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Modern Managers Are Excellent Coaches | Subscribe to this Blog |
August 17, 2008
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Today, more and more organisations are waking up to the value of building a strong coaching culture. Analogies to athletic coaching are common but especially apt. Training alone does not guarantee that a great athlete will deliver a gold medal-winning performance. This can only come from continuous daily support and guidance from an expert coach.
Equally, top sales professionals need expert coaching support from their managers to stay at the top of their game. Whether coaching is delivered face-to-face, on the telephone, or via e-mail, those organisations that have a strong coaching culture attract and retain the best salespeople.
The challenge for Sales Directors is to provide the support that sales managers – all of whom are hard-pressed for time – need in order to provide the kind of support their salespeople must have. Successful Sales Directors have found a range of supporting tools, resources and kits that save managers’ time and enhance the impact of their coaching time.
Whatever coaching framework is chosen by an organisation, it must be easy to use, flexible, so that the coaching sessions are tailored to the needs of their team, participative, so all of the salespeople are engaged and, above all, fun. The fun factor encourages salespeople to become “hooked” on their own continued development
Planning the Coaching Call:
• General background (The salesperson briefs the manager)
• Objectives for the call (What does the salesperson want to achieve)
• Plan/strategy (How do they hope to achieve their objectives)
• Areas of coaching focus (The manager sets the objectives here)
Reviewing the Coaching Call:
• “How do you feel about the call”?
• “How close do you think you came to achieving your objectives”?
• “How do you think your plan worked? How well were you able to implement your strategy”?
• “What do you think went particularly well during the call”?
• “What would you change about the call? What would you do differently”?
• “What do you see as the next step with this account”?
Providing Positive Feedback:
• Balanced
• Objective
• Specific
• Supportive i.e.
• Make General Reference Then Probe-Listen-Base
• Cite Specific Example Then Probe-Listen-Base
• Relate Positive Effect Then Probe- Listen- Base
• Emphasize Future Action Then Probe- Listen- Base
Developing the Coaching Dialogue:
Probing:
• Closed Questions – to limit or restrict the range of response
• Open Questions – to broaden or expand the range of response
• Probe For Confirmation – to ensure understanding
• Probe For Clarification – to increase understanding
Listening: Active – Empathic – Strategic
• Maintain Eye Contact
• Assume A Receptive Posture
• Take Appropriate Notes
• Display Patience
Then Base:
• Build – By Adding Value
• Acknowledge – Indicating Attentiveness
• Support – By Agreeing The Way Forward
• Expand – By suggesting an alternative
Remember:
We are working to Co-Create Maximum Sales Performance i.e.
Confidence
Optimism
Commitment
Recognition
Encouragement
Appreciation
Trust
Enthusiasm
You may also enjoy: “How The Most Successful Companies Develop Their Sales Teams”
Latest News: Everyone is talking about THE sales event of the year, and ahead of the conference proper, Jill Konrath is organising some pre-event teleseminars, which kick-off this week. Just click on the banner below to register
The first edition of The JF Journal will be published at the end of the month and every subscriber receives a complimentary copy of my E-book, “Negotiating To Win - Open To Close” PLUS you will receive further FREE E-books every month - what a great deal, and it’s all FREE. You can register here
And do make it over to my personal blog this week - The JF Blogit
Have a great week - JF
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Small Companies Really Can Compete - Here’s How | Subscribe to this Blog |
August 10, 2008
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Extensive research recently completed by the Corporate Transformation Department at Luton University in England, confirms suspicions and beliefs that I have had for some time now.
In business terms, they claim that these findings represent a revolutionary breakthrough in understanding what makes a successful contract bidder.
Two key facts tell a worrying story:
1. 50% of them said it is important for them to win new business in order to fulfil their corporate plan.
2. And yet four out of five companies interviewed win less than half of the bids they pitch for.
Conclusion: Most companies are not winning enough new contracts to meet their business objectives.
Not unnaturally, this would cause some anxious looks around the boardroom table if it were not for another key finding from the report.
A small improvement in bidding techniques and tactics can lead to a disproportionately large increase in the number of contracts won.
Not surprisingly, the most effective bid winners prefer to draw a veil over those factors that make them successful but the research has pulled the veil aside and provides a glimpse of the critical success factors in winning major bids.
