Empower your sales manager to drive more revenue!

 

To increase sales velocity, most organizations either invest in marketing (buy more leads) or invest in sales (hire more sales people). The sad truth is that both of these tactics are wildly ineffective. While more leads may put additional MQLs into the top of the funnel, there's no guarantee that these leads will convert to SQLs or eventually customers. And similarly, hiring more sales people takes time and effort -- three to six months to recruit an inside sales person and bring them up to speed, twelve to eighteen months to recruit and enable a good enterprise field rep. By then your successor will be facing the same challenge! And...more sales people don't guarantee more revenue. It just doesn't work that way! You have a better option! Improve conversion rates and velocity at each stage of your sales funnel! No additional marketing investment is needed. No new sales headcount required...just a focus on skill and process improvement. And the ROI for this investment is dramatically higher! Given my background of 20+ years in enterprise (and early stage) sales enablement, you might expect me to suggest investment in sales enablement as the obvious approach. Years ago, as a newly minted CRO of a $20M professional services organization, I did not invest in enablement. I did something different...related, but different. And revenues grew by 75% in 18 months. While good sales enablement is a critical foundation for improving sales productivity, you cannot turn around an ineffective sales enablement function in less than eighteen months. Short term revenue acceleration requires focused process and skills improvement and coaching by the sales manager. The fastest route to increased revenue velocity is to empower your first line sales manager The job of the first line sales manager is to ensure the success and effectiveness of the sales team. Yet, in most organizations, first line sales managers spend most of their time not empowering their direct reports. Instead, they are burdened with managing up, conducting pipeline reviews, selling (acting as heros "saving" their reps), and dealing with administrivia. What a waste... In the meantime, their direct reports receive no coaching or timely feedback on their tactics, habits, techniques...they just keep doing the same thing that hasn't been working in the past. Oh, and by the way, the rep's manager is the primary reason why a rep will stay with (or leave) a company!

Steps to take First, this approach requires a shift in mindset, a focus on coaching and deliberate practice. How much of that happens in your organization today? Sales leadership must send a strong signal that coaching is the single most valuable activity for sales managers to undertake. Not pipeline inspection...coaching.

Too many sales managers are former lone wolves...they were great at selling, so they must be great managers. Wrong. Ted Lasso never played (European) football, yet he was a great coach! Assume that your sales managers need help in developing their coaching skills. Invest in a coaching workshop and ongoing support to ensure that they are indeed coaching and that their coaching skills improve over time. Measure the time they spend actually coaching. It should be 20-30% of their week...every week. Use your CRM data to identify where individuals and teams need coaching...and deliberate practice...focus. If early stage conversion rates are weak, focus there. If negotiation skills are lacking, focus there. Assume that discovery skills can be improved through skill building.

Professionals practice. You're a sales professional, not a sales amateur Devote time for deliberate practice. Professionals in many fields (and most athletes!) practice their craft and skills before they enter the operating room or step onto the field of play. To be good at what you do, you must practice. You must focus on the skills that make you good, and you will benefit from immediate, in-the-moment feedback. If you don't practice, you'll have to think your way through a difficult sales situation. And by then it's too late. Why don't sales people undertake deliberate practice? Role playing is uncomfortable. Ya. So is lifting weights or doing windsprints or practicing your keynote speech. Practice takes time away from selling time. Sure... Your sales people must build the "muscle memory" so they can pivot with the customer or deal with a challenging objection. They must build the muscle memory so that challenging selling situations go smoothly, that nothing rattles them, that the customer truly understands that they are on their side, helping them to achieve their strategic business goals.

Account planning as a team sport

 

Many organizations consider account planning as an opportunity to inventory opportunities. Others view it as a way of monitoring sales activity without getting too involved. A successful completion of the process results in a planning document being filed somewhere. A survey conducted by the Strategic Account Management Association (SAMA) found that, even within their membership, a few years ago a mere 11% of account plans were “effectively executed.” That’s a pretty dismal completion rate, given that these plans should be the primary pathway to better customer relationships and higher revenue generation! And I don’t have any evidence that this percentage has grown in recent years. Savvy sales leaders, on the other hand, view account planning as a co-creation and alignment process, a continuous mix of discovery, conversation, hypothesis building/testing and value creation. For field reps and KADs/SAMs alike, good account planning, as an ongoing process, is a fabulous way to engage the customer, solve real problems and maximize your opportunities within an account.

Customers don't know what they don't know It's your job as the external expert to help customers learn new things, "to see around corners" as one executive at a key account requested of my team. We talk with customers across industries and have a very different perspective of what's possible.

It came as a surprise to one operations leader at a major airline that he could receive realtime notification of operations issues, rather than the overnight batching of data that populated his dashboard each morning. While we may take that capability for granted, he wasn't aware that this was possible. He simply didn't know what he didn't know. Once he became aware of this new possibility, he moved quickly to incorporate both realtime and strategic operations monitoring.

