Tag: sales

Your Blindspots Are Killing You – and Everyone Else

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If you are a front line sales manager looking for ways to be a more effective coach, you need to get to root cause to better understand the underlying motives and factors that prevent you from becoming more fully the person and sales manager you can be.

You may have to go somewhere you have not before been.  You’ll need to be vulnerable.  You’ll need to trust the process.

Most of all you have to learn to confront your blindspots.

Before I explain what a blindspot is let me suggest that there’s something generally accepted, fundamental, and even pivotal to your salespeople achieving quota year after year.  They’re more likely to hit that quota when they are motivated to sell for you.  And they’re more likely to be motivated if you make emotional connections with them.

As it is with people in general you’ve probably found it easier to make an emotional connection with some salespeople.  The conversations with them seem to naturally flow.  The coaching you give seems to be more easily received.  For these people you seem to know what to say and how to say it to get the response you want.   There’s a connection.

Making an emotional connection with other sales people doesn’t effortlessly come.  Maybe they repeat the same behaviors that you’re constantly trying to change.  They repeat the habits you’re trying to break.  This frustrates you.  It might drive you crazy.

The problem is your blindspots are out to sabotage your ability to create emotional connections, build relationships with your salespeople and motivate them to succeed.

So, what exactly is a blindspot?

Blindspots are unflattering behavior that you don’t know you do that prevent you from emotionally connecting with your salespeople.  Blindspots can also be unflattering behavior that you are aware of doing but you just can’t stop from doing it.

Here’s an example.

Urban Meyer, the head football coach for Ohio State, unwittingly confessed to a blindspot.  In the wake of a personnel crisis in 2018 that became a PR disaster involving one his assistant coaches, and that resulted in a 3 game suspension for Meyer, he was asked in a press conference the day before his first game back from the suspension, if he thought members of his staff were reluctant to bring him negative information, such as information that contributed to the crisis.  He said he hoped not, but then added “That’s something that (athletic director) Gene (Smith) and I have talked about that I need to do. I always thought I had that atmosphere,” he said.  Meaning, he was unaware that his super intense, intimidating demeanor could actually keep people from coming to him with potential problems.  Classic blindspot.

What do blindspots look like for sales managers?  One is being judgmental toward a salesperson.  If you’ve ever struggled managing a salesperson who is a lot NOT like you, you’ve likely shown some judgment toward this person.  If she doesn’t work the territory like you would, or if she has a very different personality than you have, you might show signs of judgment.  Or let’s say you think you always have the right answer for something.  You likely don’t have much patience to let your salespeople arrive at their own discovery.  Instead you tell them what the deal is and you expect them to get it and move on.  When they don’t you are frustrated, even angry inside.

These aren’t healthy attitudes to build a coaching foundation on.

If it makes you feel better, every sales manager has blindspots.  The more you can discover and acknowledge yours the closer you’ll be to dealing effectively with them.

Stay tuned. In future blogs I’ll help you do that.

 

Mark Sellers

Author of The Funnel Principle

Author of Blindspots: The Hidden Killer of Sales Coaching (due out in Q1 2019)

The Illusion of Humble Sales Leadership

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I’ve been on a journey the past several years to better understand humility.  It’s personal.

Seems we’ve always been drawn to people who are vocal and physical about their pride.  We praise the government leader who takes a stand for something we believe in.  We cheer the athlete who celebrates after leading her team to victory.  We look up to the charismatic speaker who whips the audience into a frenzy.  If pride was a beer it would be a heavily hopped IPA from the pacific northwest.  Humility?  Maybe a lager.

People who are boastfully proud exhibit confidence and strength.  They command attention.  They have a presence.   This influences us.  None of these traits are by definition negative or evil.  Most of us want to be led, and to follow we must be inspired.  But like all of us, the prideful person is inherently flawed, albeit in his/her own unique way.

The Wall St. Journal recently ran a story saying that the best bosses are humble bosses.  They have data to prove it.  Studies show that humble bosses inspire better teamwork and faster learning.  Their humility encourages others to share opinions and be more transparent thereby improving communication.   By contrast, the prideful boss shuts down communication and puts a drag on higher performance.

Here’s the illusion of being humble.  Humility connotes softness, gentleness, being meek, being weak, maybe indecisive.  If you’re humble you can’t be competitive.  You can’t possibly be firm with someone and you’re certainly likely to put up with sub-par or even toxic behavior on your teams.  Right?

