Dave Stein's Blog for Sales Leaders

A few weeks ago I received an email from a sales director for a company that is an ESR client.  I hadn’t met this person in the past:

Hi Dave,

I have read your book, “How Winners Sell” and have found it to be one of the best sales mentoring books available. I have also followed you blogs and tweets over the years.

The best business books are those that you read and then review over time by going to the yellow highlight sections. My copy of “Winners” has served as a reference source for about 7 years.

I am a 20 plus year software sales veteran who spends the last 2 weeks of every July at a house in Katama with my family.

As a result, I would love to meet you and perhaps get a cup of coffee or an early evening drink in Edgartown, Oak Bluffs (or just coffee in Vineyard Haven).

I will be on the island from July 18^th to August 1^st and would be pleased to meet you, should schedules permit.

BTW – loved the aerial shot of Tisbury Pond.  [He's referring to the photo in the header of this page.]  Bill & Susan [...] have been family friends for many years and I have seen some wonderful island views from Bill’s helicopter.

Regards,

Chris [...]

How could I pass up this opportunity?

I didn’t.  We had breakfast at the Planeview Restaurant at the Martha’s Vineyard airport this morning.  (Lots of locals do business there.)

At one point, Chris asked me this question:  In your experience, what three things do top performing salespeople have in common?  Here’s my list:

1. A realistic, objective view of themselves, their customers, and their sales opportunities.  Ability to seek and handle the truth and do the right things with that knowledge.
2. An orientation toward order and process.  That includes planning.  Having ten or twenty deals in your portfolio and knowing what the next steps are for each one.  Not saying, “I’ll figure out what to do after the next meeting.”
3. The ability (and willingness) to really understand the customer.   Being driven to research the company and the person with whom they are meeting to the point that they can grab and maintain credibility and differentiation, not to mention knowing enough to begin building a foundation for meaningful business collaboration.  (See Dave Brock’s post today about that subject.)

Are these my final answers?  No.  There are numbers of other common strengths, behaviors, skills, and traits among top performers, depending on the demands of the sales jobs they hold.  For example, what a strategic account manager needs to be successful is different from a territory rep.  But those three are a heck of a good place to start.

With that in mind, what are your top three?

Photo source:  © 2010 Dave Stein — Lambert’s Cove Beach, West Tisbury, MA.

Filed under: Professionalism | No Comments »

Yesterday I received an email from a Sandler franchisee inviting me to attend a live “Buyers Are Liars Workshop.”  I’ve seen and heard this statement before, but only now feel compelled to voice my opinion.

I don’t know about you, but that phrase and the combative attitude it represents concerns me.  Do buyers lie?  Sure, some of them do.  Do sellers lie?  Same story.

The sales profession has enough to overcome without a sales training industry leader conveying this negative, fatalistic view of selling.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not attacking the Sandler organization or any of their franchisees.  ESR covers Sandler and we know they certainly have their share of satisfied, loyal customers in the markets they serve.

But many of us, including Howard Stevens and the University Sales Education Foundation, are working hard to elevate the profession of selling in the U.S. and other parts of the world.  With that in mind, it would certainly help this and future generations of sales professionals for us  to tone down the rhetoric and spend our creative energies helping salespeople better understand how to establish mutually beneficial, trusting relationships with their customers.  If someone doesn’t believe that can be accomplished, they should consider another profession.

Filed under: Sales Training Companies | 20 Comments »

ESR’s approach to evaluating sales training providers enables our clients to select training partners who will most positively impact their sales performance.

ESR’s core buy-side service is our evaluation process for selecting sales training providers.  We are almost always called in by a senior sales executive from a client’s company.  Occasionally it’s the learning or sales ops organizations that contact us.  Every once in a while, we’re contacted by representatives from procurement or HR organizations, who believe ESR is a sales training company.  I’m not sure how they would think that unless they didn’t visit or read what’s on our website.

I had a good conversation with a savvy procurement guy from a big insurance company this week about what it takes to effectively evaluate sales training providers and the risks associated with making any of the most common mistakes.  I was encouraged by his intelligence, insight and openness to a different approach, but unfortunately his understanding of the challenges associated with sales trainer selection is rare among the procurement people we’ve dealt with. Read more »

Filed under: Buyers, RFP, Sales Training Companies | No Comments »

Last week Miller Heiman announced Advanced Concepts^SM, their new multi-media, virtual learning offering.

Clients who are using Miller Heiman’s content have been saying they want to take their application of the Strategic Selling process to the next level.  The new tool provides content above and beyond what is typically offered in Miller Heiman’s programs.  Miller Heiman also payed special attention to how salespeople learn, and the fact that they typically access information when they have a challenge—for example, having a deal stuck in the funnel.

Miller Heiman decided on a push strategy, e-mailing modules in the learning series on a monthly basis.  Salespeople can also access the content on demand.  It’s presented visually, audibly, and in document format. Read more »

Filed under: Methodology, Sales Strategy, Sales Training Companies, Technology, coaching | 2 Comments »

Last week I was interviewed for a podcast by John Golden, CEO and President of Huthwaite.

John had some great questions for me about a number of topics around sales effectiveness:

1. Changes in the buyer/seller relationship, in buyer behavior, and the role of technology such as social/professional networking.
2. The relevance of sales training given the changing nature of the buyer/seller relationship.
3. Some the more creative ways some sales organizations sell.
4. The relationship between sales and marketing.
5. The greatest opportunities for a sales organization to differentiate itself in the eyes of a buyer.
6. And a few predictions on where sales effectiveness goes next.