The companies answered a detailed questionnaire which focussed on two key areas – how successful they were at winning major bids and what they regard as the factors that made them most successful at winning the bids. Figures are rounded to the nearest decimal point. The companies in the survey represent a cross section of those British companies that compete in major bids either in the UK market or overseas.
The participants came from industries as diverse as information technology, construction, engineering, aerospace, media, consultancy and utilities.
The companies were candid about their success. Some 37 per cent admitted they won less than a quarter of the bids they pitched for. A further 40.1 per cent said they won between a quarter and half of their bids. Only 4.1 per cent of the companies claimed to win more than three-quarters of their bids.
But for these companies, what constitutes “success” at winning major bids? Among the companies 71 per cent “strongly agreed” that it was to win bids at “acceptable profit margins”, while an almost mirror image of 70.6 per cent “strongly disagreed” that it was to win a bid “at any cost”. Among other possible definitions of success 31 per cent strongly agreed that it was winning sufficient bids to achieve growth targets, and 19.2 per cent winning bids from blue-chip customers.
There was little disagreement that winning major bids was essential to achieving business plans – 52.8 per cent said it was very important to win bids from new customers and 64.5 per cent from existing customers.
Given that winning major bids is important for achieving business plans, just what is it that gets a company invited to bid in the first place? The companies were invited to rank a number of different factors on a scale running from “very important” to “not important at all”.
The top five factors are:
1. Perceived quality of your products/services (68.5 per cent say very important)
2. Relationships with existing or potential customers (54.4 per cent)
3. Position of the company in its market-place (52.2 per cent)
4. The company’s overall image (47.6 per cent)
5. Track record in similar projects (46.5 per cent)
However, as the survey shows, more than three-quarters (77.1 per cent) of companies win less than half the bids they pitch for.
What do the best quarter have that the other three-quarters lack?
A year-long research project undertaken by Mathew O’Connor, one of the co-authors of the report, identified 18 activities which seemed to contribute to success in winning major bids. These activities fall under four main categories – assessing the customer’s perception of products/service value, understanding the customer’s buying centre, contacting customer’s and communicating key messages about the company and it’s products/services (see below)
Eighteen Critical Activities in Major Bid Projects:
Assessing your customer’s perception of product/service value:
1. Understanding the value/benefits customers expect to gain from your products/services (25.6 per cent)
2. Understanding the cost of ownership issues that impact customer decisions about your products/services (17.9 per cent)
Understanding your customer’s buying centre - DMU:
3. Understanding the business environment in which your customers operate (25 per cent)
4. Understanding each customer’s mission, objectives and markets (15.1 per cent)
5. Understanding the decision-making process each customer uses (21.3 per cent)
6. Understanding the factors the customer considers when purchasing(24.6 per cent)
7. Understanding the roles played by those in the DMU (24.3 per cent)
8. Understanding your customer’s communication network (9.9 per cent)
Contacting customers:
9. Maintaining continuing visibility with customers through advertising,mail shots, etc (11 per cent)
10. Developing person-person relationships with potential customers (44.8 per cent)
Communicating key messages about your company and product/services:
11. Communicating key marketplace issues to customers (8.2 per cent)
12. Communicating generic benefits offered by your products (8.6 per cent)
13. Establishing the superiority of your products/services (18.1 per cent)
14. Building a distinctive and helpful image of your company (26.6 per cent)
15. Establishing an understanding of your market standing (20 per cent)
16. Communicating the value/benefits of your product/services (20.5 per cent)
17. Persuading potential customers to invite you to bid (34.1 per cent)
18. Ability to offer support or ancillary services (23.1 per cent)
In the survey each of the companies was asked to rank its performance on each of these 18 activities on a five point scale from “very effective” to “not effective at all”.
The research demonstrates a clear correlation between being effective at these activities and winning a higher proportion of major bids.
Companies that win less than a quarter of bids claim to perform an average of 2.9 of the activities very effectively. Among companies winning a quarter to half of bids, the number of very effective activities rises to 3.5; those who win half to three quarters of their bids perform 4.9 activities very effectively: among those companies winning more than three-quarters of major bids, the number of very effective activities climbs to 8.7.
What is perhaps surprising here is that even the most successful companies are accomplishing less than half of the critical 18 activities “very effectively”. It seems pretty clear that those companies prepared to focus on these activities and generate even a modest increase in the number of activities performed very effectively could reap significant improvements in the number of major bids they win.
