The other day, I read a post by Dave Kurlan on 3 Powerful Excuses for Maintaining Mediocrity in Your Sales Hiring. Quite a provocative title, no?

I read Dave's points from my perspective as s a former Inside Sales Manager. I have to admit blushing with a bit of embarrassment as I recognized past mistakes in his points.

To set the stage, Dave presented on a Sales hiring webinar and was asked:

It is a key question. Dave responded with three reasons (highlighted sections below): ego, money & fear.

A good Manager will admit these realities and turn them into 3 powerful reasons to utilize every tool available. It is a different world we sell in now so what you used at another company 5 years ago may not work now. Your product offerings may be changing, your markets may be evolving, your sales goals may be higher, your team players may be different - so embrace that reality and create a new vision for success.

Are you ready to turn your negatives into positives for 2010?

(Photo credit: Troy Holden)

I asked the Reps to describe what they meant and here's what they shared:

So I dug a little deeper. How is this preventing the overall group from being successful?

I was shocked. How could any good Sales Leader allow this atmosphere to grow and destroy the morale of their department? It was de-motivating and sucked the wind out of the sails of hungry Sales Reps.

Then it hit me, I did exactly the same thing when I was a Sales Manager! I didn't realize it, but I was guilty of allowing tenured entitlement. And I don't think I'm alone.
 

Does this sound familiar?

You've got this person, who has been with the company for a very long time. They know the product and process and at one time they were on top. They are reliable; they can fill any hole because they know everything works! Slowly, without formality, they acquire this "special status". They are asked to take on special projects and before you know it they aren't required to make as many calls or close as many deals.

The trouble is, this person isn't a "sales superstar". Maybe they were at one time, but now they are your "go-to person" (with a lower number and special status).
 

The ramifications of Tenured Entitlement

So what's to be done?

Take the time to understand motivation
It's an important ingredient in sales management. We all have our natural style for motivating others. Some members of our team respond well and we know who they are.

Maybe "Mr. Special" would have risen to the occasion if I had said directly:

Scott Herrick of Cube Rules writes:

Bottom line, as a leader you should expect the best from your team. No one should get to bathe in the limelight of past performance for more than 30 days!

In order to attain peak performance, you will need to take the time to understand how to motivate each individual on your team. Over time, what motivates them could change. You need to stay tuned in and notice when you are no longer being effective. Have the discussion with them and see if you can

I'd like to hear if anyone else shares my guilt? What are your thought?

(Photo credit: citizensheep)

Note: I've been thinking about this post for a while and the earthquake and it's aftermath in Haiti have really brought it top of mind.

Many Executives, and often Reps themselves, will describe salespeople as "coin operated". That's what the spiff model is all about, right?

• Establish a goal
• Run a spiff
• Comp the winner
• Shame the losers (?)

I recently ran into a post by Lilia Shirman over at Revenue Orchard where she asks:

For some time I've been thinking about that very question and how Inside Sales groups might integrate team based and even social / philanthropic giving into motivation programs.

The folks over at Green Leads have a really interesting program and I asked their COO,  Linda Flanagan, to share a bit of background.

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I absolutely love what Linda and the team are doing over there. Salesforce.com is also doing some great "integrated philanthropy" work with their 1/1/1 model.

We are in the process of building out a Bridge Group charitable project based on the Salesforce 1/1/1 model and we will keep you posted with what we come up with.

I'd love to hear from our readers on what you‘re doing. Please share.

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I'm sure you've already seen this, but you can donate $10 to the American Red Cross by texting Haiti to 90999.

(Photo credit: lightsight)

So, here are 8 things that Sales Leaders can do to ensure that they get that 8% uplift:

So get out there and achieve your 8% uptick in productivity.  You can do it! Please share your thoughts.

(Photo credit: mixergirl)

During this conversation, CSO Insights's Barry Trailer discusses the need to change our orientation in Sales and realize that a Sales Rep is not just their number. Barry points to Tiger Woods as a positive example. He discusses how during his road to recovery, Tiger effectively "focused on what he was doing well" and didn't equate bad performance too closely with himself.

I play golf so the topic really hit home for me.  As Sales professionals we do measure ourselves by results. 

Good numbers mean I am a good Sales Leader. Bad numbers mean I am not so good. Self worth is so tied to the numbers!

