Sales Is a Science: How the Top 2 % Succeed

Copyright © 2011 by Allan Lobeck

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ISBN: 978-1-4502-8393-9 (dj)

ISBN: 978-1-4502-8394-6 (ebk)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2011901683

Printed in the United States of America

iUniverse rev. date: 2/4/2011

This book is dedicated to my mother, Anna Irene Lobeck, who kept pushing me to complete it, and my wife, Danuta Wictoria Lobeck, who suggested I document my learning.

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1:

Beginning the Transition to Your Financial Independence

What Is a Process?

Is Sales an Art or a Science?

Why Only 2 Percent Succeed

Business Process Values

Do Sales Plans Help?

Summary

For Your Review

Chapter 2:

Elements in an Effective Sales Process

Sales Process

Sales Plan

Sales Force

Sales Territory

Sales Cycle

Sales Funnel

Sales Forecasting

Sales Training

Customer Buying Cycle

Customer Buyer Roles

Online Research

Customer Industry Knowledge

Suspect or Prospect?

Prospecting

Qualifying

Presentation

Demonstration

Features, Benefits, and Value

Forecasting Criteria

Your Sales Tools

For Your Review

Chapter 3:

Creating My Sales Plan—Step 1 of My Transformation

The Sales Plan

Why Write a Sales Plan?

Create Your Draft Sales Plan

Okay, Where Do I Start?

For Your Review

Chapter 4:

Account Research Prior to Contact

Who Are My Top-Three Target Accounts?

Who Are My Top-Three Contacts in Each of My Targeted Accounts?

What Are My Targeted Accounts’ Business Objectives?

Learn Their Business and Some of Its Newest Acronyms

Develop Business Goals for Your Prospect to Help Their Business

Develop an Entry Campaign for Each Prospect

Review Your Entry Plan with Your Team and Revise

What Should My Entry Campaign Include?

Update Your Sales Funnel

Summary

For Your Review

Chapter 5:

Initial Customer Contact

Planning Entry Communications

Select Multiple Entry Points and Multiple Entry Levels

Pick the Best Opportunities for Revenue

Create Entry-Level Communication Vehicles

Voicemail Content

Telephone Content

The Entry-Level Meeting

Questions You Should Ask

Review and Rehearse the Information-Gathering Meeting

Conduct the Entry-Level Meeting Communication

What Should You Listen For?

Summary

For Your Review

Chapter 6:

Developing Customer Contacts

Reconfirm Information Gathered

Review Contact’s Intellectual and Emotional Buying Criteria

Uncover and Influence Buying Criteria

Develop Your Questions to Increase the Value of Your Offering

Begin Developing Customer ROI

Inquire about the Success of Their Previous Purchase

Update Your Sales Funnel

Reconfirm Information after Every Communication

Ensure Your Champion Has Enough Information to Support You

Is Your Coach Providing You with the Information You Need?

Begin Developing Your Value Proposition

Develop Personal and Business Wins for All Contacts

Begin Preparing for a Proof of Concept (POC) or Test

The Total Review of Customer Sales Plan

Learning Experience

Summary

Learning Questions for Your Review

Chapter 7:

Begin Your Transition to Selling

Review and Analyze All Known Information

Re-evaluate Your Customer Needs Recognition Phase

Develop Hard, Soft, and Business ROI for All Current and Future Needs

Document Your Customer Sales Plan and All Supporting Activities

Agree upon Sales Strategy, Your Value Proposition, and Timelines

Develop Customized Presentation

Create a Written Sales Proposal Supporting Your Value Proposition

Create a List of Expected Objections and Planned Responses

Rehearse the Presentation with Your Team At Least Twice

Schedule the Value Presentation with Your Customer

Are Pre-Presentation Communications with Your Customer Valuable?

Summary

For Your Review

Chapter 8:

Presentation and Follow-Up

Review Roles and Objectives with Your Team before the Presentation

Arrange Seating Assignments and Presentation Equipment

Make the Presentation

Present Your Business Value Presentation

Presentation Scheduling Strategy

What’s Left to Present?

Will a Visit to Your Corporate Office Help Complete the Sales Process?

Presentation Questionnaire

Post-Presentation Summary

Summary

For Your Review

Chapter 9:

The Customer’s Evaluation of Your Offering

Respond to Any Remaining Questions and Confirm that you understand the answers

POC/Trial

Magic Closing Phrases

Prepare and Present Your Value Proposition

Prepare a Plan to Negotiate Price

Price Objections

Negotiate Using Value and Your Strengths

The You Need to Say NO to Get the YES

Summary

For Your Review

Chapter 10:

The Negotiation Process

Negotiation Preparation

Preparation Summary

Negotiation Meetings Steps

For Your Review

Chapter 11:

Increasing Your Revenue by 20 Percent

Your Post-Sales Process Can Increase Your Revenue by 20 Percent

When Should You Approach Your Customer about Improving Their TCO and ROI?

How Customers View the Post-Sale Process

Why Is It Important to Participate in the Implementation and Rollout Planning?

