Myth One: Spending a disproportionate amount of your available sales cycle selling time with a decision influencer will increase your sales success.

Reality: Hitting sales targets is a time management issue. How many prospects do I have? Which are qualified? How many can I talk with or see in person in a single day? How quickly can I move them through the required sales steps and how fast can I get them to take an action step to buy from me? These variables all are relevant in selling.
Decision influencers (usually middle-level managers) are communication liaisons for your business value. When you present and sell them, you are asking to have a non-professional salesperson communicate your business value for you to the decision makers. When focusing on middle-level managers, you are saying A) you do not have the sales skills to get to the decision makers B) you are hoping they will be able to discuss your business value as well as you can. Can you sell middle-level managers? Yes, but it is a slow non-preferred process.

Myth Two: Dropping prices will increase sales in the long-term.

Reality: Time and time again, every business segment that has followed a commodity-based pricing schema has failed. Selling down and by price is a short-term sales model that cannot sustain financial integrity. Repeat customers buy value; single sale customers buy price.

Myth Three: Business networking is better than cold calling for lead generation.

Reality: This is another urban myth propitiated by those who do not want to cold call. Sales reps who will not cold call are half-cycle salespeople. Yes, networking can create leads, but the quantity and the amount of time involved consistently will never match your efforts of cold calling 50 C-level executives each day. Networking is a long-term, minimum volume lead generation technique for salespeople. Cold calling is the sales pipeline of success.

Myth Four: Sales training is a cost center.

Reality: Most CEOs do not spend enough on sales training. They believe that it is more important to invest in development or operations staff training than sales training. In fact, sales training is more important than technical education and is a true business profit center investment. Without sales, you don’t need development. CEOs can always subcontract development work – but try subcontracting your sales!

Myth Five: Clients buy technlogy or business services.

Reality: Clients never buy technology or business services. Account managers who sell business services or technology usually sell less. Clients buy pain management.

Myth Six: Because you were successful in the past, you should be successful this year.

Reality: Salespeople often defer to a comfort zone of auto selling – doing the same things year after year. This repetition implies that all prospects and customers are the same – that they are not individuals and that they don’t change. Buying needs a changing. Do you know what will drive them to action steps in 2009 oder 2010?

Myth Seven: Marketing department responsibility should be focused on brochures, web site communication, and tradeshow management.

Reality: PR is not revenue; marketing is not revenue; and advertising is not revenue. Revenue is revenue. The marketing department’s primary business responsibility should be creating qualified sales leads for the sales team.

Myth Eight: It is the sales management’s responsibility to close sales deals for you.

Reality: Sales management’s responsibility is to help you sell as a salesperson. That means increasing qualified lead traffic, supervising operational issues that affect your deals, updating your sales training skills, and acting as an intermediary with corporate management. That does not mean going to every sales presentation or meeting every Fortune 1000 prospect in person. Many times, this becomes the norm instead of the exception because sales management usually carries the department’s quota as a whole and revenue is revenue. Why pursue sales management if you have to close every deal?

Myth Nine: The more strategic partners you have, the more sales leads you will generate.

Reality: Strategic partnerships and alliance management is a full-time job. It is definitely quality over quantity that counts. Most firms have many strategic relationships that are worthless. Like any investment of time and money, alliances need to be quantified with an assigned quota for revenue generation and minimum expectations of lead generation volume to warrant the relationship. Partnerships must have an annual ROI or their time and effort is worthless.

Myth Ten: Question-based sales probing will increase sales.

Reality: The fact is asking detailed questions of prospects too early in the engagement process actually ends most sales cycles. You cannot cold call or engage a vice president of a large company the first time, start pinging them with probing business questions and expect them to answer. This myth is propitiated through fluff sales training programs and books designed for insurance and car salespeople. To achieve sales success to senior management, you must first earn their respect as a business peer, not a vendor. You must validate your knowledge about industry pains, so you can earn the right to ask investigative questions about their business needs when it is appropriate.
The key to sales success is not using probing questions too early. Instead, act like a strategic advisor and communicate your business value up front — EARN THE RIGHT to ask probing questions.

