SEC is involved with ongoing research among their member companies and regularly analyzes, interprets, and disseminates that information on sales effectiveness back to their members. Several years ago, SEC determined that they should form a sales performance improvement team, SEC Solutions, which would focus on improving the sales performance of organizations based on best-practices and approaches that SEC gathered over the years from their members.

In August 2010 both Brent Adamson, a co-author of The Challenger Sale and I presented separately at a sales conference.  Although I was somewhat familiar with some of SEC’s research, they were in the process of launching the Challenger Model and I had the opportunity to hear about it first hand from Brent in a group setting.

The Challenger Sale asserts that there are five profiles of sales reps (click on the graphic for full-size):

• The Hard Worker (21% of their sample)
• The Challenger (27%)
• The Relationship Builder (21%)
• The Lone Wolf (18%)
• The Problem Solver (14%)

The clear winner, from SEC’s perspective, is the Challenger.  The loser, in terms of sales performance, is the Relationship Builder.  Surprised?

SEC points out that the Challenger rep has six significant attributes:

1. Offers the customer unique perspectives
2. Has strong two-way communication skills
3. Knows the individual customer’s value drivers
4. Can identify economic drivers of the customer’s business
5. Is comfortable discussing money
6. Can pressure the customer.

Can pressure the customer?  That’s certainly a behavior associated with the concept of a Challenger.  In fact, SEC goes on to assert that the Challenger is really defined by their ability to do three things: teach, tailor, and take control.

Before you fire off a negative comment to me about this approach to selling, understand I’ve heard them all.  SEC Solutions is an ESR sales training/consulting provider subscriber.  We’ve assessed and analyzed their approach, been briefed by their principals, checked their references, and have spoken to dozens of people about this Challenger Model.  Some of the more traditional sellers and sales experts were actually offended at the idea that a salesperson should pressure, challenge, and control the customer. They cited examples of how that approach would never work among their customers or anywhere in the industry into which they sell. Many of these people are Relationship builders, however quite successful in their own selling situations.

Others see this Challenger Model quite differently.  Once the nomenclature is explained, some see themselves selling this way and are at once amused and appreciate that someone assigned the label of challenger to behavior that is part of their everyday practice of selling.

This is a serious book.

You know I’m not only bored with books about sales tips, tricks, silver bullets, and shortcuts.  I believe they hurt, rather than help the salesreps and their managers that are in trouble.  The Challenger Sale is a serious book for those serious about selling more effectively.  There is enough research-based content for everyone to, at a minimum, at least consider.   Adopting the model, however, involves a willingness to reorient your thinking, approach, and behaviors to what might be opposite from your present selling and management style and, in fact, your company’s entire customer-facing philosophy and orientation. One risk is that the pendulum can swing too far and your sales team can become glib and arrogant.  I’ve seen it happen before.  But that can be managed like many other risks associated with behavioral change.

The book’s impact on a sales manager could be significant. Authors Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson provide some real insight into management and coaching, even going so far as providing a powerful coaching guide excerpt and a Challenger Hiring Guide in the appendix.  If you buy into this Challenger Model, you’ll certainly need that hiring guide.  Since you can’t change people’s inherent characteristics, if you want challengers working on your team, you better have a solid process for making sure anyone you hire has the requisite challenger traits.

Aspects of the Challenger approach can work with an existing sales methodology.  In fact, Huthwaite founder Neil Rackham wrote the forward to the book.  ESR sees the potential for sales training/methodology firms to provide the how and the Challenger Model to provide the what so far as the customer conversation is concerned.  More on that we see the Challenger model being adopted by more companies.

Here’s the bottom line

Dixon and Adamson offer here an absolutely stunning whack on the side of the head to any sales leader who is perplexed and paralyzed about how to get their whole team performing in the never-been-so-tough world of complex, B2B sales. It’s a must read. That’s M-U-S-T.

There is more information about the Challenger Sale here.  And here is a preview of the book.

