tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-89667838518754062642024-03-01T03:35:08.705-05:00Thoughts On Selling™Objective -- create better, more profitable relationships between buyers and sellersLee Levitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01855067220559094836noreply@blogger.comBlogger47125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8966783851875406264.post-35855000370819931302024-01-16T08:00:00.001-05:002024-01-16T08:00:00.136-05:00Account planning as an ongoing process<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZMqPTUsr5r8OoN8UEo018r3eI4l7LgLV2GwGL58-KZWtlgDF0Hb6-I1N7pUukqJVGHy46h7CU3qbR6RI6VAQSVq_S2vMLqygNz4pa-XDJFfcM9BYdh3AnGMXUUJ8RvYYcJp5MIoYd0JZDmwq18xkeXLwjzSLVBJMh1XLJwaa0HPyyye9G6NLtLgfHCFID/s579/Screenshot%202024-01-10%20at%201.33.29%E2%80%AFPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="390" data-original-width="579" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZMqPTUsr5r8OoN8UEo018r3eI4l7LgLV2GwGL58-KZWtlgDF0Hb6-I1N7pUukqJVGHy46h7CU3qbR6RI6VAQSVq_S2vMLqygNz4pa-XDJFfcM9BYdh3AnGMXUUJ8RvYYcJp5MIoYd0JZDmwq18xkeXLwjzSLVBJMh1XLJwaa0HPyyye9G6NLtLgfHCFID/s320/Screenshot%202024-01-10%20at%201.33.29%E2%80%AFPM.png" width="320" /></a></div>Wh<span class="break-words
"><span dir="ltr">en I joined an elite field enablement team at
Oracle almost fifteen years ago, we formalized a facilitated account
planning process, both for enterprise and key accounts. However, when
sales leadership and corporate program management requested that <i>account
plans be submitted and tracked on a quarterly basis</i>, we pushed back
hard.<span><br /></span><span><br /></span>Some considered account planning
as an <i>opportunity to inventory opportunities</i>. Others viewed it as a way
of checking in on the account team, without getting too involved. A
successful completion of the process would result in a planning document
being filed in a drawer somewhere.<span><br /></span><span><br /></span>Few
thought of it as a <i>co-creation and alignment process</i>, one that is a
nearly continuous mix of discovery, conversation, hypothesis
building/testing, and value creation.<span class="white-space-pre"> </span><span><br /></span><span><br /></span>With
formally trained facilitators, good supporting material (corporate
backgrounder, footprint and SOW analysis, comps, etc.), the buy-in from an increasing
number of sales teams, and a value selling mindset, we won over the
skeptics. We demonstrated that an effective, ongoing account planning
process <b>drives deeper customer engagement</b>, <b>more customer intimacy</b>,
<b>higher revenues and profitability</b> and <b>higher lifetime customer value</b>.<span><br /></span><span><br /></span>We
had the people and process part sorted. But...we were struggling with
the documentation, the capture of tribal knowledge and the management of
action items for the teams. PowerPoint just didn't cut it, nor did
Revegy.<span><br /></span><span><br /></span><a class="app-aware-link " data-test-app-aware-link="" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/ACoAAABMNEYBRQgKq9x7i6ti8ccGFWHlpQJ6aPM" target="_self"><span></span></a>When <a class="ember-view" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/monberg/" id="ember38831"><b>Ulrik Monberg</b></a></span><span class="white-space-pre"> </span>encountered similar challenges in account planning processes, he founded<span class="white-space-pre"> </span><b><a href="https://arpedio.com/" target="_blank"><span><span><span>ARPEDIO</span></span></span></a></b><span class="white-space-pre"> </span>to provide an advanced account planning/account-based selling platform.<span><br /></span><span><br /></span>Recently<span class="white-space-pre"> </span><a class="app-aware-link " data-test-app-aware-link="" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/ACoAAABMNEYBRQgKq9x7i6ti8ccGFWHlpQJ6aPM" target="_self"><span></span></a><a class="ember-view" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/monberg/" id="ember38832"><b>Ulrik</b></a></span>, CEO of<span class="white-space-pre"> </span><span class="break-words
"><b><a href="https://arpedio.com/" target="_blank"><span><span><span>ARPEDIO</span></span></span></a></b><span class="white-space-pre"></span></span><span class="white-space-pre"> </span>and
I spent some time on the Thoughts on Selling <b><a href="https://podcast.thoughtsonselling.com/shownotes/shownotes/Episode15.html" target="_blank">podcast</a></b> discussing account
planning and account-based selling best practices. The<span class="white-space-pre"> </span><b><a class="app-aware-link " data-test-app-aware-link="" href="https://arpedio.com/" target="_blank"><span><span>ARPEDIO</span></span></a></b><span class="white-space-pre"> </span>team
then published an <b><a href="https://arpedio.com/account-based-selling/account-based-selling-a-deep-dive-with-lee-levitt-and-ulrik-monberg/" target="_blank">article</a></b> based on our conversation. The first is an
easy and interesting listen; the second is a useful written discussion
of the key topics.<span><br /></span><span><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">What are you doing to ensure the effectiveness of your account planning activities?</span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">If you'd like help ensuring success this year please reach out for an initial <b><a href="https://aceleragroup.com/forms/contact.php" target="_blank">conversation</a></b>.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">Thanks! <br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji_MzgbPopmAsZH7lzkUQUWQG2T2aS0-u53Ta2fV6bWMnXz8d9uEmy8fJZIWMPMeJ5NtJsYDixrL40J4fcO2Di-U1y1mbKNW8oFsqZqeVXOgFn2UMyn-FA9EsCmWssWNWBa_SyNaTwMW0jWUlBsd7-g7nTs7D1a2qLUDkdKPm-7BgqRt_9HuSC17DJp_V7/s84/Lee%20short%20sig.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="78" data-original-width="84" height="78" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji_MzgbPopmAsZH7lzkUQUWQG2T2aS0-u53Ta2fV6bWMnXz8d9uEmy8fJZIWMPMeJ5NtJsYDixrL40J4fcO2Di-U1y1mbKNW8oFsqZqeVXOgFn2UMyn-FA9EsCmWssWNWBa_SyNaTwMW0jWUlBsd7-g7nTs7D1a2qLUDkdKPm-7BgqRt_9HuSC17DJp_V7/s1600/Lee%20short%20sig.jpg" width="84" /></span></a></div><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">Lee <br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></p><p></p><p><span><br /></span></p>Lee Levitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01855067220559094836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8966783851875406264.post-39532401968533285162024-01-09T10:26:00.009-05:002024-01-09T11:41:23.458-05:00<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi57pSMDMgorZ-_XilBMIW-7Wv5_xlAjkRBaqwgWojQD0foONNO_EM8F9eryDoHSClurXn8Qf11zuMQp9-ynWZ5G_q8vns5vCny12A9Xy8foK8eCHNpTanNNKaZCeD8mtf_IAxWmdNIVqiYA8vbZepUcnpYBa09HJzWOu_BagL8-99IiyrdMiDYWqs_uaQ/s807/Screenshot%202024-01-09%20at%2010.06.24%E2%80%AFAM.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="495" data-original-width="807" height="244" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi57pSMDMgorZ-_XilBMIW-7Wv5_xlAjkRBaqwgWojQD0foONNO_EM8F9eryDoHSClurXn8Qf11zuMQp9-ynWZ5G_q8vns5vCny12A9Xy8foK8eCHNpTanNNKaZCeD8mtf_IAxWmdNIVqiYA8vbZepUcnpYBa09HJzWOu_BagL8-99IiyrdMiDYWqs_uaQ/w400-h244/Screenshot%202024-01-09%20at%2010.06.24%E2%80%AFAM.png" width="400" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><strong>244 Selling days left in 2024</strong></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">Savvy sales leaders understand the rhythm of selling in a calendar year...in the first quarter (after territories and quotas are communicated to the field), sales people <b><i>should</i></b> be researching and prioritizing their accounts and planning their engagements.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>In the second quarter opportunities </span><b><i>should</i></b><span> be developed, discovery conducted and value established. For larger accounts, account planning </span><b><i>should</i></b><span> be </span>planned<span> and held (with the customer's active participation. Your customers do attend your account planning sessions, right?)</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>In the third opportunities </span><b><i>should</i></b><span> be de-risked and customer commitments nailed down. Account planning </span><b><i>should</i></b><span> be continued. Executive briefings </span><b><i>should</i></b><span> be planned and hosted.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span>And...in the fourth quarter, deals </span><b><i>should</i></b><span> be closed.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">There's only three challenges with this approach.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">First, that's a lot of "shoulds."</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">With a formal structure in place, at the field level, and effective process facilitation, these important activities will happen, with effectiveness and impact.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 16px; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Second, customers don't subscribe to the sales calendar...they have their own rhythm of business, whether their fiscal year ends in June, they have a fourth quarter freeze, or they simply have needs that aren't calendar bound.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">Third, sales teams have a constant inflow and outflow of talent that requires retraining, new enablement and learning facilitation.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">How much of this are you leaving to chance? Are you counting on a manager named Should to ensure the success of your team through the course of the year?<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">How did that work out for you last year?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">What are you doing to ensure that these actions actually happen, with expediency and effectiveness?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">If you'd like help ensuring success this year please reach out for an initial <b><a href="https://aceleragroup.com/forms/contact.php" target="_blank">conversation</a></b>.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">Thanks!</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji_MzgbPopmAsZH7lzkUQUWQG2T2aS0-u53Ta2fV6bWMnXz8d9uEmy8fJZIWMPMeJ5NtJsYDixrL40J4fcO2Di-U1y1mbKNW8oFsqZqeVXOgFn2UMyn-FA9EsCmWssWNWBa_SyNaTwMW0jWUlBsd7-g7nTs7D1a2qLUDkdKPm-7BgqRt_9HuSC17DJp_V7/s84/Lee%20short%20sig.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="78" data-original-width="84" height="78" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji_MzgbPopmAsZH7lzkUQUWQG2T2aS0-u53Ta2fV6bWMnXz8d9uEmy8fJZIWMPMeJ5NtJsYDixrL40J4fcO2Di-U1y1mbKNW8oFsqZqeVXOgFn2UMyn-FA9EsCmWssWNWBa_SyNaTwMW0jWUlBsd7-g7nTs7D1a2qLUDkdKPm-7BgqRt_9HuSC17DJp_V7/s1600/Lee%20short%20sig.jpg" width="84" /></span></a></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">Lee</span></p>Lee Levitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01855067220559094836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8966783851875406264.post-43894406584495496222023-12-20T10:50:00.001-05:002023-12-20T10:50:19.335-05:00The Joy of Coaching<p><span class="break-words
"><span dir="ltr"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhodLAqHscPPVo95fhXOQpn51t2U1St1M4ZFN5VzwvU97SDpB-eVbo41iPS6gy9aSQKuQJv1hAxIxVltjahACJ-PrPS8fOwaJ7-ahqpRN1qlZZzAZ2HlJpsyuyBiyq6JGmubAGDy2HlLHhiSCarsaU2S3wQZy26h5GO4OasfCqFaE5egNajrN1BKXsNftUB/s884/girl%20kicking%20soccer%20ball.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="592" data-original-width="884" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhodLAqHscPPVo95fhXOQpn51t2U1St1M4ZFN5VzwvU97SDpB-eVbo41iPS6gy9aSQKuQJv1hAxIxVltjahACJ-PrPS8fOwaJ7-ahqpRN1qlZZzAZ2HlJpsyuyBiyq6JGmubAGDy2HlLHhiSCarsaU2S3wQZy26h5GO4OasfCqFaE5egNajrN1BKXsNftUB/s320/girl%20kicking%20soccer%20ball.png" width="320" /></a></div><br />We practiced and practiced. Each girl on my U12
squad lined up in the corner, and one by one, they kicked the ball
towards the goal as a teammate crossed from the other side, behind the
defenders.<span class="white-space-pre"> </span><span><br /></span><span><br /></span>It's
one of the first critical strategic moves in youth soccer...it teaches
the player that against her instincts, she can pass the ball to a
teammate rather than taking her own shot on goal. She learns that she
can play an important supporting role, one that ensures greater success
for the team than if she took her own off-angle shot.<span><br /></span><span><br /></span>And
one fall day, everything fell into place and they scored. And they
rushed off the pitch, yelling in unison "Mr. Levitt, Mr. Levitt! We
scored! It worked just like in practice!"<span class="white-space-pre"> </span><span><br /></span><span><br /></span>Yep :)<span><br /></span><span><br /></span>I've
done a lot of coaching since then...individual sales people, sales
teams, sales leaders, business principals, and in many cases we've had
significant breakthroughs in mindset, context, attitude, skills and
results. We've improved sales results significantly. We've built
stronger teams. We've turned around businesses. Clients are having fun
in their jobs.<span class="white-space-pre"> </span><span><br /></span><span><br /></span>Some of my coaching clients have even given me a taste of my own medicine! (Thanks<span class="white-space-pre"> </span><a class="app-aware-link " data-test-app-aware-link="" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/ACoAAABqhuwB-nvzMgkar8jpFih0iDHtTCymDAw" target="_self"><span></span></a><a class="ember-view" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/mylesbristowe/" id="ember17529">Myles Bristowe</a>, you saved my butt big time!)<span><br /></span><span><br /></span>Yet,
over all those years, and all that coaching, that one moment of
absolute joy when the girls ran off the field yelling "It worked just
like in practice!" is the one that stands out in my mind.<span><br /></span><span><br />Thanks!</span><p></p><p><span class="break-words
"><span><br /></span></span></p><p><span class="break-words
"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqjPvQswZmC1f8nhRbDXtdDi5micwfVgNNoEVEHIUE_QrBQCk4GqdSQ1Je4x7UfdT3CZo3b69QX3DmqDYzNiShaG5gfyNc-adBTThQF2rTaIBzBYdS3Adtphx_JAQcWTb7Z1Ts6wvxfCRN3wZKfYX80ZDIQWwWq9cHE0y-yiyiL0_bF4iPd-fXsUafZyAu/s84/Lee%20short%20sig.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="78" data-original-width="84" height="78" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqjPvQswZmC1f8nhRbDXtdDi5micwfVgNNoEVEHIUE_QrBQCk4GqdSQ1Je4x7UfdT3CZo3b69QX3DmqDYzNiShaG5gfyNc-adBTThQF2rTaIBzBYdS3Adtphx_JAQcWTb7Z1Ts6wvxfCRN3wZKfYX80ZDIQWwWq9cHE0y-yiyiL0_bF4iPd-fXsUafZyAu/s1600/Lee%20short%20sig.jpg" width="84" /></a></div><br /><span><br /></span><p></p>Lee Levitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01855067220559094836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8966783851875406264.post-70069771835105105522023-10-25T10:57:00.001-04:002023-10-25T10:57:33.304-04:00Supercharge your strategic account program!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">How Are You Treating Your Largest Accounts?</span></b></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Most large tech companies have a strategic account strategy, providing additional technical, business, product resources, and occasionally targeted investments for those accounts. Some provide “concierge” level access to technical or development resources. Executive sponsors are also typically assigned to these accounts, to help with elevating the visibility of the partnership and to better manage the business and technical issues that come up.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKtjKKDfDUviPYcOSnEI453uT5opaJnxtCKZfD8hNhquzU6CJ0d_jR5QTALn97BIQvOKqvYxkoyhHOcicqLwD7HZQOLqU1WI6soWbaDh3TWUNilPKCMSECU8qV9Ewd7g-cmpKg-m1qK-wG4XHkc7EuRIfgumfjVhan6E2w3WmZDmrK5DbvpL23unGBTyF_/s4304/pile%20of%20cash%20iStock-678605672.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2602" data-original-width="4304" height="193" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKtjKKDfDUviPYcOSnEI453uT5opaJnxtCKZfD8hNhquzU6CJ0d_jR5QTALn97BIQvOKqvYxkoyhHOcicqLwD7HZQOLqU1WI6soWbaDh3TWUNilPKCMSECU8qV9Ewd7g-cmpKg-m1qK-wG4XHkc7EuRIfgumfjVhan6E2w3WmZDmrK5DbvpL23unGBTyF_/s320/pile%20of%20cash%20iStock-678605672.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Why do we make these additional investments in strategic accounts? It’s where the money is, and more importantly it’s where the profit is. One study showed that a company’s top </span><b style="font-family: verdana;"><i>five</i></b><span style="font-family: verdana;"> customers alone may account for 22% of all revenues and 21% of annual profits! Other studies suggest that your top tier of customers will generate all of your company’s profits.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Strategic accounts spend more, they are customers longer, and make specific long-lasting platform, technology and relationship commitments.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br />Yet in most organizations <b><i>day to day management of the relationship is largely left to chance</i></b><i>. </i>Few companies hire true strategic account managers (SAMs), choosing instead to promote their “best” individual reps into a role that requires significant team and process management skills.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">They’re putting lone wolfs into a team coaching role. <b><i>Oops</i></b>.<br /><br />Compensation complicates things. While SAMs may be compensated on multi-year revenue attainment, share of wallet gains and customer satisfaction scores, other sales people on the account, the specialist, pillar, or portfolio sales people, typically retain their quarterly and annual quota, and frequently are re-assigned to new companies each year. These portfolio sales people don’t typically report to the SAM, usually have competing business imperatives for their own product sets and may even <b><i>compete with one another</i></b>, as multiple products from the vendor may solve a specific business or technical problem.<br /><br />In short, a primary driver of disappointment in strategic account programs is that the process typically focuses on <b><i>sales planning</i></b> or opportunity planning rather than <b><i>relationship planning and management. </i></b>Account based selling counts on the latter. And the <a href="https://www.arpedio.com/"><span class="s1">ARPEDIO</span></a> platform, for instance, has a specific set of resources to support relationship development and management.