Get Ready, Because Here We Come — An Overview of Preparing for Formal Sales Presentations Put bluntly, preparation is the first and most important element in winning more business. Without preparation, one can almost predict that you will fail. Let’s look at one quick example: a highly successful managing director at an investment bank attributes his success to his detailed preparation. He tells his team members that they literally should know "what they (the client) had for breakfast." Being prepared means doing your homework and learning all you can about your potential client. Being prepared means being thoroughly grounded in your ideas and your formal or draft proposal. Being prepared means knowing more than just what is on each page of a document. Preparing means learning enough to know what you are talking about. Preparing means finding out: What does your client need? How and by whom will the decision be made at the client company? What types of presentations do the client company decision makers prefer? What are their preferences for sales presentations: proposals, slides, technical details, focus on the big picture? Who will be at the meeting, and what can you find out about them? Even if they are not decision makers, they will be asked for their opinion. If any people show up at the meeting that you did not know where coming, get their names and find out about them as soon as the meeting is over. What is your idea, product, or your service? What is your competition? What do you want to achieve? What measurable objective will you have reached to let you know you have reached your goals? To the degree possible, quantify the objective. How will you reach your goals? What is your overall strategy? What are your tactics for carrying out your strategy? What are your fallback positions for each potential issue?  Whom do you want to bring with you from your company? Who else will work on the project preparation and follow-up? Who has to sign off on any contracts? What are the logistics? Where and when will the meeting take place? When does the formal proposal get submitted to the client? How much time do you have to prepare? How long will you have to present your proposal to the client? What written material do you need for the presentation? Did you need to send a proposal to the client before the meeting? Even if you only need to send one in after the meeting, it will be useful to have a draft ready beforehand. This gives you a document to edit with the results of the meeting and send back to the client relatively quickly. Writing the proposal also gives you a disciplined way of organizing your thoughts on the project. Being prepared means you know your client and what your client needs. You know what your company can offer and can place it in context of what the client needs and of the general market for what you and the client do. You know your main idea or project and your measurable objectives to represent the ideas or products. You have determined your strategy for meeting the objectives and the tactics for carrying out the strategy. You have found what your competitors are doing and how you might deal with whatever they are doing. But you also know to avoid the temptation to pay too much attention to your competitors at the possible risk of not paying enough attention to your own work. The client wants a good reason to hire you, not a reason not to hire the other guy. Your team is set, and you know whose approval, or support, you will need within your company. You are prepared to be flexible. You have fallback positions ready for the major issues. You know that nothing ever goes exactly as planned. Being prepared means being willing to spend the time to become prepared, far more than the hour or two the presentation lasts. Think of a Major League Baseball relief pitcher. How many hours does it take a relief pitcher, even one as good as the recently retired Mariano Rivera of the New York Yankees, to get ready for the fifteen minutes he pitches in a game? ————————————— Richardson and SAVO have partnered together to bring you  SAVO Sales Process Pro Richardson Edition™, an CRM-enabled application that allows sales and marketing leaders to reinforce training and execute best practices through coaching at each stage of the sales cycle. To learn more, click on the link above or the image below. The post Get Ready, Because Here We Come — An Overview of Preparing for Formal Sales Presentations appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

Learning about Your Prospect — A Deep Dive for High-value Presentations Successful business presentations are the result of careful preparation. So… do your homework. Preparing for a business presentation starts with knowing what the client needs. This is not just asking the client what he or he wants, though that is a very good place to start. Clients today demand relevant insights tailored to their needs. Your homework will let you understand your client’s needs and objectives and let you present the right ideas in the right way. For motivation, just remember that your service or your product can probably be matched by a competitor. Looking into client needs lets you put what you offer into relevant context and lets the client know you care enough to find a way to meet their needs. For example, a client may be looking for enterprise software. Find out why. Do they just want to improve current productivity? Do they have specific new functions in mind? Or, do they want something that can easily be upgraded in the future? You can tell the client how your solution would benefit them right now or in the future. You can also come up with some logical ideas on future uses for the client. How to find the information is up to you. You can even ask your client for suggestions as to whom you can talk within the company. Most clients will appreciate that you are making the effort to understand them and what they need. Just so I don’t forget to mention it, ask within your company for any information someone might have. Additionally, check out the comprehensive list we published in a previous article "Sales Call Preparation: The Ultimate Checklist to Cover your Bases." Once you understand the client’s strategy, goals, needs, and decision-making process, you will be able to develop and position your product in ways that make sense for the client. Questions to ask your client, and to check in with your other sources, include several general types: Decision-making questions — Organizational questions to find out who makes decisions and how they are made. Relationship questions — Ask "How am I doing?" and "How are my competitors doing?" to find out where things stand. Operational questions — Technical questions of how, how many, where, and why. Problem questions — Questions to identify what obstacles the client is facing. Situation questions — What is the client doing? Strategy questions — Big-picture, tomorrow questions to find out where the client is and where the client is going. Interpersonal questions — Questions to get to know/understand your client. Need questions — Questions to find out what is not working and what needs to be fixed. Keep in mind that all clients have two need levels: business needs, related to organizational and product needs, and nonbusiness needs, related to their personal goals/emotional requirements. Your objective should be to learn something about both, for all clients in the decision-making unit. To get at their personal needs, find out: what are their business orientations? What are their backgrounds? What stake in the deal does each have? Why? Who has an ax to grind? What role will each play? What are the attitudes, preferences, and points of view of each player? What does each player know about the product being presented? What are their points of view? What are their areas of expertise? What are their personal interests/politics/sensitivities? What are their buying criteria? How do they like to be sold to? What are their preferences for sales presentations: proposals, slides, technical details, the big picture? Determining the needs of the client, and the decision-making structure within the client’s company, should give you most of the information you need. But remember to be flexible and determine fallback positions. Some of the information you found might change quickly. Now, you can get your own act in order, so to speak. What is your main idea? What solution will you present to the client? What is your ultimate objective? To the degree possible, quantify the objective — not just sell a lot of widgets, but rather, sell 10,000 widgets per year. Determine your strategy to meet the objective and tactics to carry out the strategy. Find out what your competitors are doing and how you might deal with this. Pick your team for the presentation. Being prepared means you know your client and what your client needs. You know what your company can offer and can place it in context of what the client needs and the general market for what you and the client do. Being prepared means being willing to spend far more time preparing than the hour or two the presentation will last. ————————————— Richardson and SAVO have partnered together to bring you  SAVO Sales Process Pro Richardson Edition™, an CRM-enabled application that allows sales and marketing leaders to reinforce training and execute best practices through coaching at each stage of the sales cycle. To learn more, click on the link above or the image below. The post Learning about Your Prospect — A Deep Dive for High-value Presentations appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

