are several key differences: Attention is given to all phases of training (before, intervention, after). Quash the one-and-done training mindset for good by evaluating your starting point, preparing your reps before the training program, and knowing what you’ll do after the event to keep them interested and engaged. Environmental vs. intervention-driven. This requires a broader knowledge and awareness of your business, including how you make money, the interconnectedness and interdependencies among business groups and units (as well as gaps between them), and future direction. Moving the needle demands a big picture outlook and the ability to connect the dots to create points of leverage and synergy where it might not have existed previously. Recognize that other phases are of at least equal importance. Pre-training work should not be viewed as reps filling out forms before they arrive; similarly, a post-training survey or evaluation does not constitute engagement. Traditional approaches might place 80%-90% of budget and time against the intervention with a mere 5%-10% half-heartedly divided between pre- and post-training. Be radical and split your attention into equal thirds, or maybe even place greater emphasis beyond the event. L&D takes ownership of "learning as a process." They need to truly partner with sales leaders and others to help enact this change. Help reps get on a ride that doesn’t stop. It’s the difference in speed and efficiency between Frogger and Pole Position (without the recklessness). Look for opportunities to reinforce, develop, apply, and become expert at what you’ve taught them until it’s time to take it to the next level. Tactics to Help Foster a Culture of Continuous Learning Here are a few suggestions for ways to bring about a continuous learning environment. (Again, senior-level sponsorship and endorsement is critical; without it, your efforts could wither on the vine if they get anywhere at all.) Gamification. We’ve covered in previous posts how gamification tools such as Richardson’s QuickCheckTM can help keep learners engaged well beyond the training event, but more importantly increase their retention of critical knowledge gained that would otherwise be lost soon after a training event. Social media and networks. Get cozy with the guys down the hall in IT. Work with them to create internal online groups, forums, discussion boards, blogs, and the like to help reps keep the dialogue going beyond the training. Monitor the chatter to influence future trainings (e.g., where to place more or less focus). Also enlist the marketing and communications folks for their help in devising communications campaigns to help keep fuel on the fire post- and between trainings among reps. Job mentoring, shadowing, and sharing. When one group has the benefit of being trained and gaining expertise in a certain area, how can you leverage that until everyone has had the chance to receive the same training? Do you even need to run everyone through the same program, or can your trained group become leaders and mentors for the others? And how can you spread the "magic" that’s happening with one particular team across the entire organization? Some organizations can train everyone concurrently while others need to move in stages or phases. In either approach, look for experts or fast learners who can help others. That’s where job mentoring, job shadowing, and job sharing come into play. Establishing cross-functional sales teams is another way of bringing people together with varying levels of expertise and sharing experiences. When you do this, be careful how you position your expectations of what they’ll do with it. "With great power comes great responsibility" is a quote made popular by the Spiderman movies, but was originally made famous by the French philosopher Voltaire. Be sure that your mentors are up to the task and not withholding information or effort in helping others to advance. Communicate and reinforce the expectation that they will help others and not hoard their knowledge for their own benefit. Reward the behaviors and results you want to see. This goes for all involved, including (1) the L&D leaders who need to change their mindset and approach to learning, (2) reps that successfully complete training and master skills, and (3) mentors who go above and beyond to help others. If you really want to enact a behavior change, money will usually get their attention. What do you do to help "make learning stick" in your organization? Leave us your ideas or thoughts on those presented here in the Comments. ————————————————————————- Click the following to learn more about making your sales training stick, Richardson QuickCheck The post Making Sales Training Stick: Building a Continuous Learning Environment appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

