Recently I attended a professional, well-staged sales conference with the theme of “Sales 2.0″. The 2.0 in the title referred to the impact that technology was having on the way we sell in today’s economy. The conference was well attended and featured engaging presentations by cutting edge providers of sales automation and sales enablement programs. From the perspective of some of the presenters you could come away thinking that the sales teams working with the coolest CRM associated with the most applications would be the clear winner in the quest for sales growth in 2012 and beyond. When prestigious well known research firms such as Gartner Inc. and Meta Group, Inc. state that historically anywhere from 50% to 80% of CRM installations fail you have to wonder, where is the disconnect? What am I missing?
Mark Twain once said “there are three kinds of lies, damn lies, outrageous lies, and statistics”. You can take the negative CRM statistics with a grain of salt because I truly believe CRM is an invaluable tool and there is no question that knowledge is power in sales the same as it is anywhere else. That being said I don’t believe that the sales force that wins the most is necessarily the sales force that is the most technology enabled.
The selling profession is and always has been rooted in A) the ability to build solid business relationships, B) understand customer needs, and C) present and close on solutions aligned with those needs. How we apply those skills has evolved and there is absolutely no doubt that the seller’s role has changed. Success now requires a higher requisite level of general business capability in addition to sales skills. That doesn’t diminish the importance of A, B, and C, as listed above. One of the hottest books on sales right now is The Challenger Sale which presents the “new” model for the ultimate sales professional. I truly enjoyed the book but at the end of the day “new” wasn’t really any more than A, B, C, and the higher level of business skill I referenced.
By all means invest in a Cloud based CRM solution that is fully optimized with the latest applications for pipeline management, competitive intelligence, social media, etc. Don’t hesitate to give everyone who works for you a smart phone, tablet device, and the latest slim line laptop. Sales 2.0 can definitely have a positive impact on your business just don’t forget to develop the fundamental sales skills of your team as well. At the end of the day the best and fastest data in the world doesn’t mean a thing until someone leverages it to gain new business.
Chuck Terry is the Executive Vice President and CSO of Carew International and is regular contributor to Carew’s blog – Executive Insights
Carew International is a leader in sales training and leadership development; specializing in comprehensive, proven training programs for sales, sales management and customer service excellence. For over 30 years, Carew has earned its reputation of delivering increased productivity and profitability to our valued clients world wide.
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May 24, 2012
Short URL better sales, better selling, Business, Business Growth, Business skills, close more sales, Customer Loyalty, Customer Relationships, Effective Presentations, Hiring For Sales, improved sales, leadership ideas, Motivation, Overcoming Objections, poor sales, professional sales training, Sales, sales advice, sales development, sales effectiveness, Sales Force Management, sales management training, sales mentor, Sales Performance, Sales Professionals, Sales Prospecting, Sales Skills, sales success, Sales Team, sales tips, Sales Training, Selling, selling skills Building Company Morale, building sales force morale, Business, Creating Value through the sales team, customers, Effective Presentations, positive energy, Sales, Sales and Leadership Insights, sales growth, Sales Management, Uncategorized
Anyone who has been in sales for longer than 15 minutes has heard the phrase “buyers are liars” in reference to the games that prospects sometimes play to offset the tactics employed by sales people. I think the answer to the title question falls somewhere between absolute “fact” and total “fiction” depending upon how literal your definition of “lying.”
Most people are fundamentally honest but let’s examine how we all “manipulate” the truth on a regular basis. Let’s say you are 
eating at a restaurant in your local neighborhood when the manager approaches and says, “Is everything prepared to your satisfaction?” Even though the food might not be great most of us will instinctively reply with some version of “yes, it’s good” unless the food is cold or horribly undercooked, etc. The point is, that in the mind of the restaurant manager everything is fine and he moves on to the next table completely unaware that your true feelings about the experience may be more along the lines of “this really wasn’t a great meal, the service was just okay, and I doubt we will return.”
While the phenomenon may be painfully clear what can we do to solve it? It is no more complicated than taking the time to ask a few clarifying questions. In the case of the “restaurant manager” scenario what might the manager have asked to get more specific information? Asking a question along the lines of “thank-you, that is fantastic to hear, what could have made your experiece with our restaurant even better?” is a great way to start the process of “peeling back the onion” on what is really going on. In the case of the restaurant manager a few more questions might uncover a quality control issue that has popped up with a new line cook that he can quickly repair.
