Good Cop, Bad Cop

Okay, no, this isn't about policing, but it is about playing roles. Specifically, what a sales rep is (and isn't) and what a sales manager has to be when it comes to Customers.

If a Customer hasn't paid a bill, asks for terms that are above and beyond what the salesperson is permitted to offer, etc., who has to be the one to tell them that they're not going to get it?

If you said the salesperson, you're fired. (How did you even get this job, anyway?)

A salesperson never says no. Sales managers say no.  That's a major part of what they're paid to do - set and enforce goals and limits.

This does not mean that salespeople always say yes, but what they can and should say, in order, is this:

"I can ..." and offer an alternative or, if that doesn't fly, "Let me check with my manager".

Managers are the bad guys* in this scenario. They have to be, because the sales person always has to be the good guy*. If they're not, why would the Customer ever bother talking to them again?

I'm not saying that the sales manager has to actually talk to the Customer every time some point of contention comes up, but the salesperson has to be able to say, "We will do X, but we won't do Y..." and know that their manager will back them up. The sales manager has to hire salespeople that they can trust (or train) to deliver that message in a way that ultimately leads to acquisition, growth, and/or no further pushback.

This means that the salesperson has to always say things in such a way that the Customer doesn't just try to go over their head to the sales manager. Otherwise, what are you paying the salesperson for?

You do this by agreeing in advance what the terms/boundaries are for each transaction (if not each client) and sticking to them, no matter what.

Remember: Customers like predictability/consistency. The road to that country is paved with boundaries that everyone knows and sticking to them.

* Please feel free to insert the pronoun of your choice.

Equality, Part 1

There's a long-standing tradition in sales that's about as self-destructive to a sales team as it's possible to get: Treating salespeople differently depending upon their sales metrics.

You all know what I mean - making exceptions for things you would never normally allow because a particular salesperson generates high numbers. While it's great that they are consistent achievers (wait - they're not consistent? then why are you rewarding them for sporadic results?), think about the door that you've opened. These are salespeople we're talking about; it's their job to open doors as wide as possible, and you can't expect them to act differently with internal doors than they do with external doors. They will push those exceptions as far and as wide as they possibly can, and that's not their fault - that's what salespeople do, by nature, and you're the one that opened the door.

Now think about the other members of the sales team, the folks who consistently hit goal but don't soar above it. How much of a motivator is it for them to see that the fellow who occasionally hits a high note is permitted to break the rules, sending their sales even higher, while they have to rigidly observe procedure?

It's not. That's why they're sullen. That's why their results decline. That's why they leave, and go do terrific work for your competitors, taking knowledge about your company, your Customers, and how you do things with them.

There's nothing wrong with compensating salespeople based on results - that's what sales is all about, and everyone understands that. It's the arbitrariness that makes unspoken benefits evil, not the concept. If you're going to bestow privileges based on results, put them down in black and white, for all to see and aspire to. And, rather than have them kick in when a salesperson goes above and beyond just once, make them effective with consistent high results.

Salespeople are like racehorses: It's their job to run, but it's your job to clearly lay out the track and the stakes.

'Awareness'

Hey! How are you? How's your organization doing? Really? Hm. Yeah. Well, you probably won't be interested in this, but I've got a great way to make people more aware of your brand. Lots of people. Oh, you are interested? Okay, great. I mean, are you sure you want to do this? I don't want to push you into something that you're not 100% sure about, because I'm on your side. Okay... if you're sure...

Give me $25,000 and we'll get the ball rolling.

What? Well, brand awareness costs money, and this level of brand awareness isn't cheap. I'm making nothing on this, you know - this is all overhead for the camera guys, the web developers, the talent, plus purchasing the ad spots. I'm only even doing this for you as a favor - normally this would cost twice as much...

What's that? How many sales will you get out of this? Well, that's hard to say, exactly. I mean, this campaign will go out to about 25,000 people, so a buck a person, that's pretty good, isn't it? What? You want to have some kind of way to tell how many of these people come in and buy because of this campaign? Well, you don't want it to be too sales-y, you know. This is brand awareness, we're talking here. If it's too much like a pitch, it will turn people off. Huh? What's the point of awareness if it doesn't generate sales?

Excellent question. The answer is: none.

'Awareness' is used by some ad and PR agencies to pay for vacations to Cabo when winter gets on their nerves. From their perspective, there's no downside: They've gotten your message out to the number of people they said they would, you have no way of proving them wrong, and they've made a tidy sum without having to deliver a single sale, because that's your job. Is it their fault if you have a message that doesn't stand out, or isn't clear, or the people who saw the spots aren't ready to buy yet, or or or?

Yes. That's what you pay them for, isn't it? If they can't deliver new Customers, what good are they?

To avoid setting your money on fire, awareness should always and only be this: The top of your sales funnel. Because of this, making certain that your message is clear, stands out from your competition, and is sent to the right demographic at the right time are all key. Web stats are a great way to measure this, because they are collectible and fairly straightforward. Print, radio and television are disappearing because they have a much harder time proving reach and Return On Investment. And if something can't prove ROI, why are you wasting your money on it?

Once you are confident that your campaign will reach the right audience at the right time and the reach has been verified (by someone other than your agency; Alexa is great for online stats, the Radio Advertising Bureau will help you figure out frequency and schedules for that outlet, and TV information can be found here and here.

So now that you've got the top of your sales funnel defined, what comes next?

• Awareness - Potential Prospects know who you are, what you stand for, and what makes you better than your Competition.
• Consideration - Potential Prospects compare measure you against your competition.
• Preference - Your message has convinced potential Prospects that, if and when they need your product(s) or service(s), you are where they'll go (unless, of course, they see a more convincing competitive message between now and then).
• Purchase Intention - They call, look at your website, or stop by your place of business. From then on, it's up to your Sales staff to record them as a Lead, get them in the door, and close the sale.

Like all sales funnels, every stage contains fewer potential Customers. This is why knowing how many people you're starting with - and verifying that number as many ways as possible - is key. Your agency should be able to provide you with a fairly accurate estimate of the conversion rate for each stage. If they can't, you need someone with more metrics expertise.