 Selling With Insights: How Can Sales Provide More Value to Clients? In preparation for a conversation with the client, sales reps must be aware that the client already knows a lot. To differentiate the business, sales reps should bring new value added ideas to the discussion. In this video, Selling With Insights: How can sales provide more value to clients, Richardson’s Dario Priolo, Chief Strategy Officer, offers practical advice to sales about the process of providing value to highly informed clients. (if you have any difficulties viewing this video, please click here) ———————————— Selling with Insights™ Richardson’s Selling with Insights™ is a customized sales training solution that teaches your sales reps advanced preparation techniques and dialogue skills to effectively present insights, create needs and shape the customer’s thinking, add more value, differentiate your solution, and build credibility as a trusted business partner. Richardson’s Selling with Insights™ program specifically targets modes of selling that we have identified in our work with top clients and industry experts, especially Create and Shape.  In these modes, reps share insights, but what they share and how they share it depends on the appropriate response to the buyer’s location in their process.  The goal in each mode is to increase your ability to influence decisions and win. To learn more, please click here.   The post Video Blog - Selling With Insights: How Can Sales Provide More Value to Clients? appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

Selling With Insights: What are the Barriers to Selling With Insights? In our last blog, How Can Sales Provide More Value to Clients, we discussed how sales provide more value to clients through insight selling. But what are the barriers to Selling With Insights? There are several barriers that sales reps encounter when trying to Sell With Insights to their clients, including finding the most relevant insight for the customer. In his video blog, What are the Barriers to Selling With Insights, Dario Priolo, Chief Strategy Officer, discusses what is required of sales and marketing teams to bring value to the buyer from Selling With Insights. ———————————— Selling with Insights™ Richardson’s Selling with Insights™ is a customized sales training solution that teaches your sales reps advanced preparation techniques and dialogue skills to effectively present insights, create needs and shape the customer’s thinking, add more value, differentiate your solution, and build credibility as a trusted business partner. Richardson’s Selling with Insights™ program specifically targets modes of selling that we have identified in our work with top clients and industry experts, especially Create and Shape.  In these modes, reps share insights, but what they share and how they share it depends on the appropriate response to the buyer’s location in their process.  The goal in each mode is to increase your ability to influence decisions and win. To learn more, please click here. The post Video Blog - Selling With Insights: What are the Barriers to Selling With Insights? appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

Focus on Your Average and Bottom Performers to Improve Sales Performance Yeah, I know. Based on the title, you’re already shaking your head, wondering if I’ve finally lost my marbles. Hang with me… I’m pretty sure you’ll see what I mean. In an earlier post entitled "Which Top Producers Should You Study to Develop Sales Training Programs?", I introduced a sales analytics approach that I’ve use for analyzing top producers and placing the sales organization into six major bands. Socrates is quoted as saying, "The beginning of wisdom is the definition of terms," so I want to clarify some terms for this post: I typically define "Average" as the group of producers that surround the mean and median averages, for the metrics you are using. The "Above Average" group is simply the group that lands between your upward cut-off for Average and the bottom of the Top 20 Percent. To avoid saying "the Above Average and Average groups" every time, when I say "Average" in this post, this is the combo of groups that I’m referring to. The bottom performers are simply those in the Bottom 20 Percent. Improve Sales Performance with Continue | Start | Stop Coaching In the previous post I referenced, I discussed using a form of task analysis and comparative analysis to create Continue | Start | Stop lists between performance bands, to coach performers in one band, up a notch. I’ve had great success with this approach and the resulting sales coaching. It will improve sales performance. What I didn’t share in that post, was where I encourage sales managers to focus their time and the type of sales coaching support most often needed by band, to get the maximum benefit from coaching time. This is a gross oversimplification and generalization, so I want to clarify that upfront to avoid giving the wrong impression. (It’s "directionally correct," but my recommendations may vary quite a bit based on real-life context.) Having clarified that, here’s what I’d offer, generally: In my experience, you’ll get your biggest lift from two places. And they are (drum roll, please): The Average groups above the Pareto Line (where you should spend the largest percent of your time, when working to improve sales performance) The established low performers (not the new hires or recent trainees) in the Bottom 20 Percent group (where you should spend 10% of your time, appropriately moving these performers out of the organization) To do this, the Continue | Start | Stop work (resulting from your sales analysis and task/performance lever analysis) and sound sales coaching will both help you improve sales performance in the Average groups. This deserves a post (or several) in itself, and we’ll certainly write more about this type of sales coaching. It works. Improve