Graphics source: SEC Solutions

Here is a continuation of the previous blog post, Part 1, beginning with step seven of the thirteen-step process:

7. Train your reference. Whether he’s the ally you recruited and trained to sell on your behalf, or someone you met after the contract was signed, you have to train him if you want him to be a good reference. He should know and be able to talk knowledgeably about
   1. your company’s messages
   2. how and why your company was selected
   3. your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses
   4. issues his company had with you and how those were favorably resolved
   5. instances where your company, and you in particular, went the extra mile to meet his company’s requirements
   6. the standard sales objections your company faces, and responses to those objections.

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8. Keep your reference informed about anything material going on with your company. Don’t ever let him be surprised by information about you during a reference call. In fact, don’t allow them to be surprised at all. It’s not good business to put your reference, coach or ally in a potentially embarrassing or precarious position.
   

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9. Before they are called by a prospect, brief your contact just as you would any other member of your virtual sales team.  Tell him
   1. with whom he will be speaking, their title, and responsibility in the evaluation
   2. what that person’s company does
   3. where the company is in its evaluation process
   4. what the prospect’s decision criteria are
   5. what the prospect likes and dislikes about your offering
   6. who your competitors are, and how you want him to position you against those competitors
   7. which subjects he should defer to you
   8. which subjects he should raise with the prospect

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10. Keep up your relationships with others in your reference account as well. If you’ve invested a lot of time in developing your reference and have learned to use him well, what would you do if he disappeared tomorrow? Is there someone who could step into his place?
    

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11. Make sure your company takes care of your references. Without usurping the authority or responsibility of the post-sales team, make sure your reference receives special treatment — fast access to customer care, free tickets to your company’s annual customer conference, or perhaps a regular round of golf with you and your company’s CEO.
    

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12. Use the reference regularly. Don’t let months go by without making her feel useful. References grow stale through lack of use.
    

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13. Make sure your reference is believable. My friend Olin Thompson used to remind sales reps that if their reference’s story sounds too perfect, credibility goes out the window. It’s good, not bad, for a reference to say, “There are two small issues that remain with this supplier. They’ve done everything they promised, but these two things came up which they’ve been working diligently to resolve. . . .”
    

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One final note: While winning you new business, your reference may begin to wonder whether his own success will hurt him. Will he lose resources? Will he receive less attention from you or your company? Will someone else usurp his favored-reference spot? Bring the subject into the open from time to time. Reassure him that his success as a reference will only make him more valuable in your eyes.

Excerpted from How Winners Sell © Dave Stein — All Rights Reserved

Photo credit: Fotolia.com

References fall into two broad categories, which sometimes overlap: those your company maintains, and your personal references. Sales winners know how to use both to best effect. But, you may ask, if the company maintains references, why do you need your own? There are several reasons:

• If your company doesn’t manage its references well, you may not have a reliable advocate when you need one.
• The references your company maintains may not be in the region or industry you’re selling into.
• Your company’s references may not be in the right function or level to help you in the prospect’s company.
• A company reference may not be willing to say what needs to be said.

You need personal references, because when company references won’t do, you have to take the responsibility yourself. This means you have to develop and nurture your own, and you have to protect them. If successful salesreps are ever possessive, it is when asked to share their personal references with other salespeople. They believe that their personally developed references can be abused, and they’re right. Goodwill can be used up. A great reference is money in the bank.

The Care and Feeding of References

Think of the practice of turning customers into unassailable references as a thirteen-step process.

1. Earn your client’s business and respect by winning the evaluation ethically and creatively. Be persuasive and tenacious. Be straight about what your product or service will do for his company, and be sure both parties see the result as the beginning stages of a long term win-win relationship. Blue Sky, a sales consultancy out of the UK, recently published a paper on the changing face of sales.  This will reinforce a number of the perspectives I’ve been sharing with you on this blog relating to ethics and other required values.  Thanks to Andy Moorhouse for alerting me to this.
   