The idea that your message should not contain some means to identify whether or not the campaign is what brought a particular Prospect to your door, website, Facebook page, or phone is nonsense. Just because someone came in doesn't mean they did so because of your campaign - unless your agency can prove otherwise, these folks probably would have come in, anyway. Again - you should only ever pay for what you actually get.

The easiest way to do this is via a response tag - a special offer at the tail end of your message that is specifically trackable to a particular medium for a particular campaign. The response tag and offer for each medium should be different. This will help you determine where to spend your money most effectively next time, and where your message either didn't get through or wasn't effective.

Of course, you should be sitting down with your marketing manager, sales manager, and agency rep(s) to review the metrics and adjusting according on a regular basis, and comparing each campaign to the last one, and also to the most effective one. Your results should improve over time. If they don't, it's your agency's job to figure out why, and your marketing manager's job to take corrective action.

(This doesn't mean you can't still beat up your sales manager. We all know they expect it, and what fun would life be if you couldn't complain about sales?)

What Goes Up Can't Come Down

There is a truism about incentives that applies equally to Customers and Employees: What goes up can't come down.

When you consider an incentive program for employees, regardless of whether it's a spiff program for Customer Service, a bonus structure for Salespeople, or a shared pool for people within your organization who find ways to save money, it's always best to start conservatively, with the smallest incentive that you believe actually is still an incentive. If it turns out that the incentive is too low (depending on whether or not your business is seasonal, it can take anywhere from 90 days to a year to figure this out accurately), it's easy to lift it a notch or two down the line.

But what happens if you start too high, and have to trim back?

Even if none of your employees hit the incentive minimum, scaling it back will immediately be seen as a negative - as you 'taking away' something (even if no one ever received it). And it will be grumbled about behind your back for months and months to come. Who needs that kind of grief? Especially grief that you caused for yourself?

There's nothing wrong with incentivizing behavior; there's no doubt that, when done correctly, it works. But the 'when done correctly' part is key. Consider carefully what you are incentivizing, and start slow and small.

The same applies to Customers. The author Terry Pratchett tells a story about a bounty that was placed on rats in his fictional city of Ankh-Morpork. To curb the city's rat population, citizens were given a fixed amount for each rat tail that they brought in. The result? The rat population increased, because the citizens were farming the rats to earn extra money.

If your incentive has a loophole or a flaw, I personally guarantee that one of your Customers will find it. In fact, many of them consider it their job to do so. And you know what? They're right, and shame on you if you missed something, because getting it right the first time is your job.

It's important not to create incentives in a void; don't ever let Marketing do it alone. Run it by every Salesperson and Customer Service rep you have; they are terrific at finding holes and faulty logic. Plus, by having them take part, they will also take ownership. How can that be a bad thing? Marketing, Sales, and Customer Service all talking to each other? Fantastic!

And, again, until you know what response rates are going to be, start slow and small. It's no good ordering 500 free iPads to give away for every new Customer signed if 5,000 show up. They will blog, Twitter, and Facebook your reputation back to the Stone Age, turning a campaign that you planned as a big plus into a potentially lethal minus.

Look. Listen. Learn.

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.

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).

Expensive Reports

Does your organization issue corporate credit cards to execs and Salespeople, then pay their bills for them? How's that working out for you? Getting those expense reports on a timely basis, are you? With all of the receipts included, and with your form filled out correctly? No?

Of course you're not. Know why? Because you're doing it wrong! Do this, instead:

• Issue corporate credit cards, just like before, only have the bills go to the employee's home address.
• Set the account up in such a way that the employee has to pay each bill themselves, out of their own pocket.
• Ensure that - once you have received a properly filled out expense report with all necessary receipts attached - you reimburse the employee no later than the end of that week.

Here's what this does for you:

• Because they are personally liable for all charges, you don't have to chase employees for reports or receipts any more. If they don't provide them, you don't reimburse, and they still have to pay the credit card company.
• Any interest charges they incur are theirs to pay - not yours or the company's. As long as you reimburse promptly, it's not your fault if they pay their bill late. It's their bill, after all, not yours.
• If they don't have a receipt, you don't reimburse for that item. No slipping in slush money, no losing receipts. Everything must be documented and included, or the money lost is theirs.
• Because the grace period for many credit cards is now 20 days or even less, after a month or two, the first thing a Salesperson will do after returning from the road is to complete and turn in their expense report. As long as they do that, they will never have to actually pay for anything out of their own pocket - they will pay each bill almost as soon as the expenses are incurred (providing they don't wait to make payment once they receive their reimbursement - again, not your problem).
• That fellow who used to lose all of his receipts? He quit. Good riddance!

The Way of the Road Warrior

There was no post on Friday of last week because I got to do something that I used to do a lot and haven't done in awhile: A trade show. And as I packed my bag in 10 minutes flat and woke up exactly 7 minutes before my 4am alarm buzzer to catch the plane, it occurred to me that the Way of the Road Warrior is engraved on my bones. No matter how long you're away from it, it's still there, waiting in your brain to reactivate the moment it hears the words 'booth space'.

I learned my trade show kung fu the way most Salespeople do: Years of travel to bland, lifeless hotels in cities all over the country, making mistake after mistake and surviving flameouts at crucial moments by learning to turn a paperclip, a rubber band, and a $6 bottle of minibar water into a substitute trade show booth 4 minutes before the doors open because the real booth is still sitting on a loading dock in Detroit.

Eventually, so many things go wrong on the road that you become bulletproof simply because your body is composed entirely of scar tissue, from your twitching right eye scanning for the merest glimmer of interest in the crowd to the soles of your too-expensive-but-concrete-is-hell jet black nurse's shoes.