Sales Performance with a Bottom 20% Replacement Plan Your Human Resources team should provide good advice on how to move out these consistent low producers effectively. Do it professionally, with empathy, even kindly. But move them out. In addition to being a heavy drag on your organization’s sales performance, these people deserve an opportunity to find success doing something else (maybe even within your organization). By the way, unless you haven’t hired recently, this won’t usually be the entire 20 percent in this band. Hopefully, some of the reps in this group are newer players who are "just passing through." There’s also big "BUT" with the Bottom group. If you don’t have a solid plan for sourcing, recruiting, selecting and onboarding replacement reps at a higher degree of effectiveness than what you did previously when hiring the incumbents, you risk prolonging the status quo (or making things worse). Obviously, since I’m recommending performance management and replacement, I don’t intend to suggest you shouldn’t release poor performers (or "return them to the community," as a former employer’s CEO used to say). Nor do I want to foster paralysis. But if you don’t have great sales selection systems and processes, it is deserving of significant effort to establish them, and worthy of continuous improvement over time, based on what you learn with each hire. So, if you were scratching your head at the outset, did I redeem myself? Or do you have a different perspective? I’d enjoy hearing either way. To close, here are some questions to ponder and some related reading, if this topic is pertinent now or of interest. Questions Are you analyzing, banding, studying, and doing comparative analysis with your sales organization? If not, why not? If yes, how is it working? Do you spend enough time doing sales coaching? Do you focus on moving up your average and above-average performers? If not, why not? If yes, how is it working? Do you have a compliant, structured way to manage out your low performers who are not improving? Why or why not? How’s it going? Do you believe your sourcing, recruiting, selection and onboarding is as good as it should be? If yes, what are you doing? If not, what are you planning to do about it? Related Reading How Great Sales Leaders Coach Many Happy Returns: The Business Case for Sales Coaching Evaluative vs. Developmental Feedback: Why Sales Leaders Must Understand the Difference Does Spending a Lot to Duplicate Your A Players Work? Do You Want to Improve your Sales Coaching Skills? Try Managing Effort! Where Should I Focus My Sales Coaching Efforts? Using Tailored Post-program Sales Coaching to Get Results from Sales Training ——————————- Sales Organization Change Checklist Click here or on the image below to learn more about how ready you are to effectively implement change within your sales organization with Richardson’s Sales Organization Change Checklist The post Focus on Your Average and Bottom Performers to Improve Sales Performance appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

How to Fix Common Problems with Sales Training Transfer I find it interesting that so many in our profession (and our company leaders) want to talk about how to determine sales training ROI (or Return on Expectations), but don’t want to focus on how to get the learning from courses actually used in the workplace. To me, that’s like wanting to determine the effects of fire on wood and putting your wood in sunlight, hoping it bursts into flames so you can study it. It’s folly. Without transfer, you won’t impact business outcomes and you won’t deliver a return, however you measure it. A Recent Reminder of Sales Training Transfer Obstacles I attended the Dallas ASTD Southwest Learning Summit recently and was in the audience for Steve Lee’s presentation on incorporating gamification principles in scenario-based elearning. It was a strong presentation and Allen Interactions is doing a lot of great work, as are many of the leading elearning/content development companies. A lot of things that Steve shared made sense and were impressive, but one thing really resonated with me, as an indication of our problems with sales training transfer. Describing what one company learned as a result of their experience, he said (paraphrased): "They [the learners] did okay in training, but thought they knew better on the job." In other words, the participants learned the content (knowledge) and could demonstrate judgment to select the right actions in the right scenarios. In terms of teaching the content, the training was effective. Level 2 learning occurred. (We could debate whether you can accomplish true skill transfer with most elearning, when you’re providing answers from which to select, but these students were placed in scenarios and needed to apply judgment about what to do next and choose the right path.) Some of the learning was purposefully heuristic, based on trial and error, but that’s a good learning design and approach for knowledge acquisition. The problem lies in the statement, "…[they] thought they knew better on the job." Even though participants understood the content and achieved the learning objectives of the training, they did not consistently transfer that learning to the workplace, because they thought their way would work better. Why is that? Well, there are multiple possible reasons for this