They are worth thinking about, aren’t they?
Heiko

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Dort gibt ein Einkäufer aus dem Lebensmitteleinzelhandel ein paar Einblicke in die Vorbereitungen der Einkäufer:

… Um sich gegen Trittbrettfahrer zu wappnen, die gestiegene Kosten anderer zur Gewinnsteigerung nutzen, rechnen die Händler die Hersteller-Preise selbst durch. Fordert etwa ein Hersteller für seinen Eiersalat 15 Prozent mehr, lässt der Einkaufsmanager die Preisentwicklung jeder einzelnen Zutat vom Ei über das pflanzliche Öl bis zu Spargel und Champignons rastern und gewichten. Kommt am Ende heraus, dass nur der Öl-Preis nach oben geschnellt ist, die Kosten für alle anderen Inhaltsstoffe aber gesunken sind, ist aus Sicht des Handels klar – die Industrie hat nur geblufft. … Martens, der heute Unternehmen beim Einkauf berät, hat beobachtet, dass die Jahresgespräche inzwischen zwar „deutlich sachlicher“ ablaufen. Während die Gegenseite früher „schon wegen des Showeffekts öfter mal zusammengebrüllt“ wurde, gehe es inzwischen „formal harmonisch“ zu – mit der Betonung auf „formal“. Denn wenn es nach ein paar Höflichkeiten und ein wenig Geplauder ans Eingemachte – den Preis nämlich – geht, kracht es noch immer mit schöner Regelmäßigkeit. …

Und, wie haben Sie Ihre letzte Preiserhöhung begründet
Zum Glück geht es nicht überall so zu wie im Lebensmittelhandel, aber auch andere Einkäufer werden immer professioneller (härter), oder?
Eines weiß ich aus vielen Gesprächen mit Einkäufern und Coachings mit Verkäufern, die Einkäufer sind immer top vorbereitet, meißt besser als die Verkäufer. Leider!

Muss ja nicht so bleiben,
Heiko van Eckert

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8 Ways a Vice President of Sales Can Add Value To Their Sales Team

1. Less paperwork . . . more fieldwork.
Selling is a premeditated sport. You need to get into the game. Managing from the sidelines only hurts your creditability. Don’t just “ride along” with your sales team to look busy. Instead, get your own new accounts to stay sharp in the sales game.
2. Train more; talk less.
Your sales team needs help. Schedule, pay for, or expense ongoing sales training to help your sales team sell more. All sales managers say that sales training is important, but less than half actually follow through and deliver continuing education.

3. Forecast sales accurately . . . not based upon what your CEO wants to hear.
Yes, most sales forecasts are inaccurate at best and a joke at their worst. Stand up and forecast accurately to your boss. Being a meek, mild VP of Sales gets you nowhere and no respect. Your sales team will know that you lack confidence.

4. Analyze why your firm loses business.
Help your sales team sell more; know why your firm loses business. Believing what an operations, marketing or salesperson told you is only going to get you filtered, unsubstantiated data. Talk to lost sales prospects and find out the reason why.

5. Be a mentor to the sales team; be an advisor to the CEO.
When someone finally becomes a VP of Sales for the first time he/she immediately learns the duality of responsibility of serving two masters. Many times, Vice Presidents of Sales dismiss individual sales team member’s observations and qualify their input as just observations from a high maintenance account manager. Yes, there are always account managers who spend more time complaining than selling, but input from your team many times becomes advisement content for your CEO.
Yet, many Vice Presidents of Sales hold back telling their Senior Vice President of Sales or their CEO what is really going on.
Listen, you’re the VP of Sales and part of the senior management team. Holding back because you might hurt the CEO’s ego or because it’s not politically correct is a sign that you are not qualified to be the VP of Sales.
Always mentor your sales team to greater success by listening to them and always advise your CEO with straight forward advisement.

6. Manage salespeople by their business metrics.
A VP of Sales has a tendency to hire new sales executives based upon the mirror image of their own sales style or based upon a projected image he/she has of what a successful salesperson should be like.
Never manage your sales team members by their personalities only. They are who they are, and you are who you are.
Manage salespeople by their sales metrics.
Number of calls . . . number of demos . . . number of proposals and number of purchase orders. Yes, high maintenance salespeople can be difficult where metrics are concerned, but so can well-liked salespeople who don’t sell!

7. Demand more qualified sales leads from marketing.
Marketing is a staff department created to support the sales team (a line department.) Salespeople need more qualified sales leads not pretty brochures or bigger trade show booths. You’re the VP of Sales; you need to demand more qualified leads from marketing. Even if your firm has to terminate several associates from the marketing department to pay for lead generation, do it.

8. Tell the CEO the truth.
As pressure mounts in the boardroom, it trickles down to the executive team at their weekly meeting. Each executive feels the weight of non-performance, but no job feels it more on a weekly basis than the VP of Sales. When was the last time you heard a VP of Operations was fired for their bench utilization stats being out of line? When was the last time a VP of Marketing was terminated because their brochures were not ready?
It doesn’t happen.
When was the last time a VP of Sales was let go because their firm missed their sales forecast?
It happens every day.
But, that’s why most base salaries of Vice Presidents of Sales are two to three times higher than their individual sales team members.
With the money comes the responsibility.
With the money comes the pressure for your team to sell more and for you to be fired faster than any other manager on the executive team.
Since, you can get fired faster (regardless if it is your fault), you might as well go ahead and talk to the CEO like a business peer.
Yes, like a business peer.
You are not being paid two (or three) times the amount in base salary to be a subordinate. Treat your CEO like a peer and he/she will respect you more. Act like a subordinate and you might as well go back to being a salesperson carrying an individual quota.
Tell the CEO the truth.
It doesn’t matter if your product or service is lacking, the marketing department VP is not qualified, or that your salespeople won’t cold call.
Don’t hold back, tell the CEO what you believe and you might even keep your job!