Veterans of the Way understand that the size of one's expense account is inversely proportional to the remaining value of the traveler's soul. Some of us hope to redeem that pawn ticket by giving back to the newbies, telling them the accumulated wisdom of our ages - all of the things we wish someone had told us, 'way back when, including disasters we witnessed but were lucky enough to avoid. Here's the 1st batch:

• If your shoes are dirty and you don't have time to get a shine, use your hotel washcloth and the hand cream that they all seem to pass out. If there's no hand cream, substitute hair conditioner, but be sure to buff it in.
• Thou shalt always carry a Tide Stick.
• If you have trouble sleeping on the Road, either because of jet lag or you just don't sleep well away from home, turn the thermostat in your room down to about 65 degrees. Make sure no light can enter the room at night, and as much light as possible hits your corneas during the day (sunglasses are the enemy).
• If you have to go drink with a client, clients, or the boss, have 1 drink. Do not drink more. Make your 2nd drink ginger ale or ice water. By the 3rd drink, your companions will have forgotten that you aren't keeping up, and you will be fresh and unfrazzled come morning.
• If you are an idiot and have more than 1 drink, despite my telling you in no uncertain terms not to, drink 1 glass of water for each mixed drink (in between drinks; at the end of the night does you no good), and 1 last glass of water with 2 plain aspirins (nothing fancy; aspirin) just before you sleep. And get to bed as early as you possibly can.
• Never, ever, ever go drinking with colleagues who are not your boss. You will wake up in a pool of your own vomit, miles from your hotel, your wallet empty and your cell phone MIA, on the day that you were scheduled to lead the team-building exercise.
• Your cell phone will die when you absolutely, positively can't afford for it to. Invest in a spare battery and keep it charged and in your briefcase.
• Thou shalt always take the exit row. You're going to be on your feet for days. Give your legs a break while you can.
• Your hotel room's alarm clock will work exactly the opposite of what you think, and their wake-up call system will fail on the day of your first-thing-in-the-morning presentation. That's why Brookstone still sells travel alarms: They are all purchased by Road Warriors.
• Don't leave the hotel at night alone, no matter whether you are male or female, especially if you carry products with you. Like any other predator, local scum know which hotels house conventioneers and trade show travelers and stake them out, waiting for you to 'go see some local color'. Many states allow you to carry mace, and you can usually find it for $9 a canister in the local hardware store. Just make sure you don't take it on the plane (leave it in your room when you leave; it's only $9, and maids need protection, too).
• Likewise, do not set foot in an unbranded cab, even in daylight, or take a tour of anything. If it's someplace worth seeing, wait until you can see it with your significant other on vacation.
• Take 3 copies of every vital document, including 1 copy of your presentation, on paper, on your laptop, and on a jump drive.
• If you wonder if you should get your hair cut before you go, do. Local stylists seem to have some deep-seated hatred of Road Warriors, and see us as potential hair design experiments.
• Never, ever order the pizza from the brochure in your hotel room, even if it's a brand name. Likewise, unless you stay at a 4-star or better hotel, do not touch the shrimp cocktail. Cobb salads anywhere are fine.
• Buy light reading material for the plane and the hotel room. You don't want anything that changes your outlook on life, your emotional state, or makes you stay up late because you have to know what happens next. I suggest crap you'd never normally read, like Entertainment Weekly (my personal favorite).
• Splashing a little tap water from a glass onto your clothes as you iron them in your room will make them crisper. Make sure to let the water run a bit first before filling the glass; rust turns white shirts blotchy manila or gives them burned brown streaks.
• Don't eat anything that's a local specialty, even if you stay at a 4-star or better hotel. Cuisine experiments are for vacations where a day or two spent in the bathroom will not cost you your job.
• Don't buy anything as a gift for the folks at home while traveling. It will either go missing from your suitcase sometimes after baggage check or arrive crushed. Save your money and take them out, instead.
• I know that no one under 35 wears a watch anymore, but wear a watch. Cell Phones die and watches don't at crucial moments.
• If your office tries to give you a roommate, I have an answer that works every time (and, in my case, is true): Tell them up front that you snore like a tornado buggering a freight train, and that you just felt someone should know. I guarantee that you will sleep alone. (PS. Never make up a medical condition as an excuse for wanting a room to yourself. HR knows all, and will immediately report that condition to your manager, who will immediately start thinking about the laws of natural selection - and rightly so, if you lie to your employer.)
• Make friends with the expense report lackey. Not the manager; they're impossible. Apologize immediately for any errors and rush to correct them. Turn in your reports as early as possible. Send a box of chocolate. No one does any of these things, and even one of them will earn your expenses the benefit of the doubt. (This is equally effective with the trade show company's rep if you need a booth at the last minute, or you need extra lights that you can't afford, or you prefer a better location before the show starts (after, you're doomed).
• If you don't have enough lights, take a walk. There is always at least one company that paid to be there and didn't show up. Take their lights. They're paid for and would only go to waste, otherwise. I don't know why no one else seems to think of this, but I've scored extra lights at almost every show I've ever done.
• Real Road Warriors - male and female - know to go light, light, light on perfume and cologne, if they use them at all.
• If your tradeshow persona smiles, your face will be sore after a day on the floor. Soak a towel in hot water, lie down on the bed, and warp your face in the towel for at least an hour. It will fell brand new by morning.
• Tradeshows are a performance. Every moment in the booth is show time. The only people who seem to get this are small companies and anyone from overseas. Reps from big companies spend their time at trade shows on their phones, iPads, or chatting with their buddies. This is why big companies gain nothing from shows, and why small companies - people who are hungry - attend. Guys, it really doesn't matter how big your freakin' booth is or who designed it if you forget that a trade show is a performance for Customers... and that you are not the Customer!

I could go on for days, and probably will in a future post. In the meantime, what are your favorite canons of the Way of the Road Warrior?

Sales Lift

I'm going to tell you a secret that every Sales Manager should know. It works best if your Salespeople are new to sales and/or if you have recently changed your bonus/commission plan, even better of you pay Salespeople their commissions quarterly, biannually, or annually, but it works to some degree with all Salespeople and it can lift your sales revenue by as much as 10% to 15% with almost no effort on your part.

If you are not already paying commissions monthly, start. There are 3 reasons for this, and they're all simple:
1. Salespeople work best when they have immediate, tangible rewards and/or punishments.
2. It encourages them to work harder the next month, rather than to mope for 3 months.
3. You want your Salespeople to get used to the idea that they have extra money at least once a month so that they use this money to buy things on credit. This usually happens within 60 - 90 days of the new plan.

This last reason is the charm. The moment a Salesperson buys something on credit, they now have to at least hit the goal that they did in the month that they incurred the debt just to make the payment on the item. And because they made enough money that month to buy what they consider a 'luxury' item (ie, a big TV, newer car, boat, etc.), that artificial lift in what they have to make is now a monthly must. And if they want to have any fun with their friends, they have to earn even more than that.

