National Research Project Asks Sales Reps “What do you want/need from your Sales Manager?”

EcSELL Institute seeking participants

The EcSELL Institute is conducting a national research project that looks at sales management through the eyes of a sales rep. It is asking sales reps, from across the United States and Canada, what they want and need from their Sales Managers. The research project is trying to define a “wish list” that Sales Managers can use to guide their own management behavior. The survey is open to any person who sells a product or service to a consumer (B2C) or a business (B2B). Anyone who participates in the research project will receive a complimentary copy of the final published report.

The research study takes 3 minutes to complete. Sales reps can participate by visiting to this survey page:

EcSELL Sales Rep Survey

EcSELL Institute is also making available, to qualified companies, the opportunity to sort the results by company. This will allow sales departments the opportunity to see specifically what the sales team needs and wants from sales management. To learn more, contact Bill Eckstrom, founder and president of the EcSELL Institute at 402-805-4238.

ABOUT EcSELL INSTITUTE
EcSELL Institute is a membership community that provides professional development resources, including best practice information, continuing education, fact?based research, and peer networking specific to sales management. www.ecsellinstitute.com

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The experts are predicting a 3% growth in the economy this year, the United States manufacturing sector has expanded for eight months straight, and Business Roundtable’s measure of CEO optimism is at it’s highest level since 2006. There’s no longer any doubt about it. The experts all agree: the economy is starting to recover.

Okay, but then why are my sales statistics still down

Unfortunately, the sales world has yet to catch up with the trajectory of the general economy. For most of us, sales levels are down, profit margins are lower, and sales cycles are longer than ever. And in many cases, sales people put months of work into a big deal only to see it end in non-decision. This is because while the economy may be improving, the general attitude that most prospects take towards purchasing is still very conservative.

The good news is that there are still ways to make sure that your sales team is able to take part in the economic recovery.

But you are going to have to adjust your thinking to make this happen. The CEO of GE, Jeff Immelt, said something last year that I think will help bring this into perspective. He’d noticed that business people seemed to be sitting around waiting for things to “get back to normal,” that is, for the economy to start working the way that it used to. But things aren’t going back, at least not any time soon, because “normal” is already here! We are now in “The New Normal” as Immelt calls it, the new normal state of affairs. And in this “new normal,” sales people are required to have a much higher level of expertise, they will have to find ways to communicate with people higher up in their prospects’ organizations than before, and they will have to make better use of their existing customer base. Essentially, you need to stop waiting for “normal” to come back, because it’s already here. Only now, it’s “the new normal.”

But how can sales people achieve success in the new normal?

Well, the first thing to be done is what we call an “installed base audit,” going back to your successful deals and finding out just what made them work. Only now that we are in the new normal, anything that you did before the recession started is rendered irrelevant. You need to go back to the few deals that you’ve made since the recession began and find out just what went right.

Go talk to the customers who have bought from you recently and ask them why they chose to buy. What essential executive level problems did your product solve for them? Their cash flow must have been tight just like everyone else’s, but for some reason they felt that it was worth it to purchase from you anyway. But why? In most cases, your customers will be more than happy to tell you. But make sure to actually speak to the person who was the final decision maker in the deal.

Now, that you know what types of new-normal-era problems your product solves, you can begin to look for further prospects who share these same issues.

The second thing that you can do to get your piece of the economic recovery pie is to change the way you communicate value to your prospects. This means basing your ROI predictions not on the value that your solution can produce, but the value that your solution can product over and above any other solution that your prospect might consider investing in. In the new normal, discretionary funds are much lower than they used to be. This means that you are no longer simply vying for the same funds as your direct competitors, but also against companies selling completely unrelated solutions. For example, if you sell a particular software solution, you might be competing for the same funds as someone selling a new line of printers to your prospect, even though these are two completely unrelated solutions. Your prospect is going to buy the solution that has the highest short term, low risk return.

There are a couple of very important implications of this trend. First, you can no longer assume that if your product is the best of its class this guarantees a sale. Second, this means that you need to be more aggressive about getting to the ultimate decision maker in your prospect’s organization. Why? Because you need to ask this person the following question:

“Of all of the solutions that you are considering buying, which of them has the highest return on investment?”

Once you have the answer to this question, you need to show your prospect that your solution will provide a rate of return that is even higher. Subtract the ROI of the other solution that they are considering from your predicted ROI. Then subtract the value of any solution that your prospect already has in place that might overlap with your solution. The resulting figure is your “Sales Economic Value Added” or SalesEVA. This number is the return that your prospect can expect from your solution over and above any other solution they are thinking of purchasing. Therefore, it is also the amount of money that they will lose if they don’t buy from you. You’ve now made them an offer that they’d be crazy to refuse.