and it’s something that we, as learning professionals and sales performance leaders, really need to understand. Why don’t our participants and employees use what they learned in training, on the job? The list is long, but here are the top categories, in my experience. The Enemies of Sales Training Transfer Failing to Address Attitude: Often, we fail to address attitude and shape motivation. To use a phrase that’s clichéd but accurate in this case, we didn’t "win their hearts and minds" and convince learners that they should change their current behaviors. (For more about this, see: Sales Training Programs: Putting the A back in KSA.) Ignoring Retention: Memory faded. Retention of unused or unreinforced content is unlikely. I’m not going to quote the bogus retention stats that are tossed around so frequently in our profession, but I will offer something from our mobile reinforcement partner: The Science Behind Qstream. Note the research references at the end. Lack of Coaching:  Retaining the knowledge and judgment is the first step, but coaching on how (and how well) to apply skills in a workplace setting, is critical to both training transfer and successful ongoing application. (See Using Tailored Post-Program Sales Coaching to Get Results from Sales Training for recommendations.) Environmental Factors Block Change: Often there are blocks to behavior change, such as lack of clarity or problems with role definition, expectations, feedback, reward systems, organization design, lack of accountability systems and more. No Change Plans: And often, we default to "Hope Mode" when we cannot sell the need for change plans internally, or aren’t sure how to create and execute effective change management or change leadership plans. Culture Still Eats Strategy for Lunch I’ve provided links and additional reading for 4 of the above 5 factors. To further support the remaining environmental factors that can block change (negatively impacting transfer) and address why participants don’t always implement what they’re taught, here are some additional thoughts and resources. Performance Analysis Flowchart One excellent resource comes from Bob Mager and Peter Pipe, from their book, Analyzing Performance Problems. Mager and Pipe’s Performance Analysis Flowchart is legendary and found at various places on the internet today, but is represented officially by The Center for Effective Performance (CEP). On the flowchart, look in the sections labeled Fast Fixes, Consequences, and More Clues, to see how you might address environmental factors. This flowchart is designed for troubleshooting, especially to determine when training may or may not be the right solution, but it works wonderfully for troubleshooting transfer issues, as well. The 16 Reasons The second resource is a book by Ferdinand Fournies, aptly titled, Why Employees Don’t Do What They’re Supposed to Do and What to Do About It. The Table of Contents (displayable on Amazon by mousing over the book cover and clicking on the TOC link), says it all. The reasons Fournies lists include: They Don’t Know Why They Should Do It They Don’t Know How To Do It They Don’t Know What They Are Supposed To Do They Think Your Way Will Not Work They Think Their Way Is Better They Think Something Else Is More Important There Is No Positive Consequence to Them for Doing It They Think They Are Doing It They Are Rewarded for Not Doing It They Are Punished for Doing What They Are Supposed To Do They Anticipate a Negative Consequence for Doing It There Is No Negative Consequence to Them for Poor Performance Obstacles Beyond Their Control Their Personal Limits Prevent Them from Performing Personal Problems No One Could Do It As with Mager and Pipe’s flowchart, not all of Fournies’ factors are environmental, but you can see that. It’s primarily numbers 7 through 13 that are environmental factors (and possibly number 16, based on where the unrealistic expectations originate). Put Learning & Training Transfer Before Results & Returns As sales training or sales leaders, we don’t always own all of the environmental factors, but we must address them as best we can in our organizations. I hope that the Five Enemies of Sales Training Transfer listed above and the additional resources for identifying and addressing environmental (and other) factors, offer helpful guidance and support, for ensuring your employees use the knowledge and skills you provided in training. As I said in the beginning of this post, you certainly won’t be affecting business outcomes or delivering a return, without transfer. I’d enjoy hearing your experiences with sales training transfer and any obstacles with the things I’ve mentioned here (or others). I’ll end with some related reading, as always. If we can help you sort through what’s happening at your organization and discuss ways you can increase retention and transfer, reach out and let us know. Related Reading: Making Sales Training Stick: Building a Continuous Learning Environment Human Performance Technology: A Reference Manual Making Sales Training Stick and Extending Knowledge Retention through Mobile Gamification McGregor Meets Gilbert The Evolution of a Performance Analysis Job Aid Updating the Behavior Engineering Model Help Your Sales Reps Move from "The Forgetting Curve" to "Total Recall" ———————————————————————————————————————- Click the following to learn more about improving your sales training transfer with Richardson’s QuickCheck   The post How to Fix Common Problems with Sales Training Transfer appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

