Your Sales Management Guru

A Sales Manager’s Recipe: What’s Cooking in 2012?

Last week after a keynote program called Gourmet Living, an attendee came up to me afterwards and discussed her challenges as a sales manager.  The last three years have been tough and she was looking for new ideas for 2012 to excite her team and also to simply change up the routine.

Since my keynote program had been about creating a Menu for Your Life with many metaphors around cooking I  started thinking about what her sales management recipe should be, for about 30 minutes we discussed a variety of ideas. So if 2011 left a bad taste in your mouth, use the following ingredients to create a new recipe to make 2012 your best year ever.

Become a Detective: In sales management workshops we always talk about “inspect what you expect”.  Once a week; review your sales teams CRM system to ensure they are using it properly and casually ask each team member about their certain activities within their key accounts.  Once they know you are actually reviewing their accounts they will be more precise and begin to be more accurate. Next, make two extra sales calls per month with each sales rep.  Validate they can sell your firm and they are using the proper sales tools. These actions are not micro-management, they are designed to provide you greater opportunities to coach and grow your team.

Reduce Fatigue:  Recognize your sales team might be tired or somewhat challenged based upon the last three years of tight budgets and stress.  Fire them up with new products or packaging/pricing, change the game with new times for sales and sales training meetings-even re-arrange the sales offices.  Once a month, take your sales team on a “field trip” to visit a customer, let the customer “sell” your team on your products/services.

Find Creative Dust:  Read a book on creativity and share it with your team.  The truly great salespeople are the most creative and it is true that creativity can be learned!  As a sales manager, creative sales strategies will push you over your quota-get your entire team into a creativity fix.

Become an SOB:   That is a Student of the Business. Invest in sales management training, books, DVD’s. Create your own network of other sales managers where you can discuss ideas, learn what is working for others and explore new sales management concepts. Push yourself to become a professional in 2012, consider visiting other offices and view how their sales managers run their sales teams. At our website you will find free video’s on “hiring and training salespeople” and other articles I have written on sales management, you might also go back and skim through our blog to look for other ideas.

While these are just a few ideas, I would enjoy reading your reactions or other recipes for success below.  As a team of readers, let’s build up a complete for each as we work to make 2012 a feast we will always remember.

Acumen Management Group Ltd. “operationalizes” sales management systems and processes that pull revenue out of the doldrums into the fresh zone. During the past 12 years, our consulting, advisory, and platform services have illuminated, motivated, and rejuvenated the sales efforts for partners throughout North America. Ken’s latest book is “Leading High Performance Sales Teams”.

Ken provides Keynotes, consulting services and products designed to improve business performance.           Ken@AcumenMgmt.com   www.AcumenManagement.com

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SFA/CRM 15 Years Later: Now It’s Every Rep’s Best Friend

This week, I thought you might like to read someone else’s article and my comments regarding the article. My comments are first.

As a Sales Leadership consultant, I think the article below hit on many valid points; the Cloud and CRM usability are key elements in the acceptance of CRM, as is the price/cost issue, especially for the SMB market. The marketing campaign features are extremely important and the interface to accounting/ERP systems greatly improve the customer service aspect as well as giving a more 360 view, makes CRM a more than a salesperson’s tool.

 One other element should be recognized is the “tech savvy” nature of reps today, vs even 10 years ago, this has made CRM acceptance so much easier. 

However, what is interesting is 1) forecasting accuracy is still a challenge for the Rep/sales manager’s. 2) training and implementation of CRM is still greatly under emphasized and I find many organizations with salespeople using the same CRM system differently and not following a sales process properly and 3) this lack of discipline leads to pipeline and activity reporting to be inaccurate. 

These few issues are the direct result of sales leadership and are training and management functions. The mistake I see in many CRM systems and vendors are they focus on the salesperson, not on the needs of the sales manager or organization.  Sales leadership requires a more forward looking approach to build predictable revenue.  With a greater proactive approach and sales management focus, the 3 topics mentioned above would help the sales manager take greater charge of the CRM tool and it would be more of a useful tool for sales leadership.

by Lauren Carlson

www.twitter.com/crmadvice 

CRM Analyst, Software Advice

December 14, 2011

Sales force automation (SFA) systems hit the market in the 1980s, but it wasn’t until Siebel’s release in the mid-90s that they gained a foothold in the enterprise. Despite its increasing ubiquity, however, SFA quickly developed a bad reputation among sales reps, many of whom suspiciously viewed SFA tools as a way for management to track their every move. They were also frustrated by the kludgy user interfaces, slow data entry processes, and long ramp-up times.

