Tag: sales pipeline

Blindspots: Deadly Lessons from Challenger

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In his excellent book Range, author David Epstein shows us just how powerful, and sometimes deadly, blindspots can be.

He tells the story of a business school case study called Carter Racing.  Students are told they are the owner of the race car and have to make a decision:  will they enter the car in the biggest race of the year, despite the car’s engine blowing up in seven of the last 24 races?

If Carter Racing enters and performs well, they’ll likely gain additional, significant sponsor money that propels the team to greater success.  If the engine blows up in such a high profile event, they could lose alot and jeopardize their future.

What students learn later after the exercise is over is that Carter Racing is really the story of the ill-fated Challenger shuttle tragedy of 1986.  The students, as owners of Carter Racing, were unknowingly playing the role of NASA engineers who made the fateful decision to launch.

Recall, the issue was booster rocket O-rings not performing properly due to colder temperatures that moved in the night before the launch.  The O-rings couldn’t seal properly, fuel leaked and caused the deadly explosion 73 seconds into launch.

So what were the deadly blindspots of the NASA engineers?

Epstein describes a NASA culture of unquestioned devotion to data.  Data is so revered there is a sign in the mission evaluation room in Houston that reads “In God we trust.  All others bring data.” Inarguably, this has served NASA pretty well for many years.  But for Challenger this devotion to data prevented NASA and Thiokol managers from acting on compelling information that was considered opinion, not data.

Due to the colder Florida temperatures on launch day, NASA and O-ring manufacturer Morton Thiokol engineers gathered to assess the situation.  They knew that when O-rings got cold they hardened and sometimes didn’t expand quickly enough to seal the expanding joint in the booster rocket.  However, data showed that this was never catastrophic.  They knew that on 2 previous launch occasions, one at low temperature (53) and one at 75 degrees F, O-rings were compromised but did not fail.

But a Thiokol engineer had photos of the performance of the O-rings at the two launches and they concerned him.  The photo of the launch at 53 degrees showed a line of black soot that suggested the O-ring at colder temperatures presented a heightened risk.  However, he didn’t have the data to prove this.  It was only one launch.  It was just a photo.  He did tell NASA that though he couldn’t quantify the risk his opinion led him to think it was too risky.  However, NASA’s data-driven culture would never allow any suggestion that wasn’t rigorously defendable, like this one.  NASA manager Larry Malloy said without a solid quantitative case – photos of two launches didn’t make a case – there’s no way he could have taken the case of ‘too risky to launch’ up the chain of command.  It wasn’t a reflection or failure on his judgment.  He was simply carrying the behavior of the culture.Despite strong feelings of concern, reason without numbers was not accepted.  Epstein says “In the face of an unfamiliar challenge, NASA managers failed to drop their familiar tools.”

This is a classic, and unfortunately tragic blindspot.  There is no one to blame.  Rather, it speaks to the power of blindspots.

Fortunately, sales coaching and leadership is not a life and death proposition.  Blindspots left untouched can have deep and lasting impact on people and their sales careers.

 

Good selling,

Mark Sellers

Author, Blindspots: The Hidden Killer of Sales Coaching Buy the book Blindspots here

and The Funnel Principle: What Every Salesperson Must Know About Selling Buy The Funnel Principle book here

Creator of the BuyCycle Funnel customer buying journey sales model, the most time tested, proven customer buying journey model on the market

Learn more about coaching and leading with short videos like this one on our website

 

 

 

Are You a Dashboard Jockey Sales Manager?

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Over the years (23 so far) that I’ve coached and trained thousands of salespeople and their managers, I’ve seen my share of unflattering, ineffective sales leadership. I don’t mean to be unnecessarily critical.  Rather, I want to make a difference.

In my book Blindspots: The Hidden Killer of Sales CoachingI list several profiles of the ineffective sales leader.  The Know it All Manager, The Super Salesman Manager, The Title Defender, The Process Preacher, The Activity Cop, the Laptop Leader. The sooner that you can identify the profile that you “default” to the closer you’ll get to the real you. Then you’ll know what you need to work on to become a better coach and leader.

Because you have blindspots, you’ll not likely see what may be obvious to others.  You’re just being you.  It’s very confusing.

In a recent podcast interview of me by Brian Burns (The Brutal Truth about Sales & Selling) Brian used a great phrase that describes a common sales manager profile today – “dashboard jockey”.

A dashboard jockey is a sales manager who hunkers down in the CRM bunker, surrounded by data and reports that “tell the story” of his reps sales performance.  After all, you can’t argue with data.   The data tells this manager that one salesperson’s funnel is weak in the early stages.  It tells him that she’s in the 43rdpercentile of reps making prospecting calls to generate new early stage opportunities.  It tells him another rep has a higher than average win rate but for the last 5 months has been behind plan.  It tells him another rep has a 3X funnel, but his close rate is in the 25thpercentile and he’s at 82% to plan for the year.