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b><i>Developing</i> a Plan Isn’t Sufficient</b><br /><br />SAMs are typically expected to develop an annual account plan, and some collaborate with their portfolio sales people to do so. Others just wing it. In most cases, the output is indeed a plan…a written document that might be revisited annually…an artifact that provides no guidance for the day-to-day governance of the account.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">It is a sales plan with detailed lists of potential opportunities, alignment of products to perceived business or technical problems. The plan typically lacks a thorough analysis of the influence or relationship map within the account or any plans to bolster relationships with important internal and external (partner) stakeholders.<br /><br />A survey conducted by the Strategic Account Management Association (<a href="http://www.strategicaccounts.org/"><span class="s1"><b>SAMA</b></span></a>) found that, even within their membership, a few years ago, a mere 11% of account plans are “effectively executed.” That’s a pretty dismal adherence rate, given that these plans <i>should</i> 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.<br /><br /><b>What to Do?</b><br /><br />If your organization is serious about strategic accounts, the first step is to ensure corporate support for a multiyear investment in the process of account planning, management and governance. It’s going to take investment in people and process. While results will appear almost immediately, the full impact of an effective strategic account program will not be seen until the second or third year of the program, at the earliest. If the program is properly maintained, those results should be long-lasting!<br /><br />The next step is to set up a framework for success, including:</span></p><span style="font-family: verdana; text-align: start;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="text-align: start;">Hiring SAMs with strong team management skills and providing an effective coaching environment</span></li><li><span style="text-align: start;">Building a comp plan that supports the multi year and perhaps global nature of the SAM activities, while also properly motivating pillar reps.</span></li><li><span style="text-align: start;">Developing programmatic analysis of customer financials, industry growth trends, key stakeholder profiles, installed base, competitive SOW and more…</span></li><li><span style="text-align: start;">Enrolling management of each portfolio sales organization in the process and creating a consistent set of rules of engagement</span></li><li><span style="text-align: start;">Developing a process for thoughtfully identifying the strategic opportunities and challenges within the customer organization</span></li><li><span style="text-align: start;">Implementing a technology platform like ARPEDIO to support the process, both for the team and to provide ongoing management visibility</span></li><li><span style="text-align: start;">Installing a team governance process to ensure success on an ongoing basis</span></li></ul><span class="s2" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"></span></span><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b><i>Team Governance?</i></b><br /><br />In my experience…and I’ve driven strategic planning for several billion dollars in revenues…the last item in the framework is the real challenge. Teams gather to conduct the planning process…and then scatter to the wind. Individual reps receive conflicting messages from their management, sometimes in conflict with the team. Occasionally they go “rogue” in an effort to land revenue this quarter or fiscal year, upsetting a much larger, more strategic deal.<br /><br />To address this issue with one very large software company, we established the concept of sales team “program management” for their Account Team Unit (ATU). Initially, the function of program management was handled by an existing team member, with the goal of providing dedicated headcount to take on that function as necessary.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">As we developed the strategic account program at another company, one core team member owned team facilitation and governance to support the strengths (and challenges) of the individual strategic account managers.<b><i> </i></b><br /><br /><b><i>Thing One – Visibility</i></b><br /><br />The SAM must have visibility on the activities of each portfolio rep (and their sales consultants), ensuring consistent team/account messaging across all initiatives and engagements; and whether individual reps are actively engaged. That visibility also helps the SAM to know where a rep needs help with access or organizational support. Reps gravitate to where they see opportunity, leaving broken promises of supporting the SAM and the strategic account. “If it’s not closing this quarter, I’m not wasting my time pursuing it.”</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The challenge here is that the pillar rep has a very different comp plan than the SAM, and does not report to the SAM, except maybe on a dotted line basis. If they get conflicting directives from their direct manager, they’re going to go with what their manager tells them to do.<br /><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;">Thing Two – Value Selling mindset</span></i></b></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The SAM and their team must focus on two key topics:</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">First, Cocreating new possibilities with the customer. Sometimes this is as basic as exploring Why change/why now, and sometimes, it’s creating new capabilities from scratch, like turning a repository of manufacturing and tech support information into insights that drive manufacturing quality improvements, or using real time social media data into operational signals and feedback.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Second, change management. Top sales people help their customers to first answer that question why change, why now, and then…how. Change management is all about outlining the goals of a specific change and the expectations of behavior change for the involved employees. Without effective change management, most strategic initiatives are unlikely to succeed.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b><i>Thing Three – Customer Participation</i></b><br /><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">However, even if your organization successfully designs and implements a strong planning and governance framework, this only provides the “inside-out” view. It’s a series of hypotheses around “what we think the customer might be interested in…” And here’s where most companies fail in their strategic account planning process. They neglect to include the single most important stakeholder in the process — the customer.<br /><br />Sure…it can be challenging to include the customer in the process, and sometimes the customer’s strategic focus doesn’t quite align with what we want to sell. Go figure! Yet, deep engagement with the customer in the planning process leads to more involvement by the customer, better “time and access” for discovery and relationship building, faster decision cycles, larger, more profitable deals, and higher customer satisfaction. That planning process, by the way, is a cycle rather than an event…a series of regular engagements with relevant resources, and commitment to action and investment on an ongoing basis.<br /><br />Many companies leave the participation of the customer to be handled by the SAM. A few formally drive a “co-creation” process with the customer, ensuring that the customer has a seat at the table in the planning process. I’ve facilitated strategic account planning in F100 customers’ boardrooms, with active participation of key customer stakeholders throughout the process. Their participation provided valuable direction for our sales investments and led to the identification of significant new opportunities.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Once a strong context is established for the joint team, everyone looks forward to the regular discussions. We’re helping our strategic stakeholders to address significant business challenges and they have a sense that we’re “in the boat” with them, that we are truly committed to their success.<b> </b><br /><br /><i><b>Strategic Account Planning and Governance as Competitive Advantage — Actions to Take</b><br /></i><br />If you believe that your strategic account program could drive more value for your organization (and for your customer), a <b>key area of focus is individual sales rep activity, messaging and governance</b>.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br />And the second key area is <b>customer involvement</b>. If you’re not actively, routinely involving your customer in the strategic planning process, you’re leaving significant money on the table and wasting valuable time and resources on unqualified opportunities.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">And the third is to develop the activities and platforms to scale this into repeatable, manageable, processes.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">If you want help building or improving your strategic or key account program, please visit <a href="https://www.aceleragroup.com/"><span class="s1">aceleragroup.com</span></a> to schedule an initial conversation.</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Thanks!</span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUW45a_jFdHM1jUTLXUuWYC7dpEXAhhdySk8qAe272K9s_lXqJ8Lo4ze9iVu2XJasnqMCtp7w0MofOW_usmON8L1aZsLh9s2HzccxhUq7EKxEfglRCN3h-w1V7YJOHPrScUSnhsyK9jSE7z5Pt3i1p9oeIvFHrZIFlabqqLxbmm8fRCR5SRfwz37NNwhEE/s84/Lee%20short%20sig.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><img border="0" data-original-height="78" data-original-width="84" height="78" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUW45a_jFdHM1jUTLXUuWYC7dpEXAhhdySk8qAe272K9s_lXqJ8Lo4ze9iVu2XJasnqMCtp7w0MofOW_usmON8L1aZsLh9s2HzccxhUq7EKxEfglRCN3h-w1V7YJOHPrScUSnhsyK9jSE7z5Pt3i1p9oeIvFHrZIFlabqqLxbmm8fRCR5SRfwz37NNwhEE/s1600/Lee%20short%20sig.jpg" width="84" /></span></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUW45a_jFdHM1jUTLXUuWYC7dpEXAhhdySk8qAe272K9s_lXqJ8Lo4ze9iVu2XJasnqMCtp7w0MofOW_usmON8L1aZsLh9s2HzccxhUq7EKxEfglRCN3h-w1V7YJOHPrScUSnhsyK9jSE7z5Pt3i1p9oeIvFHrZIFlabqqLxbmm8fRCR5SRfwz37NNwhEE/s84/Lee%20short%20sig.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /><br /></span><p></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Lee</span></p></div><p></p>Lee Levitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01855067220559094836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8966783851875406264.post-14751636748780815602023-09-06T16:05:00.005-04:002023-09-06T16:44:41.372-04:00Do we need a charter for our sales enablement organization?<p>In talking with fellow sales enablement practitioners across the industry, I'm hearing a common theme.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC4jAk0MsiF-SzQCquvxbvCFBHuzRr_w4w6_Ak0voC5lFu-pEDVz661ciMK0HZoSNzYLXdzAjqzIETcuJ-VNaQs87i5YGRi5gEGPQCwxHgo4U9Z3ZaYwE9WY8o_ZDf3p7u0NitUqaUoIWEaTnfhzH-Jk0KMxHtDmKMzIcc5PTH8-Swzg6vTHSynTJ4k4YP/s520/road%20view%202.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="402" data-original-width="520" height="309" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC4jAk0MsiF-SzQCquvxbvCFBHuzRr_w4w6_Ak0voC5lFu-pEDVz661ciMK0HZoSNzYLXdzAjqzIETcuJ-VNaQs87i5YGRi5gEGPQCwxHgo4U9Z3ZaYwE9WY8o_ZDf3p7u0NitUqaUoIWEaTnfhzH-Jk0KMxHtDmKMzIcc5PTH8-Swzg6vTHSynTJ4k4YP/w400-h309/road%20view%202.png" width="400" /></a></div>Those groups that do not have a specific, published, circulated and agreed-on charter are less strategic, productive and relevant than those that do.<p></p><p>Think of it this way...if you set off on a cross country journey, without a map, without being able to describe your destination succinctly, not only would you get lost, you won't be able to ask for help along the way.</p><p>You will be incapable of reaching your destination efficiently. You probably won't reach it. You will probably give up somewhere along the way and keep busy doing things that occur to you along the road.</p><p>Sound familiar? Then you don't have a sales enablement charter. You do have multiple constituents who continue to ask your team to undertake unrelated tasks, some strategic, many quite mundane and unrelated to the strengths of the people on your team.</p><p>I've seen enablement teams became the project drop off site. "Hey, let's give this to the enablement team...they'll do anything we ask..." And the good corporate citizens in enablement take on task after task. And this becomes their brand. </p><p><b><i>What does a good sales enablement charter look like?</i></b></p><p>There's the <i>document</i>...the mission statement, the services supported/provided, the groups enabled, the funding sources, the strategic/leadership/executive support, the expected results, the things not included.</p><p>And there's the <i>reality</i>...the mindset, the actions, the relationships with sponsors and stakeholders that create the brand and deliver the results. </p><p>Interestingly, my group at Oracle was able to function with a strong brand (the reality of our work) and a passable document. For many years our executive sponsor continued to fund the group with not much more than verbal requests from sales leadership stating "they helped a lot last year, please keep them around."</p><p>We knew exactly what we wanted to accomplish each year. As we were embedded in the sales organization, we had strong awareness of what needed to be done and how to do it. We also carved out a 20% slush fund...20% of our time set aside for the ad hoc requests from product management or marketing that we couldn't necessarily predict, but knew would be coming regularly.</p><p>But...when our executive sponsor moved on, the lack of a strong, agreed on sales enablement charter caught up with us. New sales leadership didn't understand the charter or the value of the group and we lost both funding and autonomy.</p><p><b><i>To be successful, you need both the charter and the brand</i></b> <br /></p><p>And it's getting more complicated today with "revenue enablement" threatening to overtake or subsume sales enablement as a function. Frankly, that's a semantic issue... Sales and revenue enablement are largely the same thing. And some talk about customer enablement...but that's a different set of issues or activities.</p><p>To increase your impact in 2024, you must have a strong sales enablement charter in place before the end of the year. And to develop this charter, you must have:</p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Strong understanding of the development needs of your customer facing people</li><li>Comprehensive inventory of your group's skills and knowledge of the gaps</li><li>Executive sponsorship</li><li>Stakeholder agreement on the goals and outcomes for 2024</li></ul><p>And it's the last one -- the stakeholder agreement -- that is the most challenging. You can't simply ask the CSO or Sales VP what they need from enablement...they don't know how to answer the question. It's the role of the enablement team to conduct the discovery and propose the activities that support the needed outcomes...you know...like a trusted advisor.</p><p>If you want help developing/supercharging your sales enablement charter, let me know. We will build the charter framework and work with you to develop the mission, the story and the details. And we will facilitate the conversations between the enablement team and the stakeholders to ensure that you set appropriate expectations, target key goals, KPIs or OKRs, and gain the necessary support. </p><p>With a strong sales enablement charter, you will have a much more successful, enjoyable, fruitful 2024.<br /></p><p></p><p>Thanks,</p><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP1KT8UAa1mzpOf9NxeP9GJPhvg3B6F9GkavD6a4xFYqNDyi-ADfKdZNSehS1Tjd4LXGGSpj-XOBfr_HIk1dhUYgaQ0RQrliHDs5zj59QMYJlEE5rfivd8t3H9VDdEFJb0twMcfuoflHDUTfP71oTq9MTXSf0oCD2IIzGb6qVkoErGvumvDvr7X8_gbJTv/s84/Lee%20short%20sig.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="78" data-original-width="84" height="78" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP1KT8UAa1mzpOf9NxeP9GJPhvg3B6F9GkavD6a4xFYqNDyi-ADfKdZNSehS1Tjd4LXGGSpj-XOBfr_HIk1dhUYgaQ0RQrliHDs5zj59QMYJlEE5rfivd8t3H9VDdEFJb0twMcfuoflHDUTfP71oTq9MTXSf0oCD2IIzGb6qVkoErGvumvDvr7X8_gbJTv/s1600/Lee%20short%20sig.jpg" width="84" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p></p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Lee<br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Lee Levitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01855067220559094836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8966783851875406264.post-54199908420738502962023-08-10T14:53:00.002-04:002023-08-10T14:53:22.748-04:00Why all the buzz about Value Selling?<p> </p><div class="reader-article-content reader-article-content--content-blocks" dir="ltr">
<p class="reader-text-block__paragraph">
</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0aeQfm2zOBMDmMirxiSCwaL-cW3hpthtQ-h3nY8BPgZhWQIC_CDzzq2Aw83ehlBpGfa_DBO-0OsO-oh2WjzG_ymNtJTAdM4dBc6uR3jrkIgJuqmIQzueFi18SUWSsbdEnqJegMnu2yCMDK_2j4k_7K0aV7QYWUSmvLSAvEF4tQbKA_05W2aH6VdcGHASl/s726/value%20selling%20word%20cloud%202.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="726" height="176" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0aeQfm2zOBMDmMirxiSCwaL-cW3hpthtQ-h3nY8BPgZhWQIC_CDzzq2Aw83ehlBpGfa_DBO-0OsO-oh2WjzG_ymNtJTAdM4dBc6uR3jrkIgJuqmIQzueFi18SUWSsbdEnqJegMnu2yCMDK_2j4k_7K0aV7QYWUSmvLSAvEF4tQbKA_05W2aH6VdcGHASl/s320/value%20selling%20word%20cloud%202.png" width="320" /></a></div><br />I had an interesting conversation recently with someone who has a
deep sales, marketing and communications background. He's worked for a
couple of household names. You'd recognize them. If you've been in
finserv for a while, you would probably recognize him.
<p></p>
<p class="reader-text-block__paragraph">
He asked an interesting question: "why all the focus on value selling on your <em>Thoughts On Selling</em> <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-thoughts-on-selling-podcast/id1692382834">podcast</a>? I don't get it."
