The Opportunity
Frankly, I've often been amazed myself when a client says "hey I tried
that new approach, and it doubled my sales."
But that is the opportunity. I've seen companies double AND triple their sales
-- sometimes by just employing one new strategy or technique! So what
happens if you do all the right things? Or what happens if what you did
only gives you a 5% increase when you do it? Is it worth it?
Well, 5% here, added with 10% over there, and
another 3% here... that adds up to much bigger profits pretty quickly. And
what's great, is that many of the techniques that will allow you to see
those kind of improvements cost little or nothing to employ!
The guy who tripled his sales? He just assigned his salespeople part of his
customer base, trained them on how to approach the customer, and had them start
calling each customer every month!
The bottom line, most companies will
find that with improved sales training and more efficient sales systems,
they can:
What
Works & What Doesn't?
 80%
of all sales occur on the 5th or subsequent sales call after an initial
sales presentation. Yet most salespeople only persist through 2 or 3. What a
waste!
Think about how much money and energy you've
put into developing strategies and advertising campaigns. If you drop the
ball here, you've just thrown your money and energy out the door.
It's a common misconception that inquiries
aren't worth following up. But statistics say otherwise. Here are some facts
that might just change your mind.
Twenty six point six percent (26.6%) of all
inquiries resulted in purchases, one-third of them occur within three months
of inquiring; and, 21.6% were likely to purchase in the future.
Yet, when examining the response systems of
various companies, it was discovered that in 18 percent of their requests
for information, none was received; 43% of the time the material was
received too late to be of use, and only 28% of the inquirers were ever
contacted by a salesperson.
Cahners Advertising Research reports that
while 94% of advertising inquirers received a reply of some sort, only 11%
received a telephone call and only 4% received a salesperson's visit.
menu
The Sales Staff
If most salespeople had the right training, they'd be following the patterns
for success that the statistics provide us. But the fact is, many
salespeople get 'appointed' to the position with little training. You
remember Sally ... she's the secretary that was so good with people, so now
she's in your sales department -- with little or no training.
Let's face it, everyone from entrepreneurs to bank managers, must sell to
thrive in today's marketplace. But many don't perceive themselves as
salespeople. In their minds, being a salesperson is so negative they can't
imagine calling themselves that. Because 'sales' is not the first choice of
so many people who are charged with the activity of selling, they put little
energy into learning the proper techniques. But, they'll use them if they're
handed to them
simply, through a training program.
Tools are also important. Even in today's technological society, I still
hear sales managers talk about keeping "card files" on customers.
The concept is good, but will never let a company that truly wants to excel
meet their goals. There's absolutely no reason why each salesperson
shouldn't be using a contact management database from their personal
computer. It is THE most important tool that management can provide if they
want to optimize the potential of their sales staff.
And just as salespeople are often not well trained in what they do, up
the ladder goes the sales manager who also hasn't learned some of the key
elements of the sales process.
The
Sales Cycle
Experience shows that most people responsible for
sales results don't consider the sales cycle and what it means to the
timeline of getting those results. For instance, a New York company is
developing a great new piece of software. It will provide tremendous new
benefits to the market they're targeting. But, their company is new. Their
developers don't have a recognized name in the industry. And, their pricing
model is extremely unusual, although it reflects a good model based on the
benefits they're offering their market.
Currently they've had a two month sales effort and they haven't closed
any sales. Their venture capitalists are putting the pressure on and the
principals are all scrambling. So what's the problem?
Well, let's say for instance that this "high-ticket" product,
once it's been in the market, it's benefits are recognized, and the company
appears stable, could sell this product with a normal 4-5 month sales cycle
(remember, this is just a hypothetical example -- they don't know what their
real cycle will be like yet).
Now, lets factor in the variables that will lengthen their sales
cycle:
-
the company is unknown (+2-5 months)
-
the product is a high-ticket product (+1-12+ months)
-
the pricing model has never been seen before (+2-4 months)
-
they have no current clients (+1-3 months)
On the optimistic side, their sales cycle could be 6 months longer than
[what will become] usual!
In this case, management doesn't know this, and thus can't argue the point
with the VC people. So, they'll be under constant pressure to perform
something that might well be impossible, even with their best efforts!