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2. Target an appropriate candidate in the account to develop as a reference — ideally, but not necessarily, the person from whose budget the investment in your product or service came. Now take everything I just said in point one and see if it applies also to your potential reference. For example, if he feels you misrepresented something during the evaluation, he will not be convincing when he extols your virtues to your next prospect. By the way, enthusiasm and credibility are extremely valuable attributes for a reference.
   

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3. Stay visible. Does your company require you to hand off new customers to a post-sales team? If so, you need to detour a bit from that structure. Set aside some time to stay connected with your candidate reference; call him regularly, sit in on occasional meetings, stop by just to say hello. Get copies of status reports from the post-sales delivery or service team and call the reference if something unexpected happens, whether positive or negative. Is it worth the time? It is if you need unassailable references.
   

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4. If you’re in business development—a hunter—work in cooperation with your post-sales team, not against them. If there’s an account executive responsible for your customer after the sale, make sure you build a win-win relationship with her as well. When you can add value, pitch in to help resolve issues with this customer. If someone other than you is responsible for the ongoing care and feeding of that customer and they see that you care about them both, they’ll try harder to make things work.
   

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5. Keep track of the value your product or service is providing, in financial terms. This is nearly impossible for a sales rep to do alone; if you’re lucky enough to work for a company that tracks value delivered, get the numbers and discuss them with your reference. This will reassure him that going with your company was the right decision, and it will provide him with convincing data to give to your next prospect.
   

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6. Understand your reference’s personal win. If she recommends you to a new prospect, what’s in it for her? One of the most valuable things you can provide your reference, whatever her level in the organization, is education. Be her trusted advisor; filter, interpret, translate, and decipher information about her industry, competitors, customers, and suppliers. In exchange for her help, coach her on selling her ideas to her superiors. If you do this right, she’ll be more valuable to her own organization.

The steps of this process continue with Part 2.

Excerpted from How Winners Sell
© Dave Stein — All Rights Reserved
Photo credit: Fotolia.com

I’ve facilitated seven days of programmes with just one left to go.  We’ve discussed sales effectiveness-building processes and strategies for building a sales infrastructure within your companies, and you’ve done a great job in the discussions and workshops.  So, here are some tactics to consider building into your sales plans.  Consider them a bonus for a job well done.

As we discussed in the Programme, every sales process must have methods and tools  for 1) assessing the customer situation, 2) determining a sales objective, 3) devising one or more strategies, and 4) building the tactical plan that will support strategy execution.

A well-conceived strategy should be the foundation of every sales campaign.  In its simplest form, the strategy is the completion of this sentence: “The customer will buy from me because _______.”   But all of us know that once the competitive battle is on, it is the tactics we devise and execute that often make the difference between winning and losing.

Here are some of the tactics I collected over the years that have enabled sales reps at all levels in all industries to outsell the competition. But remember, these tactics need to be embedded into your overall sales plan.