I took a series of golf lessons this season and my game really improved.  It improved because I learned not only what I was doing wrong and ways to correct it, but also, I learned how to look at what I was doing right and focus on that.  I learned a routine that I can repeat and practice over and over again. 

For all of the golfers out there, you know what I am talking about and it is the good shots, the surprise shots, the great putt you just sank that keeps you coming back to the game.

Continuing the golf analogy, here are some bits of advice to share with your Reps:

• Hit the practice range
  Highly successful Sales Reps build pipeline every day. How do they do that? They spend at least one hour a day reaching out to brand new prospects. These are their power hours, no emails, no chatting, no twitter or facebook, just outbound prospecting.
  
  
• Drive it down the fairway
  When a Rep schedules a meeting with a target account, that's their great drive down the fairway. Help them understand that you don't always have a great drive. They must accept this and try again on the next hole.
  
  
• The short game
  Effectively moving the sales process forward, much like the short game, is the most difficult part in my opinion. Reps have so much to strategize about. Reading a lie badly or choosing the wrong club can severely hurt the score (or sales opportunity).
  
  Also, different Reps have different comfort zones. I'm a great long hitter, but up close to the pin, not so confident. Similarly, some are excellent at presentation while weak on the close. Have your Reps identify their weaknesses and work with them on those skills. 
  
  
• Putting
  Everything is going great but at the last second the ball goes left and not in the hole. Does that make me a loser? No, does that mean I am a bad sales person? No. Sometimes the decision making process just goes awry and circumstances are out of your control. Know your job, do it well and let the missed opportunities go.
   

My point is this: Golf is a game. It is a practice. Just the same for Sales, it is a game where we know the rules but sometimes our ball goes left and we don't get the sale.

Jack Nicklaus once said "focus on remedies, not faults". That is exactly what we must encourage our Reps to do. 

At the end of the day, they need to focus on what went right that day, and how they can improve their "drive", "short game" and "putting" going forward.  And since I've quoted Jack, here is another by him: "Resolve never to quit, never to give up, no matter what the situation".

Now go out there and help your Sales team close some business.

(Photo Credit: SvendO)

I got an email last week with the subject: "Knock Knock - It's the Fourth Quarter." That subject definitely caught my attention. 

In it, Lee Levitt from IDC, lays out the case that what we do now will have huge impact on not only the 2^nd half of 2009, but future success in 2010. Lee argues:

So how can we ensure that Inside Sales is ready to meet these pressures? Here are a few tips you can implement to focus your team:

As always, I'd love to hear your comments.  What steps are you taking to address these issues?

Paul McCord was kind enough to invite me to participate in his Boost Your Sales Series. The following is cross-posted from the Sales and Sales Management Blog.
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I am not a fanatical baseball fan like some of my friends.  My friend Linda can quote stats and facts about the Red Sox till your head spins.  She lives for the game.

Anyway, the reason I want to talk about why prospecting is like baseball is because I recently saw a quote by Mickey Mantle that struck home:

Wow - 7 years without hitting the ball! What dedication, what a positive mental attitude, what a viewpoint that you have to put in the time to get the results you need to be an all star. 

Don't you wish your sales organization understood that successful prospecting needs to be based on the same positive attributes?

How many times have you heard Reps say: "I called those leads and they are terrible"? Then you go into the database and see that they lobbed out a few calls to a few of the leads and, big surprise, they got out of that effort what they put in - nothing. 

Or, how many of them lament that cold calling yields no results yet they never do it? Or, and this one gets my blood boiling, how many times have you heard them call a prospect and say "Bob, I was just calling to follow-up on a whitepaper you recently downloaded"?  Yeah, that's a compelling message!

So, how do you provide them with the dedication, positive mental attitude and the understanding that every prospecting exercise may not result in a home run? You coach them - every great athlete has a great coach behind them.

• Coaching Step 1:
  Give them the metrics against which to measure themselves.
  Baseball is all about stats and so is prospecting.  Set their expectations that they will connect with 20 - 25% of their dials and that 10 - 17% of those connections will result in a qualified opportunity.
  