Video Blog - Selling with Insights: How Specific Should Insights Be? We are living in an age where we are overloaded with information. It is now no longer good enough for a salesperson to simply forward on a whitepaper or piece of data. Please join Dario Priolo, Chief Strategy Officer of Richardson, in this short video clip as he walks us through the process and importance of aligning specific insights to your customer’s challenges. This is a third in a series including: Selling With Insights: How can sales provide more value to clients? and Selling With Insights: What are the barriers to Selling With Insights? ————————————- Selling with Insights™ Richardson’s Selling with Insights™ is a customized sales training solution that teaches your sales reps advanced preparation techniques and dialogue skills to effectively present insights, create needs and shape the customer’s thinking, add more value, differentiate your solution, and build credibility as a trusted business partner. Richardson’s Selling with Insights™ program specifically targets modes of selling that we have identified in our work with top clients and industry experts, especially Create and Shape.  In these modes, reps share insights, but what they share and how they share it depends on the appropriate response to the buyer’s location in their process.  The goal in each mode is to increase your ability to influence decisions and win. To learn more, please click here. The post Video Blog - Selling with Insights: How Specific Should Insights Be? appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

7 Essential Ingredients in Creating Effective Sales Training  for Sales Teams Adapted from an interview with Dario Priolo, Chief Strategy Officer for Richardson and Michael Rochelle, Chief Strategy Officer for Brandon Hall Group Part one our series on applying key practices in learning and development to effective sales training Listing ingredients implies that they are part of a recipe, which of course can be literal or figurative. Without wasting time on prologues and previews, we know you’re hungry to learn about the 7 essential ingredients in effective sales training programs. The ingredients can be easily categorized by pre-training, the training itself, and post-training. Pre-training 1. Align training with your business strategy, goals, and needs. What is your strategy and how does the sales training help to support the organization’s strategic objectives? At the end of the day, what is the behavior that you are hoping to drive? How do you want your sales reps to change the way they do things? What do you want them to actually do in order to achieve the desired outcome? If you can’t easily answer these questions or connect your sales training to the needs and priorities of the company, then you should modify it or scratch it altogether. Don’t waste precious time, effort, and energy on tangential diversions. Instead, be able to connect the dots for the trainees as well as senior management to keep everyone focused on the ultimate bottom line. 2. Have the right mindset. Most sales training programs are viewed, planned, and executed as one-off events as opposed to part of a broader change management program or continuous improvement process. Those who are willing to adopt a broader view of sales training programs along a continuum - seeing the before, during, and after of the training event - will have far greater success towards effective sales training. If we’re thinking about the ingredients for a meal (training), take your planning one step further: It’s not just about preparing one dish or meal, but rather about how to sustain that level of satisfaction until the next meal. Conversely, a one-and-done mindset is akin to fast food - it’s cheap and quick but unhealthy and no way to live. 3. Understand your customers. In addition to knowing your business, you also need to consider what’s going on with your customers. There has been a tremendous shift in buyer behavior in recent years fueled by Internet searches, "showrooming," tighter budgets, savvier buyers, mobile and social habits, and the expectation of instant gratification and what-have-you-done-for-me-lately attitudes that can quickly trump customer loyalty. To combat these trends and obstacles, you need to understand why your customers buy what you sell, the value that you bring to them, and how they make buying decisions. While you’re at it, consider other business or environmental changes that could factor into your sales training. Are there any new competitive forces or trends that could cause a shift? Once you’ve dispassionately evaluated these questions, then consider how your sales training programs can help your sales teams circumvent or prevail over these issues. During Training 4. Great instructional design and facilitation makes for great learning. Relevance is critical. There is a premium on sales reps’ time, especially for coming out of the field for training. Therefore, make learning situational, real-world based. Make it practical. Highly situational learners want to immediately apply what they’ve learned. But if what they are learning does not seem immediately applicable, then they disengage. The training loses its impact, the messages are soon forgotten, and learners retreat to their old habits. Instructional designers and facilitators need to be keenly aware of what’s going on in the business and apply their knowledge to helping move the sales team towards their goals. Making sales training relevant is critical, but in addition to that, it must also be actionable. It is not just about transferring knowledge, but helping sales reps to know what you’re asking them to do, why, and how everyone (reps, company, and customers) will benefit. Great instructional design and dynamic facilitation will help to bring that to life in the classroom and create that "just in time, just for me" feeling. 