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.

In addition to the content directed at sales reps, sales managers are provided coaching tools to assure that reps are availing themselves of the content and making the most use of it.  Miller Heiman suggests one-on-one or team meetings with reps.

The modules can be customized.  For example, a video or audio of a top sales rep discussing the topic of the month could be integrated into the Miller Heiman version making it more relevant to the audience.

Each module in the series consists of a video, an animated presentation, a “back of the napkin” exercise, and a white paper.  Most of the modules are five to eight minutes long.

Miller Heiman beta-tested Advanced Concepts with 7 clients, with 300 users in total.

Miller Heiman did the right thing in investing in this Advanced Concepts technology-enabled learning platform.  It provides many of the How-to’s delivered by Miller Heiman subject matter experts, whereas their programs often don’t get past the basic components—the What’s—of their approach.  That’s not a weakness.  It’s just the way curricula are developed for companies with limited time and budgets.

Competitively, this is an important step for Miller Heiman.  A fair number of sales training providers have strong virtual learning/reinforcement offerings.   Here are just a few: Richardson, The TAS Group, RevenueStorm, Mercuri International, Imparta, and The Brooks Group.  Some providers’ virtual offerings duplicate only what is provided in their ILT (Instructor-Led Training) programs.  Miller Heiman’s approach, taking the student further and deeper into the approach, strategy or concept, can be of real value, depending on how the customer implements the tool.

Here’s the bottom line:  What will really determine whether Advanced Concepts becomes a successful product for Miller Heiman is salesrep adoption.  If reps see that investing time their time learning from the modules will put money in their pockets, they’ll use it.  If they view it as yet another demand from management that takes time away from selling, they won’t.  Miller Heiman clients should strongly consider using the recommended implementation approach.

Disclosure: Miller Heiman is an ESR subscriber.

• ESR/Brief: Miller Heiman’s Sales Access Manager ($29.95)
• ESR/Report on Miller Heiman ($99.95), which is extracted from…
• ESR’s Sales Training Vendor Guide ($495.00).

Photo credit: Fotolia.com

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?

Kadient Team (KT): Kadient is a proponent of employing a formal sales process (the science) and believes that in doing so, there is still plenty of room to allow a salespeople to be creative (the art) in how they engage and deliver within a formal sales process.  Deploying a sales process will allow an organization to identify (and learn) what the successful, repeatable sales activities are and what the quota-achieving reps do to succeed in specific selling situations. This information is what will help drive improved sales results across the board.  If a company is not working to formalize its sales processes, they are simply being negligent as there is widespread proof from analysts that deploying a formal sales process drives significant improvements in overall sales performance compared with those who do not.  We embrace a concept that our Sales Playbooks are “guardrails” for the sales reps and not a set of “handcuffs.”  This allows the new sales rep in an organization to use and follow as much of the sales playbook that they need to become revenue producing as fast as possible.  And, for the experienced sales person, the Sales Playbook is designed to give them the key activities and content they need to move their opportunity forward faster and allow them to take on more opportunities in their pipeline.

DS: Explain to us what sales playbooks are.

KT: While sales playbook is not a new term, traditionally they are synonymous with a pitch book, champion kit or the 25 lb. binder provided to a sales person following a sales kick off or sales training. They contain all of the information used to educate sales for delivering a company’s products and solutions. Some have moved to delivering them electronically on a CD, DVD, Thumb-Drive, or through a smattering of links on a company’s intranet.

Kadient has taken the notion of the traditional sales playbook and made them interactive, dynamic and embedded them within the CRM system. Kadient’s Sales Playbooks align situation-specific sales and marketing strategies, content, tools, and coaching with the customer’s buying cycle / company’s sales process. They maximize sales productivity by delivering this information contextual to the selling situation that a salesperson is working, all within the system where they work their opportunities—their CRM.

DS: How do they help salespeople win business?