You did nothing, and your Salespeople lifted their quota all by themselves. If they are younger, the lift tends to be higher. If it is a new commission plan or you have just moved to monthly payouts, the lift tends to be higher. But even if you have always paid monthly and you have a veteran Sales team, a simple change in commission structure that elevates pay for 30 - 90 days... such as rolling out a new, progressive pay plan that coincides with your busiest season, you'll see some lift. Again, with almost no effort on your part.

Once your Salespeople get used to hitting the higher goals they've set for themselves and are comfortable with it (typically 6 - 12 months), they'll start to realize that they deserve a reward for and a break from working so hard. That takes us to step 2 of Lift: Planning the Big Vacation. This vacation is typically something that will take 'extra' money from several commission checks - 3 to 12, depending upon the destination and the number of luxury goods the Salesperson has purchased. The important thing is, to go on this vacation that they've promised themselves, they no longer have to just hit their new, higher goal... they have to start planning to hit an even higher goal over the long term.

Now your Salespeople start strategically planning how to even out their revenue stream by elevating every month, making the 'slow month(s)' less slow... sometimes even making them even better than what used to be your better months.

Of course, all of this is predicated on having hired Salespeople who are intelligent and not afraid of hard work. As long as you've done that, sales lift happens the moment you apply its driving factors. The best part: No one can get mad at you, because they did it to - and for - themselves. And if you've hired the right people, lift continues to happen when they decide to get married, have a child, have to pay for college for that child, put aside money for retirement, and on and on.

But you absolutely must do the following to make lift work:

• Payouts must be perfect each and every month. The moment a mistake is made on someone's check, their confidence in that money being there collapses, and will never return. They may even begin to sandbag.
• Your pay plan must be so simple that a 4-year-old understands it. Every moment that a Salesperson has to spend figuring out how much money they should be making is a moment that they're not selling. If they can't figure it out, why should they trust it?
• Lift doesn't work if no one knows how much money they've got coming, updated at least weekly (and daily is better). Make it something every Salesperson can see at a glance, no matter where they are, so that they can watch those dollars accumulate toward making that boat payment or paying for that vacation. If they're worrying about where they're at, they're not selling.

Too Many Tools

Have you ever worked for or with a company that gave you too many tools? It's obvious that they mean well, and that they're enthusiastic and creative and want to help you. The trouble is, you no sooner begin to understand one tool before another shows up, and another, and another... reinventing the wheel in an effort to help you succeed.

To keep from being that company, and to help any vendors that you may deal with that already are that company, may I humbly suggest this post as a pass-along?

Here is how to do tools right:

• You have competitors. They have tools. Look at them all.
• Ask your Customers - as many Customers as possible - which tools they actually use, and why. Write this down.
• Create NOTHING - yet. (I know it's hard. You want to make something today - yesterday, if possible. But you know what? Sending 5 tools, one right after another as another brilliant idea hits you is going to get your tools sent to the circular file without even being opened, because your Customer knows another, better version is just weeks away. Always.)
• Remember: People don't want to learn anything new. You can't change that. Don't try - you will only waste all of your money, time, and sanity. People don't want a cam-retractable, variable speed, percussive impact device. People want a hammer. 
• Simple, simple, simple. A tool can do as many as 3 things, provided they are simple things. If you try to make it do more than 3 things, your Customer's faces will melt and they will become brain-devouring zombies. This has been proven by science.
• Put your name on the tool. You want them to remember who made that wonderful hammer that they use every day to kill zombies, don't you? Damn straight.
• Make the tool as durable and as cheaply as possible. Expensive tools either get lost or don't get used. This has also been proven by science. Unseen University did the field work. Really.
• Before you make your tool, go watch people use tools. I know they told you what they use and why, but remember: people lie.
• Think. Think some more. Think again. 9 times out of 10, speed is the enemy of successful execution. You're just going to have to trust me on this one.
• When you are finally sure you have invented a hammer, have not reinvented the wheel, made it to last, made it cheap and, above all, made it useful, create your tool.
• Go home. Sleep. You done good!

Last but not least: If you have to explain how your tool works, it's not a tool. It's an obstacle.

May I Make a Suggestion?

Whether you sell B2C, B2G, or B2B, at some point you will have a Customer who is torn between 2 products or services. By now you have already qualified them (or you should have), so you know that money isn't the issue. You've established your credibility and your organization's superiority. And then the entire sales process comes to a grinding halt because the Customer wants someone to tell them what to do.

An adequate Salesperson will reiterate features & benefits and try to find out if there are hidden objectives, and the Customer will walk without buying. A good Salesperson will go ahead and write up the order, secure in the knowledge that if the Customer isn't moving, it's time to move them. Some Customers, to avoid conflict, will let this happen. (I call it 'the bully approach'.) Unfortunately, they will often call and cancel the order the next day, or return the item if you are in a retail environment.

A great Salesperson will say this:
"May I make a suggestion?"

Who will say no to that? 99.9% of the time, not the Customer. The moment they give their permission, say the following, loud and clear:
"Take them both." Then shut up. Do not speak until the Customer speaks, under penalty of the death of your sale.

If your business is B2G or B2G, about 50% of the time, the answer will be (usually after a significant pause), "Okay." If your business is B2C, the average is closer to 30% (higher if what you sell is a luxury item). And even if they don't say yes to both, saying, "Take them both" forces a decision, and you will make the sale.

Think about that. Just by saying those 2 sentences and then keeping your mouth shut, you will as much as double the revenue of half of your sales. And the remainder will at least buy one of the 2 products or services.

Of course, you can continue to let Customers walk without buying, simply because you're afraid to try something new. What have you got to lose? They were already going to walk. Even if they are the .1% who will say no, you haven't lost a thing.

Like many conversations in Sales, the reason that you clam up after saying, "Take them both" is because the next person to speak loses. Remember, every sentence in the Sales process is a transaction. You have put your proposal on the table; now it's the Customer's turn to respond to it. If you break the cycle by saying something else, you have broken the Sales process. The Customer will immediately use this to avoid the conflict of choosing by running for the hills.

They like you, they like your company, they like what you're selling. If they didn't, they would have left before now. And why wouldn't they like all those things? You have the best products/services, you work for the best company, and you are the best Salesperson. They've done the equivalent of accepting a cup of coffee and putting up their feet, and then you went and handed them their coat.