5. Build on your best practices. Build on what you know works in your organization. Think about those best practices that you might want to replicate across the organization that relate to your training needs. Study people in your organization who do it well, then incorporate other practices that will help sales reps execute against your strategic initiatives. Many organizations have deep subject-matter experts in areas that could represent a considerable opportunity for the business. These subject-matter experts work with marketing teams to produce white papers or thought leadership pieces, but that content is not in a format that is easily digestible by sales. The challenge is to unlock the subject-matter expert’s knowledge and experience, package it, and train your team to share these insights in customer conversations. It isn’t always obvious how and when those opportunities are going to present themselves, so having that scenario pre-programmed in the minds of your salesforce so that it becomes very fluent and natural gives them an advantage. That requires mastery of the content as well as the skills necessary to deliver that content in the customer conversations. Create learning principles and takeaways that are highly relevant to real world scenarios. A homerun on content development with a salesperson is "Wow, I just faced that situation, and these concepts and tactics seem to fit perfectly. I took a lot away from what I have just absorbed through learning, and I will do a better job (or take a different approach) the next time I am faced with that situation." Or "I can see where this could happen in my territory. I am glad to have had the opportunity to master the issue before I had to face it." Post-training 6. Leverage technology. It was recently announced that Major League Baseball will formally institute instant replay into all games. Those in favor of it argue that if the technology exists to improve the game, why not use it? The same can be said for training environments. Just because you’ve always done things a certain way doesn’t mean you need to treat your training programs with the same level of sophistication as a one-room schoolhouse on Little House on the Prairie. We’ll cover this in greater detail in future posts, but here are two ways to use technology to make your training more effective: Have your instructors record their lessons in advance and share them with trainees before the training. That way the classroom time can be used for more practical skill building, role plays, and other exercises as opposed to listening to lectures. Keep the training alive by investing in a tool such as QuickCheckTM to engage reps beyond the classroom and increase the odds that they’ll remember what they’ve been taught. 7. Communications campaign. Ever-important, yet always overlooked. If you’re trying to initiate a change, work with your in-house communications experts to craft a communications campaign to reinforce the messages and behaviors that you want to instill in your trainees. Use multiple channels over time to "drip" the message (e.g., email, break room posters, webinar presentations, internal social networking groups, lunch and learns). Finally, identify ways to measure the impact and effectiveness of the training, and make adjustments to your next training initiative if necessary. Does this list of essential ingredients resonate with you? What else would you add to ensure successful and effective sales training initiatives? Tell us in the Comments section. —————————————————- Sales Organization Change Checklist Click here or on the image below to learn more about how ready you are to effectively implement change within your sales organization with Richardson’s Sales Organization Change Checklist   The post 7 Essential Ingredients in Creating Effective Sales Training for Sales Teams appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