Being a VP of Sales is the hardest job!

Hard times, hard job, go for it!
Heiko van Eckert

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Frühzeitiges Qualifizieren von Kunden ist eines der Geheimnisse der Starverkäufer!

Bei Gerold Braun heißt das Ganze:

Woran erkenne ich den vielversprechenden Kunden-Kandidaten?

Es gibt sicher verschiedene Methoden, wie man an diese Herausforderungen herangehen kann. Ich möchte Ihnen einen Weg zeigen, bei dem Sie durch klare Fragen 3 Kriterien prüfen.

Es geht ja darum, in einem ganz frühen Stadium die “Qualität” eines Kontaktes festzustellen, damit man entscheiden kann wie viel Energie und Zeit man ihm widmet, wie der nächste Schritt aussieht.
Und um unser “volles Programm” zu fahren, sollten wir ziemlich sicher sein, dass wir es mit einem vielversprechenden Kontakt zu tun haben.
Wie sieht er also aus?

3 Eigenschaften muss er mitbringen:

1. Der Kandidat hat einen Bedarf, den wir decken können.
2. Der Kandidat hat einen wichtigen Grund zu kaufen.
3. Der Kandidat hat einen dringenden Grund zu kaufen.

Schauen wir uns die 3 Kriterien im einzelnen an.

Das erste, der Kandidat hat einen Bedarf, den wir decken können, sieht einfach aus. Nicht selten erlebe ich jedoch in Beratungen, wenn man kürzlich gescheiterte Geschäftsverhandlungen analysiert, dass versäumt wurde, diesen Punkt frühzeitig zu klären. Nichts ist ärgerlicher, als wenn man nach etlichen Gesprächen, Treffen usw. feststellt: Das was der Kandidat haben will, können (oder wollen!) wir gar nicht liefern.

Das zweite Kriterium, der Kandidat hat einen wichtigen Grund zu kaufen, findet man heraus, wenn man Fragen stellt, die mit “Weshalb ..” oder mit “Was versprechen Sie sich von ..” beginnen.

Und das dritte Kriterium, der Kandidat hat einen dringenden Grund zu kaufen, prüft man mit einer “bis wann spätestens” Frage. Hier ist es wichtig, den Grund für die Dringlichkeit zu hören. Kann der Kandidat keinen Grund angeben, ist es nicht so dringend. …

Schön, und auch gleich noch mit konkreten Tipps, danke.

Wer unser BLUBZEWE(R) kennt, weiß, dass es noch 5 weitere Kriterien gibt, die man gar nicht früh genug checken kann:

• Haben wir USPs für diesen Bedarf/ Kunden?
• Hat der Kunde ausreichend Budget?
• Kennen wir die Entscheider und die Entscheidungskriterien?
• Kennen wir die Wettbewerber?

Konzentrieren Sie sich auf die richtigen Opportunities!
Nicht nur in der Jahresendrallye

Heiko van Eckert

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… Weil es gern verwechselt wird: Bedarf ist etwas anderes als “Interesse”. Wer Bedarf hat will entweder weg von einem Problem oder hin zu einem Ziel. Und das möglichst schnell, am besten sofort.

Wer nur Interesse hat oder einen Anrufer loswerden will, sagt solche Sachen: “Schicken Sie mir doch mal Ihre Unterlagen.”, “Melden Sie sich in einem halben Jahr noch mal.” usw.

*Und wie verhält sich jetzt ein Gespraechspartner, der Bedarf hat?*
- Er will Details wissen. Er stellt inhaltliche Fragen.
- Er bringt ein Gespräch aktiv voran, indem er auch von sich etwas preis gibt.
- Auf die Frage: “Werden Sie fuer eine Lösung Geld anfassen?”, sagt er unumwunden Ja.

Das heisst nicht, dass er unsere Lösung kaufen wird. Es heisst nur, dass er investieren wird. …

Ich finde eine schöne Hilfe zur Unterscheidung zwischen Interesse und Bedarf. In Vertriebsprozess-Schritten gedacht, ist das der Unterschied zwischen einem Interessenten (Lead) und einer Opportunity.

Nun wissen Sie also, dass er bereit ist zu kaufen.
Bleibt die Frage: “Kauft er bei uns?”
Also auf, helfen Sie Ihrem Kunden, die richtige Entscheidung zu treffen.

Viel Spaß an Erfolg
Heik van Eckert

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