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One Salesperson’s Keys to Success – My Observations

Wednesday, September 30th, 2009

For the past 6 months I’ve had the opportunity to witness a salesperson succeeding.  Of course, I know many salespeople succeeding, but this story really intrigued me.  First of all, this salesperson started a consulting business in their field 6 months ago.  They had no brand, about ten thousand competitors and no marketing budget.  Oh, and we were in the downward spiral economically. 

Flash forward 6 months and this salesperson has more business than they can handle and is now considering adding to their team just to keep up.

I am very impressed with how hard this person has been working and really started to think about the actual keys to their success beyond just hard work.  I started making a list of this salesperson’s activities, habits and characteristics and thought it would be fun to share my list in a blog post.

So, here, in no particular order, are my observations or what I am calling “one salesperson’s keys to success”.

  • Creative deal and pricing structures.  This consultant is in an old industry where they’ve always done pricing the same way.  He surprised prospective clients with better deal structures than they’d seen.  Don’t mistake “creative” for lower – these are competitive deal structures that are a win for both parties.
  • This salesperson is not afraid to walk away from deals.  If the deal isn’t in this person’s sweet spot, he actually walks away from it and spends time where he can be more effective – and valuable to his client. 
  • Cold, hard, disciplined sales activity. This salesperson knows what activity leads to sales results and he does that activity EVERY DAY.
  • Manages time effectively.  Plans his work and works his plan – seems so simple. 
  • Does not get slowed down by rejection.  He is able to expect some rejection and take it in stride knowing he is that much closer to a “yes”.
  • Uses technology effectively.  He is very selective about which technology tools to use and which would be “cool”, but just create more work or wasted time. 
  • Frugal.  He is only spending money where there is clear ROI.
  • Networking, networking, networking every day.
  • Chose a niche and sticks with it.  He is turning down business outside his niche.  Since he began doing this his traction in his niche is growing daily and his client list has doubled each month.
  • He sets attitude rules.  For example, if he loses a deal, he only allows himself to “mourn” it for 24 hours.  He uses business development activity to pull him out of mourning which turns into new opportunities before the 24 hours is even up.
  • He takes care of himself – he works out daily, eats right and even took a week vacation.
  • He doesn’t waste time on administration.  He set up a system that is efficient and doesn’t spend too much time on paperwork.
  • This person naturally has no call reluctance.
  • This salesperson has stayed in touch with past clients consistently for 15+ years.
  • He is a master at LinkedIn.  Daily he is on LinkedIn building and sharing his network. 
  • He asks for referrals every day – and gets them.
  • For some reason, Tuesdays were a discouraging day.  This salesperson figured out why (he couldn’t connect with anyone on Mondays and felt no progress) and did something about it.  He created a plan to stay motivated on Tuesdays and recognized that the week always improved.
  • Extremely and appropriately persistent.
  • Knows his ideal customer and pursues ONLY that.
  • Faces reality and addresses concerns during deal pursuits.  He recognizes when a deal may go south and addresses it with the client before he spends too much time.
  • Works a tactical plan.  This salesperson knows his strategic goals and then carves out time to create a detailed tactical activity plan.  When he gets to his office he “doesn’t have to think”, he just executes his plan. 
  • He really enjoys his business and his clients.  Making them happy and solving business needs genuinely motivates him.

These are just my observations of one successful salesperson.  If you are struggling currently, grab some ideas from this list.  Duplicate his success using his habits.  Happy Selling.

This post brought to you by Jill Myrick, Owner of Meeting to Win, LLC.  Get weekly sales team meeting agendas and create momentum on your sales team!  Visit us at http://www.meetingtowin.com/.

Posted in Uncategorized, best practice, down economy, efficient, management tips, performance, recession, sales activity, sales management, sales tips, tough economy | No Comments »

Kick-Off to Great Sales Team Meetings – FREE Workshop Download Available

Thursday, September 24th, 2009

Sales Managers, do your sales team meetings have “snooze” as the main agenda topic?  It’s not as easy as it looks to plan and execute interesting, interactive sales team meetings.  At Meeting to Win, we believe these meetings should equip your team to compete and win.  If yours aren’t doing that, continue reading….

(At the end of this post, Sales Managers can download a FREE  ”Kick-Off to Great Sales Team Meetings” Workshop Guide.  The guide will help you lead your team through the planning of great sales team meetings as outlined in this article.  Take “SNOOZE” off your agenda!)

sleeping in meeting

To begin having GREAT weekly sales team meetings, don’t try to do it all yourself.  Involve your bright team in the planning and executing.  After all, when done correctly, aren’t they the ones who are supposed to benefit from this time?  If so, they need to own responsibility, also. 

Let’s get started.  Carve out some time to work on your sales team meeting plan WITH your team.  We suggest doing this during your…. you guessed it, weekly sales team meeting.

Before this meeting, consult with some of your team’s natural leaders.  Ask them about the current sales team meetings and how they would improve them.  Let them know you plan to consult with the team on the topic and ask them to take leadership roles in that meeting.  The outcome should be a plan to have more effective sales team meetings that the entire team builds and then executes consistently.

During the meeting, welcome the team and thank them for their time.  Review your plan for the meeting and share the reasons you want to put appropriate effort into improving sales team meetings.  Ask your leaders you consulted with in advance to share their thoughts, also.

Now, it’s time to get to work.

Set a goal for this meeting.  As a team, what do you hope to gain from spending time on this topic?  At the end of the meeting, determine if you achieved that outcome.