Fast-forward about 15 years, and now most sales organizations are singing the praises of SFA. What changed? As it turns out, quite a bit. I see four innovations that transformed SFA into a sales rep’s best friend.

Four Tipping Points for SFA

1. 1.      SaaS made implementation cheaper and faster - Traditional client/server SFA systems had a very high total cost of ownership (TCO) and a long, sometimes unsuccessful deployment process that required a high degree of involvement and investment by internal IT departments. When Salesforce.com came onto the scene in 1999, they changed the TCO equation and implementation process for SFA. All of a sudden, there was no on-premise hardware or software to install, no reason for IT to get involved, and sales management could even customize the software—albeit within limits—on their own. Best of all, up-front and ongoing software fees were now a small fraction of what an enterprise-scale SFA application cost. The net effect of this sea change was that sales teams were able to get up and running faster, with less disruption to the rest of the company, and dramatically lower investments in time and capital.
2. 2.      The Cloud made SFA more accessible – In the 1990s, entering sales activity was a laborious process. The road warrior sales rep had to get out his bulky laptop, log on to the company server over a slow and unreliable dial-up connection, enter notes into a prospect’s record, and then sync it all back with the server. Ouch. Today, cloud-based SFA systems are accessible from anywhere, on any device—including smartphones and tablets—and high-speed Internet has become commonplace. In addition, because the application is accessible through a familiar Web browser, there’s no proprietary client software to master and no fussy VPN tunnel to set up. This gives the sales rep a much higher level of freedom and flexibility, and removes a key obstacle to wider adoption.
3. 3.      Analytics and marketing automation turned SFA data into gold – It wasn’t that long ago that sales force automation was primarily a glorified contact management system with some extra data tracking capabilities. Now, with the addition of sophisticated analytics and integration with third-party systems, SFA systems have become an invaluable tool that is finally helping sales teams do their jobs better. Reps can create detailed dashboards and reports to help them do things like forecast their quarterly pipelines, prioritize new opportunities, and track progress toward quotas. And because SFA can integrate with marketing automation systems, sales and marketing teams can jointly use the data these systems compile to plan and execute more effective campaigns to help reps secure more leads and push prospects through the sales funnel.
4. 4.      Process improvement compressed sales cycles – One of the original promises of SFA was that it would help companies improve their sales processes by, well, actually defining a sales process. This promise was rarely delivered on due to sales rep resistance and the trouble it took to modify the processes that were essentially hard-coded into early SFA applications. Newer SFA applications make process mapping and process improvement much easier. And the best practices built in to SFA systems today—based on years of learning what works and what doesn’t for most companies—help companies continuously improve their processes. The focus on sales process that newer SFA tools encourage has yielded tangible benefits for sales teams, ranging from reduced sales cycles to higher win rates.

These four developments have drastically changed the value proposition of SFA software, but the tide is still turning. We didn’t even hit on social media, which is a huge trend that some predict will have an even bigger impact on the enterprise than the cloud. What will that impact look like for SFA? We might have to wait another 15 years to find out.

About the Author

Acumen Management Group Ltd. “operationalizes” sales management systems and processes that pull revenue out of the doldrums into the fresh zone. During the past 14 years, our consulting, advisory, and platform services have illuminated, motivated, and rejuvenated the sales efforts for partners throughout North America. Ken’s latest book is titled: “Leading High Performance Sales Teams”.

Ken Thoreson provides keynotes programs, consulting services and products designed to improve business performance.           Ken@AcumenMgmt.com   www.AcumenManagement.com

A Walkthrough of a Broken Organization

Strategic sales management is often a weak link in solution provider companies. 

Strategic sales management is often a weak link in solution provider companies. For the past 14 years I have been working all across North America and internationally, meeting, speaking and consulting with organizations of all sizes and areas of focus. While every client engagement is unique, some problems are common to many corporate cultures and tend to prevent a company from reaching its business potential.