14 Adversarial Negotiation Tactics and High-impact Countermeasures to Save Your Hide Adversarial negotiators work 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. Once you recognize their tactics, they quickly lose power. Below are some common adversarial negotiation tactics you might encounter in the course of closing a sale along with some brief countermeasures. Adversarial Negotiation Tactics 1.         False Deadlines: Pressuring you to agree to terms before you are ready. Solution: Don’t allow yourself or the sales process to be rushed. If you’re forced to fast-forward through demonstrations and explanations, you could be accused of glossing over important details later on. Be prepared, and test the reality of the deadlines with questions. Remember that everything (including time) is negotiable. 2.         Delaying a decision and ignoring deadlines: This is designed to create anxiety and pressure you to make concessions. Makes you wonder, do they really want to buy? Is this a priority, or are they just fishing? Solution: Determine what’s causing the delay. Perhaps other projects have gotten in the way. Politely remind them that your time is also important. 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 voice mails or e-mails left for the client, as well as the consequences from any delays. 3.         Starting over in the middle of negotiations: Reversing progress to keep and gain position. Solution: If one term is to be changed, reopen all the terms. Fair is fair, and both seller and buyer should feel like winners. 4.         Surprises: Bringing up new issues when you think everything has been settled. 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. 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.         Demanding price up front: Asking you for an estimated price or ballpark and then holding 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 lower-priced options before you know what’s to be included in the sale and committing to a price. 6.         Negotiating the future: Using a possible later deal as a bargaining deal for the current deal. Solution: Get specifics from the client in writing; in effect, make the future deal a formal part of the current deal. 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.         Creating an uncomfortable environment: Trying to gain an unfair advantage by methods such as sunlight in your eyes, hot room, long hours, no food or break, and changes in negotiators. Solution: If this is done intentionally, then that’s pretty low and speaks to the type of person you’re dealing with. Confer with your team to verify that it’s not just you feeling under the weather. Ask to change the environment (turn down the temperature, adjust the seating, move rooms, or whatever is needed). Don’t be afraid to call for a break or reschedule the meeting. 8.         Suddenly losing interest: Making 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.         Outnumbering you: Attempts intimidation through a large contingent of buyers in the meeting without letting you know before 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 — match numbers with numbers. However, if you find yourself being bullied during the meeting, hold your ground, and schedule a follow-up meeting when you can return with reinforcements! 10.       Playing dumb: Attempts to get you to back down by feigning a lack of awareness, expectations, or assumptions. 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. But 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.       Using past experience against you: Trying to make you feel guilty or less confident in an attempt to tip the scales in his or her 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.       Using silence: 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! The first to speak is the first to fold! Be silent after you state your price. Don’t stammer on, making excuses or explaining this or that — you’ll only be feeding them ammunition that can be used against you. Silence is also a weapon you can use. 13.       The "Broken Record:" Wearing 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’re 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.       Using the "Nibble:" Trying to get last-minute concessions. 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 make you 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, and others that might arise, can be managed through clear communication and by documenting the sale and negotiation 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 — see my opening paragraph — but it could also signal larger problems to come down the road. Your bottom line is to be willing to walk away and let the client know it. ————————————— Richardson and SAVO have partnered together to bring you  SAVO Sales Process Pro Richardson Edition™, an CRM-enabled application that allows sales and marketing leaders to reinforce training and execute best practices through coaching at each stage of the sales cycle. To learn more, click on the link above or the image below. The post 14 Adversarial Negotiation Tactics and High-impact Countermeasures to Save Your Hide appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

How Long Does it Take to Break an Old Sales Habit and Develop a New One? In his book Outliers: The Story of Success, author Malcolm Gladwell famously purported the notion that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to truly master something. He cited The Beatles’ early days of non-stop rehearsal and touring as an example. In business circles, there are very few versions of The Beatles. These ranks are largely filled out by investors and innovators (think Warren Buffet and Steve Jobs). We more commonly relate to sports figures and their stories of ascent. How many drives and putts did Tiger Woods make growing up? How many hours did Michael Jordan spend taking shots and practicing lay-ups and dunks? How many swings of the bat did Hank Aaron take on his way to dethroning Babe Ruth as the home run king? Some have questioned the accuracy of the claim; but whether it takes 7,000 or 10,000 hours, the point is that effort, repetition, and dedication over time cannot be denied as necessary ingredients for success. As the book title notes, however, these are extreme instances — the outliers of success. For most other roles and capacities, "good enough" is more acceptable than being at the absolute top of their field. So what about the masses? Consider a standard bell curve of achievers: the leading edge (top ~15%) are doing well on their own — tamper with them at your peril as for those lagging behind (bottom 15%), they need serious help, which could include letting them go or finding roles that might better suit their talents the middle 70% is where the majority of your people are, which means that’s where your biggest opportunity (or challenge) lies Many sales organizations fail in their attempts to effectively move the middle of their sales rep ranks, which is holding them back from achieving their potential. Here’s why. The Problem: Two-day Training Events ≠ 10,000 Hours of Skills Mastery Too many sales leaders and training managers are mired in the old way of thinking that two-day sales training events are enough. Sorry, but that’s no longer true (if it ever was). It’s great that you’ve set aside time and budget to bring your reps together. Event-based training might work in the moment, but it’s not effective for lasting behavioral change. You’ve assembled your reps to teach them new skills or concepts to enhance or replace what they’re already doing. Perhaps you’re focused on better closing, negotiating, or prospecting. Maybe you’re selling something new to the same buyers or trying to break into new markets with the same offering. But the bottom line is, you want your people to do something different as a result. Here comes the hard question … How long does it actually take for someone to learn, remember, recall, and flawlessly execute new skills and behaviors until they are essentially habits? The answer is somewhere between Gladwell’s 10,000 hours and the 16 hours your sales reps are likely to spend in a hotel conference room for training. There’s a lot at stake. Few companies are guilty of overtraining their employees and sales reps. Most don’t devote enough time and effort, which undermines their original objective of changing behaviors. The longer it takes for you to move your middle, the longer it will take for you to achieve your business and sales goals. In the meantime, you’ve reduced the ROI on your training, and your competitors might be doing it better. Supporting Research: How Long Does It Take to Form a Habit? Training events and programs are useful to teach new skills, but it’s unreasonable to expect participants to walk away with engrained, muscle memory-driven habits to replace the old ones. Just how long does that take? In the research article "How are habits formed: Modelling habit formation in the real world" published in the European Journal of Social Psychology in July 20091, the authors examined this very subject. The authors note that "… there is consensus that habits are acquired through incremental strengthening of the association between a situation (cue) and an action, i.e. repetition of a behavior in a consistent context progressively increases the automaticity with which the behaviour is performed when the situation is encountered (Verplanken, 2006;Wood & Neal, 2007). ‘Automaticity’ is evidenced by the behaviour displaying some or all of the following features: efficiency, lack of awareness, unintentionality and uncontrollability (Bargh, 1994)." "Automaticity" is the goal in which your sales reps can do what you expect of them without prompting. The challenge is getting your reps to react like Pavlov’s Dog without the need to refer to a manual or use a hybrid of old habits as a crutch for not having mastered the new. In following a group of individuals trying to form new habits, the researchers found that "performing the behaviour more consistently was associated with better model fit. The time it took participants to reach 95% of their asymptote of automaticity ranged from 18 to 254 days; indicating considerable variation in how long it takes people to reach their limit of automaticity and highlighting that it can take a very long time. Missing one opportunity to perform the behaviour did not materially affect the habit formation process. With repetition of a behaviour in a consistent context, automaticity increases following an asymptotic curve which can be modelled at the individual level." You can read more about the study to dive into the details, but the range of time (from 2.5 weeks to more than 8 months!) is alarming and should give sales leaders and training managers pause when setting expectations for their training goals. Here are the major takeaways: It’s not impossible. The good news is that you can teach your sales reps new skills, techniques, and behaviors. It takes time. Are your expectations realistic as for what you hope your reps to adopt and practice following the sales training? Will it happen within a week of the event? Probably not. Knowing that forming habits takes time, what should you do to foster them? We’ll answer that question in an upcoming blog post! ————————————— Richardson and SAVO have partnered together to bring you  SAVO Sales Process Pro Richardson Edition™, an CRM-enabled application that allows sales and marketing leaders to reinforce training and execute best practices through coaching at each stage of the sales cycle. To learn more, click on the link above or the image below. Citation: 1How are habits formed: Modelling habit formation in the real world PHILLIPPA LALLY*, CORNELIA H. M. VAN JAARSVELD, HENRY W. W. POTTS AND JANE WARDLE University College London, London, UK European Journal of Social Psychology Eur. J. Soc. Psychol. 40, 998-1009 (2010) Published online 16 July 2009 in Wiley Online Library http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ejsp.674/abstract     The post How Long Does it Take to Break an Old Sales Habit and Develop a New One? appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