I’ve witnessed the opposite.  I’ve seen humble leaders put others in their place.  I’ve seen humble leaders put reps on performance improvement plans (PIPS).  I’ve seen humble leaders fire people that have become a necessary ending.  Strong leadership and coaching doesn’t have to have an ego-based center.

What’s it take to be a more humble leader of your salespeople?  For one, listen more and listen hard.  That means you have to ask questions.  It means you need to be open to what you hear.

Two, seek feedback.  Ask your direct reports what part of your coaching is connecting with them and what’s not.  Ask your peers to give you honest assessments of what they see in you and your behavior.

Three, admit your mistakes.

Four, practice saying I’m sorry.

It’s possible that humility could be one of those business concept hot stars that shines so bright but then burns out so fast.  I could imagine every MBA program in the country soon offering courses in humility.  I hope it does get legs and runs like Forrest Gump forever.

Though it might fade in popularity I’m convinced that humility in business and sales leadership has a long life ahead.  People are drawn to humble leaders.  The connection is refreshingly real, honest.  However, I won’t be surprised if it eventually gets moved from page 1 to the lifestyle section.  But humility will be ok with that.  It’s never sought the spotlight.  It’ll be just fine.

Bartender, pour me a pint of that lager, please.

 

Mark Sellers

Author The Funnel Principle, named by Selling Power as a Top Ten Best Book to Read

Author of upcoming book Blindspots: The Hidden Killer of Sales Coaching

Managing Partner and Founder, Breakthrough Sales Performance, a sales training, coaching and consulting company

Blindspots: The Hidden Killer of Sales Coaching

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Over my 20 plus year sales training and coaching career, I have been privy to a fascinating view – I listen to sales managers have coaching conversations with their salespeople.

It’s a privileged perch to sit on, thanks to the many clients that have hired me to listen to and then coach their managers on how to make those conversations more effective.

In these 1:1 calls everyone dials in –  the manager, the salesperson, and me.  I say nothing.  I take lots of notes.  Then the manager and I debrief after the call.  Usually I will sit in on one manager’s several calls over a day.  Patterns and habits emerge.

One of the discoveries I’ve made is that managers consistently commit behaviors that they are unware they commit, and these behaviors prevent them from delivering effective coaching and developing stronger relationships with their salespeople. I call this phenomena blindspots.

Unfortunately, these blindspots are one cause of salespeople underperforming.  The manager’s blindspot behavior prevents getting the most from the salesperson.  It’s similar to a sports coach not getting the most out of his or her players.   What’s worse is when these blindspots cause the relationship between manager and salesperson to be so bad the salesperson leaves to work for someone else.

After several years of listening to the coaching conversations and processing what these blindspots mean for the profession, I decided to write a book about it.

The book is called Blindspots:  The Hidden Killer of Sales Coaching.  We are targeting a Q1 2019 release for the book.

I wasn’t gifted with some natural ability to coach sales managers about their blindspots.  I knew a poor coaching conversation when I heard one, but it took me a while to be able to deconstruct it and lead a conversation about what and why it happened.  I poured through my personal notes of 600 coaching conversations and saw patterns.  The patterns led to insights and the insights led to developing frameworks for coaching that I’ve applied to thousands of sessions since.

Before you think that I think I’m somehow immune from this same phenomenon, the biggest factor in my being able to write Blindspots is because of dealing with my own, both professional and personal.

Over the next several months I will blog about blindspots.  I hope you find value in this.  Since I’ve had (and still have) my share of blindspots I know you will likely be challenged too in acknowledging your own.  I challenge you to remain open to the possibilities and most of all to have faith in the purpose of the suffering that you must endure to authentically become better.

Stay tuned!

Mark Sellers

Author of The Funnel Principle

Author of Blindspots: The Hidden Killer of Sales Coaching (due out in Q1 2019)

A Sales Managers’ Toughest Duty – Necessary Endings

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One of the challenging parts of a sales manager’s job is to know when to hold ‘em and know when to fold ‘em when it comes to retaining or firing a salesperson.

