Dave Stein's Blog for Sales Leaders

Prior to our briefing last week by The TAS Group executives in advance of today’s announcement, we were somewhat skeptical.  We thought claims they made in their YouTube videos were more than a bit outrageous, like this one from their press release: “Dealmaker Genius uses over 20,000 core knowledge elements and more than one million possible combinations to help companies create the ideal sales process for a given product, service, and industry, in less than 15 minutes – for free.“   C’mon, now guys…

I asked tough questions during the briefing, but I got answers that made sense.  Every one of them.

They suggested that I log onto the new Dealmaker Genius customized opportunity management process application.  A few days later I did.

Here’s how it works:  Based upon the industry you’re selling into, how your customers buy, and certain characteristics regarding your sales approach, products and services, the application poses a series of questions about what it takes to successfully manage a sales opportunity.  It proposes a very comprehensive list of qualification criteria, allowing you to accept, change, or delete.  You can add criteria as well.  When your list is complete, it then cycles back and asks for the importance, or weighting factor, for each criterion.

The end result is a documented sales process, replete with metrics—for example, how much potential business must be in each stage for a rep to achieve their targets.

The results of this process documentation exercise can be incorporated into The TAS Group’s Dealmaker sales performance automation application. But here’s the thing…  The output from the 15-minute exercise can be used as a stand-alone tool as well, or as the foundation for customizing their existing CRM application.

Powerful.

Here’s my quote from the press release:  “For the experienced sales leader, this is better than sliced bread.  Rather than spending time and money on tips and tricks with little sustained impact, being able to create a customized sales process for their own business can set them on the path to lasting, measurable sales performance improvement.”

This is another big step by The TAS Group in providing sales professionals with appropriate technology that will enable them to be more effective and efficient.

I’d be hard-pressed to accept any excuses from process-averse sales leaders as to why they wouldn’t avail themselves of this tool and the benefits that it will bring.

Photo: © Albert Lozano-Nieto – Fotolia.com

Filed under: CRM, Measurement, Methodology, Opportunity Management, Sales 2.0, Sales Training Companies, Technology, sales process | No Comments »

Over and over I’ve read and heard sales experts say that, “It doesn’t matter which sales approach or methodology you use, as long as every salesperson in the company uses it.”  This myth has been around for decades.  Don’t believe it.  It just isn’t true.

When ESR does postmortems on failed sales training initiatives, we often find a significant mismatch between the client’s sales performance improvement requirements and the vendor’s capabilities.  That’s not the only reason that these initiatives fail, but it’s a common one.  If you have a whole sales team following the same process, but that process doesn’t match customer buying patterns and preferences, for example, you’re not going to get very far at all.

Here are some of the reasons companies wind up with the wrong training company for their needs:

1. They hire a training company based on brand recognition only, without doing a deep dive into the vendor’s capabilities.  Although millions swear by Coca-Cola, it isn’t the right drink for everyone, is it?  Neither is Pepsi.
2. They engage with a training provider with whom they have worked in the past, even though their present company’s situation is very different.  I used to get my car serviced at the Jeep dealership.  I no longer have a Jeep.  Should I bring my Prius there?  Do they understand the design and functions of a hybrid car? Read more »

Filed under: sales training | 7 Comments »

I really enjoy someone telling me I’ve asked a great question.  Even with all these years of selling and consulting, it doesn’t happen that much when I’ve not prepared questions in advance.  But when I do, I’m able to build some real credibility just by the nature, content, and delivery of my questions.  I’m proud of that skill.

A few years ago, I tried to organize a webinar on questioning skills.  My guests were going to be a New York City detective and an investigative reporter from the Wall Street Journal who had interviewed me (and gotten me to share some things I wasn’t particularly interested in appearing on the front page of Section 2 of the Journal).  She wasn’t able to get permission from the paper to participate in the webinar.  It never came to pass.  Too bad.  It would have been fun and a great learning experience for all of us in sales.

The idea for the detective came to me years before when I was in the emergency room at my local hospital with a nasty kidney stone.  While I was in agony, waiting for the shot of Demerol to take effect, I heard two detectives introduce themselves to the patient in the next bed.  Evidently he had been beaten up by two “assailants” less than an hour before.

The first question one of the detectives asked is where anyone would start.  It didn’t yield any clues.

Do you know who did this to you?

No.