In today’s technology enabled world, information about a company, its products, value proposition and competition are readily available and buyers are more knowledgeable than ever before.  Kadient Sales Playbooks spotlight what a salesperson needs to do next to advance an opportunity and reinforces the sales process/sales training with proven sales strategy and tactics. Salespeople are able to drill down into specific activities they need to execute, and complete them, right from within their CRM and in doing so, they are provided with the right information they need to have the meaningful conversations required to advance and close opportunities. Specific competitive sharp sticks, the precise value statements for the products they are selling, and the exact proof points they need for a particular type of opportunity are served up to them—when they need them.

DS: Would you share with us a customer success?

KT: Polycom, the world leader in unified communications, has enabled their global sales force with Kadient Playbooks. In just 6 weeks, Polycom rolled out 12 vertical based playbooks whose use has resulted in significant productivity increases across their salesforce.  Experienced and newer salespeople have been using these playbooks to get to the information they need to work their opportunities much more efficiently than in the past and they have the confidence that the content they are being served up through playbooks is relevant, correct and current.

It’s not just about time savings, though, it’s about changing and improving the way salespeople sell.  Larry Ball, Senior Director of Global Sales Enablement, says, “We have a vast array of products reps are expected to sell. If reps aren’t comfortable with the products or solution positioning, they default back to what they know. Playbooks give them the confidence to have conversations about all our solutions and not just stick with what they know.”

Polycom is leveraging the playbooks analytics at all levels of their organization to  deliver to the bottom line and get a better handle of forecast, “The forecast metrics are key – specifically, knowing if a deal is over or understated,” says Larry. “This information is tremendously useful for every sales manager who doesn’t have the time to go on sales calls but does have to forecast. This way they can know if the numbers they are getting from their salespeople are real or not.”

Note: ESR published an ESR/Brief™ on Kadient entitled, Kadient—A Helping Hand in Sales Process.  It can be downloaded for $29.95 from ESR’s website.

Photo credit: Fotolia.com

The question that comes up in every sales performance improvement provider evaluation we are involved with is this:  How will the sales training provider enable their methodology, processes, and approach be integrated with the client’s CRM system?  Out of the box CRM will not get the job done in the cases we’ve seen.  In fact, it tends to automate the chaos that exists in many sales organizations and demeans the salesperson by forcing them to comply with onerous activities that have no direct value for them.

A sales methodology and the associated processes must be built first and the technology solution customized, tailored or modified to support the salesperson’s use of that sales process.  Or, even better, the vendor provides a software application that sits in front of the CRM system that gives salesperson the tools they need to effectively and efficiently manage sales opportunities or key accounts.

There are four alternatives that a sales training provider has with respect to providing support for their methodology in the client’s choice of CRM systems:

1. Ignore the issue, leaving it up to the customer to figure out.
2. Develop and maintain the software themselves.
3. Join the Dealmaker Partner Network and avail themselves of The TAS Group’s solution, such as InfoMentis, Huthwaite, and Think, Inc. have done, among others.
4. Engage with White Springs, a software company that provides CRM front-end solutions to more than a dozen sales training providers, as well as directly to end-user companies.

Right now, the clients ESR is working with in active evaluations are all looking at sales training providers that use the White Springs solution.  So, I reached out to Chris Hens, COO of White Springs.  The result was this interview.

Dave Stein: More than a dozen leading sales training providers use White Springs as the foundation for their technology-enabled selling solution. What is it that your company does for them?

Chris Hens: Simply put, we enable our partners to easily integrate their training content into any CRM/SFA platform. Our compelling value is that our partners don’t have to invest a lot of money in the technology and dedicate themselves to a limited choice of CRM/SFA platforms. We build their applications one time and then integrate them into whatever platforms their customers have implemented. This model allows our partners to quickly deliver integrated solutions and actually start making money within weeks or months rather than years.

DS: You’ve got a long history in the sales effectiveness business, Chris.  How did you wind up as a principal at White Springs?

