What’s going on here?

• Sales training has been around for more than 100 years.  Yet every year, new approaches appear with the promise of being “The Silver Bullet.”  Old approaches—even those that are relevant to fixing the proble—are labeled “old-school,” and rejected.
• On Amazon.com there are 29, 469 books under the category of “How to Sell.”  In “Sales Techniques” there are 11, 194.
• I’m personally tracking 80 blogs about selling.  There are many more.  Dozens provide solid advice.
• There are several hundred sales training firms ESR is aware of, yet there is no single one or two that dominate, as you would see in any other industry.
• In 2008, U.S. corporations spent around $6 billion on sales performance improvement, yet sales productivity (pre-recession) was down.
• The number of free webinars focused on improving sales capabilities is at an all-time high, and increasing.  So are free articles, eBooks and white papers.
• Reports, statistics, surveys, research and opinion related to sales ineffectiveness are abound.  Here are just a few sources: CSO Insights, Forrester, Sirius Decisions, The Sales Executive Council, Selling Power, Sales and Marketing Management magazine, most of the major sales training companies, and of course, ESR.  You can find anything you need to know about the subject among these sources.
• There continue to be emerging movements with value propositions focused on sales performance improvement.  The latest is Sales 2.0.  Add the new online social media to the list.
• There is no shortage of associations and groups focused on sales performance: SMT (The Professional Society for Sales & Marketing Training), ASTD’s Sales Training Drivers, UPSA, SAMA (focused on Strategic Account Management, an advanced selling discipline), SMEI, The Sales Management Association, USEF (The University Sales Education Foundation), and a dozen or more groups on LinkedIn.

What’s my point?  The root causes of sales ineffectiveness are clear.   There is plenty of sound advice about how to fix the problem.   There is a proven path.  The answers are there for everyone to see.   There are companies you can read about and observe that have achieved sales excellence.

So, recession aside, why is sales as a profession and function, losing ground?

Let me know your thoughts, please.

Photo credit: © dragon_fang – Fotolia.com

I’ve been involved in a number of posts on The Customer Collective where there have been some personal attacks by a few social media zealots against some of us that have a more balanced view of the capabilities and tools required for effective B2B selling going forward in this new(est) economy.   Jonathan Farrington¹, Dave Brock, Niall Devitt, and I have a somewhat similar opinion of the role of social media.  (These are smart guys.  I recommend you subscribe to their blogs.)

The four of us had an email exchange today after some comments to one of Jonathan’s posts.  The comments sounded like sweeping indictments of “old school,” and the four of us as well.

What’s really worth considering, as Dave Brock pointed out in the email thread, is that people are attacking the four of us for being old school, when we’re all entrenched in the new social media: blogs, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Plaxo, virtual meetings, and much of the rest.  Are they attacking our not being immersed in the new social media, which you would think might be their mission? No.  They’re attacking us for the opinions we voice about the social media from within the social media environment.² We’re not outside observers.

Here is an edited slice of my thoughts on the subject of social media zealotry and “old school” from that thread:

ESR has studied the issue of inter-generational selling. It’s a big challenge for companies and for consultants and trainers. It will become even more challenging. How do we “experts” stay relevant to younger salespeople, managers and CEOs is one question. The bigger question is how will younger salespeople become relevant to serious corporate buyers?

Here are a few more questions: The Millennials (Y’ers) show considerably less willingness to follow convention (read process) than those who are older—a generalization, I admit. Salespeople in general have less discipline and process-orientation than professionals, which compounds the problem. B2B customer buying patterns and practices are getting tougher, requiring more discipline, process, strategy, etc. on the part of those who sell to them. So how will the Millennials, many of whom are rejecting much of what has come before, wind up selling though this capability gap? Answer: Many will not! Companies will have to tighten up their profile for B2B salespeople and a boatload of soft skills with little else won’t be a desired characteristic—not in the kind of serious B2B selling that drives the economy. So the pure social media types will have that to play with that in their spare time, or lock on to a subset of buyers in corporations who may be open to that stuff.

A client of ours went into a very tough negotiation with a well-known company yesterday.  Big, big bucks! They were meeting with a senior strategic procurement executive. Facebook? Twitter? Blogs? Virtual or online anything?  No. Weeks of research, customer profiling, political positioning, testing approaches, strategizing, number crunching, competitive positioning, collaborative brainstorming and one very, very important face-to-face meeting. Is that model going to change in the next few years? Sure, in some sales environments, but not in mission critical areas of most companies over $200 million in sales.

With all this being said, with respect to the business side of my life, I’ll listen to and consider anyone’s opinion on any subject, so long as they can express their opinion clearly and succinctly and don’t resort to manipulation, games, or personal attacks.  I believe passion is good.  So is being a zealot, if your goal is benevolent as well as your means of getting there.  I confess:  I’m a sales effectiveness zealot.