Don’t Let Your Written Proposal Torpedo Your Deal What I am about to say may be an example of life being unfair. Obviously, a poorly prepared written proposal could cost you a deal. However, the most expertly prepared, well-written, catchy-reading proposal brings no guarantee of winning. To make things worse yet, an overly slick proposal might be a turn off. Let me give an example of the third possibility, because I know that calling something "too good" sounds illogical. Take, for example, the redevelopment of a low-income housing project. Residents of the project will be represented on the committee making project decisions. Is an expensively produced proposal likely to impress them? Or, will it more likely send a message that you can’t related to them? Someone who kept in mind the human element could be more likely to win. The reasoning behind my "unfair" opening, and the example, is simple. Despite the almost geometrical expansion of technology in the past decade or two, people like to be able to relate to the people with whom they do business. They want to know that you can do the job. They want to know that you can provide the quality product, service, or solution they need. However, with the good chance that someone else can also do so, relating to the potential client and making them want to work with you may well make the difference between making the sale and getting a polite rejection. However, a good quality and appropriately targeted written proposal can be vital. In a complex sale with many decision makers, your proposal will be one of the key reference documents that outlines your qualifications and approach to delivering your solution. It provides strong backup evidence of your company’s ability to do the job. It also provides structure to organize your thoughts, a kind of written report of the careful research and analysis you have done on the company. In most cases, the client will be reading the formal proposal after the meeting. A well-prepared proposal can reinforce the impression you left with your good presentation. A good proposal will be a lasting document the client uses to help inform their decision. The proposal needs to be able to stand on its own even though it will likely not be used on its own. A badly prepared proposal will add a jarring element, likely convincing the client that all you can really do is put on a good presentation. So, what do you put in the written proposal? Introductory sections or what book publishers call "front of the book." This includes a cover and/or title page, depending on proposal length. The title page mentions your company and the name of the target client. If possible, include logos for both. Include a brief executive summary but without giving a price. Include a table of contents, which can also serve as a written agenda for the presentation. Use page numbers, or section tabs, or both. Page numbers can be eliminated, or numbered in each section, if you feel it likely or valuable to insert last-minute information. State the client’s objectives. What do they want to achieve, and how do they want to do this? Use their words, which the client should be happy to provide you. State how you can meet the client’s objectives. Describe your idea. Go into more detail on how you will meet their objectives. Present your financial analysis and cost justification. Tell how your ideas will benefit the client financially. Use tables and graphs, when appropriate. This is a summary section, so include any more detailed information in an appendix. Do not include your price at this point. Reinforce your company’s "value-add." Why should the client work with your company over competitor companies? Provide your pricing structure. Tie your price to the value provided. Summarize your proposal in three or four key points. Include an appendix, if appropriate. Your idea is to convince the client that you can respond to their needs. So, if they call for a set format different from the one above, follow their format. At the risk of stating the obvious, take some care in how the proposal looks. Professionally bound proposals can have the same content as something e-mailed, but spending some effort on making the proposal look nice gets you off to a good start. Be aware of how your client might use the proposal. For example, he or she might print the proposal on a black and white printer. So, at the very least, think of how your copies will look in black and white. Bring copies for each person expected to attend, plus a few extras. Try not to distribute it when the meeting starts because people will be inclined to at least glance through it. Good or bad, the proposal will be a distraction from what you are saying. If you find it appropriate to give out the proposal during the meeting, walk the audience through it. Don’t read from it. Use attractive visuals, easy enough to do with a laptop, for anything you have to show the audience. Keep in mind that PowerPoint slides are not intended to be a teleprompter. Discuss details not on the slides. (Also, be careful not to accidently project something personal verbally or on the screen.) Find out beforehand audience preferences for charts and tables, and follow them while creating the materials. Use the same professionalism you did with the written proposal in preparing any visuals. Bring copies of the visuals to have something to leave with the audience in case you need to revise the proposal — or in case technology is not available to project your presentation. Prepare for all possible scenarios! I might also suggest "just in case" free-standing copies of the executive proposal to leave the audience something if you want to rewrite parts of the proposal. To summarize: The written proposal is a valuable tool that sells on your behalf. Know your audience, and prepare it as well and as professionally as necessary. Be mindful of how you incorporate your proposal into your overall sales presentation.   Richardson and SAVO have partnered together to bring you  SAVO Sales Process Pro Richardson Edition™, an CRM-enabled application that allows sales and marketing leaders to reinforce training and execute best practices through coaching at each stage of the sales cycle. To learn more, click on the link above or the image below. The post Don’t Let Your Written Proposal Torpedo Your Deal appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

Understanding Group Dynamics to Prevent a Sales Presentation Nightmare A group of people is more than just many single persons. You have to be aware of this basic reality. Group dynamics can be quite complex. Look at set theory, studying the characteristics and interrelationships of groups. I am sure you remember this from basic math class. When you are talking with one person, you either convince the person or do not. When talking with as few as two people, you can convince them both, neither, or either one. One of them can convince the other to support you or to oppose you. The more people, the more complicated things can get. The combinations, and complications, grow geometrically (1, 2, 4, 16) rather than arithmetically (1, 2, 3, 4). Group dynamics can affect the behavior of crowds for good or for bad. People influence each other. A reality of business is the idea of the "stakeholder." One person may have final authority to make decisions in a company, but that person will always have others concerned with the decision. At the very least, the CFO will have input on any decision that requires spending money. Your goal is to get the company to spend money. The trend in companies is to have all of the major internal stakeholders attend group sales presentations. But why is there this trend toward selling to a group? The philosophy of group participation as a way to improve the quality of decision making has been growing in popularity for decades. This has been motivated by the increasing desire to reduce the risk associated with big-ticket purchasing and to get more buy in from people who have to carry out the decision once made. There is still a good chance that only one person will make the final decision — and it is your job to find out which one — but all who attend the meeting, and others, will have an input into the decision. They will have even more of an input because they will have attended the meeting, heard the same things the decision maker heard, and can speak from the same frame of reference. Your sales presentation has to appeal to all those at the meeting. You have to be able to successfully deal with any questions they may have by covering the question in your presentation, by directly responding to questions when they are asked, or by finding the answer and getting back to them after the meeting. You have to answer everyone with the same courtesy, comprehensiveness, and accuracy you give questions from the boss, who will hear your answer as well as get the other people’s input. Despite group selling changing the dynamics, the basic purpose of selling has not changed and must be kept in mind. All clients still have unmet objectives and are all still looking for ways to meet their objectives. Client objectives always include personal, as well as business, objectives. Your job is to find some way of determining these objectives. Your contact person at the client’s office should be able to provide some answers. He or she should not object to answering these questions. The contact has a stake in you putting on a good sales presentation and finding ways to meet the company’s needs. The contact will realize that giving you this information will help him or her and the company — as well as you. One way to help deal with the reality of many client voices is to bring one or two co-workers with you, primarily to observe while you are presenting. You can compare their impressions to your own when the meeting ends. Again, it should not bother the clients that you are trying to get more information. They will assume, accurately, that you are not cheating but are just making it easier for your company to meet client needs. Selling to a group, let me repeat, still has the same goal as selling to one person. You are there to convince the group that you and your company can meet the needs and agendas of them and their company. The difference is that you are dealing with a more complex series of interrelationships — the clients with each other as well as with you. Your homework is harder, but the problem of how to focus your appeal is still quite manageable. —————————————————- Richardson and SAVO have partnered together to bring you  SAVO Sales Process Pro Richardson Edition™, an CRM-enabled application that allows sales and marketing leaders to reinforce training and execute best practices through coaching at each stage of the sales cycle. To learn more, click on the link above or the image below. The post Understanding Group Dynamics to Prevent a Sales Presentation Nightmare appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