CH: Well, I don’t know about the “long” part, but certainly I’ve seen a lot. Interestingly, we are now doing with White Springs what we wanted to do as far back as 1999.

I was with a sales training firm called OnTarget when we were acquired by Siebel. The premise of that deal was that sales training/methodology content should be embedded into sales force automation so customers could drive the greatest effectiveness from both the technology and the training content. So, we were right in the middle of trying to make these two things work together 10 years ago.

The problem was that there was little flexibility in either model. As a result, our solutions were less than compelling for the user and really didn’t end up selling very well. After several years of engaging with our top clients trying to make things work, it became apparent to a lot of folks that there needed to be a better way. That’s when I ran into Gary White (founder of White Springs). He showed me a better model and allowed me to be a part of his company.

DS: In addition to the sales training providers, White Springs has end-user companies using their technology as well. Can you share with us some details of an implementation?

Actually, all of our technology ends up with end-users. Currently, our sole route to market is through our partnerships. We do, however, have many customers who have asked us to augment the original applications (White Springs likes to call them applets) by integrating the customer’s own home-grown or even other third-party tools or content.

The typical implementation for us involves our partner first engaging with the customer to position the integrated solution. White Springs provides pre-sales support to help guide the opportunity to closure. Once it’s closed, we take over and integrate the applets into the customer’s CRM system and provide ongoing technical support. The average SaaS (On Demand) implementation takes less than 24 hours to embed in the customer’s environment.

DS: Where do you see all this going? What should sales leaders be looking for on the horizon?

CH: Embedded learning. That’s the buzz-phrase for me. We know that a great deal of learning is retained when it is done in context. So, we need to bring learning into the sales person’s daily cadence, making it relevant and useful in real-life scenarios and interactions. This type of “just-in-time, in-context learning” is where I believe we will see a lot of focus in the next few years.

DS: Any advice to sales leaders who don’t know which end is up from a technology perspective? How can they leverage technology for increased sales performance?

CH: This may sound a little strange coming from a software company, but I often say to prospective customers, “Please, PUHLEEAASE, don’t get hung up features and functions in a ‘cool tool.’” The key is to stay focused on the reasons you invested in sales training to start with. Technology should be the means to that end. It should be simple, enable the users to engage the content effectively and ensure that customers can manage the learning process.

It’s funny, though… even when we try to focus prospects on those tenets, they invariably want us to show the whiz-bang features or discuss “wouldn’t-it-be-cool-if-it-could-do-this” futures…sadly, the sizzle still sells.

Photo credit: © Steve Mann – Fotolia.com

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

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;
• Adding unique or custom-developed content to that company’s existing sales training curriculum, which is then delivered through a train-the-trainer approach;
• Coaching sales managers and individual sales reps toward closer compliance with the company’s sales methodology.  Two common examples are “deal management sessions,” and objective pipeline reviews.  We know a number of consultants who do a terrific job in these areas for some very large companies;
• Extending the value of a company’s investment with a larger sales training provider who might do a great job of providing the “what to do,” but not the “how to do it.”  That’s a common compliant among sales training buyers we speak with;
• Consulting with and/or delivering special learning content to a small, diverse division or business unit of a large global player.  That’s one explanation for seeing names of some very big companies on the website of some very small trainers;
• Developing and delivering virtual content that can be translated where required and rolled out globally.

There are many situations where an individual trainer just can’t get the job done for a big company.  But there are plenty of times where they not only can, but they’re the best alternative.

Would you let me know by email if you’ve had a high-value experience working with an individual trainer or small firm?

© photo-dave – Fotolia.com

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?

Richard Barkey: For most of our clients, this recession was very different from the last downturn in 2001.  Business customers were more careful in the way they cut costs, ring-fencing areas where clear value was being delivered, and then working to increase that value as far as possible.  This focus on value has continued as the economy has started to pick up, but we have started to see a slight relaxation in the way it’s measured.  During 2009 we were often helping clients to quantify the benefits of their offerings for buyers wanting a 3-6 month payback period, and that is beginning to return to a more normal timeframe.