Notes:

1. Jonathan Farrington is hosting the kick-off event for the Top Sales Experts Roundtable:  The Future of Professional Selling on Tuesday, April 14th, 2009 at 1.00 pm EDT.  I’ll be a panel member.  With Jonathan in charge, it’ll be worth your investment.
2. ESR will be publishing the findings from our recent survey on the new social media’s role in B2B selling next week.  If you’d like to be notified of the publication of this report, subscribe to this blog or the ESR/Alert^TM.

Photo credit: © Carsten Reisinger – Fotolia.com

As ESR continues to assess our clients’ sales challenges, we maintain that having the wrong people in the sales jobs is, in many cases, the biggest inhibitor to the success of a training intervention.  My interview with Todd Harris of PI Worldwide highlighted one of the tools available for sales leaders to get an objective assessment of candidates as well as existing sales personnel.

I’m far from done with this subject.  I wanted to get another perspective, so here are some questions I posed to Kathleen Steffey, CEO of sales recruitment firm Naviga Business Services, based in Tampa.  Kathleen also writes the SalesJournal blog.

Dave Stein: As CEO of a national sales and marketing recruitment firm, share with me what changes you’ve seen in your business in the past three months.

Kathleen Steffey: In the last three months I’ve seen growth and expansion with my existing customer base and a decline in “new” customer contracts. Because of this trend, my business has made a shift to heavily focus on existing customer penetration and customer management. We’ve created new programs to capitalize on our existing customer base-viral marketing campaigns, referral programs, aggressive business development penetration (all inside our existing customer base). I am also focusing heavily on recruiting performance to make sure we are executing on every single piece of business we receive to maximize revenue. Customers are behaving in a very smart way and show a thorough decision making process when it comes to candidates. They are taking every aspect of the hiring process much more serious as every penny counts these days. Because my business is steadily growing, we are currently looking for additional recruiters. Our recruiter candidate pipeline is the best I’ve seen in years, in terms of quality. I am taking advantage of the down market to select only the best and brightest to join my team in the next month.

DS: I’m curious about high-performing sales reps. Do you see them looking for new opportunities or are they sticking with the companies for which they are currently working?

KS: The volume of candidate flow has increased dramatically.  Many, many “A” player sales reps have been laid off and/or are looking for a new opportunities due to the instability of their current employer. I personally know many sales executives who have contacted me to express that they are looking for a new opportunity.  They are coming out of the woodwork right now.

DS: What about sales managers? Any new trends there? Are your clients hiring?

KS: I have seen a trend of customers that have a strong focus on evaluating overall team sales performance and linking it back to poor sales leadership. A handful of my customers are deciding to really clean shop and terminate low performing sales reps and terminate non-influential sales leaders. We have many confidential searches going on that support this scenario.

DS: What advice might you give to a sales rep or manager who is currently employed?  Stick where they are or look around for a better opportunity?

KS: If someone is employed with an organization that is reacting well to this current economy-shifting, changing, creating, enhancing, looking at different verticals to penetrate, etc, then you have a proactive organization that is adjusting to the current state and shows promise. I say stick it out and keep at it… Penetrate your prospects harder than ever and make sure you’re creating value, providing solid industry insight and serving them well.. better than you ever have.

I can’t comment on whether or not someone should stay with their organization.. it completely depends on the state of the business, industry, product, etc. I do know that two of the hottest industries that are doing well right now are healthcare and energy, in the event people need focus on where to look.

DS: I know your firm does about 20% retained and 80% contingency work. What advice can you give a hiring authority as to which way to go?

KS: While both options offer our customers the same level of attention and quality, I would have to suggest that going retained always wins. A retained relationship brings focus, commitment and efficiency to the customer/vendor partnership and displays strong value in filling the position with Naviga. At the very least, a retained relationship removes other variables that the hiring manager would normally have to deal with if working contingency-job advertisements, other recruiters, internal responses to postings, etc. A retained relationship allows Naviga to streamline the recruiting process and save valuable time for our customers.

DS: How is your firm helping companies hire the right candidates?  As you know, ESR’s research identifies this as a big, big problem.

KS: First and foremost we get to know our customers. I view this as a critical piece in quality recruiting and making an appropriate match. We understand the make-up of the organization—revenues, employees, top leadership style, product/service focus, market differentiation, strengths/weaknesses, etc. Next we get to the critical part of the engagement and this is where we reveal the sales culture/environment. We understand the sales team, territories, product price, sales cycle, ramp up, top performer profiles, sales leadership and how the team is led, CRM/reporting requirements, candidate profile, etc.  We’ve found that there is a significant correlation with how the team is led and the performance of the overall team. We take this discovery serious to determine if our candidates will be in an environment where they can be successful.