In Henry Cloud’s wonderful book Necessary Endings, he talks about the need to prune even the live branches of a rose bush for the healthier, live branches to thrive.  Sometimes the best thing a manager can do for not only her region but also for the salesperson is to let that salesperson go.  As Henry Wadsworth Longfellow says in his poem Elegiac Verse ‘great is the art of beginning, but greater the art is of ending.’

This metaphor applies to our personal lives too. We all have necessary endings that we must prune.  Habits we’ve fallen into, patterns of thinking that have become toxic, malaise, prejudices and biases that we’ve allowed to creep into our thinking, pride taking over, etc.

Here are 3 things to consider when going through the challenge of deciding if you’ve reached a necessary ending with one of your salespeople.

One – Is she coachable?

Maybe this is highest on the list.  When someone is open to coaching it shows several characteristics including humility and an acknowledgement of weaknesses.  Being coachable means he’s open to feedback and to getting better. This is a darned good start.

 

Two – Does she give a shit?

If a salesperson comes off as lacking the drive to make changes and to be open to feedback she could be missing the fundamental need to have the energy to change.  I’ve seen ‘veteran’ salespeople who are sort of mailing it in, not willing to do what’s being asked by the manager to adopt a sales process.  This is passive resistance.  I’ve seen stubborn salespeople who resist taking the manager’s coaching because they think they know what’s best for themselves.  This is active resistance.

In our Funnel Audit process we can see more clearly if a salesperson lacks give a shit.  We still need to get under that to understand the motives.

 

Three – is he capable?

In the end sales managers need salespeople who are capable in the job.  For example, sometimes the sales manager needs more hunting activity than farming activity. If a salesperson doesn’t show capability in doing more hunting that doesn’t bode well for the rep.  If they show willingness to be coached or show give a shit energy sometimes those can compensate for deficits in capability.

Underperforming salespeople deserve a thorough and objective assessment of the reasons for their performance.

Good Selling,

Mark Sellers

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

Creator of The BuyCycle Funnel

How to Leverage 80/20 for Sales Success

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You’ve all heard of the 80/20 rule.  Also called Pareto’s Rule.  It’s one of the simplest, hardest principles to consistently apply. But boy does it pay off!

Take a quick test.  Look at your reps’ weekly or monthly to do list.  How many times do they fail to completely finish it?  How does that make them feel?  Are they finishing the goals that will make the biggest impact on their quotas and their lives?

Do your salespeople a favor and help them apply 80/20. Here are some ideas.

One – work on selling deeper into their existing customers before letting them pick ‘x’ new customer targets.

Often I see salespeople that aren’t getting more share of their existing customer business.  They either don’t target getting more share or they assume that the customer that buys from another company wouldn’t consider buying more from them. But these are great ‘Stage 0’ conversations to proactively engage with the customer.  It might sound as simple as this:

“I’d enjoy the opportunity to learn more about your total business needs and how we might better serve you. Can we get together to discuss?”   

Two – consider firing some of their existing customers.

Who would walk away from existing business?  I have a client that does this through its ‘product line simplification’ process.  It’s in their DNA to do this.  They spot low volume, low margin products that hurt the bottom line. Not only do these products return low margin but they also gobble up production time that could be spent producing and selling higher margin products.

Three – practice saying ‘no’.

This might be the hardest for many salespeople.  They love the hunt right?  But getting better at saying no to business that will cost more to service and with customers that offer little potential for growth and volume is often good business practice.

What happens when your salespeople exercise any of these strategies is they are forced to double down on existing customers and those with truly attractive potential for longer term growth and volumes.

Good Selling,

Mark Sellers

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

Creator of The BuyCycle Funnel

Think of Rebounding When Coaching Salespeople to Prospect

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How do you help salespeople prospect when they struggle to do so?

As a sales manager you may have that rep (or more) who struggles to add new early stage opportunities to their sales funnel.  Sometimes it’s a ‘farmer’ type who you’re trying to get to ‘hunt’ more.

During our clients’ Funnel Audits each month we inevitably discuss how to prospect to build healthier sales funnels.  It takes only a few cycles of Funnel Audits for us to know if a rep is generally more or generally less naturally inclined, and therefore competent, to prospect.

I realize this topic is a monster of possibilities but here I offer some of the simple ways we help our clients with this vital function.

A Qualifier

Many of my clients are SMBs that don’t have staff or know-how for running email marketing campaigns or lead nurture programs. Therefore much of the job of lead gen falls to salespeople.  You see why this can be a problem.