Aside from these critical activities, the research has uncovered some important issues for managing effective bid teams. The companies in the survey were asked to rate 15 aspects of managing bid teams on a five-point scale from “very important” to “not important at all”.
The top five issues are:
1. Leadership from senior departmental managers (very important for 64.3 per cent)
2. Creating a team spirit (55.8 per cent)
3. Leadership from board of directors (49.5 per cent)
4. Including team members with specialised knowledge of the product (46.6 per cent)
5. Giving clear instructions to team members on how to handle the bid (46.3 per cent)
Once a pitch is under way there is a fresh range of issues to consider in order to win the bid. The survey companies were asked to rank 11 issues on the same five –point scale.
The top five issues for completing successful bid negotiations are:
1. Guaranteeing quality, delivery dates and after sales service,etc (very important for 59.9 per cent of companies)
2. Having a clear bottom line (56.7 per cent)
3. Developing clear objectives for the negotiations (54.7 per cent)
4. Preparing detailed bid documentation (48.8 per cent)
5. Making the first formal presentation of the bid (48.1 per cent)
Summary:
There is wide range of different issues that companies need to address more effectively if they are to win more of the bids they pitch for. Bidding relationships with the client is given a particularly high priority in the service sector.There are wide variations in the effectiveness of major bid management between organisations. With more companies increasingly finding themselves pitching against overseas competitors for business, the need to create more effective bid management is more urgent than ever”.
You can read more articles which focus on Organisational Development here
Latest News: The momentum is building and places are filling up rapidly for THE sales event of the year - Sales SheBang, so i suggest you sign up as quickly as you can, if you don’t want to miss out. Just click on the banner below for full details.
Talking of my good friend Jill Konrath, what a worthy winner of Top Sales Article Of The Week, over at Top 10 Sales Articles - do check it out for yourselves.
Over on my personal blog this week, my guests are the Sales Diva, Kim Duke and Shane Gibson - so be sure to join me; The JF Blogit
Finally, lots of Top Sales Experts are presenting over at BEW this week, including: Leslie Buterin, Kelley Robertson, Paul Cherry and Craig Elias - just click on the banner below for full details.
That’s it for another week - if you still need more, be sure to seek out my free resources area here
Thanks for joining me and until next time - JF
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“The less I see of what’s his name? - The more I forget him.” | Subscribe to this Blog |
August 3, 2008
Failing to focus salespeople’s activity reduces efficiency and consequently reduces results, because there isn’t a salesperson alive that believes they have enough time in their working week to complete all the activities they want to achieve! Time is a huge constraint on salespeople’s activities so that when their manager asks them for more, it’s no wonder that they are overwhelmed.
Poor Quality Activity:
Secondly, but equally important, salespeople often aren’t clear about how to identify the prospects most likely to have a genuine need for their product or service. Without an objective way to prioritise which prospects to contact first and/or an efficient strategy for contacting them, salespeople are doomed to waste a large percentage of their time.
Another huge dilemma for many salespeople is how to divide their time between servicing existing clients and generating new business from new prospects. Existing clients frequently make requests for service that could be dealt with by support staff. But salespeople who lack a disciplined, future-orientated plan for generating new contacts and sales often find themselves spending more time attending to “urgent” tasks for existing accounts instead. A common approach among salespeople can be summarised in the saying “If you throw enough mud against the wall, some of it is bound to stick”. This approach is exhausting, demoralising, extremely unproductive, and very expensive in the long term.
Far too frequently, competent salespeople are expected to channel their own activities into the areas that will produce the quickest wins. Unfortunately, left to their own devices, they don’t develop and pursue a formal strategy for moving a sale tangibly forward during each prospect interaction, neither do they have a clearly defined set of goals against which to measure the progress they are making. Typically, their judgment is based on gut reaction and is purely subjective i.e., “Oh yes, I’ll get that order, he likes me” because salespeople have to be optimistic by nature. They end up “dancing around” with prospects, in the hope that eventually they will get to their chosen point on the dance-floor i.e. -the sale. In this scenario, the customer has complete control.
Controlling Sales Activity:
The Sales Funnel concept has been around for a few years but I took it and tailored it to meet the needs of my own teams very effectively. Essentially, it is designed to assist salespeople in managing their sales time more effectively, subsequently translating that time into real money. It is also a time-management tool, which will help them to accomplish the following essential selling tasks:
- Collating their numerous sales objectives into three categories or levels of the Sales Funnel.