</p>
<p class="reader-text-block__paragraph">
When I started to explain value selling to him, he cut me off. "Doesn't everybody sell this way? In professional services we've <em>always</em> focused on the customer."
</p>
<p class="reader-text-block__paragraph">
That got me thinking. What's the difference between selling a product and selling a service?
</p>
<p class="reader-text-block__paragraph">
With a product, you can point to its attributes - size, color,
horsepower, storage capacity, number of CPUs or circuits, whether the
LEDs are surface mounted, etc.
</p>
<p class="reader-text-block__paragraph">
With a service, you have <em>nothing</em> to point to. It's an <em>intangible</em>.
It doesn't exist outside of the experience of the service delivery
(except perhaps for the simple "Want me to cut your grass?"...and even
there value prop there is pretty obvious.
</p>
<p class="reader-text-block__paragraph">
So...why do we focus on product attributes of the product rather than its ultimate value to the user?
</p>
<p class="reader-text-block__paragraph">
Frankly, we're <strong><em>lazy</em></strong>.
</p>
<p class="reader-text-block__paragraph">
It's what engineering driven/led organizations focus on...because it's comfortable. It's what the founders understand.
</p>
<p class="reader-text-block__paragraph">
<strong><em>And</em></strong> we're swept up in the competitive leapfrog of "my widget is 10% shinier than the other company's widget."
</p>
<p class="reader-text-block__paragraph">
We count on the prospect/buyer/user to make the jump from "high
performance fabric" to "completing my analytics job this morning rather
than tomorrow afternoon or next week." And that requires <em>another</em>
couple of jumps..."if i can run many more analytics jobs (what-ifs) I
can make better business decisions to improve product quality or
employee retention or marketing efficacy or stock investments...which
results in a <em>higher bonus for me</em>."
</p>
<p class="reader-text-block__paragraph">
When I ran marketing, business development and sales enablement for an early cloud provider, we <em>never</em> talked about the technology behind our offerings. For our customers it was simply magic. Our focus was <em>solely</em>
on helping clients to build scalable, performant environments so that
they could provide up to date information to their subscribers. Major
League Baseball didn't care <em>how</em> we did it, just that their
subscribers would have a seamless experience from spring training to the
last game of the World Series.
</p>
<p class="reader-text-block__paragraph">
Most decision makers today don't care how things work, just that
they deliver on their brand promise. The market is noisy and crowded,
confusing buyers. Further, most buyers of larger ticket items (new ERP
system, for instance) may have zero experience with evaluating and
selecting a system and the details simply distract them, leading to "No
Decision."
</p>
<p class="reader-text-block__paragraph">
As sales leaders or sales enablers, we need to understand our
buyers' challenges and opportunities, to empathize with them, and to
shape our conversations and messaging accordingly.
</p>
<p class="reader-text-block__paragraph">
One CIO told me: "I don't care how much better this is than our current environment; I'm not asking my team to learn <em>another</em> set of tools. They just don't have the bandwidth." Clearly we hadn't focused enough on the <em>autonomous</em> part of our Autonomous Data Warehouse offering conversation, describing how his team would not have to learn anything new.
</p>
<p class="reader-text-block__paragraph">
Conversely, when I talked with the head of operations at a major
airlines about the possibility of moving his analytics from a batched 24
hour look-back (what happened yesterday), to a realtime view of his
operations (what's happening right now), he said this: "You can do that?
I'll take two!" In this case, we had connected with his strategic goal
of substantively improving his operational abilities.
</p>
<p class="reader-text-block__paragraph">
Here's the jumping off point.
</p>
<p class="reader-text-block__paragraph">
</p><ul><li>If you're still "solution selling," you're losing 30-40%
of your opportunities to organizations that have embraced value selling.
Maybe more. </li><li>And...if you've recently implemented value selling, <em>most of your sales people are still solution selling, or worse yet, still pitching features</em>. Been there, seen that.</li></ul>
<p></p>
<p class="reader-text-block__paragraph">
Because...value selling is not a thing to implement. It's a
mindset, one that has to be shared from the top down. When it's done
right, I've seen individual sales people grow their individual deal
sizes by an order of magnitude or <em>two</em>. And when as CSO I implemented it at a mature business services firm, we increased sales by 75% in just over a year.
</p>
<p class="reader-text-block__paragraph">
Where are you in this journey?
</p>
<p class="reader-text-block__paragraph">
Thanks!</p><p class="reader-text-block__paragraph"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2UcIc8hW2eV55BVv0Sx5S_o0lDAxOW9dK-fyNHMe7mIulF5FQx4fj2LOb9c12tX5ChDgRht_WeHm-L0OJFTfWyUGwFKLv2l0-GDf7vXTOdozWjaSgRG_XQz69i-SRv5VFjUuhFCwSVk3BzlyF908t_cUcRtYzVzqD9eY4DQXDhD-lzW4beTGdgQB6tsxZ/s84/Lee%20short%20sig.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="78" data-original-width="84" height="78" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2UcIc8hW2eV55BVv0Sx5S_o0lDAxOW9dK-fyNHMe7mIulF5FQx4fj2LOb9c12tX5ChDgRht_WeHm-L0OJFTfWyUGwFKLv2l0-GDf7vXTOdozWjaSgRG_XQz69i-SRv5VFjUuhFCwSVk3BzlyF908t_cUcRtYzVzqD9eY4DQXDhD-lzW4beTGdgQB6tsxZ/s1600/Lee%20short%20sig.jpg" width="84" /></a></div><br /> <p></p>
<p class="reader-text-block__paragraph"> </p><p class="reader-text-block__paragraph"> </p><p class="reader-text-block__paragraph">Lee
</p>
</div>Lee Levitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01855067220559094836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8966783851875406264.post-73225376601990951422023-08-03T13:45:00.000-04:002023-08-03T13:45:10.868-04:00Is AI going to take over sales?<p> </p><p>Is AI going to take over sales?</p><p>Yea, sure.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrIX5rXw6HlhcxagMCvWabx204G_4JDHtw9othiDyi_gcVoKyGkUqVmY8ouN0UnezvFQsZ4ZA15x4DT4Vgsvl_vCN9REtAWlgrO50MG3xCyFVpZn8o8ReJJ7fNJrBxDhp4GaHtpU9JPh4Q9qUJCtg20iqY7p74YZ_took2eM1lVFFykiq8upV9QLBFBY91/s2142/iStock-1483410569.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1400" data-original-width="2142" height="209" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrIX5rXw6HlhcxagMCvWabx204G_4JDHtw9othiDyi_gcVoKyGkUqVmY8ouN0UnezvFQsZ4ZA15x4DT4Vgsvl_vCN9REtAWlgrO50MG3xCyFVpZn8o8ReJJ7fNJrBxDhp4GaHtpU9JPh4Q9qUJCtg20iqY7p74YZ_took2eM1lVFFykiq8upV9QLBFBY91/s320/iStock-1483410569.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />I’m no luddite …I installed early AI supercomputers at leading software companies many years ago and built expert systems on personal computers. I’ve sold predictive analytics to enterprise accounts and worked with many customers on analytics projects. I trained thousands of Google and Oracle sales people on data analytics. I understand the power of leveraging large data sets.<p></p><p>I’ve also worked with thousands of customers and sales people and I’ve seen how customers lean in when an expert says “in my experience…”</p><p>If the sales person isn’t adding unique value, Generative Ai <em>will</em> take their seat. And repetitive selling functions undertaken by corporate sales people – “how many more servers do you need” -- will be replaced by smart (AI enabled) outbound communications (written, voice, perhaps even generated video). Live chat is already being taken over by AI bots.</p><p>You need to <strong>add value</strong>.</p><p>Or you’re toast.</p><p>A key account director once told me that his job was to take orders (big orders.) He didn’t understand that his job was to <em>create</em> opportunities rather than to take orders. He’s no longer with the company.</p><p>The sales person approaching the customer with a hypothesis of how to accomplish their strategic goals differently, better, faster, more profitably will continue to be successful. And in some cases, that sales person is suggesting an approach or goals that might not have been on the customer’s radar. They will co-create a new way of doing business together.</p><p>Sales person who synthesize their business value hypotheses from a variety of inputs (customer, industry, sales engineer, analyst, prior experience) will continue to find a warm reception from their customers. GenAI will have a role – it will suggest specific customers to approach, or synthesize the business case for use with those customers. At Oracle we outsourced that task to a team of people offshore. Today, companies can outsource the task to GenAI.</p><p>But…successful selling engagements ultimately focus on the “see-feel-do” model rather than the “hear-think-act” model. And people are really good at the “feel” part, if you let them. Michael Douglas, in <em>The Komisky Method</em> repeatedly asks “how did that feel”, not “what did you think?” I ask that exact question after every role play and phone call (during facilitated Power Hours.)</p><p>Now…this is a different question than whether GenAI will <em>support</em> or <em>enable</em> sales. AI based sales training is already a thing, and a powerful and scalable one at that. <a href="https://www.rnmkrs.org/" rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank">RNMKRS</a> has already provided realtime feedback and coaching to tens of thousands of college sales students and Fortune 500 sales people. AI recommendation engines on “next best steps” are being built and deployed.</p><p>I’ll note that sales people do not want to be overburdened with too much data. They are masters of “just give me enough to get started and I’ll do the rest on my own.” Let’s not burden them with too much information!</p><p>Here’s my message, and it’s exactly the same I delivered in a keynote address at a very large vendor's SKO in Las Vegas. “If you’re not moving up, you’re falling behind.” Your peers are not standing still (and neither is Generative AI). Either continue to improve your skills, to add more value, or be <em>deprecated</em>.</p><p>Even ChatGTP and Bard don’t think AI is going to take over sales anytime soon.</p><p>ChatGTP stated:</p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><em>By automating certain tasks and streamlining workflows, AI can free up salespeople to focus on more high-value activities, such as relationship-building and strategic planning.</em></p><p>And Bard stated:</p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><em>In the future, we will see a hybrid sales force where AI and human salespeople work together to close deals. AI will handle the tasks that it is good at, while human salespeople will focus on the tasks that require human skills and creativity. This will allow sales teams to be more efficient and effective than ever before…it is important to remember that AI cannot replace human salespeople entirely. The human touch will always be an essential part of successful sales.</em></p><p>What do you think? Are you concerned that GenAI will replace you or your team? Or are you looking forward to better tools that will allow you to engage more powerfully with your customers and prospects?</p><p>Thanks!</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkJJMBKgQl52bUMc2Fih1Clu39ni5JauSsS4OGw5oZWJh5S6lVm9JYQuqYCPObbqeCjIHLhfM8jTYh8HGdz1HEGSGFfLIGTh2oHu_KZZjAu61qehr80pQoLHrjfDHTuhOUj4Z_0LlRe0dWfVA7KuAHObcAvoejYVw4VhQrhVQIsWURcmp5jsj9MuFfI6S0/s84/Lee%20short%20sig.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="78" data-original-width="84" height="78" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkJJMBKgQl52bUMc2Fih1Clu39ni5JauSsS4OGw5oZWJh5S6lVm9JYQuqYCPObbqeCjIHLhfM8jTYh8HGdz1HEGSGFfLIGTh2oHu_KZZjAu61qehr80pQoLHrjfDHTuhOUj4Z_0LlRe0dWfVA7KuAHObcAvoejYVw4VhQrhVQIsWURcmp5jsj9MuFfI6S0/s1600/Lee%20short%20sig.jpg" width="84" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Lee</p>Lee Levitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01855067220559094836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8966783851875406264.post-84778830802319148672023-08-02T14:55:00.002-04:002023-08-02T14:55:42.063-04:00Getting the most from your account planning investments<p> </p><p><span class="break-words "><span dir="ltr">Account planning sessions are "sacred" events to me.</span></span></p><p>Never mind the staff cost of $20-$50K just for the sales team to show up and participate. Never mind the "interruption" to their <em>normal</em> responsibilities. Never mind the hours of research, planning and prep to ensure a great outcome.</p><p>It's the potential <b>impact</b>. We can substantively affect the outcome of a client's business when we conduct the proper research and planning. For a finserv account, perhaps it means that their customers will get loans rated faster and more accurately. For a manufacturing company, perhaps it means that we can help boost their production quality. And for a life sciences company, perhaps it means finding a cure for a disease more quickly.</p><p>Oh, and the team stands to benefit financially - making their numbers, receiving their commissions, going to Club.</p><p>When facilitating an account planning session, I always include three components:</p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>A CPR -- a statement of the Context, Purposes and expected/desired Results (which we co-develop at the beginning of the session</li><li>A value selling mindset</li><li>And finally and perhaps most importantly, the action plan</li></ul><p><span dir="ltr" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-597" height="116" src="http://blog.aceleragroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Action-Plan-Sample-300x116.png" width="300" /> </span><span dir="ltr" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;">Without the action plan, people leave the session thinking "that was great", now back to work. And everything learned, discussed and decided is quickly forgotten.</span><span class="break-words "></span></p><p>With a good detailed action plan, people leave the session with a strong understanding of their roles, responsibilities, next steps and expectations (Change Management 101).</p><p>Yet, even a good action plan does not guarantee success. Success requires ownership and follow up. I've facilitated three hundred or so account planning sessions over the years, and I <em>always</em> charge the sales manager or sales leadership with owning that follow up - ensuring that the commitments people make are actually completed.</p><p>But, to be honest, I still haven't cracked the code on this. That follow up just doesn't always happen.</p><p>How do you ensure follow up to account planning sessions? To the promises made by your sales people?</p><div class="separator"><p>By the way, if you don’t currently conduct formal <a href="https://www.aceleragroup.com/services/services/account-management.html">account planning sessions</a>, and want help in setting them up or facilitating them, <b><a href="https://www.aceleragroup.com/contact_us/contact.php" rel="noopener" target="_blank">let me know</a></b>! (You do have to promise to follow up!)</p></div><p>Thanks!</p><div class="separator"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9wm4WJeg8q6e6GvCdSu54VNRbLG-NLAbFqjZyqbpKDmmNmXw0Rx7YXniqcVnuTDnKO4B-HiTMw2KUSLSL2kxUF6IQOGe3QTIjAzmJILXvflqj8yVJC8JoxCf4GYnst9CjmHapd1-DVJNrHb_SSohXd2GuCVK9stvHocM6GITdCrATHS2QfAgfyo0Jfoj1/s84/Lee%20short%20sig.jpg?ssl=1"><img border="0" class="jetpack-lazy-image jetpack-lazy-image--handled" data-lazy-loaded="1" data-original-height="78" data-original-width="84" data-recalc-dims="1" height="78" src="https://i0.wp.com/blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9wm4WJeg8q6e6GvCdSu54VNRbLG-NLAbFqjZyqbpKDmmNmXw0Rx7YXniqcVnuTDnKO4B-HiTMw2KUSLSL2kxUF6IQOGe3QTIjAzmJILXvflqj8yVJC8JoxCf4GYnst9CjmHapd1-DVJNrHb_SSohXd2GuCVK9stvHocM6GITdCrATHS2QfAgfyo0Jfoj1/s1600/Lee%20short%20sig.jpg?resize=84%2C78&ssl=1" width="84" /></a></div><p>Lee</p><p> </p>Lee Levitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01855067220559094836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8966783851875406264.post-26396773453914341152023-07-31T09:31:00.000-04:002023-07-31T09:31:05.394-04:00105 Selling Days Left in 2023<p><span class="break-words
