I’ve had the privilege as you probably have, too, to meet some very successful salespeople and business owners.  Those people that seem to have a magic touch and deliver consistently strong performance and value to their customers.  A key to their success was getting to the table in the first place to have the conversations that lead to these strong relationships with customers.  They somehow earn their way into the hearts and minds of these customers.  How do they do it?

As I have examined and interviewed these people, here are two things that I have found.

First, if you ask them how they do it, they think they know and often they don’t.  They very often say “I just build strong relationships” or “I’m not afraid to tell it like it is” or “I kept after them for years”, etc.  All things that certainly could contribute.

Now, when I observe these people over years what I really find is that they do something brilliant.  They often don’t even realize it’s brilliant and yet it seems to be the trigger for great relationships. 

Three examples:

I know one business owner who shares his Decision Grid with his customers and they fill it out together.  This one action makes his process transparent to the customer and in one meeting helps this business owner determine if there actually is a decision process and, therefore, a real opportunity.  This one 30 minute conversation with a customer early in the sales cycle helps him build trust and pursue real opportunities.  Brilliant! 

Another sales leader I observe was winning the big contracts left and right in his company.  What did he do differently?  He had the fastest turnaround time vs. his competitors.  Brilliant! He left the customer meeting with his action items and they were done that day.  He was a master at coordinating internal resources to meet the needs of the customer.  He made everyone work at his pact.  Brilliant!  He didn’t let time kill any of his deals.  His deals flew through the pipeline all because he set the pace for his team and the customer team.

One last example.  I know a sales leader whose team has consistently led the company in sales, innovation, top customers and many other categories for over 20 years.  What does he do?  No matter what the company is doing, he picks one solution to sell.  Brilliant!   They offer about 40 programs and he and his team put all their focus and efforts around one solution they feel is the most relevant and useful to their customer  and they spend all their resources there.  Risky? Maybe, but it’s been working.

So, observe the top performers you come in contact with and don’t simply ask them what they do differently, watch them. Figure out what they are doing differently.  It is often one brilliant thing that you could repeat in your territory.  Go be BRILLIANT!

Meeting to Win recently sent out the Best Practices of Top Performers sales team meeting agenda.  Sales teams around the world worked through an exercise to list the brilliant things top performers in their own companies are doing.  Right now, those brilliant actions are being replicated across organizations.  To experience similar momentum, subscribe to Meeting to Win sales team meeting agendas and elevate your teams to top performer status. 

So, now I am getting inspiration from beer ads!  The ad says that fortune favors the bold and it supports the Meeting to Win message this week about Playing to Win instead of Playing to NOT Lose. 

Top performers take risks.  They risk losing deals or entire accounts by speaking up when clients are making bad decisions.  They hold their ground during negotiations.  They challenge a competitor’s offering.  They demonstrate their value and then demand the right price.  They walk away from bad deals.  They get to decision makers.  They risk offending gatekeepers.  They ask their referral network to make introductions.  They challenge strategy.  They point out problems.  They share solutions.  They say no to non-selling activities.  They care more about results than padded activity reports and inflated pipelines.  They call higher in organizations. 

Fortune favors the bold.  Take a risk today – and tomorrow – and the next day.  Play with passion. 

Just Sell quote from Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919), 26th president of the United States on being bold.

(Meeting to Win provides weekly sales team meeting agendas for Sales Managers who want to lead inspiring sales team meetings.  Join us by subscribing today. Upcoming agendas include Playing to Win or Playing to NOT Lose, Work as a Team to Win as a Team, Lost in Translation, System Based Selling and Create Better Buying Experiences.)

I’ve had many conversations lately about movement in the marketplace.  Personally, I’ve been taking calls all week from business leaders moving forward on initiatives they’ve been sitting on for months.  Customers are making moves, looking for solutions and ready to move forward.  I love it!  I can feel it in the air. 

This week our focus has been on treating our existing customers like the gold that they are.  Salespeople need to be proactive to ensure they stay part of the customer team as they forge ahead.  One way to do that is to be visibly accountable.  This means that salespeople need to proactively manage themselves so the client doesn’t have to.  There are a few ways to do this.