- Monitoring each sales objective’s progress as it moves from one level into the next.
- Setting priorities for working on the objectives in each level of the Funnel to ensure they do not neglect any one of the three.
- Dedicating time to the objectives in each level of the Funnel in a way that is appropriate to their specific situation.
- Forecasting future income, based on how their objectives are moving through the three levels of the Funnel.
Sales Funnel is conceptually divided into three distinct parts or levels, which correspond to the three different types of selling work. To enable salespeople to utilise the Funnel concept efficiently they must first sort their sales objectives into these three levels:
• Above the Funnel - Prospect & Qualify.
• In The Funnel - Cover the Bases.
• Best Few - Close the Order.
Above the Funnel:
The pre-requisite is that they have data that suggests a fit between their company’s products & the prospects needs - all of this type of work requires qualifying.
In The Funnel:
The pre-requisite here is that all the opportunities have been qualified and at least one buying influencer has been met. They then need to “cover the bases” i.e. identify all the buying influencers and ensure each one is contacted by the person best qualified to do so
It is important that the salesperson understands the response mode of each buyer, identifies the results each buyer needs in order “to win” and ensures they understand that the proposal will serve his/her individual criteria
Finally, at this stage of the cycle, they need to continually reassess “the sales picture” and eliminate areas of perceived weakness within their bid using the principle of capitalising on their strengths
Best Few:
Logically, the pre-requisite here is that they have all but eliminated luck & uncertainty as factors in the final buying decision. -this can of course be subjective!
The tasks involved are end-tasks, like overcoming last minute objections, agreeing terms and conditions and signing orders etc.
As sales professionals they must be able to do all three kinds of work, but obviously they will have several possible orders that they are working on at the same time. Since they will all be at different stages of completion, they will not be doing the same kind of work on all of them at the same time.
By following this system they could potentially reduce the normal sales cycle by 50%!
Using Sales Funnel over time - helps to plan time required ahead of time.The eventual objective in utilising the Sales Funnel concept is to be able to move the various sales opportunities down the Funnel at a steady and predictable rate. This in turn will mean that income and achievement level is steady and predictable.
To achieve this, there is a need to work on two interrelated tasks:
- Setting appropriate priorities for the three kinds of selling work which need to be done.
- Allocating limited selling time so that the three kinds of work always get completed on a consistent basis. The simple rule of thumb is: “Every time you close something; prospect or qualify something else”
Finally, Let Us Not Forget Good Old Villfredo Pareto And His 80/20 Rule:
The sales that a salesperson completes today were made possible only by activities performed in the past. Equally, it’s what they do today that will create their future sales results. Because there is a time delay between activities and results, salespeople have an opportunity to improve their sales results by undertaking sales productivity planning and implementing an effective prospecting system. Generally, since 80% of sales are generated from 20% of customers, 80% of salespeople’s time should be focused on 20% of the biggest customers/prospects.
Copyright @ Jonathan Farrington. All rights reserved.
Latest News: A fantastic FREE offer for you, but first, there are a considerable number of Top Sales Experts presenting over at Business Expert Webinars this week - here is the full list:(Just click on the banner at the bottom for full details)
Business Development for Woman Lawyers - Innovative Strategies
Topic: Legal
8/4/08 10:00am EASTERN TIME
Presented by Joan Paul
HR Can Succeed As Internal Consultants
Topic: Human Resources
8/4/08 1:00pm EASTERN TIME
Presented by Maureen Blandford
How to Out Perform & Outlast the Competition
Topic: Sales
8/5/08 11:30am EASTERN TIME
Presented by Cheryl Clausen
The Communication Enigma - Filling the Generation Gap
Topic: Business Communication
8/6/08 2:30pm EASTERN TIME
Presented by Drew Stevens
Winning in the 9th Inning
Topic: Sales
8/6/08 4:00pm EASTERN TIME
Presented by Terri Dunevant
Crucial Points to Succeed in Sales
Topic: Sales
8/7/08 4:00pm EASTERN TIME
Presented by Alen Majer
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Finally, over on my personal blog this week, my guests are Debbie Fay and Stone Payton, both Top Sales Experts, so be sure to join me here
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