But from that point on, even as the Demerol took hold, I was amazed at the path of the interrogation. Read more »

Filed under: sales training | 5 Comments »

Yes.

That sole trainer (or two- to three-person firm) won’t be rolling out simultaneous live instructor-led training classes in 20 countries.  Nor will they be getting in front of every one of 3,000 reps in the North American operation of a large client during a rapid 6-month deployment.

But we have seen one- to three-person sales consulting and training firms be very effective in:

• Filling a gap in a company’s existing sales methodology in their unique area of expertise.  We’ve recommended domain experts in selling outsourcing, gaining and leveraging business acumen, demonstrating software effectively, and understanding and selling into specific industries, as just four examples.  These experts contributed significantly to their clients’ overall sales effectiveness; Read more »

Filed under: Methodology, Sales Training Companies, coaching | No Comments »

That’s a question I’ve been asked again and again by journalists, sales leaders, sales training company CEOs, corporate training departments, consultants, and our clients, when they first contact us.

When I tell them that’s not a question I can easily answer, many offer to pay me just for providing them with “just one name.”

If they press me for an answer I take a deep breath and say…

I first need you to tell me just a bit about the company seeking the best sales training firm:”

• What do they sell?
• How do they sell it?
• How well do they sell it?
• Why do they win?
• Why do they lose?
• How long is their sales cycle?
• Is it a complex or transactional sale?
• Do they sell to committees or individual buyers?
• What resources are required to support a rep?
• How do their buyers buy?
• Who are their competitors?
• What’s their go-to-market strategy?
• How are leads generated? Read more »

Filed under: Buyers, Sales Training Companies, sales process | 5 Comments »

I just received a copy of Improving Corporate Negotiation Performance, a new study published by UK-based Huthwaite International and Connecticut-based IACCM—International Association for Contract and Commercial Management.  Huthwaite, along with other leaders in the area of negotiation like Think Inc! and The Bay Group,  vigilantly drive the critical point that negotiation shouldn’t begin when a company has been selected in a customer buying process.  Unfortunately few companies on the sell-side see things the same way.

Huthwaite and IACCM have a set forth a 5-phase Negotiation Maturity Model along with the percentages of respondent companies at each phase.  If you haven’t seen studies on this topic, the results will be sobering:  80% of the companies surveyed have no formal negotiation process.  The project team looked at companies’ negotiation processes, cross-organizational collaboration, data collection and analysis, preparation and planning, approval and escalation systems, training, success measurement, and other factors.  If you’re getting dizzy right about now, you should probably consider yourself among the 80%.

It’s my job to be skeptical when vendors publish research reports covering areas where they have something to sell.  However, during the past 10 years, ESR has seen procurement, sourcing and buyer departments get considerably more strategic when it comes to negotiating with suppliers.  Selling organizations are being overpowered, out-strategized, and often just plain beat up by their customers.  Not enough selling organizations are doing much about it.  At least not in any way that has significant, measurable impact. Read more »

Filed under: Book Recommendation, Measurement, Research, Sales Training Companies | 2 Comments »

I’m on the road all this week.  (In fact, I’m writing this on a plane from Minneapolis to Kansas City.)  There’s not enough time to for me to write a long, thoughtful blog post.  But I don’t have to.  I’ve written enough of them here on this subject already—two year’s worth—just in case you’re interested.

I’ve been saying again and again that sales performance is continuing to decline.  CSO Insights just published their 2009 Sales Performance Optimization report and the results validate my position. I’m not happy I was right.  Not at all.

It’s not that I’m so smart.  Anyone who thought about it could see it coming.  You take what in many companies is an organization short of strategy, discipline, process, measurement, leadership and productivity, give them insufficient and ineffective marketing and other support, layer in a significant recession, and there you have it.

It doesn’t have to be this way.  I can prove that.  I just came from attending the annual sales awards dinner held by a major client who simply blew away their 2009 targets, recession and all. We’ve got lots of other examples of companies that wouldn’t stand for the situation they were in, took appropriate action, and never looked back.

OK, I can’t help it.  I have to give you my opinion on the biggest single thing that can be done to fix this situation:

MEMO

To: CEOs, COOs, GMs, COOs, Boards of Directors, Investors, Presidents, and Business Owners

From: Dave Stein, CEO, ES Research Group, Inc.