What Is the Role of Technology in Sales Training Solutions? Adapted from interview with Dario Priolo, Chief Strategy Officer for Richardson and Michael Rochelle, Chief Strategy Officer for Brandon Hall Group Part two our series on applying key practices in learning and development to sales training solutions. It is fascinating to witness the innovation that is taking place across sales and marketing. And we are seeing opportunities to leverage technology throughout the learning process. When trying to improve the effectiveness of your sales training solutions, you must consider how technology can help your efforts. Here are several ideas for how you can do that in your organization: Gather pre-training insights. Collecting data about your reps in advance of the training may seem like an obvious suggestion, but you know there are some out there failing to make this connection. Leverage technology to help identify learning gaps and learning needs among your reps. If they’re already strong in a certain area, don’t bother spending time on it during training; rather, focus elsewhere. Recorded lectures. Most sales training is still delivered by live instructor-led training, especially skills training. Leverage technology to accelerate knowledge transfer so that more of that valuable classroom time is spent on actual skill development and coaching as opposed to digesting new content for the first time. The recorded lectures can also be referred to post-training whenever desired. Videotape training role plays. When practicing to become a better public speaker, most speech coaches videotape students in order to objectively demonstrate areas in need of improvement (watch those "ums" and "ahs"). The ability to record and share video makes it easy to apply this concept to training role plays and other parts of the program. This isn’t to shame anyone, but rather to add another dimension to their experience. Seeing yourself on screen (whether doing something well or cringe-worthy) will have a longer-lasting effect than trying to remember the result of a classroom training exercise down the line. When back in the field, reps will be more likely to recall and try to repeat their success or adjust so as to not fail again. QuickCheckTM. Speaking of making the training lessons last longer, we’ve written about Ebbinghaus’s "Forgetting Curve" and the dramatic loss of knowledge in the weeks following training. After instructor-led training, technology can be leveraged to facilitate learning reinforcement, coaching, and accountability. Richardson’s QuickCheckTM is one such tool, which sends short, multiple choice questions to participants for a period of time after receiving training. The questions are repeated until answered twice successfully and then retired until the reps have mastered the content. Participants are not only told the best correct answer, but why it is the preferred response. And managers can monitor what information has been mastered and what might need more reinforcement CRM and sales automation triggers. Instructor-led training programs should focus on how sales reps actually do their jobs in order to make the training most applicable. One of the ways to do this is to actually embed skill development into technology workflow such as a CRM system, other sales and marketing automation systems, or sales enablement systems - such as Savo. That is becoming a lot more common now. A salesperson who is actually executing a sales process and preparing for a customer conversation can access the precise learning that they will need at that point in time in order to help them execute more effectively. Social media. There’s an opportunity to leverage social media to help your trained sales reps stay focused on what you’ve taught them, extend their interest, and help each other to master the topic. As we’ve noted before, it is essential to view training as a continuous learning process and not a single event. Building a network of trained reps can give them the community they need to sustain the conversation and continue to grow. You can have closed networks for each trained class, or one for all "graduates" of a program. Once you develop such networks, try not to view them as a post-training discussion group, but one that lives and thrives before, during, and after training. This is also another opportunity for sales managers and training leaders to monitor the chatter for training ideas. Allowing salespeople to do their job is a key factor to their success. To what extent can you use technology to leave sales reps in the field while still training and developing them? Can you allow them to do what they are being paid to do every day and really stay in the moment rather than diverting to the classroom? Can technology enable this type of sales training solution to become part of their day rather than out-of-the-field event driven? At some point, you do need to bring people together for learning, but be sure to structure those events as part of a larger program of continuous learning, and don’t overlook the gains to be had by leveraging technology to increase the effectiveness of your sales training solution. Have you applied any or all of these tactics in your sales training efforts? What works best for you and why? Tell us in the comments section below. ————————————————————————- Click the following to learn more about an example of an effective technology in sales training solutions, Richardson QuickCheck(TM) The post What Is the Role of Technology in Sales Training Solutions? appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