First of all, set up a process for regular business reviews.  I believe these should be conducted quarterly and formally.  This means there should be a formal agenda that covers:

• A review of the original scope of work.
• The actual scope of work – what’s changed (something always does!) and what adjustments have been made.  This topic ensures everyone is on the same page with the way the partnership has evolved.
• The successes and shortfalls.  How to make the most of the successes and how to adjust to fix the shortfalls.
• An updated Needs Analysis. Find out what has changed in their business, priorities, etc. Uncover new opportunities.
• Next steps/Action Items

Customers should leave these business reviews feeling great about their investment with you.  They don’t need to micromanage the partnership, you are doing that for them.

Secondly, get to know new people in the account regularly.  Ask to speak to people who are impacted by or work with your solutions.  Find out what they like, what they don’t, etc.  Make sure they have your contact information.  You are probably the only one talking to all involved!  You will have an amazing perspective and be able to bring useful ideas to the table based on these relationships.  Not to mention, your name will be mentioned in many conversations as if you are part of the team!

Then, provide regular emailed updates to senior decision makers.  Often, once an account is won, the more senior decision makers move on to the next priority leaving functional people to manage the relationship.  Often, the salesperson’s relationship with the real decision makers is harder to maintain and grow.  To keep developing that relationship, send an update once a month or every 6 weeks hitting the highlights of recent events and successes.  (You may be amazed at the places these emails will get forwarded.) They will appreciate it, feel informed and see you as a true partner and you’ll keep developing this important relationship.

Another way to stay visibly accountable is to put your bosses in front of the client regularly.  Bring them to quarterly business reviews or other meetings.   Make sure the client sees that your senior leadership team is aware of the work your companies do together.  They will feel supported and important when they see the team behind you. 

Demonstrate to your clients how important they are by holding yourself accountable in plain sight.  They will see you as a valuable team member who takes initiative and ownership of results.  You’ll be a dream employee they won’t want to see go. 

To get sales team meeting agendas designed to develop your sales team and accelerate sales performance, visit Meeting to Win (http://www.meetingtowin.com/) and subscribe for weekly agendas.  We love to work with Sales Managers who see the value of investing in their teams!

(This Friday the Meeting to Win Sales Team Meeting Agenda, 10 Things You Don’t Know, will be delivered to all our subscribers.  We are focused on treating prospective customers AND existing customers like prospective customers.  Get a new Sales Team Meeting Agenda EVERY Friday by subscribing to Meeting to Win Sales Team Meeting Agendas today.)

Most sales reps get to enjoy some long-term customer relationships.  Too often sales reps take these customers for granted and settle into an account management mode.  Account management can mean many positive things, but in this case, we’ll call it account maintenance.  It is not enough to just maintain an account.  Your customer signed on for more than that.  This week’s Meeting to Win theme is treating existing customers like prospective customers by helping them identify and secure solutions to their problems and tools to get them results.

In our 10 Things You Don’t Know article, we suggested several ways to treat these existing customers like hot prospects.  Here is another way.

Get a Fresh Set of Eyes on an Existing Account

Ask a team mate to coffee.  Ask them to review your clients’ website before meeting with you.  Ask them to pretend this client was a target account that they were trying to acquire as a client.  Then get together with them for coffee and ask their initial ideas for pursuing this client.  Then, tell them everything you know about the account, who you know at the account, your theories on what you don’t know and your history with them.  Now, ask them what you are missing.  Find out how they would move forward to help this client. 

Guaranteed you’ll walk away with a fresh perspective on an old account.  You and your client win when you take a fresh look at their business.

Sales Team Meeting Idea:

• In your next sales team meeting, choose 1 existing account on the team that could use a fresh perspective.  (Send an email to the team and ask them to nomimate their own accounts.)
• Choose one and let the team know the account name.
• Ask the team to research the account before the meeting.
• Ask the account owner to send a one-page overview of the account – what they know, who they know, history, etc.
• During the meeting, ask the Account Owner to share a 5 minute overview of the account that was not included in the pre-work.
• Ask the team to be the “fresh eyes” and share new ideas and perspective on the account.
• At the end of the hour, get a list of all the new ideas for the Account Owner.
• Account Owner should share what they will try from the list of new ideas.

Fieldwork Idea:

• Choose teams of 3 and, over the course of the next 3 weeks, each team should spend one hour per rep on one account per rep doing the same thing. 
• Choose one rep’s account each week and get together for coffee, if possible.  If not, do this on the phone. 
• Each person on the team should end up with a list of fresh ideas and perspectives on one exisiting account.
• Get back together during a sales team meeting conference call and each rep should share the outcomes of gaining a fresh perspective on their exisiting account.
• What lessons did the team learn?