Advice on Rapid Growth and Enterprise Sales Success from SAVO CEO, Mark O’Connell Mark O’Connell is the President and CEO of SAVO, a fast-growth enterprise SaaS company and a strategic alliance partner of Richardson. SAVO’s technology solutions improve productivity and performance of sales organizations and salespeople. Mark has led SAVO since the fall of 2010. He graciously shares his perspective on growing a company that ranked among Deloitte’s 2013 Fast 500™ list of fastest-growing companies in North America. Dario: Why has the technology industry so strongly embraced the cloud? Mark: The move to the cloud is driven by customer preference. Our clients focus on building a business and don’t want to divert resources to managing complex, custom software and infrastructure. Cloud-based software is highly sophisticated and the cost of ownership is relatively low due in large part to the subscription model. Cloud customers are essentially renting cloud-based products. It doesn’t require a big capital outlay and upgrades, such as security and bug fixes, are handled for you. The simplicity, flexibility, and investment are dramatically different than buying on-premise software. The next 10 years will see the vast majority of software in the world moving to a secure cloud. SAVO invested in transitioning to the cloud four years ago, which has allowed us to capitalize on the transformation in the market, and, most importantly, deliver our solutions in a manner that best supports our customers’ ability to succeed. Dario: How is selling SaaS software different from selling on-premise software? Mark: Combined with the increased availability of information, the SaaS software sales process is now almost entirely in the buyer’s hands.   To be a successful sales rep in this industry, you have to be extremely buyer-focused. This means allocating more time to understanding client challenges, partnering with clients to shape the vision for the solution and articulating value throughout every step of the relationship - from the initial meeting to post-implementation touch points. The typical buyer for SaaS software leads a particular line of business, for example, a CFO or CMO, whereas, with on-premise software, sales reps were working with the CIO or an IT manager. The cadence, and substance, of conversations with a CMO will be very different from conversations with a CIO. Selling to the CIO required a high-level of technical knowledge because the infrastructure was such a big part of the total solution. To sell SaaS to a CMO, your sales reps must speak to his or her challenges, for example, empowering a marketing team to be successful, ensuring brand consistency, generating demand and enabling the sales team. Of course, IT will eventually enter the conversation, but only to "check the boxes" that IT owns, such as data, security and application availability. Today, SaaS salespeople are, and need to be, more attuned to industry pains affecting a client’s business rather than focusing on technology expertise. Clients expect reps to come to the table with a specific understanding of the client’s industry and business pains, not just a thorough understanding of the rep’s own product offerings. The B2B sales cycle is quickly beginning to resemble stages of a growing partnership rather than a strict seller/buyer exchange. The financial impact is also a major differentiator when comparing on-premise software to the SaaS experience. On-premise software typically requires a large upfront payment, and is treated as a capital expense. SaaS typically requires a much smaller upfront payment and is treated as an operating expense. While this can make selling SaaS a bit easier from a budget standpoint, it certainly does not negate the need for best-in-class sales rep. The financial impact extends to the way SaaS companies incentivize and support salespeople. On-premise software salespeople lived and died by an ability to land big deals, and, at times, this led to behavior that wasn’t fully aligned with the customers’ best interests. The sales rep would disappear with the signing of a contract, leaving any and all ROI up to the customer. So while SaaS companies aren’t going to turn away big deals, SaaS customers have the ability to start small, demonstrate ROI and scale up when ready. This creates a dynamic wherein the SaaS salesperson must be fully vested in their customer’s success beyond the initial purchase. Expanding the value of existing opportunities for all parties involved is incredibly important to running a profitable SaaS business. There is much tighter alignment throughout the customer lifecycle. Overall, both SaaS companies and customers benefit from the transition to the cloud. Buyers are given more power and support in realizing ROI from SaaS purchases; the subscription format of SaaS puts the impetus on the vendor to maintain the relationship and ensure the customer is successful. Instead of a smash and grab approach to the sales cycle, SaaS reps are encouraged to land and expand. This leads to behaviors conducive to customer success, and also creates a two-way line of communication that enables us, as a SaaS vendor, to incorporate customer feedback into our products. In this way, we grow together with our customers, instead of leaving clients to fend for themselves. Dario: Based on your experience as CEO of a cloud company, what nuggets of advice can you share with other cloud CEOs? Mark:​ First and foremost, always listen to your customers. Take time to understand their current business challenges and use your industry expertise to help them anticipate future challenges. The time you spend discussing your products should only go so far as to communicate how they solve the pain your client is currently experiencing, and demonstrating how you can deliver a sustainable and measurable solution. Secondly, I believe in agility and taking risks, and have found it to be one of the benefits to leading a cloud company. With software you have the ability to move quickly and course-correct if necessary. There’s no penalty for tapping the brakes to make sure something is just right. If you need to accelerate, then give it some gas. Take the risk and commit to what you think is going to be most valuable to your customers and they will reward you with loyalty. Finally, I would tell anybody in a leadership role at a fast-growing business to put a lot of focus on hiring great people that fit your culture and aligning yourself with great partners that complement your value proposition. At SAVO, we invest heavily in recruiting the best people and developing them. We work closely with partners, like Richardson, that share our culture and purpose. Together we are focused on bringing value to our customers and helping them succeed in growing and profiting. When we see our customers succeed using our solutions, and continue to give us business year after year, it drives home how fun and rewarding it can be building in the cloud. —————————————————- Richardson and SAVO have partnered together to bring you  SAVO Sales Process Pro Richardson Edition™, an CRM-enabled application that allows sales and marketing leaders to reinforce training and execute best practices through coaching at each stage of the sales cycle. To learn more, click on the link above or the image below. The post SaaS Solution CEO Interview: Advice on Rapid Growth and Enterprise Sales Success from SAVO CEO, Mark O’Connell appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

Sustaining Sales Training Impact, An Interview with Gregg Kober, Richardson’s VP of Change Management Here at Richardson, we work closely with our clients on what to do not only during training, but also before and after to ensure that sales training sticks and delivers impact. I sat down with Gregg Kober, Richardson’s Vice President of Change Management, to discuss our sustainment framework. Gregg generously shares his expertise on the thinking and approach we take on sustaining sales training impact. Dario Priolo (DP):  What is a sustainment framework? Gregg Kober (GK):  Sustainment framework is the term for a way to maintain the learning effects of training once the training is over the trainees get back to their offices. DP:     How did the idea of the sustainment framework start? GK:     The impetus for the sustainment framework’s development as an articulated philosophy was in academic literature and in professional training industry literature. Their idea was the effective training is not "event based."  In traditional training you come to as session, perhaps even enjoy and think that is effective, and head back to work and find that it was not very effective at all  There are high rates of failure is transferring the new behavior back to the job.   Money invested in this type of training is usually not well invested. People get a false sense that training worked because people leave the training talking about how great it was: It was relevant.  Their company cares enough to invest in them. The training facilitator was fantastic. The food was wonderful.  They transmit this by giving the facilitator a good review, on an evaluation form usually filled out just as the training sessions end - which makes the facilitator and his or her department feel good. . Managers feel good, because they sent their people to training and invested in their development. They are now going to be able to do new and better things when they are back on the job.  