1. Speak with a key buyer in an account where you have won business. Ask him specifically what, if anything, your competition did to try to upset your victory after you were selected. Chances are the competitor will try that again in another opportunity.
2. Don’t negative sell.  Ask well-planned questions that will enable your prospect to figure those weaknesses out themselves.
3. Always have at least three qualification questions ready to ask your prospect. Ask the same ones again and again to assure yourself that nothing has changed, such as the budget for your solution being reallocated to some other project.
4. Differentiate yourself through your questions. What is the best question you could ask the real buyer the first time you meet that would make them sit up and take notice?  Hint:  “What keeps you up at night?” isn’t the answer.
5. Determine where, by how much, and when your solution will impact your customer’s financial position. If you can’t do it yourself, get some help.
6. Every week learn something you didn’t know before about the industry into which you are selling. Figure out how to use that information to your advantage.
7. Introduce a sales prospect to an existing customer of yours before they ask for a reference.
8. Practice simple math tricks that will enable you to figure numbers quickly. It’s a valuable skill.
9. After getting their permission, send your prospects high-value emails containing articles, press releases, etc.  These should be personalized (not blind copied on a distribution list), with a brief, relevant comment as an introduction.
10. If you work for a large company and are competing against a smaller one, get things done immediately so you appear nimble to your prospect.
11. If you work for a small company, learn precisely how to use that to your advantage.  You can be certain your bigger competitors will attempt to portray your company’s size as a weakness. If you are competitively savvy you can discredit their strengths without negative selling.
12. Answer questions truthfully, especially when the answer is “no.”  Executives will test your integrity by asking a question to which they know (or suspect) the answer. You must pass the first time.
13. Don’t start selling until you understand what your customer thinks they need to buy. Only then can you effectively influence their vision of a solution.
14. If your prospect asks for something from you, make sure you get something in return, such as information or access to a decision maker. Admittedly that’s harder these days than ever before.
15. Closing should never be a surprise nor contentious. Make sure your prospect knows what to expect when you schedule that meeting. Solicit any objections in advance.
16. Test your final proposal with your coach in the account first, before submitting it to the real buyer.
17. If you have to depend on a lower-level person for presenting your proposal to the real buyer, make sure you have trained them to sell it upstairs.  That includes handling objections, competitive positioning, and cost justification.
18. If you don’t want to get trapped, don’t do what your competition thinks you are going to do.
19. Consider showing your executive-level coach in the account your sales plan. Under the right circumstances, it will impress them and differentiate you.
20. If you are doing a web-based presentation or demo, email the slides to your prospect 5 minutes before the meeting is scheduled, just in case the technology fails.
21. If you are going to be meeting or presenting to a prospect, call as many of the attendees in advance as possible.  Introduce yourself and find out what their expectations and issues are. When you then meet them face-to-face, the ice will already be melted.
22. Don’t invite executives and lower-level people to the same meeting or presentation.  It is nearly impossible to meet the needs of both constituencies.  Most times you’ll alienate one of the two groups.  Schedule two meetings instead.
23. List three reasons you might lose the deal. Make sure none of those happen.
24. Protect yourself against no-shows. Make sure you know who will be attending a meeting. If there’s someone in particular you want to attend, negotiate it well in advance. If that person is not available, offer to reschedule. Important: Get your prospect’s word that if a key person who has agreed to be there does not show up, you will meet with that person later. Your negotiating position is stronger before the meeting takes place.
25. Ask people in your prospect’s company how they bought the last product or service that is comparable to yours.  That will often yield insights into their buying and decision process.
26. Convert your prospect’s organization chart into a political map to see who else may be involved in the decision.
27. Is your competitor effective at selling? Find out whether the salesperson on the other side made quota last year. If not, why? If so, why?
28. Begin searching early for someone in the account who you can coach and train to help you win.
29. Perform a formal debriefing with everyone who participates in a customer meeting.  Collect observations, action items, objections.
30. When someone else on your team is presenting, face the audience if you can.  That way you can observe their reactions to what is being said.
31. Invest in a book on body language.  It will help you understand what your customer is not saying.
32. Require a formal account briefing with everyone who will participate in a customer meeting, even your CEO. Coach everyone on their role.  Prepare your team with objections and issues that might be raised during the meeting and the customized value statement/proposition to be delivered to each person, if appropriate.
33. Ask your customer what will happen if they don’t buy when they say they will. If they don’t have a good answer, the deal may not close when you think.
34. Learn how your customer competes in their market. Is it on price? Innovation? Service? Technology? Reliability?  What’s important to your customer’s customers is probably important to your customer.

If you feel that none of these is appropriate due t0 the fact that you sell through reverse auctions, RFPs, or third-party consultants all of which prevent you from having any control or even direct contact with the customer, stay tuned for a future post…

(c) 2011 – Dave Stein – All Rights Reserved.

