Archive for the ‘communication’ Category
Thursday, July 8th, 2010
When I had the privilege to represent Franklin Covey’s Helping Clients Succeed sales training program in the marketplace, I realized something life-changing. The Consultants who shared the content always shared the fact that sales professionals needed to be effective communicators and, so much of any sales training program, is teaching them to be just that. A salesperson must first elicit information and then, using that information, make a compelling case for their products or services. Up until that point I had thought of myself as a salesperson, not a communicator. A powerful clarification on my real job.
I answered the phone call of a salesperson this week. The timing was perfect since this Friday’s Meeting to Win agenda is Masters of Communication. This call demonstrates exactly why sales professionals need to focus on their communication skills daily. First of all, this salesperson was clearly surprised to catch me “live” at 6:30pm. From the sound of it, he fully expected to get voicemail and probably had a good plan for that outcome. Then, because I am nice to salespeople, I said that I had about 2 minutes when I was asked if I had some time to talk. I had something on the stove and 2 minutes was even pushing it. Again, I caught this salesperson by surprise by giving him any time at all. Then, for the next two minutes this salesperson shared information about their service and used the phrase “in essence” about 10 times. (Let me say that many of my early sales calls could have been examples in blog posts just like this one!) The problem is that I don’t remember the service or the benefits because I was distracted by the fact that he seemed caught off guard and used this filler phrase over and over. I felt like it was merciful to end the call nicely.
There are some powerful communication lessons from this short call.
- First of all, be prepared for voicemail or live person.
- Have a clear reason to call that could be compelling to the person you are calling.
- Have a goal for the call and share the goal with the person you’ve called.
- With a plan, the need and, therefore, use of filler words or phrases diminishes.
- Eliminate jargon, cliches and lingo.
- Record your calls and listen to them.
- Role play every scenario you could encounter with team mates and help each other.
- Practice your “elevator pitch” every chance you get. Be able to nail this in any situation.
Becoming a master takes practice. Look for and create opportunities to practice. When that top prospect answers the phone finally, you want to be ready.
To get sales team meeting topics like Masters of Communication and many others, subscribe for weekly sales team meeting agendas from Meeting to Win.
Sales Team Meeting Idea:
Using the scenario I shared above, ask each salesperson to role play catching a prospective client “live” who says they only have 2 minutes to talk. What do you say in those 2 minutes? What is the goal of your 2 minute call? Ask each person to do the role play and ask the team for feedback. After this meeting, everyone will be prepared for one more scenario they may encounter.
Tags: motivate sales team, sales meeting agenda, sales team agenda., sales team meeting agenda, sales team meeting agendas
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Wednesday, May 26th, 2010
I always love to share great meeting advice I come across in my reading. Here is some sound advice from Salesopedia’s newsletter this week.
13 Ideas to Run Engaging Meetings
Enjoy!
Tags: energize sales team, meetings, motivate sales team, sales team agenda., sales team meeting agenda, sales team meeting idea
Posted in agenda ideas, communication, how to have productive sales team meetings, meetings, sales management, sales meeting agenda, sales meetings, sales team meeting agenda, sales team meeting agenda topics | No Comments »
Sunday, April 25th, 2010
Your products and services – or solutions – meet very important needs of your customers. The more your solutions directly impact their ability to do their business more effectively, the more powerful and important your partnership becomes. Salespeople can hitch their solutions to the most important wagons with a little focus on the right needs.
No matter who you are positioned with in an account, an understanding of the top company goals is useful in the short term and often critical in the long term. In the short term, simply offering a solution they are asking for may be enough to make a sale at a department level. In the long term, much like what we have seen in the past couple of years, spending gets scrutized for one reason or another and any spending not directly tied to the most important goals gets cancelled. Also, salespeople often find themselves in the position of being sold internally by an ally or coach. They have to provide the information and incentive to get their internal ally to fight for their solutions. If that person is armed with the connection to the top goals, the more likely they are to be successful in their interal sales role.
So, we know it’s important, now, how do you do it. Here are some things that you may want to try:
- First of all, start high in an organization. The more effectively you can tie your solutions to their unique company goals, the more likely you are to stay high. Even if you get delegated lower during the process, you still have access higher.
- Research, research, research. Find out everything you can about what the CEO is focused on accomplishing.
- Find out what role your contacts play in the top company goals. For example, pretend your contact is in HR and one of the company’s top goals is the successful launch of a new product for 8% revenue growth this year. How will HR help the company reach this goal? Is it their job to find new sales people? Is it their job to train everyone on the new product? What particular part will they play in this goal? Once you know this you can help them reach their goal which helps the company reach it’s goal.