Enjoy the Fresh Eyes exercise.  Join Meeting to Win to get interactive sales team meeting agendas for your sales team every week.  We’d love to work with you!

(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.)

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.)

(This Friday Meeting to Win begins a 3-week series called Maximize Customer Meetings – Before, During and After.  To join us, subscribe here.)

 As sales professionals we spend a lot of time talking about, reporting on and pursuing … customer meetings.  It makes sense to spend considerable time preparing for these somewhat rare opportunities.  One bad meeting with a client and it may be the last time you ever see them – or at the very least you may get delegated to someone without as much authority.  A good meeting and it could be the beginning of a great relationship.  So, life or death?  Close!

Now, you’ve got the meeting – Congratulations.  What next? 

Today, we will focus on one aspect of meeting preparation to maximize your customer meeting - involve your customer in meeting preparation.  Too often sales professionals don’t include their customers in building the agenda or working toward the meeting goal. What happens instead is that the salesperson shows up with the same slides or brochure they use on every first meeting and the customer sits back waiting for the show.  Years and years of sales meetings have taught sales reps to perform and customers to spectate.  As a customer, I have actually enjoyed some of these shows.  Salespeople can really dazzle.  The problem is that I am allowed to be lazy, watch the show and see if anything intrigues me enough to move forward.  I am not prepared to act or prompted to action.  Before I learned how to be a better buyer I saw some amazing shows, with many performers.  One of those performances was from a company who wanted to build our sales team’s intranet.  They never got a dime of business, but I got a lot of great shows.  If I had been asked to get involved in the process at any point, they would have wasted a lot less of everyone’s time.  That experience taught me to be a better customer and get involved even when I wasn’t asked.  As a salesperson, it taught me to get the buyer in on the work.

Here is something I began to do with great success.  Not only did I have productive meetings, I also consolidated sales cycle steps, met more decision makers and built trust and rapport.  You can try it and see if you get the same results. 

At your next customer meeting, ask the customer to share the responsibility for a productive meeting.   Send them an agenda is advance with the goal for the meeting along with an agenda to follow.  Ask them for their input on the goal and agenda for the meeting.  Once you both agree upon how you will spend your time together it is both parties responsibility to bring the data, people or anything else that will help get the meeting goal accomplished. 

Now, you are sharing responsibility for a great meeting that uses everyone’s time wisely and gets everyone working toward the same goal – helping that company.  You are a partner instead of a vendor.

Sales Team Meeting Agenda Idea:

• Ask each rep to bring information about all upcoming customer meetings.
• For each meeting, ask each rep to share the desired outcome or goal of that meeting.
• Ask each rep to share how they plan to accomplish this outcome (this will be the agenda).
• Determine what responsibility the customer has in meeting the goal of the meeting.
• Ask each rep to choose one meeting and write an e-mail script for sharing the meeting goal and agenda and asking for the customer’s agreement and/or input on the goal and agenda.
• Share the script with the team for feedback.
• Revise the scripts based on feedback and try this before the customer meeting.
• Plan to report back on the outcome of using the e-mail scripts before customer meetings
• (To get more in-depth sales team meeting exercises along with full agendas, sample scripts, field work assignments and sales tips, visit Meeting to Win and subscribe for weekly sales team meeting agendas and exercises.)

(Meeting to Win provides new sales team meeting agendas for sales managers every week.  The agenda that goes out to subscribers this Friday is called Pipeline Health Check.  To learn more about weekly sales team meeting agendas, visit us at http://www.meetingtowin.com/.  To download the Pipeline Health Check sales team meeting agenda, visit our store here.)

Is your pipeline healthy?  When you get your annual physical, the doctor is checking your blood pressure, weight, etc.  They know what healthy looks like and they are looking at you to determine how healthy you are.  The same can be done with your sales pipeline.  Here is the difference.  Often salespeople don’t have a clear definition of a healthy pipeline to compare theirs to.  Often the definition is incomplete.  The most popular one I’ve dealt with is “3 times your goal”.  Well, that is somewhat helpful, but who knows if what I have is realistic or just my hopes and dreams – and a way to keep my manager off my back. 