The lack of understanding of the sales cycle leads to
many problems. In the case cited above, they might well lose their funding
long before they could possibly have become a success.
It's also a problem when management hires a new salesperson and puts pressure on them to
make big sales in the first quarter and yet the sales cycle is an average of
5 months (but the management has never quantified it!). Management's expectations go unmet, the
salesperson gets discouraged and often quits, and your organization has just
set up one of the most common causes for a revolving door in your sales
department. This problem is exacerbated when the salesperson was hired being
told that they'd make big commissions quickly -- and yet even the best
salesperson in the world can't - because the sales cycle won't allow
it.
So, both sales staff and management must understand the sales cycle and each
component within it to set the stage for a profitable sales
department.
Management must also assume the responsibility of tracking the number of contacts
each salesperson makes to get a sale and determining an average number of
calls for your type of business. And they must understand the sales cycle
too and realize that all sales staff, young and old, seasoned or novice,
also fall victim to "call reluctance" or other fears.
Your sales staff will do a great job if they only know how! The right
training is vital!
Once your staff is trained, the management systems are in place, and
profitability is going up, then work can be done to actually shorten the
sales cycle, improving both sales, cash flow, and profitability.
The Dynamic Market
With the plethora of new media comes a plethora of new
competition. Not only are more companies who do what you do popping up in
your market, but you now have world-wide competition as a result of the
World Wide Web. You have to be better than ever -- just to survive. And to
thrive -- well, that takes even more of a commitment.
You're also dealing with competitors who have more
sophisticated tools than ever before. These tools are primarily the product
of technology. To keep up with the competition, you must be constantly
watching for new technologies that will give you even more of an edge than
what the competition is using.
You must prepare your people to deal with a better educated market
than ever before. With all the new media also come much more access to
information. Your buyers are demanding more because they know more.
And the buying population probably doesn't look like it did before. Remember
when you were the youngest one to do this or that? Well, now your likely to
be dealing with these young protégés... those who have grown up with
technology. Those whose music might sound like noise to you. Those who have
value systems that are very different than those you learned. It's more
important now than ever to truly know the demographics and psychographics of
your target market(s). And likely, you'll have to put more energy into
bridging that generation gap than you've ever had to put in before.
We're raising a society of technokids -- get ready. It's not going to get
easier, it's going to get harder to get a handle on the thousands of new
options that are still coming down the pike.
Already, Americans see an average of over 2700
commercial messages a day in our media-saturated society! And that number
increases every year! That means there's lots of competition for their attention.
Repetition of a
well-crafted sales message is essential, and helps close a sale before your
salespeople even see the prospect.
But because today's market has evolved so much with the advent of
technology, that "sizzle" in ads has become more important. And
the message, with all that competition, must be on target! Otherwise your
prospects will have a preconceived notion before your salespeople show up
that your product isn't for them.
More than ever, a well-crafted, message must
hit your prospects from every angle. Coordination of a harmonious,
well-strategized marketing program from advertising all the way through the
system to sales and customer service is essential.
Old methods don't work. And poorly
coordinated marketing/sales programs have such a high cost per sale that it
cuts sharply into profits.
Buyers are getting savvier -- yet most sellers are doing the same old
things, thinking all those techniques learned in sales 101 25 years ago
surely must be the answer -- if only you could get your people to learn
them!
Yet statistics show that those old techniques can actually work to kill more
sales than capture them. To optimize the success of a sales organization
they must be trained to work to the needs and psychology of real buyers in TODAY'S
marketplace -- not the marketplace we all got our training wheels in
twenty years ago!
So what does that mean? The essence is
that today's sellers must demonstrate "customer service" while they're
working a prospect. Why would a buyer choose your company if they don't see
timely, accurate, caring, and honest "service" from your
salesperson. How could they possibly expect to see it as a customer?
"Prospect service" is essential if you want to build long-term
profitable relationships. Buyers want relationships they can trust - especially on expensive, or long
life-span products or services. Prospect Service is the key to
shortening your sales cycle and improving cash flow and profits!
Management's
Frustration
Have you ever asked yourself any of these
questions? Most sales executives have asked at least some of them... if not
all. How about you?
We hired experienced salespeople - why aren't they producing?
Do you remember some of those statistics from the
earlier charts? Well they're not all from small unsophisticated companies.