Congratulations, you’ve just cut a nice thick slice out of the economic recovery pie, all for yourself!

-Zebra Jeff

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We’ve just put the finishing touches on our new eBook, Building Your Zebra, based on our award winning book Selling to Zebras. This eBook contains everything that you need to build your Zebra profile, learn how to use the Push-button Zebra, and start implementing the Zebra way of life into your sales organization.

Basically, we’ve taken the first component of our famous Zebra method and reduced it to its most important essentials. We are excited beyond measure to be able to bring this to you. You see, Chad and I want everyone to benefit from the Zebra sales philosophy, which is why we’re taking this important step toward making these methods more accessible.

Here are a few of the things you’ll learn about in the Building Your Zebra eBook:

The Seven Zebra Attributes

In this eBook you’ll learn about each of the seven attributes that go into identifying your Zebra, the ideal prospect that you should be looking for. Basically, you can think of this eBook as a worksheet that will guide you step by step through the process of understanding the characteristics that all of your best customers share. In the end, the result will be a comprehensive profile that you can implement across the board throughout your sales team. Once you know what these characteristics are, you will b that much closer to identifying your ideal client—what we call your “Zebra”—when you see it.

The Push-button Zebra

Plus, the Building Your Zebra eBook will give you detailed instructions on how to concentrate your Zebra profile into our Push-button Zebra spreadsheet. The Push-button Zebra, or PBZ, as we like to call it, is a quick and efficient tool for almost instantly rating the quality of any prospect. Since the PBZ is extremely easy to use, it is easy to implement throughout your entire sales team and across the sales cycle. This will all be explained in more depth in the eBook, but the most important thing is that the PBZ takes the guesswork out of your sales cycle. It gives you an objective measure (called a Zebra score) by which to rate your prospect at every stage of the sales cycle. In the long term, this will actually improve your ability to accurately predict your quarterly sales and the average length of your sales cycles.

Access to Power

Finally, you’ll learn about how your Access to Power affects your close rate. The push-button Zebra acts as a diagnostic tool for every aspect of your sales relationship with a given prospect, but it is the most valuable in assessing your Access to Power. If you don’t have access to the final decision maker in your prospect’s organization—the person we call Power—then won’t know whether your prospect is a Zebra or not. Again, we’ll go into much more detail about this in the eBook.

Building Your Zebra is live now and is available for just $19.95! So there’s no need to wait; you can download it right off our website by clicking this link.

-Zebra Jeff

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Yes folks, Santa once again identified his Zebra by making a list comprised of those who were naughty and nice this past Christmas. This once again insured that he would strictly dedicate his valuable and scarce resources only toward those that were a good fit for his services, making it possible to once again make Christmas a huge success in just a single night!

In keeping with that theme, this is a friendly holiday reminder from Selling to Zebras to adopt Santa’s strategy for your sales business in the new year…  Go through your list of prospects for pursuit in 2010 with a fine-tooth, zebra-striped comb, and make sure it’s only populated with  Zebras.

Don’t have a Zebra yet you say?! Well, in my opinion creating one and putting it to good use in your sales business would make the perfect  New Year’s Resolution!

On behalf of all of us at Selling to Zebras, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year!

-Zebra Chad

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I’m going to postpone the 4th Edition of the Sales & Selling Blog Carnival for a couple days, and I’m pleased to report that it’s not because I didn’t get enough submissions to create a great Edition… To the contrary, I’ve got so many submissions to go through that I can’t possibly get it all done in the time I figured it would take me! SO, please be patient, and I promise a new edition of Sales & Selling will appear here within a day or two.

-ZC

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I will be gathering submissions during the next week to revive the “Complex Sales & Selling Strategies” blog carnival, as I think it held good value for our readers, and for all who participated. Submission deadline for this next edition will be Monday, November 30 at Midnight.  I will post this Fourth Edition of our blog carnival by end of business the following day, December 1, and I will also put out the details and submission request for the Fifth Edition of our blog carnival at that time.

As usual, please keep submissions to one per person, and in the best interests of all readers and participants, only submissions directly related to the criteria I set forth for the “Complex Sales & Selling” blog carnival will be accepted.

By the way, to stay updated on all the details about the Complex Sales and Selling blog carnival, past and present, you can simply reference the sidebar that is permanently located on the right hand margin of our blog page (directly underneath “Blog Archives”). Here you will also find a quick and easy link to ‘submit an article’ of your own to the carnival. I look forward to a great Fourth Edition, and thank you in advance for your submissions!