This month, let’s take a walk through a hypothetical client site that illustrates many of the problems I’ve encountered over the years. We’ll use “Law and Order” rules: “Although inspired in part by true incidents, the following story is fictional and does not depict any actual person or event.”

 Walking into the front office, there are a few chairs, a few outdated vendor awards on the walls and employees pass a visitor without offering a greeting or showing much expression or enthusiasm. This is not a good indicator for the type of reaction the office evokes from prospects who visit.

President

I ask for Bill, the president. I am warmly greeted and taken to the back office, where we begin to chat about his business, his vision, his frustrations and the lack of business profitability. My experienced ears hear: “they” just don’t get it, “they” really don’t work hard enough, “they” really don’t know how to sell what we do and “they” don’t seem to care about the business like I do. Bill is also concerned that his sales manager is focused on functions that have nothing to do with sales.

Vice President
Bill introduces me to his vice president of professional services: During the first 10 minutes of a 45-minute interview I hear a lot about how much time the sales engineers have to take to help the salespeople in every engagement and that the sales teams get all the credit. “They never take the time to learn the products. If it wasn’t for my team and their expertise we would have no sales.” When I ask when was the last time the VP held a training session for the sales team, I get a shrug.

 Salespeople
As I conduct interviews with each member of the sales team, either face-to-face or on the phone, I begin to connect the dots between what they’re saying and my meetings with the president and the vice president. The salespeople say things like: management always seems to dominate every opportunity; they’re always micro-managing what I do; the sales meetings are brutal, everything seems so disorganized; proposals are a joke; management seems to change what we do every 90 days; and they never seem to know what is going on. Something else emerges from my recordings of each salesperson. Every representative tells a different story when asked, “Why do people buy from you?”

Assessing Your Own Company
While these scenarios are graphic, these are conversations that sadly take place among many clients we have served.

Does anything here ring a bell about your company? As you read this in January 2012, it is an excellent time to assess the morale within your current organization and create a plan for the remaining portion of the year to fix elements in your company that need to operate more effectively.

A few concrete steps can go a long way. Create an ongoing sales training program; run monthly company meetings for all employees to bring teams together, increase communication and recognize achievement; make sure management meetings are organized to improve the focus on achieving corporate objectives; and make “soft” cultural improvements to increase morale and teamwork.  In some cases the list of projects can be quite long, take a few each quarter and focus on those topics.

Creating a great organization takes time, vision, energy and a commitment to continuous improvement — which, by the way, is the definition of leadership.

As you skim our past blogs you may pick up other ideas that will enhance your organizations performance.

About the Author

Acumen Management Group Ltd. “operationalizes” sales management systems and processes that pull revenue out of the doldrums into the fresh zone. During the past 12 years, our consulting, advisory, and platform services have illuminated, motivated, and rejuvenated the sales efforts for partners throughout North America. His latest book is titled: “Leading High Performance Sales Teams”.

Ken Thoreson provides Keynotes, consulting services and products designed to improve business performance.           Ken@AcumenMgmt.com   www.AcumenManagement.com

 Your 2012 Sales Plan

It’s a little late to begin planning your 2012 Sales Plan, but in a conversation last week with a reader of this blog, I realized there maybe others who have not formalized their 2012 plan.  I have included below the various “categories” you should consider in building a plan.

 Other questions you should consider:

 •         What went well in the past year?

• •         What did not go well?
• •         What are the key drivers?
• •         What are the key metrics?
• •         What are the risks?
• •         What are the opportunities?

 •         What are some of the specific factors you will be
facing in 2012?

• •         What assumptions are you making about the market in 2012?
• •         What assumptions did you make about your
  offerings in 2011? Still true?
• •         What assumptions did you make about your company
  capability in 2011? Still true?