I am a strong advocate of this statement, “The best predictor of future performance is past performance”.. I train and coach my team to measure the quality of the candidates by their past performance and to relate the sales environment associated with those successes to the current position we are looking to fill. I am also a strong advocate of looking at W2’s, understanding the past compensation programs, looking at industry, product/services, average sales cycle and deal price and evaluate whether or not there is a sales environment/culture match.

Because Naviga specializes in sales recruitment, our evaluation process is very specialized and “sales centric.” We have a standardized evaluation process that every recruiter uses and it’s based on the position we are recruiting; for an example-it can vary based on hunter, farmer, or leadership positions. We use a standard list of eight (8) key sales dimensions when we interview candidates. We ask questions around selling skills, sales knowledge, intellectual ability, personal, interpersonal, motivation, tenure and compensation. Our internal evaluation process is a hybrid of Greg Alexander’s Top Grading for Sales approach, which is adjusted for our business model/customer needs.

Photo credit:  © Lisa F. Young – Fotolia.com

A lot more salesreps are working from home now than even a few years ago.  But working from home isn’t for every salesrep or every company.  Now’s the time to look at this issue.  It could mean the difference between your home-office reps making their numbers or not.

A post on (Jigsaw’s CEO) Garth Moulton’s blog about the profiles of inside sales reps brought to mind some of the discussions we’ve had with VPs of sales about the challenges related to telecommuting for their salesreps.

I recently discussed an underperforming  home-based salesrep with his VP of sales.  Intent on  diagnosing the problem, I asked, “Do you have evidence that he’s working 50 to 60 hours a week…  for you?“  The VP said he didn’t know whether the rep was working the hours, or full time for his company.  He should have known the answers to both parts of that question and the answers should have been two yesses.

When hiring, there is no question in my mind that you don’t want to be the one who gives a salesrep her first opportunity to work from a home office.  Way too risky.  I’ve seen dozens of failures due to this simple mistake.  You have to be certain that the rep has been successfully selling from a home office environment.  There are traits and skills required to accomplish this.  Know what those are and make sure you compare the candidate against those requirements.

If an office-based rep you currently have on board wants to switch to telecommute for first time, now may not be the best time.  Neither you nor they can afford a slip in productivity.  Just because someone wants to work from a home office doesn’t mean they should.

We’ve been working with a few clients that have very good situations with salesreps who work from home.  Most notable are two women who had a terrific year in 2008 with one of our clients, closing multiple $250k application software opportunities without ever leaving their home offices.  They are relentless qualifiers, have very effective discovery processes, are marvelous at creating demand and leading champions within their customers’ organizations through a collaborative buying/selling process.  These home-based reps are motivated, focused, and have all the skills and attributes required for successful selling from a home office.

Here are some recommendations:

• Don’t hire a rep for a home-0ffice situation who can’t prove they’ve been successful at it in the past.
• Some salesreps need the support and camaraderie associated with an office environment. Others aren’t capable of working from home due to lack of discipline or motivation.  Still others don’t have the knowledge, experience or skills to get the job done.  Make sure you know all the strengths and weaknesses of your own reps and anyone you are looking at hiring.
• Certain selling  jobs require a fair amount of time in the office.  If that’s the case, no one should be based at home. A day a week, fine, but no more than that.
• Don’t let a good rep strong-arm you into allowing them to transition to a home-based office unless you’re certain they’ll get the selling job done.
• Make sure you’ve got the right sales performance measurement system in place.  You need to be able to spot trends in individual performance before they impact your forecast.
• If you’re going to have reps working from home, provide them with the equipment they need, including hardware (for example, a backup hard drive), the appropriate sales enablement software (a strong knowledge management system, for example) and a high-quality headset.

Finally, the risks associated with home-based sales reps are mitigated when you have a pragmatic sales methodology that’s in place and used across your entire sales team.  If you don’t have one, that’s what you need to do, starting today.

Photo credit: © Wollwerth Imagery – Fotolia.com

I’ve delivered lots of webinars over the years, working with all the well-know providers and others as well.  With only two exceptions where the audio was lost for all the participants, I’ve had very good experiences.  That’s not by accident.  My content is always relevant to the audience, I rehearse, I’m facile with the technology, I understand the medium, and I always use a checklist to make certain I don’t forget something.

I’ve delivered a few webinars with Boston Conferencing.  They really impressed me with their professionalism, the quality of the technology, and their turnkey approach.  In fact, I’ve got a webinar coming up with FranklinCovey Sales Performance Group on Wednesday, March 11, 1:00 pm ET — Strategies For Getting Your Customers Through the Financial Crisis. (Disclosure: I’ll be delivering a webinar for pay with Boston Conferencing in July.)

So in these times of reduced travel, I asked Boston Conferencing President, Dave Will, to help us make better use of this medium.