Date: February 3, 2010

Subject: Declining Sales Performance

Filed under: Uncategorized | 4 Comments »

Imparta Ltd. is a Tier 1 global sales effectiveness organization based in the U.K. with presence in 32 countries including the U.S.  They have many strengths, especially in the areas of creating customer value and methodology.  Imparta’s sales training programs encompass sales, marketing, and leadership training. ESR commenced formal coverage of Imparta last year.  They are serious about taking a leadership position as a global player.

On top of the research we perform on Imparta as a component of our vendor coverage, ESR had an opportunity to see Imparta in action twice:  First, we were an active participant, along with about 15 other people, in a half-day seminar on coaching salespeople.  In addition, as a task related to our work with a large client where we were guiding them through a sales training vendor evaluation, we sat in on a presentation in response to the client’s RFP.  We were able to view their learning and reinforcement technologies first-hand.  In both instances we were impressed.

I thought that it would be interesting for you hear what Richard Barkey, Imparta’s CEO, thinks about a number of subjects related to sales effectiveness.

Dave Stein: What buying trends are your clients experiencing with their customers as we slowly escape from the recent global recession? Read more »

Filed under: CRM, Economy, Interview, Marketing, Methodology, RFP, Sales Training Companies, coaching | No Comments »

After a webinar I did in December with The TAS Group, I got an angry email from someone who attended.  He wrote, “Instead of all the negatives how about offering some sales help for those of us that still have a job??”

I understood his perspective right away.  The messages I delivered during the webinar were for sales leaders.  I stated some statistics about the state of selling and some recommended courses of action.   But if you’re a salesperson struggling to make your numbers, you don’t want to hear about the pain your managers are dealing with from some industry analyst.

I got back to this guy right away. I wrote, “Send me your address. I’ll send you the best possible help I can.”  Last week I sent him one of my few remaining copies of the original first edition of How Winners Sell.  (It’s out of print.)  He was very, very appreciative and wrote, “… thanks so much Dave! A partner in sales forever…”  I love it!

So for this committed sales professional and the rest of you wind up reading this post, here are some of the best things that salespeople can do—by and for themselves if necessary—to assure long-term sales success.  This list is not the results of a research study.  It’s what we observe the most successful salespeople doing every day: Read more »

Filed under: Book Recommendation, Competition | 9 Comments »

For those of you new to this blog, my firm, ES Research Group, evaluates sales training companies.  We deliver our findings in the form of reports, which we sell on our website, and through consultations with companies evaluating sales training providers.

First a bit of background.

For us, gathering data about sales training companies falls into seven categories.  As you can imagine, the quality and quantity of the data varies significantly among each.

1. We speak with sales training company executives directly through formal briefings, informal discussions (of which I have many), and podcasts.
2. We read through trainers’ marketing materials, articles, blog posts, press releases, white papers, and other publicly available sources of information.  We use this subjective information more to understand how the provider positions themselves than what their strengths and weaknesses are.
3. We have a network of sales training buyers, successful salespeople and executives, consultants, former sales training company employees, journalists, and other experts whom we speak with regarding the real capabilities of a training company or trainer.
4. We speak with other trainers to get their perspectives.  We focus on separating fact versus opinion, since competitive emotions run very high in this business.
5. We speak with references training companies provide us.  Again, we seek facts rather than opinions.
6. We provide advice to some sales trainers (individuals to the largest firms).  Although we would never disclose anything proprietary, we do get a very deep understanding of those trainers’ businesses and offerings.
7. We are the recipient of responses to RFPs that we write and distribute to long lists of vendors for our clients.  We read every response completely and assess a vendor’s capabilities against our client’s specific requirements.  From those responses we can also see how a vendor positions their strengths, minimizes their weaknesses, and generally positions themselves.

In the broadest sense, we compare trainers by looking at two top-level criteria:  (1) Breadth and Depth of Solution and (2) Solution Effectiveness.  You can see that the first measurement applies only to what we refer to as “full-service” sales trainers—those who provide consulting, training, and reinforcement across many different skill sets—from negotiation to strategic account management to financial acumen.  Niche players (see below) can’t be ranked in this category.  Solution Effectiveness, on the other hand, applies to every training company and trainer we either formally cover or informally watch. Read more »

Filed under: Account Management, Buyers, Industry Analyst, Methodology, RFP, Sales Training Companies | No Comments »