In particular, strong companies see significant opportunities as the world staggers away from recession, so they are looking at longer-term investments again, but risk management is still very much the order of the day.  What does this mean for business developers?  The good news is that they can start rebuilding their longer-term pipelines if they focus on companies with a strong forward-planning culture, but they will have to be ready to demonstrate tangible value, and bring professional risk-alleviation skills to the table.

DS: Imparta has proven capabilities in a number of areas that ESR sees as critical for sales performance improvement going into 2010.  Those include technology-enabled learning, and coaching.  Can you take me through them one at a time with respect to your philosophy and an example of how you’ve helped a client?

RB: First of all, technology certainly plays a major part in our vision for performance improvement (and I’m glad you call it that rather than training!).  In fact, it’s a critical enabler of the whole process.

• At the needs analysis stage, we use online 180 degree assessments and a comprehensive sales competency model to identify where the skill gaps are, and provide a benchmark against which to measure improvement;
• At the learning stage, we use animated pre-work so that we can focus the classroom time on experiential learning.  We’re also a leader in computer-based sales simulations, which provide that experiential learning around the strategic elements of a sale.  (I’m still a believer in good old role-plays, but they’re best used to “simulate” a single interaction);
• Back in the field, e-learning is used for reinforcement and – critically – as-needed task support. We’ve also developed a new e-learning approach called Sales-Enabled Product Training (SEPT™) that allows rapid development of… well, what it says!
• In the application space, you’ve reported on a number of companies who have made progress during 2009 in integrating their tools into a range of CRM systems.  This is an important development, and we will be releasing our own CRM-integrated tools during 2010;
• Technology is also critical at the measurement stage.  We use our i-Coach tool to deliver learning, but also to capture and process a wide range of information across all four Kirkpatrick levels, from coaching activities and results, to competency assessments, business impact assessments, and actual salesperson performance. It sits at the heart of our Sales Performance System™, and includes a very powerful reporting system that helps to keep the whole process on track.

Second, coaching.  It’s pretty well documented that the quality of sales coaching will make or break any sales performance initiative.  As a result, we probably spend as much time getting sales leaders and managers to understand how to coach consultative selling, as we do working with the salespeople and account managers themselves.

To take Telefonica O2 as an example, we train sales managers how to coach, of course, but we also provide them with coaching toolkits, and assign them an Academy Coach who offers “coach the coach” sessions.  These involve watching the manager coach a team member, assessing them against a coaching competency framework, and then providing coaching to improve their coaching.  Confusing, but it works!

We’ve also found during the recession that we have been asked far more to get involved in direct coaching of deal or account teams.  These “deal clinics” are incredibly effective as a way of opening up accounts or putting together winning pitches, and we’re willing to run them a success fee basis.

DS: I know Imparta has a presence in the U.S.  How are your expansion plans progressing?

RB: Yes, I’m delighted that we have a strong U.S. client base, including GE, HP, the WPP Group and Intelsat.  I lived here for a few years and have an MBA from Harvard, so I have a great deal of interest in the U.S. and spend quite a bit of my time here (as you talk to me I’m actually in Washington DC).  We have been steadily growing our presence in this market despite the difficult economy, and we have significant plans for expansion in 2010/11 – as indeed we have across the world.  I have appointed a senior executive to oversee our expansion plans, and while in some countries we will be seeking partnerships to drive our presence, in the US we are more likely to continue expanding our existing Imparta account management and delivery team.  We are also looking at possible acquisitions here to help accelerate our growth.  Despite 2009 being a difficult year for many sales training companies, I see this as an exciting market, and one to which we are culturally much aligned.

DS: I understand you’ve just acquired a company in the field of service excellence.  How does that fit with your strategy?