"><span dir="ltr">A first time caller recently asked "Hey Lee, how are you calculating the number of selling days left in the year?"<br /><br />I've got two answers.<br /><br />First,
the <b>technical</b> - I'm using "business days" (weekdays - US holidays) as a
proxy for selling days. I acknowledge that regions other than the US
will have different holidays, so you may want to calculate based on your
local calendar.</span></span></p><p>Of course, most selling ends by late November or
early December at the latest, with final contract work done by
mid-December. That having been said, I do know of an eight figure deal
that closed <i>two minutes</i> before a west coast company's fiscal year ended. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhioPKg1jreOdBLMQpTI-O5dR2nUfLCbnv7rfO8V41dkBz4NOTfAv4Zx6n1KX_isMbIK1aHy1WtWpcJKahjbrJGlB-u8XybK9CfwHz6fQraIIYPUnmOevkRiMpXxtvUmEB5no5qRr9I_YiFCrQzDDt8f5m7F5FfFhvwQTmAqJdg1oRFVtUKseWx5m6C1HRq/s1064/fax%20machine.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="453" data-original-width="1064" height="136" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhioPKg1jreOdBLMQpTI-O5dR2nUfLCbnv7rfO8V41dkBz4NOTfAv4Zx6n1KX_isMbIK1aHy1WtWpcJKahjbrJGlB-u8XybK9CfwHz6fQraIIYPUnmOevkRiMpXxtvUmEB5no5qRr9I_YiFCrQzDDt8f5m7F5FfFhvwQTmAqJdg1oRFVtUKseWx5m6C1HRq/s320/fax%20machine.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Just imagine the CIO in his pajamas at 2:58 in the morning, sending his
signed ULA renewal documents by fax machine, knowing that his price
leverage would disappear in another two minutes, and that the sun would
rise on the Connecticut shoreline in another few hours. But I digress...<br /><br />Second, the <b>functional</b> - I'm using the "number of selling days" as an entry into the <i>rhythm of business</i> conversation.<br /><br />If
you're a key account director, your account is setting priorities
and budgets for FY24 <i>now</i>. You need to be in conversations with your key
stakeholders about their strategic initiatives and providing guidance on
budgetary requirements. You should be planting seeds for next year's projects. You might be starting the process of helping
them to identify how to spend excess budget at the end of the year (is
that even still a thing?) You're probably planning your next QBR with
the customer, and maybe a fall executive briefing.<br /><br />If you're
managing enterprise or commercial sales teams, many of their engagements
need to be moving from discovery to solutioning and pilots (are pilots
even still a thing?) so that you have sufficient runway for an FY23
close. Your reps need to be mapping out the contract and approval
processes...it's late to discover quirks in a company's contract
process Thanksgiving week...<br /><br />If you're managing BDR/SDR teams,
it's business as usual, with some slight tweaking to messaging...more
guided discovery on projects that might be on track for an FY24
implementation (and a needed FY23 acquisition).<br /><br />Good sales
leadership understands and communicates this rhythm of business,
shifting focus over the course of the year, and sales enablement shifts
focus in tandem. <br /><br />Oh, and SKO is in February, so you need to start planning soon. The site and date have already been selected. :)<br /><br />One
thing is true for all y'all...you've got opportunities in flight. You
need greater visibility on their likelihood of closing and the
additional actions needed to bring them to close. <br /><br />By the way, if you don't currently conduct <a href="https://www.aceleragroup.com/services/services/opportunity-development.html" target="_blank">opportunity reviews</a>, and want help in de-risking those opportunities, <a href="https://www.aceleragroup.com/contact_us/contact.php" target="_blank">let me know</a>!<p></p><p>Thanks!</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9wm4WJeg8q6e6GvCdSu54VNRbLG-NLAbFqjZyqbpKDmmNmXw0Rx7YXniqcVnuTDnKO4B-HiTMw2KUSLSL2kxUF6IQOGe3QTIjAzmJILXvflqj8yVJC8JoxCf4GYnst9CjmHapd1-DVJNrHb_SSohXd2GuCVK9stvHocM6GITdCrATHS2QfAgfyo0Jfoj1/s84/Lee%20short%20sig.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="78" data-original-width="84" height="78" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9wm4WJeg8q6e6GvCdSu54VNRbLG-NLAbFqjZyqbpKDmmNmXw0Rx7YXniqcVnuTDnKO4B-HiTMw2KUSLSL2kxUF6IQOGe3QTIjAzmJILXvflqj8yVJC8JoxCf4GYnst9CjmHapd1-DVJNrHb_SSohXd2GuCVK9stvHocM6GITdCrATHS2QfAgfyo0Jfoj1/s1600/Lee%20short%20sig.jpg" width="84" /></a></div><p></p><p></p><p><br /> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Lee <br /></p><p></p>Lee Levitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01855067220559094836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8966783851875406264.post-48409941734301301102023-07-28T06:00:00.002-04:002023-07-28T06:00:00.147-04:00106 Selling Days Left in 2023<p> </p><p></p><p>A CEO recently asked me to list the most important characteristics of a successful sales person. First, I referred him to <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/davekurlan/"><span>Dave Kurlan</span></a> at <a href="https://www.objectivemanagement.com/" target="_blank">Objective Management Group</a>, which pioneered the Sales Assessment Industry many years ago.</p><p></p><p>Then based on my experience in selling, coaching sales teams, leading a sales organization and implementing sales effectiveness and enablement practices, I came up with the following short list:</p><ul><li>strong work ethic</li><li>excellent organizational skills</li><li>high EQ</li><li>strategic perspective</li><li>curiosity</li></ul><p></p><p>Of the five, I believe only the last can be developed. The others are either innate or they're absent.</p><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY48jhtmx4fyywCQgMEJr8VFYUNwyNBdd-St-eZ_Pex3grV7D5sxwSzQ6UNMNDRj5Qk9fsVrhfB1rFOsWdG2O_yyG8ue8mHVcjJnWwmGZbaVNv_8DWfqOtLrMgFrFcfFI61YBj2hqKOEChZfVFL7Uvqfu8UAiTJXj1u2cil757jFgil5Rb5QMingZfGBMd/s2121/child%20with%20magnifying%20glass%20curiosity%20iStock-1394964296.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1414" data-original-width="2121" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY48jhtmx4fyywCQgMEJr8VFYUNwyNBdd-St-eZ_Pex3grV7D5sxwSzQ6UNMNDRj5Qk9fsVrhfB1rFOsWdG2O_yyG8ue8mHVcjJnWwmGZbaVNv_8DWfqOtLrMgFrFcfFI61YBj2hqKOEChZfVFL7Uvqfu8UAiTJXj1u2cil757jFgil5Rb5QMingZfGBMd/s320/child%20with%20magnifying%20glass%20curiosity%20iStock-1394964296.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Why is curiosity so important? Because curiosity drives success in value selling. If a sales person is curious, they will continue to gather information and develop hypotheses so that they can be more effective in engaging with customers on their terms.<p></p><p></p><p>They will not just scan the corporate website and maybe a LinkedIn profile or two. They won't just listen to the latest earnings call.</p><p></p><p>They will find the key stakeholder's personal blog and read it thoroughly. They will go back many quarters to see how the earnings calls change topics and tone over time, what issues the analysts continue to focus on, what initiatives are evergreen (but never actually get addressed.)</p><p></p><p>They will develop powerful hypotheses and share them from a place of curiosity and openness.</p><p></p><p>Many years ago, we landed a significant consulting contract at IDC because my curious coworker identified a personal interest of a key stakeholder at a large tech company, "bumped" into him at the punchbowl at a charitable fundraiser and exchanged business cards. That "chance" exchange helped launch our Sales Productivity consulting practice.</p><p></p><p>While facilitating an account planning session at Oracle, one of my more curious reps pointed out that we were missing a key stakeholder on the influence map. She had researched similar deals at the account and understood the internal process. She indicated that there was <b><i>probably</i></b> a "Jane Doe" in the loop, and if we failed to identify and include her in the process, we had little chance of closing the deal.</p><p></p><p>The task of identifying that "Jane Doe" was added to the action plan. Months later the team celebrated a substantial win.</p><p></p><p>So...how is sales rep curiosity developed? I do it through a facilitated process focusing on the behaviors that both support and drive curiosity. That repetitive behavior changes attitude, builds and reinforces curiosity. </p><p></p><p>Success breeds success...and finding interesting and useful details drives the rep to continue to dig. Then I solidify the learning with my favorite line by Michael Douglas in The Kominsky Method: "How did that feel?"</p><p></p><p>By the way, if your opportunity development and account planning processes aren't filling your pipeline and you would like assistance in implementing/facilitating/improving them, <b><a href="https://www.aceleragroup.com/contact_us/contact.php" target="_blank">let me know</a></b>!</p><p>Thanks!</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR4muaU5LhDZV0SQDV_vG5C-qsrfAkp9P3deAhkLMAc7Yph0n8-KgEjksQFKz-pYFm-awKTkCZKZkkAzq59Aw3DKYJYSM1kO3qLV9tPcgjFXzV8cuMh3b66t5x0tEYGunynk3fvgxQvWNasMk2yJRSR8PatIX_m0OC7Sazuwez39gpplSzmhBedAQZ_Xig/s84/Lee%20short%20sig.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="78" data-original-width="84" height="78" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR4muaU5LhDZV0SQDV_vG5C-qsrfAkp9P3deAhkLMAc7Yph0n8-KgEjksQFKz-pYFm-awKTkCZKZkkAzq59Aw3DKYJYSM1kO3qLV9tPcgjFXzV8cuMh3b66t5x0tEYGunynk3fvgxQvWNasMk2yJRSR8PatIX_m0OC7Sazuwez39gpplSzmhBedAQZ_Xig/s1600/Lee%20short%20sig.jpg" width="84" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Lee <br /></p>Lee Levitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01855067220559094836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8966783851875406264.post-57319206563923790162023-07-27T06:00:00.001-04:002023-07-27T06:00:00.142-04:00107 Selling Days Left in 2023<p> </p><p></p><p>If your team is focused on greenfield, you are running out of time to move new accounts through the selling (and buying!) process.</p><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibrjJI5Alf32SGEP79CjkblISPasfVk1Xve150GqsIZkpsZG47uVFzxIf5opygy1hMyZAwreJ1hNVv4cd7RfKaZ-gU3Zywg2Kl_Q_CUP1sc5yX6VGzViRKfiBa_4SRGxBZ4jdFjTSM2JcsRuWmaMU5DftOepRYhtUpqCTK7ok-5aP_0cT5R158yd9_2Yzc/s1231/girl%20at%20computer%20with%20headset.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="793" data-original-width="1231" height="129" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibrjJI5Alf32SGEP79CjkblISPasfVk1Xve150GqsIZkpsZG47uVFzxIf5opygy1hMyZAwreJ1hNVv4cd7RfKaZ-gU3Zywg2Kl_Q_CUP1sc5yX6VGzViRKfiBa_4SRGxBZ4jdFjTSM2JcsRuWmaMU5DftOepRYhtUpqCTK7ok-5aP_0cT5R158yd9_2Yzc/w200-h129/girl%20at%20computer%20with%20headset.png" width="200" /></a></div>It's also unfair to ask hunters to continue to work on accounts unlikely to close until next year, when comp and territories will be different.<p></p><p></p><p>Shift the team's energies from early stage opportunity pursuit to those already in discovery. You can circle back to those early stage accounts later in the year as the the volume of prospects declines, or get back to them early next year. If they had a pressing need, they'd already be in discovery!</p><p></p><p>Focus on identifying and engaging with the economic buyer, mapping the decision criteria and process, and developing a mutual action plan to accomplish all the tasks necessary to get to close/won.</p><p></p><p>Conduct opportunity reviews to de-risk deals. You'll identify what actions need to be taken on each deal, and you'll figure out which deals are solid and which reps are blowing smoke. Your forecast calls will be less painful and more fruitful. </p><p></p><p>With this focus on developing and closing in Q3 and Q4, versus hunting and finding, you are much more likely to meet/exceed quota expectations for FY23.</p><p></p><p>You can thank me later. :)</p><p></p><p>By the way, if you don't currently conduct opportunity reviews, and would like assistance in implementing/facilitating them, <b><a href="https://www.aceleragroup.com/contact_us/contact.php" target="_blank">let me know</a></b>!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLdb7wuJy67-E7QG8QbY9iBduo-NTc2Q6MbicX_4jFUa6FnhFboQPwaLHCuyZq7M14t_VfMHd6FTYMM1fI1fzXEcRM26ZUVOlRU7vWN_i1aQsvbRhznFj1KswbH8d8VnvFaZZenxYlfrqecnhroxehweYfZX3vDhiSB8eBfEOudny7pO4DE1672I5s2foE/s84/Lee%20short%20sig.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="78" data-original-width="84" height="78" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLdb7wuJy67-E7QG8QbY9iBduo-NTc2Q6MbicX_4jFUa6FnhFboQPwaLHCuyZq7M14t_VfMHd6FTYMM1fI1fzXEcRM26ZUVOlRU7vWN_i1aQsvbRhznFj1KswbH8d8VnvFaZZenxYlfrqecnhroxehweYfZX3vDhiSB8eBfEOudny7pO4DE1672I5s2foE/s1600/Lee%20short%20sig.jpg" width="84" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p> </p><p>Lee</p>Lee Levitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01855067220559094836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8966783851875406264.post-65490171781726815992023-07-26T06:00:00.020-04:002023-07-26T09:18:11.534-04:00108 Selling Days Left in 2023!<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL2nt62GElXMoIh1jRNS46C1h74OmElIljet3beKIvdoM-0Ckr5gNCxaeVTaxU9YacT1t0pGS1QPLTIwRikClRI-xo6Z5zKQlhjv3z8t-Heds21yP5eAFf2ZkjloVJg_YLSZ8sPS8-CVhq6B1wnOCFFmPsqP47o8YJQrwPexAHhm0jSLh_xM0_en_kOc6B/s1260/Org%20Chart%20iStock-1335871956.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="833" data-original-width="1260" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL2nt62GElXMoIh1jRNS46C1h74OmElIljet3beKIvdoM-0Ckr5gNCxaeVTaxU9YacT1t0pGS1QPLTIwRikClRI-xo6Z5zKQlhjv3z8t-Heds21yP5eAFf2ZkjloVJg_YLSZ8sPS8-CVhq6B1wnOCFFmPsqP47o8YJQrwPexAHhm0jSLh_xM0_en_kOc6B/s320/Org%20Chart%20iStock-1335871956.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>With the end of the year fast approaching, now would be an excellent time to review the influence map with the team for each important deal and to take action <b><i>now</i></b> on your learnings. <br /><p></p><ul><li>Have all the decision makers and stakeholders been identified?</li><li>Have all the influencers been identified, including partners and service providers (the answer is <b><i>always</i></b> no!)</li><li>For each of these individuals, how strong is the relationship? What direction is the relationship moving -- getting better, staying the same, getting worse?</li><li>Who can say no...and why?</li><li>When was the last time you significantly engaged with each of the important players on your influence map?</li><li>What is your plan for improving relationships where necessary and getting commitments from each of those stakeholders and decision makers?</li><li>If there is an incumbent to be displaced, what does <b><i>their</i></b> influence map look like and how much overlap is there with <b>yours</b>?</li><li>What are your coaches telling you <b><i>now</i></b>?</li></ul><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH0TLJ476CWO-UN025ulubnXUsqiMcyWQJtiz-4OsLZMTIMbnVejpk-xvAW4DHWVHAj0D56QlbE0diZ6jRf0CPr9aiYyLw9794VVOppHeke77-nf35-iGgHGgsYcW3bu-LQYmN4ynjw7POkJzUeVzYqDKQUCH_wJjH1dJ0AqwpVOVWhdpdVIDR-eNAgK__/s2190/Toolkit-Sales-iStock-490614557.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1369" data-original-width="2190" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH0TLJ476CWO-UN025ulubnXUsqiMcyWQJtiz-4OsLZMTIMbnVejpk-xvAW4DHWVHAj0D56QlbE0diZ6jRf0CPr9aiYyLw9794VVOppHeke77-nf35-iGgHGgsYcW3bu-LQYmN4ynjw7POkJzUeVzYqDKQUCH_wJjH1dJ0AqwpVOVWhdpdVIDR-eNAgK__/s320/Toolkit-Sales-iStock-490614557.jpg" width="320" /></a></div></div><p>The influence map is a key tool to help de-risk opportunities. If you leverage the influence map as part of your engagement and pursuit process, you are winning at a 20 to 40% higher rate and seldom, if ever, need to discount at the eleventh hour to close/win deals.</p><p><span class="break-words