Over the years, I’ve been fortunate to have had the opportunity to coach and mentor many talented sales professionals, sales leaders, and other executives around the general subject of effective selling within their organizations. I provided them with support, contacts, insights, my experience, expertise, opinions and balanced and honest feedback.  I never charged a fee for being a mentor, although there is a definite balance of value for a mentor/protégé relationship to work.  In other words, there has to be something in it for the mentor.  For that reason, I selected protégés very carefully.

From my perspective, coaching is more task oriented and process-driven as compared to mentoring, which is related to supporting more strategic changes in behavior, capabilities and attitudes.

Here are some considerations relating to mentoring:

1.     Do you need a mentor?

The answer is probably yes.  There are times that most of us just aren’t able to gain the wisdom and knowledge necessary to move to the next level in our jobs or careers.  Some challenge may seem insurmountable, and without the ability to engineer and effectively execute a dramatic break-through by ourselves, we are stuck.  An effective mentor can provide honest assessment, insight, the objective perspective and the tools required for ongoing success, especially during these challenging times.

2.     What qualities should a mentor have?

For a relationship with a mentor to be effective for you the mentor must be willing to take the time to work with you, be a good communicator, have a basic understanding of psychology, and be knowledgeable about the subject(s) in which you seek guidance.  They must be discreet, caring, and enthusiastic about helping people overcome challenges.

3.     Where do you find a mentor?

Due to political risks, I always recommend that you recruit a mentor outside your company.  It certainly shouldn’t be your current boss. With that in mind, consider some or all of the following:  a former boss from another company, a known expert in the domain in which you are seeking knowledge, someone in your business (or even personal) network, or a recommendation from someone you respect in the area in which you are seeking improvement.

4.     What are your responsibilities?

For a mentor/protégé relationship to work, you must be willing to work hard at improvement.  That means defining and accepting your shortcomings and being open to changing or forming new habits through adopting new strategies and tactics. You must be willing to be responsible for executing what you and your mentor decide is the best course of action.  You have to be honest, objective, appreciative, motivated and have the courage to change.  Be certain you have the motivation and time to do what it takes to progress to that next level in each area of improvement you choose before you recruit your mentor.

5.     What’s in it for the mentor?

What I get out of mentoring is the satisfaction of helping someone who needs and wants my assistance.  In addition, I get to improve my own coaching, leadership, communication, and management skills.  I often get new ideas and insights from my protégés.  And my protégés provide me with an expansion of my business and professional network.

6.     How should you proceed once you have recruited a mentor?

Devise a plan, together.  Jointly assess your situation: where you feel you are presently; the issues or problems that may be limiting your professional growth and advancement; what has worked for  you in the past and what has not.  Next talk about your goal—what you want to achieve and by when.  Then you and your mentor can discuss various options or strategies and related tasks/tactics to achieve those goals.  If you have put appropriate metrics in place related to the goal, there will be no question at all when you have achieved it.

7.  What should you not do?

There is one last point I feel obliged to make: Don’t confuse mentoring with picking someone’s brain. Experts tell me it’s insulting and has nothing whatsoever to do with a mutually beneficial professional mentor/protégé relationship.

Photo credit: Sandy Jones-Kaminski

Here are some points to consider or debate (with me or among your team):

• Beginning in 2000, I heard sales leader after sales leader say that relationship selling was dead.  Not all of them said that, thankfully, but a lot did.  It wasn’t dead then, and it isn’t dead now.  The ability to leverage relationships between sellers and buyers for the benefit of the individuals’ and, more importantly, for their companies’ benefit thrives in many selling environments.  If you don’t think it does in yours, you might be mistaken.  We know that in some sectors, as perceived and real business risk has escalated, relationships with suppliers has become more important now than it was five years ago.
  

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• Again, sales leaders who believe there is little to no relationship component in their sales approach are often wrong.  Conversely, sales leaders who believe that relationships are a significant and critical component to their sales approach often sacrifice the value from other critical factors, such as industry and business knowledge, or competitive selling.  It’s not easy to get the balance right.  In fact, we sometimes find disagreements among regional managers in the same company.  “It’s a technical sell!”  “No, it’s a relationship sell!”  “No, it’s a business sell!” (It’s most often all three.)
  