RB: The Procter Consultancy has a great reputation for delivering service improvement, and the acquisition is designed to reinforce Imparta’s ability to add value to the whole of our clients’ customer-facing organizations.

There are plenty of sales training companies around, but very few who combine Sales and Marketing as we do.  A big part of our work with our sales clients already involves getting Marketing lined up behind the sales initiatives – for example, producing product training that doesn’t just explain what a product does, but also how to sell it.

Once you add in the service element, you can really start to align all the customer-facing elements of a company, ensuring that the product delivery reinforces the brand and the sales philosophy, and provides a strong input to the “team sell.”

We think this breadth of coverage is fairly unique, and it’s especially important now, because customers are increasingly unforgiving, and quick to share their experiences online. For private and public sector organizations alike, it is critical to ensure that the customer experience delivers on the promises made by sales and marketing.

DS: Thanks, Richard.

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.

Almost two dozen lower-level criteria and measurements roll up to those two top-level ratings.  (I’m happy to provide you with more information if you’re interested.  Just send me an email.)

Positioning.

As industry observers, it’s always interesting for us to see how trainers and training companies position themselves.  They may not think of themselves in this way, but to ESR, they fall into these categories:

• The Brand Equity Players. The primary positioning of these companies is based upon their reputation, longevity and/or very large base of “graduates.”  This not only applies to the big guys, but individual trainers as well.  The positive is you generally know what you’re going to be getting.  Our clients tell us that a negative can be no competitive advantage since hundreds of thousands of salespeople may well be using that approach.
  

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• The Niche Players. Companies or individuals with a very specific and focused appeal. The niche can be a market, such as companies with strategic account management functions, or skill sets, such as negotiation or business acumen. The positive is often high-value content.  The negative can be seamless integration with the rest of the company’s sales approach.
  

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• The Innovators. These companies or individuals really do have a new and unique approach to overcoming certain sales challenges.  There are far fewer of them than those in that group would have you believe.
  

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• The Laggards. Little has changed in terms of content and delivery with these firms/trainers for a dozen years or more.  They’ll tell you what they’ve done for 20 years still works.  That selling is selling.  And that the basics still apply.  The fact is procurement strategies and tactics have come light-years since then.  It’s a different world.
  

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• The Silver-Bullet Players. These are companies and individuals that count on sales leaders in crisis, who are searching for a quick fix.  Most often their content is recycled (without attribution or license fees) and their marketing materials and messages are strewn with hype.
  

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• The One-Size-Fits-All Players. Buy their shrink-wrapped methodology and training and your sales team will achieve greatness.  It’s proven.  It works, they say.  More often than not, it doesn’t.  Not in tough sales environments.
  

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• The “We’re Your Everything” Players. Programs, products, technology, content a mile wide and a mile deep. Not really.  Most only pretend that that’s the case. There are only a handful of players that can do it all well.
  

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Why Is Positioning Important?

If you’re a buyer of sales training, it’s critical that you know all your requirements first, then do everything imaginable to understand the capabilities of a potential sales training partner against those requirements.  How they position themselves and what they are really capable of in terms of contributing, long term, to the effectiveness of your team may be two entirely different things.  Believe me.  We see it all the time.

If you’re a sales trainer, you’ll want to be sure that the way you want to be perceived matches the requirements of your target market.  We’ve seen real innovators attempting to sell to very conservative, old-school sellers and fail.  We’ve seen good trainers with ineffective positioning miss out on opportunity after opportunity.

Photo source: © Peter Polak – Fotolia.com

You know how, at this time of year, all the media review the past year (or in this case, decade) and talk about advancing into the next one?  Here’s one for you:  I may have the attribution wrong, but I believe it was Confucius who said,

The best time to plant a tree was ten years ago.  The second best time is now.