"><span dir="ltr">And if you aren't yet using influence maps, and would like assistance in implementing them, <b><a href="https://www.aceleragroup.com/contact_us/contact.php" target="_blank">let me know</a></b>!</span></span> <br /></p><p></p><p></p><p>While powerful, the influence map is just one part of a professional enterprise selling toolkit. I'll cover additional high value tools in coming days.</p><p> </p><p></p><p>Thanks,</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-GWHa6sI4qOw-PtxencKlYd2cWUld3XfgnGXKIWnkr53KHVu-x2ZqPctCad0Cw7f9_6IJLtzhOSEHseCf5SvogXjzek_BP1MXAxtmT1amXO-YJJNBGuxwcrPbHPkDUoNroNwNVsa8DWEzYs3n3g0UnwD-oc6m8c_AvSJfDkDR1dRwCIMpLb6pWSZ6gvcA/s84/Lee%20short%20sig.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="78" data-original-width="84" height="78" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-GWHa6sI4qOw-PtxencKlYd2cWUld3XfgnGXKIWnkr53KHVu-x2ZqPctCad0Cw7f9_6IJLtzhOSEHseCf5SvogXjzek_BP1MXAxtmT1amXO-YJJNBGuxwcrPbHPkDUoNroNwNVsa8DWEzYs3n3g0UnwD-oc6m8c_AvSJfDkDR1dRwCIMpLb6pWSZ6gvcA/s1600/Lee%20short%20sig.jpg" width="84" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p> </p><p>Lee</p><p><br /></p><p> </p>Lee Levitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01855067220559094836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8966783851875406264.post-29369142436046908462023-05-31T12:21:00.004-04:002023-05-31T14:03:27.792-04:00Hey, Lets Do Value Selling<p>Over the past few months, a number of senior sales leaders have reached out for help, stating "we want to implement value selling."</p><p>They see value selling as a tool to unlock more value (revenue) or to improve their pipeline or to gain a competitive selling edge.</p><p></p><p>They are on the right path...value selling can certainly have a net positive impact on revenue, pipeline and competitiveness.<br /></p><p>However, their perception of value selling and how it's implemented is a bit short sighted. Value selling is not a thing. You don't "implement value selling." </p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguFXit-ONqXncrOpLYrRyRmBL2kQHpHoVArRTsWVOONcbYGwZQkjDc_wwybUFDoqFJ6Vnvg9aXb3enLpVDuAN5NaIvFSgYRPzuEmuClVzcy1wCyQA8AhRkOJ1oqN5BdsMwPZfrh7F4vWuH09O7rm4qJ1J2fZRnda1ShHRpZJ-rFwyBpCqzzv3Hmtxx8A/s800/Campagnolo_1968_Tool_Kit_Wooden_Box.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguFXit-ONqXncrOpLYrRyRmBL2kQHpHoVArRTsWVOONcbYGwZQkjDc_wwybUFDoqFJ6Vnvg9aXb3enLpVDuAN5NaIvFSgYRPzuEmuClVzcy1wCyQA8AhRkOJ1oqN5BdsMwPZfrh7F4vWuH09O7rm4qJ1J2fZRnda1ShHRpZJ-rFwyBpCqzzv3Hmtxx8A/w320-h240/Campagnolo_1968_Tool_Kit_Wooden_Box.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Value Selling Is Not a Tool</h3><p>First and foremost, value selling is not a tool; rather, it's a mindset. Value selling is a way of thinking about how to engage with customers and requires a broad organizational commitment to putting the customer first.<br /></p><p>Value selling focuses on the customer's strategic business goals (not technology habits). It focuses on the firmagraphics (the culture) of the buying entity (first mover/late adopter, risk taker/risk adverse, etc). It considers the needs/wants/desires of the individual stakeholders and contributors to the buying process. Value selling requires a specific focus on the use of language to align with those entities.</p><p>As a result, value selling is not something easily boiled down to Step One, Step Two, Step Three...</p><p>Instead, a value selling approach should be baked into onboarding, selling preparation, communications, actions and activities. And it requires an organization-wide change management process.</p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Start With Opportunity and Account Planning<br /></h3><p>Opportunity planning and development, and its cousin, account planning, are great places to start. </p><p><i>Traditional</i> opportunity planning starts with a profile of the target customer (focusing on installed base and potential budget) and the questions "what can we sell them and how much share can we steal from a competitor?" As this approach is highly transactional and competitive, it leads to sales with low profitability and mediocre customer satisfaction ratings. Sound familiar?<br /></p><p><i>Value centered</i> opportunity planning also starts with a profile of the target customer, but with a focus on strategic business goals, the gaps between goals and capabilities and the motivations of the organization and the key stakeholders. Reps or teams consider how they can help the organization to achieve these goals, independent of any product or service offering (Solution development comes much later.)</p><p>Value selling involves co-creation with the customer, and in many, perhaps most cases, doesn't have much impact on existing vendor relationships. It tends to focus on net-new value creation, generating far larger impact and results than a simple vendor substitution might.</p><p>There's no comparison of vendors' TCO in value selling. It's just not relevant. That's pocket fluff in comparison to the impact true co-creation offers. Why focus on shaving 10% in operating costs if the project could lead to a 20% increase in customer satisfaction or manufacturing quality. Most of the senior executives, the decision makers in a strategic project, will focus on the latter.<br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIXrZ4RYOkplcOjXRNMz19IsQNuKzkGEPf9txE72iD5o3VdLl1yTA6HU9VZBOhIRDk7aRHNI4dcdGoWzemKojDfI0X2rJoYICTXMJ7pKmpv-JYzu5_ksDJAogXcn1Vll4APUlE-XPveH8CXx5h19juChbyTtDASnMHRWuWnqyiDmIeg_pkKPHoYkeIgQ/s4404/mountain%20top%20ian-stauffer-bH7kZ0yazB0-unsplash.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4404" data-original-width="3523" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIXrZ4RYOkplcOjXRNMz19IsQNuKzkGEPf9txE72iD5o3VdLl1yTA6HU9VZBOhIRDk7aRHNI4dcdGoWzemKojDfI0X2rJoYICTXMJ7pKmpv-JYzu5_ksDJAogXcn1Vll4APUlE-XPveH8CXx5h19juChbyTtDASnMHRWuWnqyiDmIeg_pkKPHoYkeIgQ/w160-h200/mountain%20top%20ian-stauffer-bH7kZ0yazB0-unsplash.jpg" width="160" /></a></div><p>The team must consider "are we well positioned to help the customer achieve <i>their</i> goals?" Once the organizational goals are identified, the reps or teams develop an influence map that details the key stakeholders, the strength of the relationships, and an action plan to further develop those relationships.</p><p>Finally, the team develops powerful messaging that emphasizes alignment and ability of the team to help the organization achieve their strategic goals, and the ability of the individual stakeholders to meet their personal goals.</p><p>As with any strategic sales improvement project, the assistance of a knowledgeable sales enablement sherpa to provide direction and to carry the load is critical. If you don't get value selling right the first time, you won't get a second chance. Senior management...and the sales team...will move on to other shiny new objects. </p><p>Thanks!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsQBuzWWvc0M6eJlbkR4fqyT7JCLiQ3-8kk-509Fz6FPnqwMS6HuV4UfwFF2mWedU2PPKAg3lWlQaf5h7mdl-OuAYfci7anyaaTauNcnoR8428VDvBmWcFVum4zVitOcskO0v3MnA7X6WjIsdpBNJVgc7ktJ-E-0mhae6xwbuWaYYqknj9Jq6K7ruiCA/s84/Lee%20short%20sig.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="78" data-original-width="84" height="78" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsQBuzWWvc0M6eJlbkR4fqyT7JCLiQ3-8kk-509Fz6FPnqwMS6HuV4UfwFF2mWedU2PPKAg3lWlQaf5h7mdl-OuAYfci7anyaaTauNcnoR8428VDvBmWcFVum4zVitOcskO0v3MnA7X6WjIsdpBNJVgc7ktJ-E-0mhae6xwbuWaYYqknj9Jq6K7ruiCA/s1600/Lee%20short%20sig.jpg" width="84" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Lee<br /></p><p> </p><p></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Lee Levitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01855067220559094836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8966783851875406264.post-23748699563265163772023-05-25T14:30:00.007-04:002023-05-25T15:33:44.095-04:00Abandoning the Hero Sale<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2T52WEzBV1I3gxNmltdOC7pMUo0kV2yRy4TqY3OPzQFNvtyn2uXhp0fQHoZPWlD9ZpLpOvr3Tk517dcjuJHudeskDQmg_8Sr7JNqaXqpW9tqYXHYVmlNi79x_bj_fCX6bMPAfHno3OIBIO18y2FUPknK-ZHLBrJpCpbJhUOA42Bt8GNKNL3KDogydFQ/s2501/super%20hero.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1906" data-original-width="2501" height="245" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2T52WEzBV1I3gxNmltdOC7pMUo0kV2yRy4TqY3OPzQFNvtyn2uXhp0fQHoZPWlD9ZpLpOvr3Tk517dcjuJHudeskDQmg_8Sr7JNqaXqpW9tqYXHYVmlNi79x_bj_fCX6bMPAfHno3OIBIO18y2FUPknK-ZHLBrJpCpbJhUOA42Bt8GNKNL3KDogydFQ/w320-h245/super%20hero.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>When companies first get started, the founders may do most or all of the selling. They have the vision, the passion, the depth of knowledge of the service or product and connect well with <i>early adopters</i>.<br /><p></p><p>At some point the Hero Sale risks becoming the Hero Fail. The challenge is that as the business expands, the founders (the heros) need to focus on running the business, managing the growth, courting investors, hiring managers, etc., and they have less time for selling.</p><p>So...they hire sales people. </p><p>And they expect sales people to act and perform in their image, with the same depth of knowledge, passion, and ability to connect with <i>mainstream</i> customers. </p><p>I've seen and experienced it first-hand.</p><p>When I sold predictive analytics to some of the largest tech companies in the industry, the company president and founder expected the sales team to leverage his 100 page slide deck...to go deep into the technical details of the what and how of the platform. Much of our sales training focused on this technical deep dive, and only lightly touched on personas and messaging.<br /></p><p></p><p>Conversely, my mainstream customers were <i>only</i> interested in the benefits of leveraging the platform - could they increase pipeline velocity, improve pipeline size and shape, bolster their customer acquisition rates, meet their quota and revenue targets. The decision makers didn't care what was under the hood, only whether it would bolster their marketing results and how difficult it would be to integrate the predictive analytics platform and workflow into their existing marketing processes.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhQJteb81OlvD3BYU2pXLu0X0LhC2ANyWVwl_JJ4Q1t90jOzUjKdtKpOQabSBB-JP8JAEbEeRUFPW9V87V119d6RnyWiIGB77u00-cvp1jJM_BprxCXGAlmcB_LUUiag6685jGzvcFx1z5RzOIr7-fQG1fF9mskYNLlNADuno6KgzmD248PzK8STEfEA/s4353/whiteboard%20work%20flow%20unsplash.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2901" data-original-width="4353" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhQJteb81OlvD3BYU2pXLu0X0LhC2ANyWVwl_JJ4Q1t90jOzUjKdtKpOQabSBB-JP8JAEbEeRUFPW9V87V119d6RnyWiIGB77u00-cvp1jJM_BprxCXGAlmcB_LUUiag6685jGzvcFx1z5RzOIr7-fQG1fF9mskYNLlNADuno6KgzmD248PzK8STEfEA/w320-h213/whiteboard%20work%20flow%20unsplash.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>IBM wasn't even interested in the platform...they had their own...they were interested in our curated third party data. And we discovered this not through a detailed review of the CEO's slide deck, but in an extended white boarding session focusing on work flows. (White boards are my favorite selling tools.)<p></p><p>In talking with clients I hear many facing this same challenge...as the company grows, expected sales productivity fails to increase as experienced sales people are hired. And the founders question the new hires, the selection process, the target markets, everything but their own outsize influence in setting sales strategy.</p><p>Moving from a hero-driven revenue model to one that is sustainable and scalable requires a fundamental shift to a traditional selling model -- a formal selling methodology, selling processes, SFA and CRM platforms, formal onboarding activities. Dedicated sales managers will provide strong leverage for additional growth, particularly if a coaching methodology and mindset is part of the structure.</p><p>When I joined BAO, the outsourced inside sales organization, as its first sales leader, I implemented a formal selling methodology and spent a lot of time coaching my sales team on value selling techniques. Many had come from the delivery side of the organization and had been accustomed to a highly transactional sales approach...making up to 250 calls each day. The investment in time and effort paid off...we signed a number of key accounts that had been chased for fifteen years.</p><p></p><p><b><i>We also drove an increase in revenue of 75% over that first 18 month period.</i></b><br /></p><p>Moving to this scalable selling model requires both support and patience from all of the key stakeholders. It won't happen all at once, and it does require a substantive shift in approach. The founders must step back and give the hired managers the space and time to do their job.</p><p>A formal approach to change management...and specifically...setting expectations with the key stakeholders will prove useful.</p><p>And maybe, just maybe, that hero can take their first vacation in four years.</p><p>Thanks!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik-grsIEHujr6FUIcv03k6GkZ2mQlz2Mgnnt5zaqNjOhsS6jNzB69knbIPdTmCzsktn4Xs_V_DxzFAnf6uA6RHw_9Cas64H1FeENzt-xskxeOfmHCFBZrhdcBADF43cGNdFtrkqEFdrK_1S3Kwjh26v5-tFi-ZCbppTG0DY8JZNFoKKd-4jRGITvKo1Q/s84/Lee%20short%20sig.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="78" data-original-width="84" height="78" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik-grsIEHujr6FUIcv03k6GkZ2mQlz2Mgnnt5zaqNjOhsS6jNzB69knbIPdTmCzsktn4Xs_V_DxzFAnf6uA6RHw_9Cas64H1FeENzt-xskxeOfmHCFBZrhdcBADF43cGNdFtrkqEFdrK_1S3Kwjh26v5-tFi-ZCbppTG0DY8JZNFoKKd-4jRGITvKo1Q/s1600/Lee%20short%20sig.jpg" width="84" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Lee<br /></p>Lee Levitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01855067220559094836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8966783851875406264.post-39318991679614536682023-04-05T09:16:00.002-04:002023-04-11T15:24:21.130-04:00<p> </p><h1 style="text-align: left;">Why People Buy</h1><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwxeQE33AedkBEfKLwF5P6PQD7V523hZIvWt0-CJRsgZhWOzu-AQJMqzn0FyqRIlq89DnrgLF9QuEzQGLkVtnQob04NIvuqONhubK9AAnh4hSCYHfNUFMfo6PsHW4yclazLf8GRmmu30P0eQ0YAGO1EkW_29xqwvYQ-bxRnopAqjtFMDlR5omhSJBEMA/s1920/alexander-grey--8a5eJ1-mmQ-unsplash.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="1920" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwxeQE33AedkBEfKLwF5P6PQD7V523hZIvWt0-CJRsgZhWOzu-AQJMqzn0FyqRIlq89DnrgLF9QuEzQGLkVtnQob04NIvuqONhubK9AAnh4hSCYHfNUFMfo6PsHW4yclazLf8GRmmu30P0eQ0YAGO1EkW_29xqwvYQ-bxRnopAqjtFMDlR5omhSJBEMA/w400-h266/alexander-grey--8a5eJ1-mmQ-unsplash.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />One of the most powerful attributes of value selling is that it <i>should</i> give you visibility on what people care about - how they're motivated, what their personal goals are, etc.<p></p>
<p>People <i>think</i> that they buy based on data and analysis. But they
don't. You don't. I don't. I buy the running shoes because they'll make me look faster
on the trails or at Starbucks. You buy the solar panels or EV because it underscores your
care for the environment. A coworker once told me that she was going
to sell her 911 Cabrio to buy a Tesla (back when Tesla was cool)...because she wanted to <i>save money
on gas</i>.</p><p>Um, no. She was going to lose thousands of dollars on the
transaction, so the financial justification was weak. However, the new car was going to signal her care for the
planet, which was her real motivation for the purchase.</p>
<p>Corporate buying is no different. Whether it's a new AI chatbot to
improve the experience of your customer, or the repurchase of another
thousand Chromebooks, at the base of the decision is feeling rather than data.</p>
<p>Here's a great <a href=" (https://www.torbenrick.eu/blog/change-management/change-management-require-that-people-feel-the-problem/ " target="_blank">quote</a> on <b>change management</b>, and after all, selling is all about change management:</p>
<div class="wDYxhc" data-md="61" lang="en-US" style="clear: none;">
<div aria-level="3" class="LGOjhe" data-attrid="wa:/description" data-hveid="CBEQAA" role="heading" style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><span class="ILfuVd" lang="en"><span class="hgKElc"><b>See – feel – change is more effective than analyze – think – change</b>.