Everyone is feeling good. DP:     Is it bad for employees and managers to feel good about their jobs? GK:     Not if the good feeling is based on accomplishment. A business is not in business to make people feel good.  A business is in business to produce results. This is where thing start to slip. "One and done" is not the way to produce last results. People who leave traditional training are going back to the same environment from which they came.  The chances of them using the new skills are low. They are going around and wondering why they should bother.  Do they really have the opportunity to use their new skills?    It takes an effort to do that.   Performances may drop off temporarily because they are not quite so confident they can do it right the first time out of the gate with a client. And so there is a lot of sliding back into old behavior. It is not that they did not learn what they should have in the class. More often than not, with good design and good facilitation, they did.  But they are just not using their new skills back on the job. And so the sustainment framework was about helping people to use things they learn back on the job. DP: Can you explain the three phases of behavior change in the sustainment framework? Start with the "define" phase? Can you also explain them for the organization as well as for the individual? GK:     What we are trying to do is tackle the three phases at both an organizational level and at an individual level. And so when we are defining - the first phase is define, the second phase is develop, and the third phase is sustain. What we are trying to do organizationally and individually at each level is something different to help move the needle, to help encourage behavioral change to take hold;  for people to adopt that new behavior. Organizationally, really what leaders are primarily charged with is effective communication about the nature and the need for change. There should be no one ever going to a sales training or a manager’s training who does not know why they are in the seats. Why are we taking two days out of our busy schedules to do this? Over and over, we work with organizations where people say I do not know why I am here in this training. I do not see how it connects with the bigger picture. So people have to be aware of why they are actually going to training. But beyond that, leaders are charged with making sure the changes in the environment support the behavior change. So that may be changes in process. That may be changes in who goes to training and how people are selected for training or how they are selected into their roles. It can also be about metrics and process. And a big part is how do the existing systems (and for most salesforces that is the CRM system) how do those reflect what is being learned in the training. Because if people do not see changes in their environment around them, they are much less likely to think the new skills and behaviors are going to help them. Leaders need to communicate. Then they need to alter the work environment enough to signal that we are really serious about you using these new skills. In the first phase, define. Individuals need to understand where their current skill gap is because we have to raise the awareness of an individual about where they stand relative to other people or where they stand relative to best practice. That makes them aware why the training is relevant, which can drive a desire to engage in the training. DP: Can you discuss the "develop" phase of training? GK:     This is the second phase, and traditionally where sales training has focused. At the individual level, the reasoning is pretty obvious — I need to go through training. I need to be engaged. I need to learn by doing because we want to have lots of practice and lots of relevant activity so that people feel like they can do these skills when they leave. From the organization’s point of view, besides what the employees are learning, development leaders and managers have to get that program and that event off the ground, which is a heavy lift. Organizationally, the best thing that leaders can do is just to give people uninterrupted time to actually engage in the training, to not have distractions go on during that period. So at the organizational level, it is pretty simple. It is just give people a safe bubble to be able to practice, fail, and then do better.  This bubble should come, to the degree possible, back at the "ranch," after the formal training is over. DP: What about the sustain phase? GK:  In the third phase, which is sustain, this is where we take a fully systematic point of view. There are things to do with the individual level certainly to have sustainment work, but there are also things that we need to do organizationally. And that is what the five steps to sustainment are about. Sustain is sometimes called, drive, in an effort to symbolize that training is designed to improve how a company moves forwards. Research we have done at Richardson, with Trainingindustry.com, shows that there really is a significant difference between those organizations that have managers and executives reporting that their organization is "effective" versus "not effective" in sustaining behavior change after training. DP: Does the allocation of training resources, not just the total amount, play a major role in the long term success of training? GK: One of the interesting things our study found was the allocation of resources. There was a fairly significant difference between how those were effective allocated their resources against those that were ineffective. What we found is that those who were effective at sustaining change, they were really looking at a budget allocation of about than 20 percent of their total project budget to be spend in the sustainment phase, compared to those organizations that were ineffectual. The ineffectual organizations, who were not doing sustainment right, were only spending a little bit more than ten percent of their budget. This is the first blog post in a 2 part series on sustaining sales training impact. In our next article, Gregg explains our 5 Paths to Sustainment in greater depth. ——————————————— Richardson and SAVO have partnered together to bring you  SAVO Sales Process Pro Richardson Edition™, an CRM-enabled application that allows sales and marketing leaders to reinforce training and execute best practices through coaching at each stage of the sales cycle. To learn more, click on the link above or the image below. The post Sustaining Sales Training Impact appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

Why Sales Training Sustainment Fails and Five Steps to Improve Success: Part II of an interview with Gregg Kober This is the second part of an interview with Gregg Kober, Richardson’s Vice President of Change Management, to discuss our experience and point of view on sustaining the impact of sales training. Part 1 focused on the three phases of behavior change. In this article, Gregg explains why sales training sustainment fails, and our 5-Steps of Sustainment Framework. Dario: Why does sustainment fail? Gregg: There are a lot of reasons why sales training sustainment can fail. This failure potential is one of the reasons that learning and development leaders have been somewhat reluctant to take on the sustainment dilemma. Learning and development leaders typically do not have any kind of direct control over the systems, the processes, the metrics, the HR practices, and the management practices that people go back into and return to after training. Because of this lack of authority over those things, learning and development leaders are justly reluctant to be held responsible for making changes in areas where they do not have any authority. The best learning and development leaders that we work with or sales enablement leaders are using their influence in these other areas to corral HR, to corral technology, to corral management into making changes that compliment what is going on in the training. It requires a certain amount of courage on the learning and development or sales enablement leaders’ part because they are going outside of their expertise. It requires high ability to influence one’s peers and to help make things a priority that may not be a priority for these other people. But ultimately, help to sustain that behavior change afterwards. DP: What are the five steps to sustainment? GK: The five steps are: set expectations, retain knowledge, apply skills, align systems, prevent relapse. The steps to sustainment come out of research or review of the research literature on transfer of training so what successfully makes people go from what - take what they learned in a classroom or a virtual environment and apply it back on the job. There has been quite a bit of research done over the last 30 years on how that works. What the steps to sustainment seek to do is to codify those into some simple to remember principles so that you can apply this going forward. And at a high level, the steps are set expectations, retain knowledge, apply skills, align systems, and prevent relapse. DP: Can you go into the steps in more detail? GK: The first step is to set expectations. Most organizations have significant issues both for their sales leaders, their sales managers, and their salespeople. And so when people have to be taken out of the field for two days or three days’ worth of training, they are naturally coming back to a game of catch up. You can almost hear them. "Oh my gosh, I’ve got to respond to this client. I have so many emails to do. I had to reschedule some meetings. I got to get back on the road. I have got to fly. Yeah, the training was great. But now I am back in the real world. " This first step is about the organization helping people to focus and saying we know you are no longer in training. But we still need you to focus on the application of these skills and this is how we would like you to do it. And it is pretty clear, concise, and really incremental steps to get people started. Step number two, retain knowledge, is similar to when you buy a new car. The value of the car begins to deteriorate when you drive if off the dealership’s lot. The sane thing happens with learning. As soon as participants set foot outside of that classroom, the forgetting curve kicks in. The forgetting curve is a naturally occurring cognitive phenomenon that we all experience in our daily life. So people, when they leave training, find the forgetting curve kicking