Zebra Chad

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Well, it’s been a while since I made an entry here, so I figured I should do a quick update on what’s been keeping me from posting… In short:

1. Working feverishly to meet a deadline for out latest customer (mission accomplished!).

2. Being a Dad and Husband (mission coming along nicely, step-by-step each day).

3. Whitetail Deer bow hunting season here in Wisconsin (mission in progressing).

So, things have been busy, but this is important so I wanted to return to it for any of you have been faithfully following and checking for updates (which up until today had been on hiatus for a while).

A few times a year I like to tie in my business pursuit with that of my hobbies,  so making a parallel with bow hunting deer seemed like a very natural parallel to make. With all the time I’ve been spending in a tree this bow hunting season when I’m not busy meeting deadlines and spending time with the family, I’ve actually had a lot of time to think about how the way I bow hunt is quite similar to the way we teach clients to pursue sales.  What follows is a summary of those thoughts.

In pursuing whitetails with a bow, most hunters that have been at it for a good number of seasons reach a certain maturity in setting objectives for their season, rather than approaching each hunt on a whim hoping for the best. Appropriate pre-season scouting must be done starting with looking for shed antlers at the end of the previous season. For those who aren’t familiar, whitetail bucks (males) drop their antlers late winter just prior to spring and begin to grew new ones.  Trails and deer bedding areas are also observed at this time, in the interest of getting to know what you should be after in the coming season, and where to look when the time comes. From there, the due diligence of planting food plots to help nurture the potential prospects (deer) local to your area, hanging stands, and brushing out clear shooting lanes are all part of the preparations that take place. Come August, when I’m not walleye fishing with my free time, I can usually be found with a pair of binoculars close by while cruising past the usual hot spots such as woods lines and field edges either by evening light or even after dark hoping to get a glimpse of any bucks that have taken residence near the ares where I hunt.

So as is easy to tell, so far the way I hunt is very similar to how most sales people approach seeking new business, and putting forth the effort in doing research and making preparations to put their best foot forward when they get an opportunity to get in front of a prospect… and this is a very common sense methodology that some if not all hunters and sales people alike achieve with a certain level of experience and seasoning. Up until this point however, all the work has been done simply allows you to play the game and hope the odds tip in your favor in some fashion. An even greater level of maturity is required to get to the next step:  SUCCESS.  Let’s face, all the effort you’ve put in up until this point is pretty much wasted time and resources if you can’t accomplish a win at the end of the game.

Much like our Zebra sales philosophy dictates, hunters that reach the next level of maturity use their past success to put together a game plan for winning in the future; even taking it to the point of identifying a specific buck or several bucks that we decide we are going to pursue that season, and not spreading ourselves to thin by deciding to settle for chasing whatever may happen to walk past. When you’re hunting and you’ve got deer running all over the place, it’s easy to forget the goals you have set for yourself and chase everything that’s moving in front of you. However, when the decision to take a deer is made, what follows can be a major disruption to the area where we are hunting due to all the activity and chaos that follows in the deer woods when a kill is made. This is not at all dissimilar to what follows when a deal is pursued to close, and all resources are focused and tied up on that prospect/new customer. If a decision is made to take the wrong deer or close the wrong deal, it may still seem like meat in the freezer, but you have greatly decreased your chances of having everything in place when the truly right opportunity comes along.

Alternatively, if you’ve identified the buck or bucks, and similarly the clients that are right for you to pursue at in this particular season (or quarter/fiscal year in business terms), draw upon where you’ve won or achieve success in the past, put together a plan based upon why your past successes occurred, and stir that in with a healthy serving of the pre-hunt/sale preparations discussed previously, only THEN have you really put yourself in the best possible position for success in the present future.

The best whitetail bow hunters seem to find success in taking a mature buck about 90% of the seasons they hunt… Huh, that sounds familiar… The best sales people close approximately 90% of all the prospects they pursue — I’m starting to see a trend here! It may seem to the casual observer that some are just luckier than others, but really it all comes down to utilizing the concrete, repeatable process for achieving success that I have just detailed above, and in the end luck has very little to do with it. In my opinion luck is just a convenient excuse to not take a closer look at ways that you can find self-improvement, better results, and greater success in the future. We all make the choice to either flounder in mediocrity, or to turn ourselves into winners and MAKE IT HAPPEN!

So when you’re walking into the jungle, woods, field, or swamp that is your sales world this season, don’t just cross your fingers and hope for a little venison in your freezer… put together a plan that will earn you more venison than you know what to do with, and a big trophy to go along with it!

As an interesting closing remark, the picture at the opening of this post is a picture of my quiver of arrows on my bow… Yes indeed, I even hunt in true Zebra style!  Well time to put the “Closed” sign in the window again today here at the office… mine actually reads, “Gone hunting… will return in time for fishing season.”  My wife loves that.

My 2006 trophy, and a large contributor to my venison supply that year!

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