  
• Coaching Step 2:
  Provide them with the equipment they need to be successful.
  Give them great leads, give them accurate lists and give them great tools.  Have you created elevator pitches that are about your buyer persona and not about you?  Have you crafted voicemail messages and emails templates that deliver value and resonate with your prospect's issues? 
  
  
• Coaching Step 3:
  Act like a coach.
  When was the last time you swung a bat?  If you lead a team, you should spend at least 4 hours a month doing their job.  Get in there and prospect.  There is a double benefit to this - you will walk a mile in their shoes and just as importantly, you will get to hear how the market responds to your messaging.  Then take all that great knowledge and coach your team.
  
  
• Coaching Step 4:
  Let them compete.
  Sales Reps like to compete and allowing them to compete at the level of prospecting levels the playing field.  Not everyone is a superstar when it comes to revenue but everyone can be a superstar when it comes to prospecting.
  
  

Well, I am out of baseball analogies so I guess I will wrap up now, but what I hope you take away from this is that just like Mickey Mantle, your team has to invest time on the playing field if they are going win the game!

(Photo credit: dcJohn)

During my career in sales, I've done both inside sales and business development.  What's the difference?  With inside sales, I was responsible for my own destiny (i.e., closing deals, carrying quota).  In business development, I sold as part of a team, typically partnered with field sales (aka outside sales) and a sales engineer. 

I am often asked, "What's the most effective way for inside sales to work with field sales?"  I can sum it up in one word: COMMUNICATION. Communication is the key to your success and your team's success.

So here are 3 tips for getting your inside & field teams aligned:

1. Establish territories - don't do round robin. Inside reps need to have a set territory to effectively start building pipeline. It can be based on geography, vertical, etc. This way inside sales will take pride in building their territory and benefit from working with the same field reps on a consistent basis.
   
   
2. Weekly sales call with the aligned field rep(s). It's critically important for the teams to talk every week. Inside sales should:
     -  get feedback from meetings or calls they've set up
     -  ask if there is something they could have done differently
     -  get input from the field on where to focus calling efforts
   
   Let's face it; you don't want an inside rep calling into John Doe of XXX Corporation when the field rep is already in the account.  It's a waste of everyone's time.
   
   
3. Make the most of your CRM. No matter which CRM you use (e.g. Saleslogix, Salesforce or even an Excel spreadsheet). Every time you pick up the phone, document it. That way everyone is aware of the progress made on any account.
   
   I also recommend using tasks to track conversations on key accounts. If you're like me it's hard to remember every detail of every conversation. By completing tasks when reviewing important accounts, inside sales can record the task as an internal call with the field partner's feedback and directions as notes.

Remember, selling is about building relationships whether with the prospect or your own internal team.  

As always, if you have any tips for how inside sales can most effectively work with field sales, please post them!

I find it interesting to watch companies in high growth mode.  They get all jazzed up, beat the bushes for good candidates ("we only want A players man"), put the candidate through an extensive interview process, get them on board and then.....ignore them and let them fend for themselves!

As sales managers, are we too busy to invest in creating a training process for new hires that will help them be successful?  If we are, it is no wonder that only 60% of our sales organization makes their number.  They are learning on the job!

Here are 5 things you can do to ensure a new hire's success:

1. Provide them with a Sales Playbook that contains: your ideal customer profile, your elevator pitch, qualification questions, frequently asked questions, objection handling responses....you know, the basics.
   
   
2. Have them sit and double jack in with your inside sales team that handles the front end of the sales process.  Learning how to effectively qualify an opportunity should come before learning how to close one.
   
   
3. Let them listen to you cold call.  OMG, that actually means you will have to cold call.  You remember how right?  If you are one of the lucky few that has a full pipeline delivered by marketing then count your blessings but if you are not, then you need to teach your reps how to go get the prospects they want and need!
   
   
4. Have them call all the customers in their territory.  Not to say "Hi I'm your new rep do you want to buy anything?" but to say "Hi I'm your new rep.  Can we spend some time together so I can get a better understanding of your business and what you need to accomplish?"  This will allow them to immerse themselves in what business issues drive customers to look at your solution.
   
   
5. Provide them with documentation on how to effectively use your CRM system.  This will allow them to be more productive and also provide you with a method to monitor their activity and progress.

These are just a few thoughts off the top of my head.  What do you have to add?

What great advice!  Have any to add?  Then post a comment