in. Things that they knew in the classroom start to be lost out in the real world because they are not being reinforced. Retaining knowledge is all about making sure that that forgetting curve does not become a major problem in people retaining all the good skills and knowledge that they have so that that - those skills and knowledge can serve as a foundation going forward for step number three. Step number three is to apply skills. It is important to retain the knowledge after you leave the training, but then you have to use that retained knowledge as a foundation for applying your skills back on the job. Using those skills back on the job really involves three things. One, identifying when the new skills and knowledge are appropriate, when to use them; two, actually using those skills and knowledge; and three, receiving constructive feedback. So that may be feedback as far as self-reflection on your own performance. It may be peer feedback. It may be feedback from your manager, both strengths and areas for improvement. Step number four is to align systems. This sustainment step is the heart of ensuring that people believe the required behavior changes are "real" and not a "flavor of the month." If people go through training but their work environment has not noticeably changed to support the new behaviors, people will think that the new behaviors are optional or, worse, that management is not really serious about changing behaviors. On the other hand, if people go through training and return to a work environment that is significantly different and better aligned to support the new behaviors, people will think "management is serious about this change." The fifth is probably the most important step, persisting in using those skills and knowledge. We all know that any time you try and do something new, you are not proficient at it the first time. So your performance is naturally going to drop. It is hard for highly skilled, highly experienced sales people and sales managers to see their performance drop. They get worried that they are doing something wrong by using the new skills; but they are not. It is the naturally occurring move toward conscience competence. And so what we need to do is have people persist in using the skills and knowledge so that they do become consciously competent and that they can move forward with the new skills and not worry about the short-term drop in performance. DP: How do you do that? GK: The way you do that is really about having a developmental coaching culture. This culture automatically assumes that a person is trying to do his or her best and that we all have strengths and areas for improvement. By focusing in a non-judgmental, non-performance way on what people are trying to achieve, we help them get over that hump. And again, there is a short-term drop off in performance. We trade that for the long-term gain in mastering of those skills with clients. The other thing that can really help is to apply those skills in real deal situations and get feedback in real time. So in a deal of pursuit or in an account management situation or in a prospecting or negotiation situation, having someone who you can go to who can give you real time coaching guidance just makes all the difference because then you feel like you are operating with these new skills and knowledge with a safety net under you. You are not going to fail. If you fall, you are going to fall into that safety net and bounce back and be fine. DP: Do you have any other advice for a learning leader, sales leader, or a line of business leader that really wants to ensure that whatever investment they make in training sticks? GK: Make sure you have a systematic process for making sure that training sticks. So if you are going to invest 20 percent of your overall project budget or more than 20 percent of your overall project budget in sustainment, first of all, have that number in mind. What is that number? And preserve that number in your project budget. But then really look systematically at a way to identify what interventions at each of the five stages are appropriate in our culture. How do I really help people to focus by setting expectations? How am I going to kick that forgetting curve so people are retaining knowledge? Make sure that skill application - people are bought into applying the skills back on the job. Ensure that managers are supportive of people applying the skills back on the job because there is nothing that kills sustainment faster than a manager saying to a sales person I know you learned that in training, but that is not how we do things. "That is not how we do things " has killed more good sales training than any other sentence. So making sure that your managers are skilled at training or coaching what is being trained in the sales training is really important. Then making sure that they see, in step four, aligned systems, they see a difference. So if you have a sales process, if you have done sales process work, you make sure that sales process is reflected in the CRM. Make sure that coaching conversations around opportunities reflect that sales process. But make sure that the systems are up-to-date and people are returning going oh, this is different. This is not going to be just the sales training fad this year. And last, really, really make sure to publicize success. People need to hear about early success. They need to hear about the wins. If people do not hear about the wins, they are going to assume that they are the only ones struggling, right. For a few months this will have to be about people changing their behavior because you are not going to see the results immediately. And so wins early on are about people who change their behavior, who try to do things, maybe someone who failed and got back up on the horse and was persistent and tried again and succeeded. So early wins are really important because human beings are impatient to see success. Those those early wins help to cement for people, even if you do not experience them yourself, hearing about early wins helps to people say they can do this. Other people can do this. I can do this too. And it makes you much more likely to persist and not fall back into your old behavior. ————————————- Richardson and SAVO have partnered together to bring you  SAVO Sales Process Pro Richardson Edition™, an CRM-enabled application that allows sales and marketing leaders to reinforce training and execute best practices through coaching at each stage of the sales cycle. To learn more, click on the link above or the image below.     The post Why Sales Training Sustainment Fails and Five Steps to Improve Success appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

Richardson to Host Selling with Insights Workshop at Sales 2.0 Conference in Boston Richardson will be the host of a selling with insights workshop at the Sales 2.0 Conference in Boston on July 15, 2014. The workshop will focus on how sales teams can leverage insights to provide value to customers and win more deals. Richardson’s President and CEO David DiStefano and Senior Sales Training Consultant Kim Dean will host the session. They will focus on sharing best practices to help salespeople to be able to make a connection with prospective customers. Throughout the workshop, attendees will participate in sample exercises that teach sales teams how to generate and deliver insights that will create credibility and differentiate their solutions from the competition. In the interactive workshop, participants will learn: A framework for leveraging insights and creating value for customers A process for personalizing Insight Messages Skills for effectively presenting insights, creating needs, and shaping the customer’s thinking toward engaging in the sale Risks to avoid when leveraging insights during the sales process "In today’s market, if you want to win, you must be able to differentiate from the competition," says Richardson President and CEO David DiStefano. "We are excited to partner with Selling Power on this event to give sales leaders the opportunity to gain insight into some of the new sales skills that Richardson believes are critical to success." —————————————— Richardson’s Selling with Insights® sales training program teaches your sales reps advanced preparation techniques and dialogue skills to effectively present insights, challenge the customer’s thinking, add more value, differentiate your solution, and build credibility as a trusted business partner. If you would like to learn more about Richardson’s Selling with Insights workshops and full seminars, please email Jim Brodo at jim.brodo@richardson.com or click here to read more.   The post Richardson to Host Selling with Insights Workshop at Sales 2.0 Conference in Boston appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Ultimate Checklist for Mission Critical Group Sales Presentations "Mission critical" is a term that you see in many different activities, up to and including military operations. When mission critical aspects do not go well, barring an extraordinary piece of luck, the mission fails. If your group sales presentation does not go well, barring an extraordinary piece of luck, your sales effort will fail and you will not get the contract. What follows is the structure of virtually all group sales presentations — the phase for which you have to prepare. Preparing for the presentation Arriving at the presentation The opening Going over the agenda with the audience Confirming client needs and interests Body of the presentation Summary of the presentation Questions and answers Closing the meeting Following up Preparing for the presentation — The first step in a presentation is preparing for the presentation. You carefully research the potential client. You use this information to prepare a written proposal and other documents for use during the meeting. You also plan your approach to the presentation, basically outlining what you are going to say and when you are going to make the various points. You should remember that any slides or projections are best done in outline form. This is not a teleprompter, so plan to add the details verbally. The members of the audience will know how to read, so don’t read to them. Bring a backup media system. Even if you have presented to this company before, their system may not be working. Arriving at the presentation — You do not "beam in" to the meeting, like the captain on Star Trek, and just begin talking. You are not announced to dramatically enter the room like the President of the United