Summary

For Your Review

Chapter 12:

The Successful Sales Process

The Most Used Sales Skills by the Top 2 Percent of Sales Professionals

Bibliography/Recommended Reading

Acknowledgments

I would like to acknowledge the many sales professionals who offered input and advice as I wrote this book. Their real-world experiences helped provide valuable examples of how and why a well-defined and documented process works.

I would also like to acknowledge my wife, my five children, and my extended family, which helped me keep the book focused on the sales process so I did not cram twenty books’ worth of material into one book.

I have several business associates I would like to acknowledge for their support:

Brad Tashenberg, President and owner of Bradmark Technologies, Inc.

Keith Okano, President and CEO Bridgeway Software, Inc.

Jack Warkenthien, Sales industry consultant and radio show host

Finally, I would like to acknowledge all the editors and assistants who helped make this book possible.

Introduction

When researching the content for this book I determined that there is a major difference between top performers and less successful sales staff. All indicators point to one basic question: Is selling an art or a science? According to the research, as well as many sales productivity books already available, sales is a science. Can sales as a science make your performance consistently be in the top 2 percent and help you become financial independent? YES!

You should read this book to discover what the top 2 percent do differently to help them overachieve and consistently be the number-one sales people in their company. How do they do it? They use a repeatable, definable, and measurable process that allows them to use their full team so they can make adjustments to their process to eliminate future challenges. This book shows selling is not an art; it is a science. You can document and track all input, processes, and results, adjusting them until the process output exceeds your quota. The top 2 percent have realized that using a process including measurements is the only true path to success.

In order to make a transformation into the top 2 percent, it is necessary to change some of your current processes. The challenge is embracing change. The history of change shows this is the biggest challenge to growth. If you want to be a top sales performer, you do need to change. To begin the process of change, open your mind and heart. Intellectual and emotional change is required. Remember when you went to college? You opened your mind and heart to subject matter. You accepted what was taught. Why? Because you wanted to learn and become better than you were. This transformation is similar: change requires commitment to measurable results and adjusting your process to improve your results.

Why don’t the other 98 percent create a process and then use it? Because the other 98 percent feel that they fully understand their own sales process today and follow it 100 percent of the time. Furthermore, they believe selling is an art form; they believe every account is different; they believe that since they have done it before, they can do it again; and they believe individual salesperson’s creativity is what is important and makes the sales. The 98 percent believes a measurable process would slow them down and stifle their individual creativity. They do not use measurements to adjust their sales process, and therefore their performance will always suffer from protectable highs and lows.

Chapter 1:

Beginning the Transition to Your Financial Independence

Why should you read this book about sales productivity? To discover what the top 2 percent do differently to help them overachieve and consistently be the number-one sales people in their company. How do they do it? They use a repeatable, definable, and measurable process that allows them to use their full team so they can make adjustments to their process to eliminate future challenges.

Then why don’t the other 98 percent create a process and use it? Because the other 98 percent feel they fully understand their sales process and follow it 100 percent of the time. Furthermore, they believe selling is an art form; they believe every account is different; they believe that since they have done it before they can do it again; and they believe an individual salesperson’s creativity is what is important and makes the sales. This 98 percent believes a measurable process would slow them down and stifle their individual creativity. They do not use measurements to adjust their sales process, and therefore their performance will always suffer from predictable highs and lows. They feel they can walk in and make a deal happen all by themselves, as planned, but there is no actual plan, although they will never admit it.

Selling is not entirely a process, but all the related activities in your process are repeatable and measurable. This shows selling is not an art but rather a science. Since it is a science, you can document and track all input, processes, and results, adjusting them until the process output exceeds your quota. Programmers used to believe that programming was an art. It has been shown that practicing defined measurable processes, such as RAD for IT programmers, increases the quality and quantity of output. The top 2 percent have realized that using a process with measurements is the only true path to success.

Many of you have heard about how after World War II, Deming turned Japan from a low-quality, low-quantity production culture to the world’s standard for quality and quantity production. Deming’s results were so good that many companies sent teams to Japan to study and use Deming’s processes. Almost every company that succeeded in implementing processes has stated that it was their ability to engage and accept change that allowed them to improve the quality and quantity of output.

Deming’s quality processes transformed many low-quality companies into world leaders in quality that people recognize and prefer to purchase from. Using some of Deming’s ideas and other well-accepted practices, it is possible for you and your company to build the best performing sales team, doubling and even tripling your revenue.

In order to make a transformation, it is necessary to change some of your current processes. The challenge is embracing change. The history of change shows this is the biggest challenge to growth. If you want to be a top sales performer, you do need to change. To begin your change process, open your mind and heart. Intellectual and emotional change is required. Remember when you went to college? You opened your mind and heart to subject matter. You accepted what was taught. Why? Because you wanted to learn and become better than you were. This transformation is similar: change requires commitment to measurable results and adjusting your process to improve your results.

The rest of this book will define the approach and the overall process for sales transformation. This book will help its readers understand, develop, and use the sales process to become a consistent top performer. This chapter will define basic terminology needed for developing your own successful sales process.

What Is a Process?

