There is so much talk about how to get through this difficult economy (rightfully so), but bottom line is it gets down to practicing the fundamentals. It’s no different than what is going on now with major league baseball professionals at Spring Training. Even the super stars, who make millions of dollars, are practicing the fundamentals to get ready for the season. Here’s a checklist for sales leaders to insure you and your sales team are practicing the fundamentals to excel in this economy.

1. Target the segments and prospects your sales staff should be going after right now. What segments are doing well and/or spending resources? What existing customers can we leverage for additional dollars and vertically integrate? Are there past customers, from a previous relationship, we can revisit?
2. Qualify the prospects to insure your sales staff is investing their time wisely. Make sure your staff knows your expectations of the type of qualified prospect they should be targeting.
3. What is the value proposition you want delivered to get an appointment? Most sales people will try to “sell” their product or service as a solution for the prospect rather than position themselves as a resource, consultant or expert who can help them identify opportunities and solutions (which may or may not include what you sell.)
4. Have a formal process to move prospects through your pipeline. Statistics tell us if you have a formal process in place you have a 93% chance of making the sale versus 42% if your sales people just “wing it.”
5. Your sales people must identify the prospects essential needs to come out of this ahead of their competition. Again, it’s not about ‘pitching’ your product or service, but rather identifying the major issues and challenges of your prospects. A Bill Brooks quote is “People will buy from professionals who best understand what they want.”
6. Have a system to insure every lead is followed up on. Statistics say that over 65% of leads are never followed up on once a new prospect is uncovered. So, if your closing average is 25% and you could insure that every lead is followed up on that will translate into new business.
7. Have some kind of scoreboard or measurement to make people accountable for doing these fundamental activities. The key is to focus on the activities that lead to a sale rather than just measuring sales results. Does an NFL team just measure the final score? No, they measure sacks, hurries, QB rating, etc. etc. etc. (hundreds of categories by position!)

In a turbulent economy top performing companies don’t sacrifice on marketing and sales education, but rather see it as an investment and opportunity to distance themselves from their competition. Now is the time to invest in your sales team. Anyone can sell in a good economy, but now is the time for your sales team to step up and perform. Give them the leadership, tools and resources for them to be successful. It’s all begins with your focus and accountability on mastering the fundamentals of successful selling.

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For six years I was a part of a national sales team and each of my coworkers were responsible for sales across a multi-state territory. We were geographically disbursed across the country and all worked from a home office.

Over those years I worked for three different directors/VPs and — as a result — gained valuable firsthand insight on how to help manage a remote or field sales force.

Let’s start by covering some of the basics.

1) Structure Their Work Day

Working from home is a difficult thing. There are many distractions, potentially even more than at a regular office. There are distractions from family and personal phone calls, in addition to the temptation to take care of personal items such as chores and errands during the workday. Such diversions are more easily succumbed to in a ’work at home‘ environment because there is no peer pressure from fellow coworkers or supervisors to stay on task. Set your expectations for your salespeople early and then enforce them; remember to emphasize the fact that working from home is a full time job, and successful sales often require even more hours than a typical 8-5.

2) Invest in the Salesperson’s Working Environment.

Giving your team the right tools to work remotely or in the field is critical to maintaining the expectations of a professional work situation. At the very least, every salesperson should be encouraged to designate a separate room or closed-off area of their house to work in. Working at the kitchen table or in the den is not ideal, mostly due to the potential for distractions mentioned above. The home office should have a desk and docking station or something similar. A large monitor, keyboard and mouse to attach to their laptops may also be ergonomically wise investments.

Invest in a quality all-in-one printer; especially if the items they are printing will be offered to your clients or customers. With that all-in-one unit, the salesperson should be asked to not maintain a local file for the customer unless necessary. Train them on how to scan something to their laptop or make a copy and send all originals to the home office.

For situations that call for a large amount of printing, I might suggest using a FedEx Office. Through their online system, I was able to order a print job, have it professionally bound with high-quality materials and arrange for it to be shipped to my destination. A cost analysis should be done to see if shipping costs are more expensive than just having your team member pick up what is needed at the local store. For most companies, a FedEx Office can set up a corporate discount for printing (I was part of an organization that in some cases received as much as 40% off services).

When it comes to a phone line, there are many options but I would not let someone work from their personal home phone number. I would install a new phone line that would be billed directly to the company. This gives the company control of where the call is directed and what message is given in the event an employee leaves the organization. In addition, try and set up a ‘No Answer Transfer’ feature in the phone line; this will allow unanswered calls to be transferred to the central corporate voicemail system. This will allow the employee to receive voicemails internally from coworkers and be able to forward voicemails as needed. Another benefit of this feature is that when a customer or prospect calls, they will be able to “zero-out” for further assistance, rather than dial another number! It will reinforce the remote employee’s role as part of the organization, rather than a separate unit.

If your company relies on faxes, I am a huge fan of an E-fax for a remote employee rather than a traditional fax. Yes, they should have their own inbound E-fax number, only because remote- and field-based salespeople work odd hours, and receiving a fax directly can be critical. Additionally, a field employee will not have to worry about if they have a fax waiting for them at home — they can see it in email or blackberry and proceed accordingly.