The process used here is "See, Feel, and Change", as opposed to
"Analyze, Think, and Change". The latter is all head, no heart, and
often fails to motivate people to recognize the importance of a given
problem.</span></span><br /></div><div aria-level="3" class="LGOjhe" data-attrid="wa:/description" data-hveid="CBEQAA" role="heading"><span class="kX21rb ZYHQ7e"> </span></div>
<div aria-level="3" class="LGOjhe" data-attrid="wa:/description" data-hveid="CBEQAA" role="heading"></div>
<div aria-level="3" class="LGOjhe" data-attrid="wa:/description" data-hveid="CBEQAA" role="heading">As part of my enablement work, I leverage story telling, developing customer vignettes - the people, personas, their "care-abouts". I explore individual
MBOs and what an MBO represents. To drive the point home for the sales people in the session, I show a
jet ski, something that the lead purchaser intends to buy with their MBO. I
actually get groups of sales people to yelll "jet ski" when I ask what
motivates that individual.</div><div aria-level="3" class="LGOjhe" data-attrid="wa:/description" data-hveid="CBEQAA" role="heading"> </div><div aria-level="3" class="LGOjhe" data-attrid="wa:/description" data-hveid="CBEQAA" role="heading">They get it. </div>
<div aria-level="3" class="LGOjhe" data-attrid="wa:/description" data-hveid="CBEQAA" role="heading"></div>
<div aria-level="3" class="LGOjhe" data-attrid="wa:/description" data-hveid="CBEQAA" role="heading"> </div><div aria-level="3" class="LGOjhe" data-attrid="wa:/description" data-hveid="CBEQAA" role="heading">Data
is nice, but don't kid yourself. People <i>don't</i> make decisions based on
TCO or ROI. Do you need to check those boxes? Absolutely. But a good ROI
argument doesn't get you off BAU. Getting a customer to <i>feel</i> why different is better starts the real consideration process, otherwise the (perceived) RISK hurdle is just too great.</div>
<div aria-level="3" class="LGOjhe" data-attrid="wa:/description" data-hveid="CBEQAA" role="heading"></div>
<div aria-level="3" class="LGOjhe" data-attrid="wa:/description" data-hveid="CBEQAA" role="heading"> </div><div aria-level="3" class="LGOjhe" data-attrid="wa:/description" data-hveid="CBEQAA" role="heading">Lee</div><div aria-level="3" class="LGOjhe" data-attrid="wa:/description" data-hveid="CBEQAA" role="heading"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVXs2PQbbBKC5hlAurkA8FIG_Tu7CfkCu5K8zXH173rs9EDxwhc4vAN_29RIxZckT40ZoBa-QX-Up6NroBbOU7vkDWOl3Kq2C4kGQ_nCvsPQxE_KJ55LtOJmB_gXrTIkfVM3kAzOvEjfZV48fLiDR1TyiZ--AmfrNYR6zZOD-b9en3B7NQ9PT61rjTMQ/s77/Leesig.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="70" data-original-width="77" height="70" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVXs2PQbbBKC5hlAurkA8FIG_Tu7CfkCu5K8zXH173rs9EDxwhc4vAN_29RIxZckT40ZoBa-QX-Up6NroBbOU7vkDWOl3Kq2C4kGQ_nCvsPQxE_KJ55LtOJmB_gXrTIkfVM3kAzOvEjfZV48fLiDR1TyiZ--AmfrNYR6zZOD-b9en3B7NQ9PT61rjTMQ/s1600/Leesig.jpg" width="77" /></a></div><br /> </div><div aria-level="3" class="LGOjhe" data-attrid="wa:/description" data-hveid="CBEQAA" role="heading"> </div>
</div>Lee Levitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01855067220559094836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8966783851875406264.post-10076750818372830452023-03-27T20:22:00.006-04:002023-03-27T20:27:58.682-04:00<p> </p><h1 style="text-align: left;">Is Value Selling a Methodology?<br /></h1><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih1VfJLQq4AcaJ2pQZCMVuMtZPeGE474OhdlcL4WQbMlPjkMHxGIqGRkOZzJEC75KZWxVFtmQtN64tPhhOXtbxuJo4icrOVShLJiSYuYcSQV9I_smDuz2tHjbglAtlaQZn7N20o9rLHJsnhBeqvArZUBb_LlNQy6M4pW3BgmkCFsjq-757NKRV81r2Mg/s1176/What%20is%20value.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="558" data-original-width="1176" height="152" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih1VfJLQq4AcaJ2pQZCMVuMtZPeGE474OhdlcL4WQbMlPjkMHxGIqGRkOZzJEC75KZWxVFtmQtN64tPhhOXtbxuJo4icrOVShLJiSYuYcSQV9I_smDuz2tHjbglAtlaQZn7N20o9rLHJsnhBeqvArZUBb_LlNQy6M4pW3BgmkCFsjq-757NKRV81r2Mg/s320/What%20is%20value.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>We designed and implemented a formal value selling methodology at
Oracle and I was tangentially involved with another
effort more recently.<p></p>
<p></p>
<p>Here's the thing about value selling. It's <i>not</i> just a
methodology...an approach to selling. It is a mindset, a way that sales
people (and others) think about preparing for, and engaging with
customers. To be successful, the mindset has to be present in everything
the sales person does, or the initiative fails.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Here's the rub -- everyone else in the organization, and most of the
practices and processes, is either product-centric or transactional in
nature.</p><p>If <i>you</i> train your sales people to engage with customers
focused on the business benefits of reducing risk and fraud, and your
product managers focus on <i>speeds and feeds</i>, product/service
attributes, a cognitive dissonance is created. Then the rep's manager
focuses on inspection and forward movement of the opportunity, talking
about pricing and contract terms. Obviously, the latter is important,
but frequently it is delivered in opposition to the value selling
approach/mindset.</p>
<p></p>
<p>At Oracle, the sales engineer was my primary line of reinforcement. I
coached them to ask reps: "Do you have a business value hypothesis...".
If the rep hadn't done the work to create a value perspective, I
coached the SE to decline joining them on the sales call. The first line
sales manager was my second line of reinforcement, providing a lot of
coaching on business value.</p>
<p></p>
<p>We had the benefit of high level executive support for our value
selling approach. It helped that many senior sales executives had risen
from the ranks, had been trained on value selling and saw their average
deal size grow dramatically.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Conversely, in a more recent situation, value selling was deemed a
"good thing to do." And it was done. Well done, by some very senior and
knowledgeable people, people who have done it well elsewhere. But it
was not supported in the field by sales management, it had little to no
real executive support, and product management had to be coached, over
and over, to recast their product enablement assets to be more
supportive of a value selling approach. It has not really taken hold
and as a result has delivered little real value.</p>
<p></p>
<p>So...value selling is a mindset, one that has to be shared by all the
relevant stakeholders, and actively supported by senior management. And
as such, your primary challenge is that of change management. How will
you to change the hearts and minds of the stakeholders so that
your investment in value selling pays off, so that sales people can focus on the value to be co-created with customers?</p><p>Looking forward to your comments!</p><p>Thanks!</p><p>Lee</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0soRLeVDMwRjUDv5BYr4Am1mvS44DqJHy4IUVt4caZf2fF8m_6uie9ps_aZRYM8TfJUSAFWZkv1rc-IQ4bVb4SCC-cIt5tU2SvwKvqPyfaQHuu_dzmJzEchZx6fu9rDOMwf1W5x-FsK4mmj8NGhsTxQJRS7Xl2JlEoXuATwkxY9vIRsuDpqsE6nSupQ/s77/Leesig.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="70" data-original-width="77" height="70" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0soRLeVDMwRjUDv5BYr4Am1mvS44DqJHy4IUVt4caZf2fF8m_6uie9ps_aZRYM8TfJUSAFWZkv1rc-IQ4bVb4SCC-cIt5tU2SvwKvqPyfaQHuu_dzmJzEchZx6fu9rDOMwf1W5x-FsK4mmj8NGhsTxQJRS7Xl2JlEoXuATwkxY9vIRsuDpqsE6nSupQ/s1600/Leesig.jpg" width="77" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Lee Levitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01855067220559094836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8966783851875406264.post-35408073587670527152020-05-26T13:03:00.000-04:002020-05-26T13:03:07.229-04:00Running and Selling
In many ways, running is similar to selling. Both involve preparation, patience, diligence, sweat and a lot of "failure."<br /><br />Great coaches tell their athletes to prepare for next year’s race, or the year after. Building the foundation for success takes a long time. You shouldn’t expect to do it in one season or in one quarter. The work you’re doing now will pay off down the road, way down the road.<br /><br />Yet we expect our sellers to come up to speed quickly….and the quicker the better. We measure “Time to First Revenue” as a key indicator of new hire performance and of onboarding program effectiveness. What we’re probably measuring, instead, is the persistence of a pre-existing deal in the territory, or perhaps a sales manager who’s closing deals for her new reps.<br /><br />And we expect immediate results each time the organization pivots, whether it’s due to a new product introduction, or a strategic shift in sales priorities, or the sudden WFH status of much of the sales organization and customer base. It’s like telling a mile specialist that next week he’s competing in the marathon, or a marathoner that she’ll be competing in an Iron Man triathlon with its multiple disciplines.<br /><br />Sometimes those pivots are unavoidable. Reps are now selling 100% by phone or video conference, with no expectation that they will be able to resume face to face selling any time soon.<br /><br />But here’s the thing. Selling remotely is different than selling face to face. And buying is different today. Buyers are behaving differently. Sure, many still have projects to complete (or to start). They still have project plans and milestones and MBOs. But their reality is quite different today than it was in January of this year. <br /><br />Their organizational challenges have shifted, perhaps dramatically. Some of their customers, partners and consumers are out of business or out of work. Their personal challenges have increased — remote working and management, loss of traditional support systems and day care, drop in household income, sick family members, the anxiety of the unknown.<br /><br />So lets take a step back, take this opportunity to pose the question — “what serves our customers, our organization now?” How can we use this time to (re)build a strong foundation — relationships with our customers and prospects, deeper set of selling and relationship management skills.<br /><br />With no races on the calendar, professional coaches point out that this year presents a unique opportunity for athletes, normally in a pre-race training cycle, to focus on building a strong fitness foundation, one that will serve the athlete for years to come, to improve their results several years out.<br /><br />Similarly, the enforced WFH and dramatically different selling environment presents a unique opportunity for sales people to focus on relationship development, account research and preparation, and, importantly, their emotional intelligence.<br /><br />How will <em>you</em> ensure that your sales teams both build a foundation for future success and keep the lights on this quarter?<br />
<br />
Thanks!<br />
<br />
Lee<br /><img alt="Lee" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-164" height="70" src="http://blog.aceleragroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Leesig.jpg" width="77" /><br />
<br />
Lee Levitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01855067220559094836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8966783851875406264.post-10740721747254535072020-03-04T14:06:00.004-05:002020-03-05T11:25:01.260-05:00The Only Thing in Sales that Matters<br />
I’ve sat through a lot of corporate sales training. I’ve been certified in
multiple sales methodologies. I’ve accompanied experienced sales professionals on
literally thousands of sales calls. And yea, I’ve carried a bag.<br />
<br />
And without specific intervention, the development of <i>conscious intent</i>
is never part of the sales training or meeting/call prep process.<br />
<br />
We bring our intent to each and every interaction with others. While most of
the time we are not conscious of our intent (hope they don’t find out I’m an
imposter,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>let’s get this over with
quickly, I need them to like me), sometimes we are present to our own intent (I
need this deal, I have to close this deal, I hope they don’t think I’m stupid,
can I get out of here in time to beat rush hour traffic).<br />
<br />
And invariably, our intent doesn’t serve us. Conscious or otherwise, our intent
drives our thoughts, actions, spoken word. In doing so, our intent limits
outcomes to a small subset of possibilities.<br />
Moreover, our intent is quite visible to others. While we may not be present
to our self-serving intent – gotta close this deal – it is clear to the
prospect on the other side of the table or phone call. And our self-serving intent
poisons the process of engagement and discovery.<br />
<br />
Who wants to deal with a sales rep who only cares about closing their deal?
What about the needs of the prospect, of the organization, what about their
strategic business goals, what about their milestones, deadlines, pressures, MBOs,
getting home to dinner with their family or making their kid’s soccer game?<br />
<br />
I learned the power of intent early in my selling career. After watching my
initial interactions with retail customers, my store manager provided this
coaching: “You need to ask for the order!” I took that coaching to heart and primed
myself…I was ready…nobody was going to escape from the store without being
asked if they wanted to buy…My intent was to close everybody!<br />
<br />
To this day, I remember the absolute awkwardness of what happened next. A
woman and her daughter walked into the store and asked a simple question about
one of our products. Almost immediately I went into full closing mode, jumping
right from the “hi, thanks for coming in” to “how would you like to pay for
that”, (when in fact we hadn’t yet determined what <i>that</i> was!)<br />
<br />
The customers, of course, were still in their early information-gathering stage
and the jump to being asked about a transaction was cognitively jarring. Needless
to say, they did not buy anything from me that day. In fact, they left shortly
after this initial exchange.<br />
<br />
That day I was clear about my intent – <i>close everybody</i>. It was just as
clear to the unfortunate couple who had heard good things about our store and actually
wanted to buy something. And they ran. That intent didn’t serve the process of
engaging with prospects and creating happy customers. <br />
<br />
Years later as part of a marketing consultancy I coached principals at
professional services firms. As principals, most had evolved from sole
proprietors doing contracting work to heads of good-sized organizations. And as
they made this transition, they typically found themselves spending more time
selling the capabilities of their firm and less time actually delivering
services.<br />
<br />
And they were failing.<br />
<br />
These principals were uncomfortable “tooting their own horns,” engaging in
traditional selling conversations, even setting fair prices for their quality
work. To a person, their unconscious intent was “I hate to sell, don’t make me
sell, just take a look at the work we’ve done and make your own decision.” They
each had a vision in their head of a “typical” sales person and didn’t want to
be that person. Their intent was sabotaging their business success.<br />
<br />
And their businesses were at risk because the best person in the organization
to drive new business was paralyzed with fear about holding a selling conversation.<br />
<br />
With two simple words, each of these principals was “cured.” I told them to:<br />
<br />
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><b><i>Be yourself</i></b><br />
<br />
And in being yourself, feel comfortable in talking about your prior
experiences, exploring the needs of this new prospect, and how you’ve helped
other customers. Let go of the vision of that “sales person” in your head, the
persona that you don’t want to be, that you don’t have to be.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-indent: .5in;">
<b><i>Just be yourself</i></b>.</div>
<br />
You know how to do that!<br />
<br />
And I remember the immediate physical reaction from each of my clients. Shoulders
relaxed, brows unfurrowed. It looked like a heavy weight had been lifted from
their shoulders. They were again ready to be themselves, to bring a conscious
intent of <i>helpfulness</i> to their prospect interactions, versus the prior “I
really don’t want to have this <i>sales</i> conversation.”<br />
<br />
And their improving sales results over the following months highlighted the
value of this change in intent.<br />
<br />
<b>The Teacher is the Student</b><br />
<br />
Years later, this coaching came back to help me reset a toxic intent. In fact,
it came from one of those clients. I had been preparing for an important
presentation to several hundred of IDG’s most important advertising clients. I
practiced the presentation over and over, and each time it seemed to get worse.