 Topics:          Table of Contents for the Section

 Executive Summary

1. Company Mission and Strategic Alignment

2.1.1     Company Mission statement

2.1.2     Company Goals

2.1.3     Company Strategy

2.1.4     Company Critical Success Factors

2.1.5     Key measurements (Market share, profit, growth, etc)

3. Sales Goals

3.1.1     Revenue

3.1.2     Profit

3.1.3     Units or Product Groups

3.1.4     Target Customers

3.1.5     Market Share

3.1.6     Other Goals

3.1.7     Sales Organization

3.1.8     Personal Goals

4. Market Coverage Strategy

4.1.1     Market definition

4.1.2     Territory definition

4.1.3     Target Accounts

4.1.4     Customer buying process

5. Sales Strategy

5.1.1     Channel strategy (link to Sales Strategy player)

5.1.2     Partners and Alliances

5.1.2.1.1    Strategy

5.1.2.1.2    How to leverage relationships

6. Sales Cost Model

6.1.1     Compensation targets for sales organization

6.1.2     Travel and Entertainment

6.1.3     Discounts, promotions

6.1.4     Reward and Recognition

7. Develop Human Resources (Link to Build an Organization)

7.1.1     Candidate profiles for each position

7.1.2     Job Descriptions

7.1.3     Hiring Process

7.1.4     Growth Plan (hiring plan)

8. Training Plan

8.1.1     Sales skills

8.1.2     Product Service

8.1.3     Sales Process

8.1.4     Sales Certification

8.1.5     New Hire Training Plan

9. Compensation Plan (Link to Reward and Recognition)
10. Sales Process/ Sales Cycle definition:  Key milestones, %Probability to close (Leads, Qualify, demo, proposal, close, revenue recognition, customer care)

10.1.1  Productivity Model,

10.1.2  Model Pipeline

10.1.3  Activity metrics

11. Sales Tools (Q-screens, proposals, standard documents, contracts, sales collateral kits, case studies, ROI/justification calculators), section?
12. Support systems (HR, Marketing, administration, IT, Engineering, Manufacturing)

12.1.1  Sales Force Automation/ CRM technology

12.1.2  Marketing support:  Collateral, lead generation, PR events, trade shows, Press releases

12.1.3  Competitive Analysis

13. Execute

1. a.    Prepare for launch, (internal buy-in to plan, communication)
2. b.    Launch (Kickoff meeting), move to Tools to execute
3. c.    Pipeline Development process
4. d.    Commission and performance reports
5. e.    Customer Relationship programs 

Acumen Management Group Ltd. “operationalizes” sales management systems and processes that pull revenue out of the doldrums into the fresh zone. During the past 12 years, our consulting, advisory, and platform services have illuminated, motivated, and rejuvenated the sales efforts for partners throughout North America.  Ken’s latest book: “Leading High Performance Sales Teams”.

 Ken Thoreson provides Keynotes, consulting services and products designed to improve business performance.           Ken@AcumenMgmt.com   www.AcumenManagement.com (website)

www.YourSalesManagementGuru.com  (blog)

The Times are a Changing or Are You?

At the end of each year I write down my personal and business goals for the new year in seven different categories. The challenging part of that exercise is I have to review the goals that I had set from the past year and grade my performance. I have saved these sheets from the previous 20+ years and it’s a telling experience, I have found there are always good goals, just sometimes unrealistic timeframes.

 I would suggest you review your past 12 month’s performance; ask yourself: “have I changed or improved my organization?”  If you are a new reader make sure you review all of the previous blogs for idea’s and tips to improve your personal or professional performance.

 As I look forward into 2012 and think about current topics and potential new blogs, it occurred to me that asking you to evaluate your current status on a few basic sales management topics might be a great spot to get ready to leap into the New Year.

Please score these 1-5, 5=highest

  Total Score                                      _________

 Confidential Property of Acumen Management Group, Ltd All Rights Reserved. No Reproduction without Authorization

 Many of these topics are critical for building a high performance sales team as well as increasing the predictability of your revenue.  I believe it’s critical that a sales manager or owner know a few basic ratios of their business, as in the ratio of potential revenues in the pipeline to the defined  sales quota vs actual attainment. Over a 6-9 month basis of tracking these information you will find your closing ratio’s, the value of how much potential revenue must be generated each month to enter your pipeline and what you need at the beginning of each month to attain your sales quota.

 I also like the idea of “out of sight-out of mind”. If you have major accounts-you must have a written plan of action, for each account, for at least three months. If you have major sales opportunities to sell each month-you must have their name and action plans visibly defined on your wall or desk. This will ensure you are consistently aware of your important prospects.