States addressing a joint session of Congress. No one would think to arrive just at the time scheduled for a meeting. If nothing else, this allows no time for unexpected transportation problems. But most people might think they just need time to use the restroom and go over their notes. Logical, but wrong. Arrive earlier. This allows time for more than the basic necessities. One highly advisable point is to check who is going to be attending. Find out if anything else has changed. Take the time to introduce yourself, one on one, to each attendee. Exchange business cards. One idea is to arrange the cards in a seating chart — yes, like our teachers used to do — to let you know who is sitting where. The clients won’t mind; it just shows you are trying to get to know them. A side benefit of starting your presentation before the meeting is that it can help to overcome jitters. The opening — In the first few minutes of the presentation, clients form a general impression of you. During that time, they may be so busy trying to "place" you that they may not listen to what you are saying. By understanding what the opening is really about, you can make yours more effective. The opening will probably not "make or break" the presentation, but it can set the tone. Think of it as scoring runs in the first inning of a baseball game. The game is by no means won, but being ahead is better than being behind. Use the few minutes of the introduction to: Establish rapport and begin to build credibility. Introduce yourself, your company, and your team members. Don’t assume everyone at the meeting already knows you Thank clients for the opportunity to be there. Present your objective — why you are there. Discuss your purpose — why they will find it useful to be there. Try to address talk to each person individually during the meeting, rotating among them. Try to learn their names before the meeting. Going over the agenda with the audience — This is what it sounds like. Go over each point you plan to discuss. Ask if this is what everyone expects. A printed agenda, based on the table of contents for the proposal, can be useful to distribute at this point. You can also distribute the proposal at this time, but a person’s natural tendency to look at printed material when they get it might be distracting. Confirming client needs and interests — Checking the agenda begins this process. The best way to do this is to ask the client representatives about the points you should stress, to be sure your presumably well prepared presentation is on point. Thank the client representatives, and be sure to mention there will be time set aside from questions at the end. Also, be sure to invite clients to ask questions during your presentation. Body of the presentation — This is where you make your case. Organize the key elements of your presentation, with an eye toward what the client wants to achieve. Use a logical but sales-oriented and client-oriented sequence — for example, features and benefits/value are discussed before price. Rehearse the presentation beforehand. If you will have colleagues with you, define their expected roles in the meeting. Use but do not read your proposal (except for figures and technical information). Bring enough handouts to give one to everyone attending, plus a few for safety if more people show up. Consider bringing separate copies of the executive summary to have something to leave each client representative if you need to revise the proposal. Use projected PowerPoint slides, but not as a teleprompter. Don’t read them. Create a dialogue with your audience. Make sure the amount of information fits into your allotted time. It is worth repeating — position/personalize the information to your client’s needs. Be sure to state benefits to the client. Summary of the presentation — This can be described as a verbal executive summary. Go over, very briefly, each point you have made. Be sure the summary mentions each benefit to the client of what you are offering, Questions and answers — Be sure to leave enough time for questions at the end of your presentation. Make it clear that you welcome questions at the end and during the presentation. Answer them concisely, and invite follow-up questions. Try to anticipate questions in your preparation because you might not have time to get back to the asker with an answer you do not have. Offer to be available for any questions the client may have later. Closing the meeting — This is the last memory clients will have of your presentation. Ask the client for what you want them to do. Ask for the business. Show that you really want their business and want to work with them. Following up — Get a personal thank-you note out that day or the next via e-mail to everyone who attended the meeting. Your contact can confirm everyone who attended and how to reach them. You will already be calling the contact to thank him or her for their assistance. Your contact can brief you on any changes since the meeting. You can use these notes to clear up any questions you have about your own presentation. Be sure you can be reached. If you don’t want to give out your cell number, let everyone who might answer your phone, even a "press 0 for an operator line," know to forward the message immediately. Be sure to brief your boss and your close subordinate, on how the meeting went in case they get questions. You may also find it valuable to write a memo to yourself, listing what seemed to go well and seemed to go not so well in the meeting. Group Sales presentations can seem like fearsome prospects. They can be complicated. However, with proper presentation, they can be done and done well. ———————————————————— Download our newest E-book,  A Financial Services Leader Guide for Sales Success.  The post The Ultimate Checklist for Mission Critical Group Sales Presentations appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

New Research from Aberdeen Highlights Best-in-Class Sales Training Reinforcement Most of us appreciate that ongoing professional development is essential to success in this rapidly changing and ultra-competitive market. Basic skills need to be reinforced, and new knowledge, skills, and experience must be acquired to stay at the top of your game. Training is important but must be reinforced and sustained to make a lasting impact. We’ve heard it all before, but we don’t always invest the necessary time and effort into sustainment to really make a difference. However, according to a recent report by Aberdeen Research, "It’s a Marathon, Not a Sprint: Reinforcing Sales Training", organizations that take the right measures to sales training reinforce and sustain impact significantly outperform their peers. According to Aberdeen, "The ever-changing landscape of the business-to-business sales profession necessitates a fresh look at crucial training and development activities … More than ever, companies expecting scalable and repeatable sales success stories are embedding their educational efforts into long term, flexible, tech-say methodologies designed for multi-year results." The report offers some interesting observations and statistics. I’ve highlighted a few of these points below. The most effective B2B sales firms are 22% more likely (more than one in five) than all other sales firms to reinforce training at least once each quarter. Companies that carry out post-training reinforcement see 20% more salespeople achieve sales quotas. Aberdeen raised more interesting and significant points to consider and actions to take — "takeaways" — from their survey and analysis of the results. Effective firm provide at least some sales training to nonsales staff. When the two groups understand each other, both benefit — as does the company. The need to focus training on better sales conversations between sales representatives and their clients. Train your staff to understand the needs of clients and to directly address these needs. Learn from the experience of others. Go even further. Collect the experience of others. Establish a central database of best practices — what works and what does not work — and under what circumstances methods work. As I mentioned earlier, these are just scratching the surface, and I encourage you to download the full report Continuous professional development, throughout a working career, is the best way, probably the only way, to enable people to remain effective employees. A well-thought-out  sales training reinforcement plan drives effective employee development. The more effective companies know this and act on this knowledge. This Aberdeen Group report provides strong evidence to back up these conclusions. ———————————- Download our newest E-book,  A Financial Services Leader Guide for Sales Success.      The post New Research - Best-in-Class Sales Training Reinforcement appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

Why Customized Sales Training for "Strategic Relevance" Drives the Best Results In order to achieve desired training outcomes, adults have to be willing to actively participate in the training and take advantage of those opportunities for learning. People have to decide to be open and receptive to learning, and to engage in the experience. One of the biggest determinants of active disengaged participants is the relevance of the training content. Sounds simple enough, but many sales managers and training leaders fail to connect those very basic dots. There are a few reasons that sales training opportunities fail to resonate and fall flat with your audience: Too broad - Off-the-shelf e-learning or videos offer generic training based on selling situations that don’t reflect your sales team’s experiences. Too restrictive - Many sales training companies are strictly wedded to their proprietary models and methodologies; they expect you to adapt your organization to their approach. Fits someone else’s agenda - The training has been re-purposed from another group, assuming that it will be "good enough", but in reality is not. Conversely, when training addresses a challenge a sale professional recently faced or a skill or behavior their manager wants them to develop, salespeople see the value. They will more actively engage with relevant content and have a better learning outcome as a result. "Deeply Customize" Sales Training for Maximum Impact We strongly believe that sales training must be deeply customized for maximum impact. Research conducted by Trainingindustry.com overwhelmingly supports our position. In their study, training ranked "effective": 72% of the time when