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• Relationship selling isn’t just about building and maintaining relationships.  It’s about knowing whom to build relationships with, what to base the relationships on (trust is at the top of the list, right?), and how to leverage the relationships to both parties’ advantage.  For the salesperson, this requires the right personality traits, specific hard and soft skills, and a strategic view.  Skills?  Getting your hands on the customer’s organization chart (or reverse engineering it if one is not available) is just a first step.  Figuring out where leveragable influence lies in a customer organization is another.  Discerning and validating both the personal and business wins for that influencer requires even more skill and experience.  Envisioning how to accomplish that and then communicating it to the other person comes next.  Ultimately having an influencer or decision-maker convince themselves that being  your ally is right for their company and for them?   That’s how most of the biggest deals get won.
  

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• Some sales trainers and sales training companies understand these issues.  Many do not. That could be risky for you.  Let’s say a training company doesn’t really believe that recommenders, influencers, and decision-makers can informally impact the strictest, documented vendor evaluation process.  They think, for example, that when you sell in the public sector, you just have to follow the rules and that any policies prohibiting association with vendors overrides any possibility of relationship building.  If you yourself don’t know how to overcome that challenge (companies do it all the time!) and the vendor can’t lead you in the right direction, you’re sunk.
  

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• If relationship selling is a critical competency for selling your products and services, then it must be included in the hiring profile for whoever does the selling in your organization.  We’re amazed at how companies complain that their reps can’t build leveragable relationships and continue to hire people with the same deficiencies. (Remember, if they don’t have the right traits, training can rarely help.)

What’s your position and approach with respect to relationships?  Need an overhaul?  Don’t wait.

Photo credit: Fotolia #17064658

I presented today on a webinar sponsored by Genius.com. The TAS Group hosted the event. I shared the results of ESR’s survey on the use of social media in B2B sales. Few of the 400 B2B salesreps surveyed say Twitter has directly contributed to them winning business.

An interesting question was posed by an audience member about pushback with the new social media, such as we had with faxes and email. So that prompted this post, with a few observations. Understand, I’m no Twitter guru. I don’t have a million followers, or even a thousand. I’m still figuring out how best to use it, gaining and providing value.

Some observations:

• People find me and follow me. I get an email. I click on their profile. More make strange bedfellows than not. I don’t understand why they’d want to follow me. It takes time to do that. A minute? Often, from a selfish perspective, it’s wasted time. Is this spam?
• @writingroads who is a writer who lives here on Martha’s Vineyard taught me that it’s not all about just tweeting about your business. Julie found me and got hired for an ESR project because of other interests that we shared. Her tweets cover a wide variety of subjects. She tells me that that’s how to use Twitter. Tweet about what interests you. You will find people with similar interests and others will find you. Doing business with those comes naturally, if there is business to be done. That works great for someone like Julie. It wouldn’t work for a salesrep of a large company for many reasons. At least I don’t think so.
• Tom Pick wrote a post today on How to Use Twitter For Business. He cites Whole Foods, Comcast, Starbucks and Ford as companies who leverage Twitter. I looked at their recent tweets. Good article. Thanks, Tom.
• I don’t get people who block their updates. Why do that? It defeats the purpose, doesn’t it? Maybe I don’t get it.
• I un-follow hardcore self-promoters. I did that twice yesterday. People I know pretty well. I found one sales trainer in the Middle East. Began to follow. What came next were dozens of tweets each day just promoting courses he was giving. Ugh. Bye. If I do that, someone let me know.
• I love people who provide real value. @DavidABrock is one. @LouisColumbus is another. @SteveKayser and @CharlesHGreen, too. Then there is John Caddell (@jmcaddell). There are many more. I try to use them as a model, but I have a long way to go.
• It’s nice to have someone RT (retweet) one of your tweets. Again, I do that when it’s appropriate. I need to more of that. Some of the people I follow are really smart.
• When I’m really busy with work, I don’t have the time or inclination to use Twitter. Am I not fully committed to Twitter as a medium? Or is that reasonable behavior?
• Those of you who read this blog know I’m concerned about B2B salespeople who spend too much time on Twitter rather than what has been proven to work in selling. Some salespeople will look for any shortcut or trick to avoid the ongoing learning and hard work required for sales success.