- Demonstrate how you can help them reach these goals more efficiently. Show how the investment with you gives them the gains they need.
- Once you are in, monitor your contribution and share it in regular reports and communications. Check in often on progress and make sure you stay aligned should the goals get altered.
- Learn to ask questions that get you to the most important goals. You’ll be surprised that often your current contacts actually don’t even know the company’s top goals. You need to learn to ask questions that don’t make them feel stupid yet also help you work toward gathering the necessary information. Simply asking someone “what are your company’s top 3 goals?” may sound like a pop quiz. Use your communication skills to have productive conversations where you both learn if necessary.
Solutions tied to top goals stand the test of time and scrutiny. Get hitched to the right goals for long-term, mutually beneficial relationships.
Meeting to Win provides weekly sales team meeting agendas for Sales Managers. This week’s agenda is Tie Your Solutions to Their Goals. If you would like to lead your team through exercises designed to help them “get hitched”, subscribe today.
Tags: CRM, customer meetings, existing customer, motivate sales team, new customers, sales meeting agenda, sales team agenda., sales team meeting agenda
Posted in Account Management, CRM, communication, efficient, free sales team meeting topics, how to have productive sales team meetings | No Comments »
Sunday, April 18th, 2010
Summer is right around the corner and the time to start executing your summer selling plan is now. You may have just experienced this on a smaller scale during Spring Break season. Decision makers are out of the office on vacations or entertaining clients at golf tournaments. Spring and Summer can mark tough times for sales professionals who are still trying to move deals forward. The odds of getting all the decision makers involved at the necessary stage are not good during the summer. Each activity gets pushed off until “next week” when someone is “back in the office” and, before you know it, your sales cycles have stretched out. And, salespeople and their teammates are trying to schedule in much needed breaks, also.
It is in everyone’s best interest to keep deals moving through the summer. Customers need solutions, salespeople need sales. The season does not change those truths. So, how can sales professionals enjoy their summer and a few successes at the same time? Here are some actions to take now to close some summer deals.
- Look at your pipeline and determine which deals should be closing during the summer.
- At your next opportunity with your prospective customers, walk through all the steps they will most likely need to take to make a decision on your solution. Together, build a timeline for when these steps should occur based on when they need a solution in place. This will give you both a timeline to work toward heading into the summer.
- With your timeline in hand, acknowledge the challenges of meeting deadlines in the summer months with your customer. Build a calendar that includes everyone’s (salesperson’s team and customer’s team) planned vacations or absences. This way you can stay a few steps ahead on planning.
- Make sure that everyone who will be involved in the decision process understands the timeline and the steps in the process.
- Consider scheduling a regular update call with your key contacts. Think of yourself as a project manager keeping the team on track to make a decision. Each week should move the deal forward.
- Keep your momentum during the summer by working a business development plan. Salespeople have a tendency to take a little break during the summer months. Those that keep up the hard work will gain momentum throughout the summer and into the next selling season. Very often prospects are more receptive during holiday and summer seasons. Take advantage of the lighter mood and begin some great relationships.
- Set clear activity and performance goals for the summer months. It is too easy to go with the flow of traffic if you don’t have a better plan. If those around you have slowed down, it is easy to follow their lead. Build a plan to follow and avoid this slow down.
- Take your own vacation. You’ll enjoy it more if you’ve been proactive to continue adding to your pipeline and moving your deals throughout the summer. Now, go get that break!
Enjoy a summer filled with sales by building and executing your summer sales plan now.
Post brought to you by Jill Myrick of Meeting to Win, LLC. Become a Meeting to Win subscriber to receive a new sales team meeting agenda every week. This week’s agenda is We Interrupt This Summer to Bring You…Solutions. As a team, you’ll leave this meeting with a solid plan to succeed throughout the summer. You’ll win and your customers will win. What a great summer this could be!
Tags: CRM, cusotmer meeting success, customer meetings, energize sales team, move deals, pre-call planning, prepare for sales call, sales team agenda., winning in sales
Posted in Account Management, CRM, Summer Selling Season, communication, customer meeting, efficient, performance | No Comments »
Sunday, March 21st, 2010
(This week’s Meeting to Win sales team meeting agenda is called 10 Things You Don’t Know. To join us and get new sales team meeting agendas weekly, visit us at Meeting to Win.)