What makes that resounding message relevant is ESR’s business outlook for 2010.  I’m certain that the increase in upcoming projects is partially a result of ESR’s brand getting broader and wider recognition—we’ve been in business now for four years.  And I know that some of that uptick can be attributed to an apparent dose of business optimism here in the U.S. and in some other parts of the world.  Companies are willing to spend money on sales performance improvement.

What is really encouraging is what the sales stakeholders in our current and new client companies are telling us.  They’ve had it with the recurring cycle of missing sales targets, getting some tactical training, and seeing no improvement.  They are taking action.  They’re planting the tree now.  Who cares about what they didn’t do ten years ago.

I don’t think you want to see another list of excuses that sales leaders use to justify not taking the right action.  (For those of you who are new to this blog and are curious, you can look here.)  So on the positive side, for many of you, changing your approach to selling—even in what might be relatively minor ways—can have an impact on performance this year.  As long as you do the right things in the right order.

I’d love to have you join me in a virtual toast on December 31^st, 2010 and share with me what you did during 2010 to change your team’s situation—what trees you planted during 2010.

My wish for you is health and success in 2010—however you define it.

1. Sales training is most often reactive. We ask VP of sales what their sales training strategy is.  The answers we get would indicate that many either don’t understand what the word strategy means or they do, but it doesn’t apply to training and developing their own people.  A tactical approach to sales performance improvement is as much a contradiction in terms as I can imagine.  It doesn’t work.
   

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2. Wrong people in the sales and sales management positions. I’ve written about this before.  It’s a very, very serious problem.  ESR estimates that mis-hiring will continue to significantly hinder sales effectiveness in 2010 with only a single-digit increase in the number of companies employing a formal hiring methodology for sales people and managers.  We need to fix that.
   

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3. Selling requirements are not really understood. When ESR assesses our client’s sales effectiveness, we often uncover things that they themselves don’t see or understand.  If a company delivers sales training without an objective and comprehensive understanding of their sales-related challenges, it just won’t be effective.  And companies do that every day.
   

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4. No foundation methodology in place. I hope you’ve been reading what experts like Jonathan Farrington and Dave Brock have been posting about sales methodology and process.  Check out the leading industry experts’ research reports.  Is there any question at all that a sales methodology must be the backbone of a company’s sales approach?  I write about this subject often as well.  Let me ask a simple question.  If you don’t train sales reps on how to effectively and efficiently use your sales process, what do you train them on?  Some isolated tactics?  A few tricks and tips?  We’ll never get to real sales productivity that way.  If it was going to work, it would have worked by now, right?
   

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5. Flawed training company selection. Literally every day I speak with buyers of sales training who have, as a group, been through all the programs with all the leading trainers.  Yet they are still seeking the right trainer.  No sales trainer fits every training situation.  In fact, no sales trainer fits most situations.  The ones ESR covers are very good—industry leading, in fact—for specific situations.  When a company selects the wrong partner for their unique situation, it’s like going to an ear, nose and throat doctor when you’ve cracked a tooth.  Same general area, but oh, so wrong.
   

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6. No measurement. Al Case and I just completed a feature article for ASTD’s T+D magazine about how to measure sales performance improvement.  There is absolutely no reason why sales trainers and their clients can’t work together to specifically measure not only the financial impact of the training (and process) work, but also use a measurement system to assure that everyone is adhering to what they learned.  I’ll have a downloadable PDF for you on this subject when the article is published.  (Good reason to subscribe to this blog!)
   

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7. Having a traditional, live, instructor-led training approach only. If you are not leveraging technology to deliver learning, you’re behind the times.  If you insist that your salespeople can only learn sardine-canned into a conference room at an airport hotel, you’re wrong.  These days, technology-enabled learning has come a long way.  Companies like The Brooks Group, The TAS Group, Richardson, Miller Heiman, Imparta, SPI and others have developed some innovative learning (and in some cases, selling) applications.
   