This data can certainly help the sales manager coach and lead.  But it was never intended to tell the whole story.  Yet, for many sales managers this is the new “recommending IBM stock for your portfolio”, as in nobody gets fired for recommending IBM stock (well, up until the past few years…).  Similarly, nobody gets fired for leaning heavily on the data in a salesperson’s CRM.

I knew a sales manager who was an absolute wizard with excel and spreadsheets.  She looked like an idiot savant.  She was amazing.  And she seldom got out in the field with her team.  She starved them of needed coaching, and they slowly died the death of a thousand cuts.  She was shown the door.

One reason that the slow but steady degradation of sales coaching has occurred, ironically, is because there’s more data.  Reps are expected to generate it, managers are expected to monitor it, and senior leaders are expected to justify the investment.  We need more reports!  I want more analysis!  I want more power users!

Believe it or not I’m not advocating a return to pre-automation days of 56K modem speeds and spiral bound notebooks.  I am offering a gentle reminder (or a wake up call if you need it) to remind you that your impact is felt most when you more fully understand your people and take the time to learn their full story.  For now, that’s not available in an app or downloadable report.

 

Good selling,

 

Mark Sellers

 

Author, Blindspots: The Hidden Killer of Sales Coaching Buy the book Blindspots here

and The Funnel Principle: What Every Salesperson Must Know About Selling Buy The Funnel Principle book here

Creator of the BuyCycle Funnel customer buying journey sales model, the most time tested, proven customer buying journey model on the market

Learn more about coaching and leading with short videos like this one on our website

 

 

 

 

When Running the Sales Marathon, Mind Your Sales Reps’ Splits

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In a marathon there are officially 26 splits, or miles, that a runner passes.   The runner focuses on hitting the splits to stay on track to finish the race in his or her target time.

The splits act as a leading indicator.  If the runner is under the split she’s on track to finish faster – or she could be headed for a crash if her pace is too fast.  Either way the split is information she can act on.

As a sales manager you’ll want to help your salespeople run the annual sales marathon by minding their splits.  We call these monthly 1:1 splits (conversations) Funnel Audits.  They play a key role in sales managers’ coaching.

The sales marathon over a year can be broken into 12 monthly splits.  Setting goals and priorities for 30 days is less overwhelming and more manageable than setting goals for longer periods.  You’ll want to have sound, meaningful and structured conversations every month (each split) to keep your reps running the race the right way.

The manager uses the Funnel Audit to make a couple of key assessments at each split.  The first one is YTD sales performance.  Is the salesperson at 100% of the year to date quota?  Usually this is a reasonable measure of where your rep could end up at the end of the year.  Unfortunately sales performance is a lagging indicator, valuable in looking through the rear window, but not looking through the front windshield.  Sales reps need to know where to put selling attention for the rest of the year.  That’s the value the Audits give.

Here are 4 things our clients do around minding the splits.

They manage to what the leading indicators tell them.  The main leading indicator they manage to is what we call TVR, Total Viable Revenue.  TVR is the funnel value.  The salesperson and manager both know exactly how much TVR should be on the funnel at any time throughout the year.   They compare how much TVR they should have to how much they really have and then manage to the delta.

They focus on what they can control. Salespeople can’t really control the outputs, sales, but they can control the inputs, that is, what they choose to prioritize and the selling activities to influence each sale.  At each Funnel Audit the manager and rep are deciding where to put selling attention now.

They mind the splits early to start fast. When you get your salespeople to mind their splits in January and February and not to wait until May or July they have more time to use the TVR leading indicator to make course corrections in their sales funnels.  Some of our clients even mind their splits in early Q4 or late Q3 of the previous year to start off the next year with a healthier sales funnel.

They keep the process simple and they commit to it.  Our best clients religiously do Funnel Audits every month.  They defend simple. They don’t drift out of the structure of the conversation.  They parking lot non-Funnel Audit issues and deal with them later.

Don’t forget to stretch before your next run!

Good selling,

Mark Sellers

Created the BuyCycle Funnel

Author The Funnel Principle

Author of soon to be released sales coaching book Blindspots: The Hidden Killer of Sales Coaching

 

 

 

 

Selling to the Financial Decision Maker

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Welcome to another Breakthrough Sales Tip.

You ever find yourself reluctant to ‘take the next step?’

I’m talking about some important decisions you’ve considered. Maybe join the gym? Take your first yoga class? Join a group at church? Decide to downsize? Decide to buy a house?

Taking the next step can be hard for the people you’re selling to. Especially the people we call PFAs. The PFA is the person with financial authority for a purchase. Think final approval. Veto power. Obviously, a very important stakeholder to your sales success.

One way to improve your success in selling to the PFA is to learn about ‘risk’, learn how risky the PFA believes it is to take the next step.