Here are ways we tackle this challenge.

Identify The Main Issue

I try to dumb down the prospecting challenge by asking the rep and manager these two questions:

Is your challenge more about getting access to the stakeholders in companies you have identified to call on, or

Is your challenge more about finding companies to call on? 

When the challenge is getting access we focus on these tasks:

1 – Are you targeting the right stakeholders?

2 – Is your message compelling enough to get their attention?

3 – Are you being persistent enough?

 

When the challenge is finding more companies to call on we focus on this:

1 – Are you sure you’re getting as much share of current customers’ business as you could be?

2 – Are there divisions or business units or lines of business within current customers that you could be referred to?

3 – Do you have a vetted target account list of potential companies?

4  – Are you being persistent enough?

 

See what’s similar? Again, I realize there’s more complexity to this challenge, but we have to start somewhere.  Often I find in my coaching that salespeople lack the persistence element.

Finding more companies sometimes means the rep needs to have ‘shorter term memory’.  They’ll say they don’t call on ‘x’ because ‘x’ turned them down the last time they pitched some business, or ‘x’ has been buying from competitor ‘y’ forever.  This may be true but it’s also defeatist.  Sales managers have to encourage reps to get back up to the plate again, take another shot, and keep trying, albeit with different creative approaches.

I think prospecting is a bit like rebounding in basketball.  Several years ago I taught my son’s 4thgrade team how to box out.  But in the games the boys who grabbed the rebounds were typically the ones who wanted the ball more, not necessarily the ones that boxed out well.  College announcers comment all the time that the team that wins the battle of the boards are usually the teams that looked like they wanted it more.

Prospecting struggles often come back to how bad you want it.  If you give up after a few tries of trying to see someone or break into a new account you’re doomed.  In my experience highly persistent salespeople are often rewarded by a stakeholder who finally gives in or even feels bad for not returning the call.

Good Selling,

Mark Sellers

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

Creator of The BuyCycle Funnel

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

 

 

 

 

Managing the Sales Funnel with Channel Partners

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How do you manage a sales funnel when a portion of your business goes through distributors?

For the purpose of this blog I’ll refer to all intermediaries between a manufacturer and end user as channel partners.  I don’t mean to deny any specific dynamics that must be addressed; rather, I’m choosing to comment on what’s fundamental about managing the funnel through this relationship.

Managing the funnel is every bit as important when working through channel partners.  Manufacturers need to know where deals are in the buying process.  This helps them influence the buying process – create funnel movement.  It also helps them forecast.

The channel complexity I’ve seen with my clients the past 20 years makes managing the funnel a challenge.  One challenge is when the channel partner won’t reveal much about the deal they are working on. They keep information close to the vest. It’s hard to ‘stage’ these deals.   Another challenge is when the channel partner doesn’t invite you to strategize with them to move the deal through the process.  This is particularly frustrating when the channel’s sales competency is low.  You feel defenseless.

Do you ‘stage’ deals based on where the manufacturer is in selling to the channel partner, or based on where the channel partner is in selling to the end user?

The answer could be yes!

One thing to keep in mind is that the funnel is based on ‘opportunities’. It’s not a funnel of accounts.  An opportunity has a dollar value and a purchase date, and likely a purchase order or contract that creates obligation.

If a channel partner can buy $200,000 of your stuff why not make that a funnel opportunity?  A PFA has to bless the purchase, a buying process is present.  Loading distributors has its pros and cons so beware.

You can also base your funnel on the end user purchases from the channel partner.  This is what pulls your product through and sustains revenue growth.  I’ve had clients that needed to pivot the sales team to be more focused on selling to the end user.  They used The Funnel Principle to do this.

Last, for now anyway, you can’t avoid channel conflict in most situations where a distributor is involved.  Here’s another reason to get good at your funnel management within this environment. The funnel gives you the necessary focus and allocation of selling time to what’s important.  Giving more than just visibility, the funnel gives insight that directs the team to the right selling activities.

 

Good Selling!

 

Mark Sellers

Author, The Funnel Principle and soon to be released coaching book Blindspots: The Hidden Killer of Sales Coaching

 

Not so fast sales managers!

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I often feel like I’m operating in hyperdrive, with 15 spinning plates of my everyday life wobbling precariously, getting light headed as my eyes race left then right then left, trying to spot the next one that’s about to fall.