Organizations should embrace the remote or field employee. From an overhead perspective, it can be cost-effective and often reduces travel costs. I have known many companies to put the hometown of the remote employee on their marketing materials, displayed as ”offices around the country”.

Managing and driving results is the more difficult task. In coming weeks, we will address how to set expectations and hold field reps accountable for their time and performance.

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Last month I wrote about managing a sales team in challenging times. The current economic environment may prove especially challenging to ‘younger’ sales managers —those who may be in the early years of their careers, and who, as a consequence, may be up against these unique challenges for the first time. Here are several thoughts for such managers to keep in mind.

1. Although the unprecedented scope and frequency of media coverage have painted a grim portrait of the current economic forecast, economic swings and cycles are, in reality, very common. Remember that the economy will swing in a positive direction because it always does. Your job is to keep positive and keep yourself and the sales team focused.
2. Find a mentor that you can trust. Having someone to speak with, confide in and lean on is important to all of us. The managers who have gone through these cycles are a tremendous resource to you. If Tiger Woods has a ‘coach,’ why shouldn’t you?
3. Celebrate the smallest successes! If your sales team wins a contract, celebrate. If a salesperson schednules a face-to-face appointment celebrate! If a salesperson makes a presentation celebrate! Sales is a game of momentum, so stay positive and keep motivated.
4. Remember, there is no substitute or shortcut for getting experience. It is something that we all need to gain first hand, through the process of trial and evaluation. The next time the economy hits a slump — and there will be a next time — you will be better prepared to face it and be a mentor for the next generation of ‘young managers.’

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In my last blog entry, I promised that I would provide insight into a revolutionary new system that will allow you to be more successful in your prospecting efforts.

Recently, I have heard several organizations express the need to teach their salespeople how to build and sustain more value in their sales interactions. In my opinion, simply telling a prospect or customer how your product or service can save them money, reduce costs or any other number of so-called ‘value building’ statements is not really providing them with any real value. I think such statements are, at their root, self-serving in that they place the entire focus on the salesperson and their products and services. Prospects have heard this same line of mumbo-jumbo over and over so many times before that they immediately want to hide once they start hearing it again.

Is there a better way?

Is there a way to build your credibility from the very beginning?
What about delivering real value to your prospects and customers?

Is there a system that you can implement to help you become a trusted advisor and strategic resource, as opposed to being ‘just another salesperson?’

ValueTouch Prospecting™ is the answer. Every time we communicate with a prospect or customer, we are ‘touching’ them in some way. We must always evaluate if this touch was a positive or negative experience for our prospects and customers. The way to ensure you are providing a positive experience with a prospect is to make sure that your communication actually delivers real value to them. In essence, you must deliver a ValueTouch!

In a nutshell, ValueTouch Prospecting is a system designed to help you create compelling value with new prospects and retain your value with existing customers. Here are six tips that will provide you with a quick overview and get you started on your way to better prospecting.

1) Ensure that every communication with a potential prospect or customer delivers compelling value that helps them do what they do better. The perception of value that prospects and customers place on you, your products and services, and your organization is in direct proportion to the value that you provide.

Example: You are targeting a small business owner to discuss their credit card processing equipment. You provide timely information on “the most effective ways to deal with delinquent customer accounts without having to pay hefty legal fees or tie up too much of your time.” Notice that this has nothing to do with your credit card processing machine product and instead is something valuable that your prospect may immediately use. How do you think you will be perceived by the prospect? Positively or negatively?

2) Focus on building trust, rather than pushing your products and services.

3) Employ blended prospecting/marketing strategies to maximize potential sales opportunities.

4) Update your selling practices to reflect the advancements of Sales 2.0

5) Position yourself as a trusted advisor and make sure you are in alignment with your prospect or customer’s buying process.

6) Take action now to refresh your knowledge of business principles.

If you would like more information on how you can implement ValueTouch Prospecting into your sales process, please click here to download our complimentary white paper entitled ValueTouch Prospecting: Finding and Maintaining a steady Stream of Buyers During Turbulent Times.

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I read this report and wanted to share with you some key results from a recent Miller Heiman study that included over 3900 executives from top organizations. What jumped out at me was the difference between average and outstanding sales organizations.

Characteristics of World class organizations that make them different than others:

• high degree of alignment between sales marketing and customer needs (trending up for the last 3 yrs)
• standardized processes for qualifying and selling
• formal strategy for getting concessions in return for price reductions
• clear understanding of client issues prior to offering proposals
• cross department collaboration to manage strategic accounts
• joint long-term planning with key customer
• knowledge of why top performers are successful and structured programs to share that insight across the team
• sales metrics are aligned with business objectives
• CRM systems geared to greatly improve effectiveness of the sales organization
• organization is highly structured to learn and adapt.

As you go through this list take an objective look at your organization because this is a road map to growth. If you answer ‘no’ to any of these then sit down with your executive team and create a plan. Insure you have a solid sales management process in place that includes recruiting good talent (with a compensation plan that fuels winners); establishing expectations (setting the bar high); training & coaching to those expectations (you can’t manage a sales force from behind a desk); feedback & course correction (in real time); and measurable accountability (if you can’t measure it you can’t coach it.)

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