May I make a suggestion? Stop handing Customers their coats!

Cretins Cap Commissions

If your organization is like most, you have Salespeople (whatever you may actually call them). And, if you are doing your due diligence, your Salespeople have goals to hit. But suppose your Salespeople surpass those goals?

Many organizations make the mistake of capping a Salesperson's (or Sales Manager's) bonus and/or commission once they hit a certain percentage above goal. This is the dumbest idea since the square wheel. Here's why:

No matter how much over goal a Salesperson sells, the company makes revenue that is beyond its goals. Some companies make the excuse that keeping all of this money is a buffer in case other Salespeople fail to hit goal. If you built your sales goals properly, this buffer should have already been factored in.

You're just being greedy.

The worst part is that it encourages your Salespeople to sandbag. There is more possible revenue out there but, since there is no incentive for the Salesperson to bring it in now, they will either 'save it for a rainy day' or let it go to a competitor. Either scenario creates a hole in your market share, and an opening that your competitors are sure to exploit.

Think about this a little deeper, and you'll realize that your Salespeople feel like they're actually being penalized for being terrific at their jobs. How is it their fault that you set their goals too low? If you were them, and you came in ahead of goal, wouldn't you start looking for another company that values your skill and consistency more?

Of course you would.

Capping commissions and bonus at a certain percentage in a tiered compensation plan is fine, as long as the amount of money that the Salesperson (or Sales Manager) can make is uncapped. For example, let's say you have a commission structure where Salespeople make nothing until they hit 85% of goal. From 85% to 90% of goal, let's say they make 1% of net margin (or whatever makes sense for your industry), then 1.5% of net margin for 90% to 95% of goal, 2% for 95% to 100% of goal, and 2.5% of margin for anything above 100% of goal. This is fine. But if you say that a sales rep can only make 110% of their base pay in commission, regardless of how far above goal they are, you are begging them to sandbag (if they're merely competent) or leave (if they're terrific).

You want Salespeople to be hungry, so it makes sense for a substantial portion of their compensation to be commission-based... at least 25%, and probably not more than 50%. (This assumes that your Salespeople spend the bulk of their time selling, and not doing non-sales-related tasks.) You also want to be sure that they sell at least 10 times as much in revenue as they make in compensation (again, depending upon your industry and your margins).

How often do you pay commissions?

If it's less often than monthly, you're missing the boat. Salespeople respond to immediate feedback, positive or negative. If they push hard during a given month, they should be rewarded at the end of that month (or punished, if they did poorly).

You want the reward to come as soon after the action as possible.

I don't mean 2 weeks into the following month; that's ridiculous. If Accounting tells you they can't do it, tell them to go bugger themselves and find a way to get it done. I guarantee that the number of Salespeople who hit goal after you make this happen will dramatically increase. Part of the reason is that, if commissions come at least once a month, Salespeople begin to shift their lifestyles up a notch in anticipation of this reward. In other words, they buy things on credit, and then have to hit those higher goals just to keep up the payments.

This is why you will encourage your Salespeople to buy new cars, boats, nicer houses, big vacations, and so on. The more they spend on themselves, the more they'll begin to feel that they deserve those things and more, and the more they will have to sell to perpetuate that self-image.

And while you're talking to Accounting, remind them that a Salesperson should receive repayment for business expenses no later than the paycheck following the date that they turned in their completed (and accurate, please) expense report. You want your Salespeople to spend every waking moment thinking and talking about selling, not wondering when or if they're going to get paid back for that cab ride they had to take to the airport.

Double Dipping is Dumb

Many organizations break their Sales teams down into 2 functional groups: Business Development (sometimes called Outside Sales) and Account Management (sometimes called Inside Sales). While the names might be misleading (for example, Inside Sales reps might actually travel to see Customers and Outside Sales reps might spend a considerable amount of time on the phone, depending upon the industry and the organization's needs), what we really mean is that one group consists of Hunters and another group consists of Farmers.

Hunters find new Customers. Farmers grow the spend of existing Customers.

Some organizations add a 3rd layer: Sales or Account Administration. Typically, this layer appears when the organization's internal processes have become so dysfunctional that you need a whole other - and cheaper - person to make sure orders are entered, processed, completed, and delivered. If your organization has this layer, usually everyone agrees that it's a necessary evil. "We have these extra people," goes the argument, "because our Sales Reps' time is too valuable for this type of work, plus it would cost too much to improve our processes to make a change."

So you teach your Salespeople that certain tasks - like entering and following through on the orders that they are paid for - are beneath them? That certainly is an interesting culture you're building. Of course, it inevitably leads Salespeople to believe that other tasks might be beneath them, too, like returning Customers' calls, but hey - it's your business, and you can make everyone who actually does those tasks resent the Salespeople who have been taught to dump on them if you really want to.

But let's look at that second excuse a minute, shall we? You don't have enough money to improve your process. Fair enough. It might even be true. But just to be sure, let's kick the tires of that argument. Let's say you have just 3 Sales Admins (3's not too bad, right?), and you pay them $30,000 a year or, by the time you add healthcare and other overhead, let's conservatively say $45,000 each. Per year. For as long as your business exists. Which won't be very long if you keep paying 2 people to do one job.

Get the picture?

If you apply just one year of what those 3 admins cost to process improvement - even if it means investing in a much better CRM, accounting system, or whatever it takes to make that job practical for a single person to do - you have $135,000 to work with. And, after the first year, that savings (plus any cost-of-living adjustments you would have had to add on) goes right to your bottom line.

Friend, you can't afford not to be lean. And you never will.

Now let's look at another example of paying 2 people to do one person's job. Let's say you have Hunters and Farmers. Do you pay your Hunters only for a new Customer's initial purchase, or do they receive some type of residual pay for each order thereafter? If the latter, for how long? If you continue to pay a Hunter after they have handed a Customer over to a Farmer, you're double dipping.

Never double dip.

"Okay," you say. "Fair enough. But let's say a Customer took a long time and a lot of work to land. Plus their initial purchase was small, but later purchases weren't. How do I motivate a Hunter to hunt if we immediately take a Customer away from them?"