I’m getting drenched with data and drips and insights and hindsights and quests and requests and all I want is a dry place to sip my coffee, or a little Kentucky bourbon at the end of the day. Just a little.

Therefore, to deal with all of this (all of my choosing) I work harder to get better at faster processing the flood of what comes at me. In other words I try to get to conclusions as fast as possible. Process this one. Then move on to the next one.  Wash.  Rinse. Repeat.

I’ve created an illusion.

I compare it in a way to multi tasking which apparently is not possible, they tell me. The brain isn’t capable of doing that. I don’t have time for that nonsense. I spin more plates.

Recently I was facilitating a coaching workshop with front line sales managers. One of them was new to his region. He was a veteran of sales and held management positions in his career. On the shuttle bus to the airport at the end of the week he said his strategy has been to get to know his salespeople first.

I said you’re brilliant.

My advice (since they were paying me to offer it) was this: resist the temptation of quickly coming to conclusions about your people. How long does it take to really get to know someone? Have you figured out your spouse? Your dad? Your sister? Your neighbor?  Do you really know all of the pivotal events throughout their lives that shaped their personalities and prejudices and cause them to do those little things that annoy the kabootle out of you?

I see this front line sales manager as sort of in a construction zone with his salespeople, needing to slow down and put both hands on the wheel.  Then, pave that new road that allows his sellers to get back to full speed as soon as possible.  Go.  Sell.  Now.

Leading people isn’t easy. Front line sales managers have a phenomenally challenging job. Manage up and manage down.  Manage sideways.  Manage high maintenance customers.  They process an avalanche of to dos every day. A fun house of spinning plates. But these plates are not all equally pressing.  Maybe some of them are able to crash to the floor and cause little damage.  The ones with salespeople’s names on them should glow, though it’s not always obvious.  Salespeople don’t want to be processed.

This manager also recounted an earlier job as a salesperson himself.  He said his manager called in daily to ask “what’d you sell today?  Why not more?  What’re you gonna do tomorrow to fix that?”  Coaching?  Maybe in some language I’ve never heard of.  Pity the fool for grabbing the pant legs of his people as he went down the drain.

Frameworks and methods and skills can certainly help sales managers do their jobs. Then there’s Empathy and Curiosity, supported by Patience and Vulnerability.  How do you teach that?  Who’s going to sign off on that training?

Drive Channel Sales with Better Sales Funnel Strategy

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Over the past 20 years of training and consulting my firm has had many clients that use non-direct, ‘channel’ salesforces to sell.  So how does the sales funnel best work with channel partners?

Focus and alignment. How common is it that your channel isn’t focused where you want it to be selling?  The problem sometimes is they bring you into deals too late to differentiate or that aren’t in your strategic wheelhouse.  The sales funnel can align and focus selling efforts with your channel.  One of our first significant clients was a division of a large company that sold industrial hoses.  Management asked me how a sales funnel process would benefit their 125 sellers.  I said I didn’t know.  Fortunately, they were smarter than me and hired us to make it work.  The sales funnel process brought greater collaboration and coordination of selling efforts.  That division later was sold to private equity and then bought by another major player in the industry.

  1. Defining funnel entries. One of the considerations is to define the opportunities on the funnel as either end user or distributor/channel.  For example, if your team wants to sell through a new distributor to get better coverage then selling the distributor is the funnel entry.  However, if end user pull through is your focus then funnel entries can be defined by end users like a contractor, a retailer, or a manufacturer.
  2. Better qualification. It’s not uncommon for a channel partner to bring you into deals late in the buying process.  It’s hard to differentiate beyond price and harder still to shape the solution to favor your capabilities. Chasing these deals wastes time.  A sales funnel process doesn’t eliminate this but should surely reduce the times it occurs.  The key is to have regular funnel inspections with your channel sellers.  In these conversations you can reset and confirm the deals and accounts both of you should focus on.
  3. Better accountability. Improving sales productivity and performance ultimately comes down to execution and holding people accountable.  You can’t be shy about demanding that kind of relationship with your channel partners.  The good ones will respect it.

 

Good selling,

 

Mark Sellers

Author, The Funnel Principle and soon to be released book Blindspots:  The Hidden Killer of Sales Coaching