A business sales process is a collection of related activities that, when executed in a systematic and logical progression, produce value for your customers and sales for you. Since a process is a logical flow, this logic and any related activities can be visualized using diagrams to represent the sequence of activities. This visualization allows all participants to understand how and when their activities need to be executed to help sales communicate with the prospect and secure the transaction successfully.

There are three basic types of sales processes:

1. Sales management processes: processes that govern the operation of a sales system. Typical management processes include forecasting and territory management. These processes should be supported by computerized tools available in your CRM/SALES reporting, such as ACT, SalesForce.com, and many others.

2. Operational sales processes: processes that constitute the core business and create the primary value stream. Some are: defining target customers, forecasting standard definitions, and reporting pre- and post-sales activity.

3. Supporting processes: processes that support the core sales processes. Examples include marketing events, inside sales activities, and technical support.

For a business process to be successful, it must begin with an understanding of a customer’s needs and end with fulfilling those needs. Your process must be customer focused. Check your current process. If your process focuses on your quota needs, it misses the true goal of providing value for your customer. Your process must focus on improving your customer’s business value proposition and not on your quota.

Small and large companies all have departments with functional roles that support sales in their revenue-producing activities. These departmental boundaries create corporate control points, which create barriers in the sales process.

Process-oriented organizations eliminate such barriers. In order to make this happen, the business culture of the company must change to be focused on the customer and openly supportive of sales processes. This change must include visible and audible support from upper management, or the sales processes will encounter seemingly unmovable barriers to success. If this condition exists in your company, sales must lead the charge and build the understandable value proposition for change that aligns upper management and all supporting teams. Eliminating roadblocks improves sales performance.

A business process can be divided into subcomponents, each with its own attributes, which all support the sales process. The analysis of sales activities must include the mapping of processes and supporting subcomponents, down to the individual contributor for each activity. When every contributor learns how he or she supports sales by understanding his or her role in the process, the contributor sees how each activity impacts the sales process for a customer. Every activity and all participants must be fully documented to calculate success. You are responsible for your quota, and the most important vehicle for your success is your process.

Business processes are designed to add value for the customer and should not include unnecessary activities. The outcome of a well-designed business process is increased effectiveness (value for the customer), increased efficiency (less costs for the company), and increased effectiveness (more sales for you). Any activity that does not contribute to one of these values should be eliminated or rewritten to provide value.

Is Sales an Art or a Science?

There is a basic difference between art and science. In art, we honor the uniqueness of the creation. In science, we value processes that can be repeated and verified. Most sales teams today perform as though the selling process were both an art and a science. It is possible for a salesperson to over-quota for a period without using a measurable sales process; however, luck does not last for those who gamble. Look at blackjack. Counting cards is a science, and the people who do this win consistently. They have a process that puts them into the top 2 percent of their skill set. Selling is a process that is composed of processes and sub-processes. Once you learn that selling is a process, and you learn how to measure your activity steps, you can join the top 2 percent.

So why don’t more sales professionals make the transition? The single largest challenge to increasing sales results is resistance to change. It is natural to resist change. Again, let’s use going to college as an example. The main reason people attend college is they want to learn new skills to improve their lifestyle. Since they are motivated by their desire for change, they accept what is being taught and start using it as soon as possible.

So, why don’t sales professionals change today? There are two reasons. First, it is the responsibility of the executive sales team to find the correct approach for changing to a measurable process; otherwise, the sales staff may rebel. The sales staff is just like your buyers—they need to see how the change will help them become more successful. Often the first hurdle is created when sales management announces this change without first soliciting input and then communicating to the team how they can improve their results by using the new process. Without this pre-announcement effort, the initial reaction of most of the sales staff is why? The sales staff is not prepared emotionally or intellectually for the change.

The second reason sales professionals don’t like change is that they don’t understand why the manager wants them to change, because they don’t understand what the sales process is. The sales manager needs to explain the value of using a measurable process and reflect how each team member’s results can improve. The manager must approach this just as he would a sales prospect. If you try to sell something without first fully understanding your customer’s pain, you will fail. When sales management start by gathering information from the sales staff about potential improvements to the current process, they meet with less resistance. Sales staff sees that the company is trying to help and that they are part of the change process, and they become more enthusiastic.

After the announcement meeting, sales management should individually review each sales staff member’s sales forecast. The purpose of this review is to suggest how the new process can improve their success. These two steps are the minimum requirements to initiate a change. Remember, plan the announcement meeting agenda and prepare just as if you were preparing for your first face-to-face meeting with your largest opportunity.

Why Only 2 Percent Succeed

Change is the hardest test humans must face. In today’s world of high-speed communications, some business experts state that we need to change our process every three to four years to be successful. If this is true, we will need to change at least twice every ten years and maybe even more often in the future. If we review the recent history of sales, we find that although relationships are still important, relationships alone will not make the deal anymore. Today’s buyers have access to much more information and so many different organizations selling to them that they need help sorting out who provides what business value to their company. The sales process can help by translating all the available data into business improvements for the company. That is a sales professional’s responsibility.

Since relationships alone will not succeed, sales professionals need a process that allows them to support their customers though a logical progression of all the activities. As mentioned