The issue isn't comping your Hunter for landing the Customer. The issue is paying them a) when they no longer have any connection with the Customer, and/or b) making it easy for Customers to keep going back to their Hunter, preventing the Hunter from hunting.

The secret to handling this situation properly is as follows:

• Bring in the Farmer on the day the Customer signs with you. Identify them as the Customer's Account Manager. Never for a moment suggest that they are the Hunter's assistant, or allow anyone else to suggest this (especially the Hunter).
• Pay the Hunter for the initial purchase, and for every subsequent purchase for a maximum of one year. (If your margins and/or commission percentages are high enough, you can and should gradually wean this amount down. If not, just cut them off after one year.)
• After one year, only the Farmer gets paid for this Customer's purchases.

This approach keeps your Hunters from being able to live on residuals - every year, they have to completely replenish their Customer base. This will encourage them to help make the transition to their corresponding Farmer as smoothly and as quickly as they possibly can. The quicker and the smoother this happens, the more money both reps make, and neither one feels subservient or entitled.

And, since we're on that topic, anyway, if you are like most organizations, chances are that you pay your Hunters more than your Farmers. Am I right? But if a Farmer retains Customers and grows each one's spend beyond their initial purchase, don't they typically make more money for your organization than your Hunters?

Then why do you pay your Hunters more?

The argument that I hear most often is that landing a Customer is harder than keeping one. This hasn't been true for awhile, and it's time that your culture caught up to reality. Keeping Customers is harder than it's ever been, and it's much harder than taking Customers from a competitor. Landing a Customer is a finite period of time, no matter how long it seems. Plus, if you follow the model above, you get to walk away from any problems after the initial order or two and wine & dine the next Prospect.

Am I saying that you should pay Farmers more than Hunters? No - but only because I don't think you're ready for that yet. But paying them in such a way that they end up making about the same if they hit their respective goals? Yeah. If anything, I think you're overdue for that one.

And if you think this was fun, just wait until we talk about the right way to split a territory.

Databases for Dummies

Have you ever noticed that database people are fussy? Really, really fussy. (It's okay for me to say this, first because it's true, second because I am one.) It's because we have to be, because literally everyone else in the company constantly tries to mess everything up. Our lives are spent rolling our eyes and fixing problems that cost you a tremendous amount of money and lost man-hours, and that never should have happened in the first place.

If you don't have a database of your Customers and prospects, it's time to create one. If you do have one, it's time to clean it. The first will help you make money; the second will help you save money.

A database, for the purpose of today's topic, is a place to save Customer information. There are 5 main must-do's when creating a database:

• Only have one database, ever.
• Figure out in advance what information you want to save in your database, now and in the future.
• Create clear, meaningful names for each database field, with no redundancy.
• Decide which data fields are mandatory and what constitutes acceptable data for each field.
• Require that everyone use the database, always (especially salespeople).

And there are 2 must not's:

• Never, ever use Excel in place of a real database.
• Never, ever use Act in place of a real database.

The reason that you only want one database is to avoid pocketing and the cost & aggravation of having to merge dozens of databases later (trust me; I used to do this for a living). You have to figure out in advance exactly what information you want your database to include, now and in the future, because of a triusm that applies to a lot of things in business:

Plan carefully now, or regret expensively after.

You always want your database fields to have real-world names, without cryptic acronyms. Otherwise, you are just begging for people to put the wrong info in the wrong fields, means turns your database into worthless crap. Never use the same field more than once. You've already asked for the info; why do you need it twice? Some fields can be optional, like the Customer's birth date, but you should set most so that they have to be filled in. What good is a Customer name without an address, phone number, and email address?

Also, don't allow anyone who uses the database to use abbreviations, or I guarantee that you will have duplicate records. If your Customer's name is 'David', use 'David' and not 'Dave'. If he likes to be called 'Dave', put that in a 'Nickname' or 'Goes By' field. Otherwise, when you buy lead lists or someone else enters him under the other name, you'll have duplicate records. Also, always spell out street names, city names, and country names. (I once had to work with a database where a single city name appeared as 6 different abbreviations, plus spelled out correctly, which meant the company was spending money to send the same mailer to each Customer 7 times. Now imagine if the street names and county names were sometimes abbreviated, too.)

If you already have a database, now you know why you need to get someone to clean it. The sooner the better.

If your organization has salespeople, I'm going to suggest that you create a new rule, if you haven't already: Any sale that takes place before a Customer is entered into the database belongs to the company. No exceptions, period. This will ensure that every Prospect is entered into the database, because there are salespeople who have a bad habit of sandbagging leads, in the mistaken impression that your Customers 'belong' to them.

Customers belong to the company. Period.

Not only will this create a more flexible corporate culture, it will also make things much easier when you have to reassign a Customer to another salesperson or split a territory.

And, while everyone who touches Customers should have access to your database, only Sales, Customer Service, Accounting, and Tech Support should be able to enter or change data. Not only that: any good database should also record who entered or changed that data, and when.

Finally, why not use Excel or Act?

Excel is not a database; it's a spreadsheet (duh). Microsoft puts all kinds of code in each field that you can't see to make it work well as a spreadsheet. Unfortunately, this code makes it difficult to do anything with the data if you try to use it for anything else, and a costly conversion if you have to convert it to a true database format when you eventually move up to SQL or some other real database, and someone has to manually clean out all that gunk (and your pockets, while they're at it; remember the Leaky Roof rule).

Act, while easy to use and great for a self-employed, standalone salesperson, does not share data well across a network - the whole point of having a database.

Paying Your People

One of the more difficult business concepts for most people to understand is compensation. How much do you pay your people, and why? How often do you increase - or decrease - their comp (and why)? Do you offer an annual bonus? If so, is it a gift or an incentive (and why, always why)?

Let's start with the basics. Every pay plan, regardless of employee or department, must do the following:

• Reward production 
• Punish lack of production 
• Cause the extinction of undesirable behavior

People tend to do the things that reward them, avoid whatever punishes them, and stop doing what does neither.

Your job is to figure out what each employee's goals must be in order to reach your organization's goals. Sales is easy, but your accountants must have goals, too, and your IT folks. This requires that you understand each employee's role well enough to know what those goals must be. If they hit each goal, they receive the corresponding pay (everything is a transaction, remember?). If they don't, there must be a clearly defined (and clearly communicated in advance) penalty (your company is punished in a very real way when employees miss goals; to drive success, employees must feel the pain, too). If they surpass a goal, there should be a corresponding - and well-defined - reward.