Many of the Fortune 1000 companies have the same kinds of problems, most of
which stem from inadequate knowledge of sales psychology, or inefficient or
insufficient sales systems.
In other words, hiring experience, even from big companies, doesn't
necessarily equate with hiring someone with "good" experience in
an adequately equipped sales organization.
Suffice it to say, that most salespeople learn by the seat of their pants.
Those with a lot of talent and self-motivation might figure it out
eventually, but will they have the patience to "figure it out" in
your organization? Often not. It's more common than not that salespeople are
hired, thrust "out there" and are expected to produce -- with
little or no product or sales training. Once and a while you'll get lucky
with this approach, but usually not.
Training, structure, and an environment that's conducive to sales is vital
if you want to hire people that can produce.
Our ad agency says the solution is "more advertising" -- aren't we
spending enough already? If you're clear that your
existing sales staff is following up on every lead from advertising now, and
that they have a closing ratio that can't possibly be improved, then more
advertising might be the answer to more sales. But usually, the salespeople
don't do a good job of follow-up and thus lose much of the investment the
company has already put into advertising (not to mention the loss of good
will perceived by all those who didn't get prompt follow-up). In other
words, until your sales department is operating at optimum effectiveness --
following up on every lead, long enough to close it, then more advertising
could simply result in a higher cost of sale.
Most organizations operate at relatively low sales productivity. The most
cost-effective method of getting more business is to optimize sales
productivity first, then advertise more -- if necessary to achieve your
sales goals.
Why does the sales department seem to have a revolving door?
As much as I hate to say this, this is usually management's fault. So
few managers calculate in the sales cycle timing, training time, and
knowledge-gaining time necessary for a salesperson to become effective, they
shoot their own candidates out of the water.
It's very common to hear a sales manager saying things like "you can be
making great commissions in just a couple of months" -- yet the reality
is that the sales cycle on their products may be 3-6 months alone! A
salesperson could NEVER make "great" commissions is the amount of
time they're stating! Yet, many sales managers persist with this
"pitch", and when the salesperson isn't achieving the lofty goals
they've been told they'd be able to make, they become disheartened and move
on.
Of course this situation is exacerbated by poor training programs, poor or
no lead generation programs, or poor sales systems, all of which tend to
lengthen the sales cycle in general.
Part of the issue is that in many organizations tracking statistics is
non-existent. Sales and marketing "stats" are essential in
determining exactly how long the sales cycle is... how many follow-up calls
does it take (on average) and how much time is involved. If they don't know
that, they can't pass it on to prospective sales people and thus they can't
really set a realistic picture for their prospective new hires.
They say they don't have time to make more calls -- but they're not hitting
their numbers. What can we do? Here's where those sales systems come
in. With today's technology, sales systems can be as easy as an
off-the-shelf software package, a little training and some (oh no, not
that!!!) planning.
There are contact management programs that will remind salespeople when to
make follow-up calls, automatically send out pre-written personal letters or
other materials, send email correspondence, and help analyze the entire
sales process. These programs enable sales staff to accomplish much more
during the day because they don't always have to think about the next step,
or what to say. It's an ideal "system" for providing excellent
"prospect service" and customer service -- after the sale.
But... it takes discipline and planning -- on the part of the management
team and sales staff. If you can muster those, however, then a good sales
system of this nature will help optimize all leads that come into your
organization. You're staff will close more. Management will have an overview
of all activity -- at the push of a button. And you'll see profits rise...
if you're willing to put the investment into the key elements -- discipline
and planning!
Capitalizing on the
Opportunity
It's not that hard. You just have to be willing to become a better planner,
exercise more discipline in how the sales department is run, and be willing
to invest the time to learn, teach, and reinforce the new methods and
systems that will help you achieve success.
Only you can decide if you're willing to invest your own energies to improve
the results of your sales department. And if you decide you are, it's vital
to get the right help. You'll want a consultant/trainer who has experience
in (sales):
Can I help you lead your organization
to a higher level of success? You'll learn a "process" that will
help you forever. Your salespeople will get the training they need to
improve their productivity. And your organization will be positioned to
achieve a higher level of profits than ever before.
Just call (800) 989-8112 to discuss your needs, or
click
here to request additional information first.
|