Coaching for Sales Teams: Less Superman, More Clark Kent You know the picture … mild-mannered sales manager has one-on-one meeting with ordinary sales citizen, they discuss an issue, and WHAM, the sales manager makes a beeline to the phone booth (yes, they still exist) and out comes Superman or Wonder Woman, complete with red cape. Faster than a speeding sales cycle, more powerful than a strong quarter, and able to leap tall pipelines in a single bound. In their rush to rescue Metropolis, however, they may not realize that this method of coaching for sales teams is the kryptonite to their team’s performance. Here are some observations from my experience as a sales leader and from coaching sales teams and leaders: Salespeople come to us with a wide range of skills and talent. They know at least one thing far better than we do: themselves. Sales managers often come to the position based on their success as salespeople. They take pride in how they used to help clients. Now, in a management role, they want to help their team by bringing their experience and insights. How managers "help" salespeople often creates unintended consequences: - Being the superhero problem solver is not scalable and leads to burnout. - Solving the problem, while expedient, makes your team dependent (rather than independent), stunts their results and professional growth, and slows down the sales process. - Asking rather than telling takes patience and restraint — not natural strengths for most sales leaders. Effective sales managers realize that coaching for sales teams requires processes and skills that may be a departure from those they used in a selling role. While we work through this in great detail during Richardson Coaching workshops, here are some key reminders. The Three Most Powerful Words in Coaching For Sales Teams The words "what," "why," and "how" — in that order — are far more powerful tools in coaching sales teams than are speed, strength, and leaping ability. Let’s look at how each prompts an important question in an effective sales coaching dialogue: What: What happened on that sales call?  What’s happening with this opportunity?  What’s going on with this client? The "what" question leads, or forces in some cases, self-reflection by the salesperson. For the coach, it provides a data point on the salesperson’s level of awareness. Why: Why did that meeting end abruptly?  Why is this opportunity advancing so quickly?  Why has the client gone radio silent?  The "why" question guides the salesperson to identify the trigger that is causing the current state. As above, asking rather than telling provokes self-discovery and makes the salesperson accountable for discovery. How: How would you change that next time?  How could you replicate this with other opportunities?  How can you change the client’s lack of response?  The "how" question puts the salesperson in the driver’s seat with regard to his or her own development. And working with the ideas they generate increases ownership and commitment to follow through. The sales manager monitors and watches how the plan plays out and is able to move on to other things. Two New Qualities to Harness in Coaching For Sales Teams Patience and restraint are not qualities we seek in our sales leaders; in fact, we want the opposite. A sense of urgency and willingness to jump in quickly can be invaluable when, for example, setting strategy for a struggling business unit and when providing leadership to a team going through industry or organizational change. When coaching sales teams, however, we need to be able to find and draw on these qualities: patience, to allow for the self-discovery of issues, causes, and solutions, and restraint, to hold ourselves back from putting on the superhero cape and solving the problem, missing the opportunity to build the salesperson’s independence and investment in change. Even the least super of superheroes among us have been able to find within them and tap these qualities using eight simple tips: Set a clear objective for each sales coaching session, focusing on outcomes that will gain the change you need to accomplish your goals. Prepare for sales coaching sessions, especially those "what," "why," and "how" questions that will guide the salesperson through a self-discovery process. Provide a safe environment, encouraging honesty and reflection without judging or looking for "right" answers. Listen more, talk less. One of the executives I coach writes two simple words on his notepad as a sales coaching reminder: "Shut up!" Be more curious about each salesperson on your team, and have the courage to ask "why?" in response to their comment. Acknowledge that moving a salesperson out of a comfortable performance pattern will be, by definition, uncomfortable. Expect him or her to struggle. Use silence when needed, and provide support, when appropriate. See how sales coaching benefits your team, including greater empowerment, independence, excitement, and vision to get to a higher performance level. See what you gain by coaching your sales team, including increased skill level and performance from your team and more time for you to focus on higher-value activities. Coaching for sales teams is one of the key performance drivers you control as a manager. Leveraging it requires a process and some qualities you may not have needed to succeed in the past. So, the next time you hear the cry for help from somewhere in Metropolis, hold off putting on the red cape and remind yourself that the ordinary citizen may just be smart enough to save him or herself — and, in the process, free up Superman or Wonder Woman to tackle more important issues facing the great city. COMPLIMENTARY RESEARCH REPORT Download a copy of our newest research report, Content Marketing and Sales Effectiveness  The post Coaching for Sales Teams: Less Superman, More Clark Kent appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.