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8. Sacrificing learning reinforcement and coaching. The importance of learning reinforcement (including coaching) is undisputed among researchers and impartial experts in the sales effectiveness industry.  Event-based training without reinforcement is a waste of time and money.
   

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9. Lack of investment in tools to support new selling requirements. Although there are wide variations depending on industry, salespeople need technology not only to learn more, but specifically to sell more effectively and efficiently as well.  They need tools to manage their pipelines, accounts, opportunities.  They need tools for research, networking, communication, collaboration, gaining knowledge, creating and finding leads.  Do we leave them to fend for themselves?  All of this must be integrated into a strategic approach to sales effectiveness, of which training, of course, is a critical component.
   

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10. The disconnect between corporate learning and sales. In many larger companies there is a long-lived disconnect between the training and sales departments.  There are numbers of reasons for this.  A team of us working with Brian Lambert at ASTD are tackling this issue head-on in 2010.  For now, so long as that disconnect exists, sales is disadvantaged.
    

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11. The continued hope that tips, tricks, and new toys will save the day. I can’t ever leave this point out.  Look here for more.
    

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12. Reduced budgets for sales training. The stats aren’t in but we expect the sales training spend in 2009 to be way, way down.  Buyers of sales training won’t really every be able to get the protected budgets they need until they track the results of training and can provide a credible, achievable ROI to executive management.
    

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Here they are again:

Those are the challenges that every sales trainer and every company looking to improve the effectiveness of their sales team must overcome.  Let me know how I can help.

I’m not going to put forward any more arguments on the subject of whether or not process important in selling.  There is enough research out there—from ESR, from other research firms, and a there is a wheelbarrow full of studies and surveys from vendors like HR Chally, Miller Heiman, and many more—that proves that employment of a pragmatic, widely complied-with sales methodology (and its associated processes) results in more sales, often at higher contract values, with shorter times to close.  It’s a fact.

Just for clarification, allow me to define two often confused terms:

Methodology: A formal, documented and universal system consisting of processes, methods, principles, tools, learning, approaches, strategies and measurement designed, built and supported for the purpose of achieving sales effectiveness.

Process: A formal or informal, documented or undocumented systematic series of actions or steps directed to achieving a specific goal.  We want formal and documented processes.  Examples would be qualification process, hiring process and opportunity management process.  Informal and undocumented processes, when placed in the hands of process-averse managers and salespeople, just don’t get followed.

So what’s my problem?  The ever-expanding list of excuses from some sales leaders as to why process (they really mean methodology) isn’t good for them, their companies, and their sales teams.

Most recently I heard, “It stifles creativity.”

Any sales trainer or consultant who takes a strategic approach to sales effectiveness will tell you that when they build a methodology with their client, they have a full understanding of where creativity, and adaptability, and accountability, and any other “-ilities” are required and how flexibility for those capabilities (two more “-ilities”) get built in.  Personally, I’ve been involved in methodology-building dozens of times across many industries.  Not only do we allow for the “art” component of selling—in fact we encourage it.  We encourage creativity.  We build in room, guidance, and support for the relationship building and other non-scientific aspects of effective selling.  But we don’t allow every salesperson to follow their own path, in their own way.

If it’s not defending a “no process” philosophy with the stifle creativity argument, it’s:

• “It’s more work for the reps.”
• “Every customer is different so a standard process won’t work.”
• “Things change too quickly for a standard process.”
• “My reps won’t follow one.”
• “My reps don’t need one.”
• “When I was a carried a bag, I was successful and I didn’t follow a process.”
• “All my reps need is some cold-calling training.”
• “Selling is an art and not a science.  Leave process to the engineers.”
• “They’re too rigid.”

Of all the excuses we regularly hear, none of them is valid.  Not a single one.

So, to you sales leaders who struggle to make your numbers and hop from job to job every 19 months or so: ask yourself why you’re ignoring the facts and still not doing the single most important thing that will enable you and your team to be more effective.

As far as I’m concerned, I’ve heard enough excuses.