What do you think?

Photo credit: © Alex Staroseltsev – Fotolia.com

• Jigsaw;
• LinkedIn;
• Twitter;
• Plaxo;
• Facebook;
• Hoover’s or OneSource.

The pace of technology development today is dizzying. It seems as though a new sales-related technology appears daily. The question is, do these new technologies produce additional sales or just consume valuable selling time and distract sales leaders and their teams from focusing on what can really improve performance?

A few specifics from the survey:

1. 35% of respondents say that LinkedIn has helped them win sometimes or often;
2. 69% of respondents say they don’t use Twitter. Of those that douse the tool, 20% say it has not helped them win;
3. 8% of respondents say that Facebook has helped them win sometimes or often.

Buy the 10-page ESR/Insight™ Brief, The New Social Media: Do They Enable B2B Selling? now.

Photo credit: © altiso – Fotolia.com

The four of us had an email exchange today after some comments to one of Jonathan’s posts.  The comments sounded like sweeping indictments of “old school,” and the four of us as well.

What’s really worth considering, as Dave Brock pointed out in the email thread, is that people are attacking the four of us for being old school, when we’re all entrenched in the new social media: blogs, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Plaxo, virtual meetings, and much of the rest.  Are they attacking our not being immersed in the new social media, which you would think might be their mission? No.  They’re attacking us for the opinions we voice about the social media from within the social media environment.² We’re not outside observers.

Here is an edited slice of my thoughts on the subject of social media zealotry and “old school” from that thread:

ESR has studied the issue of inter-generational selling. It’s a big challenge for companies and for consultants and trainers. It will become even more challenging. How do we “experts” stay relevant to younger salespeople, managers and CEOs is one question. The bigger question is how will younger salespeople become relevant to serious corporate buyers?

Here are a few more questions: The Millennials (Y’ers) show considerably less willingness to follow convention (read process) than those who are older—a generalization, I admit. Salespeople in general have less discipline and process-orientation than professionals, which compounds the problem. B2B customer buying patterns and practices are getting tougher, requiring more discipline, process, strategy, etc. on the part of those who sell to them. So how will the Millennials, many of whom are rejecting much of what has come before, wind up selling though this capability gap? Answer: Many will not! Companies will have to tighten up their profile for B2B salespeople and a boatload of soft skills with little else won’t be a desired characteristic—not in the kind of serious B2B selling that drives the economy. So the pure social media types will have that to play with that in their spare time, or lock on to a subset of buyers in corporations who may be open to that stuff.

A client of ours went into a very tough negotiation with a well-known company yesterday.  Big, big bucks! They were meeting with a senior strategic procurement executive. Facebook? Twitter? Blogs? Virtual or online anything?  No. Weeks of research, customer profiling, political positioning, testing approaches, strategizing, number crunching, competitive positioning, collaborative brainstorming and one very, very important face-to-face meeting. Is that model going to change in the next few years? Sure, in some sales environments, but not in mission critical areas of most companies over $200 million in sales.

With all this being said, with respect to the business side of my life, I’ll listen to and consider anyone’s opinion on any subject, so long as they can express their opinion clearly and succinctly and don’t resort to manipulation, games, or personal attacks.  I believe passion is good.  So is being a zealot, if your goal is benevolent as well as your means of getting there.  I confess:  I’m a sales effectiveness zealot.