Salespeople are wise to focus on their existing customer base to impact success during economic recovery. Competitors are getting creative and aggressive and existing relationships could be up for grabs … unless…you treat your existing clients like new customers. Think about how you treat new customers.
During economic recovery, treat your customers like new customers by trying the following things:
- Conduct a thorough needs-analysis with them to make sure your solutions still are solutions. Their business has likely changed like the rest of the world.
- Find out where they need help and deliver.
- Figure out how your company can better service them – clear billing, better response on customer service issues, etc.
- Bring senior leaders to face-to-face meetings to thank them for their business and show how valuable they are to your company.
- Sincerely thank them for their business.
- Share new ways to solve old and new problems.
- Share industry expertise. Help them be innovative.
- Help them help their customers succeed.
- Learn everything you can about their business – you’ll recognize ways to help them the more you know their business.
- Be attentive, present and part of the team.
- Commit to quarterly business reviews to hold yourself accountable to the results you promised.
- Make sure they know all that you can do for them. (Exercise: Think of 10 things your top customers may not know about your offering that may help them.) Figure out how to share all your services without giving a sales pitch. Your competitors are sharing this information. It’s best to share this information in response to a business need they have.
- Be someone they can’t live without.
Competitors are gunning for your clients. Treat your existing customers like the gold that they are.
(To get sales team meeting agendas with exercises and role plays on topics like 10 Things You Don’t Know and other great selling topics, join the Meeting to Win community by subscribing today.)
Tags: CRM, cusotmer meeting success, customer meeting success, existing customer, new customers, recession, sales team agenda.
Posted in CRM, agenda ideas, agendas, best practice, communication, customer meeting, down economy, free sales team meeting topics, how to have productive sales team meetings, meetings, new managers, performance, recession, sales activity, sales meetings, sales team agenda., sales team meeting agenda, sales team meeting agenda topics, sales team meeting ideas, team meeting, tough economy | No Comments »
Friday, March 19th, 2010
“Micromanagement” is a 4-letter word to most sales professionals. Most sales reps strive to get to the point where their bosses “leave them alone as long as they get the job done”. There are times when micromanagement is actually helpful. Two of those times are (1) during the first month on the job or (2) when a sales rep is underperforming.
During these two time periods, Sales Managers have the responsibility to help their team members succeed. One “micromanagement” activity that I have seen work over and over during these two time periods in a sales career is the AM/PM Check-In Meeting.
Each morning and afternoon for one month at the beginning of the sales day and at the end of the sales day, set a time for the sales rep to call the sales manager. This should a 5-10 minute call with a set agenda. This is less than an hour a week a Sales Manager and sales rep can invest in the success of a territory. The AM Agenda should include the rep’s plan for the day and the PM Agenda should include an update on the activity they planned and executed. This AM/PM Meeting provides needed, regular guidance and accountability as a rep is building their business.
Invest in success with the AM/PM Check-In Meeting and watch the territory grow!
Post brought to you by Jill Myrick, Owner of Meeting to Win. Subscribe and get a new sales team meeting agenda packed with skill-building, sales-producing topics every week.
Tags: CRM, energize sales team, micromanagement, new hire, new sales rep, on-boarding, sales team agenda., sales team meeting agendas, underperforming sales rep
Posted in CRM, agenda ideas, best practice, communication, discipline, free sales team meeting topics, meetings, sales management, sales manager tips, sales managers, sales meeting agenda, sales meetings, sales team, sales team agenda., sales team meeting agenda, sales team meeting agenda topics, sales team meeting ideas | No Comments »
Sunday, March 14th, 2010
This is Part 3 in our Maximize Customer Meetings Series. This Friday, March 19th, the third agenda in the series goes out to subscribers. The 3 part series will soon be available on our store, also. To get weekly sales team meeting exercises that cover this and many more selling topics, subscribe to Meeting to Win today.
You’ve followed the steps to prepare and execute a productive customer meeting. You’re not done yet! To maximize the work done on this customer meeting so far, it is helpful to send comprehensive and organized Meeting Notes after the meeting. This is where many sales professionals quit. Following up thoroughly is a great way to gain a competitive edge in a sales cycle.
Get started the day of your customer meeting.
- Typically, sales representatives will send a quick thank you note via email to the customer.
- In that short thank you e-mail, let the customer know you will send them more comprehensive Meeting Notes to outline everything discussed and agreed upon along with a timeline of next steps.
This action gives the customer some ownership in this process immediately following the meeting and sets you both up to accomplish something, therefore, maximizing your meeting.