 Since recruiting and interviewing are the number one most important aspects, making sure you do it right becomes critical! View my free video on www.AcumenManagement.com

Depending upon where you scored or in what area you didn’t score as well as you thought, stay tuned to this blog as we move into 2012. I will be touching on many of these topics and others in greater detail as the year moves along.  If you would like to suggest specific topics for me to cover in one or over several columns please send me your ideas too!

 Acumen Management Group Ltd. “operationalizes” sales management systems and processes that pull revenue out of the doldrums into the fresh zone. During the past 12 years, our consulting, advisory, and platform services have illuminated, motivated, and rejuvenated the sales efforts for partners throughout North America. Move up and move ahead!

 Ken provides Keynotes, consulting services and products designed to improve business performance.           Ken@AcumenMgmt.com   www.AcumenManagement.com

www.YourSalesManagementGuru.com

Make 2012 Your Best Year EVER!

Is the market going to be better for your products/services in 2012? Or will your sales team face another tough year to achieve their sales objectives?  Recently I have been writing/talking about an issue facing everyone-your salespeople, your management team and your customers/prospects=sales fatigue. After three challenging years and now that we are about to enter  2012, all the sales numbers go back to zero and with confusion in the market, most everyone I have interacted with seems both physically and mentally  tired.

Last week I was speaking to a group of sales leaders in New York, as we discussed this topic, the question was asked regarding what as sales leaders can we do to counteract this condition.  I suggested the following idea’s (you can find more detail in past blogs on these topics).

1. Build belief in your company & products/services: invite a happy customer to a sales meeting and let them tell your team how great your company and products are and what they have done for their company.
2. Make a change: repackage your products/services, alter pricing, even move the desks in your sales offices. Another idea, create a new company sales presentation that changes your messaging. Any short term change will alter the chemistry and make something new and fresh.
3. Focus on increased levels of training:  build a sales training plan for the first 90 days that includes sales skills, product/services knowledge, CRM, etc.  Next, build an individual salesperson development plan where twice each year, hold a formal salesperson career development discussion and mutually, you and a salesperson, create an individual plan to increase their professionalism.  In our “Interactive Sales Manager Tool Kit” we include a Salesperson Development Tool.  If you would like a free Salesperson Development Tool, send me an email request.  Ken@AcumenMgmt.com

There is always a lot to do but planning this  week for 2012 results will greatly move you ahead of your competition and prepare you for making 2012-Your Best Year Ever! 

Here’s another tip: December 15th, 2011: Make 2012 Your Best Year Ever:  50 Business Tips in 50 Minutes

Join a panel industry experts for a fast paced webinar where you will learn 50 great ideas on the following topics:
• How to build a high performance sales team
• How to create long term profitable client relationships
• How to leverage the power of social media networks
• How to align your entire organizations sales and marketing initiatives with your customers’ needs
• How to set focus your business on success and profit

Find  out more and Register here or  http://tinyurl.com/bl4zoq8

Ken Thoreson “operationalizes” sales management systems and processes that pull revenue out of the doldrums into the fresh zone. During the past 13 years, our consulting, advisory, and platform services have illuminated, motivated, and rejuvenated the sales efforts for partners throughout North America.

 Ken provides Keynotes, consulting services and products designed to improve business performance.      

Ken@AcumenMgmt.com   www.AcumenManagement.com

Blog:  www.YourSalesManagementGuru.com

It’s Time to Vote

This is your opportunity to contribute and vote for the top sales and marketing thought leaders, software tools and resources.

I am delighted to announce that the 2011 Top Sales & Marketing Awards finalists have been chosen, and the voting polls in all fourteen categories are open – http://www.topsalesawards.com

You will need to register to vote – but only once – and you will also be able to vote once in each category every 24 hours. The polls will be open until midnight (Eastern) on Friday December 9th.

The live online awards ceremony takes place on Thursday December 15th, from 12 noon (Eastern) The competition in every section is of the very highest quality, and I am looking forward to an intriguing contest.

I have been nominated in 2 categories; I have been nominated and made it through the finals of the Top Sales & Marketing Book category: “Success Simplified” and in the Top Sales & Marketing Blog Post category and voting has begun: http://www.topsalesawards.com

Please take a few minutes to vote and let your associates know too!