As an accomplished presenter, I just didn’t understand why it wasn’t coming
together. The simple problem was that I had recently rejoined IDC, hadn’t
presented in a while, felt a bit rusty, and was concerned about doing a good
job. My subconscious intent got louder and louder – <i>gotta do a good job! Don’t
screw it up!</i><br />
<br />
At one point I thought my manager was going to cry (sorry Clare!). Her boss,
the CEO of IDC was going to be there. Pat McGovern, founder and CEO of IDG, our
parent company, was going to be there. It wasn’t going to be pretty. Potentially
career limiting…<br />
<br />
In the car, on the way into Boston for the evening presentation, I talked
with one of my former professional services clients, who turned my coaching
back on me. He said “It’s not about you or the quality of your presentation…it’s
about the attendees.”<br />
<br />
I was so bound up in worrying about the quality of the presentation that I
lost sight of its purpose – to inform the attendees, to help them to improve
their business results. And immediately, my intent shifted. My shoulders
relaxed. I was ready to deliver useful, helpful information. <br />
<br />
Thanks Miles!<br />
<br />
And rather than spending my time at the event worrying about my ability to
deliver a presentation, I talked with attendees and asked them what would be
useful for them to hear. After the presentation, my manager came to me with a
happy smile and a question – where did that come from?<br />
<br />
The conscious shift in intent from “have to do a good job” to “be helpful”
saved my butt!<br />
<br />
Over the past two years, I’ve done a lot of onboarding work with new reps,
some recent college hires, and the topic of intent is a key part of my
conversations with them. I want them to know the importance of intent, and the
value of a strong, positive, customer-centric intent. But these conversations
are outliers in the sales enablement world.<br />
<br />
When sales enablement builds a formal and ongoing focus on the people part
of selling – the mindsets, belief systems, the attitudes and skills – we will see
a quantum leap in the leverage that enablement provides.<br />
<br />
Lee<br />
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{page:WordSection1;}</style>Lee Levitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01855067220559094836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8966783851875406264.post-62808117140558872302020-02-12T14:15:00.000-05:002020-02-12T14:15:04.700-05:00Is Sales Enablement Really Just a Programming Challenge?A common theme in sales enablement circles revolves around the challenge of displaying specific targeted content to sales people at discrete points in the sales cycle. <br /><br />The belief is that if we just get the right content in front of the sales person at exactly the right time, it will help him or her to move an opportunity to the next stage.<br /><br />Do we really think that enterprise selling has become nothing more than a <i>Pavlovian parlor trick</i>? That we can get a rep to <i>literally</i> ring the bell when he or she consumes the “right” content?<br /><br />At the risk of upsetting the SE vendors in the room, I’d ask this question — have we actually proven that reps will understand, retain and leverage all that content pushed at them? Do they really consume it, internalize it, make good use of it, retain any knowledge or show ability to reuse? Does it result in higher close rates, increased deal profitability, higher customer satisfaction and retention scores? Or are we simply measuring activity - number of reps “trained”, videos downloaded, micro-courses consumed, evaluations passed?<br /><br />We know that customers don’t always follow a linear path in their buying process. And the development of their evaluation and selection criteria certainly isn’t linear. Things come up when they come up. While an experienced sales person can help guide some of this, in my experience, the best sales people pivot quickly and competently (and certainly don’t have time to go back to the office, update CRM and consume some more content.)<br /><br />I want my reps to live in a culture of curiosity — what can they learn from a customer, what can they *find* in our sales enablement library (and elsewhere), what new ways of doing business can they co-create with their customers?<br /><br />I’m deep into reading <a href="https://amzn.to/2TVKlp5" target="_blank">Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning</a>, by Peter Brown. In it, Brown makes the point that curiosity and intellectual inquiry are at the heart of successful learning. Sitting and passively reading content is <i><b>not</b></i> an effective learning strategy.<br /><br />Look, if we are building sales bots, then perhaps the programming paradigm fits just fine. If we are doing this, though, why bother with the intermediate step of involving people…lets just program the bots and point them <i>directly</i> at customers.<br /><br />The problem with the content strategy is that it aligns with a popular (but ineffective) market paradigm, that if we just tell customers enough, if we just keep talking at them, eventually they will see the error of their ways, understand that our widget is better than all the other vendors’ widgets, and will put pen to paper.<br />
<br />
<i><b>Customers don't buy this way</b></i>, even enterprise customers dealing with complex product or service acquisitions or adoptions. They simply aren't competent at objectively evaluating the detailed feature sets of each vendor's offering. Instead, customers buy with their gut, when they <i>believe</i> that one vendor’s team, product and services hold less personal and institutional risk than the other offers, and they justify their decision with a selection of facts, product details and price quotes.<br /><br />If we are intent on building a sustainable business, one that customers *want* to engage with, then we need to shift our paradigm to creating interesting, and interested selling individuals. We need to focus on helping sales people to develop their social cognition, so that they have greater situational and organizational awareness, as opposed to feeding them yet another script that starts off with “oh yea, our stuff can do that too…and we’re cheaper.”<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
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<br /><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Lee<br />
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<br />Lee Levitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01855067220559094836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8966783851875406264.post-14223715127789274452020-02-03T14:09:00.000-05:002020-02-03T14:09:38.473-05:00Be Impeccable With Your Word
<br />
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<span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">If you’ve read<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>The Four Agreements</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>by Don Miguel Ruiz (available<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><a href="https://amzn.to/2HlJqaH"><b><span style="color: #954f72; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">here</span></b></a><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">), you recognize “Be Impeccable With Your Word” as the
first agreement. We can learn a lot by applying Ruiz’s teachings to the art of
selling.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Ruiz says, in part, that to
be impeccable with your word, “you must speak with integrity. Say only what you
mean.” And, paraphrasing, <i>do what you say you are going to do</i>.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">So…how do we apply this to
the art of selling?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">It’s simple…do your account
planning and pre-call prep so that you are prepared to bring <i>value</i> to
the conversation.</span></div>
<ul>
<li><span style="color: black; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"></span></span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif;">Be clear on your understanding of the organization’s challenges
and opportunities, and on what your contact does each day in support of the
organization’s strategic goals</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif;"> </span></li>
<li><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif;">Develop and practice your initial conversation before you pick up
the phone to call your prospect. Write it out and tweak it until the customer-centric
messaging is clear and your business value proposition is straightforward. Review
it with a peer to ensure that you’re delivering it in a conversational style,
one that is yours, and is appropriate for your prospect (region, language of
value, etc.)</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"></span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: black; font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"></span></span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif;">Use language that is business-centric, that makes sense for a
senior business (non-technical) person. Use language that helps the prospect to
feel comfortable with your expertise in the process of diagnosing issues and
coming up with recommendations.</span></li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFub-A95juSNLkRF57dTPP9pw5_-hEPdm3gTjGdRxwxPjIDmE62P6OWfCqjukthZocSd4Jd-QIDXk6H6TQwjS7-BtTKKw3paScHbylvx5T3w1h2qhWoPShFtg3PY8IkrSY9PmLJybf7eTa/s1600/clock+3+pm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="268" data-original-width="271" height="197" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFub-A95juSNLkRF57dTPP9pw5_-hEPdm3gTjGdRxwxPjIDmE62P6OWfCqjukthZocSd4Jd-QIDXk6H6TQwjS7-BtTKKw3paScHbylvx5T3w1h2qhWoPShFtg3PY8IkrSY9PmLJybf7eTa/s200/clock+3+pm.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">And…if you<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><b>make a commitment</b>, be specific
– I’ll call you at 3 pm on Thursday (versus I’ll call later this week). When
you make that commitment, put it in your calendar, with a reminder, and make
good on the commitment.<b><i> </i></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><b><i>Call
promptly at 3 pm</i></b>!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">By being impeccable with your
word – being easy to understand, focusing on the prospect’s key issues, using
their <i>language of value</i>, and following through on your commitments, you
will set yourself apart from most of the other vendors’ salespeople calling on
the same accounts.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">And, by following through on
your commitments, you will lower the prospect’s perceived risk in going with
you. Perceived risk is a<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>huge</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>factor in complex business to business
sales, and while it’s not objectively measurable, it is one of the most
important elements in the decision-making process. Buyers frequently will
select a vendor that they believe can be trusted to deliver a solution that
works, even if another vendor’s offer may be lower priced.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">It’s a relationship-based
decision, and we build that relationship by clarity with our words and
demonstrating our trustworthiness by crisply following through on our
commitments.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">So…<b>be clear in what you
say</b>, and<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><b>do what you say
you are going to do</b>. While this is not difficult to do, our crazy-busy,
interrupt-driven environment can sometimes make it challenging, both in finding
the time to prepare and in crisply meeting our commitments.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Awareness is the
first step to success.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Thanks!</span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMx32cBgN6JjB5qguI0a5mnTIVLDla5rX1RP998pOHYGM-90ePlGweAdZb4et54ABJCDOSzOzANNJnUqzCLHlam978zvhlwAKUupyRFc5Ibh5oi9WRlZ9n1-ZlG8iCD1Vvs2m6p_b-Mopf/s1600/Lee+short+sig.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Lee" border="0" data-original-height="78" data-original-width="84" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMx32cBgN6JjB5qguI0a5mnTIVLDla5rX1RP998pOHYGM-90ePlGweAdZb4et54ABJCDOSzOzANNJnUqzCLHlam978zvhlwAKUupyRFc5Ibh5oi9WRlZ9n1-ZlG8iCD1Vvs2m6p_b-Mopf/s1600/Lee+short+sig.jpg" title="Lee" /></a></div>
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ul
{margin-bottom:0in;}</style>Lee Levitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01855067220559094836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8966783851875406264.post-92069581704034182742020-01-25T18:14:00.004-05:002020-01-25T19:09:23.990-05:00Practice, Practice, Practice!<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"> </span><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">I’m in the middle of rereading <i>Peak Performance: Elevate
Your Game, Avoid Burnout, and Thrive with the New Science of Success</i> (</span><a href="https://amzn.to/2RqvBg6"><b><span style="color: #954f72; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">link</span></b></a><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">) and I
was surprised at the common themes that help runners, artists, surgeons and
sales people all excel at their craft.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">If you’re interested in excelling at sales, follow these
guidelines:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">#1 <b>Context is everything</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">If your intent is to get through 10 calls so you can check that
box and go to lunch, the calls won’t be useful to you or the prospects. On the
other hand, if your <b><i>intent is to solve problems</i></b>, make sense
of the world, talk to interesting people, improve your craft…your calls will be
much <b><i>productive and fun</i></b>. Your prospects will enjoy talking with
you; they’ll share more, they will <b><i>help you to help them</i></b>.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Remember, your context (or intent) is obvious to your prospect, like
it’s written across your forehead or broadcast in your caller id. You will <i>always</i>
broadcast some context, either consciously or not, so ensure that it is a
powerful, positive one. (Hmm, perhaps a topic for another posting…)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">#2 <b>Practice makes perfect</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Athletes and musicians <b><i>practice to ensure success</i></b>.
And they don’t just practice, they <b><i>focus on specific skills</i></b>,
one at a time. A pro golfer will spend a week working solely on his putting
game (but not from the same spot each time). An ultra-marathoner will focus on
building leg speed. A top sales person will focus on practicing the pivot or
bridge from one topic to another.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">We practice to build “muscle memory.” When a prospect asks us a
question out of the blue, because we’ve practiced, because we’ve built that
muscle memory, we can pivot to addressing the question in a useful and
meaningful way. Or maybe that question doesn’t catch us off guard…because we
saw something on the contact’s LinkedIn profile and gave some thought to how
that might be relevant…</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">#3 <b>Learn from doing</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Top performers always <b><i>evaluate their performance</i></b>.
What went well? What could he or she have done differently? What’s the
learning? What new muscle memory must be created?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">After you talk with a prospect or customer, think about the flow
of the conversation. Were you properly prepared? Did the conversation follow
the path you expected? (Hint, it <i>never</i> does!) Did you
accomplish what you intended? Were you open to solving different problems,
uncovering and exploring different issues? Did you position yourself as a
resource? Did you make a deposit in the relationship bank account? Did you
reach agreement on a specific follow up?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">This introspection is the single most powerful thing you can do
each day to identify areas for improvement, to build your selling skills. For a
deep dive into learning theory, spend some time with <i>Make It Stick</i> by
Peter Brown (<b><a href="https://amzn.to/2TVKlp5">link</a></b>). Peter also cites
some pretty interesting research on new techniques for skill development (a
topic for another post.) </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Leverage your resources</span></i></b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">. Use the industry and persona
information provided by your organization or public resources, the treasure
trove of prospect information on LinkedIn, the call and conversation planning
tools needed for thoughtful preparation. <a href="https://corporatevisions.com/">Corporate
Visions</a> cites industry knowledge as being critical to successful
conversations, more important than company knowledge, and <i>far</i> more
important than product knowledge. <b><i>Prepare for success!</i></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Practice, practice, practice</span></i></b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">. It might take you 30 minutes to
fill out your first call planning template. It will take you 5-10 minutes to
complete your 10<sup>th</sup>. Role play with your peers or your manager. Fine
tune your conversational skills in a “safe” environment, make the mistakes in a
coaching space where you will get immediate feedback. Practice your opening
conversation in front of a mirror until it feels and sounds natural.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">And pick up the phone often</span></i></b><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">. You will have far greater success
in holding an enrolling conversation with someone if you reach them by phone,
versus trying to engage them by email. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Thanks!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Lee</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMx32cBgN6JjB5qguI0a5mnTIVLDla5rX1RP998pOHYGM-90ePlGweAdZb4et54ABJCDOSzOzANNJnUqzCLHlam978zvhlwAKUupyRFc5Ibh5oi9WRlZ9n1-ZlG8iCD1Vvs2m6p_b-Mopf/s1600/Lee+short+sig.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="78" data-original-width="84" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMx32cBgN6JjB5qguI0a5mnTIVLDla5rX1RP998pOHYGM-90ePlGweAdZb4et54ABJCDOSzOzANNJnUqzCLHlam978zvhlwAKUupyRFc5Ibh5oi9WRlZ9n1-ZlG8iCD1Vvs2m6p_b-Mopf/s1600/Lee+short+sig.jpg" /></a><span style="color: black; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"></span></div>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style>Lee Levitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01855067220559094836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8966783851875406264.post-53964631896031939222019-05-06T13:04:00.001-04:002020-01-25T19:10:15.909-05:00BAU as Primary CompetitorWhen selling complex solutions to the line of business, your primary competitor is almost always BAU or “Business As Usual”, sometimes referred to as “the status quo” or “we’ve always done it that way.”<br />
<br />
Unless you happen to reach someone actively evaluating new approaches or technologies, you will have to contend with the entrenched BAU. Your contact might have been told when they joined the company that “this is the way we do things here.” For better or worse, <b>that’s how things get done</b>. Business as usual.<br />
<br />
The way things get done might be highly efficient. Or it might require McGyvering the process with baling wire and duct tape, lots of manual processes.<br />
<br />
I talk with these customers every day, across all lines of business. For instance – marketing directors extracting information from Marketo and Salesforce, importing it into Excel, normalizing the data and trying to make sense of it, trying to plan new marketing campaigns to drive customer acquisition or retention. In fact, <b><a href="https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=use+marketo+and+salesforce+data+in+excel">googling</a></b> the phrase “use marketo and salesforce data in excel” results in more than 261,000 results, including both Marketo and Salesforce forums, and an unlikely domain “datahero.” So…lots of people are McGyvering this very important information mashup. I wonder how that’s working for them…<br />
<br />
One analytics manager recently told me that he spends a full day each week extracting data from source systems and loading it into their analytics app. That’s 20% of his working hours, doing something manually that could be automated at nominal cost and with a dramatically lower error rate. He hasn’t been able to take a vacation in <i>three years</i>…<br />
<br />
<b>Why do customers continue to do it this way?</b><br />
<br />
Why don’t they welcome our calls, offering to help them do things <i>better, faster, cheaper</i>?<br />
<br />
<b>Here’s the problem</b><br />
<br />
BAU works, more or less. There’s little <b><i>perceived</i></b> <b><i>risk</i></b> in continuing to do things the way things have been done. They know what will happen. Sure, the BAU approach might not be optimal, it might not even be particularly effective, but it’s <b><i>predictable</i></b>. They know how to do it that way and they know what results to expect. And they’re too busy doing what they’re doing to be actively searching for different ways of doing things…<br />
<br />
<b>Change represents risk</b><br />
<br />
Any change to current processes holds <i>perceived</i> risk. There’s the effort of evaluating and making the change. Then processes have to be modified…and there’s no guarantee that the new way will work better than the old way (BAU). Or that it will work at all. So there’s a <b><i>built-in bias to do nothing</i></b>.<br />
<br />
<b>How do we get past BAU?</b><br />
<br />
Be aware that your prospect doesn’t want to do anything differently. And you need to honor the approach that they’ve developed. Somebody might be proud of it. Somebody pitched it to management and got funding for it. It might actually work.<br />
<br />
Typically cost isn’t sufficient. Prospects won’t move to something new for a small incremental decrease in cost. The risk is too high. There must either be a large, demonstrable cost savings, or a significant <i>capability improvement</i> (ability to drive new business outcomes) to drive consideration. Incremental performance improvements are almost never worth the perceived risk to the buyer. And if a change was recently, the thresh-hold for change will be even higher.<br />
<br />
So we focus on helping customers to achieve new, better business outcomes – improving customer retention, reducing customer churn, raising operational profitability…we align to their strategic organizational metrics. And remember, business customers don’t really care <i>how</i> they achieve their business outcomes as long as they do achieve them. The technology-centric sales approach doesn’t intrigue them as it might for a conversation with IT executives. (Five guys in a garage, two squirrels in a cage, cloud-based data warehouse? I don’t know…will it help me improve my customer retention rate…and receive my quarterly bonus?)<br />
<br />
<b>As a sales person, your job is to reduce the perceived risk of doing something new</b><br />
<br />
You start to do that in the first few seconds of a new conversation, as you <i>align to the contact’s language of value</i>, you demonstrate that <i>you’ve done your homework</i>, and you steer the conversation to <i>discussing strategic business metrics and outcomes</i>.<br />
<br />
In talking with customers, I start with a foundation of credibility. We’ve worked with similar customers on similar projects many, many times. We can help “derisk” the process for the customer, help them to understand that working with us to adopt a new approach potentially represents <i>less</i> risk than continuing to do what they’ve been doing.<br />
<br />
<b>Ask questions about consequential pain</b><br />
<ul>
<li>What are the challenges in doing things the current (BAU) way?</li>
<li>How will they handle a dramatic pivot or increase in business requirements?</li>
<li>How will they support new/different strategic decision making?</li>
<li>How would their business outcomes be different if they could streamline their approach, potentially improve the process?</li>
<li>What would it mean to them <i>personally</i> if they could improve their results? If they could deliver even better business outcomes (customer retention, product quality, financial performance, employee safety, etc.)</li>
</ul>
Help them to build awareness that continuing to do things the way they’ve been doing things (BAU) holds substantial risk. Don’t tell them…ask the questions and help them to draw the conclusion… Once you get there, they will be open to a deeper discovery call, providing you with more time and access, building the business case for making a change.<br />
<br />
Then suggest that they start with a “bite size” (low risk) project to solve problems not well addressed with current processes or technologies.<br />
<br />
And for fun, take a look at the Snopes <a href="https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/grandmas-cooking-secret/"><b>page</b></a> on “Grandma’s Cooking Secret.” Yes, we do it that way because she always did it that way (BAU), but nobody knew why!<br />
<br />
How do you get past BAU?<br />
<div class="entry-post">
<br />
Thanks!<br />
<br />
<img alt="Lee" class="size-full wp-image-164 alignleft" src="http://blog.aceleragroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Leesig.jpg" height="70" width="77" /></div>
Lee Levitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01855067220559094836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8966783851875406264.post-42253596818308080462017-07-18T09:48:00.001-04:002018-11-01T10:33:51.852-04:00Leading Sales Indicators<div class="entry-post">
Selling a complex solution is a lot like running a marathon. To
be successful, you can’t just walk up to the starting line and start
running. Success in the marathon takes months of preparation. For each
mile of the marathon, a runner might run 20-30 miles in direct
preparation. Similarly, a good enterprise sales person will dedicate
10-20 hours of preparation (research, discovery, planning) for each hour
of face to face with the prospect or customer.<br />
<a href="http://blog.aceleragroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/racepace-300x208.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" class="alignright wp-image-343" src="http://blog.aceleragroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/racepace-300x208.jpg" height="126" width="182" /></a><br />
The
successful marathoner will have a comprehensive race plan, mapping out
the goal pace for each mile. Many apply these plans as temporary “race
tats” on their arms, so that they can keep track of their plan while on
the road. Similarly, good enterprise sales people develop detailed
opportunity or pursuit plans that include both their actions and those
of their teammates (other sales people on the account, sales engineers,
etc.).<br />
<br />
Marathoners carefully watch the leading indicators that help them to
determine whether the individual race will be worthy of a Personal
Record (PR) or perhaps just a long, slow run. For the runner, some of
these leading indicators include their Heart Rate Variance (HRV) and
sleep patterns in the days leading up to the race, the temperature and
humidity on race day, how they feel at the start line and more.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://blog.aceleragroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/garminwatch-300x300.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" class="wp-image-342 alignleft" src="http://blog.aceleragroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/garminwatch-300x300.jpg" height="169" width="169" /></a>If
the racer sticks to their race plan (slower pace in the first half of
the race, faster in the second), a good day is possible. Toss that race
plan, run too fast in the first half of the race, and all the prep in
the world won’t save you. Trust me…I know!<br />
<br />
Similar dynamics exist in the complex enterprise sales environment.
