Many salespeople choke on money discussions when qualifying price with prospects. The easy move is to simply discount the price, but this is a slippery slope. The inherent perception of straight discounting is that your product or service is over priced to start. This perception metastasizes into a consistent challenging of any and all future prices. JustSell.com offers a couple of excellent points in their current newsletter to counteract this desire to discount: Here are the hard-dollar points to better negotiating… Remember that negotiation success depends more on the work you do early in the sales process than on the negotiation moment itself. It’s all about the perceived value of… Read More
Continue ReadingThe 1 Week Window
There is a subtle psychology to working with sales candidates in a hiring process when you get to the offer stage. The ideal time frame for an offer is approximately one week after the final interview. This 1 week window provides enough time for both sides to contemplate the position and the salesperson’s fit to it. Now understand, I’m talking about a hiring process where a phone screen, assessment and multiple interviews have occurred. This candidate has been fully vetted and found to be a strong fit to the position’s requirements. Unfortunately, we have seen a couple of clients work past this ideal window into an extended time period after… Read More
Continue ReadingPhone Screens – See The Candidate In Action
Selling Power offers a quick article titled Successful Phone Interviews (the headline writer must have had the day off). I’m not aligned with all of the suggestions, but I cannot stress this one item enough: She also says to pay close attention to candidates’ phone manners €“ especially if they’re going to be using the phone on the job. How does their voice and tone sound? Do they project energy and enthusiasm or do they ramble on, putting you to sleep? How do they answer the phone? The key here is to talk less than the candidate. If you are talking, you are not qualifying. Paying attention to the candidate’s… Read More
Continue ReadingHow To Make Employee Orientations More Effective
In a recent article on SHRM’s weekly Newsletter (membership required), a survey of 597 organizations found that 86% of organizations have an orientation program (14% don’t?), but most said they lacked real impact. Here are some other findings of the survey: 81% of the organizations turn to HR to administer new employee orientation, 23% involve multiple departments and 21% include the department in which the new employee will report. Orientation usually takes a day or less for about half of the employers and 26% take two to three days. Nearly half use employee surveys to measure the effectiveness of their orientation program, 22% don€™t track it at all, 20% measure… Read More
Continue ReadingSales Traits Series – Sense of Self
This trait is one to measure in all salespeople since it reveals much of how they approach prospects, how they handle rejection and how they hold up under stress. Sense of SelfThe ability of a salesperson to realize and appreciate their own unique self-worth. They base these feelings on internal factors as opposed to external ones. This internal feeling of value allows them to appreciate themselves based on who they know themselves to be on the inside. They do not judge themselves based solely on what they do, what role they occupy or what success they attain. This capacity could also be considered the level of €œself acceptance.€ A salesperson with strength… Read More
Continue ReadingSalespeople On An "E-Leash"
It’s 91° here in the Twin Cities today so vacation is on the brain. CareerBuilder.com offers up some interesting survey results in Using or Losing Your Time Off? E-leashes and hectic schedules are cutting into vacation time as increasingly wired workers are finding it hard to leave the office at home. Although an improvement from 27 percent in 2006, 20 percent of workers say they plan to stay in touch with the office during their vacation this year, according to CareerBuilder.com’s annual vacation survey, conducted by Harris Interactive of more than 6,800 workers. Nearly 15 percent of workers say they gave up at least one of their vacation days in… Read More
Continue ReadingSmall Business Retention Strategy
Inc.com offers a short article titled Employers Focus on Worker Retention. The takeaway graphs (emphasis mine): Small businesses are focusing more resources on employee-retention plans, rather than recruiting efforts or new benefits policies, a recent survey found. Of 241 small-business executives surveyed nationwide, 21 percent said they have expanded training and professional development to boost employee retention, while 80 percent said they considered their salaries “as competitive” or even “more competitive” than larger competitors, according to Employco, a Westmont, Ill.-based business services firm. Salary is a natural point in which it compete with larger companies. Most small companies are not constrained by salary slotting for specific positions as is the… Read More
Continue ReadingAccelerate The On-Ramping Time Frame
SellingPower.com has released their monthly sales management newsletter which is usually filled with insightful articles. How Long Are Ya€™ Gonna€™ Be New Here? is a client study on one company’s efforts to shorten their sales ramp time. One of the universal problems all sales managers face is getting new hires up to speed quickly. It€™s simple math: the longer it takes for a rep to learn the €œins and outs€ of your company, your product, and your sales process, the longer it will take him to stop dragging down the average performance of your sales team and start producing meaningful results. Another universal problem is sales managers hiring salespeople with… Read More
Continue ReadingSales Traits Series – Self-Assessment
This week we explore an important aspect of a salesperson’s psyche. If you are a sales manager, this trait will explain your salesperson’s view of himself and how best to manage to that view. Self AssessmentThe ability to practically and objectively identify one€™s personal management strengths and weaknesses. This is the ability of a salesperson to take the skills and techniques that they have gained in evaluating external situations and apply them to evaluating their own performance and abilities. A salesperson with strength in this area is capable of accurately evaluating his or her own strengths and weaknesses. They see themselves clearly. A weakness in this area indicates a salesperson who… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Path To Sales Improvement
When you boil it down to the basics, sales departments are measured by profit increases. Simple, yes, but that is the crux of the goal. Operational efficiencies are part of the equation, but the focus here is on increasing profits via increased revenue. So how do companies go about achieving improvement in their sales-driven profits? Profile Your Sale Too often sales gets muddled by general tactics, inconsistent value propositions and rogue selling systems. Understanding your ideal sale is the first step to repeatable results. The output is a definition of what your ideal sale looks like from this day forward. This clarity provides direction and consistency to all sales efforts.… Read More
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