Recently I was with a client that sells mechanical services and major project services to the energy and construction industries.

One of the salesmen shared his approach to a deal he was working on. At a sales call recently his prospect said they needed a cooling solution for a server room. The salesperson threw out a number to the PFA, a ballpark price to see how the he would react.

Another salesman in our meeting suggested a different approach. He said why not ask the PFA questions about risk?   Is there a problem now with cooling, or is something happening that could become a problem? For example, if the business need is because the company is growing and wanting to attract more customers, then the risk of not having a solution is not growing. That sounds pretty important. And how’d you like to be the one stakeholder ultimately responsible for getting in the way of growth?

I also recommend acknowledging the risk, not discounting it. When people feel nervous about something, telling them to not feel nervous, or worse telling them they have nothing to worry about, doesn’t make them feel any better. You’re not going to make any emotional connections with that approach. When you acknowledge the PFA’s concerns about risk, you’ll gain the PFA’s respect.

In our Funnel Principle Selling system we see the PFA’s risk as a ‘stage 2’ issue. The PFA hasn’t committed to spending money on ANY solution yet. There needs to be a compelling enough risk of doing nothing, or, he can choose the less risky option, do nothing.

In my experience risk is always tied closely to emotional and personal issues. It’s not about the money for example; rather, it’s about being seen as making a poor decision with the company’s money. See the distinction?

If you liked this tip and want to learn more I encourage you to contact me at the information on the screen. I’d really enjoy hearing from you.

As always, I wish you the best success, and good selling.

Mark Sellers

Author The Funnel Principle

Book a meeting with Mark using Calendly

4 Tips for Making Better Sales Calls

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Welcome to another Breakthrough Sales Tip.

I’m a consultative salesperson with a confession to make: For years I thought my line of selling was somehow a notch above the world of transactional selling. It was more complicated. More challenging. It required more skill and technique and intelligence. Shame on me.

To all you exceptional transactional sellers, I apologize. I realize I can learn from you. I’ve been observing and learning how the best transactional sellers get it done. And I’m blown away.

First, a quick definition. By consultative selling I mean the type of selling that usually takes more than one call to close and often requires calling on more than one stakeholder.

By transactional selling I mean the type of selling that often takes only one call to close and where only one stakeholder is involved. I realize both of these are very simplistic but nonetheless directionally suitable for this column.

Here are 4 things I’ve been learning about exceptional transactional salespeople:

  1. They make a connection. Excellent transactional sellers get it that the emotional drive leads the logical drive. So they make it a priority to connect with that emotion. Often they only get one chance right, in a one-call sale? Unless they’re laser focused on looking for that connection they’ll likely miss it and maybe lose a sale.   An excellent book on this is by John Maxwell, Everyone Communicates Few Connect.
  1. They make you feel like you’re the only thing that matters right now. Think of how easy it is to be distracted by your over booked calendar and pressure to perform. It’s hard to fake this ‘you matter’ thing. Think of when someone sold to you and you felt his or her total attention on you. When it happens it’s special.
  1. They create a path to purchase.   Transactional sellers need to make a living too. What impresses me about the exceptional ones is how they respect my buying process but still keep the sale moving. Their call strategies seem designed to put the customer buying process milestones in front of the customer and then let the customer decide if and when she’s ready to proceed.
  1. They give me control. With exceptional transactional sellers I never feel like I’m being railroaded or backed into a features-benefit corner. They seem to have intuitive pacing around how I want to buy. This is the ultimate show of respect. Wow, what a way to build credibility.

So go out there today and make your next sales call really count – for your customer. If you succeed, it will really count too for you.

As always, I wish you the best success, and good selling.

Mark

get on Mark’s calendar here

buy The Funnel Principle here

Know Your Win Rate

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Below is a transcript of this week’s video sales tip.  

As someone who has spent the last 15 years exploring, learning, training and consulting on the sales funnel, I often get asked ‘how important is it to know your win rate’?

It’s very important. When you know your win rate you’re able to know how big your sales funnel should be to hit your quota.

For example if you have a 1M quota and you have a 50% win rate, you should have $2M of funnel value. We call funnel value TVR, Total Viable Revenue.

But if you have a 33% win rate then your funnel should be $3m.

And if your win rate is 25% your funnel should be $4M.

Those are some big variations in funnel value, aren’t they? You don’t want to miss this by a mile.

Unfortunately I have learned that few salespeople and their sales organizations really know their win rates.

It’s easy to calculate. Create a list of all of the sales opportunities you try to win. Then list the ones you do win. The number of sales you win divided by the number you try to win is your win rate.

For example if you win 3 but try to win 10 then your win rate is 30%.

Now what I’m about to say is really important. When you calculate your funnel value you don’t want to just add up the dollar value of all sales opportunities at all stages. You add up only the deals at the mid to late stages because with these opportunities the customer has committed to making a change. That means they commit to either replacing what they’re using with something else, commit to add to what they’re using, or commit to using a different approach altogether.