Dave Will: Actually the biggest change has not been with the technology as much as with the integration into day to day business processes. A decade ago, very few organizations outside of the technology sector were using web conferencing. Even 2 – 3 years ago we found that a lot of organizations were still trying to identify if webinars were a worthwhile marketing/training tool. Now webinars are a line item in the budget. The decision has been made and the vast majority of organizations have incorporated them into their business. The question has changed from “should we do it” to “when and how do we get it done.” It is no longer a competitive advantage to run webinars. It’s a “must-have” in order to keep up.

But to answer the question more directly, web conferencing technology is doing a better job of streaming video and audio over the internet. It’s also come a long way in providing simple one-click entry to events. Webinars and Web Conferencing are no longer for the tech companies or the geeks. It’s a common tool in all organizations. One more change is that there are tons of small unknown software tools in the market that may or may not be good for business use. What has not changed is that the major “industrial-strength” conferencing tools are still Microsoft LiveMeeting and WebEx.

DW: Naturally, organizations are looking for ways to reduce travel. Web conferencing is an alternative. Although web conferencing will never replace the value of face-to-face meetings, it’s a nice supplement and business is learning to incorporate it into their processes more effectively. For instance, Wal-Mart suppliers are meeting with their buyers more virtually now than they have in the past. Traditionally, suppliers would fly to Bentonville for a 60-minute meeting with their buyer. Although this does and should still happen, suppliers are supplementing their infrequent in person meetings with web conferences to discuss sales plans.

Organizations are also starting to decentralize their training. Rather than bringing their sales team back to HQ for training on sales tools or processes, they are rolling out live training via webinar. For example, many associations conduct professional development programs in person at conferences. With the restrictions on travel, attendance to these conferences has decreased and associations are responding by offering more live online webinars.

Also, given the revenue needs of associations and other training organizations, they are looking towards their virtual conferencing and distance learning as an opportunity to sell more sponsorship and bring in additional revenue from “virtual exhibits.” Many organizations are using this technology as a profit-center in this challenging economy.

There are a lot of social media technologies that are going to help create a nice “blended learning” environment. Second Life has led the way on the consumer side of simulated worlds. We’ve seen some organizations play with ways to incorporate Second Life into their marketing and professional development, but we are seeing more business oriented tools emerge providing more relevant functionality. An example of the Virtual Trade Show, which is the corporate version of Second Life is Unisfair.

Virtual trade show technologies usually incorporate all kinds of media into the simulated world including webinars, webcasts, podcasts, forums, downloads, chats, etc… So with that in mind, the virtual world technologies will actually increase the overall volume of webinars. More importantly, the virtual world create an environment to house several different content delivery mediums which will only help organize content better for consumers and business to absorb.

The trend we are seeing is organizations getting away from one single medium and moving toward blended solutions. For example, if you were to search iTunes for “Sales Forecasting” you would see all kinds of resources including books, music, podcasts, PDFs, etc.

DW: The answer to this question could make up a book, so I’ll highlight just a few of the things we see that can affect the presentation the most:

• The audio quality – this is very important. Most speakers want to feel comfortable and therefore often use a speaker phone. We strongly discourage this as the success of the event is determined by the attendee’s experience, NOT the presenters.
• Pre-event preparation – there are a lot of factors for presenters to think about before the webinar: Do you know how to change the slides, annotate on the slides, how to handle questions, what polling questions to ask? Have you given thought to how you’re going to engage the audience?
• Think of some “seed questions” – Most webinars incorporate some Q&A at the end of the event. In some cases a shy audience can be embarrassing for the presenter. So if the presenter thinks of some questions in advance the moderator can ask those questions first which often times will jumpstart the audience and get them asking real questions.
• Backup plans – with technology there are so many things that can go wrong. Have a backup plan for the following:
  • Missing presenters
  • Teleconference breakdown
  • Web conference technology breakdown
  • Network or computer failure or power outage
• Simplicity and Relevance – Most presenters create very heavy presentation decks with way too much information. Remember this when you’re creating your slides: the deck is there to support your words. Use pictures. Keep the slides simple and graphical in nature. Also keep the content relevant and provide practical information the attendees can use after the webinar. One common complaint we hear from attendees is that the content was too high level and it was nothing they have not heard before.
• Take out the sales pitch – even if your event is a marketing or lead generation event, no one likes a sales pitch. Always think in terms of education. People attend webinars to learn, not to buy.This is a production – think about the logistics. Will the lines be muted? Will the attendees hear music while they’re waiting for the conference to begin? Are you communicating the login procedures well for the attendees? Has the registration process been managed well? Is the conference being recorded? How will you follow-up with the registrants?

DW: Of course the best practices speak directly to the big mistakes presenters make but these are the mistakes we see most often:

• Presenter forgets how to change the slides
• Presenter forgets to take their phone off of mute at some point
• Presenter does not utilize annotation tools or polling questions to engage the audience
• Presenter uses a speakerphone
• The slides are too detailed
• The content is not detailed enough

DW: Boston Conferencing is a webinar production services company. WebEx is a software company. We do not compete with WebEx. Boston Conferencing delivers webinars from beginning to end for our clients so they don’t need to worry about the technology, the registration process, the communications, the payment processing for fee based event, the presenter preparation, or the logistics.  Our job is to take the weight of all the logistics and administration off our clients shoulders so they can focus on the content of the event. We take ownership and accountability for the success of a customer’s webinar program.