Inputs and outputs Great field reps work with their technical counterparts, CSMs (if any) and others to identify the strategic opportunities and challenges for their accounts. Conversant in their customers' business operations, they build business value hypotheses on how the customer can more effectively achieve their desired business results. The process involves a lot of inputs, analysis and outputs. But...it is not a linearprocess...it's a continuous process, similar to discovery. And the goal is enrollment...enrolling the customer in believing that these larger goals are possible, and getting stakeholder buy-in. With that buy-in and commitment, anything is possible.

Great account planning is a team sport The team includes not only sales, sales management and leadership, technical consultants, SMEs and other vendor personnel, but also customer stakeholders.

Without the active participation of the customer, we're not conducting account planning, we're building empty hopes that likely don't align with the customer's goals, time frames, priorities and investment strategies. To have real impact, we must align with their goals and priorities. Sometimes we can help shape those goals and priorities. Budgets will follow. But...if they're not at the table while we conduct our planning, alignment and buy-in is simply not possible. And effective governance of the process ensures that this is not a one-time touch point, but an ongoing exchange of ideas and joint investments that lead to better business results for both parties. Suspect that your account planning could be more productive? Lets talk...

For those on annual sales cycles, mid/late Q2 represents a critical turning point. 

It's officially time to shift our primary focus from building net new pipeline to developing and managing our qualified opportunities.

Of course...we never stop engaging with prospects about new opportunities. However...as many organizations, both seller and buyer alike, operate on a calendar year for transactions, we must pivot to focus on developing existing opportunities in our pipeline.

Step one is to continue qualifying those opportunities and moving them forward with velocity. Use these questions to determine the fate of an opportunity - up or out!

• Is the opportunity real?

• Does a compelling event exist?

• Has the customer committed appropriate resources to evaluating the proposed approach, to building an evaluation plan, to building an implementation plan?

• What is the priority of this initiative relative to others on their plate?

• Are there stakeholders not deeply engaged in the conversation?

• Does the customer have the bandwidth, staff and expertise to conduct a successful implementation?

• Is there an agreed on path and timeline for moving forward? Is this validated and modified regularly?

At some level, do you have a meeting of the minds?

Are you engaged with the "right" stakeholders? Have you met them F2F? Are you texting with them?

Do you have agreement on the potential business impact and the proposed solution?

A meeting of the minds!

The next step is to ask this question:

What else must be true for this opportunity to be CLOSED/WON?

By asking this question you will uncover issues, new stakeholders and influences that don't show up in the linear evaluation.

Step three is to work backward from the Go Live date - the "by when" the solution must be up and running, in production, without the old platform, application, system or services running in parallel.

• When must the solution be stood up, implemented, validated?

• How long will it take to implement?

• How long will the contracts/agreements take after a formal "GO" decision is made? Are you managing this work in parallel with technical evaluations?

• How long will the proof of concept take (if one is needed)? What resources are needed? Are they committed? Have you helped the customer to draft a good set of evaluation/success criteria?

The sales manager/sales leader perspective

Y'all know that sales people have happy ears...that when a customer says "maybe", the sales person hears "absolutely!"

As manager or leader, you must bring your experience of successful engagement flow to the opportunity review with the rep. Not every rep thinks ahead, covering every nuance of the path required.

Your opportunity is to provide coaching rather than inspection. Coaching is useful, welcomed, appreciated. Coaching provides a foundation for future success.

Inspection, on the other hand, is feared, hated, reviled. It has little to offer the rep, other than an exhausting set of questions that seem only to fuel additional visibility for management. Nothing for them. Nothing to actually help the rep move the opportunity forward.

And...inspection is destined to fail. Reps don't know what they don't know. In fact, you as manager don't know what you don't know.

You don't know that while your rep has been talking to the technical lead twice a week for the past six weeks, they've only talked with two of the business stakeholders once. That the sales engineer hasn't checked in on the POC in a month. That the tone of the conversation with another key stakeholder has changed.

You believe that the influence chart, built in Salesforce or PowerPoint, gives us full visibility into the strength of the many relationships.

Relationships aren't that simple.

They're multi-threaded. They wax and wane. They run into blocks, challenges, disagreements, breakthroughs. Connections form, strengthen, weaken and break all the time!

It's the strength of the relationships that determine the outcome of an opportunity.

If only we had accurate intelligence on the state of our conversations and relationships with customers,

If only we could look at the scope and tone of the conversations in email and on Zoom calls, and then correlate them to SFA records, we'd have a much better view of the strength of an opportunity.

With that comprehensive view of opportunities, both successful and failed, we could build a highly prescriptive model of what good looks like. This could become a coaching tool to help reps focus on the activities and relationships that matter. And it would dramatically improves our confidence in forecasting and managing those opportunities,

Hey Lee, is this possible?

I've been thinking about these sources of conversation, relationship and revenue intelligence for a long time.

It's all there...in Salesforce or Hubspot, in email, in the transcripts of Zoom meetings...

And yes, it's now possible to aggregate, correlate and leverage that information to improve your pipeline quality, to boost your CLOSED/WON rates, to improve both sales team effectiveness and efficiency.