Any behavior that is neither rewarded nor punished tends to go away on its own, with the exception of sexual harassment, bullying, prejudice, etc., where the behavior itself is the reward. Your other employees have enough to do without worrying about losers who engage in any of this crap. Fire them on the spot, and throw rotten tomatoes at them all the way out the door. Remember to follow through so that you get a nice, solid impact.

As I've mentioned before, performance is not a once-a-year report. You (and your managers) must meet with direct reports at least monthly to assess progress, obstacles, and provide requested resources and support. Performance review is an ongoing responsibility for both you and the employee. If they're doing better than planned, they have a right to expect recognition and a reward. If they are experiencing difficulty, they have a right to expect you to pay attention and mentor them (but not do it for them). In both cases, your attention is required.

The simpler your pay plan - including your pay plan for salespeople - the better. If an employee has to use a calculator or some kind of an outline to figure out how much money they're going to make, you didn't do your job. A 10-year-old should be able to figure out any given employee's paycheck in their head. You want employees to spend their time working, not worrying about how much they're going to make (or when they're going to get it). Because it is usually the most important thing on any given employee's mind, it must always be:

• Transparent 
• Accurate 
• On time 
• Simple

This includes reimbursements for business expenses. And when I say on time, I am a big fan of paying salespeople their commission no less often than once a month. I do it weekly, if I can. I've found that salespeople perform better when they have immediate feedback, whether reward for effort or punishment for lack of effort.

I'm also a firm believer in transparency. That means I have no problem with everyone knowing how much everyone else makes. This topic always starts an argument, but here's my reasoning:

If you are running your organization correctly, everyone knows exactly what milestones must be hit to make a given amount of money, right? Likewise to advance. If your employees know that the criteria is objective, and you're not going to promote someone just because you happen to go to the bar with them from time to time, they will work harder to reach the next level. And anyone who doesn't want anyone to know how much they make is hiding something.

My mom always said that, if you have to sneak, it must be wrong. I agree.

As a side note regarding promotions, it is vital that you be objective. If someone hits all of the necessary goals and does not advance, even though a position is open, they will leave. And you know where they'll go? To your competitor, who runs a business instead of a social club.

Also, never advance someone as an excuse to give them more money. Organizations that do this invariably become top-heavy. This makes your organization less profitable, slower to react to the market, and makes communication and the chain of command a complete mess. Always have as few managers (and employees in general) as you possibly can. Lean is healthy!

Last idea for today: Yes, of course you should know what other employers in your area pay their people for the same job. Don't bother with national tables; they tilt toward both coasts, neither of which may be realistic for your region. While you want your pay for a given job to fall about in the middle of the pack (too low, people leave; too high, people get lazy), there are other factors to consider besides pay. Employees leave managers much more often than they leave jobs. If you provide supportive, growth-oriented management, the right people will work to stay, even if a competitor pays slightly more.

People value being valued.

The D Word

Let's improve our vocabulary, shall we?

Discount: (Noun) A way of telling Customers that what you sell isn't worth what you said it was.

We've talked before about the difference between price and cost. But how do you show loyal Customers your appreciation if you can't offer them a break?

Sales is a transaction, right? You offer a product or service, and the Customer offers money in exchange for that good or service. If you're doing it right, every step of the sales process is an exchange: You tell me your name, I tell you mine, you tell me your needs, I tell you what solutions I have for those needs, you tell me your budget, I give you a proposal. If you are doing Sales right (and most companies don't), you never give anything without getting something in return.

The same is true for any breaks that you give Customers. To get a break, there must be a transaction, and i don't mean just for doing business with you. To pay less, a Customer must buy more.

This shouldn't be a secret. You should have a written breakdown of exactly how much a Customer must spend to get each specific break. That makes the break an incentive, not a discount.

Discounts are given; incentives are earned.

You don't give discounts because your products, services, and company are superior to your so-called competitors. You don't have to give discounts.

That list of incentives should be passed out to every Customer. Your process is transparent; you don't need to hide anything because you don't run that kind of business. And no Customer gets an incentive without the corresponding increase in spend.

By now, some of you are shaking your head, saying, "What about high profile Customers? They draw other Customers because of their name. Surely they get a discount?"

No.

Remember what we said about the "special situation"? If you allow even one, all of your sales will slide down that slippery slope, eat into your profits, and before you know it, your Customers and business are gone.

Because you stick to your incentive process, you have predictable metrics. By knowing your marketing conversion rate, retention rate, and sales close rate, you know how many Customers you have and will have. You can forecast revenue because each Customer has told you what they expect their spend to be.

Wouldn't you rather live inside this process than one where you have no idea where your money is coming from, or if it will continue to come, or why? Of course you would, because it makes sense, and you are a sensible person. That's why you're here.

If your organization is B2B, the same rules apply. If you have repeat Customers, B2B or not, there's no harm in applying an incentive for their loyalty, too, if you like. And if they bring you more Customers - not by reputation, but via an actual referral. Again, make sure that the terms are spelled out, clear, and followed to the letter.

Welcome back to sanity.

Margin, Margin, Margin!

To run a business, you must have a basic understanding of a few key metrics. Margin is about as key as you can get. If you don't understand margin, you are already losing money, plus you're a sucker. How did you even get this job? Let's cover the basics quick before someone finds out you don't already know them.

Margin is a percentage of the total revenue produced by a good or service. What the percentage means depends on what kind of margin we're talking about - gross margin or net margin. Gross margin is the relationship between gross profit and cost-of-goods-sold (COGS, also known as 'cost-of-sales' - how much it costs to produce the item or sell and provide the service; it doesn't include office expenses, rent, administrative costs, etc.).

Let's do some math:

(Revenue - COGS)/Revenue * 100% = Gross Margin Percentage

Let's say we sell a particular product for $50, and our COGS is $12:

($50 - $12)/$50 * 100% = 76% (or $38 per product sold)

The amount of Gross Margin that you assign to a given product is not arbitrary; although COGS covers your overhead and fixed costs such as wages, etc., it does not necessarily take into consideration the things that make your business last, such as future product development, future growth (including additional payroll), future technology requirements, etc. All of that has to come out of that $38. And if you are partnered with a venture capital firm or your organization is part of a public corporation, you may not see any of that $38 at all.