Photo credit:  (c) 2008 Dave Stein — Boston from 7000 feet
+++
Donate $25 or more to the human rights charity Witness.org, email your receipt to me,
and I’ll send you the full-size jpg of this photo.  dave.stein @ ESResearch.com
Make sure your credit card number is not on the receipt, please.

Most companies we work with at one point or another ask us to review their approach to sales meetings. Many sales managers, having no idea how to run a sales meeting, just wing it.  The meetings are of little value to the reps and leave the sales managers embarrassed and often seen as incompetent in this area by their teams.

Jill Myrick is a sales consultant whose blog is focused on helping sales leaders run productive sales meetings, among other things.  She is a Co-Owner of Meeting to Win, LLC, a weekly sales team meeting agenda service that provides powerful sales team meeting topics to energize Monday morning sales team meetings. I interviewed Jill this week.

Dave Stein: Sales meetings are generally seen as a waste of time by salespeople. Why is it about the meetings that cause that reaction?

Jill Myrick: Here are the reasons many salespeople dread their weekly, typically Monday morning, sales team meeting: In many cases, it is boring and lacks information that will equip them to compete and win that week. It lacks any real preparation and, therefore, ends up being a data dump, a review of the numbers or a recap of everyone’s previous week. This “agenda” is boring and worse yet, draining. Basically, it turns into an hour that each rep is reading e-mails and updating Facebook. By the way, many sales managers feel these are a waste of time, also, and either stop doing them altogether or do them because they feel they should and suffer as much or more than their reps.

DS: Why do you think that by now, sales managers haven’t learned how to plan and execute effective meetings?

JM: Sales Managers wear so many hats – recruiter, coach, and negotiator and so on. Some managers lead inspired, productive weekly sales team meetings, but most don’t. In most cases, once they become a manager, they lead meetings based on what they experienced as a rep. In addition, managers’ own organizations neglect to give them guidance on this very important hour in their team’s week. And, the bad meeting cycle continues.

DS: What are the three most important considerations for a sales manager when she devises a new approach for sales meetings?

JM: Here they are:

1. Every topic should be relevant and equip the team to compete and win.
2. The meeting must be collaborative. The collective experience of the team adds value to each member of the team.
3. Share ownership and responsibility for productive meetings with the team.

DS: How would you recommend measuring the effectiveness of a sales meeting?

JM: The results of consistently great weekly sales team meetings are advanced deals, better customer relationships and higher team morale. The ideas and strategies discussed on the weekly calls create momentum for the week, energizing and fueling the team with new ways to win. Beyond that, great meetings take on a life of their own and we have seen a long list of benefits from simply executing great weekly sales team meetings.

DS: What actually happens when companies transition from ineffective meetings to effective ones?

JM: Here are some main themes we hear when subscribers transition from bad or no weekly meetings to productive ones.

• Many of our subscribers have a mix of newer and also more seasoned sales team members. They haven’t held meetings because they felt the more experienced ones would not get value and consider them a waste of time. These sales managers have been surprised at the interaction and idea exchanges that occur between new and experienced sales representatives.
• Managers are surprised to hear about deals advancing after implementing ideas exchanged on the calls. They forget that they don’t have to carry the entire load in terms of coaching and deal strategy.
• In addition, the agendas encourage interaction so sales managers are really getting to know their team members and transferring the pressure of leading good meetings to the entire team—and they are willingly taking it. Managers tell us the Sunday night stress of wondering what to cover on their Monday meeting is gone.
• Other managers lead technology sales teams who are more comfortable with the technology piece than they are with the sales piece. The agenda topics are leading them in more sales discussions which are resulting in excitement and focus on this neglected part of their role.

DS: What does your firm do with respect to meetings?

JM: We provide a new sales team meeting agenda each week along with guidance and support for the sales managers who subscribe. Among many other topics, the agendas cover fundamental and advanced selling topics, current business events that impact selling, best practices and ideas from the team’s experience, current thought leaders and real-time collaboration on live opportunities, economic challenges and changing needs.

If you’d like to review a sample sales meeting agenda, you can request it here.

Photo credit: © Renee Jansoa – Fotolia.com

Years ago I was based in Europe, opening up operations there for Datalogix International, an ERP software company.  Datalogix “wound up” in Europe after selling a large deal to a Boston-based adhesives company, Bostik.  Bostik came to us with a problem: the were being sold by their parent company, Black & Decker, and Bostik had to get off B&D’s mainframe within five months.  Bostik had a number of locations, including several in the U.K.  They were being acquired by Total Chemie (pronounced toe-TAL Shem-EE), the chemical division of the very large French multinational petrochemical company.  Talk about a compelling event!  Bostik had no choice but to invest in their own system.  There was a need, a budget, a timeframe and we were talking to the key decision makers in the company.