deeply customized 21% for light customization 7% for no customization What does "deeply customized" mean? Customization can range from changing a logo on a workbook to embedding concepts, thinking, and nuances that align closely with strategic objectives. We refer to this as "strategically relevant" customization, which ensures that participants are learning, practicing, and developing skills in the context of the strategic situations they face. In-depth Interviews and Customizing Summary Our process involves interviewing senior executives, top performers, and subject matter experts. We summarize the findings from those interviews in a customizing summary and validate it with the buyer. The summary’s findings are often as expected ("What we heard in the interviews matches what you suspected"), but also shed light on deeper issues, false assumptions, or misalignments that need to be addressed ("You told us ABC, but what we heard was XYZ; you have a bigger/different issue going on that needs fixing"). This document incorporates the sales organization’s strategic objectives and key challenges and becomes a focal point for customizing the training. Skilled and Experienced Training Designers Why don’t all sales training companies do this? It’s not easy. We are able to customize training for strategic relevance because our training designers are passionate and experienced with a knack for quickly understanding a client’s business and diagnosing needs and underlying issues. They also understand the buying and selling dynamic, identify the challenging issues, and design training materials that address these needs. They’ve all worked across a range of client situations and can readily identify traps that salespeople and sales managers fall into. They also have mastery of our content and know what to select to best meet the client’s needs. Finally, they are extremely committed, and deliver for the client. Custom Practice Scenarios and Case Studies The depth and efficiency of our approach is unique in the industry and extremely valuable for our clients. In its simplest form, we make sure that we have all of the practice scenarios are tailored to the client’s business. We design role-play activities with the strategic lens of what’s most important to practice skills based on their key challenges. For example, the client might be want to grow their existing accounts by teaching cross-selling into new divisions or up-selling new solutions. We would focus an activity so that the context was strategically relevant to them as opposed to just any opportunity to apply the skill. It’s strategically relevant to both the sales reps and sales manager, which makes the sales training more impactful. Customizing case studies and exercises are very important, but we go a lot further. We seek to understand the DNA of the organization and get a strategic view of the business. We understand a client’s vision, business goals, strategic objectives, competitors, culture, differentiators, and challenges. Our process emphasizes capturing what we’ve learned about a client’s business in a way that can be baked into program materials. It also helps us transfer this institutional knowledge to our trainers, so they talk the client’s language, emphasize key themes, and bring the learning to life in the classroom. Strategic Change Through Relevant Training You cannot get tailored, specific-to-your-business attention and training from an out-of-the-box solution. To make a strategic impact, generic solutions should not be an option. To make the most of your training efforts, you must consider what you’re trying to achieve, the key challenges standing in the way of your objectives, the capability of your sales reps, and what’s most relevant for changing their behaviors and developing new skills. ———————————————————- Download our newest E-book,  A Financial Services Leader Guide for Sales Success.      The post Why Customized Sales Training for "Strategic Relevance" Drives the Best Results appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.

Six Emerging Competencies for Sales Success in the Age of the Empowered Buyer It’s been well-documented that buyer behavior is changing, with power shifting from sellers to buyers. The primary reason for this shift is availability of and access to information. The buyer is clearly in control and is dictating when, how, and what they want to buy. Even though sales roles are becoming more specialized, we believe the new balance of power requires three traits for all sales reps: Be Transparent. Set the proper expectations with your buyers and existing customers. You and your team must be above board and focused on delivering on your promises while resisting overreaching or overpromising to win a sale. Be Proactive. Proactively look for opportunities to create value. Don’t sit back and wait for the buyer to come to you, whether for a new account or existing account. If you wait, then you risk becoming a commodity that is constantly competing at dog-and-pony shows and struggling to differentiate yourself. Instead, get ahead of your peers and the commodity curve by being a first-mover. Be proactive, bring value, and help customers understand how they can create value. Be Fully Invested in Your Customers’ Success. This might sound obvious, but it’s not. It’s expected that sales reps will do what’s necessary to make the sale. The emphasis here is to demonstrate to your buyers that you have their best interests in mind beyond the sale. Let them know that you’re thinking about this as a long-term relationship and not a short-term sale. Whatever will make them happy will ensure their success and the likelihood that you’ll remain in good favor when the next sale opportunity or renewal comes. The Rise of New Competencies Common across Sales Roles In talking about this issue, my colleague Eileen Krantz has helped me to capture the impact of these changes and the consequences for sales teams and individual reps if they are to thrive as more changes inevitably occur. Our recent work with organizations with subscription-based business models and significant dependence on inbound marketing has shown the following set of six competencies to be predictive of success. Simply put, top performers in this new environment are better at these behaviors than lower performers. Developing Sales Leads. Demonstrates the initiative to uncover sales opportunities; actively attracts the interest of potential customers; networks to increase contacts; stays on top of market conditions to uncover new leads; consistently follows up with leads to assess their interest in the product/service offering. You can’t sit back — you must be proactive! Qualifying Prospects. Uses a formula or series of questions to determine the prospect’s fit with the product; expects to sell to the majority of prospects because they are known to need the seller’s products; reacts quickly and objectively to the answers to standard probes by disqualifying the prospect or proceeding through the selling process. Be transparent with yourself — "Is there a legitimate opportunity here, or am I just dreaming?" Making Persuasive Presentations. Excites the customer with an enthusiastic presentation style; demonstrates value and actively promotes products and services by making an emotional appeal; holds the customer’s attention and interest by keeping the presentation content relevant; varies style to build toward a buying decision. Be able to differentiate yourself, realizing that there’s a fine line between being persuasive and embellishing. Committing Time and Effort to Ensure Success. Thrives on working; tends to achieve higher results in direct proportion to the time committed to work; remains focused on the goal and is not easily discouraged or distracted; uses work as an opportunity for interaction and incorporates interpersonal contacts into task accomplishment; sees work as a major source of personal satisfaction. This starts with a proactive approach that continues beyond the sale. Partnering as a Customer Advocate. Understands the customer’s business, empathizes with their problems, and sets a plan to meet their needs; tirelessly focuses on building strong relationships with customers by acting on their behalf to work the seller’s internal systems to meet their requirements; sees partnering with customers as the most efficient method to reach personal sales career goals. This demands a proactive approach, as well as being fully committed to your customers’ success — by helping them stay ahead of their competition, you’ll do the same with yours. Adapting Approach to Different Buyer Motivations. Gathers essential information to determine the benefits customers need in order to be sold; is willing to adjust sales approach to fit different buyer motivations; influences or persuades others by determining how the other individual can benefit and then communicates those advantages. Being objective and transparent is essential. By comparison, the previous success models for hunters vs. farmers are shown below: A comparison of the former hunter and farmer models shows that hunters were generally more opportunistic and proactive and farmers were more service-oriented and responsive. But we’re now seeing competencies that are common to both hunters and farmers that are becoming more common across various sales roles despite the fact that those roles are different. In essence, they are more proactively customer-focused. While it is still necessary to pursue and win the business and then effectively service the account, it is not sufficient. Sales professionals in this marketplace of educated and proactive buyers must be advisors and advocates who can create and shape opportunities to add value to their customers’ businesses. They must then be able to leverage those successes and lessons learned to develop new business while maintaining and expanding business within their existing accounts. Do your sales reps possess the right competencies to be as effective as possible in bringing in new business and nurturing existing clients? Help them to adapt and identify which ones won’t make the transition. This gives your sales strategy a clear direction and provides guidance for your sales training efforts, as well as coaching and mentoring objectives for your managers. ————————— Download our newest E-book,  A Financial Services Leader Guide for Sales Success.      The post Six Emerging Competencies for Sales Success in the Age of the Empowered Buyer appeared first on The Richardson Sales Excellence Review™.