For fun, ask each meeting participant to share their best and worst sales team meeting experiences.  Ask them what made those experiences the best and worst.  You’ll have a good starting point on how to move forward.

A very important next step is to set some meeting ground rules.  As a team, create a list of rules everyone should abide by.  We’ve seen the ground rules include (1) be on time, (2) no agenda hi-jacking, (3) everyone problem needs to be introduced with possible solutions and so on.  It is important that this list of ground rules be created and agreed upon by the team, not just the manager.

Now, what should you talk about? Content is critically important for a great sales team meeting.  The content you choose will determine how effective the meeting will meet the objective of equipping the team to compete and win.  Ask the team to share a list of topics they’d like to cover.  Now, figure out where to find information on these topics – guest speakers, books, product specialists, company sales trainer, industry magazines, websites, etc.  These topics will be what you use to build your weekly sales team meeting agendas.  (Meeting to Win provides Sales Managers with new topics and agendas every week!  To subscribe, visit us at Meeting to Win or visit our store at M2W Store.)

Next, as a team, create your next 4 agendas.  Ask different team members to gather topic information and lead sections of the meetings.  Everyone owns parts of the meeting which distributes the work and makes for much more interesting meetings.

Finally, set your team up for a bright sales team meeting future.  It takes effort and its worth it.  As a team, determine how the group will commit to executing productive sales team meetings moving forward.  You’ve done the hard part and planned it. Now, you need to execute.  Maybe each team member can own one month of the year or you can create a sales team meeting task force. Whatever works for your team, plan it and commit to it before you close this topic.

You have the blueprint for moving forward with GREAT sales team meetings.  Get the FREE  ”Kick-Off to Great Sales Team Meetings” Workshop Guide and get started NOW!

 

Post brought to you by Jill Myrick, Founder of Meeting to Win.  Meeting to Win provides sales team meeting resources such as topics, agendas, e-books and consulting.

Posted in agenda ideas, agendas, how to have productive sales team meetings, management tips, performance, sales management, sales meetings, sales team meeting agenda, sales team meeting agenda topics, sales team meeting ideas, team meeting, tips for meetings | No Comments »

New Year’s Resolutions for Sales Managers

Tuesday, December 30th, 2008

I love Dave Stein’s blog and today’s was another good one. Here is a link to Dave’s New Year’s Resolutions For Sales Leaders post: http://davesteinsblog.wordpress.com/2008/12/29/new-year-resolutions-for-sales-leaders/.

I thought we could add a few more to the list:
11. I will commit to open, honest, real communication with my sales team. Sales people could be facing frustrations and new challenges in this economy. Some are scared, some don’t know how to adjust. Keep communication frequent, consistent and open with your teams.
12. I will hold a regularly scheduled sales team meeting for the many, many benefits they bring. This is a great opportunity to share best practices, analyze wins and losses, improve sales skills, learn from each other’s experiences, understand in real-time what impact the economy is having on our customers, etc. The result? Shortened sales cycles, improved morale and a more equipped sales team.
13. I will commit to holding selling time sacred. Increase customer time by setting the example. Don’t let internal meetings take up selling time. Suggest selling hours each day or selling days each week – whatever works in your business. And then, let NOTHING interfere with that, NOT even your CEO. As a sales manager, set aside time each week to get out on sales calls. This time with your team and customers is too valuable to skip.
14. I will ask my team, as a group or individually, how I can better support them. Your team needs you to run interference, push internal issues through, approve terms, etc, etc. Ask them what they need more of and less of and then figure out what course of action makes the most sense. One way to do this is to ask the team about the best and worst managers they’ve had and why they think they were the best or worst. You’ll learn a lot about what your team wants from you and they won’t feel like they are critiquing you personally. You can follow that exercise by asking them if they’d like to see some of those “best” things from you and fewer of those “worst” things to turn it to how you can serve them.
15. I will bring fresh ideas, new activities and valuable opportunities to my team regularly. Don’t let things get stale. Keep bringing ways to learn to your team. Invite guest speakers, give them access to new tools and best practices, put some effort into planning interesting meetings. Keep looking for ways to add value for your team.
16. I will read one new business book per quarter. The benefits of this are endless. Your own creativity flows better, you learn from thought leaders and experienced, successful business people, you get new ideas and you stay fresh. Your team senses this and it sets the tone for your culture. If this is too much, start with Book Summaries and read one 8-page overview each month. (http://www.summaries.com/)
17. I will ask my sales team to read one new business book per quarter. See #16. Plus, you could all read the same book and discuss it or each choose your own and give “book reports” so everyone learns on multiple topics.
18. I will attend regularly scheduled business reviews with our clients. If you aren’t already doing this, commit to scheduling regular business reviews with your top clients. It’s a chance to find out how you are doing, review how you are helping them the way they hired you to, address any challenges and understand how their needs are changing and how that means you should change. Ask your reps to schedule these and attend them religiously.
19. I will commit to focus! It is tempting to have knee-jerk reactions to the changing economy and constantly change the team’s focus and strategy as you go. Resist this urge. Pick your selling strategy and commit to it with regular follow-up, communication and accountability.
20. I will make a commitment to prospecting with my team. New customers and new business from existing customers is a life line. Constantly be working towards new customers and new business from existing customers. Make this a regular activity and help the team figure out what specifically they should be doing and how often. Depending on your business, each person adding one or two new logos or departments could help you sustain long-term sales growth.

Please add yours!
The Meeting to Win Team
www.meetingtowin.com

Posted in etc, management tips, new years resolutions, sales manager tips, sales managers, sales tips | No Comments »

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