Notes:

1. Jonathan Farrington is hosting the kick-off event for the Top Sales Experts Roundtable:  The Future of Professional Selling on Tuesday, April 14th, 2009 at 1.00 pm EDT.  I’ll be a panel member.  With Jonathan in charge, it’ll be worth your investment.
2. ESR will be publishing the findings from our recent survey on the new social media’s role in B2B selling next week.  If you’d like to be notified of the publication of this report, subscribe to this blog or the ESR/Alert^TM.

Photo credit: © Carsten Reisinger – Fotolia.com

Greg Taylor was the salesrep.  He, along with VP of sales Steve Andersen, did a fabulous job.  The deal came in at $1.9 million, which was the largest deal for Datalogix up until that time.  We took a customer-focused, proactive approach.  I was VP of Operations at the time, and I drew up a plan to commence support operations by moving several people to the U.K., and opening up an office there.    Bostik felt very comfortable with it and that was a key reason they decided to go with Datalogix.  Since I had a diversified background in sales, operations, professional services, software development, marketing, etc., the board asked my to spend the next 18 months in Europe.  (By the way, Greg and Steve completely outsold Marcam, who was our competitor.  I wound up working for them several years later.)

My new role as VP of International Operations was to drive the launch of the company in Europe.  I was to bring the VP of Europe, Jim Cluchey, up to speed.  Another of my roles was to drive the strategic relationships we had established with IBM, DEC, and HP, and to contribute to the sales effort wherever I could.  Jim was a really smart guy and a experienced software executive.  We had recruited him away from Cognos, where he ran their European operation.

Datalogix was making significant progress implementing additional Bostik sites in other countries in Europe.  During that time, Jim Cluchey and I were devising a strategy on how to expand our reach within Total.  We had the right software, but the wrong platform.  Total ran on IBM’s AS/400 platform, and our Unix-based software ran on just about everything else.  There was a possibility that we could rehost our software onto the AS/400 and we decided we would approach Total’s VP of IS  with that plan.

Jim Cluchey went to great lengths to secure a meeting with Leo Mercier, Total’s VP of IS to discuss the progress of Datalogix’s Bostik implementations to date (flawless, and Leo knew it) and our future ability to support other Total chemical companies.  Leo was receptive.  Jim and I were encouraged.

Jim and I met in Paris the morning of the meeting.  He had flown in from London, and I from Rotterdam, where I was then living, coaching the new central Europe general manager.  Total was headquartered at La Défense, in Paris.  We were scheduled to meet with Mercier from 1:00 to 2:00 in the afternoon.  As we made our way to the office we took yet another opportunity to validate our plan for the meeting.  We knew we had to overcome the IBM challenge, but we felt confident we could do that.

At one o’clock Jim and I arrived in Leo’s office.  His assistant told us Leo was at lunch and would return shortly.  Jim and I sat there until 1:55.  That’s right, 1:55.  When Leo arrived, he invited us into his office.  No apology.  No smile.  Not even a hint of one.  He uttered one sentence.  “I want a 40 percent discount.”

As GM of Europe, Jim owned that account.  He did the right thing by telling Leo that we needed to understand their situation: what plants needed our software, what hardware platforms were required, timelines, resources, etc., before we could discuss any discount.  Leo huffed and said he had another meeting.  We left the meeting angry, frustrated and determined to go under, over, around or through Leo Mercier.

What went wrong?  Was it the centuries-old Franco-American problem? Ineffective qualification?  The NIH (not-invented-here) syndrome?  Some effective blocking by IBM, who was threatened by our Unix-based solution and had Leo’s ear?  An unwillingness to acknowledge a success in a new, unproven division of Total? Leo just being a tough negotiator? His ego?  Just one of those bad meetings that happens to everyone?

Jim continued to make great progress in Europe.  We made a number of good sales—some strategic and some tactical.  I moved back to the States early having overachieved on my objectives.   Later on I left the company.  I had heard that additional systems were sold into Total, but only after Mercier’s departure from the company.  With all that I had done before that day and considerably more after, I’ll never forget that meeting.

What did Jim and I do wrong?  What would you have done differently?