I think it’s a really good interview.  What do you think?

Filed under: Interview, Marketing, Technology, sales training | No Comments »

The more I know about them, the more I’ve been impressed with Kadient.  I really like their playbook approach, the people I’ve met on their team, and their straightforward, no B.S. approach to sales effectiveness.  After receiving an email from Rich Berkman, Vice President, Sales Enablement Strategy, about his new eBook, Dive Deeper into Your Sales Metrics: 4 Ways to Discover Hidden Sales Treasure (registration required), I asked whether he’d be willing to do a virtual interview with me.  So Rich got together with Karen Meyer and Sue Murray, two sales enablement experts from Kadient to answer my questions.  Sue is VP of Sales Practices and Processes and Karen is their Team Lead, Customer Experience.  Because Kadient is so on-track with their approach, I’ve allowed them a bit of a platform to explain what they do and how they do it.  Here is the interview.

Dave Stein: Proponents of employing a formal sales process in B2B selling say it’s the key to winning.  Opponents say it inhibits the creativity that salespeople need to get the job done.  What is Kadient’s perspective on the importance of sales process? Read more »

Filed under: CRM, Interview, Marketing, Measurement, Methodology, Opportunity Management, sales process | No Comments »

The sector that’s probably most familiar with industry analysts is technology.  If you play in that space, you’ll know Gartner, Forrester, and Aberdeen, among others. You’ll find industry analysts in other markets as well.  Depending your industry, you may recognize the names Frost & Sullivan, KLAS, Bersin and Associates, JD Powers, Jane’s, and of course my firm, ES Research Group.

Too many companies (especially SMEs—small to medium-size enterprises) have either no formal analyst relations function or one that is managed by someone who is not qualified for the job.  That shortsightedness leaves those companies unprepared for the ongoing and very competitive battles for positioning with analysts that take place within some industries.

It’s like having your book recommended by Oprah

How your company manages the analyst relations function can be the difference between no coverage, negative positioning (which is much, much worse), or having the powerful endorsement for your company and products from an influential and well-published industry analyst.  Sales people will tell you that a positive analyst report makes some aspects of selling so much easier.  For a technology company, getting placed in the upper right quadrant of Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for your industry is like having your book on Oprah’s list.

A bit of background Read more »

Filed under: Industry Analyst, Marketing | 2 Comments »

I was delighted to have my copy of Martha’s Vineyard — Now and Zen delivered to me personally by co-author Alan Brigish the other evening.  I had seen some of the photos on his Facebook pages and in emails I’d received promoting the book.  I thought I had the gist.  But even as I thumbed through the pages, with Alan standing there proudly, I still hadn’t gotten it.  Not until I was able to sit down and read it, cover to cover, did I really understand why, “Now and Zen.”

Rather than expecting you to connect with it, this book deliberately and provocatively connects with you.  It reaches out and grabs you.  And it does that at many levels. Read more »

Filed under: Book Recommendation | 1 Comment »

If you spend any time on sales blogs these days, you can’t miss the news that Jill Konrath’s new book, SNAP Selling, is out and doing very well.  Here’s the endorsement I wrote for the book:  “Having a unique perspective on the sales performance and sales training business, I see Jill Konrath at the top of the heap when it comes to practical ideas, loyal followers, understanding of the critical selling issues today, and most important, relevance.  I not only recommend her books, I recommend her.”

This blog is written for sales leaders, not sales people.  So let me say that, as good as this book is, it’s not a replacement for taking a strategic approach to selling within your organization.  That includes, of course, building (or rebuilding) your sales methodology, its constituent processes, tools, messaging, infrastructure, compensation and incentive approaches, measurement systems, learning curriculum, reinforcement mechanisms, and delivery systems, technology-enabled learning platforms, hiring methodologies, and all else that is required for sales effectiveness.

The best use of this book is in integrating into your team’s documented sales methodology the best of the many ideas, tactics, approaches, and tips that are relevant, as determined by a comprehensive and objective assessment of your selling environment.  Now that’s a winning combination.

With SNAP Selling on my desk, and several others close at hand that I regularly recommend, I thought I’d post this list.  It’s not in any particular order, and it is not all-inclusive.  There are other books that I really like that, for one reason or another, I didn’t include.

Here’s the list: Read more »

Filed under: Book Recommendation | 5 Comments »

Braham Shnider is a pretty sharp guy.  He’s president and CEO of Channel Enablers, a Australia-based sales performance improvement provider that specializes in channel management strategies and training.

I flew my plane up to Norwood, MA airport a while back to meet Braham face-to-face over lunch.  Fifteen-hour differences in time zones can make scheduling phone calls a challenge.  Plus any chance to fly my plane…  We had an excellent discussion.  As a result, I thought an interview with Braham would make for interesting reading.  He and I see things very similarly when it comes to managing an indirect sales channel in a B2B environment.

Here’s the interview:

Dave Stein: Even though indirect sales accounts for nearly 70 – 80% of all products sold, why is it that it does NOT get the same attention as direct selling?

Braham Shnider: The percentage may be even higher than 80% with the advent of the GFC (Global Financial Crisis) and the push to lower selling costs. We know many of our clients have increased their adoption of indirect channels in the last 18 months. However, many sales and senior executives have been promoted from a direct sales background and I think the simple cliché applies “people do what they know best, not what they don’t know” – so they promote and develop a direct sales culture and believe that indirect channels is easier to manage and therefore often plays second fiddle to high-touch direct customer selling. Read more »

Filed under: Interview, Sales Strategy, Sales Training Companies | 5 Comments »