If you think of your sales funnel right now, you can probably think of deals that haven’t gotten to the customer commitment stage yet, can’t you? These deals might still be very much worth your time to keep working on, just don’t count them toward funnel value.

The problem comes when your sales funnel doesn’t have enough of these ‘commit funding’ opportunities. Your funnel value is too small.  Your focus and priority is to get more funnel value, TVR.

If you liked this tip and want to learn more I encourage you to contact me at the information on the screen. I’d really enjoy hearing from you.

As always, I wish you the best success, and good selling.

Mark

get on Mark’s calendar here

buy The Funnel Principle here

614.571.8267

 

Work The (Sales) Process

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I know sports is an often over used reference for analogies and making points in the business world, but when I see a brilliant, even courageous example I’ve just got to share it.

Maybe you saw it too.  It was the New England Patriots’ performance in the 2nd half of this year’s Super Bowl.  (disqualifier:  I’m not a Patriot’s fan, but I am a fan of winners)

Two things took place in the second half.

The first was something that was missing.   Maybe you saw it too.  Panic.

The Tom Brady-led offense marched down the field in typical, grinding Patriot fashion and scored.  I think that drive took 7 or 8 minutes.  That’s a lot of time off the clock.  The defense then did its job. Then the offense marched down and scored again.  And of course the rest is history.

Instead of panicking the Patriots committed to their process . The one that brought them to the dance. The one that has brought five rings for team Brady and Belichick.

There are two occasions where committing to a sales process pays off. One is when you’re down and need a comeback kind of year. Best to double down on the process. It’s really the only thing you do that you can control.

The other occasion is when you’re up and having a great year. Doubling down on your sales process prevents you from forgetting that effort, not luck will make you successful, year after year.

The second thing that took place at the Super Bowl second half was adjustments. Belichick didn’t do exactly the same game plan used in the first half because it wasn’t working in the first half. Adjustments were made within the process.

If your salespeople are struggling, you might need to coach to some adjustments, maybe related to target accounts, or messaging for sales calls, or even pricing strategies. But I hope you keep those adjustments within your sales process. Be sure your salespeople understand that’s what’s going on .

Good Selling,

Mark Sellers

Author The Funnel Principle (buy it here)

Next book: Blindspots: The Hidden Killer of Sales Coaching

Interview of Mark by Red Cap Consulting Hugh Liddle

Interview of Mark by Linked In Guru Ted Prodromou

 

 

 

 

 

Sales Funnel Movement

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Below is a transcript of this week’s video sales tip.

A key to any sales funnel success is movement – funnel sales opportunities moving closer to the ultimate objective – a close. Without movement of funnel opportunities your funnel is like a kitchen pantry full of old, stale food that’s no longer fit to eat.

Movement is when a sales opportunity changes stages, like moving from stage 2 to stage 3, or from stage 4 to stage 5. Adding a sales opportunity to your funnel is also movement.

Opportunities can move in the other direction, like from stage 4 to stage 2. Usually that’s not the kind of movement you want.

NOW HERE’S THE KEY TO MOVEMENT – it’s not what YOU do that defines movement, it’s what the customer does.

For example, if you deliver a proposal to a customer you might be tempted to say that the opportunity has moved to the ‘proposal delivered’ stage.

But your customer hasn’t done anything. They just received your proposal. Go ahead and test this. Have you ever delivered a proposal and the customer didn’t get back to you right away with any kind of answer? Or if they did answer was it 6 months later and they said they changed their minds?

It’s the same thing with a sample or a product trial or even a demo. You’re the one doing all the work. No movement.

The key to driving sales opportunities through your funnel – getting movement – is getting your customers to commit to doing things.

When customers commit they have skin in the game. When they commit they invest time, they invest political capital, and sometimes even money.

Even getting little commitments is important. Little commitments often lead to bigger commitments and to the biggest customer commitment of all – they purchase.

So, when you define your 30 day sales funnel plan each month, you really want to define what customer commitments you’re going to seek with each opportunity on your funnel.

At my company we call these Goals. It’s just a term that can mean different things, but for clients that use The Funnel Principle they know that a Goal is the customer commitment the salesperson is seeking with each opportunity on his or her funnel.

Let’s wrap up by going back to the proposal example. What would a Goal look like? How about this: Only deliver your proposal if the customer commits to reviewing it with you. Or, if a customer wants to trial your product agree to, but ask the customer to commit to discussing with you after the trial how the trial went and maybe even communicating the results with other key stakeholders.

If you found this tip helpful and you’d like more information I encourage you to contact me through the link below.

I wish you the best success, good selling!

Mark

614.571.8267

Buy The Funnel Principle here

get on Mark’s calendar here