Within 48 hours send your Meeting Notes. Meeting Notes should include:
- A bulleted list of the information the sales representative learned about the customer’s needs.
- A list of action items for both the sales rep and the customer along with time lines.
- A couple of bullets with high-level ideas on possible solutions you discussed while meeting.
- Possible pricing scenarios (if discussed in meeting).
- Call to action. At this point, let the customer know what to expect next. For example, “we will contact your administrative assistant to set up a time for you to tour our plant”.
Benefits of using Meeting Notes after a customer meeting:
- By outlining this in writing post-meeting the customer has the opportunity to correct any wrong or missing information. This is critically important for the sales representative who is formulating a solution.
- This demonstrates to the customer that the sales representative has a clear understanding of the needs which builds confidence and trust and ultimately rapport.
- Customer is agreeing to next steps and is sharing in the ownership of finding a solution.
- Often customers use these Meeting Notes internally to share progress on finding a solution or to report to senior leaders. This builds your good reputation with more of your customer’s leadership, saves them work and demonstrates that you have their best interests in mind.
- Clear communication along the way is critically important when problems or misunderstandings arise in sales cycles. The relationship built along the way can make or break a sales as it gets closer to closing.
Sales Team Meeting Idea:
- Ask the team to come prepared to discuss a recent customer meeting that resulted in next steps.
- As a team, write your Meeting Notes and share them with the group.
- Provide feedback for each other on appearance, communication style and ease of use.
- To get more in depth sales training exercises and practice on this topic, subscribe for Meeting to Win sales team meeting agendas here.
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Tags: customer meetings, energize sales team, motivate sales team, sales team agenda., sales team meeting agenda, sales team meeting idea
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Thursday, March 11th, 2010
(We are continuing with our Meeting to Win 3-week sales team meeting agenda series, Maxmize Customer Meetings. We invited a friend of Meeting to Win, Kathleen Steffey, CEO and Founder of Naviga Business Services to share some great advice for the before the meeting in Don’t Wing It.)
Don’t Wing It
by Kathleen Steffey, CEO/Founder of Naviga Business Services
Quiz time: What are the five biggest challenges your prospects and clients are dealing with and how does your solution address them?
If you can’t answer that question, you need to hit the books. How can you possibly position your solution as a way to relieve your prospect’s pain if you don’t understand the source of their discomfort?
A solid working knowledge of industry issues lets you anticipate the most common objections and develop standard responses that overcome them. It lets you develop a standard list of leading questions that shift the focus from the prospect’s concern about spending money to the return they will realize from their investment into your solution.
It keeps you in control of the sales process and helps you establish a rapport and build a foundation of trust.
Is your client’s industry faced with a talent shortage? If so, how does your solution help the prospect function effectively with fewer people, or raise their profile so they can better-compete for top professionals?
Is the economic downturn causing belt-tightening? If so, how does your solution help lower production costs, reduce overhead or improve productivity?
Top sales professionals make time to keep up on the industries they serve. They read the top trade journals, find the blogs and online sites that cover their business and industry. They listen to what their clients are saying.
Follow their lead. Use the information you glean from these sources to develop a library of standard responses and questions. Practice them until you know them cold.
Now you’re ready to respond to whatever objection your prospects throw at you so you can lead them down the path to a value-based sale.
(Meeting to Win thanks Kathleen for her insights in Don’t Wing It. To get weekly sales team meeting agendas on Maxmizing Customer Meetings and many other sales performance topics, subscribe to Meeting to Win weekly sales team meeting agendas today. We look forward to working with you.)
Tags: cusotmer meeting success, pre-call planning, prepare for sales call, sales team meeting idea, sales teams
Posted in agenda ideas, agendas, communication, customer meeting, free sales team meeting topics, management tips, performance, sales meetings, sales team, sales team agenda. | No Comments »
Thursday, March 4th, 2010
In most cases, we see an official “performance plan” as the beginning of the end for some poor sales rep. The performance plan seems to be more of a termination plan as the evidence suggests that the goal is often not better performance, but instead a way to begin documentation to justify termination. In every case where I’ve seen someone put on a performance plan, that was their cue to start a full court press job search before they were fired.
So, it’s safe to say that no sales rep wants to be put on a performance plan, right? Right!
If you are a sales rep facing underperformance, my guess is that you are worried about your job. You might be hoping no one has noticed, you might spend your time sharing the positive news while keeping everyone’s focus off the negative performance, you might be explaining away your bad sales (customer budget cuts, etc) or.. you might even be job hunting.