Greg Taylor was the salesrep.  He, along with VP of sales Steve Andersen, did a fabulous job.  The deal came in at $1.9 million, which was the largest deal for Datalogix up until that time.  We took a customer-focused, proactive approach.  I was VP of Operations at the time, and I drew up a plan to commence support operations by moving several people to the U.K., and opening up an office there.    Bostik felt very comfortable with it and that was a key reason they decided to go with Datalogix.  Since I had a diversified background in sales, operations, professional services, software development, marketing, etc., the board asked my to spend the next 18 months in Europe.  (By the way, Greg and Steve completely outsold Marcam, who was our competitor.  I wound up working for them several years later.)

My new role as VP of International Operations was to drive the launch of the company in Europe.  I was to bring the VP of Europe, Jim Cluchey, up to speed.  Another of my roles was to drive the strategic relationships we had established with IBM, DEC, and HP, and to contribute to the sales effort wherever I could.  Jim was a really smart guy and a experienced software executive.  We had recruited him away from Cognos, where he ran their European operation.

Datalogix was making significant progress implementing additional Bostik sites in other countries in Europe.  During that time, Jim Cluchey and I were devising a strategy on how to expand our reach within Total.  We had the right software, but the wrong platform.  Total ran on IBM’s AS/400 platform, and our Unix-based software ran on just about everything else.  There was a possibility that we could rehost our software onto the AS/400 and we decided we would approach Total’s VP of IS  with that plan.

Jim Cluchey went to great lengths to secure a meeting with Leo Mercier, Total’s VP of IS to discuss the progress of Datalogix’s Bostik implementations to date (flawless, and Leo knew it) and our future ability to support other Total chemical companies.  Leo was receptive.  Jim and I were encouraged.

Jim and I met in Paris the morning of the meeting.  He had flown in from London, and I from Rotterdam, where I was then living, coaching the new central Europe general manager.  Total was headquartered at La Défense, in Paris.  We were scheduled to meet with Mercier from 1:00 to 2:00 in the afternoon.  As we made our way to the office we took yet another opportunity to validate our plan for the meeting.  We knew we had to overcome the IBM challenge, but we felt confident we could do that.

At one o’clock Jim and I arrived in Leo’s office.  His assistant told us Leo was at lunch and would return shortly.  Jim and I sat there until 1:55.  That’s right, 1:55.  When Leo arrived, he invited us into his office.  No apology.  No smile.  Not even a hint of one.  He uttered one sentence.  “I want a 40 percent discount.”

As GM of Europe, Jim owned that account.  He did the right thing by telling Leo that we needed to understand their situation: what plants needed our software, what hardware platforms were required, timelines, resources, etc., before we could discuss any discount.  Leo huffed and said he had another meeting.  We left the meeting angry, frustrated and determined to go under, over, around or through Leo Mercier.

What went wrong?  Was it the centuries-old Franco-American problem? Ineffective qualification?  The NIH (not-invented-here) syndrome?  Some effective blocking by IBM, who was threatened by our Unix-based solution and had Leo’s ear?  An unwillingness to acknowledge a success in a new, unproven division of Total? Leo just being a tough negotiator? His ego?  Just one of those bad meetings that happens to everyone?

Jim continued to make great progress in Europe.  We made a number of good sales—some strategic and some tactical.  I moved back to the States early having overachieved on my objectives.   Later on I left the company.  I had heard that additional systems were sold into Total, but only after Mercier’s departure from the company.  With all that I had done before that day and considerably more after, I’ll never forget that meeting.

What did Jim and I do wrong?  What would you have done differently?

The folks at SmartDraw sent me a review copy of their business graphics package.  I love good software.  This is good software.  I rendered that “No Sales Tips” sign in the left column in less than five minutes from an existing template.

I seem to be in sign mode these days.  The one on the right I used in my keynote last Friday in Dallas.  The whole slide.  Big screen.  Powerful.  Only took five minutes, to create as well.  I always create my own presentations for my speeches and webinars.  They’re all custom, and I try to break out of the traditional boring title-and-four-bullets style.  See slide below…

For anyone who does their own presentations, SmartDraw gets the job done quickly.  There are a ton (how many megabytes in a ton?) of templates—signs (of course), charts, maps, mind maps, org charts, project management, strategic planning, timelines, flowcharts, etc., etc.

There is a single button that pushes your graphic into your open Powerpoint presentation.  You can export your graphic as desired as well.

I see there is a free download and a promotion until Feb. 17th.  If you don’t do your own presentations, maybe you should pass this post on to the person that does them for you.