While sales management typically watches portfolio coverage as a primary
indicator, it is not a <i><b>leading</b></i> indicator.
Pipeline coverage will tell you that you are in trouble. It won’t tell
you why you are in trouble…and it doesn’t give sufficient warning for
early correction.<br />
<br />
The Acelera Group Sales Productivity Framework incorporates ten rep-focused <i><b>leading indicators</b></i>,
along with a single first line sales manager (FLSM) indicator. These
indicators provide the early warning signs for a decline in sales
performance, at the rep, group and region level, and point strongly to
specific actions to be taken for course correction.<br />
<br />
The ratio of prep time versus face time, as mentioned earlier, is one
of these leading indicators. Depending on the specific business
problem, level of prior customer intimacy and complexity of the
environment, the sweet spot may be 5 or 10 to 1. When reps (or teams)
diverge from the sweet spot, we can expect a looming drop in sales
results.<br />
<br />
A second leading indicator – whether a business value analysis (BVA)
has been conducted – holds a similar power of predictability. Curiously,
despite its significant positive impact on customer intimacy and
satisfaction, deal profitability and overall sales results, the BVA is
not widely used.<br />
<br />
Complex enterprise selling should not be an <i>ad hoc</i> series of
unrelated activities. Good preparation and effective plan execution
will help the runner to complete the race and the sales rep to drive
great sales results.<br />
<br />
What are <i><b>your</b></i> leading indicators telling <i><b>you</b></i>?<br />
<br />
Thanks!<br />
<img alt="Lee" class="size-full wp-image-164 alignleft" src="http://blog.aceleragroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Leesig.jpg" height="70" width="77" /></div>
<span class="edit-link"></span>Lee Levitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01855067220559094836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8966783851875406264.post-91016819058755182912017-06-27T18:03:00.000-04:002018-11-01T10:34:21.142-04:00Got a Plan?<br />
<div style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<h4>
<b>How Are You Treating Your Largest Accounts?</b></h4>
<br />
Strategic accounts warrant investment and relationship rigor. They
spend more, have been customers longer, and have made specific
long-lasting platform, technology and relationship commitments. A
company’s top <i><b>five</b></i> customers alone may account for 22% of all revenues and 21% of annual profits! (Source: Sales Executive Council).<br />
<br />
Most large companies have a strategic account strategy, providing
additional technical, business, product resources, and occasionally
targeted investments in those accounts. Some provide “concierge” access
to technical or development resources. Executive sponsors are assigned
to these accounts.<br />
<br />
Yet <i><b>day to day management of the relationship is largely left to chance</b>. </i>Few
companies hire true strategic account managers (SAMs), choosing instead
to promote their “best” individual reps into a role that requires
significant team and process management skills.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://blog.aceleragroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Screen-Shot-2017-06-27-at-11.18.42-AM-300x219.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-324" src="http://blog.aceleragroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Screen-Shot-2017-06-27-at-11.18.42-AM-300x219.png" height="219" width="300" /></a>While
SAMs may be compensated on multi-year revenue attainment, share of
wallet gains and occasionally customer satisfaction scores, the other
sales people on the account, called specialist, pillar, or portfolio
sales people, typically retain their quarterly and annual quota targets,
and frequently are re-assigned year to year. These portfolio sales
people don’t typically report to the SAM, usually have competing
business imperatives for their own product sets and may even <i><b>compete with one another</b></i>, as multiple products from the vendor may solve individual business or technical problems.<br />
<br />
In short, a primary driver of disappointment in strategic account programs is that the planning process typically focuses on <i><b>sales planning</b></i> rather than <i><b>relationship planning.</b></i><b><i> </i></b><br />
<br />
<b><i>Developing</i> a Plan Isn’t Sufficient</b><br />
<br />
SAMs are typically expected to develop an annual account plan, and
some collaborate with their portfolio sales people to do so. Others just
wing it. In most cases, the output is indeed a plan…a written document
that is revisited annually…an artifact that provides no guidance for the
day-to-day governance of the account. It is a sales plan with detailed
lists of potential opportunities, alignment of products to perceived
business or technical problems. The plan typically lacks a thorough
analysis of the influence map within the account or any plans to bolster
relationships with important internal and external (partner)
stakeholders.<br />
<br />
A recent survey conducted by the Strategic Account Management Association (<b><a href="http://www.strategicaccounts.org/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">SAMA</a></b>)
found that, even within their membership, a mere 11% of account plans
are “effectively executed.” That’s a pretty dismal adherence rate, given
that these plans <i><b>should</b></i> be the primary pathway to better customer relationships and higher revenue generation!<b> </b><br />
<br />
<b>What to Do?</b><br />
<br />
If your organization is serious about strategic accounts, the first
step is to ensure corporate support for a multiyear investment in the
process of account planning, management and governance. While results
will appear almost immediately, the full impact of an effective
strategic account program will not be seen until the second or third
year of the program. If the program is maintained, those results should
be long-lasting!<br />
<br />
The next step is to set up a framework for success, including:<br />
<ul>
<li>Hiring SAMs with strong team management skills</li>
<li>Developing programmatic analysis of customer financials, industry
growth trends, key stakeholder profiles, installed base, competitive SOW
and more…</li>
<li>Enrolling management of each portfolio sales organization in the process and creating a consistent set of rules of engagement</li>
<li>Developing a process for thoughtfully identifying the strategic opportunities and challenges within the customer organization</li>
<li>Installing a team governance process to ensure success on an ongoing basis</li>
</ul>
<br />
<i><b>Team Governance?</b></i><br />
<br />
In my experience…and I’ve driven strategic planning for more than $2B
in revenues…the last item in the framework is the real challenge. Teams
gather to conduct the planning process…and then scatter to the wind.
Individual reps receive conflicting directives from their management,
sometimes in conflict with the team. Occasionally they go “rogue” in an
effort to land revenue this quarter or fiscal year, upsetting a much
larger, more strategic deal.<br />
<br />
To address this issue with one very large software company, we
established the concept of sales team “program management” for their
Account Team Unit (ATU). Initially, the function of program management
was handled by an existing team member, with the goal of providing
dedicated headcount to take on that function as necessary. As we
developed the strategic account program at another company, one core
team member owned team facilitation and took on governance as necessary
to support the strengths (and challenges) of the strategic account
manager.<i><b> </b></i><br />
<br />
<i><b>Thing One – Visibility</b></i><br />
<br />
The
SAM must have visibility on the activities of each portfolio rep (and
their sales consultants), ensuring consistent team/account messaging
across all initiatives and engagement; and whether individual reps are
engaged. That visibility would also help the SAM to know where a rep
needs help with access or organizational support. Reps gravitate to
where they see opportunity, leaving broken promises of supporting the
SAM and the strategic account. “If it’s not closing this quarter, I’m
not wasting my time pursuing it.”<i><b> </b></i><br />
<br />
<i><b>Thing Two – Customer Participation</b></i><br />
<br />
However, even if your organization successfully designs and
implements a strong planning and governance framework, this only
provides the “inside-out” view. It’s a series of hypotheses around “what
we think the customer might be interested in…” And here’s where most
companies fail in their strategic account planning process. They neglect
to include the single most important stakeholder in the process — the
customer.<br />
<br />
Sure…it can be challenging to include the customer in the process,
and sometimes the customer’s strategic focus doesn’t align with what we
want to sell. Go figure! Yet, deep engagement with the customer in the
planning process leads to more involvement by the customer, better “time
and access” for discovery and relationship building, faster decision
cycles, larger, more profitable deals, and higher customer satisfaction.
That planning process, by the way, is a cycle rather than an event…a
series of regular engagements with relevant resources, and commitment to
action and investment on an ongoing basis.<br />
<br />
Many companies leave the participation of the customer to be handled
by the SAM. A few formally drive a “co-creation” process with the
customer, ensuring that the customer has a seat at the table in the
planning process. I’ve facilitated strategic account planning in F100
customers’ boardrooms, with active participation of key customer
stakeholders throughout the process. Their participation provided
valuable direction for our sales investments and led to the
identification of significant new opportunities. Once a good context is
established for the joint team, everyone looks forward to the regular
discussions. We’re helping our strategic stakeholders to address
significant business challenges and they have a sense that we’re “in the
boat” with them, that we are truly committed to their success.<b> </b><br />
<br />
<b>Strategic Account Planning and Governance as Competitive Advantage — Actions to Take</b><br />
<br />
If you believe that your strategic account program could drive more value for your organization (and for your customer), a <b>key area of focus is individual sales rep activity, messaging and governance</b>.
We are exploring a new approach to better manage this area and am
interested in partnering with a couple of organizations to pilot that
approach.<br />
<br />
And the second key area is <b>customer involvement</b>. If
you’re not actively, routinely involving your customer in the strategic
planning process, you’re leaving significant money on the table and
wasting valuable time and resources on unqualified opportunities.<br />
<br />
Thanks!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Lee Levitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01855067220559094836noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8966783851875406264.post-75034895510961684702017-06-14T15:09:00.000-04:002018-11-01T10:35:10.440-04:00Are Your Numbers Down?<b>Our numbers are down, can you help?</b>
<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUvkqFaq6w49UZb36ZzTMiHMN2XapAp0pa5fSZ5t3J1sib4QWHfzuoYThlo4rv7cfc0LtoFhcFPcDl30VuuerZ_ReaQEIHxRJ_ZrshO2Wd6P4X1n7I7gYX9ISVsx4h3morDEad6BcsOjwQ/s1600/sales+down+graph.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="1500" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUvkqFaq6w49UZb36ZzTMiHMN2XapAp0pa5fSZ5t3J1sib4QWHfzuoYThlo4rv7cfc0LtoFhcFPcDl30VuuerZ_ReaQEIHxRJ_ZrshO2Wd6P4X1n7I7gYX9ISVsx4h3morDEad6BcsOjwQ/s200/sales+down+graph.jpeg" width="200" /></a></div>
Many conversations with new clients typically start with this
statement. Those numbers may include close rates, pipeline coverage,
quota attainment, deal size, deal profitability, share of wallet,
renewal rates, customer satisfaction, even sales rep retention rates.<br />
<br />
In my experience, the problem is rarely sales <i>skills</i> or fundamental product issues. Almost always, the decline in sales results is driven by one of two critical issues:<br />
<ul>
<li>Sales people do not <b>align with critical business issues</b>
when they first engage with their prospects. Instead, they are
unconsciously positioning for a features & benefits slugfest with
their competition. These top of funnel activities drive mediocre
conversion rates (second meeting, third meeting, etc.), limit access to
other key stakeholders and ultimately leads to the downward spiral of
“who’s willing to sell more cheaply.”</li>
<li>Sales people do not have the <b>resources to be successful</b>,
including alignment with the buyer’s journey created/curated by
marketing, business value analysis resources, detailed customer
implementation stories, or the training & background to effectively
engage in business value discussions. Sometimes they simply need more
time to prepare (less administrative load) or more/better/targeted sales
coaching from their manager.</li>
</ul>
In conducting <b>root cause analysis</b> to identify the
source(s) of the problem, we work closely with the sales operations
team. Sales operations has access to all of the data necessary —
extensive sales metrics, personnel information, customer
demographics/firmagraphics — that tell the story of success versus
failure. This analysis helps to build a map of effective pursuit
strategies and detailed profiles of “good” versus “bad” prospects &
customers.<br />
<br />
With the results of the data analysis, we then take a look at sales
enablement practices. Typically we find gaps where the data shows weak
or declining conversion rates. Occasionally this is driven by external
market forces — new competitors coming into the market, customers
shifting internal strategies or structural (economic) factors.<br />
<br />
More often, we simply find a disconnect between need and investment,
as many (perhaps most) sales enablement investments are focused on
addressing symptoms rather than root cause.<br />
<br />
<b>Fixing the Symptoms</b><br />
<br />
I recently spoke with executives at a fast-growing midmarket cloud
security company. In a quest for continued growth, they initiated a
focus on enterprise accounts…and ran into a more mature, educated,
complex set of buyers. As a result, their enterprise deal close rates
are lower and less profitable than midmarket. Their initial response was
to seek help with negotiating skills. But lack of good negotiating
skills isn’t their primary problem…they weren’t establishing business
value with the right set of stake holders in the early stages of
conversation.<br />
<br />
And their sales metrics reflect the difference:<br />
<ul>
<li>Higher conversion rates and velocity at top of funnel for midmarket versus enterprise</li>
<li>Lower connection with C-level enterprise executives</li>
<li>Lower access to VPs, directors, perhaps even managers for mid-pursuit discovery in enterprise accounts</li>
</ul>
Improved negotiating skills won’t fix their weak value foundation.
They must address the fundamental problem — modifying their engagement
approach for enterprise customers. And when they do so, they will also
see an uptick in results for an increasing portion of their midmarket
customers as the market matures.<br />
<br />
<b>Fixing the Problem</b><br />
<br />
We’re in the early stages of a sales productivity project for a large
technology vendor. Analysis of their quarterly earnings reports
provides early indicators of the problem:<br />
<ul>
<li>Declining product revenue</li>
<li>Declining service renewal rates</li>
<li>Fundamental changes in their market (which they’ve helped to drive)</li>
</ul>
When we dig into their SFA data, I expect to find declining
engagement and conversion rates at the top of the funnel. I also expect
to find higher levels of success with certain types of customers — those
who purchase “as a service” more frequently. This analysis will help to
identify the specific changes needed in their existing sales enablement
processes.<br />
<br />
<b>Win/Loss Analysis…Why Bother?</b><br />
<br />
Interestingly, few companies leverage win/loss analysis to help
identify the problem(s). It seems there’s little appetite for
understanding why a specific company said “no.” Yet an understanding of
what went wrong during the engagement can provide tremendous insight
into how to fix the problem!<br />
<br />
And if done properly, the information has
the weight of statistics to help ensure appropriate investment to solve
the problem.<br />
<br />
The issue of sales productivity has many levers…and knowing which
levers to push is not easy. It takes both a strategic approach and good
pattern matching abilities.<br />
<br />
<br />
Thanks!<br />
<br />
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Lee Levitthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01855067220559094836noreply@blogger.com0