Transactional Fluency

In Sales, every question is a transaction. Unfortunately, more than 80% of Salespeople don't speak the language of Sales fluently. In fact, they speak it so poorly that their Prospects usually buy from the Competition. Fear, laziness, lack of education - all of the typical Sales baggage is clearly visible in the following conversation.

Here's the Customer's question: Does it come in blue?

Is the correct answer:
A) No, but the brown ones are better, anyway.
B) I'm not sure. Let me go check.
C) We don't have any blue ones in stock, but I can get you one.
D) Is it important to you that it's blue?
E) That's an interesting question. Why blue?

What percentage of your Sales team routinely chooses each of these answers? What is their close rate? Why do you keep them?

Part of being a Sales Manager is asking the hard questions. The same baggage mentioned above comes with how you address the answers. Your success - or the lack of it - rides on your team's fluency, and their consistency. Don't assume that they're doing it right - go find out, regularly, so that it becomes expected behavior.

Work Parties

There are 3 things that you absolutely must get right when it comes to work parties. Do them wrong and an event that you intend as a benefit and sign of goodwill will be universally loathed and demeaned for months before it rolls around again, distracting everyone from their work and giving them one more reason to hate you.

1. Attendance. Is your party a social function or a work function? If it's a social function, why does everyone have to come? Why can't they bring their significant other(s)? If it's a work function, abandon all pretense and pay everyone for their time. Better yet, don't have a party. They already have to put up with you all day. Aren't they allowed to have some time to themselves to berate you in private? And if you say 'Then let's have it during work hours', you are conveniently forgetting that doing so means that all of your employees' deadlines must move up an entire day to make room for a party that no one wants to go to. In other words, you suck.

2. Oversight. Here's the best idea yet: Throw a work party, but don't go. Let an employee committee plan it - venue, theme, etc. - just give them a reasonable budget and a few guidelines to keep you from getting sued. You know - like your first college mixer (are those still a thing?). They'll plan an event that they think is fun (bacon grease limbo night is my personal favorite), as opposed to the cornhole tournament at the VFW hall that you planned. Best of all, if the event is a bust, you're off the hook - everyone will blame the party committee (who are usually troublemakers, anyway, am I right?). You can't lose!

3. Booze. Okay, here we go: I know that you're scared to death of the 'L Words' (Liability and Litigation), and there is wisdom in your fear; some people just can't handle their liquor, and will do things under its influence that will likely get them a) fired, b) one hell of a reputation, or c) killed. But if you're going to go ahead and throw the party, not buying drinks for those who want them is just going to look cheap. So how do you do it right? Simple: Drink tokens. Allow 2 per person, and anything else they drink is out of their own pocket (and out of your control - there go the two L's). Lots of companies do this, and it works a treat. Employees get enough free hooch to loosen up and appreciate your generosity, but not so much that they dance naked on the bar (if you think I'm joking, you're wrong).

But better yet... If you have a budget for this, don't throw a party. Your employees don't need it. You know what they'll appreciate more? Money. Give them the money you budgeted for this, and let them decide whether to do something fun without you around (employees need to vent about the boss; it's normal and healthy - as long as it doesn't happen at work) or pocket the dough. Again, either way, you win. And what's better than that?

Sales 101

Before we get too far ahead of ourselves, it's time we start our conversation about Sales. The fact is, most companies do Sales wrong: Wrong expectations, wrong incentives, wrong communication, wrong, wrong, wrong.

Let's start with Incentives. I mentioned in a previous post that an adequate Sales rep should generate 10 times as much revenue as their total compensation. To help make this happen, goals should be based on this metric. Otherwise, you are underpaying some reps and overpaying others vs. what their value is to the company. And believe me, they know it.

Expectations: You spend a lot of money to generate leads, right? So what's the close rate for each of your Salespeople? You should know this, your Sales Managers should know this, and your Salespeople should know this, too. At a minimum, it should be reported monthly, and it should be public information. (Nothing drives performance like spectators.) Regardless of your industry, if you have effective marketing (you do, right?), your Salespeople should close at least 1 out of every 3 leads (a 33% close rate), or you're wasting your money.

Communication: If you sell a physical product, rather than a service, your Sales reps should know exactly how much gross margin each product has. This will make it easier for them to negotiate volume deals - especially since their pay should be based on margin.

Splitting Territories: Because this is often done incorrectly, Sales reps feel like they're being punished when a productive territory is split. This is exactly the opposite of what you want to convey. Generally, if you're thinking about a split, it's because there are Prospects in the territory that the original rep isn't getting to. That's how you need to explain it, and that's how you need to approach compensation: reward the 2nd rep for new business generation, and make sure that the two reps work together by giving the original rep an incentive for turning over Leads that they have not touched. It need not be a large amount - they know they're being comped for zero work; it's more the fact that you are acknowledging the fact that you expect them to be team players and reward them for it.

CANI: The important thing is to look at everything that your Sales staff does, every day, and ask yourself "Why?" It is incredibly easy to fall into the rut of doing things a certain way just because you've always done them that way. The way to keep your company growing is to constantly improve everything you do. Don't expect to fix it all in a day, but do make a list of what to change and do set deadlines and milestones for those changes. (Think CANI - Constant And Never-ending Improvement.)

Reseller or Customer?

If your organization sells products and/or services to Resellers, it's likely that the line between the two blurs from time to time. Here's a dose of reality: Resellers are not who pays your bills; End Users are. Resellers are a way to get your products/services to End Users... a transportation mechanism. If you mistake Resellers for Customers, you will begin to slant what you sell to your Resellers' needs, rather than your End User's needs. This virtually guarantees that your sales will stagnate.

"But what about Customer for Life?" you say. "Isn't the Reseller my Customer if I follow the tenets of Customer for Life?"

No. Think of it this way: Individual people within your Reseller are your Customer under Customer for Life, and your goal is to find their deep-seated needs and help to fulfill them, but the Reseller as an entity is not. In other words, companies are not people (no matter what the Supreme Court thinks).