Curious? Lets talk...

Mindset Matters

 

If you think you can, you're right!

If you think you can't, you're right!

Mindset matters a lot, and whether we have a growth mindset or a limiting mindset, we have room for improvement!

We aren't born with limiting beliefs. The young person's mind is a blank slate. The child wants to know "why"; to make sense of the world, to explore, to grow.

Then someone tells the child to "shush", to speak only when spoken to, that they don't belong here, that they have to behave a certain way, or that they won't amount to anything. I learned to be the class clown. It was my way of both getting attention and to hiding out. And it took many years for me to learn to take that mask off.

These beliefs are reinforced over time. The programming takes a set and we carry the beliefs forward into school and our careers. So much of what we do day-to-day, now, is based on the programming we received as young children.

And...that programming was delivered without intent, good or bad...just a passing comment from another person, perhaps a parent or a teacher. Something someone said casually to a five year old, without thinking, or really meaning anything...

The first step is to acknowledge that inner voice, the critic, the judge or saboteur.

Yes, I hear you.

The next step is to recognize that it is just a voice, a simple program running in our mind that can be erased and replaced with programs that serve rather than constrain us.

It's not who we are.

Yes, I hear you. Thank you for sharing. Now...go away, I have important things to do.

That voice who says "we are not good enough" or "we can't do it" or "we don't belong here" or "we are not worthy"...is just a voice. It's just old programming that never was relevant and certainly isn't relevant today.

Let it go!

We have work to do. If we are clear on our purpose, that inner critic gets drowned out by the roar of our purpose. My purpose is to help people transform and anything that doesn't help me to accomplish that purpose is just noise, to be ignored.

Authenticity

In sales, authenticity is critically important, just as important as curiosity. If we are authentic and curious and listen, we become trusted partners to our customers.

I work with principals of service organizations who have difficulty being authentic. They believe that they cannot sell, they don't want to be the caricature of the sales person, to be that guy!

And this belief, this programming, this internal saboteur keeps them from authentically sharing the passion for their services. When they let that image, that programming go, engagement with prospects increases dramatically and revenues skyrocket.

Similarly, I find many sales people, from SDR to key account director, harboring negative programming:

SDR: "I have nothing to offer an executive...I hope they don't answer the phone!" (How will that conversation go?)

Field rep: "I don't know all the technical details." (Your job as Listener in Chief and choreographer is to guide the customer through the process and connect them with technical and other resources)

KAD: "My job is to fulfill demand." (If that were your job, you'd be a fax machine!)

As sales people, our job is to be curious, to listen, to develop a point of view, to help the customer to see new opportunities. A negative mindset constrains us from playing all out in the game of improvisation that is high level sales.

A growth mindset allows us to take a longer view, to keep the customer's needs and goals in mind and to focus on helping them to be successful.

When they win, we win.

Our growth mindset allows us to connect with our customer's goals and initiatives.

When managing a key account team calling on Merck, I showed the team a "Merck for Mothers" banner displayed in the lobby at the company's headquarters. As part of this campaign Merck committed $650 million to ensure that no woman has to die while giving life.

We had a conversation about the banner, its impact on employees walking through the door each morning, and how the team can align to support that purpose. As a result, our conversations switched from the focus on middleware and CRM and databases to how we could better support the global Merck initiative.

Your intent is written on your forehead

When our intent (or context) switches from "we want to sell you some stuff" to "we understand and support your strategic initiatives," both organizational and personal, it's visible.

Our intent comes through every word, every statement, every body movement. Customers know exactly what we're up to, what we're working towards, how we'll treat them in the short and longer term.

Together We Win

My personal intent (or context) is usually "Together We Win."

As someone who runs partnerships, delivers global sales enablement, coaches sales people and teams...I must work in partnership with others to deliver impact. In that partnership, I find dramatic leverage.

Even if we don't consciously set our intent, we always have specific, visible intent or context. Sometimes it's a simple "I have no freakin' idea" or "I can't wait to be done with this." When we do consciously set our intent, it's much more powerful!

Do this next!

Step one is to actively listen for that limiting self talk, that inner voice, the inner judge/critic/saboteur. (There's also an inner sage; we'll leave that for another time.)

When you hear that inner voice -- the one right now saying "what inner voice" -- just acknowledge it. "I hear you." That first step reduces its power and allows us to begin reclaiming our own power, autonomy, and joy!

For some, it only takes a few moments to completely eradicate that negative programming. For others the programming is so deeply ingrained into our belief of who we are that it can take longer.

Step two is to begin the work on your Inner Game. I'd suggest reading The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz. While it's not specifically a book on sales, it is one of the best regarding mindset.

If you've already read it, then please reread it. Each time you'll bring new context to the reading and take away new learnings. I've reread it twice in the past year alone!

Need help?

If you need help building your positive mindset and the accompanying practices and habits that drive better customer engagement and results, please reach out to schedule an initial conversation.

Schedule time to talk now!