One of the most underappreciated qualities of great sales professionals is the ability to “push back” with a prospect or customer and ask some clarifying questions to challenge a statement like “we are happy with our current supplier.” While it is true that no one wins an argument with a customer, asking clarifying questions that allow the customer or prospect to “discover” they may have “exaggerated” a bit can result in more sales.
Chuck Terry is the Executive Vice President and CSO of Carew International and is regular contributor to Carew’s blog – Executive Insights
Carew International is a leader in sales training and leadership development; specializing in comprehensive, proven training programs for sales, sales management and customer service excellence. For over 30 years, Carew has earned its reputation of delivering increased productivity and profitability to our valued clients world wide.
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May 17, 2012
Short URL better sales, better selling, Business, Business Growth, Business skills, close more sales, Customer Loyalty, Customer Relationships, customer service training, Effective Presentations, improved sales, Leadership, leadership ideas, Motivation, Overcoming Objections, poor sales, professional sales training, professional training, Sales, sales advice, sales development, sales effectiveness, Sales Force Management, sales help, sales ideas, Sales Leadership, Sales Management, sales management training, sales mentor, Sales Performance, Sales Professionals, Sales Skills, sales success, Sales Team, sales tips, Sales Training, Selling, selling skills Building Company Morale, building sales force morale, Business, Business Presentations, Creating Value through the sales team, customers, Effective Presentations, positive energy, Sales, Sales and Leadership Insights, sales growth, Sales Management, Sales Presentations, Uncategorized
Although math and science were far from my favorite subjects in school I did pay attention, particularly where I saw an application in the real world of business. One of the laws of physics that I have used throughout my professional career has been the formula for momentum. The equation is momentum equals mass times velocity or, more simply, momentum equals size multiplied by speed. Let’s examine how this simple law is applied with two essential elements of successful new business development.
Prospecting- In today’s world the cold call may not be dead but it is certainly not a great use of time. Referrals through networking are now the most effective means for growing your sales. Effective prospecting now requires mastery of both traditional networking and also networking through social media such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. In the blogs The New Direction of Prospecting and Social Selling I cover this topic more completely but the “physics equation” application is that momentum equals the mass (size of your personal and professional network)multiplied by the velocity (frequency of contact within your network). Said another way, the effectiveness of your networking is MULTIPLIED as your network grows and you spend more time communicating with them.
E-Mail Marketing- Getting your marketing message out to potential customers through a targeted e-mail campaign is an essential element of what marketing Guru Seth Godin calls Permission Marketing. Building a high quality e-mail list is critical to success and a primary function of a business’s web page is now to capture the e-mail address of interested visitors to the site. Once again momentum equals mass (the total number of quality e-mail addresses) times velocity (the speed and variety of what you communicate in your e-mails). While this may seem obvious it is amazing how many companies don’t fully capitalize on maximizing the efficiency of this medium.
I could certainly continue with examples of how you can maximize the “momentum” of your business development efforts through SEO optimization, blogging, etc. but I think the point has been made. When you maximize the mass and velocity of ANY new business development strategy you will multiply the amount of momentum you build in your efforts.
Chuck Terry is the Executive Vice President and CSO of Carew International and is regular contributor to Carew’s blog – Executive Insights
Carew International is a leader in sales training and leadership development; specializing in comprehensive, proven training programs for sales, sales management and customer service excellence. For over 30 years, Carew has earned its reputation of delivering increased productivity and profitability to our valued clients world wide.
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May 10, 2012
Short URL better sales, better selling, Business, business development, Business Growth, Business skills, close more sales, Customer Relationships, growing a practice, improved sales, Leadership, leadership ideas, Motivation, new business development, poor sales, practice building, professional training, Sales, sales advice, sales development, sales effectiveness, Sales Force Management, sales help, sales ideas, Sales Leadership, Sales Management, sales management training, sales mentor, Sales Performance, Sales Professionals, Sales Prospecting, Sales Skills, sales success, Sales Team, sales tips, Sales Training, Selling, selling skills Building Company Morale, building sales force morale, Business, Business Presentations, Creating Value through the sales team, customers, Effective Presentations, positive energy, Sales, Sales and Leadership Insights, sales growth, Sales Management, Sales Presentations, Uncategorized
By all means invest in a Cloud based CRM solution that is fully optimized with the latest applications for pipeline management, competitive intelligence, social media, etc. Don’t hesitate to give everyone who works for you a smart phone, tablet device, and the latest slim line laptop. Sales 2.0 can definitely have a positive impact on your business just don’t forget to develop the fundamental sales skills of your team as well. At the end of the day the best and fastest data in the world doesn’t mean a thing until someone leverages it to gain new business.