The first step to take in achieving a healthy pipeline is to understand what a healthy pipeline even looks like.  Define that first and then work toward developing a pipeline that is the picture of health.

Sales Team Meeting Idea:

• As a team, create a list of characteristics to describe a healthy pipeline (3 times your goal, relationships with key decision makers, moving at a certain pace, size of deals, etc)
• Then, each team member should look at their pipeline and provide a quick assessment of where theirs lines up (right size, etc) and wehre it  falls short (not enough deals, wrong size deals, etc).
• The team should share 1-3 ideas per salesperson on how to bring each pipeline in line with the picture of health.
• Everyone should walk away with 1-3 action items that will result in healthier pipelines across the board.
• Plan to check back in a month for another Pipeline Health Check to determine how the actions are working.
• Keep this up on a regular basis to keep pipelines strong and healthy.

(Subscribe to Meeting to Win to get more in-depth sales team meeting training exercises on topics like Pipeline Health Check, Maximize Customer Meetings, Build a Better Value Proposition, Troubleshooters and many other powerful topics.  To download the Pipeline Health Check sales team meeting agenda, visit our store here.))

(I posted this article, Sales Managers, Trade Team for a Week in February.  Today, my HBR Management Tip of the Day came across my e- mail on the same topic.  I thought it would be nice to update this post with a link to the HBR Tip, Need New Ideas? Trade Places.)

I had the opportunity to work for a company that created a culture of sharing best practices.  Due to that culture, Sales Managers really developed relationships across territories and had the neatest (seriously, that’s the only word that really described it) flow of best practices.  These managers would even ask to be put on each other’s team distribution lists so they could have visibility into each other’s communication style and content (can you imagine requesting more e-mails!).

From this culture comes a sales meeting idea that should wake up Monday mornings and fit right in with our Guest Speaker spotlight this week.  Why don’t you and another Sales Manager trade teams for a week?  Lead each other’s sales team meeting, conduct one-on-ones and get out in the field with each other’s team.  Get together the next week and share observations, lessons you learned and ideas to improve.  Then, discuss those lessons with your team on your next sales team conference call.

This is fun, enlightening and energizing for both teams and both Sales Managers.  Keep it interesting – trade teams next week.

(Meeting to Win provides sales team meeting agendas and sales team meeting topics for Sales Managers who like to provide sales training and development weekly.  Visit us here:  http://www.meetingtowin.com/)

This post brought to you by Meeting to Win. 

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Sales Team Meeting Idea: The War Room

This topic is what we call The War Room and it has been very popular this past year.  Sales teams that face reality and address it rationally, strategically and head-on succeed in the long run. This means their customers are better served, also.  The customers’ success is the salesperson’s goal and, therefore, the underlying goal of every Meeting to Win agenda and sales team meeting topic.

Enjoy The War Room exercise at your next sales team meeting.  Get more topics by subscribing for new sales team meeting topics to be delivered to your inbox every Friday. 

War Room

The War Room exercise is a time to get together as a team to address the surrounding business climate, how it is affecting the team’s selling efforts and what actions make sense to address it moving forward.

• As a team, quickly list the ways the current business climate is affecting your business. What are the most recent developments in the economy, your industry, your customer base, your competitors, etc?

1. ________________________________________
2. ________________________________________
3. ________________________________________
4. ________________________________________
5. ________________________________________
6. ________________________________________
7. ________________________________________
8. ________________________________________
9. ________________________________________
10. ________________________________________

• Begin with one item from the list you just created and, as a group, share some ideas, best practices and strategies for handling that challenge.

Challenge:  ______________________________________

Strategies: 

1.  ________________________________________
2. ________________________________________
3. ________________________________________
4. ________________________________________
5. ________________________________________

• Continue this with each item until you run out of time.

Challenge:  ______________________________________

Strategies: 

1.  ________________________________________
2. ________________________________________
3. ________________________________________
4. ________________________________________
5. ________________________________________

Challenge:  ______________________________________

Strategies: 

1.  ________________________________________
2. ________________________________________
3. ________________________________________
4. ________________________________________
5. ________________________________________

Challenge:  ______________________________________

Strategies: 

1.  ________________________________________
2. ________________________________________
3. ________________________________________
4. ________________________________________
5. ________________________________________