It was an exciting week. I started out in St. Paul on Sunday afternoon. I was there Monday and Tuesday to attend a few meetings with a special client, deliver a few presentations, facilitate some discussions and attend their annual sales awards dinner. It was two of the best days I’ve ever spent with a client. More about that another time.

Several months ago, after already having this trip booked, I was hired by a company in Dallas to deliver the keynote at their sales kickoff meeting on Friday, first thing in the morning. No offense to those in the Midwest, but what was I going to do between Tuesday evening in St. Paul and Thursday evening in Dallas? Flying home to Martha’s Vineyard wasn’t an option. I considered meeting clients, some friends, but I came up with a much better idea…

I gave up playing the trumpet professionally in 1975. The reason was this: no matter how many teachers I went to, no matter how long I practiced (six hours a day, generally), and no matter how insightful, creative and analytical I tried to be, I couldn’t overcome significant problems with range (high notes) and endurance. Busy professional trumpeters, such as I was, can have two or three gigs in a single day, sometimes amounting to eight or even ten hours of playing. Having to play in the upper registers, needless to say, adds a lot of weight to that burden. One day, frustrated with my lack of ability to overcome those technical obstacles, I just packed it it. Done. Over.

Thirty-two years later I picked up the horn again. I sounded horrible at first, but began to get my chops back, little by little. But my previous obstacles—range and endurance—were still obstacles. I was no better off.

Back in the 1970s there was a remarkable young trumpeter for whom range and endurance didn’t appear to be even a consideration. He could play as high or low as he desired with no visible effort or strain. Hours of playing lead trumpet in Maynard Ferguson’s band every night, perhaps the most demanding job anywhere for a trumpet player, was a breeze. At 24 years old and 124 pounds (!), he rocked the community of trumpet players back on their heels, me included. His command of the instrument stared me right in the face—and it contributed to my quitting.

Knowing I had an extra two days in the Midwest, I looked up that amazing trumpeter, Lynn Nicholson. He now lives in Las Vegas, and gives trumpet lessons! A few emails back and forth and we were set. I would head to Vegas from St. Paul. Lynn would pick me up at my hotel, and he would give me a two-hour lesson. What I found curious, though, is in every email we exchanged during the eight weeks prior to my visit, he would remind me to keep an open mind. Again and again he wrote it. Keep and open mind.  I assured him that this wasn’t an issue for me, but nevertheless he kept insisting that these two-hours would be very different for me and an open mind was what was required.

The lesson was yesterday.

I hate hackneyed cliches. I try not to use them. But here goes. Yesterday was a paradigm- changing, out-of-the-box thinking, smack-in-the-side-of-the-head day. Some of the core beliefs that I had about playing the trumpet (from some of the “best” teachers anywhere), were not only wrong—but get this—not even applicable. What he showed me was so counter intuitive, it defied logic, at least at first.

Talk about needing an open mind… One new paradigm for example: the higher you play the more relaxed your lips should get. Picture that. I sure couldn’t. Every trumpet teacher I ever had implored me to strengthen my lips with exercises, because the higher I needed to play the tighter they were going to have to be. So very wrong. Lynn proved it to me with a demonstration of his range and dynamic capabilities. The sheer volume of bright, cutting, healthy sound, up and down three-and-a-half octaves was astonishing. Lynn is capable of producing a sound so big that he wears sound-reducing headphones. Then he told me his embouchure (lip and muscles around his mouth) are weaker than mine. He’s actually played only 10 hours in the past three months. Less is more? Weak is strong?  All that and more.  My mind was spinning.

Lynn talked about the adaptive algorithm that trumpet players (and everyone else) naturally employ to get past an immediate obstacle. After the lesson I was back in my hotel and had to play with a mute, which not only dampened the sound, but altered the physical characteristics of the trumpet, mainly in the amount of additional resistance to blowing the mute caused.  I felt off-balance and confused working on what Lynn taught me.

I emailed Lynn telling him where I was with what I learned, with a question about how to manage it. His response, “Great news! You are making substantial progress, for sure. Don’t worry about the mute. It is simply another aspect of the adaptive algorithm, and will be handled appropriately as you allow the concepts to be implemented in the absence of thought.” And it was. Ten minutes later more progress in the right direction. My range had increased from two-and-a-half octaves to four.

Understand, I’ve got a long way to go. Not ready to be up on YouTube for all to hear, but the old, incorrect foundations are intellectually and physically broken down. Now, new habit building, doing the right things the right way. Major progress, and this time, for a change, in the right direction!

I think you understand where I’m headed relating to sales, selling and leading a sales team. Times are seriously tough. We all need range and endurance. Are the foundations we’ve built, during very different times and under very different circumstances applicable? Is the answer to a significant challenge the color yellow when the options you see in front of your are only fast or slow? Is your mind open?  Do you understand that change is the only option?  And what adaptive algorithms will enable solutions to manifest themselves from the absence of thought?