Here is something to try instead. Put yourself on a Performance Plan. This is a Turnaround Boot Camp style Performance Plan by the way.
We know that we can’t keep doing the same thing and expect different results. That really is the premise of a Performance Plan.
To get started:
- Look at what you have been doing and critically analyze exactly how you are spending your time to determine what is producing results and what is not.
- Consult with team members who are exceeding goals for advice on what you could be doing differently.
- Once you determine which of your sales activities are producing positive sales results, triple your output of those activities.
- Figure out where you are investing time in non-selling activities (learning a new CRM, sitting on an internal committee, etc) and eliminate those activities from your week. You can politely request to be excused – if you get fired, none of those things will really matter anyway.
- Start your day earlier and end your day later.
- Look the part.
- Exercise, eat right and get enough sleep.
- Write out your 30 day plan. This should include day by day what you will be doing and with which customers or prospects. For example, maybe every day starts with 50 cold calls, maybe Sundays are research days, Tues-Thurs is for 15 face-to-face appointments, etc.
- Have an accountability plan in place – a report, updates in your CRM or something to monitor your progress.
- Have a clear goal for the end of 30 days and a way to monitor progress along the way.
Now, here’s key element:
Request a meeting with your Sales Manager – NOT during selling hours (you need those). Have an early coffee or after hours meeting with your Sales Manager to let them know you have put yourself on a Performance Plan, walk them through it and get their input to fine tune it and gain agreement on your course of action.
By proactively addressing your underperformance with your Sales Manager you will open the doors of communication regarding expectations and possible outcomes of underperformance. You will show the initiative to address the problem proactively giving your Sales Manager an opportunity to help you succeed instead of look for a way to manage you out.
Too often we keep moving along hoping no one will bring up the issue everyone knows exists (we do this with customers, too). If you know you are underperforming, your sales manager knows it, too. His boss will ask him about it and it will eventually be dealt with. Wouldn’t it be great if you could change the story by being brave enough to call it out and proactively do something about it?
So, if you find yourself falling short, stop worrying and start acting. Build you plan ASAP and start executing with your Sales Manager’s support.
Put yourself on a Performance Plan today.
(Post brought to you by Jill Myrick, CEO of Meeting to Win. Meeting to Win provides sales team meeting topics for Sales Managers who want to run sales team meetings that aren’t a bore. Inspire your team with Meeting to Win. Subscribe here.)
Tags: move deals, sales team agenda., sales team meeting agendas, sales teams
Posted in best practice, communication, discipline, down economy, how to have productive sales team meetings, management tips, performance, sales activity, sales management, sales manager tips, sales managers, sales meetings | No Comments »
Thursday, February 25th, 2010
As we continue with Pipeline Health Check week, we want to address risks in pipelines. If you know your risks, you can reduce the risks or at least manage them more effectively. As you examine your pipeline this week, check for these risks:
- A large percentage of the revenue in your pipeline is from one deal.
- You are not positioned with decision makers in late cycle pipeline opportunities.
- Your pipeline is heavy on early or late sales cycle deals – no balance.
- You have not added new “suspect” opportunities to your pipeline consistently.
- In mid-cycle deals you do not have a crystal clear picture of the decision process and who is involved and in what capacity at each decision point.
- You haven’t discussed money in mid and late cycle opportunities.
- You don’t know the competitive landscape in most of your opportunities.
- Your pipeline does not have at least 3X your sales goal in opportunities.
- You have deals that have stalled out with no progress forward in a few weeks.
- You are guessing at the size of opportunities instead of basing it on real diagnosis.
- You are chasing deals that are not in your company’s sweet spot.
These are just a few of the risks to look for as you examine your pipeline. Know your risks and take steps to minimize them – the smallest steps can make the biggest difference when pursuing sales performance goals.
Sales Team Meeting Idea:
At your next sales team meeting,
- Ask your team to bring their pipelines.
- Go through each of the risks above as a group.
- Add risks to the list that apply to your team.
- Ask each person to honestly assess their pipeline against the final list of risks.
- As a team, set one action item each person can do to minimize their most dangerous pipeline risk.
- Plan to follow up as a team and do this exercise again, setting the next action item as you move toward healthier and healthier pipelines.
Meeting to Win provides in-depth sales team meeting agendas with training exercises, practice sessions, discussion topics and ideas to help your sales team sell more. This Friday’s agenda is the Pipeline Health Check and will lead your team through exercises that will lead to more balanced, healthier pipelines. Join us and get your own weekly sales team meeting agendas. Learn more here.
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