Acumen Management Group Ltd. “operationalizes” sales management systems and processes that pull revenue out of the doldrums into the fresh zone. During the past 12 years, our consulting, advisory, and platform services have illuminated, motivated, and rejuvenated the sales efforts for partners throughout North America. Move up and move ahead!

Ken provides Keynotes, consulting services and products designed to improve business performance.           Ken@AcumenMgmt.com   www.AcumenManagement.com

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Sales Leadership: Ten 2012 Sales Kick-off Meeting Idea’s

 While working with a client last week it became obvious that we are moving into the time to  prepare 2012 budgets, new compensation plans and something most sales manager’s don’t take enough time in developing;  their 2012 Sales Kick Off meeting.  

Already many larger organizations are booking their sales conferences for the first quarter where they will invite their sales teams, vendors, resellers/partners to hear their plans to make 2012 the “best year ever”.  Keynote speakers, breakout sessions, new marketing plans and product demonstrations will all be coordinated to increase enthusiasm, salesperson belief and excitement that the new year will bring.  I know this because I am booked for five events already.  However just because larger organizations are planning their formal conferences it doesn’t mean as a sales leader you shouldn’t be planning an event for your sales organization.

A yearly sales kick-off meeting can be organized as an off-site/overnight 2 day program or as simply as a ¾ to a ½ day event.  You should schedule them no later than mid-February. However the basics of any sales kickoff event should include the following planning ideas. These ideas’s are not in any order of priority.

1. 1.      You should announce theme for the new year. This should be a positive statement of your major objectives and something that can be reinforced throughout the year.  “Be Brilliant on the Basics” or Nike’s: Just Do It! Are two examples, comment below on your ideas for your sales theme for the year!
2. 2.      Include time for sales training on sales skills. You might hand out a sales training book, as a gift to each salesperson, this will be your first quarter “must read” book. You can use the book for extended sales training during your meetings. Also roll out your first quarter sales training plans.
3. 3.      Announce a first quarter sales contest. (see previous blogs for ideas)
4. 4.      Announce a 2012 yearly sales contest; this should be a big prize for exceeding the salesperson’s quota. Examples include:  a trip to a resort, a cruise or a trip to an island.  Remember these kinds of incentive programs are not expenses but paid out of incremental revenues/profits. The roll out should include written rules and pictures of the location, etc. See my book: Creating High Performance Sales Compensation Plans, for idea’s on sales contests. www.AcumenManagement.com
5. 5.      Describe and show your marketing plans for the first six months. This will show the salespeople how your organization is planning to support the sales team.
6. 6.      Schedule the president of your company to give a short message on his/her philosophy on sales and the culture of your organization.
7. 7.      You may or may not announce your new compensation plan at this event; it all depends upon the degree of change you are making. With minor changes, it’s a great time, with major changes schedule a separate meeting.  HINT: Do not roll out the new compensation plan as the last topic of the meeting; schedule it early in the afternoon, if your event is a full day meeting.
8. 8.      Make sure you make the meeting fun!   As the sales leader work on activities that create the right culture and teamwork, create a game that everyone participates in during the event.
9. 9.      Make sure each salesperson presents their “Business Plans” for the year, based upon the number of salespeople this can be done by breakouts into regions, smaller groups or as a single group. These business plans include not only forecasts but personal commitments to activity levels and professional growth.
10. 10.  Bring in an outside speaker. This could include a customer telling of their satisfaction with your firm, a sales trainer or a motivational message that propels your team to excellence. See for more idea’s: www.AcumenManagement.com

This is your time to bring a coordinated program that sets the tone for the new year. Make sure you take the time to do it right.  What additional ideas do you have? 

Acumen Management Group Ltd. “operationalizes” sales management systems and processes that pull revenue out of the doldrums into the fresh zone. During the past 12 years, our consulting, advisory, and platform services have illuminated, motivated, and rejuvenated the sales efforts for partners throughout North America. Move up and move ahead!

Ken provides Keynotes, consulting services and products designed to improve business performance.           Ken@AcumenMgmt.com   www.AcumenManagement.com Blog:  www.YourSalesManagementGuru.com