Here’s a video of Lynn in 1974. His solo is 2:09 into the clip.

And here he is now.

Total and complete command of the instrument. Effortless.  Gives me the chills every time I hear this clip.

I’m in Dallas now, and gonna practice for a little while…

Photo:  This blogger, the subject of “show-and-tell” at the grandkids’ pre-school.

I’ve been a proponent of psychometric/predictive testing for salespeople for many years.  I was a non-believer until Nancy Martini, now CEO at PI Worldwide, put me through their Predictive Index and SSAT (see below) in 2001.  After I took the two tests online, Nancy emailed me the manager’s version of my results and I nearly fell off my chair—the appraisal was that accurate.

My friend,  sales trainer Steve Waterhouse, is a PI consultant as well.  Those tests are terrific tools for a sales trainer to have for diagnosis.

Let me state this clearly:  One of the root causes of the many B2B sales challenges companies have today is that they have too many unqualified people in sales jobs.  Among ESR’s clients and the companies we spoke with as many as 25% to 33% (depending on the industry) of sales people aren’t suited for the jobs they hold.  That means, based upon skill and trait gaps between what is required for success and what those reps possess, there isn’t enough time or money for them to ever come up to speed.  The solution is simple, but not easy.  Don’t hire people that can’t get the job done.

We know for a fact that profiling and a structured interview process are critical for hiring success.  We also know that psychometric and skills testing saves interview cycle time and significantly reduces risk.

I posed some questions to Todd Harris, Ph.D., Director of Research at PI Worldwide.

Dave Stein: Why is predictive testing so important for a company’s sales effectiveness?

Todd Harris: Twenty-five years of research clearly indicates that personality factors significantly impact sales success.  For example, in a recent Predictive Index® (PI) study of 32 outside sales representatives tasked with selling manufacturing equipment to medium-sized businesses, those who were more independent, confident, assertive and embracing of change achieved over five times more sales volume during a 27-month period than those who were not.

DS: How accurate are your tests?

TH: Very accurate. In over 400 separate studies, PI has been statistically shown to measure factors that impact actual work performance, including sales performance across a wide range of sales positions. Further, to be considered scientifically sound, an assessment has to demonstrate both reliability and validity. Reliability refers to the consistency of a measurement. Validity refers to the accuracy of a measurement Research by psychologists and experience with clients show PI to be reliable and valid.

DS: Can a salesperson “beat” the test?

TH: It is nearly impossible for someone to substantially distort their PI profile. There are a number of reasons for this. First, the PI is a “free-choice” instrument with no right or wrong answers, no invasive or overly personal items, and it is not obvious what it measures or how it does so. Second, research supports that fewer than 5% of job applicants attempt to significantly “cheat”, “game” or otherwise distort their responses to employment tests. Thus, this potential problem is much less widespread than some people assume.

DS: Where in the hiring process do you recommend the test be applied – the beginning, the middle, or the end?

TH: In general, most of the sales organizations we work with administer the PI relatively early in the process, combining a candidate’s PI results with other data points (e.g. resume, interview, references, experience level, etc.) to make a fully informed decision. Additionally, the PI can and should be used post-hire as a component of sales coaching and development efforts to motivate and maximize sales performance.

DS: What areas of a sales person’s capabilities do the tests cover?

TH: Fundamentally, the PI taps into what motivates and drives their behaviors and actions on a day-to-day basis. The PI measures many key constructs such as their ability to self-start, take action in the face of adversity or obstacles, connect with and influence others, drive their pace of activity, and plan and follow through.

DS: Is there more than one test?

TH: PI Worldwide® offers a comprehensive suite of sales-related products and solutions. The Predictive Index assesses a sales representative’s motivating drives and behaviors, our Selling Skills Assessment Tool^TM (SSAT) is a skills-based diagnostic instrument that gauges how adept a sales representative, sales team and the entire organization are at executing key elements of the sales process and Customer-Focused Selling^TM (CFS) utilizes data from the PI and SSAT to provide a targeted and comprehensive sales training experience.

DS: Do you provide testing for sales managers as well?

TH: Both the PI and the SSAT can be used with sales managers and sales executives. Our clients often find the most benefit when these tools are consistently deployed and scaled throughout the entire organization, as they provide a common and objective framework and language for driving sales performance. In addition, we provide a sales management course Coaching to Excellence which combines skills, process, and data to help sales leaders drive performance.

DS: What kind of financial return would a sales leader expect to see on a full-fledged investment in your testing product(s)?

TH: We commonly observe year-over-year sales increases in the 20% to 25% range. For example, over a two-year period, a biosciences company grew sales from $38.3 Million to $55.3 Million, an increase of 44% over two years. Many clients see even larger gains.

If you can think of reasons not to do predictive, psychometric and sales skills testing during the recruitment and selection process, let me know.

Photo credit: © Jeffrey Collingwood – Fotolia.com