Another pressure on Gross Margin is competition. If you have a competitor who can produce a similar good or service to yours for a lower COGS, your margin is going to be squeezed. (Think of how the iPad squeezes other tablet makers, and how the Kindle Fire squeezes the iPad.)

In general, depending upon sales frequency (or inventory turns, if you're in retail), you want to choose a Gross Margin percentage that allows you to cover all of the tangibles plus unforeseen expenses such as the above. Once you figure out what that percentage is, and you know the COGS, it's easy to figure out how much to sell the product for:

Gross Margin + COGS = How Much It Costs the Customer

If we know that we want a GM of 6% and our COGS is $32, it goes like this:

((6/(100-6)) * $32 = $2.04 (this is your Gross Margin in dollars)
$32 + $2.04 = $34.04

Here are couple more formulas to add to your tool box:

Net Sales = Gross Margin + COGS

(Gross Margin/Net Sales) * 100 = Gross Margin

And here's one more that is always a toughie: Suppose you have salespeople (even if you don't call them that). How do you figure out whether or not what you pay them (or their manager) is "right"? Easy, and it's a formula that will help you stay out of trouble when it comes to compensation:

An adequate salesperson (or sales manager) should sell 10 times their wage (including commissions, bonuses, and other perks).

See how easy that was? Now gimme 10 laps and hit the showers.

The Cult of Personality

As I mentioned before, most salespeople tend toward high "I" behavior styles. This means that they are Influencers, which makes total sense for their role. Part of being an Influencer is the drive to find one's way around obstacles - again, a necessary trait for anyone in sales. It only becomes an issue when this trait and this drive are allowed to subvert the organization.

To spell it out: Don't let the tail wag the dog.

One of the things that tends to happen in any organization with a sales department is that sales receives the majority of the attention, accolades, rewards, and power. But since when can any organization function without any department other than sales? Any organization is an organism, and every department and every person in every department is necessary to sustain the whole. Take any cog out of the motor, and the motor no longer runs.

Salespeople will seek their way around internal obstacles, even when they are rules set up to protect the company. (See "Special Situations".) You cannot blame them for trying; it's in their nature, and it's a part of what makes them so effective in the field. Your job is to hold the line - even if it's not your line - and never let them cross it. Because once you do, the tail begins to wag the dog. (And this is coming from a several-time sales manager; I know whereof I speak.)

Also, because being "high I" means that you are often likable and persuasive, a disproportionate number of people in management tend to be "high I", even when their actual business skills are poor, and even in departments where a "high I" manager doesn't necessarily make sense (such as accounting).

Also, because of sheer force of personality, some salespeople can come across as prima donnas. In fact, many managers encourage them to be so, in the mistaken assumption that this will drive results. It doesn't. All it does is drive the perception that the sales department can do whatever it likes, and that no one else in the company has as much value as a salesperson.

What drives sales results are clear expectations, constant monitoring of results, and mentoring. (You must inspect what you expect, as a friend used to say.) And it is always better to have a salesperson that consistently hits 100% of quota than a salesperson who hits 105% one month, 85% the next, and 97% the month after. The kind of sales rep that hits those numbers is not a professional salesperson - they are someone who works on and off and occasionally gets lucky. That's not who you want on your sales team.

To make your organization work better, make certain that everyone knows that they are equally valued. Make sure that President's Club (if your organization has such an animal) is equally accessible to people from all departments (because everyone should have growth and performance goals, right?). If more than 50% of the people who attend are from sales, you're doing it wrong. Also, make sure that everyone who goes gets the full experience.

Make sure that your managers become managers because they are the best qualified person for the job - not because they are the nicest guys or the most persuasive. (Companies that boast that they only promote from within limit their success by doing so.)

And, above all, remember that internal obstacles are often there for a reason. Give careful thought to any attempt to step over them, and avoid salespeople who blow smoke to benefit themselves in the short term at the expense of your organization.

Shaking the Tree

It is always a good idea to change territories, customers, etc. Why?

1. Initially, to even out the number and size of the accounts that each rep is responsible for. Everyone deserves an equal opportunity. And remember – the sign of a fair settlement is that neither party is entirely happy with the results.
2. Comfort is the enemy of a good sales team. It inevitably leads to sloth. Because of this, it’s always a good idea to shake things up, and on a regular basis. It forces you to snap out of comfort zones, to grow, and to really think again. Change should be constant – an endless refinement of the engine.
3. If your reps have physical territories or repeat customers, over time there is a tendency to offer discounts before the customer asks for them – a variation of Helsinki Syndrome. The rep begins to identify more with their long-term customers than with their organization, shaving margin to “stay friends”. Shrinking margins – especially self-inflicted shrinkage – are death.

If you happen to run a call center (sales, service, or support), once a quarter or so, make everyone change desks. You can either randomly assign the new seating or (my preference) choose who sits next to who based on each employee's development stage. Here's the reasoning:

• You have one rep who is consistently the best on the phone. Why not put everyone on the team next to them, one at a time, so that a little of their competence rubs off? 
• Call center reps who sit next to each other too long have a tendency to get chatty. Don't get me wrong - you want some chatter, because congruity is part of your culture - but not to the point that it gets in the way of work. 
• Every rep does things slightly different, and every rep has different areas of expertise. By exposing your reps to everyone else on the team, you help to 'homogenize' the call process and prevent knowledge 'pocketing'. 
• Moving reps around helps to prevent the development of cliques (remember those from high school? remember how badly they sucked?), which inevitably lead to conflict. 
• Anyone who complains about sitting under an air vent, not sitting next to a window, sitting next to someone who is a loud talker, sitting in the cube that smells funny, etc., you officially get an equal shot at every seat in the house. For awhile. 
• Excitement. Call center life is dull, dull, dull. Anything different is good. 
• Bonus: When people change desks, they clean. Everything. That means that the rep who's been using that outdated price list that's been up on their cube wall so long that it's grown a beard throws it away and asks to copy someone else's updated price list. It also means that people re-evaluate what's really important, because who wants to move junk? Ditto those old salad dressing pouches and dusty memos.